Originally posted by lotjxAngel, DS9, and other spin-off shows who tend to take two or more characters tend to last a bit longer since a certain dynamic is still familiar with the audience.
Are you saying DS9 was successful because... Chief O'Brien and his wife were spun off of TNG? That's an interesting theory.
Best option: End on a high note. 2nd best option: Todd Packer takes over. 3rd best option: Trim the cast down and put them in a new office environment. (Except this was already sort of done with Jim in Stamford, Pam in New York, and Dwight at Staples.)
Originally posted by lotjxAngel, DS9, and other spin-off shows who tend to take two or more characters tend to last a bit longer since a certain dynamic is still familiar with the audience.
Are you saying DS9 was successful because... Chief O'Brien and his wife were spun off of TNG? That's an interesting theory.
I was just going to ask that. Maybe he's also thinking of Worf, though he didn't join the cast until the 4th season of DS9.
Even though they were minor characters, they did establish The O'Brien from their first date to marriage to Molly's birth. They also used Keiko as Jake and Nog's teacher for the first season to give her something to do until they were able to get the rest of the DS9 characters more established going into season two. Star Trek also did the cool thing with any first episode by having another Star Trek vet come into help pass the torch. McCoy for TNG and Picard for DS9 were two of the best. Quark on Voyager was probably the worst. Cochrane on Enterpise was ok.
At least TNG fans where familiar with them as opposed to Joey or other where he was there by himself without anyone to back him up. I think that is the problems with stand alone sitcoms is that there is a reason that a character worked with a group and without the group there, the character's weakness are out to the world. Frasier had great writers and actors who helped built a group around that character that clicked right off the bat. Its better to do a spinoff with at least two established characters then one just to keep some dynamic from the original show.
As for Worf, that was more of a ratings move and plus they wanted to do the Klingons as the bad guys. He really didn't fit until season 5 anyway as they were just prolonging the Dominion War. After watching DS9 this week, I am thinking they probably only need 5 to 6 seasons to really tell that story. There seems to be a lot of unnecessary conflicts that never really went anywhere. As for CSI looks like they are just back to normal after the switch.