A
spin-off
Spin-off may refer to:
*Spin-off (media), a media work derived from an existing work
*Corporate spin-off, a type of corporate action that forms a new company or entity
* Government spin-off, civilian goods which are the result of military or gov ...
in
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...
is a new series containing characters or settings that originated in a previous series, but with a different focus, tone, or theme. For example, the series ''
Frasier'' was a spin-off of the earlier series ''
Cheers
''Cheers'' is an American sitcom television series that ran on NBC from September 30, 1982, to May 20, 1993, with a total of 275 half-hour episodes across 11 seasons. The show was produced by Charles/Burrows/Charles Productions in association w ...
'': the character
Frasier Crane was introduced as a secondary character on ''Cheers'', and became the protagonist of his own series, set in a different city, in the spin-off. Spin-offs are particularly common in
sitcom
A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ...
. A related phenomenon, not to be confused with the spin-off, is the
crossover
Crossover may refer to:
Entertainment
Albums and songs
* ''Cross Over'' (Dan Peek album)
* ''Crossover'' (Dirty Rotten Imbeciles album), 1987
* ''Crossover'' (Intrigue album)
* ''Crossover'' (Hitomi Shimatani album)
* ''Crossover'' (Yoshino ...
.
Some spin-offs are "engineered" to introduce a new character on the original television series, just so that that character can anchor the new spin-off – that episode of the original series is often known as a "
backdoor pilot". For example, the character
Avery Ryan appeared in two episodes of the Las Vegas-based ''
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
''CSI: Crime Scene Investigation'', also referred to as ''CSI'' and ''CSI: Las Vegas'', is an American procedural forensics crime drama television series that ran on CBS from October 6, 2000, to September 27, 2015, spanning 15 seasons. This wa ...
'' before the premiere of ''
CSI: Cyber''.
A
revival, a later remake of a preexisting show, is not a spin-off. An exception can be made to series such as ''
The Transformers'' where the lines of continuity are blurred. If a
television pilot
A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie), in United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a television network or other dis ...
was written but never shot, it is not considered a spin-off. When a show undergoes a name change, it is not necessarily a spin-off.
Neither is a
reboot series, a term recently invented for motion pictures, which can also occur in television (e.g. The ''
Battlestar Galactica
''Battlestar Galactica'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Glen A. Larson. The franchise began with the original television series in 1978, and was followed by a short-run sequel series (''Galactica 1980''), a line of ...
'' series of 2003 is a reboot, not a spin-off of
the 1978 version). This is distinct from a revival in that there is little or no attempt to retain continuity, or casting, with the original. A recent example is the 1987 series ''
Beauty and the Beast'', rebooted as the 2012
CW television series ''
Beauty & the Beast
''Beauty and the Beast'' (french: La Belle et la Bête) is a fairy tale written by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in ''La Jeune Américaine et les contes marins'' (''The Young American and Marine ...
'',
which keeps only the main premise of a female law enforcement official aided by a man-beast, the New York City locale, and the names of the two main characters. The CW's Beauty and the Beast was later rebooted again as a
HBO Max
HBO Max is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in the United States on May 27, 2020, the service is built around the libraries of HBO, Warner Bros., Cartoon Ne ...
series starting in 2023.
Alphabetical list by parent series
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See also
*
List of American television series based on British television series
*
Television shows that spun off from anthology series This is a list of television anthology series that have had episodes spun off into full-blown series. Sometimes these spin-offs were deliberately made as backdoor television pilots.
{, class="wikitable"
!style="background:yellow;", Anthology Se ...
*
List of animated spin-offs from prime time shows
This is a list of live action prime time network television shows that were turned into animated series
An animated series is a set of animated works with a common series title, usually related to one another. These episodes should typically sha ...
References
External links
The 10 Best TV Spin-offs of All Time
{{DEFAULTSORT:Television Spin-Offs
*
Spin-offs
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