I don't know what Torchwood is, but I'm intrigued now, because I agree with everything else you said here.

Love, love, LOVE Torchwood. Children of Earth was, as you said, better and better each night, and just ripped my heart out at the end. Awesome.

My TV viewing has gotten less and less over time and I can't say that a lot of spin-offs have been big favorites. The entire Star Trek frachise has been good, to varying degrees and Angel was a favorite. If you cont series that come from television series as seuels/spin-offs, then I'll have to say that my all-time favorite was Highlander: The Series. Even with the sometimes cheesy acting, the series was and is one of my best-loved television viewing. And the acting and storylines on the show were far superior to anything the franchise has hawked up, movie-wise. The series dealt with loss and death with sensitivity, and the characters always had consequences to face for their actions. There was humor and the joy of friendships and love. And the fact there was some serious action sequences, often involving hot men (and women) and swords; what more could a person ask for?

I admit, I had to consult the Mighty Wikipedia to find out what was a spin-off... man, I didn't know some of those shows were spin-offs of spin-offs of spin-offs! So, in alphabetical order (of the original show)...

Pinky and the Brain and Freakazoid, both from Animaniacs
Crusdae, from Babylon 5
(I didn't know there was more than one Brainiac series! O:)
Fraiser, in my opinion, was better than Cheers
(OMG THERE'S GOING TO BE A K-9 SPIN-OFF! :D)
Torchwood is good, the Sarah Jane Chronicles had their moments, but Doctor Who rules
Darkwing Duck was better than DuckTales
Absolutely Fabulous, which was evidently from The French and Saunders Show
Xena: Warrior Princess, from Hercules: Legendary Journeys (mock away, mock away)
NCIS is pretty good, though I've only seen a few episodes and never watched JAG
Tiny Toons, from Looney Tunes
The Muppet Show is a spin-off? Really, Wikipedia?
(Ooooh, another Spooks series!)
Pretty much all of the Star Trek spin-offs are decent.
The Twilight Zone (mostly the original series)

I disagree with some of what they call 'spin-offs' on this list, and there there are a few undoubtedly missing, but that's what I came up with. :D

Highlander, the series although I was less enchanted with The Raven spin-off. Immortal medieval knights and sword fights had a lot in common, a female French cat burglar turned immortal, less so.

Star Trek, Next Generation. My Grandma had introduced me to Star Trek via re-runs of the original series in the 80s. When Next Generation came out I was caring for as she had dementia - but she always watched Next Generation with me. She was somewhat dissapointed with Picard though. She liked him well enough, but thought that surely by then we could have had a Vulcan commander.

I never cared much for ST-TNG myself, but my favorite ST-related series was DS9. Voyager had its moments, especially with the Captain Proton subplots.

I loved Children of Earth, despite not being too keen on the regular series of Torchwood.

Other spin offs I've loved, Angel - and I can't think of a single other one.

I didn't think much of Torchwood S1/2, in fact I found some of it downright dire, but Children of Earth was gripping stuff: Event TV.

Hey, I do volunteer proofreading for some literary market newsletters (this from The Gila Queen's Guide to Markets) and saw this call for submissions:

Flash Fiction Contest—Gemini Magazine, PO Box 1485, Onset MA 02558.
"Rules (We hate rules but you gotta have at least some for a contest):"
1. "1000 words or less (excluding title and byline)"
2. "Any style, any theme"
3. "Open to ANYONE"
4. "Send previously unpublished story in body of E-mail to [E-mail address below] (no attachments) or snail mail with SASE to [postal address above].]"
5. "One entry per writer. Do not include bio."
6. "Entry fee: NONE (When the economy gets better we promise to charge an exorbitant reading fee)"
7. "If you don't win or place, your story may be considered for publication in a future issue of Gemini."
Grand Prize: $100 and publication "in the October Issue of Gemini (We know it ain't much but who can't use a hundred bucks!)"; Honorable Mention (3): Publication in the October Issue of Gemini.
[E-mail: contest@gemini-magazine.com; http://www.gemini-magazine.com]. Deadline: August 31, 2009.

Since you seem to have a handle on flash fiction, I thought you might want to check it out. I've no idea what the magazine's like. But in case you haven't seen the call ... the deadline is soon.

Ok, so I'm really dating myself here:

The Jeffersons and Maude, which spun off from All in the Family.

Rhoda, from Mary Tyler Moore Show.

definitely fraiser and angel were on my list...I tried to watch that joey friends spin off but it was of course horrible.

Loved Frasier. Loved Voyager, too.

I keep hearing good things about Torchwood but I've never seen it and didn't know it was a spinoff of Dr. Who. Which I've also never seen. ;)

One show I LOVE is Boston Legal (where William Shatner and Candice Bergen are lawyers) which is a spinoff of The Practice.