The 10 Best and 10 Worst TV Spin-Offs

Whether we realize it or not, many of our favorite, or least favorite shows weren’t original ideas. Some of the very best shows on TV have been second or even third-tier spin-offs, and even the worst shows often get a second chance through an especially lovable character. These are the ten best, and ten worst TV spin-offs we could dredge up.

(Worst) Joey

When Friends went the way of the dinosaur in 2004, Matt LeBlanc got together with some big heads at NBC and signed on to beat the dead horse that would be Joey. The premise of this nightmare was that loyal fans of Friends would get to follow Joey to LA, where he would inevitably fail at life and become depressing.

No amount of star-studded cameos could save this ship from sinking.

(Best) The Colbert Report

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Colbert’s run on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart was so successful, that network execs thought he’d do well enough with his own show. It started off a bit shaky, but then again, so did The Daily Show, and The Colbert Report is now so immensely popular that its jokes are ingrained in our very culture. The show is so widely available and well-received that Colbert uses it as a vehicle for real-world shenanigans, often getting people to name ridiculous things in Steven Colbert’s honor — including a treadmill on the International Space Station.

(Worst) Saved by the Bell: The New Class

Technically, Saved by the Bell itself was a spin-off of an old Disney show, Good Morning Miss Bliss, but it was much-loved despite the neon colors and horrible scripting. The New Class, however, was not. We put up with all the terrifying early 90′s cliches in the original because it was somehow able to make it work, and it had Screech. Even The College Years was tolerable because it kept the same cast, but this blue-light special garbage never made the cut. What nobody can figure out is how on earth this travesty went on for seven seasons.

(Best) Sesame Street

Not many realize that this 40-season monster of success is actually a spin-off of a Jim Henson production from over a decade earlier. Sesame Street, based in New York City, was a heavily funded educational endeavor that first saw light in Sam and Friends — a Washington D.C. black & white from the late 50′s starring Kermit and Harry the Hipster.

(Worst) Wheel 2000

Also known as Wheel of Fortune 2000, this horrid bit of patronizing failure was doomed from the start. As if the 2000 moniker wasn’t a dead-giveaway, the show was part of the seemingly endless spat of bad TV trying to capitalize on the then-nearing New Millennium. As such, producers felt the need to include a “virtual reality” cyber-hostess, which was possibly the most annoying thing to grace the screen before the days of Tila Tequila.

(Best) Aqua Teen Hunger Force

Of all the amazing shows to come out of Space Ghost Coast to Coast, the most wildly successful is Aqua Teen Hunger Force. The show is so ridiculous, that when broken down into factual analysis for definition, it sounds like a joke. That’s the appeal of it, and it works, because in ATHF‘s six short seasons it’s attained hordes of fans, and even went to the big screen in Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie for Theaters.

(Worst) Taradise

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E! Entertainment made the grand error of thinking that Tara Reid was both able to host a show of her own and interesting enough for people to care. This spin-off of Wild On E! was so weak that it can’t even be recalled by viewers today, and more spoofs of it exist online than do actual video clips from the show itself. Its premise was basic: follow failed actress/model Tara Reid around the world as she visits other countries, gets drunk, and acts like a two-bit prostitute. It was generally less well-received than Girls Gone Wild commercials.

(Best) Star Trek: The Next Generation

Of all the expansions to the Star Trek universe, The Next Generation was by far the most-loved and most successful to date. It was so successful, it spawned two full series and four major motion pictures, all taking place within the well-defined TNG timeline. Technically, it’s far more pervasive than the original Star Trek, despite our fondness for nostalgia and the classics.

(Worst) Wildboyz

As if Jackass weren’t bad enough, MTV felt the need to spawn the brain hemorrhage that would be known as Wildboyz. The show starred many of the same “characters” that helped make Jackass a popular success, but its premise was based largely on travel to remote destinations. The “characters” would proceed to more or less defile those remote (natural) destinations, insult the indigenous people, and lower the expectations they would have of Americans and modern society on the whole.

(Best) The Simpsons

It’s a little-known fact that The Simpsons was a spin-off of a segment from the popular, late 80′s, Tracy Ullman Show, which lasted only a fraction the time that The Simpsons has now successfully run. The show’s even gone as far as the big screen, with the 2007 release of The Simpsons Movie.

(Worst) Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers: Jungle Fury

The 16th of 17 major inceptions of the iconic Power Ranger franchise to reach American shores, Jungle Fury is so far beyond bad that it reaches new heights of hilarity. It’s difficult to imagine how a group of funded individuals can create something so terrible, but they did, and while it was only one of many, it was the worst of many.

(Best) Mork & Mindy

Fonzie may have ruined Mork’s plans to abduct Richie Cunningham in an episode of Happy Days, but he didn’t stop Robin Williams from getting his own show later. Mork & Mindy lasted four seasons and acted as a springboard for what would become one of Hollywood’s most successful careers, as Robin Williams launched into super-stardom from the role of Mork.

(Worst) Bindi the Jungle Girl

Steve Irwin’s passing was cause for mourning worldwide, but an unfortunate outcome of that well-intentioned mourning was his talentless daughter getting her own show, Bindi the Jungle Girl. The show was a feckless attempt to grab viewers and ad slots in the time immediately after Irwin’s untimely demise, and while it was successful for a brief moment, it didn’t take long for the public to see through the ruse and shun the program.

(Best) Daria

Now with a cult-following, Daria was probably the most critically-acclaimed thing to ever be associated, much less have origins in Beavis and Butt-head. The lead character, Daria, was originally just a side-character — the nerdy girl — until she got her own show. Her entire story unfolded there, and to a large following as the show was much more cerebral than its parent-program.

(Worst) Super Sloppy Double Dare

While Double Dare had several reincarnations, often one right after another, it was Super Sloppy Double Dare that simply had no purpose other than to act as a bridge to the next spin-off. Despite its heavy reliance on messy physical challenges, the show was simply boring to all who watched it. There just wasn’t enough happening to make it worth the time wasted, and it was swapped out for Family Double Dare pretty quickly.

(Best) Frasier

Cheers was immensely popular in its own right, but when one of its favorite, most iconic characters picked up sticks and moved to a more TV-friendly town with a better time-slot, we got Frasier. The show began its run immediately after the end of its parent, Cheers, and went on to match its 11 seasons, joining the club of TV’s longest running, most successful shows of all time.

(Worst) I Love New York

The universe wasn’t quite impressed when VH1 created Flavor of Love, starring washed-up rapper has-been Flavor Flav, but it was curious and entertained. The show was a pretty big hit for the network, and they tried to milk it for all it was worth. Part of that endeavor was I Love New York, in which terrifyingly unattractive Tiffany Pollard, a.k.a. New York, plays the unlikely role of a sought-after sexpot. While she was a loser on Flavor of Love, she was so grating that the network felt she would grab viewers on the premise that she would surely cause nothing but high drama.

(Best) Darkwing Duck

A Cult classic spin-off of Ducktales, Darkwing Duck aired in the mid-to-late 90′s and bridged the gap between Disney fans and avid comic book readers. The idea was clever; take a Disney “duck” character and turn him into a vigilante super-hero of The Shadow caliber. The show turned out to be a recipe for success, and grabbed followers by the million, and they weren’t limited to children, either.

(Worst) Time of Your Life

Party of Five saw a great deal of success when it aired for a number of reasons, none of which existed when spin-off Time of Your Life brought the very popular Jennifer Love Hewitt to New York City. The show was cancelled in the middle of its first and only season, shunned, forgotten, and never missed. It had none of the original appeal of its parent-show, and it had even less of an audience.

(Best) Caprica

While not technically even in season yet, Battlestar Galactica prequel/spin-off Caprica has already pre-released its pilot in a move to grab an audience before the show even airs. The results were more than pleasing to Syfy, because the show looks to be a hit. Taking all the best elements that made the Galactica reboot such a smash-hit, Caprica aims to up the ante and bring the futuristic space-drama to more viewers than ever before.