It's Time To Put On Make-Up

It's time to put on make-up,
It's time to dress up right, 
It's time to get things started
On the _______ ______ tonight!

Did you fill in the lyrical blanks correctly? Are you stuck trying to figure out why that little ditty sounds so familiar?

The lyrics are the opening lines for The Muppet Show, one of my favourite TV spin-offs. The show was an outgrowth of Sesame Street (Happy 40th Big Bird!), the children's show that introduced us to the letters A, Q and W and the number 8. Sesame Street also brought us Jim Henson's magical  puppets. In an attempt to break into adult, prime-time television, Henson then created the Muppet Show. By the time I was old enough sit still and watch television, The Muppet Show was already in syndication. It came on every night at 7:30 and it was the last show my brother and I watched with my Dad before bedtime.

But TV show spin-offs are always a gamble. How many times have we seen a popular sitcom try to capitalize on one of its scene stealer characters, create a whole new show, only to disappear 4 shows after its (overly-hyped) pilot episode?  Sometimes spin-offs work and become wildly successful, and sometimes they don't. Here's a few that worked....

Cheers....Frasier
Maude....Good Times
All in the Family....The Jeffersons
The Tracy Ullman Show...The Simpsons
Beverly Hills 90210...Melrose Place

Whether or not you actually liked these shows, you have to admit that they did become very popular. That doesn't mean that they were necessarily well written (ie; Melrose Place), but they did have broad appeal.

And here are a few spin-offs that didn't work out...(you be the judge)...

Three's Company...The Ropers and Three's A Crowd
The Mary Tyler Moore Show....Rhoda
The Cosby Show...A Different World

Are there any spin-offs shows that you can think of that didn't work out but really should have?

My own Olive Juice is a spin-off from my first blog, Dad's Second Whatever.  When I created Olive Juice, it was a place to park some ideas, celebrate words, rant about writing and tell the stories that my friends and co-workers were tired of hearing (Yes we know about the time you lit your dress on fire and that your Dad was awesome and that you like to paint trees...). But as you all started to stop by, connect and comment, Olive Juice soon became my favourite child.

That's why I was so excited when the lovely KaLynn at Kacklin' with KaLynn gave me The Honest Scrap Award. My little Olive Juice was making friends!

I am handing this award out to bloggers, who, if they created a spin-off, I believe would be wildly successful. I would follow them anywhere. These bloggers post frequently, some of them on a daily basis. They invite guest bloggers, exposing me to an even wider range of funny people. These bloggers are never so hoity-toity (sp?) that they can't stop by other blogs and leave comments.Their posts are like skits in a variety show - always different, always unique and always a delight.  And most of all, they make me laugh.  In the same way that I would excitedly brush my teeth, jump into my PJ's and get ready to wind-down the evening with my Dad and Kermit and friends, each day I eagerly anticipate the arrival of these bloggers' posts:

Let's Have a Cocktail
Stir-Fry Awesomeness
Hot Piece of Sass
Unknown Mami
Speaking from the Crib

Enjoy! But before you go a visitin', why not tell us what your favourite TV spin-off was? And which ones do you remember being a total disaster?