Well last weeks trivia question wasn't as hard as I thought. It would appear that the readers here at TV Squad are a bit more knowledgeable about TV, if not more web savvy, than I am used to.
Along with all the answers I got for last week, I also received a request for some information. A reader by the handle of Jefferson wrote, "There was a really crappy show on Fox in the '90s - and yes, I am aware that does not narrow down the field. It was a 1/2 hour sitcom that centered on a group of individuals that survived a nuclear blast and was now living together in some stranded hut together where they have to rebuild civilization and all that stuff. "
Well, as I'm sure many of you know that series was called Woops! starring Evan Handler and Cleavant Derricks among others. It ran on FOX for one season in 1992.
On to this week's question ...
In the history of television there have been three hour-long dramas that were spun off from half-hour sitcoms. In other words, a character or characters from a half hour sitcom eventually showed up as the main character or characters on an hour-long drama. What were those three sitcoms and their spin-offs?
Please feel free to answer in the comments section. The first correct answer will get their name plugged below in this post later, and the satisfaction that comes with being a member of the King's court.
Also if anyone has a trivia question that they think will stump me or just really need to know the answer to, go ahead and let us know.
Well, it only took fifteen minutes but at least the question was hard enough to get readers to team up. The answers were Lou Grant, Trapper John M.D. and The Bradys. Congratulations to PB and David Nelson for getting it right.
I like being challenged to come up with tougher questions. Check back in next week and see what I came up with.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-16-2007 @ 4:42PM
PB said...
Darn. I can only think of 2: "Lou Grant" (spinoff from The Mary Tyler Moore Show) and "Trapper John M.D." (spinoff from M*A*S*H).
What is the 3rd show???
Reply
4-16-2007 @ 4:46PM
David Nelson said...
What about that terrible Brady Bunch hour long drama? The Bradys I think it was called.
Reply
4-16-2007 @ 4:47PM
Joe said...
Same here. I was thinking it was "Fish" from "Barney Miller," but i'm not sure if that was a drama or not.
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4-16-2007 @ 4:50PM
Elf said...
I think I've got the third, though it's kind of a close call depending on whether it really fits the definition of "drama" here. Wasn't "The Bradys," the last reincarnation of "The Brady Bunch," done as an hour long show in a not-so-sitcommy format? IMDB calls it a drama: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098756/
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4-16-2007 @ 4:52PM
Drew said...
Trick Question...the third is the OTHER spin-off from M*A*S*H, AfterMASH.
*shudder*
unwatchable
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4-16-2007 @ 4:56PM
jim said...
MASH -> Trapper John M.D.
Brady Bunch -> The Bradys
Can't quite come up with the third.....
Reply
4-16-2007 @ 5:02PM
scott said...
trapper john, m.d. from mash
lou grant from MTM
the bradys from the brady bunch
Reply
4-16-2007 @ 5:12PM
Aaron said...
Actually, I think officially Trapper John is a spinoff of the MASH movie, right?
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4-16-2007 @ 5:04PM
Joe said...
Wasn't there a lawsuit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trapper_John%2C_M.D. -- yeah, yeah, wikipedia link) that decided that Trapper John MD was *not* a spinoff of the sitcom, but rather the movie?
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4-16-2007 @ 5:16PM
Bash said...
No fair. You should post these questions at a given weekday at a given hour (exactly). There should be an option in your Blog-Software to do that.
That way we can all take part. I came too late to even have a chance to take part. *sob*
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4-16-2007 @ 6:19PM
justin said...
I believe that Trapper John M.D. was based off the M*A*S*H books, and not the movie or sitcom.
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4-16-2007 @ 7:16PM
TVSeriesFinale.com said...
Yeah, Trapper John was not actually a spin-off to the MASH series though most people believed it was (especially considering the timing).
The series MASH did spin off WALTER, based on the character of Radar post-war. It was a pilot that wasn't picked up and became a tv movie.
Joe, though not all that funny much of the time, Fish was a sitcom (featuring a young Todd Bridges).
Reply
4-16-2007 @ 7:35PM
John G said...
Wasn't this a question on Paul's "The King of TV" podcast earlier this year?
Reply
4-16-2007 @ 8:15PM
ManiacJoe said...
I thought I might have been wrong with Fish. I've never actually seen the show, but just remember that Fish had his own spinoff.
Ok, so being that Trapper John is a spinoff of the movie, not the TV show (according to that Wikipedia article), we're still missing 1 show.
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