10 Potentially Awesome TV Spin-Offs That Never Happened

There has been no shortage of terrible TV-show spin-offs over the years. Remember Joey, which followed the least interesting character on Friends? How about Joanie Loves Chachi? The surfeit of awful derivative series make it that much more depressing when a spin-off we really, really want to happen never makes it past the pilot stage. After the jump, we take a look at 10 spin-offs that sounded promising but never made it to primetime. Tell us which ones you’d add in the comments.

Ripper (a spin-off of Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

It says something that there is an entire Wikipedia page devoted to “Undeveloped Buffy the Vampire Slayer Spin-Offs.” At one point, there was an animated series in the works, as well as shows about Buffy’s vampire-slayer rival, Faith, and another about a school for slayers, based on a story line from Buffy‘s final season. But we were always most excited about Ripper, a spin-off starring one of our two favorite characters, Rupert Giles. (The other, obviously, is Willow.) Conceived as a BBC miniseries, it would have followed Buffy’s learned watcher through his lonely years of occult experimentation in Britain, in what would amount to a new spin on a classic genre: the English ghost story. Although all sorts of obstacles have emerged to thwart Ripper, from Whedon’s Dollhouse responsibilities to the difficulty of securing character right for the BBC, it also seems that no one has ever conclusively stated that it’s off the table.

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[...] Analyse – 10 Spin-Off potentiellement fabuleux qui n’ont jamais été diffusé (Source Flavorwire) [...]

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Technically, there ARE several Buffy spinoffs, just not in TV form. Dark Horse began the Buffy Season 8 comics several years ago, and now they're into season 9. In that respect there is a "school" of sorts for slayers, or at least a lot of training. There is also now an Angel & Faith comic which brings together that outcast pair in their search for the now-dead Giles.

FUCK YOUR CENSORSHIP DICKBAGS, YOUR AUTHORS ARE DUMBASSES

"A roseanne spin-off about roseanne..." .....?!?! WOW. THIS IS GROUNDBREAKING LITERATURE. i really wouldn't expect much from a list that claims its ideas as "potentially awesome", but seriously... only an idiot would think of that.

It was probably never going to work, but I'm still a little bummed that "Spacecataz" never got past a single pilot episode. And if we're going waaaaaay back in TV history, it's rumored that there was going to be a spinoff from "Dobie Gillis" called "Zelda," all about Zelda Gilroy. The sexual politics on "Dobie" are weird and complicated indeed, and the love/hate relationship between Dobie and the very tomboyish Zelda (played by out-and-proud actress Sheila Kuehl) is one of the show's oddest pairings.

Audrey Horne! Oh woe. Alas.

A few spinoffs that could & perhaps should have happened: 'Ralph & Potsie' (instead of the ghastly 'Joanie Loves Chachi'), a Carter & Stuart show evolving from 'Spin City' (almost the same in spirit as the 'Happy Days' pals, hehe) and, if the revered 'Freaks & Geeks' actually had one, 'Lindsay Weir', with Linda Cardellini's character on her own (and maybe even still a Deadhead in the early 1980s). Oh, to dream! One notable spinoff, 'Living Dolls', which came out of 'Who's The Boss', featured some major talent: Halle Berry, Alison Elliott & Leah Remini, all before they each went on to bigger & better things. It's really a quasi-genre that is always unpredictable & very hard in the best of times to satisfy an audience migrating from an earlier source program.

The title of this story should be "10 Spinoff ideas that thankfully never happened." They all seem awful. Except for the Deadwood thing.

Couldn't they just give the Rupert character a different name? seems like the Beeb should be able to work around the fact that the gentleman who played Rupert Giles could play a similar character for them...

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