Talk:Spin-off (media)

Doctor Who
The article currently reads:
 * By 2007, the long-running BBC series Doctor Who with 9 in total, is the show with the most amount of spun off media. The first was a one episode spin off made in the 1980s based on the character of Sarah Jane Smith called K-9 and Company. The film Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans features one of the race of Dr Who Villains, but for licensing reasons not the Doctor himself. In 1989 the spin off [wartime] was made, about the adventures of some of the UNIT personnel. In the 1990s, Reeltime distributed PROBE a series of five made-for-video movies featuring Caroline John as her Pertwee-era character, Dr. Elizabeth Shaw. BBV, on their part, produced and released a series of movies based on one of Dr Who's Villains: Auton, Auton 2: Sentinel and Auton 3. In 2006 the BBC launched another spin-off, Torchwood, aimed at a more adult audience and featuring Captain Jack Harkness from the newer series. The Sarah Jane Adventures is currently airing, however is more child-oriented than Dr Who. K-9 is currently in production, and there is also an animated serial The Infinite Quest.

This seems kinda disingenuous to me. Shakedown, Wartime, PROBE, and BBV stuff hardly counts, does it? None of that was broadcast, and they aren't fully professional productions. The still-in-production K-9 is not a spin-off of Doctor Who, because the use of the character is intended to be in situations intentionally dissimilar to the Doctor Who usage. Even the character design is unfamiliar. For all we know, it might be K9 mk 14, effectively making it a wholly different character. And The Infinite Quest isn't even a series in its own right, but a segment of another series. To my mind, proper spin-offs of DW are:
 * K9 and Company
 * Torchwood
 * SJA
 * Doctor Who Confidential
 * Torchwood Declassified
 * Totally Doctor Who

Maybe I'm missing the definition of spin-off here, but I think this passage needs major restructuring to reflect only those broadcast television programmes that are official BBC products. CzechOut 08:06, 9 August 2007 (UTC)


 * I do not see Doctor Who Confidential is a spin-off, as it is based on the making of the show, not developing characters etc--TimothyJacobson (talk) 17:51, 13 June 2010 (UTC)

Grim & Evil
If I Am Weasel counts as a spin-off of Cow & Chicken, then shouldn't Billy & Mandy and Evil Con Carne each count as a spin-off of Grim & Evil? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.75.88.84 (talk) 15:19, 23 September 2014 (UTC)

Expanded Universe
Should this term be inserted in the article in some way? 69.230.172.173 (talk) 01:19, 22 October 2008 (UTC)

Doug
"The original Doug was created anew with Disney's Doug" - I have removed that sentence as that is not a spinoff, in the same way that the Cartoon Addams Family isn't a spinoff from the live action series--TimothyJacobson (talk) 17:51, 13 June 2010 (UTC)

Definitions of spin-offs
The definitions presented in this article are baseless and poorly thought out. Just because a series or film share a minor character or two does not imply a spinoff relationship, just simply that the two projects lie within the same continuity.

Law &order SVU IS NOT a spinoff of Homicide: Life on the Street. Det. Munch existed in the same continuity with the crossovers between Homicide and the original L&O. As such, I will be deleting that and all references to shared characters in the same continuity. Oshaberi (talk) 18:41, 12 December 2010 (UTC)

Ben 10
Ben 10 Alien Force and Ultimate Alien are not spin-off, they're sequels. If they were Spin-off, they should be unrelated and focus on a different character other than Ben and it shouldn't be title Ben 10. (mich (talk) 16:54, 1 May 2012 (UTC))

King of the Hill
King of the Hill was not a spin-off of Beavis and Butthead. It was created by the same guy and he used a similar voice for Hank Hill and Mr Andersen, but the shows are not directly related. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 158.15.255.228 (talk) 18:59, 25 October 2012 (UTC)

Department of Repetition Department
38 titles are mentioned two (or three) times in different sections ... —Tamfang (talk) 05:21, 19 August 2012 (UTC)

Fringe and Alcatraz
As far as I can tell, Alcatraz is not a spin-off of Fringe. They're both Abrams shows, but nothing I've found indicates that Alcatraz is a spin-off. Spenb (talk) 17:10, 22 November 2012 (UTC)spenb

Tales of Symphonia
The video game section currently has Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World listed as a spin-off title. I don't believe this is the case. The game features several of the same characters, several years after the completion of the first game, in the same world with somewhat similar themes. I'm not sure why it's listed as a spin-off but I do not believe it should be classified as one. Lord Rai Sparks (talk) 02:07, 26 November 2013 (UTC)

Technically A Sequel?
Spin-offs follow the same continuity of an existing work, right? Doesn't that technically make them sequels? Yet, your article on sequels lists prequels, midquels, interquels, sidequels, even reboots and spiritually successors (which are most certainly NOT sequels) as types of sequels, ignoring spin-offs which have more claim to sequelhood than all of those.

This article also doesn't mention that all spin-offs are technically sequels though, to be fair, it does mention that those that occur simultaneously as the source material are sidequels, which is a decent start. I would argue that either this needs to be corrected, or both articles should include some criteria describing the difference between a sequel and a spin-off. Something that explains why a spin-off isn't a type of sequel.68.32.125.241 (talk) 20:53, 23 May 2015 (UTC)

EDIT: I didn't mean to post this twice. It didn't show the first time, so I hit back and saved it again. Then, it posted both times. I can't seem to delete the duplicate.68.32.125.241 (talk) 20:55, 23 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Duplicate removed. —109.230.6.3 (talk) 14:43, 15 July 2015 (UTC)

This article is a cold mess
Overlong, unorganized, cruftastic, just a mess... Can't you people do anything right?

And before some smartass says "why don't you fix it?" Here is my answer: Because I don't care that much about your project. Once upon a time I tried to contribute but was steamrolled by assclowns with way too much time on their hands, 'clowns who used their "status" to defend their use of irregardless in an encyclopedic article. 'Clowns who cared more about cliques and points than any sort of journalistic integrity, "editors" with more POV than basic writing skills.

But that's a whole nuther (ha!). Seriously though, Cold Mess. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.173.199.58 (talk) 04:28, 2 October 2015 (UTC)

Define Spin-Off!!
What spun-off shows were created long after the source show ended? (So no overlap.)

What spun-off shows have the same “universe” but none of the source show characters appear, or are even referenced? MBG02 (talk) 09:35, 24 September 2018 (UTC)

Requested move 27 August 2019

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion. 

The result of the move request was: not moved (non-admin closure) ~SS49~   {talk}  14:04, 3 September 2019 (UTC)

Spin-off (media) → Spin-off (fiction) – "Media" suggests spin-offs can only be done by mass media, but it's really just a general fictional term and anybody writing in their living room can make a spin-off of their work. It would also make it WP:CONSISTENT with Crossover (fiction). ZXCVBNM (TALK) 13:27, 27 August 2019 (UTC)


 * Oppose – The term originates with media, specifically "TV spinoffs" (and before that radio) – read the lede – and all other uses of the term spring from that. I have no objection to making Spin-off (fiction) a redirect. But it should stay at Spin-off (media). --IJBall (contribs • talk) 19:19, 27 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Oppose I do think the current disambiguator sounds a little unnatural, but I think the proposed title restricts the content of the article in an undesirable way. For example, Project Runway: Junior is an example of a spin-off, but it is not fictional. Colin M (talk) 23:10, 27 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Oppose as reality shows and non-fiction shows can have spin-offs. Aoba47 (talk) 01:42, 28 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Oppose per others since spin-offs aren't limited to fiction. The concept generally assumes property rights to previously published works so "media" works fine. If anybody writing in their living room ever says "I made an unpublished spin-off of my unpublished book" then it sounds silly and isn't encyclopedic. PrimeHunter (talk) 09:27, 28 August 2019 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Removal of the 'Examples' section
I have removed the entire 'Examples' section from this article, because it is WP:INDISCRIMINATE and has been tagged as such for over year. In addition, this section was either completely unsourced or was very poorly sourced.

A section like this should only include the most notable examples of spinoff(s) – it is not an excuse to list every possible spinoff under the sun. So, if it is restored, it should be restricted to those spinoffs that were notable enough to receive significant reliable source coverage as an example of a spinoff, and are sourced as such. --IJBall (contribs • talk) 15:02, 30 May 2020 (UTC)
 * It was bloated for this article but I have turned it into a spin-off: List of media spin-offs. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:55, 30 May 2020 (UTC)

"Side story" listed at Redirects for discussion
A discussion is taking place to address the redirect Side story. The discussion will occur at Redirects for discussion/Log/2021 December 4 until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. -  C HAMPION  (talk) (contributions) (logs) 10:35, 4 December 2021 (UTC)

Great Gildersleeve
Article says: “One of the earliest spin-offs of the modern media era, if not the first, happened in 1941 when the supporting character Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve from the old time radio comedy show Fibber McGee and Molly became the star of his own program The Great Gildersleeve (1941–1957).”

Since The Great Gildersleeve was in fact the first radio spinoff, this statement is like saying “One of the earliest U.S. Presidents, if not the first, was George Washington.” Which is techinically true, but an absurd way of stating it. Unless of course you don't actually know what the first radio spinoff was...could that be it? And I guess that's why you don't mention the first TV spinoff...you don't know that either. 74.104.189.176 (talk) — Preceding undated comment added 03:29, 8 December 2021 (UTC)

Star Trek
How many characters does Star Trek: Voyager share with other series? —Tamfang (talk) 03:25, 3 October 2023 (UTC)

Narrow scope
The definition and use of "spin-off" in this article is far too narrow, implying that "spin-off" refers only to narrative works. However, only two out of five dictionaries I've referred to expressly implied this: The Britannica Dictionary and Google (from Oxford Languages) vs.  –  Primium  (talk) 00:50, 29 May 2024 (UTC)


 * We're using it in the narrative sense for this specific article, hence the (media) after the term in the title. There is a disambiguation page at Spin-off which links to articles about the other uses of this word. —  The Hand That Feeds You :Bite 19:14, 29 May 2024 (UTC)
 * I'm not really referring to the other uses in the disambiguation page, but about the broad scope of "media." I was thinking specifically of non-narrative videogames. –  Primium  (talk) 18:15, 30 May 2024 (UTC)
 * I'm not sure what the issue is then. —  The Hand That Feeds You :Bite 19:14, 30 May 2024 (UTC)