Spin-off

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(Redirected from Spinoff)

A spin-off (or spinoff) is a new organization or entity formed by a split from a larger one, such as a television series based on a pre-existing one, or as a new company formed from a university research group. In genre fiction, the term parrallel's the usage in television as it is usually meant to indicate work signifying a sustansial change in narrative viewpoint and activity from that narrative thread based around the activities of the series' principle protagonist to some another's, usually a previously introduced minor character's thread of sub-stories within a given milieu.

Spin-offs can include a dissenting faction of a membership organization, a sect of a cult, a denomination of a church, a diversified branch of a large corporation, or a start-up company formed by members of a research group at a university. In business, a spin-off is essentially the opposite of a merger. In computing, a spin-off from a software project is often called a fork.

The term is also used for concepts or products spun off a research project, for example methods or materials pioneered during the Manhattan Project or during the Space Race.

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Media

The process of deriving new radio or television programs from existing ones is also referred to as spinning off (see list of television spin-offs). Spin-offs work with varying degrees of success. Some become very popular and last for a number of seasons, others exceed the popularity of the forebearing show and others are poorly received and have considerably shorter life spans.

This phenomenon was already established in radio before the advent of commercial broadcast television, for example The Great Gildersleeve was a spin-off from Fibber McGee and Molly. The Great Guildersleeve might even have been the very first spin-off, when the popular character from Fibber McGee and Molly was given his own show.

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Variants of spin-offs

Television spin-offs come in several variations, including:

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Notable Spin-Offs

  • The longest running spin-off is The Simpsons, which was created as a series of animated segments for the sketch series The Tracey Ullman Show, and featured the voices of two cast-members. In one episode of "The Simpsons", secondary-characters are given their own segments in a so-called "spin-off showcase", parodying classic TV series.
  • Before the final season of M*A*S*H the main cast voted as to whether or not to continue the series. The final vote was 4-3 against. William Christopher, Jamie Farr, and Harry Morgan wanted to continue work on M*A*S*H, and, after the 11th season, they began work on AfterMASH. It lasted just two seasons and 30 episodes, with one unaired. Without those cast members and writers who made the original TV show successful, AfterMASH would never be as popular as the original. Trapper John M.D. was another, more successful spin-off.
  • Frasier is one of most popular spin-off series of all time, based on the character Dr. Frasier Crane from the American sitcom Cheers. The series ran for eleven seasons.
  • Spin-offs can even occur in video games. For example, Wario Land and successive games are spin-offs of the Super Mario video game series, which in turn was a spin-off from Donkey Kong.

For more examples of spin-off shows on TV, see the List of television spin-offs.

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Related Phenomenons

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Remakes

One notable case which is not a spin-off is when the same series is later remade. Examples include Battlestar Galactica, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983, 2002), andTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987, 2003)).

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Cross-overs

When two TV series are set in the same fictitious universe, but one is not a spin-off from the other, this can usually be made obvious by cross-overs, i.e. when a character from one show makes an appearance on another show. A notable example of this are Ursula and Phoebe Buffay, twin sisters played by Lisa Kudrow who normally are on different shows, Mad About You and Friends respectively, but sometimes meet. This is also done by Ray Romano and Kevin James with Everybody Loves Raymond and King of Queens. Steve Urkel from Family Matters was also shown to be the cousin of one of D.J.'s friends on Full House.

Sometimes crossovers are created in an attempt to provide closure to fans of another failed series. For example, Millennium's characters Frank & Jordan Black (played by Lance Henriksen and Brittany Tiplady) appeared alongside Mulder and Scully in the X-Files 1999 episode "Millennium" (episode #7.05). This allowed the fans to have some closure, as none was given when Millennium was abruptly canceled prior to the 1999 season.

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Government

Civilian goods which are the result of military or governmental research are also known as spinoffs.

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Corporate Spinoffs

Many times in the business world, companies "spin off" (see also spin out) their operations. For example, a company that makes ice cream and makes cars might split up into a company that makes cars, and a company that makes ice cream. The current owners (the shareholders) of the company would own stock in both the company that makes cars, and the company that makes ice cream.

The primary and nearly exclusive reason why this is done is due to the phenonemon of stock valuation. People who buy stock make money in two different ways, via dividends, and via selling the stock at a higher price than when they bought it originally. The goal of all publically traded companies then is to pay dividends and/or attempt to increase the value of their stock price.

Many academics and investors believe that the stock price of a company over the long term is most strongly influenced by the profits the company makes. However, the price people will be willing to pay for a companies stock relative to its profits (known as the PE ratio) is widely believed to differ depending on certain characteristics of the company. For example, fast growing companies are seen to be able to command a higher price relative to their current earnings, because it is felt that their profits will grow quickly enough to repay that price. Companies that have steady but small increases in profit are believed to be more valued than ones that have wild swings in profitability, because the swings in profitability can create swings in the stock price, making it more likely that the price will be temporarily down when one needs to sell the stock. In the same way, whole industries are seen to command a higher price relative to their earnings when compared with other industries.

Because of these widespread beliefs about stock valuation, company managers sometimes contemplate splitting their companies if they believe that "whole is less than the sum of its parts". For example, let's say that ice cream companies are generally valued at 15 times their profits (say for example because there is a big ice cream company trend hitting the country), and car companies are valued at 10 times their profits (because the car industry is seen as a slow growing industry). There is an icecream/car conglamerate which has stock selling at 50 dollars a share, 10 times the amount of its profits of 5 dollars a share (half of its profits come from ice cream and half from cars). This company then splits into two, with its current stock holders getting a car company for 25 dollars a share, and an ice cream company for 25 dollars a share. The managers doing this hope that others will bid up the price of the ice cream company to 37.50 (15 times their profits) as is the norm for the ice cream industry. In this way, the original stock holder who had a share for 50.00's now has 2 shares which total 62.50 dollars.

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See also

Off spin is a similar, but unrelated term.da:Spin-off de:Spin-off es:Derivaje fr:Spin-off it:Spin-off nl:Spin-off pl:Spin-off simple:Spin-off sl:Spin-off fi:Spin-off sv:Spinoff

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