There have been proposed spinoffs for many shows. The following are spinoffs that were planned or had one pilot but never materialized after that. Which ones would you have loved to have seen get a chance? If you know of any others please let me know.

1. Jackie(jackee')- the spinoff from the sitcom 227, starring Jackie from Sister, Sister fame.

2. Nick - the spinoff from Family Ties, starring Nick the boyfriend of Mallory. The premise is he moves to NY with his sister.

3. The Facts of Life actually had 3 spinoffs planned and nothing really materialized.
a.) a spinoff featuring Jo's cousins
b.) a spinoff where Natalie moves to NY to become a writer
c.) a spinoff where Blair buys Eastland school and becomes headmaster. That spinoff had Seth Green, Juliet Lewis and the future star of Blossom( I forget her name)

I know there were several others, however, I can't think of them off the top of my head.

I think it would be funny to see how quickly the networks would have pulled the plug on Nick. My guess is that it would not have made it to its 4th episode. I think the rest probably would have made to the 13th episode before being canceled.

Happy Days:
Ralph and Potsie - living together in apartment
Scooby and Scrappy Doo with the Fonz - pulled from last minute by ABC, animated L&S premiered instead.

Laverne & Shirley:
Lenny & Squiggy - no plot known

Brady Bunch:
Kelly's Kids - w/ Ken Barry as a guy who adopts a PC group of kids

I Love Lucy:
The Mertzes- unfortunitely Vivian Vance refused to do this spin-off because she didn't like working with Bill Frawley.


Here's Lucy:
The Lucie Arnaz Show (1973)- CBS didn't accept the pilot. The pilot was actually an episode of Here's Lucy but it served as a pilot for Lucie Arnaz's show.

Does anyone remember when the show Martin ended? The character Pam (Tichina Arnold) was supposed to be in the spinoff, along with Jenna Oy (The Parkers). They were supposed to be working in the music industry at a record label.

The show Martin ended in 1997. I think it lasted 5 years, it is currently in syndication. The show could have gone on for a couple more years, but there was a sexual harrassmant suit filed by Tisha Cambell-Martin against Martin Lawerence.

Martin Lawerence then decided that he had enough.

I never heard of a Tinicha Arnold spinoff, but that would have been great, particularly if they had kept Tommy as her boyfriend.

However, I think that the window of oppurtunity has passed on that possibility, since it has been 5 years since the show has been off the air.

I also believe there was a spinoff planned for the Jeffersons involving their maid Florence. I think the concept had her managing a hotel, but for whatever reason decided to back out of it.

Marla Gibbs did not get her Jefferson spinoff, but she did get her own series on NBC (titled 227), in which she was the lead character as opposed to her supporting role on the Jeffersons.

But I think this talented actress would have been good in a Jefferson's spinoff as well. If she had the courage to stand up to George Jefferson, than she could have stood up to anyone.

Originally posted by briandamage
I also believe there was a spinoff planned for the Jeffersons involving their maid Florence. I think the concept had her managing a hotel, but for whatever reason decided to back out of it.

This did happen, 4 episodes were aired. It was called Checking In. After the show was cancelled, Marla Gibbs returned to The Jeffersons.

When you think about it, it really is a shame that some of these spinoffs never took off. I mean a quality actress like Marla Gibbs was only given 4 episodes of her own show??? I mean shows need time to develop, characters to be established and most importantly a chance for chemistry to arise. Four episodes cannot do that! For some of these other spinoffs that never took off, it's a shame that "The Mertzes" couldn't develop because of foolish bickering. There was a definite magic between Vance and Frawley that would have made that show its own classic.
As for Lenny & Squiggy, it would have been great to see that show come about. I guess Gary Marshall felt that they were too valuable to Laverne & Shirley to spinoff?? What a shame, that too could've possibly been a hit. I suppose that's a reason alot of spinoffs don't happen, because the producer's are afraid that losing these characters will jepardize their current hits. That's why I feel the best characters to do spinoffs with, are the ones that have smaller roles. Like the gym teacher on Growing Pains, Maude, Lionel Jefferson, Mork etc,etc...

One spin off that never made it past the pilot stage was Gary Burghoff in "Radar." CBS did air the pilot during summer, they burned it off, right after an "After Mash" rerun.
Anyone recall "Gloria" a dreadful spin off of "All In the Family?" It's premise was that Gloria and meathead divorced and she was on her own working at a animal clinic outside the city. Carol O'Conner was producer of the pilot but dumped when it went to series by star Sally Struthers. She replaced all of his people and Carol O'Conner was royally pissed for many years. I saw the original pilot that featured Carol. It never aired in this form and shows Archie driving his little girl and Joey in a pick up to her new home. That intro was cut from the aired version and he is never mentioned or seen again in "Gloria" at Carol's command. It was dreadful and canned after one year.
The Mertzes? That's a new one to me. I think it is an urban legend. No spin off was ever in the works that I have ever read or heard about.

Actually, Gloria did mention Archie a few times.

Emergency!!! ,during its run there was a show featuring a team of vets, kinda of like an animal Emergency. TV Land showed it a few times back when they carried Emergency. I remember the scene of Julie London smoking those long cigarettes watching a tv news report about I believe the rescue of an animal. I also believe this was the episode where Dr. Brackett saves a goat at Rampart.

Also during the run of the Brady Bunch there was a show starring Ken Berry ( just after Mayberry RFD ) about him and his adopted kids , I believe that was supposed to have been a spin off too , but that too never happened.

Okay, this isn't a sitcom, but bear with me...
I just remembered an episode of "In The Heat Of The Night" where Bubba Skinner travelled to L.A. to solve a case. It was a real fish out of water episode, with good ol' boy Bubba mixing it up with the ultra hip citizens of Los Angeles. He got mixed up with this big insurance company that wanted him to become a member of thei investigation team. Alas, Bubba decided to return to Sparta.

They tried to spinoff "Horshack" from "Welcome Back Kotter" (don't think that was the title though). ABC did air the pilot. Ironically, the show co-starred John Travolta's sister, Ellen.

I really don't remember Horshack getting his own show, but I really think that the Welcome back Kotter creators wanted to spin off Vinnie Barbarino into his own show. I remember they had the set up as Vinnie had his own place, a girlfriend and a job at a hospital. They probably couldn't do a pilot because John Travolta became a movie star with Saturday Night Fever and decided to leave the show. If somebody can confirm this, I would appreciate it a lot.

As far as I know, Travolta was never going to get a spinoff show. He was a star on the big screen before he left Welcome Back Kotter, there was absolutely no way was he going to come back to the small screen. He had 2 back to back smash hits with Saturday Night Fever and Grease.

I remember the episode of which you speak. Vinnie left school, got a job, etc., but he returned to school at the end of the episode (or was it a 2 parter?).

Travolta was hell-bent on becoming a movie star. He couldn't wait to leave TV.

The "Horshack" pilot aired one Thursday night after "Kotter".

The Emergency !!! spin-off that never took place, saw it today.

Its a part on the actual Emergency, the opening credits and all. Then you see the "extra cast"in their own opening credits. Mark Harmon and Gary Crosby were the only well known stars in the "animal" Emergency.

Instead of paramedics you had a full hour of animal control officers. Surprised this didnt work out.

and Julie London was smoking Salem 100s in the scene where she was watching the animal rescue. I freezed framed it !!

The Nanny also had a spin-off in the works. It would have been called The Chatterbox. The pilot aired as a normal episode of The Nanny. The Chatterbox was the hairdressers that Fran and her maother always went. There was a wannabe actress, a handsome hair stylist, his 12 year old son, the middle aged gay hair dresser and a fiesty oriental manicurist. The show never took off and you can see it sometimes in syndication.:wave:

Who's the Boss was meant to have a Spin off called Mona, the episode of Who's The Boss where Mona moves out was going to be used as the pilot, Mona would move to New York and live with Angela's brother or something. But the executives pulled the plug before filming took place, and instead in the next episode of who's the boss mona decided not to move

Married With Children was meant to have a spin off called Kelly- But Christina Applegate didn't want to do it.

:wave:

Originally posted by webuster
Who's the Boss was meant to have a Spin off called Mona, the episode of Who's The Boss where Mona moves out was going to be used as the pilot, Mona would move to New York and live with Angela's brother or something. But the executives pulled the plug before filming took place, and instead in the next episode of who's the boss mona decided not to move

I saw the special on WHo's the Boss on E or some channel the other night. Apparently they did film a complete "Mona" spinoff pilot, with James B. Sikking of "Hill Street Blues" playing her brother. They showed a clip of it, but I don't think it ever aired.

Call me crazy, but I vaguely remember from my childhood a spinoff of both The 6 million Dollar Man and Woman involving a dog. The 6 Million Dollar Dog!?! I guess the producers tried to squeeze every last penny out of the concept. Anybody remember it???

I believe that was just some gimmick they used on one episode, I don't think they ever intended to do a spinoff..

A bionic dog.

I wonder if he was paper trained, or did he just leave little batteries all over the floor.

;)

LOL:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

A few years back Seinfeld said that he was in talks with NBC for there to be a spinoff of his hit series Seinfeld starring Philip Morris reprising his role as Jackie Chiles.The show was supposed to be called "The Jackie Chiles Show".Sadly that was 2000 and nothing has come out of it :(

The spin-off that upsets me the most is "The Ropers". I liked the show but when it ended after its brief run, I dont think the Ropers were never invited back to Three's Company.

Originally posted by briandamage
There have been proposed spinoffs for many shows. The following are spinoffs that were planned or had one pilot but never materialized after that. Which ones would you have loved to have seen get a chance? If you know of any others please let me know.

1. Jackie(jackee')- the spinoff from the sitcom 227, starring Jackie from Sister, Sister fame.

2. Nick - the spinoff from Family Ties, starring Nick the boyfriend of Mallory. The premise is he moves to NY with his sister.

3. The Facts of Life actually had 3 spinoffs planned and nothing really materialized.
a.) a spinoff featuring Jo's cousins
b.) a spinoff where Natalie moves to NY to become a writer
c.) a spinoff where Blair buys Eastland school and becomes headmaster. That spinoff had Seth Green, Juliet Lewis and the future star of Blossom( I forget her name)

I know there were several others, however, I can't think of them off the top of my head.

Now that's news-i never that Jackee was a possible spinoff from 227

There was also "Kick it with the Fly Girls" an "In Living Color Spinoff"

Originally posted by ThomasE
There was also "Kick it with the Fly Girls" an "In Living Color Spinoff"

Oh man, that is too sad for words.

Originally posted by SOLOMON
Now that's news-i never that Jackee was a possible spinoff from 227

Yes, as a matter of fact, they filmed a couple of episodes, but it never caught on with the network. I remember seeing the pilot on NBC and remembering it wasn't all that bad.

I have the Jackee pilot on tape. But when I pulled it out to view it, I realized the tape is broken. The tape rewound all the way back and broke off!
I may try to fix it and report back. As I remember though she moved to Manhattan and went to work at a men's and women's gym. She had a roommate who was trying to break into Broadway.
And I remember it being good also. Sandra Clarke was just a great character!

Originally posted by baronzzz
I have the Jackee pilot on tape. But when I pulled it out to view it, I realized the tape is broken. The tape rewound all the way back and broke off!
I may try to fix it and report back. As I remember though she moved to Manhattan and went to work at a men's and women's gym. She had a roommate who was trying to break into Broadway.
And I remember it being good also. Sandra Clarke was just a great character!

How long did that show last?

As I remember, it was a pilot that was not picked up. So I think only one episode.

I know its not a sitcom, but the original Star Trek back in the 60's had a show that was intended as a spin off to a totally new show that took place in modern (then) times.

The pilot was the episode Assignment:Earth and it included a guy from the 60s named Gary Seven who was taken by aliens in the 60s and made a super human and put back on earth to save earth from its dumb decisions. It even had a very flaky Terri Garr as his assistant on earth.

It is so obvious it is a spin off, and the way they worked it into the ST universe was totally dorky, and just didnt work.

Well the show didnt either.

Originally posted by Jason3fc


The pilot was the episode Assignment:Earth and it included a guy from the 60s named Gary Seven who was taken by aliens in the 60s and made a super human and put back on earth to save earth from its dumb decisions.

It is so obvious it is a spin off, and the way they worked it into the ST universe was totally dorky, and just didnt work.



Oh, c'mon! That was a classic!

Ok, ok the show on its own was ok, but they should have just piloted it on its own aside from Star Trek I think.

I actually did think Gary and his cat were cool.

What I don't understand is why Checking In had to be cancelled. I was the pilot and 3rd episode at a TV place in NYC, and it was excellent. I also looked in the Neilson Ratings archive, and the show debuted at a strong #12, but then fell in the 30's and 40's. I also don't unstand the hilarious show Oh Madeline's cancellation...because it was a minor-hit in the ratings and was just so great...it ranked at #33 in the end. Gloria was an OK show that should have probably gotten another season...but I think by then, the AITF writers didn't know what was funny and what wasn't. And the biggest one of all....KRISTIN. As a friend of Kirstin Chenoweth, I was cheering her on with this super-funny sitcom...which didn't get ANY chance at all to succeed. She was so heartbroken, I bought her flowers.

i couldn't believe that "Jackee" wasn't listed in my TV show source book! i remember watching the show on Saturday nights after "227". it was on for a few weeks but it never caught on. Jackee's "Sandra" character just wasn't a great thing for a 30 minute show. you know what i mean? the character was hilarious as a side-kick but it would become annoying if the character was the focal point. the same can be said for the Steve Urkel character. if you built a show around a one dimentional caricature like that the novelty would wear off quickly. some wacky characters just aren't wacky without the proper straight-men/women to bounce off of.

speaking of 227, I can almost swear there was a 227/Amen crossover. I know they were on the same night, maybe thats all it was, but It seems that there was another connection. I dont see it mentioned though.

Originally posted by jerry allen
i couldn't believe that "Jackee" wasn't listed in my TV show source book! i remember watching the show on Saturday nights after "227". it was on for a few weeks but it never caught on. Jackee's "Sandra" character just wasn't a great thing for a 30 minute show. you know what i mean? the character was hilarious as a side-kick but it would become annoying if the character was the focal point. the same can be said for the Steve Urkel character. if you built a show around a one dimentional caricature like that the novelty would wear off quickly. some wacky characters just aren't wacky without the proper straight-men/women to bounce off of.

Her character did change from what she used to be on 227. She became much more mature and responsible. The problem was there was no longer a good hearted character like Marla Gibbs' character for Sondra to play off of.

Originally posted by Jason3fc
I know its not a sitcom, but the original Star Trek back in the 60's had a show that was intended as a spin off to a totally new show that took place in modern (then) times.

The pilot was the episode Assignment:Earth and it included a guy from the 60s named Gary Seven who was taken by aliens in the 60s and made a super human and put back on earth to save earth from its dumb decisions. It even had a very flaky Terri Garr as his assistant on earth.



I remember that, and Teri Garr was a babe in that one.

;) :)

This topic intrigued me...so many shows that might have, but never were. Here are a few that came to mind.

On ‘The Twilight Zone’, the “Mr. Bevis” episode was intended as a pilot for a spinoff series, but when the targeted casting (Mr. Burgess Meredith) failed to fall into place, it was just filmed as a regular episode. Then the concept of this ‘pilot’ was extended into the “Cavender is Coming” episode (guest starring Miss Carol Burnett), which may have been a second try to craft a spinoff as a straight out comedy featuring a funny angel...if this had been picked up, we might not have had 'The Carol Burnett Show' instead.

After the tragic death of Mr. George Reeve, the producers of ‘The Adventures of Superman’ filmed a pilot called ‘The Adventures of Superboy’ that would have focused on Superman as a boy (a la ‘Smallville’ or the syndicated ‘Superboy’ series). The pilot was never aired, not picked up, and largely forgotten until the WB created ‘Smallville’, and there was an ensuing legal skirmish over ownership of the copyrights to the Superboy character.

‘Batgirl’ was originally filmed as a short pilot presentation for a ‘Batman’ spinoff that was not picked up, and the Batgirl character was then folded into the ‘Batman’ series for its final season.

The final two episodes of ‘Green Acres’, “Hawaiian Honeymoon” and “The Ex-Secretary”, were both filmed as spin-off pilots to create new non-rural-based extension series.

A 'Charlies Angel’s' spinoff called '_____ Devils' was proposed that would flip the concept of the source show by having a detective agency headed by a woman with good-looking young male detectives. I'm not sure if it was ever filmed or not.

‘Starsky & Hutch’ attempted a spin-off centred on the 'Huggy Bear' character working with a private detective.

‘The Bionic Boy’ was filmed as a 2-hour episode intended as a spin-off from ‘The Six Million Dollar Man’ where Mr. Vincent Van Patten plays the boy outfitted with bionic parts. It was probably too much bionic for ABC at the time, as it came only a year after the network launched ‘The Bionic Woman’ series.

A pilot for ‘The Greatest American Heroine’ was filmed as a spin-off from ‘The Greatest American Hero’, but it wasn’t picked up by ABC. I understand the pilot can be found on the DVD set.

There was supposed to be a ‘Gilmore Girls’ spin-off starring the 'Jesse' character transplanted to California (a la ‘Private Practice’), and it was tried out for an episode, but never proceeded to series.

There was a proposed ‘Charmed Sons’ spin-off from WB’s ‘Charmed’ that sat on the back-burner a long time and was never filmed.

‘Cherry Hill’ was a pilot concept from ‘Prison Break’ that was supposed to be about women behind bars, but I don’t think it went beyond presentation stage.

“Dawn Budge" starring Miss Rosie O’Donnell was an episode filmed as a potential pilot for a spin-off from ‘F/X’, and her character came back in several additional episodes.

‘Smallville’ has had two spin-off pilots that are theoretically still in play. ‘Aquaman’, which was based on a character first introduced on ‘Smallville’ but then re-cast at pilot with the actor who now plays the Green Arrow. Currently, I’ve heard that a ‘Green Arrow’ spin-off is under consideration by The CW as a potential ‘Smallville’ extension series.

‘The It Girl’ has been talked about as a ‘Gossip Girl’ spinoff.

Although some decry the spin-off as a creatively bankrupt, I think they are an ideal way to expand a set of characters and take them in new directions. So many spin-offs have been brilliant executions...'Frasier' and 'Maude' both come to mind.

speaking of 227, I can almost swear there was a 227/Amen crossover. I know they were on the same night, maybe thats all it was, but It seems that there was another connection. I dont see it mentioned though.

kind of sherman hemesly appeared on 227 as a differnt charactor they wanted him to be deacon fye but he wanted be someone else hope it helps

This topic intrigued me...so many shows that might have, but never were. Here are a few that came to mind.

On ‘The Twilight Zone’, the “Mr. Bevis” episode was intended as a pilot for a spinoff series, but when the targeted casting (Mr. Burgess Meredith) failed to fall into place, it was just filmed as a regular episode. Then the concept of this ‘pilot’ was extended into the “Cavender is Coming” episode (guest starring Miss Carol Burnett), which may have been a second try to craft a spinoff as a straight out comedy featuring a funny angel...if this had been picked up, we might not have had 'The Carol Burnett Show' instead

Do you have any proof that Burgess Meredith was originally targeted for the the "Mr. Bevis" role? This is the first I've heard about it. "Cavender is Coming" wouldn't have had any affect on The Carol Burnett Show because it was supposed to be a spinoff for Jesse White who as apprentice angel Harmon Cavender would visit Earth each week to try and help some deserving citizen. Carol Burnett's Agnes Grep character was only intended for that one episode.

Do you have any proof that Burgess Meredith was originally targeted for the the "Mr. Bevis" role? This is the first I've heard about it.
It's pretty widely known that Mr. Meredith was supposed to be Mr. Bevis.

Here's a source:

http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=1:198314

It's pretty widely known that Mr. Meredith was supposed to be Mr. Bevis.

Here's a source:

http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=1:198314

Thanks, Still can't believe I wasn't aware of this or at least I don't recall ever hearing about it. I'm glad you gave a somewhat credible source rather that IMDb or Wikipedia.

They tried to spinoff "Horshack" from "Welcome Back Kotter" (don't think that was the title though). ABC did air the pilot. Ironically, the show co-starred John Travolta's sister, Ellen.

The Horshack spinoff aired as a Welcome Back, Kotter episode. During the second season, I think. It showed him at home with his brothers and sisters. After seeing it, I'm glad they didn't go forward with it, because the characters were pretty annoying and I don't think it would have lasted.

The Lenny and Squiggy spinoff was titled Lenny And Squiggy Join The Army or something like that. They were the only good thing about Laverne & Shirley, so I'm glad they didn't go forward with it. I'm not sure if they shot an actual pilot show for that or not.

They wanted to give Fonzie his own spinoff from Happy Days, but Henry Winkler wisely vetoed that. He knew he had a good thing with a great cast and already was on a hit show, so why would he want to mess with that?

‘Batgirl’ was originally filmed as a short pilot presentation for a ‘Batman’ spinoff that was not picked up, and the Batgirl character was then folded into the ‘Batman’ series for its final season.

The reason for the short Batgirl pilot film was not to give the character her own series, but rather, for the show's producers to sell the concept of bringing Batgirl onto the show to the ABC programming executives.

The show's ratings had dropped precipitously in the second season and the producers thought bringing Batgirl into the mix would be a surefire gimmick that would help restore the show's falling ratings. It wasn't.

The spin-off that upsets me the most is "The Ropers". I liked the show but when it ended after its brief run, I dont think the Ropers were never invited back to Three's Company.

From what I've read, Norman Fell didn't want to do the spinoff, but was pressured into it by the Three's Company producers. There was a clause in Fell's Ropers contract that said if the show was cancelled within the first year, he and Audra Lindley's characters would be allowed back on Company.

The show's producers and the network knew the show was to be cancelled, but they waited until after the year ran out. Shortly after the year anniversary, the show was officially cancelled.

Fell tried to get back on Three's Company but was told that it was over a year, too bad.

I think he and Audra Lindley were screwed. I never liked the Ralph Furley character and the Ropers' return would have been most welcome to me.:(

just wanted to add to Brian Damage's original post re: FOL spinoffs--he left off two. 1) Brian and Sylvia starring a then unknown Richard Dean Anderson and Lynne Moody as Tootie's aunt who marries a white guy (the pilot is boring as all get out) 2) Two episodes focused on Stone Military Academy, and would have starred Jimmy Baio as the Jo type male character, while the others were the counterparts to Blair, Natalie and Tootie.

I know of a couple:

There was a spin-off to the NICKELODEON 90s sitcom Clarissa Explains It All in the works after the show ended.
It was called Clarissa Now and it was set to be picked up by CBS. The premise of this one was showing "Clarissa" (Melissa Joan Hart) working as an intern for a New York City newspaper.
For whatever reason CBS choose not to do the series and only the pilot was filmed. I am not sure if CBS ever released the pilot but NICKELODEON did show it a few times.
One year later, Melissa Joan Hart went on to star in Sabrina, The Teenage Witch.




In 1995, a television sitcom based off of the Kevin Smith film Clerks. was in the works. Kevin Smith and nobody from "his world" were part of it, as they were filming his 2nd film Mallrats during this time.
The sitcom was supposed to be about the daily lives of Dante and Randall (the characters from the film Clerks.) working in the grocery store. However, it was set to be toned down greatly for the television audience and was set to feature "Saved By The Bell-ish" problems rather than the more adult tones used in the film
The filming of the pilot stopped mid-way and footage from this has never been seen in public. Keri Russell was said to have been involved with it.
*Clerks. did come to tv once more. A short-lived animated series aired on ABC twice in 1999 before being pulled.

Here's another one that I remembered, though it is not a sitcom.

A spin-off to Buffy the Vampire Slayer was being considered by creator Joss Whedon. It was to focus on the character "Faith" (played by Eliza Dushku).

This premise never got past the planning stages and nothing ever materialized. Eliza Dushku was more interested in the show Tru Calling at the time, which turned out not being very successful and only lasted 2 seasons.

ANGEL was the spin-off that came from Buffy and had a good run of 5 seasons.

From what I've read, Norman Fell didn't want to do the spinoff, but was pressured into it by the Three's Company producers. There was a clause in Fell's Ropers contract that said if the show was cancelled within the first year, he and Audra Lindley's characters would be allowed back on Company.

The show's producers and the network knew the show was to be cancelled, but they waited until after the year ran out. Shortly after the year anniversary, the show was officially cancelled.

Fell tried to get back on Three's Company but was told that it was over a year, too bad.

I think he and Audra Lindley were screwed. I never liked the Ralph Furley character and the Ropers' return would have been most welcome to me.:(oh; sothat's what the real story about that is! I remember, about 10 years ago, "THE E! TRUE HOLLYWOOD STORY" did an episode about "THREE'S COMPANY" and in an interview with Norman Fell where he was talking about "THE ROPERS" he said that he left "TC" with the understanding that he could return if "TR" failed, like you said. But when it did "I said to them 'Allright, now I can go back to THREE'S COMPANY, right? And they said 'Oh no, you can't go back. We've recast your part'. So I was screwed".

And I've been thinking all these years that theres got to be more to that story.

oh; sothat's what the real story about that is! I remember, about 10 years ago, "THE E! TRUE HOLLYWOOD STORY" did an episode about "THREE'S COMPANY" and in an interview with Norman Fell where he was talking about "THE ROPERS" he said that he left "TC" with the understanding that he could return if "TR" failed, like you said. But when it did "I said to them 'Allright, now I can go back to THREE'S COMPANY, right? And they said 'Oh no, you can't go back. We've recast your part'. So I was screwed".

And I've been thinking all these years that theres got to be more to that story.

I think I read it in the book, Come And Knock On Our Door. It seemed like after the third season, Three's Company started to fall apart. It got its bearings back in the sixth season, but it was never the same.

I dont know if this show ever got past the idea stage, but I read an interview once with Steve Kanaly and he was talking about the creators of Dallas doing a Ray and Donna spinoff(kinda like what they did with Gary and Val for Knots Landing). I'm glad they didnt because Ray was an important part of the show.

I dont know if this show ever got past the idea stage, but I read an interview once with Steve Kanaly and he was talking about the creators of Dallas doing a Ray and Donna spinoff(kinda like what they did with Gary and Val for Knots Landing). I'm glad they didnt because Ray was an important part of the show.

I don't think Ray was a strong enough character to have his own show. He was better as a supporting character, IMO.

Happy Days: Ralph and Potsie - living together in apartment


Even tho I love the Guys ... I don't think, that would have worked for a long Run. Shrugs.

Even tho I love the Guys ... I don't think, that would have worked for a long Run. Shrugs.

Some characters are better in supporting roles.

I remember a couple that never got off the ground on CBS:

In the summer of 1978, I remember reading in a magazine (I think it was US which ran bi-weekly) that the upcoming season of "Rhoda" was going to marry off 'Rhoda's' sister 'Brenda' to 'Benny' and eventually 'spin off' "Brenda" to Connecticuit in early 1979.

Sure enough, Brenda's engagement was written into the storyline of Rhoda's 5th season, but "Rhoda" was cancelled in early December, 1978 - without Brenda's wedding taking place. (Didn't CBS realize 'married' women in MTM productions were not that funny?)

In May, 1986 CBS wanted to spin-off "Julia", a character introduced in one episode of their hit sitcom "Kate and Allie" (which served as the 'pilot').

'Julia' was played by actress Lindsay Wagner; the character was a recently divorced woman who moves back to NYC from LA. She was a full-time drama teacher, and taught cooking classes on the side - which is how she meets her new friends. I remember it was not a funny episode and luckily CBS never followed through with it.

back in the 60s; Gene Rodenberry wanted to make a spin-off of "STAR TREK". I forget what it was going to be called, but it would have been about a man named Gary Seven who was a human raised by aliens, or something like that. The pilot aired as an episode of "STAR TREK".

Oh yeah, wasn't there a spin-off of M*A*S*H that never went anywhere? I believe it was supposed to be on "Radar" and was called W*A*L*T*E*R. I think only the pilot was made.

I'm sure someone has mentioned "The Metzes" which would've happened if Vivian Vance wasn't such an evil stubborn bitter woman.

She WAS evil because she celebrated once she heard William Frawley died and that's just sickening. There was no reason to hate him since he was an actor just like she was so she should've never held such ill will towards him.

There have been proposed spinoffs for many shows. The following are spinoffs that were planned or had one pilot but never materialized after that. Which ones would you have loved to have seen get a chance? If you know of any others please let me know.

1. Jackie(jackee')- the spinoff from the sitcom 227, starring Jackie from Sister, Sister fame.

2. Nick - the spinoff from Family Ties, starring Nick the boyfriend of Mallory. The premise is he moves to NY with his sister.

3. The Facts of Life actually had 3 spinoffs planned and nothing really materialized.
a.) a spinoff featuring Jo's cousins
b.) a spinoff where Natalie moves to NY to become a writer
c.) a spinoff where Blair buys Eastland school and becomes headmaster. That spinoff had Seth Green, Juliet Lewis and the future star of Blossom( I forget her name)

I know there were several others, however, I can't think of them off the top of my head.

HOW do you know these spinoffs were planned at all? You have a link for them being planned but never happening?

Nick would've been good IF Mallory was with him. They had a good chemistry together.

I remember a couple that never got off the ground on CBS:

In the summer of 1978, I remember reading in a magazine (I think it was US which ran bi-weekly) that the upcoming season of "Rhoda" was going to marry off 'Rhoda's' sister 'Brenda' to 'Benny' and eventually 'spin off' "Brenda" to Connecticuit in early 1979.

Sure enough, Brenda's engagement was written into the storyline of Rhoda's 5th season, but "Rhoda" was cancelled in early December, 1978 - without Brenda's wedding taking place. (Didn't CBS realize 'married' women in MTM productions were not that funny?)

In May, 1986 CBS wanted to spin-off "Julia", a character introduced in one episode of their hit sitcom "Kate and Allie" (which served as the 'pilot').

'Julia' was played by actress Lindsay Wagner; the character was a recently divorced woman who moves back to NYC from LA. She was a full-time drama teacher, and taught cooking classes on the side - which is how she meets her new friends. I remember it was not a funny episode and luckily CBS never followed through with it.
I think the only funny married woman on an MTM-produced show was Emily Hartley (Suzanne Pleshette) of The Bob Newhart Show. Then again, she and Bob were already married when the show began, so what do I know? :lol:

Oh yeah, wasn't there a spin-off of M*A*S*H that never went anywhere? I believe it was supposed to be on "Radar" and was called W*A*L*T*E*R. I think only the pilot was made.

Yes, and it was shown one time in the summer of 1984.

Back in those days, if a pilot didn't sell, they often would show them during the summer as "specials."

The W*A*L*T*E*R pilot is on You tube. He played a rookie cop, of all things.

yea, "W*A*LT*E*R" was only shown once, but only in a couple parts of the country. It was set a year after he guest-starred on "AFTER MASH". Clips from it and info. are on the site bestcareanywhere.net

Yes, and it was shown one time in the summer of 1984.

Back in those days, if a pilot didn't sell, they often would show them during the summer as "specials."

The W*A*L*T*E*R pilot is on You tube. He played a rookie cop, of all things.

I don't really know much about W*A*L*T*E*R. What do you think was the downfall... or lack of interest in this?

Also, was this made before or after the spin-off AfterMASH? While that one wasn't successful either it ran for 2 seasons.

I think it was made at the same time, and it was made in 1986 not 84 (I think).

I think the only funny married woman on an MTM-produced show was Emily Hartley (Suzanne Pleshette) of The Bob Newhart Show. Then again, she and Bob were already married when the show began, so what do I know? :lol:


You're right! :lol:

You would think that the writers would have learned their lesson when they married off Rhoda, and then quickly 'divorced' her. The Morgenstern sisters were much funnier as single ladies, not married women. I realize the storyline for Brenda was going nowhere, so marriage was the next step. However, how funny was she and Benny together - funny enough to carry their own show? Or would Brenda become the new Rhoda (who became the new Mary on her own show) and have a single frumpy neighbor to mentor as her best friend? Would the audience have had to rely on 'guest turns' from 'Rhoda' and 'Ida' every few weeks to make them laugh?

I guess, in a way, I'm kind of glad we were left 'hanging' with Brenda's engagement. :crazy:

I think it was made at the same time, and it was made in 1986 not 84 (I think).

It aired in the summer of 1984. I remember watching it.

You're right! :lol:

You would think that the writers would have learned their lesson when they married off Rhoda, and then quickly 'divorced' her. The Morgenstern sisters were much funnier as single ladies, not married women. I realize the storyline for Brenda was going nowhere, so marriage was the next step. However, how funny was she and Benny together - funny enough to carry their own show? Or would Brenda become the new Rhoda (who became the new Mary on her own show) and have a single frumpy neighbor to mentor as her best friend? Would the audience have had to rely on 'guest turns' from 'Rhoda' and 'Ida' every few weeks to make them laugh?

I guess, in a way, I'm kind of glad we were left 'hanging' with Brenda's engagement. :crazy:
You're right - we'll never know what could've happened. :lol:

You're right! :lol:

You would think that the writers would have learned their lesson when they married off Rhoda, and then quickly 'divorced' her. The Morgenstern sisters were much funnier as single ladies, not married women. I realize the storyline for Brenda was going nowhere, so marriage was the next step. However, how funny was she and Benny together - funny enough to carry their own show? Or would Brenda become the new Rhoda (who became the new Mary on her own show) and have a single frumpy neighbor to mentor as her best friend? Would the audience have had to rely on 'guest turns' from 'Rhoda' and 'Ida' every few weeks to make them laugh?

I guess, in a way, I'm kind of glad we were left 'hanging' with Brenda's engagement. :crazy:

Brenda ended up going into the witness protection program. She now lives in Springfield.

Two other shows - one from nearly forty years ago, one from a few days ago - that never made it as a 'spin-off'.

From nearly 40 years ago...
I've been reading a Fred MacMurray biography, and in it there's a mention that "Robbie, Katie and the triplets" were to be spun-off from "My Three Sons" in the tenth season.

An episode was devoted to just them in May, 1970 (the young couple dealing with their newborns) to serve as the pilot, but CBS decided against giving them their own show in the Fall. The clan stuck around with MacMurray and the others until the show went off the air in 1972, which was their twelfth season.

From a few nights ago...
Many TV viewers were wondering why NBC stuck an episode of 'The Office' on right after the Superbowl this past Sunday night. Everyone knows that this is considered the best slot of the TV season (with millions of viewers hanging on to watch), and usually a network launches a new show in this slot.

Turns out, NBC had big plans to launch an "Office" spin-off...but plans for the spin-off were abruptly cut short, which left NBC with no other choice but to stick an ep of "The Office" in it's place.

Whoops! After a little more research, I stand corrected on the above post regarding "My Three Sons"!

The pilot aired in March, 1971 with the spin-off scheduled for September, 1971 (the twelfth season). The show was tentatively titled "After The Honeymoon" which was to focus on Rob and Katie's life with the triplets, in their own home away from the Douglas' brood to help out. The pilot itslef was about the couple finding a place to live with their three sons in their new city (I believe the storyline was that Robbie's job forced them to move away).

CBS didn't pick up the series for the upcoming season (1971-72) and Don Grady (Robbie) and Tina Cole (Katie) did NOT return for the twelfth season on 'My Three Sons', since they were written out the previous season.

Sorry for any confusion!:crazy:

Brenda ended up going into the witness protection program. She now lives in Springfield.
She dyed her hair blue and wears it in a gigantic beehive. :lol:

She dyed her hair blue and wears it in a gigantic beehive. :lol:

Yes, but don't tell anybody.

Yes, but don't tell anybody.
My lips are sealed. ;) :rofl:

Let's not forget that there was strong talk of Sheila James's character from 'Many Loves of Dobie Gillis' being spun off into 'Zelda' but it didn't happen and only in recent years did Sheila Keuhl reveal why. Someone at the network evidently got wind of rumors of the actress being a lesbian and killed the project! Thankfully, rather than spend the rest of her life in obscurity nursing her wounds , Ms. Keuhl went to law school became a lawyer, an advocate of women's rights and has since become a politician in California!

^ I never knew that a Zelda spinoff was a possibility. Cool. :cool:

Let's not forget that there was strong talk of Sheila James's character from 'Many Loves of Dobie Gillis' being spun off into 'Zelda' but it didn't happen and only in recent years did Sheila Keuhl reveal why. Someone at the network evidently got wind of rumors of the actress being a lesbian and killed the project!

These days, it would be the exact opposite.

These days, it would be the exact opposite.
:yeahthat They'd jump at the chance to make Zelda a lesbian these days!

As for Lenny & Squiggy, it would have been great to see that show come about. I guess Gary Marshall felt that they were too valuable to Laverne & Shirley to spinoff?? What a shame, that too could've possibly been a hit. I suppose that's a reason alot of spinoffs don't happen, because the producer's are afraid that losing these characters will jepardize their current hits. That's why I feel the best characters to do spinoffs with, are the ones that have smaller roles. Like the gym teacher on Growing Pains, Maude, Lionel Jefferson, Mork etc,etc...

Personally I don't think that would have worked, too much Lenny and Squiggy would have gotten old quick.

I always wondered if the episode of Matlock that featured George Peppard was a planned spin-off, the whole episode was centered around him as a private investigator(and I think a girl he was helping that might have been his daughter??)...Sadly though if it was, it wouldn't have lasted since he passed that year:(

I know it's not a spin-off, but there were two failed attempts at an American version of the British sitcom- Red Dwarf. Jane Leeves played Holly the ships computer. Terry Farrell played the Cat in one of the versions.

Personally I don't think that would have worked, too much Lenny and Squiggy would have gotten old quick.
I agree. :lol:

I agree. :lol:

And without Laverne or Shirley, whose door would they have barged through?

Personally I don't think that would have worked, too much Lenny and Squiggy would have gotten old quick.

Supporting characters are there for a reason. They were there to provide a punchline and comic relief. Lenny and Squiggy are best in small doses.

And without Laverne or Shirley, whose door would they have barged through?
I know!! :lol:

Another one I remembered that never materialized:

There was supposed to be a sitcom on FOX based off of The Devil Wears Prada novel and motion picture of the same name.

Word is, is that it was going to be pitched around the same time of Ugly Betty and they felt that this would not catch on over that show. As a result Prada never got green-lighted.

Hi all! I usually hang out at the Unsolved Mysteries board.

Regarding the Devil Wears Prada, I actually think that's one concept that could have worked better as a sitcom than a movie.

Isn't some other network doing a similar thing only not a sitcom, more like a backstabbing, cutthroat type show called Damages? I haven't seen that.

Personally, I would have liked a "devil wears prada" sitcom.

There was supposed to be a spinoff of Gilmore Girls that was supposed to focus on Jess living in California with his father.

Wasn't there supposed to be a spinoff of the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air with Carlton in it that never happened?

Another spinoff that never happened was supposed by a show about female paramedics that was supposed to be spun off from Strong Medicine.

back in the 70s, there was talk about doing a spin-off of "ALL IN THE FAMILY" about a priest who was on the show named Father Muljecy, or something.

And I think I remember reading somewhere back then that they were thinking of spining off Lenny and Squiggy from "LAVERNE & SHIRLEY".

Maybe someone else knows more info. on this.

I heard that after One Day at a Time ended that they were considering giving Pat Harrington Jr. (Schneider) his own show but nothing ever happened.

The pilot for the proposed Schneider spinoff actually aired as the final episode of "One Day at a Time". Schneider moved to Florida to take care of his orphaned niece and nephew (who was played by Corey Feldman).

As for Robbie and Katie on "My Three Sons": after the proposed spinoff didn't sell, Tina Cole (Katie) did return to MTS for the final season. In the storyline, Katie moved back to North Hollywood to live with Steve and family while Rob was temporarily transferred to Brazil (Don Grady had left the show).

The pilot for the proposed Schneider spinoff actually aired as the final episode of "One Day at a Time". Schneider moved to Florida to take care of his orphaned niece and nephew (who was played by Corey Feldman).

Thanks for the note on that.

What about the Full House spin-off that John Stamos had planned, which he was to reprise the role of Jesse, as well as Candace and Jodie to reprise their roles as DJ and Steph.

Now he's moved to the idea of a Full House full-feature film, where the roles in the movie will be played by a new cast, rather than the original tv cast.

The pilot for the proposed Schneider spinoff actually aired as the final episode of "One Day at a Time". Schneider moved to Florida to take care of his orphaned niece and nephew (who was played by Corey Feldman).

As for Robbie and Katie on "My Three Sons": after the proposed spinoff didn't sell, Tina Cole (Katie) did return to MTS for the final season. In the storyline, Katie moved back to North Hollywood to live with Steve and family while Rob was temporarily transferred to Brazil (Don Grady had left the show).


Ann and the Girls was not in that episode of One Day at a Time right?

The pilot for the proposed Schneider spinoff actually aired as the final episode of "One Day at a Time". Schneider moved to Florida to take care of his orphaned niece and nephew (who was played by Corey Feldman).

Schneider definitely would have had his hands full with Corey Feldman, that's for sure.

In this week's very special episode, Schneider and his nephew visit a methadone clinic.

Ann and the Girls was not in that episode of One Day at a Time right?
I chose not to watch that episode and have never seen it. Ann left for London the week before so I consider that the final episode. I don't know if Barbara was in this episode ( I know Julie wasn't and I'm pretty sure Ann wasn't).

I chose not to watch that episode and have never seen it. Ann left for London the week before so I consider that the final episode. I don't know if Barbara was in this episode ( I know Julie wasn't and I'm pretty sure Ann wasn't).


Just realized that was a dumb question because I actually have the 5/21/84 CBS airing of the last ep with Ann and the Girls leaving the apt-lol

Correction regarding corrected info on a My Three Sons spinoff that didn't happen:

CBS didn't pick up the series for the upcoming season (1971-72) and Don Grady (Robbie) and Tina Cole (Katie) did NOT return for the twelfth season on 'My Three Sons', since they were written out the previous season.

Tina Cole (Katie) and the triplets DID appear in the final season (Season 12). Only Don Grady (Rob) opted not to continue on My Three Sons. They were never written out; Rob was always away, but Katie and the boys never left.

Note that several Season 12 episodes feature Katie (12.8, 12.10. 12.13, 12.14):

http://www.tv.com/my-three-sons/show/1349/episode.html?tag=page_nav;episode

This mis-info about Tina's appearances may stem from IMDb, which has not yet documented her many M3S episodes.

There was the possibility of a Laverne & Shirley spinoff titled "Lenny and Squiggy in the Army" but it never happened, thus saving a potential shark jump.

There was the possibility of a Laverne & Shirley spinoff titled "Lenny and Squiggy in the Army" but it never happened, thus saving a potential shark jump.

Yes, but there was a short-lived cartoon called Laverne & Shirley In The Army around the same time that L&S jumped the shark by moving to California.

Maybe Lenny & Squiggy should have spun off once the show relocated -- it was never the same after the move.

There was a proposed spin-off to Roseanne that fell through due to contract negotiations failing between FOX and ABC.

Roseanne Barr decided to stop negotiating it and chose not to do the character further after the show ended.

It seems to me they tried to make a spin-off from Eight is Enough with Grant Goodeve as David being an adventurer or something.

in the 70s, they were going to make a spin-off from "ALL IN THE FAMILY" about Fr. Muljeshky; who was a priest on some of the early episode; played by Benard Hughes.

Diagnosis: Murder had three attempts to launch a spin-off and all of them failed to get picked up.


- The first attempt at a spin-off was an episode in Season 5 called "A Mime Is A Terrible Thing To Waste". The name of the proposed spin-off is unknown.

- The second attempt was also in Season 5 as a two-part episode named "Retribution" meant to star Fred Dryer as "The Chief". It did not get picked up.

- The final attempt was in Season 6 in an episode called "Blood Ties". It was meant to launch "Detective Amy Devlin" (Kathy Evison) and "Detective Taylor Lucas" (Zoe McLellan) into their own show titled Whistlers which never got picked up.

there was an attempt to make a spin-off of "STAR TREK" in its second season, about a character named Gary Seven and his partner Roberta Lincoln (played by Terri Garr). The pilot was shown as an episode of "STAR TREK" but the show never materialized.

On ‘The Twilight Zone’, the “Mr. Bevis” episode was intended as a pilot for a spinoff series, but when the targeted casting (Mr. Burgess Meredith) failed to fall into place, it was just filmed as a regular episode. Then the concept of this ‘pilot’ was extended into the “Cavender is Coming” episode (guest starring Miss Carol Burnett), which may have been a second try to craft a spinoff as a straight out comedy featuring a funny angel...if this had been picked up, we might not have had 'The Carol Burnett Show' instead.


The episode "Cavender is Coming" was the basis for a proposed series starring Jesse White who returns to Earth each week as an angel to help those like Agnes Grep but of course it never materialized. It also had nothing to do with whether or not The Carol Burnett Show would've been seen since the series was never intended for her.

The recent sci-fi series Andromeda was supposed to get a spin-off.

During the filming of the final season the surviving cast members (who weren't going to be killed off) were attempting to pitch their own show as a continutation of the series.

It never happened.

I would have liked to have seen Faith, the Vampire Slayer but the actress wanted to do something different. I can understand that.

I thought they were going to do a spinoff of Sabrina with her cousin in that witches school.

I would have liked to have seen Faith, the Vampire Slayer but the actress wanted to do something different. I can understand that.

I thought they were going to do a spinoff of Sabrina with her cousin in that witches school.

The "Faith" spin-off I don't think ever got past them talking about it or the planning stages. I believe Whedon gave the idea to Dusku but she was set on leaving for Tru Calling and the idea was scrapped.

I'm unfamiliar with Sabrina so I can't help with that one.

The "Faith" spin-off I don't think ever got past them talking about it or the planning stages. I believe Whedon gave the idea to Dusku but she was set on leaving for Tru Calling and the idea was scrapped.

I'm unfamiliar with Sabrina so I can't help with that one.


Thanks for the clarification. They wanted to do a spinoff of WonderWoman with Debra Winger as Wonder Girl but she turned it down then they wanted another spinoff with the actress from the Facts of Life. It could have been good but that was scrapped for whatever reason.

Thanks for the clarification. They wanted to do a spinoff of WonderWoman with Debra Winger as Wonder Girl but she turned it down then they wanted another spinoff with the actress from the Facts of Life. It could have been good but that was scrapped for whatever reason.

Who from Facts of Life?

Wasnt their rumours of a spin off Will @ Grace,called Jack @ Karen

I remember a couple that never got off the ground on CBS:

In the summer of 1978, I remember reading in a magazine (I think it was US which ran bi-weekly) that the upcoming season of "Rhoda" was going to marry off 'Rhoda's' sister 'Brenda' to 'Benny' and eventually 'spin off' "Brenda" to Connecticuit in early 1979.

Sure enough, Brenda's engagement was written into the storyline of Rhoda's 5th season, but "Rhoda" was cancelled in early December, 1978 - without Brenda's wedding taking place. (Didn't CBS realize 'married' women in MTM productions were not that funny?)
In 1980, they also wanted to spin-off Carlton in an animated series called "Carlton Your Doorman."

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0302387/

I vaguely remember an episode of "Married... with Children" that was an attempted spin-off promoting itself as an "Anti-Friends" kind of show.

"That's So Raven's" episode "Goin' Hollywood" was intended as a spin-off about a child actress(Alyson Stoner) seeking a normal life with help from her cousin(Allie Grant) called "I Know Lindy."


A lot of times you can just tell when a TV episode is an attempted spin-off. If it focuses more on a guest star than the main cast, it's often a clue that it's a spin-off.

This one's not a sitcom, but I had to mention my favorite show.:)
In the 7th. season, there was "The Coltons" episode of MacGyver that was intended to be a spin-off series about the bounty-hunting exploits of the Colton family. I imagine MacGyver and possibly other characters may have made the occasional guest star appearance. I would've watched it.
For another potential spin-off from a show that is a sitcom, I have heard that Charles in Charge had some potential spin-offs. In the 5th. season, the episodes "Fair Exchange" and "Almost Family" were apparently spin-off attempts revolving around previously unseen distant family members of Charles and/or the Powells. That seems kind of weird in itself, since most sitcom spin-offs typically take existing characters from a hit show and put them in their own series.

The following from the DVD release notes of Bonanza:

"One of the season's final episodes, "The Avenger, is essentially a showcase for guest star Vic Morrow as a man named Lassiter, whose heightened sense of justice was forged years earlier when his parents were lynched.

"The Avenger" was clearly intended as the pilot for a spin-off series, but nothing came of it; Morrow would have to wait two years before landing his own weekly program, 'Combat'."

The episode "Cavender is Coming" was the basis for a proposed series starring Jesse White who returns to Earth each week as an angel to help those like Agnes Grep but of course it never materialized. It also had nothing to do with whether or not The Carol Burnett Show would've been seen since the series was never intended for her.

I remember seeing "Cavender Is Coming" as a rerun of TZ when I was a teen, and it aired w/ a laugh track, which seemed very unusual to me. Marc Scott Zicree mentions the laugh track for this ep in his book. Since then, I've seen the ep both on Sci-Fi Channel and DVD, and the laughs have been removed. It may have been an interesting DVD option, similar to what I have heard has been done for M*A*S*H on DVD, to watch this ep w/ or w/o the laugh track.

Smallville was supposed to get a spin-off called Aquaman; coming off the Season Five episode "Aqua".

The Aquaman pilot was made but it never made it to airing. However, the studio made it available for purchase on the iTunes store.

Also, Best Buy had it available in specially marked Smallville DVD sets as an exclusive bonus disc.

I'm unfamiliar with Sabrina so I can't help with that one.

It aired on an episode Sabrina as a backdoor pilot. I think it was called Witch Wright Hall. It would have starred MJH younger sister.

Another spinoff that never happened was on Married With Children. Was about college radio station at Bud's college.

The NBC drama "Heroes" was scheduled to have a spinoff show called "Heroes: Origins" but thanks to the writers strike, they show was canned.

The most FAMOUS spinoff that never was....The MERTZES!

They could've come up with enough storylines to just do ONE season but Vivian Vance was an EVIL woman for actually wishing DEATH on William Frawley!

There are plenty of people in the history of hollywood who don't get along but still work together and act PROFESSIONAL. Vivian obviously didn't know how to behave professionally and acted like spoiled little brat!!

Prison Break was supposed to get a spin-off series that was to take place in a female prison.

The characters that were due to appear were in a few eps. of the series and the direct-to-DVD movie The Final Break.

Prison Break was supposed to get a spin-off series that was to take place in a female prison.

The characters that were due to appear were in a few eps. of the series and the direct-to-DVD movie The Final Break.

That would've bombed. Female prisons aren't exactly exciting.

That would've bombed. Female prisons aren't exactly exciting.

That may be true considering "The L Word" was suppose to have a spinoff about a female prison and Showtime decided not to pick it up.

I saw the projected spinoff of Emergency!, called 905 Wild. It is virtually unendurable, to the point you almost begin to wonder seriously if they wanted it to be that bad, they seemed to put so much effort into making it that way!

This is my speculation based on nothing at all but what I saw...maybe someone can confirm or deny my suspicions definitively...I think the producers were looking to keep the slot soon to be vacated by Adam 12 by selling the network on another half-hour show and conceived a pilot accordingly. The decision was made to film it as an episode of Emergency! without enough time to properly rework it, so that everything that happens--to the extent that anything happens at all--takes twice as long as it needs to. Establishing shots, reaction shots, pauses between passages of dialog--you name it, it if will fill time, they doubled it!

Too bad really. With the talented cast assembled, it might have been a cute little show. But the presentation was sooooo woeful (it needed fixing up far beyond just shortening up) it didn't have a lamb's chance in hades.

Besides "Faith the Vampire Slayer" Buffy had a few undeveloped spin-off attempts:



"Buffy the Animated Series"

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e10/JamesGrec/BuffyAnimated.jpg


An animated series called Buffy the Animated Series was originally greenlit by FOX in 2002 for FOX Kids.

However, FOX Kids ended shortly after and no other netork was interested.

Then in 2004 FOX showed interest in developing and then selling the show to another network. However, the darker tones and elements of the cartoon made it difficult for other networks to fit it in with their regular children's programming.

Creator Joss Whedon officially declared the series dead in 2005.


*Note - A 4-minute pilot was the only thing made from this series that was used to sell it to the networks. It got leaked on the internet sometime in the years past.

All of the main cast from the show reprised their roles for the series with the exception of Sarah Michelle Gellar who didn't want to do it.

Replacing her voice as "Buffy" was voice actress Giselle Loren who had done "Buffy's" voice for the video games based off of the show.





"Ripper"

There were talks of a spin-off show featuring "Giles" played by Anthony Stuart Head titled his nick-name Ripper.

Talks came originally in 2001 for it to be a mini-series for BBC television.

Then around 2005 there was word it was to be a made-for-DVD movie.

Then at Comic-Con in 2007 Joss Whedon mentioned that it was to be a 90-minute tv-special on BBC.

Shortly after Anthony Head and Joss Whedon became involved with other projects so Ripper was put on hold.

Joss Whedon's last comments on Ripper was in 2008 when he mentioned it might become to problematic with the rights and that he was committed to Dollhouse.


*Note - Since the cancellation of Dollhouse there hasn't been any new word on what's going on with Ripper and many fans are waiting to hear from Whedon.





"Slayer School"

Slayer School was an attempted spin-off that never got past talking about it.

When Buffy was nearing its end Whedon and other writers/producers were trying to think about other projects to keep Buffy going.

The general idea was to feature "The Potentials" who are girls from around the world that are randomly chosen to gain the power of a Slayer after another Slayer dies.

The show would show how "The Watchers" track down and guide "The Potentials" into becoming full Slayers.

Joss Whedon felt it "wasn't right" and the early ideas were scrapped.

The most FAMOUS spinoff that never was....The MERTZES!

They could've come up with enough storylines to just do ONE season but Vivian Vance was an EVIL woman for actually wishing DEATH on William Frawley!

There are plenty of people in the history of hollywood who don't get along but still work together and act PROFESSIONAL. Vivian obviously didn't know how to behave professionally and acted like spoiled little brat!!

In all fairness, I heard that William Frawley was a pretty abrasive man, who drank heavily and did not treat Vivian Vance well. He may have brought some of that hate on himself. And Vance was not happy with being paired with a man who was old enough to be her father. I think Frawley was about 20 years older than Vance as I recall.

In all fairness, I heard that William Frawley was a pretty abrasive man, who drank heavily and did not treat Vivian Vance well. He may have brought some of that hate on himself. And Vance was not happy with being paired with a man who was old enough to be her father. I think Frawley was about 20 years older than Vance as I recall.

But that happens in hollywood! Louise Jefferson was old enough to be George Jefferson's FATHER eventhough they looked the same age and George may have actually looked a bit OLDER! Amazing yet they got along fine and even did guest spots and commericals together after the show was over.

I'm sure there have been worse people than William Frawley in Hollywood and they could've worked something out to do "The Metzes". Vance could've made Frawley sign a contract that he would change his abrasive ways or she has the right to leave the show anytime.

They could've made history even if they did ONE year of that show and you'd bet it would be on DVD!

But that happens in hollywood! Louise Jefferson was old enough to be George Jefferson's FATHER...

Um, excuse me...?:rolleyes:

Um, excuse me...?:rolleyes:

HA HA! You know I meant MOTHER! :happyface

A 4-minute pilot was the only thing made from this series that was used to sell it to the networks. It got leaked on the internet sometime in the years past.

Here is the short promo for the scrapped Buffy cartoon - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnUvZP7-5LM

HA HA! You know I meant MOTHER! :happyface

Well, these days you can't be too sure of anything.:D

The current teen drama Gossip Girl had plans for a spin-off that never happened.

The spin-off was to feature a young "Lily van der Woodsen" (Kelly Rutherford's role) played by Brittany Snow.

The current teen drama Gossip Girl had plans for a spin-off that never happened.

The spin-off was to feature a young "Lily van der Woodsen" (Kelly Rutherford's role) played by Brittany Snow.

LOL! I've never even heard of that show.

LOL! I've never even heard of that show.

It's on the CW since 2007.
Show is based off of a book series

It was considered to give the cartoon character Elmyra Duff her own show spun-off from Tiny Toon Adventures that focused on her and her family The Duffs.

A couple of Tiny Toon episodes only focused on Elmyra and her family to "test the waters" on centering around Elmyra. The series never happened.


However, Elmyra Duff later joined Pinky and the Brain in a re-tooled version of their show called Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain.

The WB show Charmed was due to get a spin-off called Mermaid.

This idea was inspired by the Season 5 two-part episode called "A Witch's Tale" in which Pheobe (Alyssa Milano) transforms into a mermaid in an attempt to "swim away" from her problems after encountering a mermaid-turned-human.


The plot of the proposed idea was to depict the mermaids according to the mythology used in Charmed.

A mermaid named Nikki is saved by a young man after drifitng ashore. She tries to live a normal life and help people with her abilities as a mermaid while avoiding the capture of those who want her back in the water with them.


The pilot was developed but when the WB and UPN merged into The CW the new network passed on it and Mermaid was scrapped.

HA HA! You know I meant MOTHER! :happyface

From Good Times, Esther Rolle was also old enough to be John Amos' mother. She was nearly 20 years older than he was.

I think there was going to be a "Laverne & Shirley" spinoff about Lenny & Squiggy.
At one poinnt, there was going to be an "ALL IN THE FAMILY" spinoff about Fr. Muljescy-a priest that was played by Bernard Hughes on "AITF".

Wasnt their rumours of a spin off Will @ Grace,called Jack @ Karen

Yes.

The last word on that was that it was going to possibly debut in the Fall 2009 season.

Sean Hayes and Megan Mullally were rumored to reprise their roles for Jack & Karen.

Hilary Duff was asked to do a spin-off of Lizzie McGuire that would have Lizzie be in high-school and air on ABC. This was proposed after she did The Lizzie McGuire Movie which ended the series.

It was going to be aimed for a higher demographic (more than likely for the kids who grew up with the show and were now older themselves).


At the time Hilary Duff was looking to get on the big-screen and trying to get into music.

Duff demanded $100,000 an episode and she was offered $35,000 instead. She refused and they couldn't negotitate any longer so the second Lizzie McGuire series, and possible second motion-picture, never happened.

Maybe someone else knows more info. on this.

I heard that after One Day at a Time ended that they were considering giving Pat Harrington Jr. (Schneider) his own show but nothing ever happened.

I don't recall this story, but I do remember there was talk back then of spinning Valerie Bertinelli / Boyd Gaines off into their own sitcom once "One Day..." had ended it's run.

If I remember correctly (via "TV Guide"?), 'Barbara' and her husband 'Dr. Mark Royer' were going be living in a 'snobby' suburb, while Grandma Romano (Nanette Fabray) was going to make 'regular guest appearances'. (I guess Fabray was going to take over the maternal role?) In any event, it never happened.

Megan Mullally recently gave an interview with TV Squad where she talks about the "Will & Grace" spin-off that never happened, "Karen & Jack":



Karen really was the breakout character of the show; was there ever any talk of doing a Karen spin-off?

There was, actually. There was a Karen spin-off that was supposed to happen, and then NBC launched "Joey". And then they started to think maybe that wasn't such a great idea, after all, and they decided that they wanted me to do that talk show.


So that's how it all played out, and it's fine that it worked out the way it did. I think that they might have approached Sean [Hayes], but I don't think Sean wanted to do it. I don't know for sure, but I do know that there was definitely a Karen thing, and it was all kind of mapped out.


It was going to be sort of like an 'Upstairs, Downstairs' show, with Karen and all of her servants. And I had pitched it to Martin Short and Alec Baldwin -- and this is pre-Alec Baldwin even being on "Will & Grace", much less "30 Rock".

And they were both interested. Martin Short was going to play the butler, who was secretly in love with [Karen], but she didn't really know, and then Alec Baldwin was going to be my jet-set playboy love interest.

http://www.tvsquad.com/2010/04/22/megan-mullally-interview-party-down-parks-and-recreation/

The "Beavis and Butthead" spin-off "Daria" had its own spin-off written but it never got off of the ground.

The proposed "Daria" spin-off was to be centered on the Mystik Spiral band; the grunge rock band featured on the show. Daria had romantic relations with the band's lead Trent Lane.


The script for the never-before-seen Mystik Spiral spin-off was released with the "Daria" complete series DVD.

A spinoff of a spinoff. You can only water something down so many times before you have...nothing.

A spinoff of a spinoff. You can only water something down so many times before you have...nothing.

Sometimes it works, as in the case of "NCIS: Los Angeles".

I haven't really watched NCIS: Los Angeles, so I can't comment.

I forget sometimes that NCIS is a spinoff of JAG, because JAG has been off the air for a few years now and NCIS has been on for so long.

I thought it was very ironic when Mark Harmon commented that he wasn't happy with the production team stretching themselves too thin by doing an NCIS spinoff.

Uh, Mark, you do remember that you started off as Gibbs on JAG, right?;)

Wasn't there a spinoff of the Jeffersons with the title 3 numbers?

Wasn't there a spinoff of the Jeffersons with the title 3 numbers?

You're a little confused here...

"The Jeffersons'" spin-off was "Checking In" and it only lasted four episodes.

After "The Jeffersons" was canceled Marla Gibbs went on to star in "227". The shows are not related.

I read somewhere long ago that there was supposed to be a spin-off from the character Nick Moore from Family Ties called The Art of Being Nick. I have no idea if they even aired 1 episode or not.

A pilot for ‘The Greatest American Heroine’ was filmed as a spin-off from ‘The Greatest American Hero’, but it wasn’t picked up by ABC. I understand the pilot can be found on the DVD set.

There was supposed to be a ‘Gilmore Girls’ spin-off starring the 'Jesse' character transplanted to California (a la ‘Private Practice’), and it was tried out for an episode, but never proceeded to series.

There was a proposed ‘Charmed Sons’ spin-off from WB’s ‘Charmed’ that sat on the back-burner a long time and was never filmed.


Wow, how do you find out about these? I watched these shows religiously & never heard a thing...until reading this.

"The Art of Being Nick" was indeed aired in the late '80s, but never picked up as a series. I want to say it was 1987 when it aired. Also, "The Greatest American Heroine" aired on NBC in 1986 as a pilot for a possible series, as far as I know, but the series was never picked up. It is available on Anchor Bay's 1st. Season DVD release of "The Greatest American Hero" and I think it's pretty fun. It was actually the first episode of "The Greatest American Hero" I ever got to see before finally going back and watching all the episodes on DVD. It's a fun spin-off attempt, but it just isn't the same without Ralph and Bill together.
I'd still like to see this Family Ties spin-off pilot, "The Art of Being Nick", someday.

"The Art of Being Nick" was indeed aired in the late '80s, but never picked up as a series. I want to say it was 1987 when it aired. Also, "The Greatest American Heroine" aired on NBC in 1986 as a pilot for a possible series, as far as I know, but the series was never picked up. It is available on Anchor Bay's 1st. Season DVD release of "The Greatest American Hero" and I think it's pretty fun. It was actually the first episode of "The Greatest American Hero" I ever got to see before finally going back and watching all the episodes on DVD. It's a fun spin-off attempt, but it just isn't the same without Ralph and Bill together.
I'd still like to see this Family Ties spin-off pilot, "The Art of Being Nick", someday.
That would make a nice "extra" for a Family Ties season dvd set.

My memory was just hazy enough to be unsure of the year, but it must have been 1986 as pilot costar Herschel Bernardi died in May of that year.

in the last season of "RHODA" CBS was planning a proposed spin-off called "BRENDA" but it never materialized.

I remember a couple that never got off the ground on CBS:

In the summer of 1978, I remember reading in a magazine (I think it was US which ran bi-weekly) that the upcoming season of "Rhoda" was going to marry off 'Rhoda's' sister 'Brenda' to 'Benny' and eventually 'spin off' "Brenda" to Connecticuit in early 1979.

Sure enough, Brenda's engagement was written into the storyline of Rhoda's 5th season, but "Rhoda" was cancelled in early December, 1978 - without Brenda's wedding taking place. (Didn't CBS realize 'married' women in MTM productions were not that funny?)




After watching Season 5 all over again on ALN the past few weeks, it is obvious what CBS was trying to do (spin-off Brenda). Julie Kavner was being molded into a leading actress with her 'engagement' storyline over the first thirteen eps, and did it well (you could see where she could quite possibly carry a show on her own), considering...

The problems surfaced beneath - her beaux 'Benny' was just not an interesting character for her to play off (neurotic "Gary" was far better for Brenda). The scripts were horrible, the supporting cast had grown tired by the fifth season and were sleeep-walking through the fifth season, the direction was flawed.

Could a spin-off work if they writing was crisper, if the direction was more focused? Sure. The way the season was deteriorating, though, showed no promise for 'Brenda and Benny'.

That may be true considering "The L Word" was suppose to have a spinoff about a female prison and Showtime decided not to pick it up.

While Showtime decided NOT to pick up the spinoff of "The L Word, Showtime back during the Queer as Folk days was very serious about doing a similar show on the gay-bear community called "The Front Range Bears". Serious enough that Showtime even went as far as doing a pilot of it.

"The Front Range Bears" was a comedy set ( and filmed) in Denver about a bunch of hairy gay guys and life in the Mile High City. Just before the paper went defunct in 2008 The local Denver Rocky Mountain News actually brought up this show since one of the "bears" in the planned series was Da Boogieman who for many years was a well known radio dj for local KOOL 105 FM and himself a bear. The..DA Boogieman was cut loose from KOOL which was the only reason why the paper had brought up "The Front Range Bears" in the first place.

The Rocky Mountain News didn't say why Showtime had said NO to the series but that pilot...I did catch it on You Tube last year though the clip wasn't onthere for very long. Ah I can see why Showtime took a pass. Example scene I can recall..

A Denver city bus is picking up children and their parents along with the bears for a day at local Elitch Gardens Amusement Park only to notice that the bus driver was nude except for his jock strap.

Little Girl: "....mommy mommy..that man is wearing nothing but a jock strap "

Mother: "...no no no...put some clothes on..you shouldn't be wearing only a jock strap while working for the city of Denver !! I am going to TELL Mayor Hickenlooper !!"

Bus Driver: "..Baby its not a JOCK strap..its a WOOF strap !! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR !!'

The bears on the bus "DENVER IS HAVING A BEAR QUAKE !!!"

..now wasn't that FUNNY? Ah.........Hmmmmmmm. NO !!!

For the record my brother is gay and is very active in the local bear community and even he didn't like the "Front Range Bears".

The spin-off to "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman" called "California" was never aired by CBS.

It was to focus on 'Hank Lawson' played by William Shockley.





From an interview Shockley gave when asked about it:


You had filmed a pilot of a series that was a spin-off of "Dr. Quinn"
Why did "California" never air?


The "California" spin-off series was an excellent show.

Beth Sullivan wrote "California", and the story took Hank Lawson from Colorado to Los Angeles. The show was never aired by CBS, and to this day, I don't know why. Beth wrote a fabulous script, and the actors that were involved in "California" were great.


Laura Harring played my love interest. James Brolin, who is married to Barbra Striesand, played the local sheriff.

I really wish CBS would have allowed the fans to see this wonderful 2-hour movie.

http://www.thedqtimes.com/pages/castpages/other/williamshockleyinterview.htm

After "Everybody Loves Raymond" ended, Brad Garrett wanted to spin-off 'Robert Barrone' into his own show.

The idea never happened because many of "Raymond's" writers left to do other jobs after the show ended.

There were plans for a spin-off to "Stargate SG-1" that would feature a young SG crew but the idea never panned out.

One of those who were set to star in it was "Battlestar Gallactica's" Grace Park.


The spin-off that did happen was "Stargate: Atlantis".

Around the making of "Power Rangers Turbo", the fifth season of the Power Rangers franchise in 1997, there were plans to have the bully / buffoon duo Bulk and Skull (Paul Schrier and Jason Narvy) launch their own show.



During "Turbo" Bulk and Skull were turned into monkeys on the show in order for the actors and producers to focus more on planning the potential spin-off.

The general idea of the plot was to have Bulk and Skull operate a hotel in Angel Grove, California. The "Bulk and Skull" spin-off ultimately never happened and eventually they returned to the show.








At the Power Morphicon Convention in 2007 Paul Schrier, who played "Bulk", went on the explain more at the panel:

"The show never happened due to some poor demographic testing. I mean face it, you would think today 'Wow, that would have been really cool...' and it would have been.

Ultimately the Ranger show is an action-adventure show. The comic stuff that Bulk and Skull brought to the show, as wonderful as it was, really wouldn't stand alone and it would not garner the same amount of viewership as a show with a lot of butt-kicking."






A fan then suggested to them that maybe they could have done a mini-series or something like that and Paul Schrier responded:

"Yeaaahh, but then we will still have the same problem. The affiliates would have been like 'Oh yeah, that mini-series where there's no kung fu - just a lot of cakes. We don't want that.'


I do have to say that in our minds... we had a big spin-off. We viewed every bit that we did as a separate universe from the Ranger show."

And there are not one,but TWO unsold pilots that "Green Acres" aired-both in the last season:1)The love-it-or hate it "Hawaiian Honeymoon",which was subpar,but not as bad as some say,and 2)the awful "The Ex-Secretary".I'm glad THIS one never became a series."Hawaiian Honeymoon"at least had a little bit of promise.But "The Ex-Secretary"?YUCKO!And ,I read that the ABC "Matlock"episode "The Verdict",which was a duplicate (sort of)of the NBC 1987 episode of "Matlock"called "The Best Friend",and "The Verdict"was an unsold pilot as well about a female DA.

There were rumors at one point that John Stamos was going to be the lead of an "ER" spin-off.



Here is what he said about it:


Was there any truth to the rumors of you being offered a spin-off and opting out?

It wasn't like they came to me and said, "Do you want to do this?" and I said "no." That didn't happen. But there was a lot of discussion about it.

I think the main thing that stopped it before I said "yes" or "no" was that Michael Crichton had it in his deal that there would be no spin-offs of "ER". So we would've had to have gotten around that first.

I was kinda up for it, I loved working with those people, but John Wells and I talked about it and we never really figured out what the show could be. It was just time for all of us to do something new.

http://popwatch.ew.com/2009/06/05/john-stamos-bye-bye-birdie-tonys-er-project-cuddle/

There was a spin-off to the NICKELODEON 90s sitcom Clarissa Explains It All in the works after the show ended.

It was called Clarissa Now and it was set to be picked up by CBS. The premise of this one was showing "Clarissa" (Melissa Joan Hart) working as an intern for a New York City newspaper.

For whatever reason CBS choose not to do the series and only the pilot was filmed. I am not sure if CBS ever released the pilot but NICKELODEON did show it a few times.

One year later, Melissa Joan Hart went on to star in Sabrina, The Teenage Witch.


Melissa Joan Hart recently gave a brief interview about the "Clarissa Explains it All" spin-off "Clarissa Now":

"I thought it was a fun show, although I don't remember it very well. But it skewed a lot older because it was a different time. CBS was very much an older-demographic network back then.

They tried to age the show up a little bit, but the thing is, the 'Clarissa' audience was so young and hip. I just think it didn't work. It's not what people wanted to see."

http://www.tvsquad.com/2011/03/15/melissa-joan-hart-clarissa-now/

Happy Days:
Ralph and Potsie - living together in apartment

Laverne & Shirley:
Lenny & Squiggy - no plot known

Brady Bunch:
Kelly's Kids - w/ Ken Barry as a guy who adopts a PC group of kids


Ralph and Potsie--I think this one could have worked, if it was written properly. They made a good duo.

Lenny & Squiggy--I love them on Laverne & Shirley, but I'm not sure if they could have carried a whole series. Some characters just aren't meant to be the main characters of a show. The episodes of L&S that they were the main focus of were always good, but they also had the girls to interact with too. They'd have to create new characters for them to interact with on the spin-off.

Kelly's Kids--The pilot aired as a Brady Bunch episode in the last season. It was an interesting premise, not sure if a series would have lasted. Would depend on what the focus would be. I'm guessing, that it would be similar to the Brady Bunch, except insead of having a blended family, the kids are adoped and multi-racial.

There was an attempted spin-off to "Punky Brewster" that never materialized: "Fenster Hall"




The final episode in Season 1 titled 'Fenster Hall' was originally a one hour episode, but was cut into two shows for syndication. This episode marked the debut of Mike Fulton (T.K. Carter) who was the intended star of the spin-off.

Mike's history as a longtime resident of Fenster was explained, since he had been an orphan from birth and had been shuffled around to many foster homes before permanently staying at Fenster from the time he was seven.

Now as the chief boys' counselor, Mike was saddled with helping new, tough street kid T.C. Finestra (Billy Lombardo) fit in with his group of regulars after an incident in which T.C. broke into and stole from Punky Brewster's bedroom.

Punky soon learned of T.C.'s situation and brought him home to Henry before it was decided that he would be better off at Fenster Hall.






The focus of the episode was on Mike and T.C.'s learning to trust and look out for each other, while many other students of Fenster Hall were introduced who would have also been in the spin-off.

When "Fenster Hall" did not transpire as a regular series by the time of NBC's 1985-86 upfronts, T.K. Carter then continued his role as Mike Fulton on "Punky Brewster" the following season, now serving as Punky's fourth grade teacher in addition to his work at Fenster.

"Witchright Hall," a spin-off of "Sabrina the Teenage Witch." the backdoor pilot episode aired during season 5.

You know I read the 12 pages on this board and its a good read. I do remember hearing about the Gilmore Girls spinoff that would follow Jess in California but I heard it was too expensive to shoot.


I have to say that spinoffs are tough because you dont know if having an own show will make the character not interesting enough. Now, there was never a spinoff but look at the Steve Urkel character. He was funny in the first couple of seasons but by the end the show revolved around him so you didnt need a spinoff and I dont know about you but he was a pain in the ass annoying. Sometimes your better off being a part of the cast and not the cast. Ex., Potsie and Ralph, Lenny and Squiggy etc., I dont think it would have worked. You could become overexposed like Steve Urkel and even though he didnt have a spinoff, The Fonz. I think once The Fonz became a main character, that mistique of him, that aura that made him cool, became exposed.

Around June 2008 there was supposed to be a spin-off to the Nickelodeon teen-sitcom "Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide" that would bring the characters to high school.

Series star Devon Werkheiser mentioned in a YouTube video posted in January 2010 that "it was time for the Ned's kids to move on. We did three seasons so it was time to end."

"Charlie's Angels" had a backdoor pilot in the 4th season called 'Toni's Boys' that never got picked up to the series.

The potential spin-off was to feature a gender reversal in having a "female Bosley" watching over three male agents. Toni was played by Barbara Stanwyck.

There should've been a Happy Days spin off called City of Potsie where Potsie heads off to London

Who from Facts of Life?


Blair. She was supposed to be the new Headmistress of the Eastland School.

After The Six Million Dollar Man spun off The Bionic Woman there was word that ANOTHER Spin-Off was baing proposed called The Bionic Boy. The Pilot aired as a Two-Part Episode on The Six Million Dollar Man, but that's as far as it got.

After The Six Million Dollar Man spun off The Bionic Woman there was word that ANOTHER Spin-Off was baing proposed called The Bionic Boy. The Pilot aired as a Two-Part Episode on The Six Million Dollar Man, but that's as far as it got.
I remember that. I was disappointed nothing came of that.

Most of the spinoffs that I read in this thread sounds awful and I am glad it did not get picked up!

After The Six Million Dollar Man spun off The Bionic Woman there was word that ANOTHER Spin-Off was baing proposed called The Bionic Boy. The Pilot aired as a Two-Part Episode on The Six Million Dollar Man, but that's as far as it got.
I remember thaose episodes. That was an unsold pilot, huh? I never knew that.

This one is a bit more recent:


Around the time when it was announced that "LOST" was going to end Terry O'Quinn wanted to do a spin-off featuring himself and co-star Michael Emerson.

The plot he was interested in was to feature their "LOST" characters, John Locke and Ben Linus, as suburban teachers moonlighting as hitmen.

The creators of "LOST" said that they weren't going to do any spin-offs of the show. Terry O'Quinn tried to get J.J. Abrams on board with the proposed spin-off, but it ultimately never happened.

In an interview during the How to Succeed In Business era (I believe it was backstage after the Tony's) John Larroquette said that The John Larroquette Show was originally conceived by the network to be a Dan Fielding spinoff.

Of course then Frasier happened...

was there a proposed spinoff from the Jeffersons with the willies tom and helen

if there was, I never heard of it.

The Facts of Life actually had 3 spinoffs planned and nothing really materialized.
a.) a spinoff featuring Jo's cousins
b.) a spinoff where Natalie moves to NY to become a writer
c.) a spinoff where Blair buys Eastland school and becomes headmaster. That spinoff had Seth Green, Juliet Lewis and the future star of Blossom( I forget her name)

The Facts of Life tried mighty hard to create a spin -- off series . On The Facts of Life, Stone Military Academy was located down the road from Eastland School . Episode # 51 of The Facts of Life ( "The Academy" ) featured Jo dating a student from Stone Military Academy . Episode # 66 ( "The Big Fight" ) featured Natalie and a boy from Stone Military Academy . The characters affiliated with Stone Military Academy in "The Academy" episode were played by Jimmy Baio, Ben Marley, David Ackroyd, Peter Frechette, and John P. Navin, Jr . It looked like the producers of The Facts of Life wanted the main characters of a series about students at Stone Military Academy to be male copies of the girls on The Facts of Life .

Episod # 52 ( "Jo's Cousin" ) featured Jo visiting her family in the Bronx, including her cousin Terry, a teenage girl going through adolescence in a family full of men .

Episode # 188 ( "Rumor Has It..." ) introduced Blair's law professor Richard Katt ( Franc Luz ) whose ethic in the classroom stood in contrast to his reputation for having affairs with many of his students . Blair and Katt had several innocent encounters with Katt in his office where they discussed the classwork . Katt's wife walked in on one of his sessions with Blair, assumed they had an affair, and threatened to leave her husband . Katt resigned from Langley College in the wake of his rumored affair with Blair and became a lawyer at a law firm in Peekskill . In episode # 199 ( "Peekskill Law" ), Blair became an intern at that self -- same law firm and met Richard Katt again .

For the record, the girl on Blossom was Mayim Bialik . I'll admit I had to check to make sure I got her name right, but it's hard to forget a name like "Mayim Bialik"

If The Facts of Life didn't spawn a spin -- off series, it's not because the producers didn't try !

back in the 70s, there was talk about doing a spin-off of "ALL IN THE FAMILY" about a priest who was on the show named Father Muljecy, or something.

And I think I remember reading somewhere back then that they were thinking of spining off Lenny and Squiggy from "LAVERNE & SHIRLEY".

in the 70s, they were going to make a spin-off from "ALL IN THE FAMILY" about Fr. Muljeshky; who was a priest on some of the early episode; played by Benard Hughes.

I think there was going to be a "Laverne & Shirley" spinoff about Lenny & Squiggy.
At one poinnt, there was going to be an "ALL IN THE FAMILY" spinoff about Fr. Muljescy-a priest that was played by Bernard Hughes on "AITF".

His name was Father John Majeski, and he appeared in the episodes "Edith's Accident", "Edith Flips Her Wig", and "Edith's Conversion" of All in the Family . I thought he only appeared in two episodes ! I don't know what they could have done with Father Majeski in a regular series, but the salty sense of humor he used on Archie Bunker would have been interesting .

I know its not a sitcom, but the original Star Trek back in the 60's had a show that was intended as a spin off to a totally new show that took place in modern (then) times.

The pilot was the episode Assignment:Earth and it included a guy from the 60s named Gary Seven who was taken by aliens in the 60s and made a super human and put back on earth to save earth from its dumb decisions. It even had a very flaky Terri Garr as his assistant on earth.

It is so obvious it is a spin off, and the way they worked it into the ST universe was totally dorky, and just didnt work.

Well the show didnt either.

Oh, C'mon ! That was a classic !

I remember that, and Teri Garr was a babe in that one .

back in the 60s; Gene Rodenberry wanted to make a spin-off of "STAR TREK". I forget what it was going to be called, but it would have been about a man named Gary Seven who was a human raised by aliens, or something like that. The pilot aired as an episode of "STAR TREK".

there was an attempt to make a spin-off of "STAR TREK" in its second season, about a character named Gary Seven and his partner Roberta Lincoln (played by Terri Garr). The pilot was shown as an episode of "STAR TREK" but the show never materialized.

That was episode # 55 from the second season . It featured Gary Seven ( Robert Lansing ), his secretary, Roberta Lincoln ( Terri Garr ), and Gary's cat, Isis, who could turn into a human woman ( Victoria Vetri ) . Gary Seven was trained by aliens to prevent the people of Earth from destroying themselves . If there had been a series based on this episode, it might have been called Assignment : Earth . I wish there had been a third season episode of Star Trek where Captain Kirk and Mr . Spock visited Gary Seven again .

I read where Gary Seven lived in twentieth -- century San Francisco, and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home also took place in twentieth -- century San Francisco . It's too bad Gary Seven didn't make an appearance in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home . Since there wasn't an Assignment : Earth TV series, a second episode featuring Gary Seven or an appearance in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, I wish there had been an extra Star Trek movie where Captain Kirk and Mr . Spock visited Gary Seven again ( Star Trek : Assignment : Earth ) .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assignment:_Earth#Spin-off_series_pilot

http://www.assignmentearth.ca

Season Four of Emergency! had an episode called 905 Wild where Gage and Desoto work with a Veterinarian which started off with an entirely different Opening Theme. It's quite obvious this was a Pilot Episode for a Spinoff that never happened.

That was episode # 55 from the second season . It featured Gary Seven ( Robert Lansing ), his secretary, Roberta Lincoln ( Terri Garr ), and Gaty's cat, Isis, who could turn into a human woman ( Victoria Vetri ) . Gary Seven was trained by aliens to prevent the people of Earth from destroying themselves . If there had been a series based on this episode, it might have been called Assignment : Earth . I wish there had been a third season episode of Star Trek where Captain Kirk and Mr . Spock visited Gary Seven again .

I read where Gary Seven lived in twentieth -- century San Francisco, and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home also took place in twentieth -- century San Francisco . It's too bad Gary Seven didn't make an appearance in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home . Since there wasn't anAssignment : Earth TV series, a second episode featuring Gary Seven or an appearance in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, I wish there had been an extra Star Trek movie where Captain Kirk and Mr . Spock visited Gary Seven again ( Star Trek : Assignment : Earth ) .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assignment:_Earth#Spin-off_series_pilot

http://www.assignmentearth.ca
I seriously doubt they called use that as the plot of a 2 hour movie.

I remember hearing that at one point, there were plans for a Gilligan's Island spin-off in which Gilligan married Mary Ann, the Professor married Ginger, and both couples had kids.

The Disney Channel series That's So Raven at one time planned to give the character Donna Cabonna her own series. It was to have focused on Cabonna and her new intern Symóne (an obvious reference to Raven Symóne).

Pinky, Elmyra, and the Brain, a spin-off of Pinky and the Brain and cross-over with Tiny Toons was brought about by the new heads at Kids WB, who wanted PatB to be more like The Simpsons. WB's decision was to add more characters to the series. The creators of Pinky and the Brain were pretty peeved about this new series. At one point, they even express their anger in the opening theme song ("It's what the network wants. Why bother to complain?")

I remember Diff'rent Strokes had a backdoor pilot involving someone teaching a night school for immigrants.

A few proposed spin-offs of film series:

Laurel and Hardy's Fabulous Fables - Developed around 1956, this was Intended to be a series of color television specials that would have featured Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy in stories based on popular fairy tales. Laurel completed the script for the first episode ("Babes in the Woods"), but had a stroke shortly before production was to begin.

The Little Rascals In 1977, Norman Lear produced a series of pilots (some sources say two episodes were shot, while others say as many as three or four were made) based on Hal Roach's Our Gang/Little Rascals series. At least Lear's name was attached to the series. He later claimed to have no involvement with the production. This would have been a modernized version of the Rascals. One episode would have featured the kids facing off a gang of martians. Among the kids cast in the series were then-unkown Gary Coleman (as "Stymie"), Christopher Gardner, David Hollander, Doug McKeon, and Patricia Ann Patts. The original Stymie (Matthew Beard) appeared in an episode. The series was never sold, and the pilots never aired. One was shown recently at a Gary Coleman memorial exhibit.

King World (the Rascals former owners) had several plans for other revivals/spin-offs for both film and TV, but few made it past planning stages.

The Marx Brothers - One of the earliest of many attempts at doing an animated version of a live action franchise. Produced by Filmation, a five minute pilot ("A Day at the Horse Opera") was completed and pitched to the networks. Groucho Marx was a consultant on the pilot, and may have provided his own voice. Don't know who played Chico. And Harpo, well, you know. Joe Besser was also featured. The pilot never aired, and the series never sold. After spending years in the vaults, it was finally shown to the public at the 2012 Comic-Con (it show up at about 48 minutes in).

QhZCW1Zmnew

I remember hearing that at one point, there were plans for a Gilligan's Island spin-off in which Gilligan married Mary Ann, the Professor married Ginger, and both couples had kids.

The Disney Channel series That's So Raven at one time planned to give the character Donna Cabonna her own series. It was to have focused on Cabonna and her new intern Symóne (an obvious reference to Raven Symóne).

Pinky, Elmyra, and the Brain, a spin-off of Pinky and the Brain and cross-over with Tiny Toons was brought about by the new heads at Kids WB, who wanted PatB to be more like The Simpsons. WB's decision was to add more characters to the series. The creators of Pinky and the Brain were pretty peeved about this new series. At one point, they even express their anger in the opening theme song ("It's what the network wants. Why bother to complain?")

I remember Diff'rent Strokes had a backdoor pilot involving someone teaching a night school for immigrants.
That spin-off from Pinky and the Brain was horrible. The original was and is still the best.

As a kid not knowing what the term "backdoor pilot" meant I was always confused watching my favorite show when all of a sudden an episode will pop with the focus on characters that are not part of the show.

Here's from Who's The Boss?
- The first attempted Who's the Boss? spin-off had its origins in the final episode of season 2, "Charmed Lives", a backdoor pilot for a program about two women up for the same job. Starring Fran Drescher and Donna Dixon, it was not picked up as a series.

In 1987, producers had planned a spin-off entitled Mona, which focused on Mona's character leaving Angela to help her brother Cornelius run a seedy hotel in Manhattan.[20] The third season featured this plot in a two-part episode, but when ABC changed their mind about the spinoff, fearing what Mona's departure could mean to the show, the ending was rewritten to feature Mona returning to Angela's home.

The next attempted spin-off, which did make it to series, was titled Living Dolls. Premiering and ending in 1989, the show starred Leah Remini, Michael Learned, and Halle Berry. The show featured Remini, who had appeared in two Who's the Boss? episodes as a friend of Samantha's, as a homeless model taken under the wing of an agent played by Learned.

After the success of the reunion flick Rescue From Gilligan's Island, NBC asked Sherwood Schwartz to create a new Gilligan's Island series during the late 70's. The result were the TV movies The Castaways on Gilligan's Island and The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island, both of which acted as pilots for the proposed spin-off.

The idea was that the location of the castaways' island was finally discovered, and the Howells decided to celebrate by building a hotel resort. Gilligan and co. ran the hotel. Guest stars would show up each week (think The Love Boat). The reason for including guest stars was that Schwartz didn't want to put the now older Gilligan cast through so many physical demands. From what I understand, the Gilligan/Globetrotters movie received low ratings.

Had ALF gone on for a fifth season, the entire setting would have been changed. Paul Fusco and the writers were running out of ideas for stories involving ALF in the Tanner home. It was decided that the following season would find ALF kidnapped and held hostage in a military base. Inevitably, ALF more or less becomes Sgt. Bilko, and drives everyone insane. I'm assuming the Tanners would have been written out.

Season 4 ended on a cliffhanger, in which ALF is discovered by the Alien Task Force. However, NBC decided to kick the show in favor of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, thus leaving audiences with a surprisingly dark ending for the series. The concept for the fifth season was later reworked into the TV movie Project: ALF (which, from what I understand, was intended to be a backdoor pilot for ABC).

TV critics complain at how awful a show Small Wonder was with it's premise of a computer tech father that creates a life like 10-year old girl, at least that show was in first run syndication where expectations aren't as high.

But the premise of ALF is just as equally absurd that I don't know how an actual TV executive at NBC thought of it as a good idea.

Halle Berry came back with a much better show which is on now call Extanct.

The Three Stooges proposed several TV shows, many of which never made it beyond planning stages.

"Jerks of All Trade" (1949) would have found the Stooges (Moe, Larry, and Shemp) taking on a different job each week (and naturally failing at it). A pilot was shot in front of a live audience. It was produced by Phil Berle (Milton's brother) for ABC. Columbia Pictures, the studio the Stooges were still making films for, threatened to sue out of fear that the TV series would compete with the theatrical short film series.

Shortly before Shemp died, two friends of his were in talk with the Stooges of another TV pilot.

Sometime after Joe Besser joined the act, the Stooges considered quitting Columbia and doing a TV series that would parody the News (yes, this would have been the original "Weekend Update).

In 1958, Norman Mauer (Moe's son-in-law, and the Stooges' future manager) proposed a part live action/part animated series called "Stooge Time". The half hour series would have featured Moe, Larry, and Curly Joe DeRita in two live action segments, and two animated segments (one of which would have focused on the Stooges' teenage sons). The animation was going to be done by Maurer's own invention - Artiscope - a Rotoscoping machine. The machine was able to recreate live actors in animated form all by itself (it actually worked; you can see it in action in "The Three Stooges in Orbit"). None of the networks believed Maurer's invention would work.

In 1962, Maurer tried to sell another part live action-part animated series - "The Three Stooges Scrapbook". Shot in color, the pilot was essentially a Stooge sitcom (complete with laughtrack), with a five minute cartoon thrown in at the end. The series was never sold, as all three major networks were unable to find a suitable timeslot for it (the only one available was after 10:00pm, when the Stooges' kid fans were sleeping). The original pilot is lost, but it was split up into two theatrical shorts (one of which is on YouTube). Footage was also reworked into "The Three Stooges in Orbit".

During the late 60's, Maurer proposed two Stooges game shows. "Obstacle Course" would have the Stooges (as hosts) accompanying a young contestant down a giant sized game board, and go through a kid friendly obstacle course (shades of "Double Dare"). "Junior Olympics" would have found the Stooges introducing contestants from all over the country, who would participate in various sporting events each week.

The last proposed series (while the Stooges were still alive) was 1969's "Kook's Tour". The idea was that each week, the Stooges would travel to some part of the world, and get into some sort of comedic situation. It would also double as a travelogue. A pilot was filmed, but the series was never sold. Larry Fine had a stroke towards the end of production, leaving Maurer to pull a "Fake Shemp" by doubling for Larry in some scenes.

During the '70's, Maurer proposed a few Stooges cartoon series (only one of which - The Robonic Stooges - got off the ground). "Super Stooges" would have depicted the Stooges as superheroes. "The Little Stooges" would have focused on kid versions of the Stooges (this was actually proposed long before the Muppet Babies craze caught on). Hanna-Barbera briefly considered producing the latter series.

Some More Recent Ones:


- Showtime scrapped their plans for a "Californication" spin-off starring Maggie Grace.

She had an arc on the 6th season as a Catholic school girl-turned-groupie who befriended Hank Moody.





- There was word that Adrian Pasdar was going to star in a "Castle" spin-off back in 2011. He had a guest arc as hard-boiled FBI agent Mark Fallon.

Pasdar mentioned in an interview that he received a "nice letter" from "Castle" creator Andrew Marlowe that said, "How about we do a season ender with Fallon, sort of a backdoor pilot spinoff?"

Nothing ever happened.





- "NCIS: LA" was due to get its own spin-off "NCIS: Red". Kim Raver and John Corbett were to star as members of a mobile investigation team who work and live together as they travel the country solving crimes.

CBS entertainment president Nina Tassler said in 2013, "Sometimes spinoffs work and sometimes they don't. Protecting the franchise was really important."

However, "NCIS: New Orleans" (spun from NCIS) is set to launch September 23, 2014.





- The CW recently passed on "Supernatural: Bloodlines". It was to star Melissa Roxburgh, Lucien Laviscount, Sean Faris and Nathaniel Buzolic.

The series was described as a “sweeping drama about the various mafia-esque monster families that, unknowingly to humans, run the underbelly of Chicago and who are being tracked by a newly minted hunter who’s trying to stop them and rid Chicago of anything or anyone supernatural.”

The CW president Mark Pedowitz said, "We felt that Bloodlines just didn’t quite get there. I've already spoken to the creator and the studio. They know that we want to develop once more next season, a Supernatural spinoff. What it is and what it isn't yet is still in the air."

The Three Stooges proposed several TV shows, many of which never made it beyond planning stages.

"Jerks of All Trade" (1949) would have found the Stooges (Moe, Larry, and Shemp) taking on a different job each week (and naturally failing at it). A pilot was shot in front of a live audience. It was produced by Phil Berle (Milton's brother) for ABC. Columbia Pictures, the studio the Stooges were still making films for, threatened to sue out of fear that the TV series would compete with the theatrical short film series.

Shortly before Shemp died, two friends of his were in talk with the Stooges of another TV pilot.

Sometime after Joe Besser joined the act, the Stooges considered quitting Columbia and doing a TV series that would parody the News (yes, this would have been the original "Weekend Update).

In 1958, Norman Mauer (Moe's son-in-law, and the Stooges' future manager) proposed a part live action/part animated series called "Stooge Time". The half hour series would have featured Moe, Larry, and Curly Joe DeRita in two live action segments, and two animated segments (one of which would have focused on the Stooges' teenage sons). The animation was going to be done by Maurer's own invention - Artiscope - a Rotoscoping machine. The machine was able to recreate live actors in animated form all by itself (it actually worked; you can see it in action in "The Three Stooges in Orbit"). None of the networks believed Maurer's invention would work.

In 1962, Maurer tried to sell another part live action-part animated series - "The Three Stooges Scrapbook". Shot in color, the pilot was essentially a Stooge sitcom (complete with laughtrack), with a five minute cartoon thrown in at the end. The series was never sold, as all three major networks were unable to find a suitable timeslot for it (the only one available was after 10:00pm, when the Stooges' kid fans were sleeping). The original pilot is lost, but it was split up into two theatrical shorts (one of which is on YouTube). Footage was also reworked into "The Three Stooges in Orbit".

During the late 60's, Maurer proposed two Stooges game shows. "Obstacle Course" would have the Stooges (as hosts) accompanying a young contestant down a giant sized game board, and go through a kid friendly obstacle course (shades of "Double Dare"). "Junior Olympics" would have found the Stooges introducing contestants from all over the country, who would participate in various sporting events each week.

The last proposed series (while the Stooges were still alive) was 1969's "Kook's Tour". The idea was that each week, the Stooges would travel to some part of the world, and get into some sort of comedic situation. It would also double as a travelogue. A pilot was filmed, but the series was never sold. Larry Fine had a stroke towards the end of production, leaving Maurer to pull a "Fake Shemp" by doubling for Larry in some scenes.

During the '70's, Maurer proposed a few Stooges cartoon series (only one of which - The Robonic Stooges - got off the ground). "Super Stooges" would have depicted the Stooges as superheroes. "The Little Stooges" would have focused on kid versions of the Stooges (this was actually proposed long before the Muppet Babies craze caught on). Hanna-Barbera briefly considered producing the latter series.I'm a big fan of the Stooges and I only knew about a couple of those.

one thing you didn't say about KOOKS TOUR though-it would have been Moe, Larry & Curly-Joe playing themselves; in retirement and taking a trip around the world.

Also 2 of these-JERKS OF ALL TRADES and KOOKS TOUR-are on DVD.

NBC passed on "The Office" spin-off "The Farm" that was to star Rainn Wilson.

During the final season of "Entourage", Kevin Dillon's character Johnny Chase was voicing Johnny the Gorilla in the adult animated show "Johnny's Bananas".

Creator Doug Ellin brought on animators from "The Simpsons" and "Family Guy" to work on the show-within-the-show as some scenes were to be shown during "Entourage".

Ellin said, "I'd like to launch a full show of it after we finish this last season. HBO would get first dibs." Nothing ever happened w/ the "Johnny's Bananas" show.

Proposed spin offs that never happened (http://officialfan.proboards.com/thread/506267/proposed-spin-offs-never-happened?page=1)

The Simpsons spoofed spinoffs in 1 episode.

The "Beavis and Butthead" spin-off "Daria" had its own spin-off written but it never got off of the ground.

The proposed "Daria" spin-off was to be centered on the Mystik Spiral band; the grunge rock band featured on the show. Daria had romantic relations with the band's lead Trent Lane.


The script for the never-before-seen Mystik Spiral spin-off was released with the "Daria" complete series DVD.
I have a copy of the Daria complete series DVD. I should look for the Mystik Spiral pilot script.

The Disney Channel series That's So Raven at one time planned to give the character Donna Cabonna her own series. It was to have focused on Cabonna and her new intern Symóne (an obvious reference to Raven Symóne).
Did I mention the other proposed "That's So Raven" spin-off called "I Know Lindy," starring Alyson Stoner and Allie Grant from the episode "Goin' Hollywood?" Stoner was to play Ally Parker, a tween actress on a Happy Days-type sitcom who tries to adjust to living a normal kid life with the help of her socially awkward cousin played by Grant. The show was supposed to be called "I Know Lindy," because here character's name was Lindy, something or other. I'm going to have to get a copy from iTunes.

Anyway, unlike "Sam & Cat," the other iCarly spin-off "Gibby" never aired. It was supposed to involve Noah Munck's character taking care of a bunch of disadvantaged little kids.

I think the spinoffs of The Facts Of Life would've been very interesting, since The Facts Of Life was itself a spinoff. Edna Garrett had been the Drummonds' housekeeper on Diff'rent Strokes. And I remember the character of Tootie was on at least one (maybe two) episodes of Diff'rent Strokes also. Arnold had a crush on her. A spinoff of a spinoff, I don't remember if that's been done before, does anybody else know?

I didn't read through the whole thread so I apologize if this one's been mentioned. There was going to be a Gilmore Girls spinoff series for Rory's bad boy boyfriend Jess. I've seen the episode of Gilmore Girls where most of the regular cast doesn't appear and Jess has run off from Stars Hollow to go out to California in search of his birth father and there he meets him and some other rather interesting characters. This was the introduction of characters that would've been on that show and a jumping off point for the beginning of it. But the network lost interest in it and it never happened. I think after that the character of Jess is mentioned a couple of time on Gilmore Girls before he disappears completely and he's never mentioned or seen again. Milo Ventimiglia who played Jess would eventually go on to appear in the TV series Heroes.

Ed.

Deleted. I deleted this reply after I noticed somebody else already mentioned Sam and Cat, and Gibby.

Ed.

Gibby would have been better than Sam and Cat.

Yeah maybe. It's too bad Nickelodeon didn't go ahead with it, I like Noah Munck. He seems like a nice kid with a sensible outlook on life about him.

Ed.

After The Six Million Dollar Man spun off The Bionic Woman there was word that ANOTHER Spin-Off was being proposed called The Bionic Boy. The Pilot aired as a Two-Part Episode on The Six Million Dollar Man, but that's as far as it got.

I remember the episode with the bionic boy . His name was Andy Sheffield, and he was played by Vincent Van Patten . You have to wonder what they could do with The Bionic Boy that they couldn't do with The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman . Would that much bionic action have gotten repetitive after a while ? If there was more interest in Andy Sheffield, would there have been a bionic girl ? I remember an episode of The Bionic Woman that featured a bionic dog . He was a German shepherd, or some such . Was this another possible spinoff ? I know they did a lot with Lassie .

There was one episode of The Bob Newhart Show where Emily Hartley ( Suzanne Pleshette ) made friends with an old woman who was fifty years behind the times, and in danger of being considered mentally incompetent . Emily was working with her so she could trick a psychologist into thinking she was normal . At one point, they were reviewing what they covered, and the old lady said "Bionic ... bionic what ?" . Emily said "Oh, bionic anything !" .

I seriously doubt they could use [ a Captain Kirk -- Mr . Spock -- Gary Seven crossover ] as the plot of a two -- hour movie.


You and I aren't movie writers, so we don't have to know what they could do with a movie about Captain Kirk, Mr . Spock, and Gary Seven . We've all seen two -- hour movies that were based on much worse ideas .

Gibby would have been better than Sam and Cat.

Yeah maybe. It's too bad Nickelodeon didn't go ahead with it . I like Noah Munck . He seems like a nice kid with a sensible outlook on life about him.

I thought Noah Munck was all right, but he always seemed to be overshadowed by Carly Shay ( Miranda Cosgrove ), Sam Puckett ( Jennette McCurdy ), and Freddie Benson ( Nathan Kress ) . I don't know what they could do with Gibby, even if it focused on Noah Munck's character taking care of a bunch of disadvantaged little kids . I liked Sam and Cat . I'm always sold on a TV show featuring two pretty girls, I liked Sam's saucy personality combined with Cat's sweet disposition, and it was a spinoff of iCarly and Victorious .

...I actually did think Gary and his cat were cool.

I wish I had a cat like that! :lol:

Maybe they could have another re-union show in which Rhoda comes down with a terminal illness but then beats the odds by living several more years when they told her she had only three months ...

Nah, that would never happen to Rhoda!

Quote:




Originally Posted by Jason3fc

...I actually did think Gary and his cat were cool.


I wish I had a cat like that!

Definitely! Early Edition is an awesome show!:) :cool: (But it's not a spinoff. And I doubt this is what was originally being discussed- but it's the first thing I thought of when I saw this.:lol: )

It was reported around September 2014 that David Faustino was pitching a "Married... with Children" spin-off to the networks.

Christina Applegate then said at Katey Sagal's Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony, "We're going to do something with Dave maybe. I don't know if it will be in character. But I don't really know. I don't know what that's going to be. I don't know if I'm allowed to speak on that at all. So I should probably stop talking about it right now!"





Faustino later said at a 2015 Red Carpet event that Sony "was exited" about the project. However, Sony denied involvement saying that they have no deals with Faustino.

In May 2016, Faustino mentioned that Netflix may be a good spot for it but there were legal issues involved.





In a recent interview with AOL BUILD, Ed O’Neill (currently on Modern Family) said that the spin-off "was finished" at this time.

"David Faustino pitched an idea to Sony about Bud moving back in the old house and being divorced and his ex-wife moves in, too, with his best friend and they’re struggling and Al and Peg are in Vegas – they won the lottery.

And that was the idea, but I think they hit some legal problems. People who have to sign off on it wouldn’t, so I don’t think that’s going to happen. And Katey Sagal and I would only have been able to do one or two a year because we’re contracted – well, she was, now I certainly am. But it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen. But you never know."

Gimme a Break! tried to have a spin-off, but it never went anywhere. Here's the three attempts...

Speculated Appropriate Title: "Max"

The first spin-of attempt occured at the end of season two in 1983 during the episode "Nell And The Kid" in which Nell goes to Max's Deli and she and Max Green (Don Rickles) catch an ophaned girl named Danny stealing money and food. Instead of the Chief taking her in to custody, Max decides to adopt her, and has her work to pay back the money and food she stole. The episode soon only focuses on Max and Danny at the deli and then Max Green's slummy bachelor apartment and the interaction between him and Danny, who tries to steal food from Max's fridge and may leave on the run, yet Max catches her. In the end, he forgives her, and tells her he was never as rich as he is now that he owns his own deli, goes into a talk about how tough he and his family had it growing up, and also touches upon his deceased wife. She finally sees eye to eye with him, and thanks God for everyone around her, letting him know she also thanks God for him.

Speculated Appropriate Titles "The Center"

The second spin-off attempt occured at the end of season three in 1984 during the episode "The Center". The episode only includes Nell and Grandpa from the main cast, and begins with Nell telling Grandpa to go the senior citizen center because it has a mess of women which he agrees. At The Center, it is informed by Lilly(Gwen Verdon) that the teen youth center burnt to the ground,on account of the teens who started it according to the character Andy (Ray Walston) and the seniors must share their center with the kids from the youth center. At first, everyone hates the idea, but then they all decide to have a dance there consisting of both punk rock and old time music from the early 1900s. The only other storyline in the episode consisted of the activities director Lilly, a four time widow, having a crush on one of the senior members named Andy, and how he refused to go to her house for dinner many times and how she wants to cook him dinner aside from their quarrel of how everyone but Andy cooperated with how the two generations, the seniors and the youths, decide to work together and have one dance. When one of the teens, Russell, a guy in love with another teenager named Dianna, handcuffs them together and traps them in a closet, all is resolved when Andy brings up his deceased wife Maybelle, and how he's still not over her, but agrees to go to Lilly's place if she invites him again. One of the senior citizens at the center was Papa Jack Jenkins played by Whittman Mayo in the episode.

Speculated Appropriate Title "Two Guys From Greece"

The final spin-of attempt (that may or may not have been a spin-off), which has at one point years ago been touched upon by at least a few people who were fans of the series, was at the end of season 5 in 1986 in the season finale of season five in the episode "The Purse Snatcher". The episode dealt with a Greek restaurant called "Two Guys From Greece" and the two guys who worked at it, Nicky, and his friend Tyler. In the episode, Nell decides to have lunch there just to try a new hip place in town and realizes her purse had been stolen and believes it was a fellow customer whom the two guys had her sit with that she took a liking to. Later, when that same guy comes back, the two boys try to make it certain that the guy stole her purse by putting another purse out to be stolen, along with money from the cash register. In the end, the boss, Mr. Pappalardo, fires his son Nicky's assistant/friend Tyler, and Nell realizes she didn't lose her purse afterall, making Mr. Papallardo re-hire the boy. Overall, this episode had the feel of "Charles In Charge" in a way and the two guys interacted and gave the feel sort of how Charles and Buddy interacted, one being the brains, the other the sidekick. Although not noted on several Gimme A Break! websites online as a spin-off attempt, this episode most likely could have been a tester for a new series as it aired at the end of the season (which is when tester episodes usually aired for new fall series. The episode's main plotline was about Nell's stolen purse, but went into the relationship of Mr. Pappalardo, his son, Nikki, his son's friend, and the establishment that Mr. Pappalardo owned and made the boys operate. In a few scenes, like the episodes "Nell And The Kid" and "The Center", the episode does not rely on any Gimme A Break! cast members, and just focuses on the two boys or the two boys and Mr. Pappalardo.

this is such a long thread that I'm sure this has been mentioned but there was talk of making a spin-off of ALL IN THE FAMILY in the 70s, about Father Majeskey (I think that's his name-you know the priest that Bernard Hughes played-remember Edith accidentally dented hi car once with a can of cling peaches (in heavy syrup) or as she said "a can of HM-HMS":lol:

when George Reeves death in 1959 cancelled plans for another season of THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN they were going to make a spin-off series about Superboy. (I used to have a VHS tape showing some of the screen tests, lighting tests, etc. with various actors for the roles of Clark Kent/Superboy and Lana Lang as well as interviews the producers did with them.

It's too bad MTV never considered a Daria spinoff for Jane Lane. I would have watched it in a heartbeat. Jane could have been lead singer/guitarist for a grunge metal band with Trent on lead vocals--all they would have needed is a bass player and drummer. zimbio.com/photos/Katy+Perry

I'd watch too. She would be on the road and have great adventures.

Another more recent one... ABC Family's (Freeform) "Young & Hungry" was due to get a spin-off starring Aimee Carrero, Ashley Tisdale, Steve Talley, and Ryan Pinkston called "Young & Sofia".

Carrero was going to reprise her "Young" role as Sofia Rodriguez who works for the overbearing Logan Rawlings (Ashley Tisdale) at Click’d Media. Talley plays Kendrick, a journalist with Click’d Media whom Sofia is immediately intrigued by. Pinkston plays Leo, the pop culture editor at Click’d Media who is competitive with Kendrick.

The planted spin-off pilot aired as the eighth episode of "Young & Hungry's" fourth season and Freeform announced in January 2017 that they were not moving forward with "Young & Sofia".

It's too bad MTV never considered a Daria spinoff for Jane Lane. I would have watched it in a heartbeat. Jane could have been lead singer/guitarist for a grunge metal band with Trent on lead vocals--all they would have needed is a bass player and drummer. zimbio.com/photos/Katy+Perry
There was supposed to be one about Mystik Spiral. Evidently it's on the Daria; The Complete Series box set, but I never got around to watching that.

CORRECTION: It's actually a download of the script for the pilot.

Around when ABC's "Revenge" was ending in 2015, there was talk of a Nolan spin-off w/ Gabriel Mann and the possibility of some "Revenge" characters appearing on another ABC show, "Kingmakers".

The "Kingmakers" pilot was produced by "Revenge" producer Sallie Patrick and starred Kristin Bauer van Straten, Adrian Pasdar, Michael Trevino, and Colin Woodell. ABC passed on it for the 2015-16 season.

"Revenge" showrunner Sunil Nayar said at the time, "The idea had been floated that a character or two from Revenge could show up on her [Sallie Patrick] show. The idea was to build the two shows in the same universe."

That would have bombed. Female prisons aren't exactly exciting.

That may be true considering "The L Word" was suppose to have a spinoff about a female prison and Showtime decided not to pick it up.


And now, some years after these posts, female prison show "Orange is the New Black" has become a hit.

"The L Word" female prison spin-off was called "The Farm", which also happens to be the name of the passed-on Rainn Wilson "Office" spin-off. Now there are talks of an "L Word" revival.

Another The Amanda Show spinoff called Moody's Point

The Rainn Wilson, Dwight Schrute spinoff "The Farm". Mad about that because I think it could have been absolutely hilarious, especially if the actress who played Angela who married the Dwight character could have been on there. Could have been like Fawlty Towers (since they ran an inn).

The show was sort of promised and then NBC backed out, me wasnt happy!

"How I Met Your Mother" has had a few attempts at launching a spin-off (companion series) that never happened.

Around Oct. 2013, when HIMYM was ending, it was announced that creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas were looking into expanding the franchise with a "female take" on it.

The pilot for "How I Met Your Dad", starring indie film star Greta Gerwig and narrated by Meg Ryan, wasn't picked up by CBS.




Then in December 2016, they tried again with "This Is Us" writers Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger on "How I Met Your Father". It was to also be from a female's point-of-view and HIMYM creators Bays and Thomas were EPs.

Aptaker and Berger then became co-showrunners on "This Is Us" after it took off and had to put "How I Met Your Father" on hold in March 2017.




Fox chairman Dana Walden then said in August 2017 that they were looking into it again with new writers and that no ideas or concepts from the previous attempts would be carried over.

“It’s one that’s been slowly cooked. If it’s the right idea the right execution, we’ll take that.”

"Facts Of Life" was going to have "Facts Of Life, The Next Generation" in 1988, but that never materialized. This was alluded to in the series finale episode, with Eastland becoming "co-ed" and Blair becoming headmistress.

Interestingly, this would have been a spinoff of a spinoff.

"Facts Of Life" was going to have "Facts Of Life, The Next Generation" in 1988, but that never materialized. This was alluded to in the series finale episode, with Eastland becoming "co-ed" and Blair becoming headmistress.

Interestingly, this would have been a spinoff of a spinoff.
This could have worked and become more interesting than the original.

A 1990s-set spin-off of "The Goldbergs" was planned, but ultimately not ordered to series. The pilot will air as an episode of "The Goldbergs'" fifth season.



The episode picks up where the Goldberg family leaves off at William Penn Academy in the 1990s as former teacher and now Head of School John Glascott (Tim Meadows) leads a faculty with wildly different views on how to mentor students and recruits his tough-as-nails-sister Lucy (Nia Long) to join his staff and enroll her teenage daughters Felicia and Gigi (Rachel Crow, Summer Parker) as new students.

Lucy is desperate to ensure they avoid the social pitfalls of high school and finds herself torn between Glascott’s nurturing and communicative approach to parenting and Coach Mellor’s (Bryan Callen) tough-guy belief that physical competition brings out the best in students.

Even Beverly Goldberg (Wendi McLendon-Covey) comes to visit the school’s staff despite all her kids already having graduated. But she can’t help but meddle one last time.

This could have worked.

A 1990s-set spin-off of "The Goldbergs" was planned, but ultimately not ordered to series. The pilot will air as an episode of "The Goldbergs'" fifth season.

An update to this is that the episode was greatly received and "The Goldbergs" spin-off, "Schooled", was ordered to series shortly after.

ABC was looking into a "The Middle" spin-off focusing on Sue Heck (Eden Sher) shortly after "The Middle" ended. The title was reportedly going to be "Sue Sue in the City" and would feature Sue working at a hotel in Chicago.

ABC put in a pilot production commitment for the series in August 2018 and decided not to go forward with it in November. Other cast members included Brock Ciarlelli, Kimberley Crossman, Finesse Mitchell, Aaron Branch, and Chris Diamantopoulos.

after "I LOVE LUCY"" ended its run CBS wanted to make a spin-off about Fred & Ethel. But Vivian Vance said "No way in HELL would I ever work with Mr. Frawley again!!"

in 2003 they were going to make a spin-off of "QUANTUM LEAP" about Sams daughter searching in time for him. I wish they did; I would have liked to seen it.

"Supernatural" had another attempted spin-off that didn't make it in addition to "Bloodlines".

In July 2017, "Wayward Sisters" was announced that was to feature a group of young women — Claire, Alex, Kaia, and Patience — who were all orphaned due to some supernatural-based tragedy.



"Supernatural" showrunners Andrew Dabb and Robert Singer, as well as writers-producers Phil Sgriccia and Robert Berens, were behind the potential spin-off whose backdoor pilot aired during "Supernatural's" 13th Season.

Briana Buckmaster, Kathryn Newton, Katherine Ramdeen, Kim Rhodes, Clark Backo, and Yadira Guevara-Prip were to star.





In May 2018, "Supernatural" co-creator Andrew Dabb announced on Twitter that The CW had passed on "Wayward Sisters".

“It breaks my heart to say this, but CW has chosen to pass on Wayward Sisters. We love these characters, and have spent almost two years trying to make this show a reality on the network… but there are some fights, sometimes, you can’t win.”




The CW chief Mark Pedowitz said shortly after the news:

“We had really great material this year. We’re really exited about the five series we did pick up. We are big fans of the characters and the women who played the characters in the series, but we did not feel creatively the show is where we wanted it to be. We felt we had a better shot with Legacies.

“We [the network] are big fans of the Wayward actresses and hope they continue on Supernatural. We did not feel Wayward was where it needed to be to go forward with it this year.”

I think I remember reading someplace that after "LAVERNE & SHIRLEY" was on for a couple seasons they wanted to make a spin-off about Lenny and Squiggy.

Also a "HAPPY DAYS" spin-off about Ralph and Potsie.

I remember hearing that at one point, there were plans for a Gilligan's Island spin-off in which Gilligan married Mary Ann, the Professor married Ginger, and both couples had kids.

The Disney Channel series That's So Raven at one time planned to give the character Donna Cabonna her own series. It was to have focused on Cabonna and her new intern Symóne (an obvious reference to Raven Symóne).

Pinky, Elmyra, and the Brain, a spin-off of Pinky and the Brain and cross-over with Tiny Toons was brought about by the new heads at Kids WB, who wanted PatB to be more like The Simpsons. WB's decision was to add more characters to the series. The creators of Pinky and the Brain were pretty peeved about this new series. At one point, they even express their anger in the opening theme song ("It's what the network wants. Why bother to complain?")

I remember Diff'rent Strokes had a backdoor pilot involving someone teaching a night school for immigrants.

LMAO! I remember that line it and laughed out loud when I heard it the first time. I love it when shows make fun of the network they're on when they are upset at programming decisions. An episode in the final season of Garfield and Friends had Garfield at the end of the openings saying, 'Next season, we're being replaced by the news so enjoy us while it lasts!"

I think the spinoffs of The Facts Of Life would've been very interesting, since The Facts Of Life was itself a spinoff. Edna Garrett had been the Drummonds' housekeeper on Diff'rent Strokes. And I remember the character of Tootie was on at least one (maybe two) episodes of Diff'rent Strokes also. Arnold had a crush on her. A spinoff of a spinoff, I don't remember if that's been done before, does anybody else know?


Ed.

All In The Family leads to
Maude leads to
Good Times

All In The Family leads to
Maude leads to
Good Times

but according to some people GOOD TIMES wasn't a spin-off of MAUDE. I agree though that it was and Norman Lear also says it was.

I'd better shut up though or I'll start that old argument again. Let's hope I don't but I'm sure this post will.:lol:

In the first season of The Cosby Show, there was an episode that focused on a community center run by Tony Orlando (of "And Dawn" fame). That was a backdoor pilot that never took off. I saw an interview with Tony and he said he felt his acting was sub-par, and that's why it was never picked up.

I'm glad it didn't happen.

ABC was looking into a "The Middle" spin-off focusing on Sue Heck (Eden Sher) shortly after "The Middle" ended. The title was reportedly going to be "Sue Sue in the City" and would feature Sue working at a hotel in Chicago.

I'm still picturing Sue's arrival in Chicago reflecting that of Ellie Kemper arriving in NYC for the first time in "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt."

Shortly after NBC cancelled "Grimm", the network was looking into doing an offshoot centered around a female Grimm.

It never happened.

Has anyone yet mentioned that Happy Days/Mork & Mindy spinoff about an angel?

Has anyone yet mentioned that Happy Days/Mork & Mindy spinoff about an angel?
it was called OUT OF THE BLUE and thankfully only lasted one season 1980-81 on ABC. Noone's probably mentioned it because it was so AWFUL.

Phil Rosenthal mentioned at the ATX Television Festival 2016 that an "Everybody Loves Raymond" spin-off almost happened.

He said the idea was to feature Robert [Brad Garrett] now living in Pennsylvania with Amy’s [Monica Horan] family where he works as a gym teacher. Peter [Chris Elliot] would be his assistant.

He said it never materialized because CBS would not offer more than the pilot episode. He said that his writers were getting a lot of deals and they couldn't give all that up just for a pilot guarantee and CBS wouldn't budge.

Phil Rosenthal mentioned at the ATX Television Festival 2016 that an "Everybody Loves Raymond" spin-off almost happened.

He said the idea was to feature Robert [Brad Garrett] now living in Pennsylvania with Amy’s [Monica Horan] family where he works as a gym teacher. Peter [Chris Elliot] would be his assistant.

He said it never materialized because CBS would not offer more than the pilot episode. He said that his writers were getting a lot of deals and they couldn't give all that up just for a pilot guarantee and CBS wouldn't budge.
It seems like a Robert and Amy spinoff still could happen, only without Amy's parents (Fred Willard and Georgia Engel have passed on) or her brother Peter. Rosenthal hasn't had another pilot picked up (AFAIK), let alone a series, and he and the other ELR writers have had 15 years of bad experiences since Raymond ended to put into a new show. If CBS can bring back Murphy Brown and other less successful series, I think this would be worth a shot.

Have there been reboots or spinoffs that have been broadcast by a network other than the network where the original series had been featured? Or would CBS be the only option for a Robert/Amy spinoff to appear on?

(Fred Willard and Georgia Engel have passed on)

Fred Willard is alive.



Have there been reboots or spinoffs that have been broadcast by a network other than the network where the original series had been featured?


I actually started a thread on the topic of spin-offs airing on a different network from the parent show.

https://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?t=365321

Fred Willard is alive.

I'd read somewhere that the oldest generation from ELR were all gone now, so I didn't bother to verify. What a horrifying mistake. Sorry, Fred. :confused:

I actually started a thread on the topic of spin-offs airing on a different network from the parent show.

https://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?t=365321

And immediately after posting, I discovered that a MacGyver reboot has been airing on CBS (instead of its original network of ABC) for a few seasons now. I don't watch much TV these days other than retro channels and documentary-type shows, so I'm not up to speed on the current stuff.