Living in SPIN

Kirk Baird

Monday, May 3, 2004 | 10:03 a.m.

Joey should take a tip or two from Frasier.

The lovable lug on "Friends," played by Matt LeBlanc, is to be the star of his own sitcom, "Joey," next season on NBC.

It was the same situation for the network 11 years ago when another of its Thursday-night staples, "Cheers," called it quits.

NBC opted to spin off another character, lovable psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane, played by Kelsey Grammer, for his own sitcom.

Eleven seasons later "Frasier" is ending its run as the longest-running sitcom spinoff in history. ("Dallas" spinoff "Knots Landing," which ran 14 seasons, is the longest-running spinoff drama.)

Of course, 17 years ago NBC's first "Cheers" spinoff, "The Tortellis," ended with disastrous results. Less than four months after its premiere, the show was canceled by the network.

Critics harped on the writing, saying it wasn't as sharp as "Cheers." And the network didn't do the show any favors by airing it on Wednesdays, and later Tuesdays, where it didn't have the luxury of following its parent sitcom.

But, perhaps more than anything, it was the characters that sank the show.

"I've always believed the single most important factor in a show having legs is the audience has to care about one of the characters on the show," said Earle Marsh, co-author of "The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present" ($27.95, Ballantine Books).

"It doesn't matter whether audiences love them or hate them, they have to be emotionally involved."

After all, there's a reason why Frasier Crane is tied with Marshal Matt Dillon (James Arness) from "Gunsmoke" as the longest continually running character on network television, a full 20 years dating to his first appearance on "Cheers" in 1984.

Certainly "Joey" has the popularity factor working in its favor. For 10 seasons fans have tuned in, in part, to watch Joey Tribbiani develop from a sweet-but-simpleminded Lothario written for easy laughs to a more serious, well-rounded Lothario written for easy laughs.

Then again, the spinoff "AfterMASH" featured several popular characters from the original series, Col. Sherman Potter, Max Klinger and Father Francis Mulcahy working together at a post-Korean War Missouri Veterans Administration hospital.

The victim of critical barbs and sinking ratings, the ill-fated "AfterMASH" was canceled midway through its second season.

"'AfterMASH' was bad," Marsh said. "It just didn't work."

Similarly, "Enos" must have seemed like a sure hit for CBS executives. The spinoff from "Dukes of Hazzard" took the fish-out-of-water approach in placing the lovable-but-dimwitted Deputy Sheriff Enos Strate in the Los Angeles Police Department. The show lasted two seasons.

Spin-nation

The TV graveyard is filled with the tombs of spinoffs: "Beverly Hills Buntz," from "Hill Street Blues"; "Fish," from "Barney Miller"; "Flo," from "Alice"; "Gloria," from "All in the Family"; "The Lone Gunmen," from "The X-Files"; and "Joanie Loves Chachi" and "Out of the Blue," both from "Happy Days."

None of these shows lasted more than a season and a half.

Then again, other spinoffs have been successful: "Benson," from "Soap"; "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.," from "The Andy Griffith Show"; "Good Times," from "Maude," itself a spinoff of "All in the Family"; "The Jeffersons," also a spinoff of "All in the Family"; "Green Acres," from "Petticoat Junction"; "Laverne and Shirley" and "Mork and Mindy," from "Happy Days"; and "Lou Grant" and "Rhoda," from the "Mary Tyler Moore Show."

Even "The Simpsons" are a spinoff -- sort of -- from "The Tracey Ullman Show," where the family premiered in short animated segments.

"You never know what's going to work and what's not going to work," Marsh said. "A lot of it comes down to whether the writing holds up on the new show and whether they do something different to tweak it in some way where it's not the same show.

"The problem with being a spinoff ... is one of the reasons that the (original) show went off the air is not necessarily because the actors are fed up, but because the writers ran out of things to write about."

That wasn't the case with "Frasier."

"The reason ("Frasier") was so successful was the fantastic writing," said Jon Hein, creator of jumptheshark.com. "They were very conscious of keeping Frasier in his element, which wasn't a bar like Cheers, but between his home and his job. There was a huge consistency through it. You didn't need Cheers cameos."

While Frasier Crane might not have the been the most obvious choice for a "Cheers" spinoff, it actually makes sense in hindsight.

Frasier is, arguably, the most multidimensional character on "Cheers" -- as opposed to, say, Woody, Carla, Norm and Cliff, who were developed more as comic relief.

"It gave (the writers) more to work with, which never hurt," Marsh said.

In that respect, building a series around one-dimensional Joey might not be the best choice. Still, it's probably not a coincidence that "Friends" writers have made a conscious effort to mature the character over the past few seasons.

As for the plot to the series "Joey," all that is known is that LeBlanc's character has moved to Hollywood to further his acting career and is living with a 20-year-old nephew who's a rocket scientist.

Drea de Matteo, Adriana la Cerva on "The Sopranos," has signed on to play Gina, Joey's high-strung sister.

Heinze, however, said he remains "skeptical" of the spinoff's chances.

"With 'Joey,' you move him to California, which moves him out of his element," Hein said. "I hope it's not as contrived as it sounds."

Of course, "Frasier" took a similar course, uprooting Crane from his Boston home and bar and putting him cross country in his hometown of Seattle, where he hosted an advice show on the radio.

What worked in the show's favor, though, was its strong supporting cast -- his grumpy dad, Martin, who moved in with him; his fussy brother, Niles; an English home-care worker Daphne Moon; and his radio show producer Roz Doyle -- who complemented Frasier and helped flesh out the witty series as one of TV's best.

"What tends to happen with the spinoffs is, if they can't create a different environment and a different dynamic with the series, the writers burn out," Marsh said. "They're not sure what to do with the same character and the audience see it as the same thing.

"I'm surprised that 'Frasier' managed to be as successful as long as it was with basically the same cast. That's not easy. You tend to run out of things to say about them."

Cancellation

Ultimately, if the show fails, LeBlanc will only have himself to blame. After all, it was the actor who agreed to the spinoff.

Much like Henry Winkler, who declined to spin off his Fonz character from "Happy Days" to his own show, LeBlanc could have turned down the opportunity.

Then again, sometimes there isn't much choice.

Norman Fell, who played Stanley Roper on "Three's Company," was reluctantly persuaded by producers to leave the hit series for a show of his own.

Fell didn't want to leave "Three's Company" because he felt his character functioned best in a supporting role rather than a lead.

But once he was promised by producers that, should the spinoff fail, he could return to "Three's Company," Fell agreed to the new series.

"The Ropers" premiered March 13, 1979, on ABC. After being shuffled around to different times and days, the show was canceled a year later.

When Fell asked to return to "Three's Company," the series' producers balked. They'd replaced him with a new character, Ralph Furley (Don Knotts), and the consistently high ratings showed few missed the switch.

For Joey's sake, fans better not miss his friends.

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