Board Thread:Character Discussion/@comment-26023690-20160120230319/@comment-25926288-20160410212531

Frulna is right. There can be ties in and everything, but a spin-off needs to have its own protagonist and its own story. Key word, story, not stories, as anything additional comes later if it ties in.

Take Wonderland as an example. Wonderland was a great story. As the show progressed, you saw detailed characters, a solid plot, and then some side bits that were for fans of the main show. That's what a spin-off can do. It's hard to have a spin-off picked up if you just throw random characters and random episodes together.

I mean if I threw Dreamy together with the Bear King and with Family Business, the TV would not even be able to shut down because the executives would never pick up a show without some desirable synopsis. "Hero races on a Quest to stop the Baddie" is much more marketable than "Let us see these stories that we never could tell on this other show you may or may not watch".