Markup View

Author: Xtifr

Sep 4th 2012 at 6:48:22 PM

^^^ My suggestion (which I thought I'd already presented), is to use the common English meaning of the term.  To have a sub-series, it has to be A) a series, and B) part of a larger series.  Anything which doesn't match those two doesn't count.  Minigames within a video game wouldn't count, for example, because ''a'' video game is not a series.  Nor would something "within the length of a film", because a film is not a series.  (On the other hand, a series of minigames that appear within a series of games would qualify, but the minigames would have to meet some reasonable definition of series--and I don't think I've ever seen such a thing.)

I think this is ''primarily'' a literature, comic book, and manga trope.  TV series rarely have sub-series because of the whole time-slot thing.  And film and video game series are rarely big enough to have sub-series.  On the other hand, I think it's common in an ExpandedUniverse.  A sub-series doesn't necessarily have to be in the same medium as the main series.  For example, the ''Star Wars: Clone Wars'' tv series would a sub-series of ''Franchise/StarWars''.  It's not exactly a spin-off because it's very much part of the main series, set right inbetween the prequels and the original trilogy.

I think ''Itchy and Scratchy'' qualifies, and I also think that ''every'' literature example mentioned so far qualifies.  I'm dubious about several of the TV examples that have been suggested, but a couple might qualify.  I agree with TonyG that a sub-series can evolve into a spin-off.