The best and worst TV spin-offs

Best: Frasier – Dr Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer) first popped up in the beloved series Cheers and was a part of the show until it ended in 1993. The producers of Cheers masterfully moved the character into his very own show based in Seattle, where the psychiatrist relocated in order to pursue his career in radio. We’re going to make a big call here and say that Frasier is THE best spin-off of all time, hands down. We fell in love with the new characters and Eddie is probably the cutest TV dog of all time… Did we also mention that it ran for 11 seasons? Frasier for the win!

Worst: Joey – When Friends ended in 2004 after 10 amazing seasons we were left with a gaping hole in our lives. We mourned the loss of the gang so much so that we were overjoyed when a spin-off featuring the character Joey (Matt Le Blanc) was announced. But the excitement ended there, as the series known simply as Joey was, if we’re honest, pretty dismal. The spin-off followed Joey’s move to Los Angeles in order to further his acting career but it didn’t have any of the flair and familiarity that Friends did and it was cancelled after two seasons due to low ratings.

Best: Better Call Saul – When it was announced that a prequel to the ground-breaking series Breaking Bad was being released, we collectively raised our eyebrows. Could anything match the brilliance of Walter White? Thankfully Better Call Saul lived up to expectations and Bob Odenkirk’s reprisal of slimy lawyer Saul Goodman is top-notch. Three seasons in and we’re hooked!

Worst: Joanie Loves Chachi – American sitcom Happy Days ran for 11 seasons and followed a group of teenagers growing up in the Midwest during the 1950’s. Hoping to capitalise on this success, producers created a spin-off series called Joanie Loves Chachi staring the beloved young couple from Happy Days. The series followed lovers Joanie (Erin Moran) and Chachi (Scott Baio) as they relocated to Chicago in the hopes of starting a music career. Unfortunately the series was a definite miss and only 17 episodes were made.

Best: Law & Order: SVU – After the continued success of legal drama Law & Order, which ran for a whopping 20 seasons all up, an off-shoot was created which focused on the “Special Victims Unit”. This spin-off follows the work of the detectives who deal with sexual crimes in New York City. Mariska Hargitay stars as lead detective Olivia Benson and for the first twelve seasons Christopher Meloni played her partner Elliot Stabler. This partnership turned out to be a winning combination and Meloni’s departure from the show in 2011 left a gaping hole in our hearts. However, the show soldiered on and it is still going strong 18 seasons in!

Worst: Time Of Your Life – Remember when Jennifer Love Hewitt’s character Sarah Reeves Merrin from Party Of Five got her own TV show? Don’t feel bad if you don’t, it only lasted one season. In 1999, Sarah left the Salinger family back in San Francisco as she moved to New York City to find out more about her biological mother’s life. Time Of Your Life also featured a baby-faced Jennifer Garner as Romy Sullivan, Sarah’s best friend. This just proves that Sarah was meant to be with Bailey (Scott Wolf).

Best: Laverne & Shirley – While the Happy Days spin-off series of Joanie Loves Chachi didn’t fare well, another spin-off series Laverne & Shirley was a success. Lead characters Laverne (Penny Marshall) and Shirley (Cindy Williams) first graced our screens in Happy Days when they briefly dated Richie Cunningham (Ron Howard) and Arthur Fonzarelli (Henry Winkler). Luckily Penny’s brother Gary was the producer of Happy Days and decided to build a spin-off around the best friends. And so the iconic show was born!

Worst: AfterMASH – The mega popularity of war series MASH (pictured above), led to the development of AfterMASH, which followed Colonel Potter (Harry Morgan), Klinger (Jamie Farr) and Father Mulcahy (William Christopher) as they began working together at a hospital in Missouri. Whilst it tried to recapture the magic of MASH, the spin-off fell short, even a cameo from Radar (Gary Burghoff) couldn’t save the series. The show was cancelled after just two seasons.

Best: Daria – We still can’t believe that Daria began her fictional life in the Beavis And Butt-Head series. Thankfully the producers realised Daria’s potential and she got her own show. Daria began in 1997 and ran for five seasons. The misanthropic young Daria captivated audiences and made teenage girls feel less bad about not quite fitting or feeling like an outsider.

Worst: Living Dolls – The 1989 series Living Dolls was a spin-off from popular sitcom Who’s The Boss? But unfortunately Living Dolls didn’t see any of the success of its predecessor and was cancelled after only one season. The show followed young model Charlie Briscoe, played by a young Leah Remini (top far left), who was friends with Alyssa Milano’s character Samantha. Charlie and her other model friends, which included Halle Berry (second from the right) in her first acting role, navigated life in New York City.