💥10 Failed Sitcom Spinoffs That Prove Rebooting The Office Is A Bad Idea💥
010 Failed Sitcom Spinoffs That Prove Rebooting The Office Is A Bad Idea
Rumors have began to heat up once more about a potential spinoff or reboot of The Office, but showrunner Greg Daniels should learn some lessons from failed sitcom spinoffs of the past. Plenty of popular sitcoms have attempted spinoffs in the past, but for every Frasier or Young Sheldon which lasts for many seasons, there are dozens of failed attempts to launch a spinoff. Sitcoms are a delicate art, and disrupting the chemistry of the cast or the writer's room can ruin a popular show. This is why so many spinoffs fail, and the popularity of The Office doesn't make a spinoff a sure-fire hit.
Rebooting The Office without the entire cast would risk changing the show too much. Even the last few seasons of the show felt different when Steve Carell left. The large ensemble cast managed to keep things running relatively smoothly, but any more changes could damage the show's appeal. One of the ideas floated for a spinoff of The Office would see the documentary crew following a completely new subject. Such a creative approach could avoid too many direct comparisons to The Office, but this might also neglect what made the show so popular to begin with.
Friends relied on the dynamic between its six main stars, so a spinoff featuring just one of them was always going to be a different proposition. Joey failed as a spinoff because it didn't understand what made its protagonist so popular in the first place. Taking him away from his friends, and having him never even mention them, gave him a different role. Joey became more self-centered and less likable in the spinoff. It takes more than one popular character to make a spinoff worthwhile, especially if the character changes so much.