Spinoff (media)

One of the earliest spin-offs of the modern media era, if not the first, happened in 1941 when the supporting character Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve from the old time radio comedy show Fibber McGee and Molly became the star of his own program The Great Gildersleeve (1941–1957).

In genre fiction, the term parallels its usage in television; it is usually meant to indicate a substantial change in narrative viewpoint and activity from that (previous) storyline based on the activities of the series' principal protagonist, and so is a shift to that action and overall narrative thread of some other protagonist, which now becomes the central or main thread (storyline) of the new subseries.

[citation needed] A spin-off may be called a sidequel, a portmanteau of "side" (as in side-by-side) and "sequel", when it occurs in the same timeframe as the original, sometimes contacting with the main narrative at points.

"outside legends") also refers to such contemporaneous spin-offs and is frequently translated as "side story".

Sometimes crossovers are created in an attempt to provide closure to fans of another failed series.