Spinoff Hell

 

For every The Jeffersons (which was a spinoff from All in the Family) or Laverne and Shirley (which was a spinoff of Happy Days) there are numerous spinoffs that failed to connect with the TV viewing public. 

Sometimes they were vain efforts to try to keep a series running after the departure of one or more of the primary actors from a fan favorite. Sanford and Son lost both it's stars (Redd Foxx and Demond Wilson), but tried to keep the series running as Sanford Arms, and even managed to keep some of the beloved secondary characters around to make it SEEM like a continuation of the series. LaWanda Page (Aunt Esther), Whitman Mayo (Grady) and Don Bexley (Bubba) returned as characters on the show, but the attempt was a dismal failure, managing only to air four of the 8 filmed episodes before it was cancelled.

And the makers of  Three's Company tried to keep their hands in the pie with Three's A Crowd, which featured Jack Tripper (John Ritter) continuing his character as a chef, but now married with an annoying father-in-law. (At least they tried to keep it somewhat fresh... It could've fallen into that tired old cliche of an annoying mother-in-law...) But that too failed to keep the old show running.

Other times, favorite recurring characters were given their own shows in an attempt to cash in on their popularity.  The aforementioned Grady (above) from Sanford and Son got his own solo effort, but it also was dumped after only a few episodes.  Marla Gibbs' Florence (the maid on The Jeffersons) made a brief stab at it with Checking In, and Joannie Loves Chachi tried to cash in on the subsidiary characters from Happy Days, but once again, the cachet of the characters on the original series never managed to draw an audience. Probably one of the least well received was when Enos Slaughter (bumbling deputy on The Dukes of Hazzard) got a try to be a big city cop in Los Angeles, which didn't go well (not only in the fictional T.V. world, but in the real T.V. audience world).

Some of the spinoffs were worth their salt, to be sure, despite not having a very receptive audience, in my opinion. Or maybe it's just a flight of fancy.... I personally wish The X Files spinoff, called The Lone Gunman could have found an audience, but perhaps it was just TOO close to the themes expressed in it's parent TV show.

Sometimes the Hollywood bigwigs came up with some fairly bizarre spinoffs, however.  How many different attempts were there to find a new niche for The Brady Bunch? The producers ditched the sappy happy-go-lucky sitcom gig in favor of a sappy happy-go-lucky variety show with The Brady Bunch Hour (yes "hour"...as if 30 minutes of that shmaltz wasn't enough...) Probably just as bad: A TV movie that turned into an ill-fated series. Marcia and Jan Brady are now married (not to each other, you sicko...) and the result was The Brady Brides. 

Saturday morning cartoons were always a mish mash of new material as well as attempts to cash in on current TV and movie popularities. Some of them were halfway decent. Mister T (an attempt to cash in on the popularity actor Mr. T of Rocky III and The A-Team fame) was not entirely bad.  And taking popular movies like Ghostbusters and Beetlejuice and making a kid's cartoon series may have been acceptable. How they were able to tone down the ultra-violent John Rambo of First Blood enough to make it a kiddie cartoon is another question entirely. (Can't say, since I haven't screened even one episode...)

But I did screen today's blog entry's show.  In the early 80's executives took some still popular characters from a TV show, Happy Days, and put them in one of the most bizarre situations I have ever run across. (And you KNOW, if you've been a long-time reader, I have seen some pretty bizarre stuff...)  The show was titled The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang (just so you wouldn't forget the show's inspiration...)

There is a episode 1 in the series, but for some reason the producers didn't bother with such passe' things like an origin story.  Instead of a long drawn out episode explaining how the 1957 gang of The Fonz and Richie and Ralph got into the predicament that was the driving force of the episodes (they are trapped in a faulty time machine with an alien girl named Cupcake), the producers just opted to have Wolfman Jack (a 60's icon disc jockey) narrate a quick minute and a half prologue which supposedly encapsulated their situation. (but, to be honest, leaves you as clueless as when you started.)

Note: The intro, transcribed below, may not be entirely accurate. I tried to find a transcription online but was unsuccessful so I had to resort to trying to hear what the Wolman is saying over the theme music.  

"We got it all together now, gang. The Fonz! His dog is named Mr. Cool. And the good group. One freaky time machine and a future chick named Cupcake. Oh, and now the gang got zapped into that time machine and their like traveling to Oz (?). My, my! They do not dig where that time machine is going, but they sure hope to get back to 1957 Milwaukee! Can you dig it?"

The essence of the story: An alien girl (or is she a human girl from the future? hard to tell...), by the name of Cupcake(?), voiced by Didi Conn, is travelling through time, when her spaceship/time machine breaks down and ends up in 1957, conveniently near Arnold's (the drive-in from the TV show). The Fonz is able to do his magic with his elbow nudge and get it going again.  But somehow, (it wasn't explained in that opening), the Fonz and his friends, Richie and Ralph Malph (but not Potsie, for some reason...) end up in the time machine with Cupcake.  Oh, and a talking dog named Mr. Cool. (Really!)

The series was apparently meant to introduce kids to history. The time machine (much like the device that transported Dr. Sam Beckett in Quantum Leap) is of such a random nature that they never know what time period they will end up in next. In the first episode, presumably because dinosaurs are always a hot topic for kids, the gang wind up in prehistoric times.  There they not only have to deal with brontosaurs and T-Rexes, but also with a band of cavemen, who want to make Ralph Malph their king.

The series never got a conclusion (it only lasted barely two seasons), but in essence, they are always trying to get back home to 1957 Milwaukee, but like the aforementioned Dr. Beckett, they are constantly arriving at another point in history that is decidedly NOT 1957.  At one point they even end up in the future. Cupcake has some ability to perform magic of her own (which begs the question, if she had magic powers, why couldn't she use them to make that damn time machine work right...?)

Over the course of the series they often got to deal with historic (and fictionally historic) figures, including Blackbeard (the pirate), Cleopatra, and even help Sherlock Homes.  Whether any of the episodes are historically accurate ("historically accurate" that is, if you take out the presence of the time interlopers) is debatable.  But what the hell, if this series caused any impressionable young men and women to pursue history in their later years, you can't dismiss the series entirely.

The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang came on the scene long after my own years of cartoon fandom.  It premiered in 1980, by which time I had graduated high school and was pursuing college curriculum (which, BTW, was actually history...).  Being far over the childhood stage, I completely missed it on TV.  But I may have actually watched it if I had known it was on just because of the history aspect.  Watching it now, it's decidedly very ridiculous, but is it any more ridiculous than The Time Tunnel? The Time Tunnel was basically a precursor to Quantum Leap, in which, like the later Dr. Beckett, the two main characters are caught in a never-ending time travel loop, never really sure where they will end up next.

It looks like most of the episodes of this show are available online, so you don't have to take my word for it how bizarre the show actually was. Google it if you dare.

Tune in again next time, folks.

Quiggy.