The New York Observer

Forget The Office’s Dwight Spinoff! Eight Spinoffs We Want to See

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By Daniel D'Addario 1/26/12 3:43pm

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Sure, it’s been announced that Dwight, the Pictionary, Jr. illustration of the word “geek” that has darkened The Office‘s doorways lo these eight seasons past, is getting a spinoff sitcom developed around his unique take on life. And we’ll hate-DVR the first three episodes of Dwight! to see if they decide to commit to “Trekkie,” “Star Wars nut” or “dangerously unstable menace,” we’re more excited by the possibility that spinoffs will have a renaissance. Here are eight sitcom spinoffs we’d greenlight tomorrow.
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"Just Karen," spun off from "Will & Grace"

"Will & Grace," a show about two pathological narcissists, was always trying to convince us in its twentieth, twenty-first, and twenty-second minutes that all the aberrant behavior we'd seen previously hid how NICE Will and Grace really were. Karen Walker, the alcoholic socialite always hanging around for some reason, was allowed to really be herself. America needs a sitcom that even "Seinfeld" fans would find upsettingly caustic!
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"Whitney's So-Called Friends," spun off from "Whitney"

Sure, it's very "trendy" to hate "Whitney" (though it seems like that wave has crested, maybe?). But what if you had a thirty-minute show weekly where all the comedienne's friends (like Rhea Seehorn, pictured here) hang out and ask why Whitney pauses all their conversations to deliver monologues on why texting is for pussies, and where the sound of laughter is coming from whenever she stops talking? Would you hate that too? Okay, back to the drawing board.
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"'Sup, Chris!," spun off from "Parks and Recreation"

This is mainly to get Rob Lowe off "Parks and Recreation."
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"Molly's Place," spun off from "Mike & Molly"

Okay, hear us out. A divorce, or some other dumb thing, who cares, gets written into the plot of "Mike & Molly." Melissa McCarthy gets to star in her own spinoff. America, at long last weary of Chuck Lorre series, does not watch, and the show gets cancelled after three episodes. Melissa McCarthy's schedule is clear and she makes a million movies.
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"Battle of the Network Stereotypes," spun off from "2 Broke Girls."

It's time for the white privilege inherent in every frame of "2 Broke Girls" to be implicit, not explicit. Let's say "the Asian one" decides to start his own combination laundry/Chinese restaurant, and "the Eastern European one" and "the black one" come along just to ogle the ladies. Amazingly, this will actually probably just happen on "2 Broke Girls," but CBS might want to squeeze another 30 minutes a week out of the franchise.
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"Cake's Reasons Why Not," spun off from "Sex and the City"

The most devoted "Sex and the City" fans will remember this character--the chocolate cake Miranda eats out of the garbage in the 2001 episode "What's Sex Got to Do With It?" While Cakeranda shippers had to live with the cake not showing up in Dubai, the cake is a prime candidate for a thirty-minute period comedy on HBO, looking at the allure this rich and yet dark protagonist holds over a group of otherwise together New York career ladies.
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"Cougar Town," spun off from "Cougar Town"

The Courteney Cox sitcom "Cougar Town" has had some trouble penetrating the mainstream due to its zeitgeisty-in-2009 title, which belies the fact that Ms. Cox's character dates men her own age? "Cougar Town" should change its name to what it obviously always should have been, "Courteney," and then pass the title on to a weekly romantic comedy about Connie the cougar's quest for love and for prey somewhere in the Western United States. You'll fall in love with her "pride," but you'll stay for her vulnerability.
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"Eddie Takes Seattle," spun off from "Frasier"

But for the fact that a spinoff of a spinoff is a bit hall-of-mirrors-y, it's really shocking that this never happened.