Popular Shows That Had Episoded Intended To Spin Off

[roadman65]

^^ Tabitha had a short 12-episode run
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRBKDrYnS1I

I totally missed that

Robert Urich, eh?

12 episodes counts as a launched TV show.  Its about episodes, like Assignment Earth on Star Trek Season 2, that were produced to be back door pilots that never got even one episode aired.

Another was the final episode of Laverne and Shirley that was intended to give Carmine Raguso his own TV show afet Laverne and Shirley hence why he moved to New York and got a gig in  a Broadway play.

Welcome Back Kotter's final episode was to give Ron Pallilo his own show hence why the character Horshack got married in the peninultment episode of the sitcom series.  If the network picked it up it would have been a continuation of the show just as Three's A Crowd was to Threes Company. However in Threes Company the last episode which was aired as a three part episode had two of its three parts aired after the show's final season and was the first episode of the Threes A Crowd one and only season.  Nonetheless it was produced.

The OP is about shows that were pilots that never got produced even for one episode.

[US71]

I was not a big Happy Days or Laverne & Shriely fan, but didn't they try to spin-off Lenny & Squiggy or is my mind playing tricks on me?


Has anyone mentioned W*A*L*T*E*R which was an AfterMASH spin-off? It never got beyond the pilot

[abefroman329]

The OP is about shows that were pilots that never got produced even for one episode.

"Never got produced even for one episode, as their own series," you mean.

[roadman]

I was not a big Happy Days or Laverne & Shriely fan, but didn't they try to spin-off Lenny & Squiggy or is my mind playing tricks on me?

You may be thinking of the records that were released during the first season of Laverne and Shirley.  One was Laverne and Shirley Sing, and the other was Lenny and the Squigtones.  Both records had the L&S characters doing covers of classic 1950s songs.

[jon daly]

The OP is about shows that were pilots that never got produced even for one episode.

"Never got produced even for one episode, as their own series," you mean.

"Chief Wiggum P.I."

[abefroman329]

The OP is about shows that were pilots that never got produced even for one episode.

"Never got produced even for one episode, as their own series," you mean.

"Chief Wiggum P.I."

Or "Love-Matic Grandpa."  He'll fill our hearts with love.

[roadman65]

I was not a big Happy Days or Laverne & Shriely fan, but didn't they try to spin-off Lenny & Squiggy or is my mind playing tricks on me?

You may be thinking of the records that were released during the first season of Laverne and Shirley.  One was Laverne and Shirley Sing, and the other was Lenny and the Squigtones.  Both records had the L&S characters doing covers of classic 1950s songs.

In all fairness they should have spun them off.  Makes me wonder if that one episode where Laverne and Shirley were both out of town and let Lenny and Squiggy, as well as Carmine use their apartment to stay in while on furlow.  It featured Squiggy sleepwalking cause he could not admit to himself a girl he had a crush on, did not anywhere near feel the same way toward him was a back door pilot.

Now, it might of been that both actresses Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams could not commit to the taping for other reasons or obligations with the episode originally intended to be for them, but then a last minute change to the script  was made to accommodate two male roles for it.

[US71]

I just remembered three four more proposed shows that never made it off the ground:

Dr Strange. A TV movie in 1978 which did poorly.

Trial of the Incredible Hulk TV movie was intended to launch Daredevil

The Incredible Hulk Returns TV movie was intended to launch Thor.

And a Generation X TV movie which didn't fare well (I hated it)

[VTGoose]

Burn Notice on USA Network ended with Michael and Fiona raising Michael's late brother's child after being declared "dead." The implication was that Sam and Jesse were poised to continue helping people in trouble using the skills they had used as part of the whole group. The groundwork was there to spin off a continuation of the show/new show with those characters.

Person of Interest did sort of the same thing in the last episode -- it implied that others were also being contacted by the machine to help people, so a branch of that show could have continued with a whole new cast (not necessarily introduced in the show).

[thenetwork]

Was ABC's Three's A Crowd ever set up at the end of Three's Company? That show only went one season (1985-86). I don't think I ever saw East Hartford's own Mary Cardorette in any other show after that.

For all intents and purposes, Three's A Crowd was just the final season of an overhauled Three's Company.  The final TC episode, in which Jack and his then-roomates and Mr. Furley all went their separate ways and Jack got married.  The final scene said "Three's Company is now Three's A Crowd" or something like that.

Just like how All in the Family killed off Edith and continued on as "Archie Bunker's Place" for I believe two more seasons.

The Facts of Life had several attempts at back-door pilots which never sold.  I remember there was at least one failed back-door attempt on The Rockford Files, and I want to say there was a back-door pilot on Adam-12 I remember seeing that never took off.

[Big John]

Was ABC's Three's A Crowd ever set up at the end of Three's Company? That show only went one season (1985-86). I don't think I ever saw East Hartford's own Mary Cardorette in any other show after that.

For all intents and purposes, Three's A Crowd was just the final season of an overhauled Three's Company.  The final TC episode, in which Jack and his then-roomates and Mr. Furley all went their separate ways and Jack got married.  The final scene said "Three's Company is now Three's A Crowd" or something like that.

He did not get married.  There was controversy about that show as it showed Jack and his girlfriend Vicky "sleeping" together out of wedlock.

[roadman65]

Was ABC's Three's A Crowd ever set up at the end of Three's Company? That show only went one season (1985-86). I don't think I ever saw East Hartford's own Mary Cardorette in any other show after that.

For all intents and purposes, Three's A Crowd was just the final season of an overhauled Three's Company.  The final TC episode, in which Jack and his then-roomates and Mr. Furley all went their separate ways and Jack got married.  The final scene said "Three's Company is now Three's A Crowd" or something like that.

Just like how All in the Family killed off Edith and continued on as "Archie Bunker's Place" for I believe two more seasons.

The Facts of Life had several attempts at back-door pilots which never sold.  I remember there was at least one failed back-door attempt on The Rockford Files, and I want to say there was a back-door pilot on Adam-12 I remember seeing that never took off.

The finale of Facts of Life was a back door pilot hence Blair becoming the head mistress of the school she attended earlier in the show.  The episode focused on her job as that and not much on the other characters.

In Archie Bunkers Place, Edith was killed off in the beginning of Season 2.  The first season did have Jean Stapleton appear in four episodes including the Thanksgiving reunion of the original All In The Family Cast.

In Threes A Crowd yes Jack did not get married as that show aired after unmarried cohabitation began becoming popular in normal life.  When Threes Company first aired 8 years prior, it was controversial for the time, but a lot has changed in the course of the eight year run.

[roadman65]

Was ABC's Three's A Crowd ever set up at the end of Three's Company? That show only went one season (1985-86). I don't think I ever saw East Hartford's own Mary Cardorette in any other show after that.

For all intents and purposes, Three's A Crowd was just the final season of an overhauled Three's Company.  The final TC episode, in which Jack and his then-roomates and Mr. Furley all went their separate ways and Jack got married.  The final scene said "Three's Company is now Three's A Crowd" or something like that.

He did not get married.  There was controversy about that show as it showed Jack and his girlfriend Vicky "sleeping" together out of wedlock.

No Janet got married, though the courtship was never shown.  In the next to last episode of the show, Phillip (Janet's future husband) was shown but due to a misunderstanding caused Janet to never date him as Janet was interested in him, but Jack though he was interested in Janet for other reasons.  One week later, we saw them get engaged so somehow between episodes they reconciled, dated, and became serious.

However, there was controversy in the end as Mary Cadorette was casted to play Vicki before the rest of the cast of Three's Company got the ax.  The producers were not man enough to inform the cast (other than Ritter) that the show was being retooled and many were losing their jobs.  I believe Joyce DeWitt (Janet) found out by mistake that Mary Cadorette was replacing her and their was strong restentment against the producers including John Ritter from her.

Also the same producers did the same to Jenilee Harrison (Cindy Snow) as first she was a temporary replacement for Suzanne Sommers until the producers officially fired Sommers and  then decided Harrison had no sex appeal for the audience  as a permanent replacement and instead hired Teri Austin instead who producers thought was sexy enough to hold the show's ratings as a permanent lead.  At first they gave Jenilee a spot as a credited supporting actress, then they let her play the same character for a few episodes and then slowly had writers give her less appearances until she developed Chuck Cunningham syndrome and was not allowed to return for Seasons 7 and 8.  In an interview with Harrison she stated she would have stayed till the end if they did not slowly fire her in Season 6.

[briantroutman]

For all intents and purposes, Three's A Crowd was just the final season of an overhauled Three's Company.

Likewise, I've read claims that The Ted Knight Show was originally expected to have a longer run as "its own series" , but because of the death of Ted Knight and subsequent cancellation of the show, it's looked at as being simply a re-tooled last season of Too Close for Comfort (and in fact The Ted Knight Show episodes have been re-packaged with Too Close... opening titles for purposes of rerun syndication).

[abefroman329]

Was ABC's Three's A Crowd ever set up at the end of Three's Company? That show only went one season (1985-86). I don't think I ever saw East Hartford's own Mary Cardorette in any other show after that.

For all intents and purposes, Three's A Crowd was just the final season of an overhauled Three's Company.  The final TC episode, in which Jack and his then-roomates and Mr. Furley all went their separate ways and Jack got married.  The final scene said "Three's Company is now Three's A Crowd" or something like that.

He did not get married.  There was controversy about that show as it showed Jack and his girlfriend Vicky "sleeping" together out of wedlock.

It was the same with Robin's Nest, and it was equally controversial.

[PHLBOS]

Also the same producers did the same to Jenilee Harrison (Cindy Snow) as first she was a temporary replacement for Suzanne Sommers until the producers officially fired Sommers and  then decided Harrison had no sex appeal for the audience  as a permanent replacement and instead hired Teri Austin instead who producers thought was sexy enough to hold the show's ratings as a permanent lead.

Actually they hired Priscilla Barnes.  Teri Austin was the name of the character she played.