With an eagerly anticipated Gossip Girl spinoff in the offing, as well as a number of other spinoffs and remakes, the 2009-2010 television fall schedule feels awfully familiar. Unfortunately, there's no rhyme or reason as to whether these spinoffs actually fly. For every Frasier, there is a Joey. The winners are shows that garnered critical acclaim and/or cult status. The losers are shows that destroyed the integrity of beloved characters and were generally poorly written and conceived.

Some of the more recent TV spinoff successes and failures:

Successes

Frasier - Who would have thought that a show about the most neurotic, pompous character on Cheers and his even more neurotic, pompous brother would last for 11 years? The show had a good tension between Kelsey Grammer and and David Hyde Pierce's uptight brothers, John Mahoney's salt-of-the-earth father, Jane Leeves' wacky live-in physical therapist and radio station characters such as Peri Gilpin's sarcastic show producer.




With a dry, sophisticated wit, Frasier set itself apart from the barroom Cheers concept and enjoyed enthusiastic critical reception, as well as 37 Primetime Emmys.

Length of show's run: 11 seasons