The ridiculous idea of "The Cleveland Show" made me think about this topic. While pretty absurd in its own right (Cleveland is one of worst characters on FamGuy, never funny, annoying when he talks, his wife is annoying, kid is too), they also took it to a non-sensical extreme by creating a new family for him on the new show.
While part of me appreciates not having Loretta, I just don't see how it qualifies as a related show. Why not just start a new show for African Americans with a different character if you're Seth McFarland?
That said, I think Joey clearly takes the take as the worst spin-off in television history. It stars a bad actor (Matt Leblanc) portraying a...bad actor. He was somehow tolerable when the fiery hotness of Jen Aniston was taking all the attention away from him, but then they put him in as a star of a show with the ugly chick that gets buried in the woods by Paulie Walnust on the Sopranos finally covering up the cigarette burns all over her nasty body.
The reason I find this to be the worst is because of the said reasons, plus anyone with any kind of common sense filter KNEW that this would be an epic failure. "Lets take the worst character on friends that no one cares about and see what kind of magic Matt Leblanc can make with it? GREEN LIGHT!!"
For the record, there was a "Mona" spin-off from Who's the Boss, but God help you if you didn't find her at least slightly attractive after a couple Zima's.
Best spinoff - Frasier via Cheers. Worst - the new Knight Rider tv show was by far the worst television production forced on humanity. KY nbc for breaking my heart
ReplyDeleteI agree that Cleveland is by far the least inspired character on FG, and I do not understand Seth's direction with this new show, because unlike every other character on FamGuy, Cleveland is just plain boring. He has no personality at all. The other candidate for worst FG character is clearly Meg, and although she herself is intolerable she is the butt of many of the most hilarious one liners in the show (Peter pushes Meg out of the panic room, and Stewie says, "I f---in' hate you, too, b---h! No, no just kidding, can you imagine?"). But I digress. Unless the Cleveland Show incorporates some type of new and ridiculous character (think Roger from American Dad), the show is destined for failure.
ReplyDeleteI've never seen a single episode of Joey, and quite frankly Queso I'm not sure why you are so familiar with the show. I'm generally aware of the characters and plots of Friends, mainly because my sophomore year roommate would routinely download them to his computer and force me to watch them with him, and I'd have to say that Ross is by far the most irritating character on the show. But again, I digress.
In my humble opinion, the worst TV spinoff in the history of TV spinoffs is Saved by the Bell: The College Years, a spinoff of Saved by the Bell, which iteself is a spinoff of Good Morning Miss Bliss. The SOLE redeeming quality of SBTBTCY is that for some reason Kelly Kapowski stuck around her wacky high school friends, but otherwise the show really struggled to live up to its predecessor high school years. And what was with that like 40 year old football player who was roommates with Screech and always seemed to have a broken foot? SBTBTCY: GFY.
TG,
ReplyDeleteI challenge the idea that a remake (Knight Rider) qualifies as a spin-off. In fact, they are clearly completely seperate genres. Unless the main character is Michael Knight's son? If so, I think it debunks my idea that the two are mutually exclusive.
Regardless, Grimace, I never saw Joey either, but I do understand your concern. The only thing more insufferable, I think, would be a show called "Phoebe". Like I said, without Aniston, I'm out on Friends at all, but we've all watched it, lets admit it and move on. If for anything, at least for the fact that they must have iced up Aniston before nearly every scene.
Good point on SBTBTCY, but at least Tiffany Amber Thiesen (TAT) made it to the show. Don't you see, it adds SOME redeaming quality that Joey clearly lacked.
Can we discuss SBTB the beach club summer with the girl from King of Queens? Did she not have the largest forehead in history and was historically unatractive compared to the girls Zack Morris was getting?
Also, nice call on Bob Golic...how was he a student? he was at least 45 in real life. or was he an RA? does that make Screech an RA? Cause, I could actually buy that.
The beach club summer special was great. Who can forget that epic volleyball match? The drama leading up to that made for some of the tv viewing in the history of the medium. I think that's what sealed the deal for the young Zach Morris with the uppity young manager. I think he was in it for the chase, not the prize, to be honest with you. Also, it probably made TAT extremely jealous, thus fueling that side plot as well.
ReplyDeleteOn a side note, another classic SBTB episode was the Zach dream sequence where the gang becomes a successful rock band and Zach becomes an arrogant d-bag?. The writers of that episode deserve a Nobel peace prize for the moral lesson taught to the millions of viewers of that single hour of programming. of.
Knight Rider was a spinoff as the main character was the original Michael Knight's (played flawlessly by David Hasselhoff) son. And the original show was a near perfect crime drama, making the digusting offal that NBC produced a crime against humanity. Not only that, they switched from GM branded vehicles (the original KIT 2000 was a pontiac firebird, murda'ed out) to Ford, which was unconscionable as the Chevy Camaro was released at the same time.
Re: SBTB Beach Summer, I agree with Nightmare that generally the show suffered from a lack of TAT, but I did enjoy the beach obstacle course episode, in which Lisa Turtle (note the clear and intentional reference to the Aesop fable) whoops A.C. in the race. Girl power.
ReplyDeleteAnd speaking of girl power, I always enjoyed that Elizabeth Berkley, who played the uber-feminist Jessie Spano, wrecked her acting career with a full frontal performance in Showgirls. Great call, Mama.
Pop quiz - what is slater's full name?
ReplyDeletei will not be discussing my opinions in detail, unless one of my assertions is deemed false.
best - colbert report, 60 minutes II, the hills, tiny toon adventures
worst - the new batman adventures, angel, csi-miami (not enough semen evidence for my liking)
Squid... I like CSI Miami... while my reasons are not all together sane. It gives me a feel of vacation. Also, one of my favorites from the 80's was Family Matters from Perfect Strangers. Now there's an African American spin-off that worked. Also, while not good. The short lived 90210 spin off (through Melrose Place), Models Inc. could always hold a young man's attention. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108862/
ReplyDeleteremember the humiliation AC felt when he revealed the truth? albert clifford?
ReplyDeleteWish the chairs at work permitted the backward sitting, Lupa would definitely be down for that with a backwards hat