10 Best Genre TV Show Spin-Offs

9. Transformers: Beast Wars

Sure, Transformers is "just a cartoon", and a cartoon based on a line of toys at that. Still, it has managed to remain an iconic franchise for decades, spawning a series of high-grossing (if artistically bankrupt) live action movies. It's not the movies, however, that are the focus here; instead, it's the 90s spin-off show Beast Wars, which reinvigorated the franchise. Produced in Canada, and running for three full seasons, Beast Wars (or Beasties, depending on what region you lived in) introduced the Maximals, led by Optimus Primal, and the Predacons, led of course by Megatron (as a T-Rex). It took a little time to win over fans of the original series. When Beast Wars first hit television screens, some fans of the classic series were outraged. Animals, rather than machines, were transforming - and that was sacrilege. There was initially nothing connecting the show to the original Transformers series either. However, little by little, the show won over fans: references to the original series were planted within and the planet on which the show took place was eventually revealed to be a prehistoric Earth. The storytelling turned out to be some of the best of all the various Transformers series, and though the CGI looks dated by today's standards, at the time it was quite cutting edge (the show's production designer, Clyde Klotz, took home a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation).