Speculative Sitcom Spin-off Showcase

There was a time when sitcoms ruled the airwaves. There was some drama, and thankfully almost no “reality”. Times change, but there are still one or two bright spots where laughter is concerned and, thankfully, no laugh track to tell us what we're watching is hilarious. Just as The Simpsons once poked fun at a fading practice with hypothetical spin-offs, I thought it might be fun to consider other untapped gold in the ashes of existing series:

1) Afterscrubs: Fans of Scrubs were certainly happy that ABC picked up the show for its 8th and likely final season. Yet rumors abound that they may want to continue the show beyond this season, even if the creator and some cast members don't return. It's hard to imagine Scrubs without Zach Braff, but if he does go on to have a career of Jamie Farrian proportions, some new young cast members are waiting in the wings to take center stage. Would people watch a spinoff focusing on young interns? Can the butch chick, overly cheerful chick, other blonde chick, weird nerd, and outspoken young black man carry a show on their own? I wouldn't even care if the name playing off After MASH didn't make any literal sense if the stories still took place in the same hospital; as long as the Janitor inevitably stuck around, I'd watch the 13-22 episodes produced before cancellation.

2) How I Left Your Mother: In How I Met Your Mother, Bob Saget plays a guy telling his kids the story of, you guessed it, how he met their mother. We only hear Saget's voice in narration and see his kids on the couch listening, as the show takes place in the “past”(our present) in New York City where a younger actor portrays his character. But what if a follow-up series took place in the future, putting Saget back in front of the camera telling the statistically inevitable tale of his marriage's demise? He might have a different tale about the kids' ”Aunt Robin” then...

3) Clavin: Cliff Clavin was one of my favorite characters on the long-running Cheers, a lovable loser of a mailman who lived with his mother and spent most of his free time rambling on in a bar to anyone who would listen, making things up but delivering his words with the utmost conviction. Frasier was a successful spinoff, and I think it's past time to see how another character would work on his own. Retired from the mail service, but still needing to stay occupied, Clavin soon finds a new career doing voiceover work for various Pixar cartoons. This show practically writes itself!

4) My Name is Monroe: Most spinoffs tell us what happens to our favorite characters after their previous series concludes. In this My Name Is Earl spinoff, Eddie Steeples would reprise his role as Darnell “Crabman” Turner, but pre-Darnell. We've only recently gotten glimpses of his life as Harry Monroe before he was forced into the witness protection program. A prequel series could expand on all the adventures he had as a government operative before settling down in a trailer park.

5) Joey: Friends enjoyed a healthy ten seasons, but it was still sad to say goodbye. Each of the cast had shining moments, and while it might be interesting to follow Chandler and Monica into the suburbs to see how they adjust to life outside the city, I think a show about Joey Tribbiani has more potential. Oh, he might not have been the brightest bulb in the bunch, but he was entertaining. He did well with the ladies, and could pop open a blouse with one finger without breaking any buttons. He loved his food, and was always prepared to whip out a utensil at a moments' notice. Of course, Joey in Manhattan wouldn't be enough of a change to merit a spinoff. I say let his struggling acting career finally blow up, maybe move him to the West coast. It'd be a great fish-out-of-water situation, although the cast would need some rounding out. Certainly an eccentric agent is key, and since it was established on Friends that he came from a large Italian family with a ton of sisters, why not have him move in with one of those sisters out West? Maybe they could get someone super-Italian like Adriana from The Sopranos. Maybe she has an adult son played by that Italian kid from Road Trip. Of course, every great show needs a love interest, and after 10 years of casual interactions with girls predominantly at or below Joey's intellectual level, maybe we can find a more grounded foil. What about someone like Andrea Anders from that new show Better Off Ted as a wacky neighbor? Oh, there will be things to keep them apart in the beginning, but they'll get together eventually, and when they do...

You know what? That's just too ridiculous. None of this stuff would ever happen, so I'm going to quit while I'm ahead and leave television to the professionals...