media Media may refer to: Communication * Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass e ...

, a spin-off (or spinoff) is a radio program, television program, film, video game or any narrative work, derived from already existing works that focus on more details and different aspects from the original work (e.g. particular topics, characters or events). One of the earliest spin-offs of the modern media era, if not the first, happened in 1941 when the supporting character Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve from the

old time radio The Golden Age of Radio, also known as the old-time radio (OTR) era, was an era of radio in the United States where it was the dominant electronic home entertainment medium. It began with the birth of commercial radio broadcasting in the earl ...

comedy show ''

Fibber McGee and Molly ''Fibber McGee and Molly'' (1935–1959) was a longtime highly popular husband-and-wife team radio comedy program. The situation comedy was a staple of the NBC Red Network from 1936 on, after originating on NBC Blue in 1935. One of the most p ...

'' became the star of his own program ''

The Great Gildersleeve ''The Great Gildersleeve'' is a radio situation comedy broadcast in the United States from August 31, 1941 to 1958. Initially written by Leonard Lewis Levinson, it was one of broadcast history's earliest spin-off programs. The series was built a ...

'' (1941–1957). In genre fiction, the term parallels its usage in television; it is usually meant to indicate a substantial ''change in narrative viewpoint and activity'' from that (previous) storyline based on the activities of the series' principal protagonist and so is a shift to that action and overall narrative thread of some other protagonist, which now becomes the central or main thread (storyline) of the new sub-series. The ''new protagonist'' generally appears first as a minor or

supporting character A supporting character is a character in a narrative that is not the focus of the primary storyline, but is important to the plot/protagonist, and appears or is mentioned in the story enough to be more than just a minor character or a cameo ap ...

in the main story line within a given milieu and it is very common for the previous protagonist to have a supporting or cameo role, at the least as a historical mention, in the new sub-series. Spin-offs sometimes generate their own spin-offs, leaving the new show in its own series only vaguely connected to the original series - for example the police procedural franchises of NCIS/ JAG and CSI have both spun off multiple shows, including multiple spin-offs from series and spin-offs from spin-offs.

Sidequels

A spin-off may be called a sidequel, a portmanteau of "side" (as in side-by-side) and "

sequel A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same ...

", when it occurs in the same time-frame as the original, sometimes contacting with the main narrative at points. In

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

, the word also refers to such contemporaneous spin-offs and is frequently translated as "side story".References for the translation of as "side story":

Crossovers

Sometimes even where a show is not a spin-off from another, there will nevertheless be crossovers, where a character from one show makes an appearance on another. Sometimes crossovers are created in an attempt to provide closure to fans of another failed series. Sometimes show producers will re-introduce a character from an older series into a later one as a way of providing a connectivity of that particular producer's television "world".

References

{{reflist Television terminology Film and video terminology

Sidequels

Crossovers

See also

References