In media, a spin-offFor example: (or spinoffFor examples: ) is a radio program, television program, video game, film, 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).
In television Name changes or retoolings The main character from All in the Family, Archie Bunker, continued in a retooled version of the series called Archie Bunker's Place, which then spun off Gloria, the story of the Bunker's now-divorced daughter. After The Golden Girls ended its run, due to star Bea Arthur's decision to leave the show, the other three stars—Rue McClanahan, Betty White and Estelle Getty—reprised their characters in a follow-up series entitled The Golden Palace. It lasted 24 episodes. After the seventh year of Da Vinci's Inquest, most of the main characters returned the next season for Da Vinci's City Hall. The new series carries over some of the same plot threads, the difference being a slight shift in themes that began in the last season of the original series. City Hall is sometimes even referred to as the eighth season of Inquest. Before the 11th season of M*A*S*H the seven principal cast members voted whether that season would be the series' last. Following the series' conclusion, the three actors to vote for continuation, William Christopher, Jamie Farr, and Harry Morgan, appeared in the post-war series AfterMASH, which lasted less than two complete seasons. The popular cartoon Batman: The Animated Series was brought back after cancellation with a new name and a new smoother animation style. The New Batman Adventures only lasted 24 episodes. It is later replaced by another spin-off Batman Beyond, lasted 52 episodes which also spawned another spin-off named The Zeta Project. Batman: TAS also spawned other animated series set in the same universe: Superman: The Animated Series, Static Shock, Justice League and Justice League Unlimited. The characters played by Lynda Bellingham and Julia Sawalha in the UK TV series Second Thoughts later reappeared in the series Faith in the Future. Six years after the British sitcom Are You Being Served? ended, a new series started up featuring five of the six cast members from the final season of the original show. The new show was entitled Grace & Favour (aired in the United States as Are You Being Served? Again!) and featured the characters from the original show transplanted into a new setting. After three series of the prison-based sit-com Porridge, the main character of Norman Stanley Fletcher was released from prison and the show was retooled as Going Straight. It sees Fletcher trying to re-emerge as a valued member of society, having vowed to stay away from crime on his release. At the end of its seventh season, Three's Company became Three's a Crowd following the marriage of Janet (Joyce DeWitt) and the departure of Terri (Priscilla Barnes). Jack (John Ritter) moves in with his girlfriend Vicky (Mary Cadorette) in an apartment above his restaurant, located in a building subsequently bought by her disapproving father (Robert Mandan). This development ended the gay ruse, with Mr. Furley (Don Knotts) taking credit for Jack's "conversion". The cult Nickelodeon hit cartoon franchise The Ren & Stimpy Show was retooled as Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon" which aired on Spike TV and lasted only six episodes. After The Suite Life of Zack & Cody ended, the series was retooled as The Suite Life on Deck. It involves Zack Martin, Cody Martin, London Tipton and Mr. Moseby staying on a cruise ship. Having succeeded with Isa TKM, the original telenovela-like teen program from Nickelodeon Latin America, it has a spin-off named Isa TK+, with some of the same and new main characters, and new minor characters. After Mighty Morphin Power Rangers ended with the miniseries, the show was retooled as Power Rangers Zeo, which involved five of the six Rangers Tommy Oliver, Rocky DeSantos, Adam Park, Billy Cranston and Katherine Hillard entering into the rebuilt Command Center, with the four Rangers alongside new Ranger Tanya Sloan becoming the Zeo Rangers and Billy retiring as a Ranger by becoming the technical advisor to the team. Girl Meets World is a spin-off of Boy Meets World where the show revolves around Cory and Topanga's daughter Riley and her best friend Maya. The series ran for three seasons. Salty's Lighthouse is an American spin-off of the British children's TV series Tugs as it uses recycled footage and characters from Tugs. Endeavour is a prequel of the British detective series Inspector Morse, with the main character Morse in his younger years. Another spin-off is Lewis (see below). Putta Gowri Maduve was renamed to Mangala Gowri Maduve after the exit of original leads Ranjani Raghavan and Rakshith Gowda and started focussing on Kavya Shree and Gagan Chinappa.
Supporting character getting own show (during run) Angel was a spin-off of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, based on the character of Angel. The series ran for five seasons. Private Practice was a spin-off of Grey's Anatomy, recounting the life of Dr. Addison Montgomery. The spin-off itself, introducing the show's cast, was set up during a season three episode of Grey's Anatomy. The series ran for six seasons. All in the Family is responsible for several spin-offs. Maude and The Jeffersons both featured characters that began on All in the Family. Good Times was later spun off from Maude, making it the first spin-off of a spin-off. The Mary Tyler Moore Show spun off Rhoda, Phyllis and Lou Grant based on supporting characters, as well as several unsuccessful series pilots and one TV movie. Hercules: The Legendary Journeys begat two spin-offs: Young Hercules, which relates the adventures of Hercules during his teenage years, and Xena: Warrior Princess which eventually outlasted its parent program. The Dukes of Hazzard spun off TV series Enos starring Deputy Enos Strate. He was invited to Los Angeles to join a special police team after he had caught two infamous criminals in Hazzard. The series was canceled after one season and the character returned to The Dukes of Hazzard. The British animated series Count Duckula was a spin-off of Danger Mouse and featured an anthropomorphic vampire duck named Count Duckula (a loose parody of Count Dracula). The series A Different World, a spin-off from The Cosby Show, was originally created as a vehicle for Lisa Bonet's character, Denise Huxtable. In an unusual turn of events, even though Bonet was written out of A Different World after the first season and returned to The Cosby Show, A Different World continued – and thrived – for another five seasons without her. The series Diff'rent Strokes spun off in 1979 one of NBC's longest running sitcoms, The Facts of Life, where Philip Drummond's housekeeper, Edna Garrett (played by Charlotte Rae), became housemother and dietitian in all-female boarding school called Eastland. Rae's character was very popular at the time and, at the end of the first season, she got her own show that lasted nine years, while the original series ended in 1986. At first, Rae didn't want to leave a hit series, so she got a deal that she could come back if the spinoff didn't last; but the show was renewed for a second season, so Mrs. Garrett was replaced by Adelaide Brubaker (Nedra Volz) first and by Pearl Gallagher (Mary Jo Catlett) then. She only made one guest appearance after four years from her departure. The Ropers was spun off from Three's Company. At the end of the third season, landlords Stanley and Helen Roper sold their apartment building and moved in another house in Cheviot Hills. Norman Fell and Audra Lindley got a deal that, if the spinoff didn't last, they could go back to the original series. The show was canceled at the end of its second season, only a few days after the deal expired, and the Ropers made only one guest appearance after two years from their departure on Three's Company, where they were replaced by Don Knotts, as new landlord Ralph Furley. The only daytime soap opera to spin off a primetime soap is As the World Turns. In 1965, the producers capitalized on the popularity of the character Lisa Miller Hughes and created a limited-run show for her character, called Our Private World. A year after the nighttime show ended, Eileen Fulton, Lisa's portrayer, returned to ATWT, where she remained until the soap's cancellation in 2010. Trapper John, M.D. was another spin-off from the movie M*A*S*H. When sued by the makers of the series M*A*S*H, the makers of Trapper John demonstrated in court that it was derived from the movie rather than the series. The BBC series Doctor Who is the show with the most spun off media, most of which concern supporting characters, although a few are simply set in the same fictional universe. The first, in 1981, was an unsuccessful pilot featuring Sarah Jane Smith, called K-9 and Company. The company Reeltime produced a series of short films, beginning with Wartime in 1987 and going on to include Downtime, Mindgame and several others. The independent production company BBV, on their part, produced and released a series of movies based on the series including the P.R.O.B.E. series, Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans, the Auton trilogy, Cyberon and others (they also produced a range of audio spin-offs). In 2006 the BBC launched another spin-off, Torchwood, aimed at a more adult audience and featuring Captain Jack Harkness from the revived series. The Sarah Jane Adventures began in 2007, it was a more child-oriented series than Doctor Who and was produced after a BBC request for a Young Doctor Who series was felt to be inappropriate by the makers of the programme, and was influenced by a deal struck with the makers of yet another spin-off, K-9, which also used the character in question and ran from 2009 to 2010. In 2016, another spin-off, Class, ran for a single series, debuting online before being broadcast on the main BBC network. In 2025, another spin-off began, The War Between the Land and the Sea, featuring both UNIT and the Sea Devils. The reality show Trauma: Life in the E.R. spawned two additional reality shows in the early 2000s from a set of Trauma episodes shot at New Orleans: Charity Hospital, Paramedics and Code Blue New Orleans. Kinnikuman spun off Tatakae!! Ramenman, which depicts Ramenman in his native country of China. However it is not the same Ramenman as in the series and is instead an ancestor of the main Ramenman. The Daily Show correspondent Stephen Colbert received his own show The Colbert Report, a parody of shows like The O'Reilly Factor. Family Guy supporting character Cleveland Brown was given his own show called The Cleveland Show. The Andy Griffith Show is an example of several different types of spin-offs. The show itself was a semi-spin-off of The Danny Thomas Show, through a backdoor pilot episode in which Thomas' character was stopped by Sheriff Andy Taylor (Andy Griffith) for speeding in the fictional town of Mayberry, North Carolina. When The Andy Griffith Show proved successful, the supporting character of Gomer Pyle (Jim Nabors) was spun off into Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. Finally, when Griffith left the show in 1968, it was re-tooled for three more seasons as Mayberry R.F.D. When Lauren Conrad left the reality series Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County, she began a new reality series The Hills, which in turn spawned The City when Whitney Port moved to New York. Family Matters is a spinoff of Perfect Strangers. Carl Winslow, the main character of Family Matters, was featured in an episode of Perfect Strangers. His wife Harriet Winslow was a regular cast member as the elevator operator in Perfect Strangers.