25 TV Characters That Deserve Spinoff Shows

Brilliant proposed plots included.

January 23, 2013

Image via Complex Original

The most captivating people on TV aren't always in the starring role. Often times the actors and actresses in the smaller roles provide more memorable moments. They're the ones who spawn all the best catchphrases and T-shirts, and no matter how hard the writers try to shoehorn them into bigger plots, they can never seem to give these folks enough airtime.

Instead of shows dominated by Vincent Chases, imagine if all the Johnny Dramas could step into the spotlight? It's time that networks dive into old shows and pull out characters worthy of their own moment in the sun: 25 TV Characters That Deserve Spinoff Shows—brilliant proposed plots included.

Written by Brenden Gallagher (@muddycreekU)

Ashley Schaeffer

Original Show: Eastbound and Down
Played By: Will Ferrell
The Pitch: Maybe Will Ferrell is too big for TV, both in the sense that he's a huge star and that it's uncertain whether spending time with his larger-than-life characters week after week would be too much of a good thing. Still, someone needs to find out.

Ferrell's high-rolling car dealer was one of Eastbound & Down's most rollicking rednecks. Now give the world a show chronicling the goings-on at Schaeffer Imports. From publicity stunts to sexual harassment suits, Ferrell's Schaeffer would be an endless source of entertainment. In the meantime, we'll keep his Old Milwaukee commercials on repeat.

Neil Kowalski

Original Show: United States of Tara
Played By: Patton Oswalt
The Pitch: Patton Oswalt is endlessly entertaining in everything he blesses with his presence, whether he's voicing a cartoon rat or playing a down-on-his-luck landscaper. Showrunners must love him too, as it seems he's legally required to have a guest spot on every TV show that gains any critical notoriety.

Though things were looking up for Neil at the end of United States of Tara's run, it'd be surprising if thing stayed easy for long. Watching Neil try to keep his burgeoning family together on a weekly would be a pleasure. The bottom line: This guy needs to headline a show right now, if only so other actors can have a chance to guest star.

Kenneth the Page

Original Show: 30 Rock
Played By: Jack McBrayer
The Pitch: There are two possible futures for Kenneth, both worthy of a series. He could return to his hometown of Stone Mountain, Georgia, and take up the family hog farming business, or he could fulfill the potential that Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) has seen in him and climb the corporate ladder as a TV executive.

As long as his strange, quasi-magical nature remains intact, Kenneth can do just about anything and viewers would tune in. Though a show featuring Kenneth would likely get slap-sticky, even ham-fisted at times, it could find an anchor in the great tension in Kenneth's life between the two things he loves: "everybody" and "television."

Jack Langrishe

Original Show: Deadwood
Played By: Brian Cox
The Pitch: It's hard to imagine many of the characters from Deadwood headlining a show that wasn't just Deadwood 2.0, as so many of the show's characters are inextricably connected to the town. One exception is the travelling performer, Jack Langrishe. Imagine a beautiful mix of Deadwood and Slings and Arrows that follows Langrishe from town to town on his theatrical adventures, and allows Cox to show off his well-documented acting chops. Here's some vintage Brian Cox giving you a dose of that Titus Andronicus.

Saul Berenson

Original Show: Homeland
Played By: Mandy Patinkin
The Pitch: "My name is Saul Berenson. You killed my father. Prepare to die." Maybe that catchphrase is too well-worn, but a show that pieces together Saul's early life would be sure to attract a following. Saul is an OG lady's man who plays by his own rules. In short, he's the perfect candidate for leading man in a high-brow spy show. What was his life like before he had to watch out for Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) and learned that unfortunate drama-killer that comes with old age—patience?

It might wreck some of the mystery surrounding his character, but if things on Homeland continue in the same direction, the show is going to wreck itself anyway. Now, if we could only go back in time and get a young Mandy Patinkin to play the part...

Miles Straume

Original Show: Lost
Played By: Ken Leung
The Pitch: Leung was cast on Lost after the showrunners saw his impressive guest spot on The Sopranos. Not only did Miles become a fan favorite, dude heard dead people—that guarantees a CBS show, right? Whether he's in a reality where he's a professional medium or a member of the LAPD, a show about a paranormal hot-head with sardonic wit and Daddy issues would be a smash. Besides, the man's name is Miles Straume (meant to sound like "maestrom"), which is a badass enough name to function as a series title. If Damon Lindelof and Carleton Cuse signed on as showrunners, it would also be the first paranormal procedural to actually succeed.

Faith

Original Show: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Played By: Eliza Dushku
The Pitch: Faith might be the only character on this list who was actually supposed to get her own spinoff. Eliza Dushku put the kibosh on that one before she joined the ranks of David Boreanaz (Angel), as she was in demand at the time and understandably wanted to try some non-vampire-slaying roles. Though a show starring Faith wouldn't be much more than a darker, edgier Buffy, that wouldn't be a bad thing. A source close to the project described the proposed spinoff as, "probably on a motorcycle, crossing the Earth, trying to find her place in the world." Vague, but we're down to watch the screener.

Rafi

Original Show: The League
Played By: Jason Mantzoukas
The Pitch: The League's Rafi grosses out the the already raunchy main players in the FX comedy. The Shiva Bowl-ers go as far as to fake their fantasy league's death just to rid themselves of his nasty ways. Why not give him and Randy a show where they can be as dirty as they damn well please? Of course, this would mean getting Seth Rogan for more than occasional guest spot. He can't come cheap, but it'd be worth the extra dough spent.

Janitor

Original Show: Scrubs
Played By: Neil Flynn
The Pitch: The most enigmatic character on Scrubs was always Janitor. That's right, he wasn't billed as "The Janitor"—no weak-ass article could contain him. Janitor makes a number of wild claims about himself while doing his best to make J.D.'s life a nightmare, including a mastery of sign language and a world-class collegiate track career. What the hell was this guy doing before he landed at Sacred Heart? Would the series be a drama? A comedy? A thriller? Only Janitor knows.

Iroh

Original Show: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Played By: Mako, Greg Baldwin
The Pitch: The old dude's resumé is impeccable: He's a firebending master, a former crown prince, and a retired general. Though he's a major part of the Avatar—the one without the blue monsters—as an old hedonistic wise man in exile, you can't help but wonder what old boy was up to back in the day. The world needs to know what Iroh got into before he started doing as much tea tasting as skirt chasing. Hopefully the resulting show wouldn't be Nick appropriate.

Mel

Original Show: Flight of the Conchords
Played By: Kristen Schaal
The Pitch: Of all the excellent characters from both seasons of Flight of the Conchords, Mel holds a special place in our hearts. After Mel has had her fill of unrequited groupie love from the Conchords, would she find a new band to crush on? Let us follow her, with each new episode featuring a new group for Mel to swoon over. As Schaal has more than sixty parts on her resumé, from When in Rome to Cirque du Freak: The Vampire Assistant, we know she has the range to handle anything a top-tier writers room could throw at her.

Big Chief Albert Lambreaux

Original Show: Tremé
Played By: Clarke Peters
The Pitch: David Simon makes shows where the center is a place rather than a character, but so many of Treme's high points come from Clarke Peters's portrayal of Albert Lambreaux that Simon should consider a different approach. Lambreaux's first appearance in his second-line garb was one of the most affecting moments in recent TV history. While a Simon show fixed around one character likely wouldn't give you the panorama view he's synonymous with, you wouldn't have to suffer through storylines involving the show's weaker characters, like Sonny (Michiel Huisman) and Janette (Kim Dickens).

Uncle Andy

Original Show: Weeds
Played By: Justin Kirk
The Pitch: Uncle Andy was always the best part of Weeds. Even after Shane went off the deep end and Nancy's actions began to defy all logic, Andy remained the hilarious anchor of an increasingly uneven show. Nancy's schemes were often self-serving and hurtful, but Andy's were delightfully zany and largely harmless. He offered masturbation instruction. He got pegged by the admissions director of a rabbinical school. If viewers followed him there, they're down for anything.

The Wives

Original Show: Big Love
Played By: Jeanne Tripplehorn, Chloë Sevigny, and Ginnifer Goodwin
The Pitch: Watching Big Love, you can't help but wonder what Barb, Nicki, and Margene would get into if they came untethered from the Henrickson clan. Unfortunately, just when viewers were about to have the opportunity, the series came to an end. Each of these women was so fully realized and so radically different, they invited the focus of a spinoff, where viewers could follow the characters as they either stuck with or abandoned Mormonism. All three might be too busy for something like this, as Tripplehorn is on Criminal Minds, Goodwin is tied up with Once Upon A Time, and Sevigny has American Horror Story and a film career, but if they got around to a Big Love reunion—minus the man in charge—we'd come running.

Hal Karp

Original Show: Undeclared
Played By: Loudon Wainwright III
The Pitch: Much like Freaks and Geeks, Undeclared ended far too soon, forcing viewers to part with a hilarious cast. Loudon Wainwright III's portrayal of the doofy, well-intentioned Hal Karp was one of the most memorable parts of Judd Apatow's take on university life.

Now that Apatow has moved into producing work about folks facing mid-life crises, the pairing of actor and creator would be a perfect fit. Watching LWIII try to keep his life together post-divorce would make for great lonely laughs. As a special bonus, LWIII, who your mom and dad know better as a singer-songwriter, could hit audiences with tunes as he sees fit.

John Oliver

Original Show: The Daily Show
Played By: John Oliver
The Pitch: It's been eight long years since The Daily Show begat The Colbert Report, which means it's time to add another arm to the Comedy Central comedy-news empire. Adding Oliver as the explicitly liberal foil to Colbert's false conservative only makes sense. Colbert's skewering of the GOP got all of us through Bush II; now, The New Yorker-reading, NPR-listening, hybrid car-driving stroller parents need to get theirs.

Though losing Oliver from The Daily Show would be just as painful as it was to lose Ed Helms, Steve Carrell, and Rob Corddry, if you love a quirky stand-up comedian/writer, sometimes you have to set it free.

Mags Bennet

Original Show: Justified
Played By: Margo Martindale
The Pitch: With all due respect to Game of Thrones and Boardwalk Empire, Justified has the best villains on television. With all due respect to Walton Goggins's electric portrayal of Boyd Crowder, Mags Bennet is the true show-stopper. Margo Martindale is a character actress of the highest calibre, the kind of performer who can make the simple act of sipping moonshine riveting as hell.

A series about Mags's rise to power as Harlan County's marijuana matriarch would be the ideal counterpoint to the nonsense that is Weeds. The ensuing moonshine drinking games alone would make the show alone.

Roman DeBeers

Original Show: Party Down
Played By: Martin Starr
The Pitch: There's no justice in the world. Despite a recurring cast of comedy mainstays and guest spots featuring Hollywood's funniest, Party Down wracked up mercilessly low ratings. It's likely that a spinoff would be fail as well, but dammit, it'd be worth it. Please, someone get a writers room together for a show that follows Roman after he finds fame as a sci-fi screenwriter—Entourage meets The Big Bang Theory!

Of course, that's just the pitch. For the one, maybe two resulting seasons, Roman Reloaded would be all dark comedy about the harsh realities of Tinseltown as Roman attempts in vain to protect his vision of sci-fi purity while his ideas are brought to the silver screen.

Sally Draper

Original Show: Mad Men
Played By: Kiernan Shipka
The Pitch: Even the most ardent Don Draper fanboys can agree the dude has lost some of his cool. But as Papa has tumbled hard from his lady-killing pedestal, his daughter Sally has claimed the crown of "coolest Draper." She's explore her femininity, cut her own hair, and fallen in love with the Beatles—and all with a stunning humanity.

It's time for Sally Draper's So-Called Life, set against the youth movements of the late '60s. Kiernan Shipka has already distanced herself from her fellow child TV performers by actually being talented. Why not let her take it to the next level?

Shoshana Shapiro

Original Show: Girls
Played By: Zosia Mamet
The Pitch: Girls has its own brand of subtle comedy, but put Zosia Mamet above the marquee and the laughs woud come a mile-a-minute. Shoshanna's snuggie scene from the third episode of the first season, and her crack smoking adventure from episode seven are proof that she can occupy the spotlight.

As HBO is currently airing Girls back to back with Englightened three times in a row on Sundays, it isn't like they couldn't use a little variety.

The Dunder Mifflin Warehouse Team

Original Show: The Office
Played By: Craig Robinson, Patrice O'Neal, Karly Rothenberg, Calvin Tenner, Matt DeCaro, Phillip Pickard, Lamont Ferrell, Sam Daly, Hidetoshi Imura, Ameenah Kaplan, Mark Proksch, Michael Daniel Cassady, and Mike Winfield
The Pitch: The blue-collar denizens of the Dunder Mifflin warehouse have certainly received their fair share of screen-time over the nine seasons The Office has been on the air; Darryl shows up more than many of his white-collar brethren. It's late in the game to suggest this, but instead of keeping the series limping along with new office management, the showrunners should have switched gears entirely by moving the action to the warehouse.

The warehouse team is a colorful cast (to say the least), and includes an ex-heart surgeon on the run from the Yakuza (Hidetoshi "Hide" Hasagawa) and an academic studying the decline of the working class in America (Michael Daniel Cassady). Keep the tone of the show the same, and you'd breathe new life into a stale premise.

Tom Haverford and Jean-Ralphio

Original Show: Parks and Recreation
Played By: Aziz Ansari and Ben Schwartz
The Pitch: Any Parks and Recreation fan knows that Tom Haverford and Jean-Ralphio have some stupid ideas. Why not give them a series that allows these idiotic entrepreneurs to put their business ideas into practice? To be fair, Entertainment 720 was a flop, but that doesn't mean they can't continue to hatch plans that are doomed to fail over and over again.

If five seasons of subplots have yielded such genius as Snake Juice and Sparkle Suds, just imagine what kind of schemes these two would come up with for their own show.

The Riggins Brothers

Original Show: Friday Night Lights
Played By: Taylor Kitsch and Derek Phillips
The Pitch: The most enduring moment from Friday Night Lights's dozens of enduring moments comes in the second to last scene of the series. Billy Riggins cracks open a beer and asks his younger brother, "Texas Forever?" Tim responds in kind: "Texas Forever." You can't predict what the Riggins boys would get up to on their own show, but you know that it would happen in Dillon, Texas.

After five seasons with the Dillon Panthers and the East Dillon Lions, you can't help but wonder what stories could be told about two knuckleheads who always end up in the wrong place with the best of intentions.

Any Supporting Character From The Simpsons

Original Show: The Simpsons
Played By: Various
The Pitch: This is cheating, but you know that if we nominated just one character from The Simpsons, the protesting in the comments section would stretch on for many digital miles. How could you ask fans to choose between Groundskeeper Willy and Comic Book Guy, or between Sideshow Bob and Ralph Wiggum? It would be inhumane. Suffice it to say that any character from The Simpsons deserves a shot.

They made The Cleveland Show, didn't they?

Omar Little

Original Show: The Wire
Played By: Michael K. Williams
The Pitch: The Wire was always one step ahead of everyone. In order to promote Season 5, HBO released a series of prequels, imagining the lives of choice characters prior to the events depicted on the show. Of course, one featured a young Omar as he was introduced to The Game. The prequel explained that Omar had those Robin Hood tendencies early on and was never afraid of confrontation. TV gave us The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles—now where the fuck is The Young Omar Little Chronicles?