Dec.22

electoral-vote.com

Dem 51

   

GOP 49

I Read the News Today, Oh Boy: Hail, Cannon

We had some pretty good guesses for this week's headline theme. For example, reader P.M. in Edenton, NC proposed: "All of your TV shows are in Tommy Westphall's head!" and passed along this article that may be of interest to people who get that reference.

That's not the correct guess, however. For the correct answer, we give you reader N.S. in Los Angeles, CA:

These are all shows that had spinoff TV shows:

• Project Greenlight led to Project Greenlight: Australia
• Cheers! led to Frasier
• Breaking Bad led to Better Call Saul
• Love, American Style led to Happy Days
• Star Trek obviously led to many other series
• The Six Million Dollar Man led to The Bionic Woman
• Pardon the Interruption is a little awkward. It could be argued that it spun off to Around the Horn or the short-lived sitcom Listen Up! (starring Jason Alexander)
• Happy Days led to a few notable shows including Mork & Mindy and Laverne & Shirley

So far, the others you listed as not qualifying for the theme have no spinoffs, though I'd eagerly watch a Frank Reynolds (Always Sunny) backstory show.

The Sopranos is iffy, as you wrote, because there is a spinoff film (The Many Saints of Newark), but not a TV show.

I've gotta say, the Sopranos hint made me think it was related to the often-argued about final episode and its ending. That threw me off course for a good half hour.

As usual, great puzzle. Thank you for giving my brain the extra exercise first thing in the morning.

Great breakdown, and glad you liked it! We'll only add a couple of things: (1) We tried to choose shows where the spinoff itself was very notable; the only spinoff noted by N.S. in Los Angeles that is different from the one we had in mind is that Project Greenlight begat Project Runway and Top Chef and (2) Cannon, which appears in the headline for this item, spun off Barnaby Jones.

Here are the first 20 readers to write in with the correct answer:

1. D.L. in Uslar, Germany
2. S.T. in Ocean Grove, NJ
3. M.W. in Boston, MA
4. R.D. in Cheshire, CT
5. J.N. in Zionsville, IN
6. E.P. in Long Beach, CA
7. K.W. in Lafayette, IN
8. J.S. in Germantown, OH
9. S.F. in Hutto, TX
10. N.H. in London, England UK
11. F.W. in Franklin, WV
12. N.S. in Los Angeles
13. J.H. in Lake Forest, CA
14. M.Z. in Sharon, MA
15. B.P. in Arlington Heights, IL
16. M.C. in Indianapolis, IN
17. S.K. in Drexel Hill, PA
18. M.W. in Newington, CT
19. L.A.J. in Bourbonnais, IL
20. D.E. in Lancaster, PA

Today's theme, meanwhile, would definitely belong in the Trivial Pursuit category "History." The hint is that the theme is almost too obvious for a site like ours, in the same way as the political parties a few weeks ago. If you have a guess, send it here. (Z)