Living in the Golden Age of Intellectual Property, reboots, revivals, sequels, and spin-offs are cropping up in abundance. From How I Met Your Father to House of the Dragon to the entire Star Wars television universe evolving on Disney+, the slate of upcoming shows in the next few years is filled with familiar concepts.
While the original often holds a special place in our hearts, sometimes a spin-off can be just as good, or even better than its predecessor. Below, we rank eleven of the best TV spin-offs of all time from the good to the greatest.
11. Torchwood
Doctor Who has a sprawling universe of canon outside of the original series, but Torchwood was its first true television spin-off. The show followed the continued adventures of popular Who character Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) and his work with the Torchwood Institute, a secret organization that investigates extraterrestrial incidents on Earth. Darker in tone and more adult than Doctor Who, the ambitious sci-fi series was a cult hit and celebrated for its unambiguously queer lead in Jack.
10. Angel
Like Torchwood, Angel was a darker counterpoint to its original series, Buffy: the Vampire Slayer. Buffy’s great love (David Boreanaz) moved to LA (alongside her rival Cordelia Chase, played by Charisma Carpenter) and started a private detective business with a paranormal twist. Angel’s guilt over the years spent as a soulless monster always made him a compelling and tormented hero, so the character stepped up to the plate as the lead of his own series with ease. With a tight-knit team and a rotating cast of Big Bads, the series managed to stand on its own even in the shadow of one of TV’s most beloved heroines.
9. Xena: Warrior Princess
Xena was one of those series that definitely eclipsed its origin – in this case, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. The titular heroine (Lucy Lawless) first appeared as a villain on Hercules, so her own series served as a quest for redemption for her past misdeeds. She definitely earned her redemption over the course of six seasons, and the show remains a cult hit for its strong, powerful female protagonist as well as the fan-favorite relationship between Xena and her faithful companion, Gabrielle (Renee O’Connor).
8. Laverne & Shirley
One of television’s all-time great comedic duos started out as mere acquaintances of the Fonz on Happy Days. On their own show, Laverne (Penny Marshall) and Shirley (Cindy Williams) were best friends and roomies who worked together as bottle-cappers at Shotz Brewery in Milwaukee. The show shared the late '50s, early '60s nostalgia of Happy Days, with a strong supporting cast that included the gals' pals Lenny (Michael McKean) and Squiggy (David Lander). Over time, the ladies would briefly join the Army Reserve and later moved to Burbank, California, but the centerpiece was their enduring friendship (at least until Williams left the show in season 8).
7. A Different World
A common theme for spin-offs is tackling grittier or more "adult" material than the original show, and that was true for A Different World. While The Cosby Show traded in saccharine family-friendly fare and respectability politics, the students of Hillman College had more freedom to explore social issues and young adult experiences. Eventually leaving the Cosby behind all together when Denise Huxtable (Lisa Bonet) left the show, the series followed a group of friends at a fictional HBCU and was celebrated for its depiction of college life.
6. The Flash
The Arrowverse – so named because it began with Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) on Arrow – has spawned many a spin-off for DC’s superheroes, but The Flash was the first and best. The series stars Grant Gustin as Barry Allen, one of the first metahumans in Central City and its greatest defender. As he faces down an impressive rogues gallery, Barry learns again and again what it means to be a hero (spoiler alert: the key is always leading with love). The true secret to this spin-off’s success is the found family dynamic of Team Flash, led by Barry and Iris (Candice Patton).
5. The Jeffersons
Norman Lear may just be the spin-off master: his groundbreaking sitcom All in the Family had the most spin-offs of any primetime television series (seven total). Of those, The Jeffersons was the longest running with eleven seasons (two more than All in the Family). The series followed the Bunkers’ neighbors as they moved Queens to a luxury high-rise on the Upper East Side. Like its predecessor, The Jeffersons was a groundbreaking family sitcom, but all the moreso for featuring a wealthy Black family. It was the first show to prominently feature an interracial couple, and Isabel Sanford became the first (and, to this day, only) Black woman to win an Emmy for Best Actress in a Comedy Series for her portrayal of matriarch Louise Jefferson – and those are just a few of this spin-off’s history-making qualities.
4. Frasier
Frasier was an enormously successful spin-off of the hit sitcom Cheers. Following his divorce (seen on Cheers), Dr. Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer) returned to his hometown of Seattle, where he ends up taking in his ailing father (John Mahoney). The odd-couple dynamic between the uptight psychiatrist and his working-class dad is a staple of the show, as is his close relationship to his brother Niles (David Hyde Pierce). A good old-fashioned multi-camera sitcom, Frasier made Grammer at one time the highest-paid actor on television and the longest-running character on primetime TV after playing the good doctor for 20 years. While his records have since been surpassed, he’ll have another shot at it in the announced revival on Paramount+.
3. Better Call Saul
Better Call Saul had some big shoes to fill coming on the heels of Breaking Bad, one of the most celebrated dramas of the 21st century. Luckily, they had a lot to build on with Jimmy (Bob Odenkirk) and the story of how he went from an earnest public defender to the slippery defense attorney we came to know in Breaking Bad. The prequel expertly weaves new characters in with familiar faces while managing to create a standalone product that is wholly original. With a bevy of awards under its belt, this spin-off is widely regarded to be as good as -- if not even better -- than its predecessor.
2. Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek is another sci-fi favorite with a large canon, but The Next Generation is a beloved classic that holds a special place in the heart of true Trekkies. TNG took place a century after the original series, but it held true to the spirit of the original while expanding the universe. The Enterprise-D crew shared their predecessors’ utopian ideals and alien adventures while introducing iconic new characters like Patrick Stewart’s Jean-Luc Picard (who got his own spin-off more than two decades later). The series was award-winning and a cult classic, spawning some of the most memorable science fiction stories in television history.
1. Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
After 23 seasons, it’s hard to argue with the staying power of Law & Order: SVU. The original Law & Order series was highly successful on its own (and was even recently renewed for a 21st season more than a decade after its cancellation), and it had a handful of spin-offs over the years. None have been more successful than SVU, which in 2019 became the longest-running primetime U.S. live-action series in the history of television. Maybe it’s the nature of the especially heinous crimes solved by the SVU team, or maybe it’s the winning detective combo of Benson (Emmy-winner Mariska Hargitay) and Stabler (Christopher Meloni, who later got his own spin-off, Law & Order: Organized Crime Unit). Whatever the case may be, SVU clearly has the magic formula for a spin0off that’s successful, sustaining, and still beloved by audiences everywhere. These are there stories… dun-dun!