MovieChat Forums > 227 (1985) Discussion > Was This a Spinoff of the Jeffersons?

Was This a Spinoff of the Jeffersons?

posted 17 years ago by jefeparigi
19 replies | jump to latest

For some reason I was convinced that this show was a spinoff of The Jeffersons when it came out because the actress who played Florence on The Jeffersons was also on 227. In fact, quite a few other people I've talked to thought the same thing. But I'm looking at these imdb credits and her character name on 227 was Mary not Florence. This is very disappointing because it would have been the only spinoff-of-a-spinoff in TV history...with All in The Family, of course, being the "grandparent" show.

[–] balthaza2rthedrunkenmonk 17 years ago

Bit of trivia for you - Mork and Mindy is actually a spin-off of a spin-off. "Mork & Mindy" came from Mork's appearance on "Happy Days", and "Happy Days" came from a segment on "Love, American Style".

[–] decolady 17 years ago

There ARE spinoffs from spinoffs:

All in the Family------->Maude------->Good Times

also:

Golden Girls------>Empty Nest------->Nurses

Married With Children------->Top of the Heap-------->Vinnie and Bobby

and if we REALLY want to reach:
Surreal Life------->Strange Love-------->Flavor of Love------->"I Love New York" AND "Flavor of Love Girls:Charm School"

http://www.myspace.com/decolady

[–] blockerlover 17 years ago

They did attempt to spin-off Marla Gibbs' maid Florence into her own series, it was called "Checking In". It flopped big time (I believe it lasted half a season) and she went right back to working for "The Jeffersons".

[–] budikavlan 17 years ago

Not even half a season: "Checking In" lasted 4 episodes (1 month) and then Florence showed back up at George and Louise Jefferson's door asking for her job back.

[–] budikavlan 17 years ago

2 little quibbles (not really saying you're wrong, just disagreeing about definitions):
1. "Nurses" wasn't exactly a spinoff of "Empty Nest." It was set in the same hospital, and characters crossed both ways, but they didn't take anything from "Empty Nest" when they started "Nurses." You might call it a "spin-on" because it was tied to the earlier series AFTER it premiered.
2. "Vinnie and Bobby" was more of a "successor series" than a spinoff of "Top of the Heap," in that "Top" was a failure which was reworked into "V&B."

[–] sunsun79 17 years ago

First 227 is not a spin off of the Jeffersons. You just have the same actress playing 2 different roles. She was not Florence on 227.

Budi, I disagree with your definition. My definition when a character from an existing show is taken and creates a show revolving around them and their life. For a show like Nurses or Empty Nest we were first introduced to a character on say Golden Girls and then from there a show involving that person is created.

[–] budikavlan 17 years ago

Empty Nest is indisputably a spinoff of The Golden Girls. Harry was introduced on GG before EN premiered (and that was after an earlier attempt starring Paul Dooley and Rita Moreno). My point in the earlier post was that no one from Nurses showed up on Empty Nest before Nurses premiered.

Neither of them is what I consider to be the classic format of a spinoff, which is when a regular, long-running character from one show is "spun-off" into a separate show (like The Jeffersons, for example). In both of these cases, NBC wanted another show, so they tied it to an existing hit with the hope that the audience would add the new show to their viewing habits. But in the case of Nurses, they didn't even bother to do what's called a "backdoor pilot" in which the characters of the new show are introduced on the older one. They merely told us on the first episode of the new show that the setting was the same hospital.

[–] moviefanTP 17 years ago

The first example of a spinoff-from-a-spinoff that I can think of is "Gomer Pyle, USMC", which was spun off from "The Andy Griffith Show". Griffith's character was first seen on an episode of "The Danny Thomas Show" when Danny Thomas takes a road trip through the Carolinas and meets sheriff Andy Taylor at a service station or something like that. The next example of a spinoff-from-a-spinoff, then, would be "Mayberry RFD" I guess, because I think the Ken Berry character from that show was introduced on "Andy Griffith" near the very end of the series.

[–] stevenackerman69 16 years ago

No, it was not a spinoff of Jeffersons. Marla Gibbs was playing a different character here. She did do a spinoff in 1981 called Checking In, which didn't work out. Maybe that is what is confusing you.

[–] jimanchower 15 years ago

Do people even read the other comments before responding? Several people have already said that it's not a spin off, they've mentioned Checking In, etc.

Yet people continue to respond by saying the exact same thing.

[–] budikavlan 15 years ago

I swear, people don't even read the comments before they chime in with the same info.....oh, never mind. :)

[–] deontee2002 15 years ago

That's funny...'cause I always thought In The Heat Of The Night was a spin-off of All In The Family. They both starred Carroll O'Connor after all.

[–] stevenackerman69 15 years ago

Yeah, sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. It depends on the mood I'm in.

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] babyfir77 14 years ago

Not a spinoff......but there were a couple must-see episodes featuring Sherman Hemsley (George Jefferson) and Franklin Cover (Tom Willis), her former co-stars. Check those out!!!!!

[–] IcingOnTheCake 13 years ago

Florence did have a short-lived spinoff in which she ran the hotel cleaning staff but it didn't last. She returned to The Jefferesons after the 'hotel' burned down.
227 wasn't a Jefferson's spinoff but I'd like it to have been. They could have written that Flo got married, had Brenda, & moved to D.C. for her husband's business. The age children quickly on shows so that wouldn't have been a problem. I'd liked to have had some of The Jeffersons cast members then visit her as themselves.

[–] gambitcolumbus 13 years ago

Love, American Style spun off Happy Days, which spun off Laverne and Shirley, which spun off a really bad Laverne and Shirley cartoon where they were in the army and their sergeant was a pig (literally)

[–] SataiDelen 12 years ago

OMFG! Well, it WAS the 70s! Lol. They came out with some really BAD cartoons in that era that were based off of T.V. shows, lol.

And no, 227, as others have said, was not a spinoff of The Jeffersons.

But since others have mentioned shows that were spinoffs of others, I thought I'd add a couple.

1. Diff'rent Strokes spawned Facts of Life.

2. Mary Tyler Moore Show spawned Rhoda, which in turn spawned another show that was actually successful for a while, but I can't for the life of me remember the name of.

I'm sure there were others, but I can't remember them aside from the ones people have already mentioned.

[–] mdemetz 11 years ago

2. Mary Tyler Moore Show spawned Rhoda, which in turn spawned another show that was actually successful for a while, but I can't for the life of me remember the name of.

I'm sure there were others, but I can't remember them aside from the ones people have already mentioned.

Phyllis was also a spin off from MTM. Lou Grant was another spinoff from MTM, but a drama instead of a sitcom.