George R.R. Martin Compares 'Game of Thrones' Spinoff Strategy to This Classic Sitcom

Game of Thrones and The Mary Tyler Moore Show could not be more different, but they both have a place in television history. In a new interview with The New York Times ahead of the premiere of the first Game of Thrones spinoff, House of the Dragon, author George R.R. Martin brought up the classic sitcom as a model he would like to emulate. He hopes that, just like Mary Tyler Moore, Game of Thrones can give birth to spinoffs of different genres.

There are many other Game of Thrones spinoffs in various stages of development, and most of them are prequels like House of the Dragon aside from a Jon Snow show. "There's Ten Thousand Ships about Nymeria – that's like a thousand years before and about how the Rhoynar came to Dorne," Martin told the Times. "That's an Odyssey-like epic. There's the nine voyages of Corlys Velaryon, the Sea Snake. That would take us to places in the world that we've never seen." There are also animated projects in the works. Martin knows that some of these will never come to fruition, but he hopes "several of them do."

As for models Martin would like to emulate for these shows, he said he likes what Marvel Studios is doing in developing shows with different styles. Another model he likes is The Mary Tyler Moore Show model.

"That show generated a number of spinoffs: There was Rhoda, about her friend," Martin said of MTM. "Phyllis got her own show. And the one that really excited me was Lou Grant. They took this character from a sitcom and they made him the hero of a serious journalism show. That's pretty amazing to take a character who is a comic foil and make him the center of a serious show. I'd like to see a range in our shows."

Mary Tyler Moore ran on CBS from 1970 to 1977 and spawned three spin-offs. Rhoda with Valerie Harper and Phyllis with Cloris Leachman were both sitcoms. However, Ed Asner's Lou Grant was totally different and had almost no references to the other MTM shows. Asner remains one of the few actors to play the same character in a comedy and drama series.

House of the Dragon is a drama like Thrones, but it's completely different because there are no characters from the earlier series. Dragon is set almost 200 years before the events in Thrones and centers on House Targaryen and the family's war of succession. It is inspired by Martin's 2018 novel Fire & Blood. Martin is more involved in the series than he was for the last few seasons of Thrones and is credited as co-creator with Ryan Condal. The first episode airs Sunday night on HBO and will be available to stream on HBO Max.