Photos: TV shows and their spinoffs
In “How I Met Your Mother,” Ted Mosby (played by Josh Radnor and voiced by Bob Saget) sits down with his teenage kids to regale them with a tale of a time long before he was a parent, recounting the events that led to him meeting their mother. From MacLaren’s Pub to a certain wedding that happens in Farhampton, the stories recounted in the series give the kids (and the viewers) a non-chronological glimpse into the relationship haps and mishaps of Mosby and his friends Marshall (Jason Segel), Lily (Alyson Hannigan), Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) and Robin (Cobie Smulders). In November 2013, CBS ordered the pilot of a female-centric spinoff titled “How I Met Your Dad,” with Greta Gerwig cast as the central character. (Gary Friedman, Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
The show: Sometimes people need to take a break from all their worries. People like Norm (George Wendt), Cliff (John Ratzenberger) and Fraiser (Kelsey Grammer) get away by going to a place where everybody knows their names - Cheers. Set in Boston, the show’s eponymous bar is owned by Sam Malone (Ted Danson).
The spinoffs: “Frasier” follows Cheers’ resident psychiatrist and radio host Dr. Frasier Crane after he moves back to his hometown Seattle and reunites with his father Martin (John Mahoney) and brother Niles (David Hyde Pierce). Cheers waitress Carla’s (Rhea Perlman) ex-husband Nick Tortelli (Dan Hedaya) marries Loretta (Jean Kasem) in an episode of “Cheers,” and the two star in “The Tortellis,” the first “Cheers” spinoff that aired in 1987. (Mark J. Terrill, Reed Saxon / Associated Press)
The show: Friends, pals, confidants and family are some of the words that can describe the relationships between Dorothy Zbornak (Bea Arthur), Rose Nylund (Betty White), Blanche Devereaux (Rue McClanahan) and Sophia Petrillo (Estelle Getty), who prove there is still a lot of life left to live after 50. They share a house, and often some late-night cheesecake, in “The Golden Girls.”
The spinoff: The Girls’ neighbor is Harry Weston (Richard Mulligan), and in “Empty Nest,” two of his adult daughters move home to live with him after his wife’s passing. “The Golden Palace,” another spinoff series, follows Sophia, Blanche and Rose after they move out of their shared home and invest in a hotel. (Steve Fontanini / Los Angeles Times / NBC)
The show: Secrets are deadly. Spencer Hastings (Troian Bellisario), Hanna Marin (Ashley Benson), Emily Fields (Shay Mitchell) and Aria Montgomery (Lucy Hale) learn this when they start receiving threatening messages from “A.” The secrets “A” knows lead the girls to suspect their anonymous antagonist is Alison DiLaurentis (Sasha Pieterse), their former ring leader who has disappeared, until her body is discovered and the threats continue.
The spinoff: In “Ravenswood” Caleb Rivers (Tyler Blackburn) discovers a tombstone bearing his name, survives a car crash and starts seeing the ghost of Miranda Collins (Nicole Gale Anderson), who was not as lucky. Together they work to uncover the mysteries of the town’s deadly curse. Caleb is Hanna’s boyfriend. (Gary Friedman/Los Angeles Times / Bob D’Amico/ABC Family)
