The Worst TV Spin-Offs That Shouldn’t Have Aired
When a television show is phenomenally successful, network executives are right to think they can profit off a spin-off. Fans who couldn’t get enough of the first show would most likely flock to a show related to the one they love. Seems like a simple plan, but unfortunately it doesn’t always work out. Spin-offs of fan favorites such as Friends, Three’s Company, Dawson’s Creek, and others seemed pretty promising, but they came up short. But just because they didn’t take off, doesn’t mean they should be forgotten. Do you remember these failed television show spin-offs?
Saved By The Bell: The College Years (Spin-Off Of Saved By The Bell)
Shows about kids in high school don’t usually last very long after their main characters graduate and go off to college, which is why Saved by the Bell: The College Years only lasted for one season.
The show followed Zack, Slater, Screech, and Kelly as they attended the fictional California University. Tiffani-Amber Thiessen was the only female cast member who wanted to return and it seemed like the other girls made the right decision in declining the invite. They knew well enough that they were all simply too old to keep the torch going.
Joey (Spin-Off Of Friends)
We were all sad to see Friends go off the air in 2004, but NBC tried to bank off its popularity by giving us its spin-off, Joey. Centered around Matt LeBlanc’s character Joey Tribbiani, Joey focused on the aspiring actor’s new life in Los Angeles.
It turned out that people didn’t like Joey so much without the rest of his original friends, because it was canceled midway through its second season. Ratings started dropping off and NBC to move Joey’s time-slot from Thursdays to Tuesdays, which was ultimately the show’s demise.
Time of Your Life (Spin-Off Of Party of Five)
Jennifer Love Hewitt joined the cast of Party of Five in season two as Sarah Reeves Merrin, who was the on-and-off girlfriend of Bailey Salinger. Hewitt was so popular at the time that when Party of Five headed into its final season, Fox was already prepared with its spin-off Time of Your Life.
The show centered around Hewitt’s character Sarah, who moved to New York City to discover more about her biological parents. The show had such terrible ratings and reviews that it was canceled midway through the first season.
Baywatch Nights (Spin-Off Of Baywatch)
Midway through Baywatch’s success, the creators decided to make a spin-off, Baywatch Nights. From 1995 to 1997, the series followed Sgt. Ellerbee and Mitch Buchannon as they started a detective agency as part of a mid-life crisis.
The show faced low ratings during the first season, so producers decided to add a science-fiction element into the second. Apparently watching David Hasselhoff moonlight as a detective searching for supernatural forces was too weird. It all turned out to be so much worse that the series was canceled altogether after the second season.
Three’s A Crowd (Spin-Off Of Three’s Company)
The end of Three’s Company was met with the beginning of Three’s a Crowd. The spin-off starred John Ritter in his role as Jack Tripper, picking up right where he left off at the end of Three’s Company when Jack became interested in Vicky Bradford, played by Mary Cadorette.
The show had a following, but it wasn’t enough for the ratings to compete with The A-Team at the time. ABC was reluctant to commit the show to a second season and after Ritter expressed he’d only return for a full season, ABC decided to pull the plug on Three’s a Crowd.
The Golden Palace (Spin-Off Of The Golden Girls)
After seven seasons of The Golden Girls came to an end in 1992, fans could pick up right where it left off with The Golden Palace. The spin-off followed Sophia, Rose, and Blanche as they took on ownership of Miami hotel.
While Dorothy did return for a two-part storyline, the new dynamics of the show weren’t enough to keep people engaged. The show only lasted for one season. Part of the reason could have been the show airing on CBS, while its predecessor had aired on NBC. The show had a different tone than its parent series as a result.
The Tortellis (Spin-Off Of Cheers)
Cheers had extended success with Fraiser and other television cross-overs, but nothing was more unnecessary than its failed spin-off The Tortellis. The show starred Dan Hedaya in his role as Nick Tortelli, the ex-husband of Rhea Pearlman’s Carla.
Nick and his trophy wife Loretta headed off to Las Vegas, where Nick swore to give up his con-artist ways and make a living with a TV repair business. After 13 episodes and protests over its stereotypical depiction of Italian-Americans, The Tortellis was canceled. No one seemed to mind much since Cheers was still on the air anyway.
Young Americans (Spin-Off Of Dawson’s Creek)
In the summer of 2000, The WB network decided to fill the void of then-popular Dawson’s Creek with a spin-off called Young Americans. Young Americans centered around Will Krudski, who was introduced in Dawson’s Creek as the friend group’s childhood friend.
Rodney Scott played Will, who gaine acceptance into a prestigious private school to escape his father’s abuse. Despite promising reviews, the show suffered from low ratings and was canceled in just over a month since its premiere. There were only eight episodes of this short-lived spin-off, yet Dawson’s Creek would go on for about two-and-a-half years.
Buddies (Spin-Off Of Home Improvement)
In 1995, Dave Chappelle and Jim Breuer appeared in an episode of Home Improvement. They played friends who go to a taping of the fictional Tool Time to ask Tim Taylor for dating advice. The episode was so popular that ABC decided to give Chappelle and Breuer their own series based on the characters.
The result was 1996’s Buddies, which didn’t turn out to be as successful as ABC hoped. The show was canceled after being on air for less than a month and eight of season one’s 13 episodes went unaired.
The Lone Gunmen (Spin-Off Of The X-Files)
The Lone Gunmen starred Bruce Harwood, Tom Braidwood, and Dean Haglund as their recurring characters from The X-Files. But while The X-Files focused on paranormal events, The Lone Gunmen portrayed conspiracies within the government.
Its premiere episode aired on March 4, 2001 and was about a government mission to hijack an airliner that almost hit the World Trade Center to gain support for the war, which was strange considering the 9/11 attacks that happened later that year. Though The Lone Gunman had positive reviews, it was canceled after 13 episodes and ended on a cliffhanger.
Booker (Spin-Off Of 21 Jump Street)
We met Dennis Booker during season three of 21 Jump Street and the character showed so much promise that Fox decided to give him his own show. Booker premiered in September of 1989 in the original timeslot of its parent show, which had moved to Monday nights.
Dennis Booker, who was played by Richard Grieco, gets hired by a Japanese company to investigate fishy insurance claims in this spin-off. However, the premise wasn’t enough to get viewers to keep watching and Fox moved its timeslot back. After one season the show didn’t return.
Caprica (Spin-Off Of Battlestar Galactica)
Any fan of Battlestar Galactica knows how exciting the idea of Caprica sounded before it aired in January 2010. Caprica served as a prequel spin-off, recounting events that took place almost 60 years before the destruction of Kobol and how humanity created the Cylons.
As exciting as it sounded, Caprica only proved to disappoint. The show was met with generally positive reviews, but by the end of the year, Syfy realized that the show produced low ratings and decided to cancel the show after just one season.
Joanie Loves Chachi (Spin-Off Of Happy Days)
Happy Days has spawned many decent spin-offs, but Joanie Loves Chachi wasn’t one of them. The show followed Erin Moran and Scott Baio in their roles as Joanie Cunningham and Chachi Arcola, respectively, as the two lovebirds move to Chicago to start a band.
The show was successful at first, especially considering Baio’s status as a teen heartthrob in the early ’80s. But by the time the second season came around fans weren’t that into it. ABC pulled the plug after two seasons, but of course, Joanie and Chachi returned to Happy Days for the finale.
The Brady Brides (Spin-Off Of The Brady Bunch)
No one can deny what a national treasure The Brady Bunch was and it should have been left at that. But in 1981, producers cashed in on the Brady hype and made a TV reunion movie called The Brady Girls Get Married, which was shown in half-hour segments to transition into The Brady Brides.
The latter featured now-married Jan and Marcia buying a house together with their husbands and living under one roof. Though much of the original cast members reprised their roles, it seemed that the adult Brady girls weren’t as interesting and it was canceled after ten episodes.
The Apprentice: Martha Stewart (Spin-Off Of The Apprentice)
In the fall of 2005, NBC debuted The Apprentice: Martha Stewart, which was a spin-off of the original version hosted by Donald Trump. The premise of the show was generally the same with a Martha Stewart flair, which was tame compared to The Apprentice 4 that was airing concurrently.
Unsurprisingly, this show’s first season would be its last. There were a number of reasons why Stewart’s version had failed ratings to begin with, including confusion over her version and Trump’s version since they were airing at the same time. Trump blamed Stewart as the reason his own show’s ratings were falling too.
Living Dolls (Spin-Off Of Who’s the Boss?)
Who’s the Boss? was at its height in 1989, which is likely why ABC decided to bank off it by doling out Living Dolls that year. Living Dolls starred Leah Remini as Charlie Briscoe, a friend of Samantha Micelli.
Other than marking the acting debut of Halle Berry, the show isn’t remembered for much. It probably didn’t help that Who’s the Boss? was actually still on the air at the time, but Living Dolls barely made it out of its first season. People magazine at the time gave the show an “F” rating in its fall preview.
Law & Order: Trial By Jury (Spin-Off Of Law & Order)
Law & Order: Trial by Jury was the fourth spin-off in the Law & Order franchise and the first one to get canceled. The series focused on criminal trials, showing the prosecution and the defense as they prepared for a jury trial.
As it turned out, this series was a bit too vanilla for people’s tastes and suffered from low ratings. Another possible factor was the death of one of its main cast members, Jerry Orbach. Two months into the premiere, Orbach lost his battle with cancer. From episode three and on, he is never seen or mentioned again.
