We're Thankful These 11 TV Spinoffs Never Happened

This post originally appeared at Mental Floss. 

Entertainment gossip rags are all abuzz discussing the pros and cons of a possible Dwight Schrute (of The Office fame) spinoff TV series. No doubt the producers and agents involved are too blinded by dollar signs to take the time to examine the fates of previous spinoff shows based on “can’t miss” popular characters. We hereby submit 11 such shows that barely made it past the drawing board.

Think the networks pulled the plug too early? Would you have watched any of these?

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W*A*L*T*E*R

This M*A*S*H spinoff had as complicated a broadcast history as plot backstory. Gary Burghoff, who’d played the loveable Cpl. Radar O’Reilly at the 4077, provided a bit of background for his upcoming solo series during a special guest appearance on an episode of yet another ill-fated spinoff, After M*A*S*H. There we learned that Radar’s (oops – he made it clear in the pilot that his name was “Walter”) farm had failed and he’d shipped his mom off to live with an aunt. He’d married a woman named Sandy who left him for another man during their honeymoon. He now lived in St. Louis with his cousin and was a rookie cop on the local police force. The first episode showed hapless, naïve Walter exhibiting typical Radar-like behavior, such as getting embarrassed when breaking up a fight at a strip club, and buying a soda for a kid he falsely accused of committing a crime. The pilot episode of W*A*L*T*E*R aired just once (on July 17th, 1984; the series was not picked up), and only in the Eastern and Central time zones thanks to CBS affiliates cutting to live coverage of the 1984 Democratic National Convention at 9:00pm.

Facts of Life: Next Generation

The proposed Facts of Life spinoff had several working titles but never made it past the two-part Facts of Life finale entitled “The Beginning of the Beginning.” It was to be a vehicle for Lisa Whelchel, whose snooty Blair Warner character would buy the financially troubled Eastland School and become its new headmistress.

The Art of Being Nick

Scott Valentine was introduced as Nick Moore, Mallory’s love interest on Family Ties, during the series’ fourth season. Nick was a retro-hippie “environmental” artist who made sculptures out of garbage and whose grungy appearance and lack of scholastic ambition was a sore point with Steven, Elyse and Alex. Audience reaction to Nick was so positive that not one but three different pilots for a spinoff series were filmed in 1986. The one that made it to the air in 1987 was The Art of Being Nick and co-starred a pre-Seinfeld Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Even though the ratings were encouraging, NBC honcho Brandon Tartikoff nixed the series, preferring to keep the Nick character as a semi-regular on Family Ties.

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