Quote: chipolata @ March 24 2010, 10:30 AM GMTWe shouldn't be discussing this here. But since we are, I think Frasier started as a just a recurring guest character, as Diane's boyfriend, then rapidly graduated to be full time character in virtually every episode.
Wasn't Doug a minor character in Everybody Loves Raymond then they built King of Queens around him?
If it hasn't been mentioned, didn't US sitcom Soap have a spin-off featuring the Tate family's black butler, the eponymously titled Benson?
Quote: The Giggle-o @ March 24 2010, 2:58 PM BSTWasn't Doug a minor character in Everybody Loves Raymond then they built King of Queens around him?
The characters crossed over a couple of times, but it wasn't a spin-off as far as I'm aware.
I hear they built Scrubs around a minor character from Roseanne...
I find it a little irritaing, no, a lot irritating when TV companies do this; obviously if they were from really popular shows and the spin off is genuinely good in its own right (that's rare), I'm less irritated, but my lordy, does it irritate me, in fact it depresses me.
The message it sends out is 'We the TV co. know you like these characters, so here's their own show, you'll like that, won't you; we the TV co. would rather stay with something we know you like than take a risk with something new you might not like; we the TV co. are pretty bereft of ideas, and we don't trust untested writers enough to back them, even though they have fresh original ideas; we the TV co. like to keep things among our own lot, those who already work for us; we the TV co. don't give a toss about what hundreds of good but untested amateur writers think, we're the professionals; and the rest...
So, summing up, sitcom spin offs REALLY IRRITATE! 
Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ April 1 2010, 8:25 AM BSTThe message it sends out is 'We the TV co. know you like these characters, so here's their own show, you'll like that, won't you;
In general, the public don't so much 'know what they like' as 'like what they know', so it's understandable that this kind of thing goes on.
But doesn't it make you vomit buckets though?
Daria, Mike Judge's most underrated creation, started life as a minor character in Beavis and Buthead.
Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ April 1 2010, 9:17 AM BSTBut doesn't it make you vomit buckets though?
Not being a failed, embittered writer, no. 
Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ April 1 2010, 9:17 AM BSTBut doesn't it make you vomit buckets though?
Not really; all they're doing is what any comedy does, taking familiar elements and putting a new twist on them.
Instead of inventing new comedy situations and characters! Excuse me while I spew.
No new characters? No new situations? I refer you to The Green Green Grass. From two (arguably 3) characters in South London, to the best part of a dozen in the country side. That's rather new.
Quote: Aaron @ April 2 2010, 12:11 AM BSTNo new characters? No new situations? I refer you to The Green Green Grass. From two (arguably 3) characters in South London, to the best part of a dozen in the country side. That's rather new.
True. It might have been a mediocre load of old balls, but it was relatively new.
(Then again, The Green Green Grass only really used the old "fish out of water" scenario as the basis for all its narratives, so it wasn't exactly developing the characters to any significant extent, was it? Part of the reason Boycie and Marlene worked so well as characters in OFAH is that they were used sparingly. They are both reactive characters, not proactive characters, hence they never really had the legs to front a show of their own.)
Well the fish-out-of-water is certainly the central theme to the show, but that doesn't make the accusation of "no new situations" a correct one; the show's still in a pretty new setting, and of course has a different plot in each episode...
Anyway.
Quote: Aaron @ April 2 2010, 12:45 AM BSTand of course has a different plot in each episode...
Not a major achievement for a sitcom really, is it? Unless it's Last Of The Summer Wine.