Was Booker a Mistake?

Hollywood.com has included Booker on a list of spin-offs that shouldn't have been. Though I agree with several of the selections, I can't get on board with this one (and that has nothing to do with the whole "just an excuse for Richard Grieco to get naked" thing).

Unlike some shows that made the list (Joey, for example), the writer doesn't actually criticize Booker. Rather, the argument seems to be that it would have made more sense to keep Dennis Booker where he was, as added "edge and man candy" on 21 Jump Street.

Yep, I've totally posted this before...in my very first post.
You know you wanted to see it again.

While I'm sure none of us are going to argue with that characterization, I think that 21 Jump Street ran its course, and I don't think I agree with the writer's suggestion that Grieco's continued presence could have kept the show aloft after Johnny Depp's departure.

What do you think? Did Fox make a mistake spinning Dennis Booker off into his own series? If so, was it an "ugh, that show really sucked" kind of mistake or more of a "wow, 21 Jump Street was so much more awesome before you pulled that character out of it" kind of mistake? Would the original series have lasted longer with Richard to hold our attention?

Minutes to Midnight Update

Last month, we learned that Richard Grieco had been cast as the Sheriff in the upcoming thriller / horror flick Minutes to Midnight. At that point, we knew that Kane Hodder and WWE's John Hennigan would also appear in the film, that the story centered on a series of murders in a ski lodge on New Year's Eve and that Friday the 13th franchise composer Harry Manfredini had signed on for the score.

This week, joblo.com told us that Bill Mosely and John Kapelos had also joined the cast.

More interestingly, the update also included new plot details, including the fact that one of the villains is a painter who uses human blood in his work, to capture the souls of his victims. Though it's a fairly unusual niche, this won't be the first time Grieco has portrayed a character investigating a murderous artist. In The Apostate, Richard stars as a priest drawn in to the investigation of a serial killer when his younger brother becomes a victim.

That role, as you may know, turned out to be life-altering for Grieco. It was co-star Dennis Hopper (the murderous artist) who persuaded Richard to go public with his real-life artwork, now emerging as the cornerstone of his creative and professional life.