Are These the 15 Best TV Spin-Offs of All Time?

The website Mental Floss ranked the 15 best TV spinoffs of all time.  See if you agree.  You might not even realize some of these were spin-offs . . .

 

1.  “The Andy Griffith Show”.  Andy’s character originally appeared on “The Danny Thomas Show” in 1960.

2.  “Green Acres” . . . a spin-off of “Petticoat Junction”.

3.  “The Jeffersons” . . . a spin-off of “All in the Family”.

4.  “Maude” . . . another spin-off of “All in the Family”.  Bea Arthur played Edith Bunker’s cousin.

5.  “Happy Days”.  The characters originally appeared on “Love, American Style”.

6.  “Laverne & Shirley” . . . a spin-off of “Happy Days”.  “Mork & Mindy” did NOT make the list.

There were a total of SEVEN “Happy Days” spin-offs, but two of them were animated.

7.  “The Simpsons”.  They originally appeared on “The Tracey Ullman Show”.

8.  “Frasier” . . . a spin-off of “Cheers”.

9.  “Xena:  Warrior Princess” . . . a spin-off of “Hercules:  The Legendary Journeys”.

10.  “Daria” . . . a spin-off of “Beavis and Butt-Head”.

11.  “Law & Order:  Special Victims Unit”.  One of five “Law & Order” spin-offs.

12.  “Angel” . . . a spin-off of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”.

13.  “NCIS” . . . a spin-off of “JAG”.  Now it has two of its own spin-offs, “NCIS:  Los Angeles” and “NCIS:  New Orleans”.

14.  “The Colbert Report” . . . a spin-off of “The Daily Show”.

15.  “Better Call Saul” . . . a spin-off of “Breaking Bad”.

 

A few snubs include “Star Trek:  The Next Generation” . . . “Good Times”, which came from “Maude” . . . “Melrose Place”, a spin-off of “Beverly Hills 90210” . . . “The Facts of Life”, a spin-off of “Diff’rent Strokes” . . . and the show “Family Matters”.  The mom on that one was the elevator operator on “Perfect Strangers”.