Short-Lived Spinoffs Match Quiz | 10 Questions

Answer: Fish

Abe Vigoda (1921-2016) played Detective Phil Fish, an aging police officer in a Greenwich Village Precinct on "Barney Miller". In 1977, Vigoda went on to star in the spinoff "Fish", where he and his wife adopt five foster children. By the following year, this show was over.

Answer: Enos

Deputy Sheriff Enos Strate from "The Dukes of Hazzard" in Hazzard County (a fictional county in Georgia) moves to Los Angeles, California, in this 1980 spinoff. The law officer, Enos, was played by Sonny Shroyer. The show aired on the CBS network, and ran from November 12, 1980 to May 20, 1981.

Answer: Grady

Remember the curmudgeonly junk dealer from Watts, Fred Sanford, on "Sanford and Son"? Well, Fred had another widower for a buddy, i.e., Grady Wilson. Grady was played by Whitman Mayo (1930-2001) and, for some inexplicable reason, someone decided that Grady, a minor character, should have a show of his own. So Grady leaves Watts and moves in with his daughter in Westwood, California. The show ran on NBC from December 1975 to March 1976; it was cancelled after ten episodes.

Answer: The Tortellis

Feisty waitress Carla Tortelli, played by Rhea Perlman, was a wonderful comic foil for Sam and Diane, not to mention Cliff Clavin, on "Cheers". Well, for some reason, in 1987, some TV executive thought it would be a good idea to spin off a series based on Carla's ex-husband Nick (Dan Hedaya) and his dumb-blonde wife Lo-retta, who moved to Las Vegas, Nevada. Thirteen episodes later, this sitcom was history.

Answer: Beverly Hills Buntz

Before playing Andy Sipowicz on "NYPD Blue", Dennis Franz was the cantankerous and ethically challenged Lieutenant Norman Buntz, on the successful crime show "Hill Street Blues". Here again, someone, who never heard the expression "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", suggested that they move Buntz from the inner city of "Hill Street Blues" to sunny Beverly Hills, California ("swimmin' pools, movie stars"), where he opened a detective agency.

The first episode was on November 5, 1987; the last appeared on April 22, 1988.

Answer: Flo

The TV sitcom "Alice" was actually based on the 1974 Martin Scorsese movie "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore". On the TV show, Alice is a single mother and an aspiring singer who winds up waiting on tables in Mel's Diner in Phoenix, Arizona. The show, with its assortment of quirky characters, was successful. So, some clever programmer decided to take Alice's tough-talking co-waitress, Flo, and give her a show. Flo "Kiss My Grits" Castleberry, played by Polly Holiday, moved back to her hometown of Cowtown, Texas and bought a rundown bar (1980 to 1981).

Answer: Hello, Larry

Talk about a weak premise for a spinoff...apparently, Philip Drummond, patriarch on "Diff'rent Strokes", had an old Army buddy named Larry Alder (MacLean Stevenson). THAT was the connection. It seems Larry was divorced and moved to Portland, Oregon, with his two daughters.

He became a radio talk show host (this was NO "Frasier"!). The show was called "Hello, Larry". It ran from 1979 to 1980, and has often been called one of the worst spinoffs in television history.

Answer: Checking In

Would "The Jeffersons" have been as successful without the cynical, sarcastic, trash-talking maid, Florence Johnston? Marla Gibbs was the perfect comic foil for George Jefferson, and she certainly was an important character. In the middle of "The Jeffersons" run, Gibbs got an offer to star on her own show. So Florence quit her job (on "The Jeffersons") to become a housekeeper at a fancy hotel. Her show "Checking In" began and ended in 1981, at which point Florence returned to "The Jeffersons", quipping that the hotel had burned down.

Answer: The Ropers

We loved Stanley and Helen Roper as the landlords of Jack and Janet and Chrissy, et al. We laughed at the couple's feuds and dysfunction. Played by Audra Lindley and Norman Fell, they were a perfect foil for the antics of Jack Tripper. So, why'd they have to spoil it? Why did the Ropers sell their apartment complex, move to another one, and become the eponymous stars of a new show? Perhaps Mr. Furley would know? "The Ropers" debuted on March 13, 1979; the final episode aired on May 22, 1980.

Answer: The Lone Gunmen

The eerie drama/mystery show "The X-Files", which began in 1993, became one of the most successful and longest-running science fiction shows in TV history. With the disparate personalities of FBI agents Mulder and Scully, the weird characters and the bizarre plots, we wanted to believe "The Truth Is Out There". Part of the "X-File" team was a trio of computer-hacking nerds called 'the Lone Gunmen', i.e., John Byers, Melvin Frohike and Richard Langly.

In 2001, they went out on their own, and the short-lived show "The Lone Gunmen" was born and died, i.e., March 4th to June 1st.