With spin-offs recently announced for Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead, Ife Omotola asks whether we should be worried about cookie-cutter TV.
In an attempt hold on to their viewership, many studios resort to making spin-offs when the lure of the original has dulled. Wikipedia has a whole page dedicated to listing TV spin offs – of which there is a surprisingly long number – but what does it say about the future of creativity in television when everything is simply a by-product of something earlier?
Image credit: CBS
One thing I’ll say for the television industry is that they know a good thing when they see it: Grey’s Anatomy, for instance, is in its 10th year with no signs of slowing down.
That’s not to say that the descendant shows can never be as good or as creative as the shows they originated from; some series go beyond mere spin-offs and end up spawning what is best described as a franchise – Law and Order and CSI are just two which have become lucrative empires.
Besides, the independence of spin-offs is not impossible to achieve, as sometimes the brand new premise can have nothing to do with the original. It’s not uncommon for a sequel series to appear years, if not decades after the original, whereas others run simultaneously (Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin off Angel did for about 3 years resulting in quite a few ‘crossover’ episodes).
A common tactic when writers or executives attempt to derive one show from another is to take a popular or controversial character from an ensemble cast and make them the focus of their own show.
Image credit: AMC
The Breaking Bad spin-off, for instance, will focus on slimy lawyer Saul Goodman. This provides another way for a popular show to have an opportunity to explore the origin or mythology without risking deviation.
At the same time, it’s common for a spin-off to fail to overshadow its predecessor. They are not guaranteed success simply because it was held by original, and many a promised program has been pulled because market research showed that it would not have the support of the viewing public.
Whatever your opinion on spinoffs, be it that they are by-products of creative inspiration, an expansion on the story, or that they symbolise the death of originality, one cannot deny that there’s no signs of them slowing down. With more shows inspiring their own (Vampire Diaries, Breaking Bad, Grey’s Anatomy to name but a few), we must embrace the concept and hope that it means we can relive a small part of what we love about our favourite shows, even after their demise.
Ife Omotola
Do you think TV studios should be investing in new shows rather than rehashing ideas? Or are spin-offs a way of expanding TV’s creativity? Tell us your thoughts on Facebook, Twitter or by commenting below.
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