It pleases me to no end when I see how many fellow TV lovers are ready and able to answer my trivia questions. Last week it only took "Tammy" twelve minutes to share with us Keith Partridge's middle name of Douglas.As many of you may already know, I interviewed Danny Bonaduce during my live show at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. He shared many great Partridge Family stories. My favorite would have to be how he got the job as Danny. Before he became Danny Partridge he was working with veteran TV director (and Dick Van Dyke's neighbor on The Dick Van Dyke Show) Jerry Paris on a TV movie. They were way behind schedule, and Danny made a joke about how Jerry might be fired if they went over budget. Mr. Paris was not in the mood to be mocked by an eight year old boy so he grabbed Danny's script, ripped out the pages with his dialogue and shouted, "There, we're all caught up now, kid." As horrible as that sounds, Danny insists that Paris felt so bad about the incident that when he auditioned to be a Partridge, Paris, who was directing the pilot, made it up to Danny by casting him as the red-headed scamp we all came to love.
Now on to this week's question...
What hour long television show has had the most spinoffs?
Please feel free to answer in the comments section. The first correct answer will get their name plugged in next week's post 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.
Congratulations to xtinemichele who was the first to come up with the correct answer, which was Star Trek. The classic sci-fi series spun off five shows in total; Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: The Animated Series, Star Trek: Voyager and Enterprise.
I realize many are going to disagree with my answer, therefore I have explained myself in the comments section.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
4-30-2007 @ 2:08PM
stephen said...
i can never remember if it is happy days or all in the family.
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4-30-2007 @ 2:13PM
C C said...
I know Law and Order has had at least four, but I'm thinking there's got to be another show with more.
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4-30-2007 @ 2:13PM
stephen said...
nevermind you said hourlong....i'm lame for not reading the whole question.
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4-30-2007 @ 2:15PM
scott said...
love, american style
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4-30-2007 @ 2:15PM
xtinemichele said...
Star Trek?
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4-30-2007 @ 2:15PM
marko said...
Star Trek
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4-30-2007 @ 2:16PM
Akbar Fazil said...
For an hour long I am going to have to guess Star Trek.
All in the Family and the Mary Tyler Moore show (which had a large number of spinoffs) were only half hour shows.
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4-30-2007 @ 2:25PM
mike m said...
I assume it isn't Star Trek because the key word is "spinoff" and there are no characters from voyager that spun from Star Trek or TNG or DS9, and there are none for Enterprise. Deep Space Nine there was O'Brien, and TNG there were none from TOS.
Same would go for Law and Order, no?
as for my guess....I have no clue. So I'll randomly guess Carol Burnett? lol told you I had no clue.
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4-30-2007 @ 2:25PM
mike m said...
I assume it isn't Star Trek because the key word is "spinoff" and there are no characters from voyager that spun from Star Trek or TNG or DS9, and there are none for Enterprise. Deep Space Nine there was O'Brien, and TNG there were none from TOS.
Same would go for Law and Order, no?
as for my guess....I have no clue. So I'll randomly guess Carol Burnett? lol told you I had no clue.
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4-30-2007 @ 2:29PM
Griff said...
i believe it is technically Law & Order over Trek since (and i'm sure i'll get flack for this) Next Generation was not a true spinoff of the original series.
L&O begat....SVU, CI, Conviction, Trial by Jury
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4-30-2007 @ 2:35PM
Matt said...
What about Doctor Who? Havn't there been several different variants of that show? Not sure if they would technically be a spinoff though.
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4-30-2007 @ 2:38PM
Griff said...
well in that case mike m......its includes
1) trial by jury as it had fred dalton thompson's character from lL&O
2) conviction had alexandra cabot from SVU (so technically a spinoff of a spinoff???)
3)SVU has Dann Florek from L&O
4)finally is CI a belated crossover as it has Chris Noth now?
so many questions........
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4-30-2007 @ 2:40PM
IN Mike said...
Love American Style.
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4-30-2007 @ 2:54PM
Jonathan Myers said...
How about the classic, Tonight Show? If we want to get technical, it had the following spinoffs:
Originally "Broadway Open House"
Tonight
Tonight! After Dark
Tonight Starring Jack Paar
The Jack Paar Tonight Show
The Jack Paar Show
The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
Some people lump Late Night with Conan O'Brien, the Late Late Show with Tom Snyder, Craig Liborn, and Craig Ferguson in, as well.
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4-30-2007 @ 2:57PM
TVSeriesFinale.com said...
A tie between Star Trek and Law & Order for life-actions TV series. Each had five though you could argue if some were truly spin-offs. Star Trek wins easily if you count the movies.
if you're including animated shows, Super Friends had six spin-offs (though featuring many of the same charcters).
Star Trek - Star Trek (animated series), Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Enterprise, and 10 movies with one on the way.
Law & Order - Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Conviction (spun from SVU), Deadline, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and Law & Order: Trial by Jury.
Super Friends - The All-New Super Friends Hour, Challenge of the Super Friends, The World's Greatest Super Friends, The Super Friends (another version), Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show, and The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians.
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4-30-2007 @ 3:19PM
David said...
Star Trek shows are spinoffs.
Scotty and Spock were on TNG, Several DS9 people showed up on TNG and vis versa. DS9 had Worf and the transporter guy. Voyager left from DS9 and Tom is a spinoff of a charater from TNG but they changed his name.
Enterprise had several people from other Star trek Shows or movies.
They are all spinoffs.
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4-30-2007 @ 3:31PM
Griff said...
David......by your definition of spinoffs, L&O ties Trek.
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4-30-2007 @ 3:44PM
Francisco said...
For something to be a spinoff a charecter from the original needs to be involved in the new show. So when Edith's cousin Maude gets a show it is a spinoff but when Dr. McCoy appears on ONE episode of ST:TNG it is not a spinoff.
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4-30-2007 @ 4:11PM
Bill said...
The definition of spinoff is very vague. A true spinoff would be like Frasier or Joey, where a character from an existing show gets his or her own show. Then there are semi-spinoffs, where a character is introduced to a popular show specifically to be spun off (Top of the Heap, the disastrous Married with Children spinoff, and Empty Nest are the only two that come to mind).
Then there are shows that exist in the same universe because of crossovers. But even in this area the waters are murky... Law & Order CI features Chris Noth and carries the L&O brand name, though the original cast had no former L&O characters... and on the other end of the spectrum, a show like Wings had 5 or so appearances by characters from Cheers, but was never marketed as a Cheers spinoff and I don't think anyone would consider it so.
As for the question, I have no idea. Love American Style is an interesting idea, but didn't technically only spin off one show, which was then spun off into a half dozen shows? Do those call count for LAS?
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4-30-2007 @ 4:22PM
DALE ADAMS said...
I am thinking Dallas
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