The Best TV Spinoffs of All Time

The original “Porridge,” considered one of Britain’s greatest sitcoms, follows the tribulations of Norman Stanley Fletcher, a seasoned criminal, as he does time in prison. Nearly 40 years after its three year run, a short-lived spinoff of the same name features Norman’s grandson, Nigel, who is suffering a prison term for cyber crimes.

A science fiction-police procedural mash-up, “Ashes to Ashes” evolved from the internationally acclaimed British drama, “Life on Mars.” As in the original series, a police officer is transported back in time after an accident, and is on a quest to find out who she is, and whether she actually exists in a land of the dead.

This is a revised and remastered version of the popular Japanese anime series, “Dragon Ball Z,” with upgraded visuals, voices, music, and special effects. It aired in Japan from 2009 to 2011, and then 61 new episodes, known as “the final chapters,” were added in 2014 and 2015.

Christine Baranski reprises her role as Diane Lockhart, a powerful but compassionate partner in a prestigious white shoe law firm. She is brought to her knees by financial calamity and scandal but is adopted by an equally prestigious African-American law firm where she rises once more to partner status. Beyond the personal ups and downs, the series is enlivened by plots involving current legal, political, and social issues.

With it’s lovable and quirkish ensemble cast and nostalgic, small town charm, the Andy Griffith show was a popular sitcom for 8 seasons in the 1960s. Griffith played the wise, slow-talking sheriff of Mayberry, with the Emmy award-winning comedic actor, Don Knotts, as his bumbling deputy.

William Shatner and Candace Bergen broke free of their famous television personas, respectively, the Captain of the Starship Enterprise and Murphy Brown, television anchor, to convincingly play attorneys in a high-end Boston law firm. Shatner won two Emmys for his efforts.

Veteran Australian actor Leo McKern plays Horace Rumpole, a seasoned criminal defense lawyer in the courts of London, where he reliably bests his stuffier, self righteous colleagues.

He is at his best representing the underdog, often using unconventional tactics, but always on the ethical up and up.

After three seasons of filming in Colombia, where it portrayed the Colombian drug trade, “Narcos” moved to Mexico as a new series about the Mexican drug trade. The show depicts the rise of the drug lords as a lead-in to stories of American DEA agents attempting to curb the power of a powerful Mexican cartel.

The dauntless hero of the Dragon Ball franchise, Goku, tries to retire into farming in the company of family and friends. His reverie is cut short by the blood thirst of an evil god, and Goku is once more a warrier. This last series in the anime saga aired in Japan from 2015 to 2018, and made its American debut in 2018.

Continuing a character he honed in his role as an obtuse reporter in support of Stewart’s political satire, Colbert’s is now an energetic but ill-informed, and not too bright, conservative talk show host. His edgy parody won him two Peabody awards.

John C. Reilly plays the title character, an embarrassingly clueless observer of life and times. He interviews famous people and often drops shocking facts about his own life.

A supergroup of cartoon superheroes, based on the DC Comics team, the “Justice League of America,” comes together to take on the extreme evil of the world, earning accolades from the media, including several Emmy awards.

The stories in this British sitcom take place in the “Phoenix Club,” a working class pub in Manchester, England. The inhabitants struggle to attract new members while competing with a rival club determined to destroy the Phoenix.

The title character, a washed-up, untalented radio and TV personality, is trying to restart his career. In the first season he operates out of a run-down motel room, and in the second season, aired 5 years later after a mental breakdown, he is anchored in what the Brits call a caravan.

In this animated series based on DC Comics characters, Batman makes strategic use of his allies, among them Robin, Batgirl and Nightwing. The series provided the basis for two video games, Batman: Vengeance, and Batman: Rise of SinTzu.

Taught, suspenseful, and seriously scary, this series followed the phenomenally popular “Alfred Hitchcock Presents.” With opening and closing observations from the wizard of suspense himself, the move from a 30-minute format to 60 minutes allowed for more depth, plot, and character development.

With 32 seasons aired and two more in the making, “The Simpsons” is the longest running sitcom in television history. The now iconic cartoon family continues to offer its take on American holidays; political and cultural shifts; work, school and home life; celebrity; and bad parenting.

Taking place 100 years after the voyages of “The Original Series,” “The Next Generation” continues its exploration of the galaxy with a new cast and crew, boldly guiding the Starship Enterprise to strange new worlds. After a strong 7 seasons and 178 episodes, the finale attracted 30 million viewers.

The animated adventures of Finn the Human and his shape-shifting pal, Jake the Dog, take place in a post nuclear world in which they interact with fantastical characters, from princesses to a thousand year old rocker vampire. “The mushroom wars” provide a backstory and a dark mythology.

For three years Bugs enjoyed a prime time slot on ABC, from which he hosted the showing of three cartoons from the loony toons franchise in each episode. He subsequently moved to Saturday mornings and, in various reworkings of the format, continued to ask Doc what was up until 2000 — a 40-year run for the bunny.

Ralph Kramden was politically incorrect before it was unpopular, threatening to send his wife Alice to the moon, and posing to throw a punch with the catch phrase, “Why, I oughta…” An early sitcom, the show’s talented cast (Jackie Gleason, Art Carney, and Audrey Meadows) portrays a gritty, working class life.

In this prequel to the long-running and popular British detective drama, a young Endeavour Morse begins his career in police work. Along with crime solving, the plot lines cover his frequent disillusion with police work and the internecine rivalries within the ranks.

Airing only six episodes and a special, “Brass Eye” parodies news coverage of current events, the title being derived from two British news shows, Brass Tacks and Public Eye. The cast targets sensationalism in particular, employing made-up news stories involving, among other social ills, drugs, crime, and moral decay.

“Justice League Unlimited” is the sequel to “Justice League” and continues the evil fighting teamwork among its DC Comics superheroes. Ironically, DC Comics created its own new series, with issues published monthly, based on the TV show.

Son Goku, a monkey-tailed boy, introduced in the original anime Dragon Ball series, has grown up, but is still engaged with aliens and magical beings in intergalactic warfare, with the elusive help of seven magic dragon balls. This second series of the Japanese franchise, based on a best selling manga stories by Akira Toriyama, aired in Japan from 1989 to 1996. A dubbed version later aired in the United States.

Before he was Saul Goodman, counselor to Walter White, he was James McGill, known as Slippin’ Jimmy for his love of con games. This prequel to “Breaking Bad” traces Jimmy’s trajectory from fun-loving, unconventional lawyer seeking justice for the underdog, to hard boiled legal representative for drug lords and brutal gangs.

Each episode, filmed in black and white, begins with a dark introduction by the show’s creator, Rod Serling, promising a journey through another dimension, and ends with his summing up of the episode’s moral. The hugely popular 30-minute shows were alternatively creepy, scary, fanciful, suspenseful, or ironic, making “Twilight Zone” a synonym for circumstances in which nightmarish things happen.