Prequels or spin offs better than the original

[Gizmo1990]

Seeing the news about the Breaking Bad spin off got me thinking about prequels and spin offs and I cannot think of any that have suppased the original.

At best they are good but not as good as the original (Stargate Atlantis) at worst they are so bad they make your eyes bleed (Stargate universe, Caprica, Star Wars)

Anyway I cannot think of any so any examples?

 

[TekMoney]

I've never been able to decide for sure. But Angel may possibly be better than Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Pinky and the Brain was a spin-off out of Animaniacs. I think they were pretty good.

Also not sure if this counts, but The Simpsons started out in the Tracy Ullman Show before getting their own show. That would count as a spin-off too right? Never seen the Ullman show but surely The Simpsons' has had a bigger impact on TV since then.

 

[Gizmo1990]

I've never been able to decide for sure. But Angel may possibly be better than Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Angel had some good episodes, I really love the 10 episodes in season 4 where Angel becomes Angelus again, but I think Buffy was better overall.

Plus Angel had Conner. As bad as Dawn from Buffy could get, Conner was worse. I just wanted to give him a slap every time he opened his mouth.

 

[Evonisia]

American Dad! and The Cleveland Show both surpass their daddy Family Guy (although TCS was never that good), I'm not sure American Dad! would count as a spin-off though. It's in the same universe.

 

[Lynx]

Boston Legal! Awesome, witty, clever, hilarious show. Spinoff of The Practice. Ah, James Spader and William Shatner... Genius combo.

 

[Aris Khandr]

As good as Star Trek was, The Next Generation was better. It is a shame they couldn't continue the trend afterward, but TNG was amazing.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Deep Space Nine, Macross Plus, Starship Troopers (first film and Roughneck Chronicles), Stargate. All better than their original versions, or at least different enough to make them worth watching as a separate entity.

 

[Strain42]

In terms of TV shows, I would say The Simpsons, Angel, and Daria would be my top 3.

In terms of video games, I personally rank Devil Summoner, Devil Survivor, and Persona all as better than the Shin Megami Tensei series they spun off from (and I also vote Shin Megami Tensei better than the main Megami Tensei series it spun off from)

 

[shootthebandit]

American Dad! and The Cleveland Show both surpass their daddy Family Guy (although TCS was never that good), I'm not sure American Dad! would count as a spin-off though. It's in the same universe.

Some American dad episodes are far superior to most family guy episodes but some are just horrendously un-funny. Its one of the most hit and miss programs. The problem is that 90% of the laughs come from roger with everyone else being the straight man. Whereas family guy is mostly about peter but there are loads of good brian and stewie episodes. Chris and meg tend to get more laughs than steve and hailey and the same with lois compared with francine. The problem with family guy is that its starting to rely on digging up laughs from previous episodes

 

[Dr. Cakey]

Well, there's...


Fate/stay what?

Fate/Zero is a rare beast in that not only is it superior to the original, but its quality is actually reduced when considered in light of its predecessor.

 

[SajuukKhar]

Rebuild of Evangelion is, IMO, far better then the original series + movies. Taking everything that made the original series so god, and removing 99% of the annoying Shinji complaining about everything.

Also, that soundtrack ITS JUST SO GOOD.

 

[ForumSafari]

Anyway I cannot think of any so any examples?

It's strongly an opinion thing but I find Frasier much funnier than Cheers, though this example is hurt by the fact that a lot of people don't even really realise Frasier is a spin off.

 

[AliasBot]

First two thoughts: Star Trek TNG, arguably Stargate Atlantis (which made changes that were really similar to the one from TOS to TNG, actually). Don't think I ever watched JAG, but NCIS still deserves a mention just as a really good spin-off show.

 

[unindexedsearchengine]

snipetty

Personally, I think SG:A was the best of the three series.
Also, stone me for this if you want, but I think SG:U was absolutely marvelous. Not quite as good as atlantis or SG-1, but I very much like universe.

 

[Popbangwoo]

Spartacus: Gods of the Arena was in my opinion better than the 1st season of spartacus.
Also Underworld: Rise of the Lycans was better than the first two films.

 

[Rossco64]

Would gave to go with Boston Legal (The Practice), Daria (Beavis and Butthead) and I tend to prefer Frasier over Cheers. Really the best spin-offs are the ones that you wouldn't know are spin-offs from watching them, which I believe these three shows pull off.

Special mention goes to the show that could have been: "Joey". It got quite good near the end and it didn't need to rely on "Friends".

 

[Gizmo1990]

Anyway I cannot think of any so any examples?

It's strongly an opinion thing but I find Frasier much funnier than Cheers, though this example is hurt by the fact that a lot of people don't even really realise Frasier is a spin off.

And I am proven wrong already Frasier is much better than cheers.

snipetty

Personally, I think SG:A was the best of the three series.
Also, stone me for this if you want, but I think SG:U was absolutely marvelous. Not quite as good as atlantis or SG-1, but I very much like universe.

I would say that all of Atlantis was better than the first 3 seasons of SG1 but that SG1 4-8 was better. I think that the action in Atlantis was better than the first 5 or 6 seasons of Sg1 but I found the characters in Sg1 to be better than Atlantis. Shepard was O'neil lite and Ronan was Tea'lc lite (the episode where they meet Teal'c is just way more badass). McKay originated in SG1 so he does not count . Thats not to say I did not enjoy Atlantis, I just feel that SG1 was better towards its end.

If you like SGU then I am glad that someone did. I would never say you are wrong because you like it and I don't. It was just too much like Battlestar Galactica.

Plus the co-creator, Brad Wright, was just insulting to exsisting fans. That did not help me to like the show. Whatever he was smoking when made the comments he did is some powerfull stuff.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Rebuild of Evangelion is, IMO, far better then the original series + movies. Taking everything that made the original series so god, and removing 99% of the annoying Shinji complaining about everything.

No, no, NOOOO. It's so not. D=

It took away all the teeth and nails the show had and replaced it with sparkly images and see-through plugsuits.

No dark conspiracies, no sense of something greater, no introspection. Just razzle dazzle. :'(

 

[Dr. Cakey]

Rebuild of Evangelion is, IMO, far better then the original series + movies. Taking everything that made the original series so god, and removing 99% of the annoying Shinji complaining about everything.

No, no, NOOOO. It's so not. D=

It took away all the teeth and nails the show had and replaced it with sparkly images and see-through plugsuits.

No dark conspiracies, no sense of something greater, no introspection. Just razzle dazzle. :'(

Basically this, although I did like the Rebuilds Evangelion 2.0 (haven't seen 3.0 yet, but based on the hate it's getting I'll probably enjoy it). While each version has at least some advantage over the other, and the Rebuilds won't be able to be properly judged until we've seen all four, saying the Rebuilds are better because of the reduction in what is essentially the series' emotional core is kind of like saying Prometheus is better than Alien because it got rid of all the boring bits where people sat around talking.