Not the actor's name?Casually watching this and all of a sudden there's a kid named William "Bill" Campbell - is it some sort of common name in the US? First time I heard it was of course with Melrose's Billy "William" Campbell, which I assume must've been named after Dynasty's Luke actor Billy Campbell and now I see a teen character on Mary Tyler Moore showing up named Billy Campbell.
Not the actor's name?
Yes, the only exceptions I can think of are Joannie and Chachi (who returned to Happy Days) and Jeff and Fallon (back from The Colbys to Dynasty).This makes it difficult (if not impossible) to bring back that original character after the spin-off fails,
Yes, the only exceptions I can think of are Joannie and Chachi (who returned to Happy Days) and Jeff and Fallon (back from The Colbys to Dynasty).
Joannie and Chachi
I recall they spun off Florence the maid on The Jeffersons into her own show which bombed after about six episodes. Soon she was back working for George and Louise as if she'd never left.Jeff and Fallon
It happened with Alice, another popular sitcom in the 1970s. There was the short-lived spin-off Flo, which failed after two seasons, and Polly Holliday never returned to the parent show (not even for the series finale).Taking a break-out, supporting character out of a parent series and making them the centerpiece of a spin-off series is a risky business. I can think of a half-dozen failed attempts to do this in various sitcoms. In many of these cases the parent show is harmed by the loss of a popular character. They have to cast a "replacement" character, or at least re-configure things to deal with the loss. This makes it difficult (if not impossible) to bring back that original character after the spin-off fails, causing the once-popular character to be left in limbo.
I wonder if there's going to be a marathon anywhere? I very rarely watch straight-out television anymore, so I haven't seen anything about any marathons concerning the celebration.Celebrating 50 Years of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”; debuted on September 19, 1970
In Mary's defense, they had already shot several episodes of MARY & RHODA, and Moore and Harper thought they were okay, but ABC wanted them to all be as good as the best of the old MARY TYER MOORE SHOW and opted instead of airing the series, to do a TV movie. Then, when ratings were decent, ABC wanted them to make a second start at doing a series. But by then, Moore felt they'd been jerked around enough by the network, that she walked away from the project. Although Harper was willing to follow through.Have you ever read what author said about MTM? Not good things. She said that “Mary and Rhoda” would have been a series, but MTM was so mean to everyone (including Harper), that ABC NEVER wanted to work with her again.