Spinning Laughter

Spinning Laughter: Profiles of 111 Proposed Comedy Spin-offs and Sequels that Never Became a Series.

The Andy Griffith Show begat Gomer Pyle: U.S.M.C. The Mary Tyler Moore Show spun-off Rhoda and Phyllis. An episode of All in the Family became Maude and another episode became The Jeffersons. You remember the successful spin-offs, but you may now know about the spin-offs that never were.

Why did the characters of Fred and Ethel Mertz from I Love Lucy never star in their own spin-off? What animated spin-off pilot could be considered a forerunner of The Simpsons? Which situation comedy has had the greatest number of attempted spin-offs? Why did the idea of a Krusty the Clown spin-off from The Simpsons never become a series? What could have been the first gay family comedy? What was the live-action Monsignor Martinez pilot from the King of the Hill series all about?

Discover rare summaries of treatments, scripts, and pilots along with comments from fifty writers, directors, producers, and actors involved with proposed spin-offs and sequels: actress Elinor Donahue remarks about the Father Knows Best reunion movies; actor Patrick Cassidy talks about his audition for The Nanny spin-off; former actress Sheila James describes why her character, Zelda from The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, never got her own series; Eddie Mekka from Laverne & Shirley comments on the Lenny & Squiggy in the Army spin-off.


Richard Irvin is also the author of Forgotten Laughs: An Episode Guide to 150 Sitcoms You Probably Never Saw (Bear Manor Media).