Monday, August 11, 2008

The spin off

So, we have the 'legendary' Holby franchise, Dr Who and Torchwood, Saving Grace and Doc Martin, Spooks and Spooks Code 9 [watch out for the upcoming Spooks- the kindergarten years] Echo Beach and Moving Wallpaper.

This set me thinking that maybe the wind is blowing in the direction of the spin off. Not as a result of fear, lack of imagination and reliance on branding to fool an audience of course, perish the thought. No, perhaps there are actually some genuinely great spin off ideas out there akin to Frazier - Cheers. I've listed some of my ideas below. Please feel free to add.

Will Scarlett medieval Rock God - the rise and fall of a Plantagenet poseur

The Bill After Hours - a drama surrounding the lives and loves of the Sun Hill cleaners who come in at night and solve crimes using only the white-boards and litter.

Spoks - Vulcans are recruited by MI5, writes itself!

Homes Under The Hammer House Of Horror - House flipper TV presenters are smeared with raw meat then given a hundred yard start before a pack of ravenous dogs are set after them. Winner takes all.

American Idle - Paula Abdul shags all the winners and they never work again. Oh wait a minute ....... been done.

Rose and Clone and Low Esteem are Wed - Dr Who's assistant finds living with his clone isn't as easy as she thought. Complications ensue. [ may change the title, bit of a reach]

Piece of piss this, I should be a producer!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'd pay cash money to see any of those lol lol lol lol

fucking pissed myself
KT

Andrew Tibbs said...

The last one would make a good sitcom, a la Terry and June.

Anonymous said...

''perish the thought''

Indeed! Luckily David Bowie hasn't had a hit in years so the Mars 'franchise' should die off soon.

Jaded and Cynical said...

A small army of execs at the BBC are being paid a fortune, and all they can come up with is 'franchise extension'.

It's the UK equivalent of the Hollywood producers who can't see beyond remakes of Miami Vice and Starskey & Hutch.

Granted, there's a superficial commercial logic to simply reheating this crap.

But it speaks to a fundamental lack of real creative vision.

Is it any wonder that neither the Beeb nor ITV have delivered a single, watchable new drama in the past twelve months?

(And regarding your dodgy limb. FFS, don't go near a hospital. You'll catch MRSA and they'll have to amputate the lot.)

Matt Cruse said...

Three Non Docs: Three ex-Doctor Who female companions hang out together and talk about life, the universe, and robot dogs. Companions tbc - probably ones who haven't worked since appearing in the original show.

Eleanor said...

LOL! I'd watch everything but Idle. :)

Stephen Gallagher said...

Look forward to GAVIN WITHOUT STACEY

while on another night we get STACEY!

English Dave said...

I and all my Red Bull and Amaritso drinking friends would have Gavin Without Stacey, and Stacey! on the same night concurrently. Streaming is where it's at dude. But keep writing, there may be a future in it for you. lol