History Main / PoorlyDisguisedPilot

* When ''Series/MurderSheWrote'' star AngelaLansbury started to tire of the pace of a weekly network show, a strategy was devised that would allow the network to do a full season without Lansbury having to do a full season. Slightly more than half of the episodes of the season would be full adventures of Lansbury's character, mystery writer Jessica Fletcher. The remainder would be Poorly Disguised Pilots, for which Lansbury as Fletcher would film bookend sequences, explaining the new character we'd be seeing for the next hour -- sometimes "real-world" acquaintances of Fletcher, sometimes Jessica's own fictional characters. Ironically, only one series ever actually spun off of ''Murder She Wrote'' -- ''The Law and Harry [=McGraw=]'', whose title character had appeared in ''Murder She Wrote'' back in the very first season, long before the seasons heavy on the [=PDPs=] showed up.

* Spoofed in ''NTSF:SD:SUV::'' with the "Time Angels" episode, which sees NTSF:SD:SUV agents team up with a group of hot time-traveling crime fighters who basically do everything and overshadow the regular cast. As Trent Hauser says at the end of the episode, "If they had weekly adventures I could watch or DVR, I would do it in a heartbeat." During credits, there's a fake ad for the Time Angels spinoff. Note that, since ''NTSF:SD:SUV::'' itself spun off from ''Series/ChildrensHospital'' after a one-off gag appearance, a Time Angels show isn't out of the question. This gag got used multiple times over the second season; another episode's credits had a promo for a TV series based on Literature/{{Twilight}} parody ShowWithinAShow "Stein", for instance. And, again, ''NTSF:SD:SUV::'' started as a ShowWithinAShow on ''Children's Hospital''.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E2122ShortFilmsAboutSpringfield 22 Short Films About Springfield]]" was a backdoor pilot for a Simpsons spinoff called "Tales from Springfield" [[ADayInTheLimelight that would showcase the lives of every character on the show who wasn't a member of The Simpson family.]] Unfortunately, the crew decided it would be too much work and the idea was abandoned (but they did get a great episode out of the deal, so it's not a total loss).

* The nightmare minigame in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'' was a tech demo for an original game that was being developed by the ''ZoneOfTheEnders'' team titled ''Guy Savage''. However, ''Guy Savage'' was canceled and the minigame was removed in later versions of ''[=MGS3=]''.

'''Note''': remember, films that are created with the idea of releasing an AnimatedAdaptation in mind are {{Pilot Movie}}s and should be listed there.

* ''WesternAnimation/SecretMountainFortAwesome'' has the episode "Uncle Grandpa" nearing the end of its run, starring a completely different cast and only brief appearances from the main characters. This later turned out to be true, as Uncle Grandpa was greenlit for its own series. As a side-note, Uncle Grandpa [[WhatCouldHaveBeen was the star of the pilot the show was based on]], before a tremendous ReTool; the Disguistoids only had a brief appearance and were seemingly mindless monsters.

'''Note''': remember, films that created with the idea of releasing an AnimatedAdaptation in mind are {{Pilot Movie}}s and should be listed there.

* The third season of ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'' began with a three-part episode titled "A Friend in Need", which was basically an advertisement for Saban's ''Series/MaskedRider'' series, an Americanized version of ''KamenRiderBlackRX'' that premiered a few weeks after the three-parter aired. Aside for a passing mention during the Aquitian Rangers story arc and a brief cameo/team-up in a one-shot ''Series/MaskedRider'' comic book by Marvel, Dex and the Rangers never encountered each other again. However, an episode of ''Series/PowerRangersTimeForce'' has Nadira [[RecursiveCanon watching an episode of Masked Rider on TV.]]

** The fact that the two were the most common points of criticism (Gambit for AscendedExtra, Deadpool for TheyChangedItNowItSucks) would tell you it didn't work.

** One reason the pilot failed to sell is that Robert Lansing (who had previously quit "12 O'Clock High") made it clear he wasn't interested in returning to the weekly TV grind.

** Although nothing official has been stated, there was an episode of ''Smallville'' that quickly trapped Clark in order to bring in the newly formed Justice League (Green Arrow, Cyborg, Aquaman, and Impulse). This may have been testing the waters for a ''Justice League'' TV show, or it might just have been a ratings grab. The original actor playing GreenArrow has dismissed ideas of starring in a GA spin-off, feeling that this would be disloyal to the series. [[Series/{{Arrow}} The spinoff]] has since gone forward [[TheOtherDarrin starring a different actor.]]

* ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' had an episode almost entirely devoted to a reinvention of the classic Comicbook/{{Aquaman}} character, with little relation to the regular plot. It was later revealed that TheWB planned to launch a ''Smallville''-esque ''Aquaman'' series; the proposed series would have diverged widely from the episode's version of the character, who was played in the unaired pilot by Justin Hartley rather than Alan Ritchson, who played the character in ''Smallville''. After the pilot failed, Hartley was cast as GreenArrow on ''Smallville''.

* ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' had an episode almost entirely devoted to a reinvention of the classic Comicbook/{{Aquaman}} character, with little relation to the regular plot. It was later revealed that TheWB planned to launch a ''Smallville''-esque ''Aquaman'' series; this didn't come off, and the proposed series would have diverged widely from the episode's version of the character. Actually the Aquaman pilot starred Justin Hartley as Aquaman, rather than Alan Ritchson, who played the character in ''Smallville''. After the pilot failed, Hartley was cast as GreenArrow on ''Smallville''.

* ''Series/TheBionicWoman'' episode "Biofeedback" appeared to be a Poorly Disguised Pilot for a series about another super-powered OSI agent, Darwin Jones.

!!Examples:

* ''Film/FantasticFour: Rise Of The SilverSurfer'' is one for Silver Surfer. Many things in the movie don't happen (like the appearance of the BigBad) in order to allow for the SilverSurfer spinoff, which never happened.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* The WesternAnimation/AndyPanda short "Knock Knock" was in actuality a vehicle short for WalterLantz's intended new star WesternAnimation/WoodyWoodpecker, with the bird getting much more screentime than Andy and his poppa.

** The ''{{Emergency}}'' episode "905-Wild" was a pilot for another Jack Webb production centered on animal control officers, starring Mark Harmon and Albert Popwell, which did not get picked up.
** The ''Series/AdamTwelve'' episode, "A Clinic on 18th Street" served as the pilot for a show featuring Fraud Division. The cast of the pilot (including future ''Series/{{Switch}}''[=/=]''Series/CagneyAndLacey'' star Sharon Gless, who gets the WelcomeEpisode treatment), are all listed in the opening credits as "Special Guest Stars". Reed and Malloy only appear in the beginning and end of this story of a doctor peddling electronic health belts to diabetics and fake blindness cures to little girls. Jack Webb directed, but not in his trademark ''{{Dragnet}}'' style.

* Creator/CartoonNetwork once had ''WesternAnimation/WhatACartoonShow'' where ThreeShorts would be presented, and viewers would vote for their favorite. The winner of the vote would usually receive its own show (''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'', ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'', ''WesternAnimation/CowAndChicken'', ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyBravo''), but a lot of the shorts got their own show despite "losing" the competition (''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'', ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'', ''WesternAnimation/SheepInTheBigCity'', ''WesternAnimation/WhateverHappenedToRobotJones'', etc.)

A related concept is the FullyAbsorbedFinale, when what is functionally the ''last'' episode of a show appears in another show.

The {{Opposite Trope|s}} is FullyAbsorbedFinale. See also PilotMovie.

** The final episode of its second season (this was before the concept of the SeasonFinale took off) was used for an attempted backdoor pilot starring Bill Daily as an incompetent city councilman.

* USMarshal J.D. Hart features prominently in issues 42-44 of the original series of ''JonahHex'', essentially acting as a co-star to Jonah in those issues. Hart was going to be spun off into his own book, unofficially titled ''Dakota'', but that book never eventuated and Hart eventually returned as a supporting character in ''Jonah Hex''.

* Disney produced a CG/hand-drawn animated hybrid movie that served as the pilot to the TV series ''BuzzLightyearOfStarCommand'', book-ended by the CG characters from ''ToyStory'' actually watching the movie in Andy's room.

* Before the Film/JamesBond movie ''Film/TomorrowNeverDies'' came out, producers announced that they were planning a spinoff movie series featuring Creator/MichelleYeoh's character Wai Lin. That never happened, but similarly, there was much talk of a spinoff featuring Creator/HalleBerry's Jinx character from ''Film/DieAnotherDay''. The extent to which they were truly serious about either notion is unclear. Some suspect the talk in each case was simply pre-release hype ("The heroine in our next picture is such a great character, we're giving her a movie series of her own!")

** Further interesting side note: The first season of ''Series/{{JAG}}'' played much more like ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' than the rest of the series; in fact, the season ended in a never-resolved cliffhanger due to cancellation. The first season of ''NCIS'' retreads many episodes of that canceled season.

** And now ''NCIS Los Angeles'' is launching another spinoff in an upcoming two-parter titled "Red".

* This is apparently the reason for Ruri being PutOnABus in ''[[LightNovel/OreNoImoutoGaKonnaNiKawaiiWakeGaNai My Little Sister Can't Be This Cute]]'' so she could receive a spinoff.

* Creator/MarvelComics, at the start of the [[TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]], had what are now called "tryouts". For instance, one [[Comicbook/FantasticFour Human Torch]] story featured a Comicbook/CaptainAmerica impostor and asked the readers if they wanted to bring back the real Captain America. On the other hand, the [[FanDumb fevered imagination of fans]] (and/or the greed of comic book speculators) has been prone to see tryouts in Marvel's pre-superhero era even when links between the precursor and later characters are tenuous at best (e.g., a '50s monster character who happened to be called "Hulk," but otherwise has no resemblance whatsoever to the later ComicBook/IncredibleHulk).