Quiz: Only Primetime Pros Can Match These Famous Spinoffs to Their Parent Series

When you can't get enough of your favorite TV show, you really only have two choices: rewatch it from the beginning, or start a spinoff for something fresh. While some spinoffs don't catch on as quickly as their parent series, other offshoots take off so fast that we tend to forget they started somewhere else. Just how well do you know where these go-to shows came from? We have a quiz to see if you can spot the spinoffs!

Did you manage to get all 24 questions correct? If so, you’re officially a niche TV expert. If a few of these caught you off guard, don't worry—it's the perfect excuse to start a new show or two. Make sure to share this quiz with your friends and fellow TV lovers to see who's the real master of the remote!

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When the Spinoff Outshines the Original

You might not expect a spinoff to reach, let alone surpass, the success of the hit show that created it, but primetime history points to a few rare exceptions. Take The Simpsons, which debuted as a series of animated shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show in 1987. Few predicted that the satirical cartoon about a bright-yellow family from Springfield would outlive its parent sketch show by decades and become the longest-running American animated series in history.

The same phenomenon hit the legal drama world in 2003 with the premiere of NCIS. What started as a standard two-episode introduction on the show JAG evolved into a global franchise spanning eight different locations and over 50 total seasons. From the original NCIS to the newest expansion, NCIS: New York, the modern TV fixture has long outlived the military drama that launched it.

Back to reality—or at least the highly edited version of it—The Hills changed the game in the 2000s. The messy MTV show followed a Los Angeles friend group for over four years, packed with enough romance, drama, and personalities to last a lifetime. But before all of that, it all started with Lauren Conrad’s backstory on Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County, a predecessor The Hills ended up doubling in seasons. Not bad for a show that started as a high school senior's spinoff.

When you're ready to test your TV knowledge again, head back to the Mental Floss quiz page. We publish daily quizzes covering movies, TV, music, geography, and more!

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