TV Spin-offs That Never Happened - Blu-ray Forum

JamesG. · 03-08-2020, 07:11 PM

Here we can list what never came to be. Many shows had proposed offshoots that never got passed the planning stages or did film but never aired.

What do you think of these cancelled ideas?

"Buffy the Vampire Slayer"

- Joss Whedon was considered spinning off Eliza Dushku's Faith, but she passed on the idea.

- There were talks for years on a series centered on Anthony Stuart Head's Giles. Joss Whedon mentioned in various interviews and Comic-Con appearances that it was going to be a mini-series on BBC and then a tv-movie instead.

- Buffy the Animated Series was originally greenlit by Fox in 2002 for Fox Kids. 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. Joss Whedon officially declared the series dead in 2005.

(The main cast did come back to film about 4 minutes of test footage to sample the series w/ the exception of Sarah Michelle Gellar. Giselle Loren filled in who voiced Buffy on the video games)

"Andromeda"

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 continuation of the series.

"Smallville"

The Aquaman pilot was made, but it never made it to airing. However, the studio made it available for purchase on the iTunes store and Best Buy had it available in specially marked Smallville DVD sets as an exclusive bonus disc.

"Heroes"

Heroes: Origins was scrapped due to the 2007-08 writers' strike, however Heroes: Reborn eventually came out.

"Prison 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 episodes of the final season and the direct-to-DVD The Final Break. Lori Petty who appeared would go on another female prison show with Orange is the New Black.

"Gossip Girl"

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

"Tiny Toon Adventures"

Elmyra Duff was due to get her own show spun-off 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.

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

"Charmed"

The WB's Charmed was due to get a Mermaid spin-off. The idea came from a two-part Season 5 episode where Phoebe (Alyssa Milano) transforms into a mermaid in an attempt to "swim away" from her problems.

The Mermaid plot was to feature a mermaid named Nikki who is saved by a young man after drifting ashore. She tries to live a normal life as a human while avoiding the capture of those who want her back in the sea.

When WB and UPN merged into The CW the new network passed on the series.

"Will & Grace"

Way before the new revival, Sean Hayes and Megan Mullally were rumored to reprise their roles for a Jack & Karen series. Mullally said that the failure of Joey put the kibosh on the idea.

She described it similar to Upstairs, Downstairs with Karen and all of her servants. She wanted Martin Short to play the butler, who was secretly in love with Karen but she didn't know, and Alec Baldwin as a playboy love interest.

"Stargate SG-1"

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 Grace Park.

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

"Californication"

Showtime scrapped their plans for a Californication spin-off starring Maggie Grace as a Catholic school girl-turned-groupie who befriended Hank Moody.

"Power Rangers"

The buffoon duo Bulk & Skull were going to star in their own show. The general idea was to have them operating a hotel in Angel Grove, California.

Paul Schrier (Bulk) said at the Power Morphicon Convention in 2007, "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."

"Lost"

Terry O'Quinn wanted to do a spin-off featuring himself and co-star Michael Emerson. The plot was to feature John Locke and Ben Linus as suburban teachers moonlighting as hitmen.

Terry O'Quinn tried to get J.J. Abrams on board with the proposed spin-off, but it ultimately never happened.

"The Office"

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

"NCIS"

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 in "NCIS: Red".

This idea was scrapped and then NCIS: New Orleans was launched instead.

"Married... with Children"

David Faustino (Bud Bundy) was pitching a series around Sept. 2014 on Bud moving back in the old house and his ex-wife moves in along with his best friend and they’re struggling.

Meanwhile, after winning the lottery, Al and Peg are living in Vegas.

"How I Met Your Mother"

CBS passed on both How I Met Your Father and How I Met Your Dad.

The unaired pilot for How I Met Your Dad starred Greta Gerwig and was narrated by Meg Ryan.

"The Middle"

Sue Heck (Eden Sher) was due to get her own show, titled Sue Sue in the City, that would feature her working at a hotel in Chicago.

ABC decided not to pick it up.

"Supernatural"

The long-running series had a few attempts at a spin-off with Supernatural Bloodlines and Wayward Sisters.

"Grimm"

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

Gretiem · 03-08-2020, 07:38 PM

Buffy, Gossip Girl are supposed to come back though.

jakeJR1977 · 03-08-2020, 09:18 PM

I've been thinking for a long time now that with all of the revival/continuation shows that have been going on for the past few years, I would really love to see Married with Children come back. I sure do miss The Middle also, wish it would have went on for at least a couple more seasons.

kevin87 · 03-08-2020, 10:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gretiem

Buffy, Gossip Girl are supposed to come back though.

The Buffy one would've been a spinoff, if it ever goes into production, but Gossip Girl is going to be a revival of sorts seemingly with the same name set 8 years after the first show.

There was also Most Wanted, a spinoff of Agents of SHIELD with Lance Hunter (Nick Blood) and Bobbi Morse/Mockingbird (Adrianne Palicki) that had a pilot but didn't get picked up to series.

JamesG. · 03-08-2020, 11:49 PM

"ER"

There was talk that John Stamos was going to be the lead of an ER spin-off. He spoke about it in an old EW interview.

"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."

"Young & Hungry"

ABC Family's (Freeform) Young & Hungry was due to get a spin-off called Young & Sofia.

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

Michael24 · 03-09-2020, 01:07 AM

I don't know if it was ever seriously considered or not, but I remember rumors of a Kramer spin-off as Seinfeld was coming to end. Not sure how they would have done it given the way the series finale ended, but I would have totally been down for that. I thought it would have been great to have Mickey Abbott as his sidekick.

Endymion0000 · 03-09-2020, 06:02 AM

That Lost one isn't a spin-off though. That was just another series staring those actors.

rdm5777 · 03-09-2020, 06:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Endymion0000

That Lost one isn't a spin-off though. That was just another series staring those actors.

Ahhh...that makes sense. I was reading the OP and trying to figure out what I had forgotten about Lost to where that could have been a possible spin-off.

JamesG. · 03-10-2020, 12:09 AM

"Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman"

A spin-off to Dr. Quinn was filmed for CBS, called California, but it never aired. It starred William Shockley as Hank Lawson.

He spoke about it in an old interview. "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 played the local sheriff. I really wish CBS would have allowed the fans to see this wonderful 2-hour movie."

ElectricPeterTork · 03-10-2020, 03:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jakeJR1977

I've been thinking for a long time now that with all of the revival/continuation shows that have been going on for the past few years, I would really love to see Married with Children come back. I sure do miss The Middle also, wish it would have went on for at least a couple more seasons.

Fitting the theme of the thread, there was a Middle spin-off considered for a while: Sue Sue In The City, following Sue living in Chicago.

But, ABC passed, since they had Schooled in development and passed on Grown-ish outright.

JamesG. · 04-20-2020, 05:28 AM

"Everybody Loves Raymond"

Phil Rosenthal mentioned at the ATX Television Festival 2016 that a "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.

kevin87 · 04-20-2020, 07:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ElectricPeterTork

Fitting the theme of the thread, there was a Middle spin-off considered for a while: Sue Sue In The City, following Sue living in Chicago.

But, ABC passed, since they had Schooled in development and passed on Grown-ish outright.

That was going to be on Freeform though, wasn't it? The finale shows flashforwards, so doing a spinoff would defeat the purpose.

Technically the Schooled spinoff never happened in a way, because it was supposed to be about Glascott and his sister and her two daughters. They incorporated one of his nieces into the final version, but not the other or his sister since the actress got another job.

Jay H. · 04-20-2020, 08:30 AM

There should have been a spin-off of Dexter, following his new life as a lumberjack. I picture it as a wacky sitcom, complete with a smart-a** neighbor, a sexy woman lumberjack, and lots of misunderstandings. They could use a studio audience from CBS sitcoms; they laugh at everything.

Josep5349 · 04-20-2020, 09:11 AM

There were talks of Starfleet Academy and Klingon Empire spin-offs some years ago, not to mention Captain Sulu. I don’t think they ever got beyond the rumour/wishful thinking stage.

JamesG. · 04-20-2020, 08:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Josep5349

There were talks of Starfleet Academy and Klingon Empire spin-offs some years ago, not to mention Captain Sulu. I don’t think they ever got beyond the rumour/wishful thinking stage.

Michael Dorn gave an interview some years ago that they were considering doing a Worf series, but J.J. Abrams' franchise prevented that from happening.

TheWildWhelk · 04-20-2020, 08:55 PM

Even though it happened, i wish that Babylon 5 creator J Michael Straczynski's Crusade spin-off had survived the crapolla at TNT that forced JMS to cancel the show himself. Damn shame it never made it past 13 episodes.

WBMakeVMarsMovieNOW · 04-20-2020, 10:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JamesG.

"Buffy the Vampire Slayer"

- Buffy the Animated Series was originally greenlit by Fox in 2002 for Fox Kids. 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. Joss Whedon officially declared the series dead in 2005.

they did make an animated buffy disc release and a few comic books tied into this

mysticwaterfall · 04-21-2020, 12:11 AM

There have been a lot of Star Trek shows that never happened:

-Assignment Earth from TOS was meant to be a backdoor pilot for a Gary Seven show
-Harry Mudd had a planned show at one point according to Walter Koenig
-Numerous variations of Starfleet Academy as mentioned previously in this thread
-A Luxawna Troi series
-Numerous Animated series, most notably "Final Frontier" set in the 26th century
-A Riker series

Debatable if these are "spinoffs" or contiuations:

-Star Trek Phase II - Famously turned into TMP and some episodes of TNG
-Star Trek: Federation set in the year 3000. Some ideas from this seemed to have been worked into Discovery S3.

Phase II, Final Fronteir, and Federation are the only ones of these that got very far.

TheWildWhelk · 04-21-2020, 09:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mysticwaterfall

There have been a lot of Star Trek shows that never happened:

-Numerous variations of Starfleet Academy as mentioned previously in this thread

Phase II, Final Fronteir, and Federation are the only ones of these that got very far.

The Starfleet Academy pitch turned into a multi-disc video game from Interplay Productions from back in 1997 with guest appearances from Shatner, Takei and Koenig. I rather enjoyed it.

Joey9775 · 04-21-2020, 06:05 PM

God the Faith spinoff still makes me mad. Eliza chose Tru f*cking calling over it and essentially killed the buffyverse.

03-08-2020, 07:11 PM	#1
JamesG. Power Member Member since:Jul 2012	TV Spin-offs That Never Happened Here we can list what never came to be. Many shows had proposed offshoots that never got passed the planning stages or did film but never aired. What do you think of these cancelled ideas? "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" - Joss Whedon was considered spinning off Eliza Dushku's Faith, but she passed on the idea. - There were talks for years on a series centered on Anthony Stuart Head's Giles. Joss Whedon mentioned in various interviews and Comic-Con appearances that it was going to be a mini-series on BBC and then a tv-movie instead. - Buffy the Animated Series was originally greenlit by Fox in 2002 for Fox Kids. 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. Joss Whedon officially declared the series dead in 2005. (The main cast did come back to film about 4 minutes of test footage to sample the series w/ the exception of Sarah Michelle Gellar. Giselle Loren filled in who voiced Buffy on the video games) "Andromeda" 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 continuation of the series. "Smallville" The Aquaman pilot was made, but it never made it to airing. However, the studio made it available for purchase on the iTunes store and Best Buy had it available in specially marked Smallville DVD sets as an exclusive bonus disc. "Heroes" Heroes: Origins was scrapped due to the 2007-08 writers' strike, however Heroes: Reborn eventually came out. "Prison 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 episodes of the final season and the direct-to-DVD The Final Break. Lori Petty who appeared would go on another female prison show with Orange is the New Black. "Gossip Girl" The spin-off was to feature a young "Lily van der Woodsen" (Kelly Rutherford's role) played by Brittany Snow. "Tiny Toon Adventures" Elmyra Duff was due to get her own show spun-off 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. However, Elmyra Duff later joined Pinky and the Brain in a re-tooled version of their show called Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain. "Charmed" The WB's Charmed was due to get a Mermaid spin-off. The idea came from a two-part Season 5 episode where Phoebe (Alyssa Milano) transforms into a mermaid in an attempt to "swim away" from her problems. The Mermaid plot was to feature a mermaid named Nikki who is saved by a young man after drifting ashore. She tries to live a normal life as a human while avoiding the capture of those who want her back in the sea. When WB and UPN merged into The CW the new network passed on the series. "Will & Grace" Way before the new revival, Sean Hayes and Megan Mullally were rumored to reprise their roles for a Jack & Karen series. Mullally said that the failure of Joey put the kibosh on the idea. She described it similar to Upstairs, Downstairs with Karen and all of her servants. She wanted Martin Short to play the butler, who was secretly in love with Karen but she didn't know, and Alec Baldwin as a playboy love interest. "Stargate SG-1" 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 Grace Park. The spin-off that did happen was Stargate: Atlantis. "Californication" Showtime scrapped their plans for a Californication spin-off starring Maggie Grace as a Catholic school girl-turned-groupie who befriended Hank Moody. "Power Rangers" The buffoon duo Bulk & Skull were going to star in their own show. The general idea was to have them operating a hotel in Angel Grove, California. Paul Schrier (Bulk) said at the Power Morphicon Convention in 2007, "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." "Lost" Terry O'Quinn wanted to do a spin-off featuring himself and co-star Michael Emerson. The plot was to feature John Locke and Ben Linus as suburban teachers moonlighting as hitmen. Terry O'Quinn tried to get J.J. Abrams on board with the proposed spin-off, but it ultimately never happened. "The Office" NBC passed on The Office spin-off The Farm that was to star Rainn Wilson. "NCIS" 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 in "NCIS: Red". This idea was scrapped and then NCIS: New Orleans was launched instead. "Married... with Children" David Faustino (Bud Bundy) was pitching a series around Sept. 2014 on Bud moving back in the old house and his ex-wife moves in along with his best friend and they’re struggling. Meanwhile, after winning the lottery, Al and Peg are living in Vegas. "How I Met Your Mother" CBS passed on both How I Met Your Father and How I Met Your Dad. The unaired pilot for How I Met Your Dad starred Greta Gerwig and was narrated by Meg Ryan. "The Middle" Sue Heck (Eden Sher) was due to get her own show, titled Sue Sue in the City, that would feature her working at a hotel in Chicago. ABC decided not to pick it up. "Supernatural" The long-running series had a few attempts at a spin-off with Supernatural Bloodlines and Wayward Sisters. "Grimm" Shortly after NBC cancelled Grimm, the network was looking into doing an offshoot centered around a female Grimm.

04-20-2020, 09:11 AM	#14
Josep5349 Blu-ray Samurai Member since:Jan 2013	Star Trek There were talks of Starfleet Academy and Klingon Empire spin-offs some years ago, not to mention Captain Sulu. I don’t think they ever got beyond the rumour/wishful thinking stage.

03-08-2020, 07:38 PM	#2
Gretiem Blu-ray Samurai Member since:Oct 2018 Location:somewhere Trading Score:37	Buffy, Gossip Girl are supposed to come back though.

03-08-2020, 09:18 PM	#3
jakeJR1977 Active Member Member since:Apr 2018 Location:Fayetteville,PA.	I've been thinking for a long time now that with all of the revival/continuation shows that have been going on for the past few years, I would really love to see Married with Children come back. I sure do miss The Middle also, wish it would have went on for at least a couple more seasons.

03-08-2020, 11:49 PM	#5
JamesG. Power Member Member since:Jul 2012	"ER" There was talk that John Stamos was going to be the lead of an ER spin-off. He spoke about it in an old EW interview. "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." "Young & Hungry" ABC Family's (Freeform) Young & Hungry was due to get a spin-off called Young & Sofia. The planted spin-off pilot aired as the eighth episode of Young & Hungry's fourth season and the network announced in January 2017 that they were not moving forward with Young & Sofia.

03-09-2020, 01:07 AM	#6
Michael24 Blu-ray Champion Top contributor Member since:Nov 2009 Location:California 4K collection:11 Blu-ray collection:552 DVD collection:164 Trading Score:2	I don't know if it was ever seriously considered or not, but I remember rumors of a Kramer spin-off as Seinfeld was coming to end. Not sure how they would have done it given the way the series finale ended, but I would have totally been down for that. I thought it would have been great to have Mickey Abbott as his sidekick.

03-09-2020, 06:02 AM	#7
Endymion0000 Contributor Top contributor Member since:Oct 2011 Location:Orlando, FL 4K collection:155 Blu-ray collection:10756 DVD collection:3082 MA collection:922 Digital collection:1412 iTunes collection:1549 Prime collection:921	That Lost one isn't a spin-off though. That was just another series staring those actors.

03-10-2020, 12:09 AM	#9
JamesG. Power Member Member since:Jul 2012	"Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman" A spin-off to Dr. Quinn was filmed for CBS, called California, but it never aired. It starred William Shockley as Hank Lawson. He spoke about it in an old interview. "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 played the local sheriff. I really wish CBS would have allowed the fans to see this wonderful 2-hour movie."

04-20-2020, 05:28 AM	#11
JamesG. Power Member Member since:Jul 2012	*"Everybody Loves Raymond"* Phil Rosenthal mentioned at the ATX Television Festival 2016 that a "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.

04-20-2020, 08:30 AM	#13
Jay H. Blu-ray Baron Member since:Oct 2019 Trading Score:2	There should have been a spin-off of Dexter, following his new life as a lumberjack. I picture it as a wacky sitcom, complete with a smart-a** neighbor, a sexy woman lumberjack, and lots of misunderstandings. They could use a studio audience from CBS sitcoms; they laugh at everything.

04-20-2020, 08:55 PM	#16
TheWildWhelk Blu-ray Samurai Member since:Oct 2007 Location:Elsinore Blu-ray collection:63 Blu-ray reviews:4	Even though it happened, i wish that Babylon 5 creator J Michael Straczynski's Crusade spin-off had survived the crapolla at TNT that forced JMS to cancel the show himself. Damn shame it never made it past 13 episodes.

04-21-2020, 12:11 AM	#18
mysticwaterfall Blu-ray Ninja Member since:Oct 2013 Location:Right Behind You 4K collection:767 Blu-ray collection:2442 DVD collection:267 Trading Score:164	There have been a lot of Star Trek shows that never happened: -Assignment Earth from TOS was meant to be a backdoor pilot for a Gary Seven show -Harry Mudd had a planned show at one point according to Walter Koenig -Numerous variations of Starfleet Academy as mentioned previously in this thread -A Luxawna Troi series -Numerous Animated series, most notably "Final Frontier" set in the 26th century -A Riker series Debatable if these are "spinoffs" or contiuations: -Star Trek Phase II - Famously turned into TMP and some episodes of TNG -Star Trek: Federation set in the year 3000. Some ideas from this seemed to have been worked into Discovery S3. Phase II, Final Fronteir, and Federation are the only ones of these that got very far.

04-21-2020, 06:05 PM	#20
Joey9775 Blu-ray Samurai Member since:Jan 2017 Blu-ray collection:9 Trading Score:80	God the Faith spinoff still makes me mad. Eliza chose Tru f*cking calling over it and essentially killed the buffyverse.

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