‘Fear the Walking Dead’ and all the other TV spinoffs that rule
The Breaking Bad spinoff Better Call Saul was back with a vengeance last year.
Up to S4, the show had proven itself to be a totally separate entity to its wildly successful predecessor, and one that has legs as a crime drama despite having a huge reputation to live up to. With this in mind we’re taking a look at some of the best spinoff shows that were just as epic as the originals.
Up to this point, the show has proven itself to be a totally separate entity to its wildly successful predecessor, and one that has legs as a crime drama despite having a huge reputation to live up to. With this in mind and in celebration of the upcoming fourth season, we’re taking a look at some of the best spinoff shows that were just as epic as the originals.
Star Trek: The Next Generation
It was never going to be easy following up what was for some time the most watched TV show in history (Star Trek), but somehow they did it. One thing the producers did to help move the show along was syndicating it across multiple TV stations at the same time, which wasn’t a common practice at the time.
Fear the Walking Dead
While it is a spinoff, Fear the Walking Dead also works as a companion and prequel piece to The Walking Dead. It takes place before the apocalypse has happened and it also takes place in a different part of the country (LA and Georgia respectively). As it comes to the end of its fourth season, there are some who even say that this spinoff is better than the original.
Angel
It’s still slightly confusing as to why Angel was actually cancelled. The show did well to detach itself from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, finding its own darker, more neo-noir tone with a great group of actors around main man David Boreanaz. But who knows – with Daria making its return, maybe Angel will be getting a reboot soon too!
Daria
It’s easy to forget that Daria actually started out as a character on Mike Judge‘s Beavis and Butthead before then getting her own slot on MTV. Judge didn’t have anything to do with the spinoff, but he did make King of the Hill which was a kind of spinoff from Beavis & Butthead’s neighbor in the original show (only he didn’t sell propane and propane accessories).
Mork & Mindy
Mork & Mindy rather oddly (fitting with the show itself) started out as a planted sitcom idea in Happy Days where Mork appears in Richie Cunningham’s alien abduction dream. The first series of the show was a huge success and launched Robin Williams (Good Will Hunting) into the category of Hollywood superstar.
Mork & Mindy sadly only made it to four series though, with the last one featuring the terribly bad idea of having Jonathan Winters playing Mork and Mindy’s fully grown adult baby.
The Jeffersons
The show came from All in the Family and wasn’t the only spinoff that the show launched. It was one of the first on US TV to feature a black family as its lead protagonists and they also had an interracial couple living next door. The show ended after a pretty respectable 253 episodes. (It also has one of the most memorable TV theme tunes ever!)
Frasier
On paper, Frasier was a spinoff that probably shouldn’t have worked as well as it did, picking out the most unlikely character from Cheers of them all. In Frasier, Kelsey Grammer returns to his hometown of Seattle to live with his wounded, ex-cop father and vicariously rebuild his relationship with his fellow psychiatrist brother Niles.
