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* ''Series/BeingHuman'' had an episode centering on a young vampire named Adam, who ate up most of the screen time. He became a central character in the [[{{Webisode}} online]] young-adult spinoff ''Series/BecomingHuman''.
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* ''Series/BeingHuman'' ''Series/{{Being Human|UK}}'' had an episode centering on a young vampire named Adam, who ate up most of the screen time. He became a central character in the [[{{Webisode}} online]] young-adult spinoff ''Series/BecomingHuman''.
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** One episode was 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 called ''Mercy Reef''. The proposed series would have diverged widely from the episode's version of the character; in the unaired pilot, Aquaman was played by Justin Hartley rather than Alan Ritchson, who played the character in ''Smallville''. After the pilot failed, Hartley was cast as GreenArrow on ''Smallville''.
** There was an episode of ''Smallville'' that quickly trapped Clark in order to bring in the newly formed JusticeLeagueOfAmerica (Green Arrow, Comicbook/{{Cyborg}}, Aquaman, and [[TheFlash 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 resulting show]] is not even a spinoff, but has since gone forward starring a different actor with a completely different plot and version of the character.
** There was an episode of ''Smallville'' that quickly trapped Clark in order to bring in the newly formed JusticeLeagueOfAmerica (Green Arrow, Comicbook/{{Cyborg}}, Aquaman, and [[TheFlash 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 resulting show]] is not even a spinoff, but has since gone forward starring a different actor with a completely different plot and version of the character.
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** One episode was 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 called ''Mercy Reef''. The proposed series would have diverged widely from the episode's version of the character; in the unaired pilot, Aquaman was played by Justin Hartley rather than Alan Ritchson, who played the character in ''Smallville''. After the pilot failed, Hartley was cast as GreenArrow ComicBook/GreenArrow on ''Smallville''.
** There was an episode of ''Smallville'' that quickly trapped Clark in order to bring in the newly formed JusticeLeagueOfAmerica (Green Arrow, Comicbook/{{Cyborg}}, Aquaman, and [[TheFlash 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 playingGreenArrow ComicBook/GreenArrow has dismissed ideas of starring in a GA spin-off, feeling that this would be disloyal to the series. [[Series/{{Arrow}} The resulting show]] is not even a spinoff, but has since gone forward starring a different actor with a completely different plot and version of the character.
** There was an episode of ''Smallville'' that quickly trapped Clark in order to bring in the newly formed JusticeLeagueOfAmerica (Green Arrow, Comicbook/{{Cyborg}}, Aquaman, and [[TheFlash 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
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** The third-to-last episode centered on ComicBook/BoosterGold and BlueBeetle, possibly as a test for a future series, but nothing has come of it since then.
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** The third-to-last episode centered on ComicBook/BoosterGold and BlueBeetle, ComicBook/BlueBeetle, possibly as a test for a future series, but nothing has come of it since then.
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* The second season episode of ''Series/WonderWoman'' titled "The Girl from Ilandia" was a pilot for a series that wound have followed Amadonna, a super-powered 12-year-old girl from the other-dimensional land of Ilandia.
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* The ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "Assignment: Earth" ends with Kirk and Spock assuring everyone that they are sure Roberta Lincoln (played by then-unknown Teri Garr) and her super-spy boss Gary Seven (played by Robert Lansing) will have many more interesting adventures to come. Sadly, they didn't; the most they got was an occasional appearance in the ExpandedUniverse. The episode was originally written as a straight pilot and then [[DolledUpInstallment reworked to include the Trek characters when a buyer couldn't be found]]. Note how Kirk and Spock are rather awkwardly shoehorned into a storyline to which they contribute very little. As Kirk himself put it in the episode, "I have never felt so helpless."
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* The ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "Assignment: Earth" ends with Kirk and Spock assuring everyone that they are sure Roberta Lincoln (played by then-unknown Teri Garr) and her super-spy boss Gary Seven (played by Robert Lansing) will have many more interesting adventures to come. Sadly, they didn't; the most they got was an occasional appearance in the ExpandedUniverse.ExpandedUniverse[[note]]Most notably ''[[Literature/StarTrekTheEugenicsWars]]'' in which Gary and Roberta are the heroes matching wits with [[BigBad Star Trek's most iconic villain, Khan Noonien Singh]].[[/note]]. The episode was originally written as a straight pilot and then [[DolledUpInstallment reworked to include the Trek characters when a buyer couldn't be found]]. Note how Kirk and Spock are rather awkwardly shoehorned into a storyline to which they contribute very little. As Kirk himself put it in the episode, "I have never felt so helpless."
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** Despite originally passing ABC has ordered a pilot for a Mockingbird & Hunter spin-off, [[http://variety.com/2015/tv/news/marvel-mockingbird-spinoff-series-most-wanted-adrianne-palicki-nick-blood-abc-1201574713/ ''Marvel's Most Wanted'']]
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** Despite originally passing ABC has ordered a pilot for a Mockingbird & Hunter spin-off, [[http://variety.com/2015/tv/news/marvel-mockingbird-spinoff-series-most-wanted-adrianne-palicki-nick-blood-abc-1201574713/ ''Marvel's Marvel's Most Wanted'']]Wanted]]
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** Despite originally passing ABC has ordered a pilot for a Mockingbird & Hunter spin-off, [[http://variety.com/2015/tv/news/marvel-mockingbird-spinoff-series-most-wanted-adrianne-palicki-nick-blood-abc-1201574713/ Marvel's Most Wanted]]
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** Despite originally passing ABC has ordered a pilot for a Mockingbird & Hunter spin-off, [[http://variety.com/2015/tv/news/marvel-mockingbird-spinoff-series-most-wanted-adrianne-palicki-nick-blood-abc-1201574713/ Marvel's ''Marvel's Most Wanted]]Wanted'']]
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*** Despite originally passing ABC has ordered a pilot for a Mockingbird & Hunter spin-off, ''Marvels Most Wanted''
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***Despite originally passing ABC has ordered a pilot for a Mockingbird & Hunter spin-off, ''Marvels Most Wanted''
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** Season 2 in general is all a set-up for a future 'Inhumans" movie.
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** Season 2 in general is all a set-up for a future 'Inhumans" 'Inhumans' movie.
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** Season 2 in general is all a set-up for a future 'Inhumans" movie.
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* ''Series/StrongMedicine'' had the episode "First Response," a contrived pilot for an ''Series/{{Emergency}}''-like paramedic-focused spinoff that was never picked up.
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* The Season 2 finale of ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'' was meant to lead into a spin-off starring Comicbook/{{Mockingbird}}, which is why the episode ends with her supposedly leaving the team. {{ABC}} ended up passing, so presumably Mockingbird will be reabsorbed into the show next season.
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* ''GossipGirl'' featured a backdoor pilot for a prequel spin-off (called ''Valley Girls'') about the teenage life of Lily Bass. While the creation of the spin-off was announced before the backdoor pilot premiered, the network ended up canceling ''Valley Girls'' before it ever aired.
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* ''GossipGirl'' ''Series/GossipGirl'' featured a backdoor pilot for a prequel spin-off (called ''Valley Girls'') about the teenage life of Lily Bass. While the creation of the spin-off was announced before the backdoor pilot premiered, the network ended up canceling ''Valley Girls'' before it ever aired.
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** Then CSI episode "Kitty" was this for ''Series/CSICyber''.
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** A second BDP was aired in season 10, in the episode "Beyond Borders", which is also the subtitle of the planned spin-off starring Gary Sinise.
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* Another method was introducing the series as a one-shot TV movie. ''Film/SanFranciscoInternationalAirport'' managed to spawn a handful of episodes, while ''Film/CodenameDiamondhead'' and the first ''Series/{{Fargo}}'' pilot did not.
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* Season nine of ''Series/NewTricks'' had an episode called ''Glasgow: UCOS'' where two members of the team travelled from London to Glasgow to advise and assist a Glasgow Cold Case Squad. The only part of the regular show's sets were the opening scene in an empty office, and only Gerry and Steve appeared of the regular cast. The ratings were ultimately not positive enough for Glasgow: UCOS to be greenlit though.
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* One episode was 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 called ''Mercy Reef''. The proposed series would have diverged widely from the episode's version of the character; in the unaired pilot, Aquaman was played by Justin Hartley rather than Alan Ritchson, who played the character in ''Smallville''. After the pilot failed, Hartley was cast as GreenArrow on ''Smallville''.
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* ''Series/BarneyMiller'': Season 2 episode "Fish" (Dec. 4, 1975), besides being the first appearance of Steve Landesberg as Sgt. Dietrich, also takes place mostly at Fish's house and introduces his daughter Beverly. It was in fact a back-door pilot for a Fish spinoff series. ''Fish'' the series didn't debut until 1977.
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* ''Series/BarneyMiller'': Two of the very rare occasions in which the show left the squad room were for Poorly Disguised Pilots.
** Season 2 episode "Fish" (Dec. 4, 1975), besides being the first appearance of Steve Landesberg as Sgt. Dietrich, also takes place mostly at Fish's house and introduces his daughter Beverly. It was in fact a back-door pilot for a Fish spinoff series. ''Fish'' the series didn't debut until1977.1977.
** "Wojo's Girl" part 2 takes place entirely in Wojo's apartment, and the only characters who appear in the episode are Wojo and his new girlfriend Nancy. This was a backdoor pilot for a proposed spinoff series called "Off Duty" which would follow the detectives' lives away from work. Nothing further came of it.
** Season 2 episode "Fish" (Dec. 4, 1975), besides being the first appearance of Steve Landesberg as Sgt. Dietrich, also takes place mostly at Fish's house and introduces his daughter Beverly. It was in fact a back-door pilot for a Fish spinoff series. ''Fish'' the series didn't debut until
** "Wojo's Girl" part 2 takes place entirely in Wojo's apartment, and the only characters who appear in the episode are Wojo and his new girlfriend Nancy. This was a backdoor pilot for a proposed spinoff series called "Off Duty" which would follow the detectives' lives away from work. Nothing further came of it.
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* Defied with ''Series/{{Arrow}}''. Season 2, Episode 20 was originally supposed to be a backdoor pilot for a spin-off starring Barry Allen, with the episode featuring Barry becoming TheFlash and donning his costume for the first time. The network felt the concept was strong enough to stand on its own legs, and instead decided to do Barry's origin in [[Series/TheFlash2014 his own TV show]], which successfully premiered to massive ratings.
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** The third-to-last episode centered on BoosterGold and BlueBeetle, possibly as a test for a future series, but nothing has come of it since then.
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** The third-to-last episode centered on BoosterGold ComicBook/BoosterGold and BlueBeetle, possibly as a test for a future series, but nothing has come of it since then.
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** The Troughton story "The Invasion" was a rare case of a Poorly Disguised Pilot being a pilot for ''the show itself'', as it was a test run for an impending huge {{Retool}} - the idea was to drop most of the space travel and anarchy to focus on earthbound stories in a military setting, and bring back Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart (a stand-out character from "The Web of Fear") as a regular. So "The Invasion" was a big ten-episode arc featuring the Second Doctor teaming up with Lethbridge-Stewart to fight Cybermen in TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture London.
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** The Troughton story "The Invasion" was a rare case of a Poorly Disguised Pilot being a pilot for ''the show itself'', as it was a test run for an impending huge {{Retool}} - the idea was to drop most of the space travel and anarchy to focus on earthbound stories in a military setting, and bring back Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart (a stand-out character from "The Web of Fear") as a regular. So "The Invasion" was a big ten-episode eight-episode arc featuring the Second Doctor teaming up with Lethbridge-Stewart to fight Cybermen in TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture London.
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** The Troughton story "The Invasion" was a rare case of a Poorly Disguised Pilot being a pilot for ''the show itself'', as it was a test run for an impending huge {{Retool}} - the idea was to focus on Earthbound stories in a military setting and introduce Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart as a regular.
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** The Troughton story "The Invasion" was a rare case of a Poorly Disguised Pilot being a pilot for ''the show itself'', as it was a test run for an impending huge {{Retool}} - the idea was to drop most of the space travel and anarchy to focus on Earthbound earthbound stories in a military setting setting, and introduce Brigadier bring back Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart (a stand-out character from "The Web of Fear") as a regular.regular. So "The Invasion" was a big ten-episode arc featuring the Second Doctor teaming up with Lethbridge-Stewart to fight Cybermen in TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture London.
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** The Troughton story "The Invasion" was a rare case of a Poorly Disguised Pilot being a pilot for ''the show itself'', as it was a test run for an impending huge {{Retool}} - the idea was to focus on Earthbound stories in a military setting and introduce Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart as a regular.
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* ''Series/BarneyMiller'': Season 2 episode "Fish" (Dec. 4, 1975), besides being the first appearance of Steve Landesberg as Sgt. Dietrich, also takes place mostly at Fish's house and introduces his daughter Beverly. It was in fact a back-door pilot for a Fish spinoff series. ''Fish'' the series didn't debut until 1977.
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** Then there's ''Series/ADifferentWorld'', a spin-off series centered on the life of students at Hillman College.
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** Then there's ''Series/ADifferentWorld'', a spin-off series centered on the life of students at Hillman College. Although Denise had been at Hillman for a while, the PDP on ''Series/TheCosbyShow'' was the finale of its third season, which featured the entire family traveling to Hillman both to visit Denise and for a special ceremony honoring the university president. ADW premiered the following fall--though without any of the friends of Denise featured in the previous episode.
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Ported from main page - see discussion.
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[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:General]]
* Between 1956 and 1989, it was not uncommon for American networks to fill time in the summer months by airing failed pilots. Since actually saying "Hey, come watch these shows that we passed on!" wasn't likely to draw viewers in, the networks often packaged them as Poorly Disguised Pilots of a different sort. By dressing them up as part of a "series", they could perhaps pick up a few more viewers by hiding the fact that they ''were'' failed pilots. [[http://www.tvobscurities.com/articles/unsold_pilots_on_television_56_66/ This web article]] describes the phenomenon and provides several examples of the form, with titles like ''Preview Tonight'', ''Comedy Theatre'', and the longest-running, ''Vacation Playhouse'', which ran on ABC from 1963 to 1967.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:A-L]]
* 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 ''Franchise/{{Dragnet}}'' style.
* The entire last season of ''Series/{{Alias}}'' was used as one, suddenly introducing three new characters into the mix who quickly became the main focus of the show as Vaughn and Weiss were removed as regular characters and Jennifer Garner's pregnancy was also given to Sydney, preventing her from going into the field much. When it became clear that things weren't going to work out, two of them were killed off with little resolution of their own story arcs.
* ''Series/AllInTheFamily'':
** One episode of the second season introduced Edith's cousin Maude Findlay, who was even more of a fiery liberal than Mike and feuded massively with Archie. When audiences responded favorably to the character, Norman Lear made the second season's final episode a pilot for the {{spinoff}} ''Series/{{Maude}}'', where the Bunkers visit Maude and we meet the rest of her family (even though Carol is played by a different actress).
** The season 5 episode "The Jeffersons Move on Up" had the Bunkers' neighbors moving to Manhattan as a springboard for [[Series/TheJeffersons their own series]].
** The season 2 episode of ''Series/{{Maude}}'', titled "Florida's Goodbye," could also be considered a poorly disguised pilot for ''Series/GoodTimes''. However, in ''Good Times'' the Evans family had inexplicably relocated from New York (where Florida's husband Henry was a firefighter) to Chicago (where husband James was often unemployed), and the Findlays were never mentioned at any time during the series.
* ''Series/TheAndyGriffithShow'' both was one, and spawned one of its own.
** ''The Danny Thomas Show'' had the title character arrested and sent to jail in the small town of Mayberry -- home of Sheriff Andy Taylor and son Opie.
** Later, ''The Andy Griffith Show'' produced episode "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C." when Gomer Pyle joined the Marine Corps, leading to the spinoff ''Series/GomerPyleUSMC''.
* The ''Series/BarnabyJones'' episode "The Killin' Cousin," set up as a pilot for a series called ''Tarkington'', featured a father-and-son pair of detectives (the Tarkingtons) who believed Betty Jones murdered two of her cousins. The episode was a three-time loser - the pilot didn't sell, it was the final episode of ''Barnaby Jones'', and it was the last episode of '''any''' series from QM Productions to air.
* ''Series/BeingHuman'' had an episode centering on a young vampire named Adam, who ate up most of the screen time. He became a central character in the [[{{Webisode}} online]] young-adult spinoff ''Series/BecomingHuman''.
* ''Series/BeverlyHills90210'' spun off one series, which in turn spun off another:
** Near the end of season two, Kelly Taylor (Jennie Garth) tries to pursue a relationship with one of Dylan [=McKay=]'s (Luke Perry) friends named Jake Hanson (Grant Snow) after they meet while he's doing contracting work at her parents' house. After several episodes of romantic tension, it finally culminated in an episode where he moved to an L.A. apartment complex and Kelly let go for good. This then became ''Series/MelrosePlace'', which revolved around the tenants of the complex where Jake lived.
** ''Melrose'', in turn, had an episode where Amanda Woodward's mother Hilary (played by Linda Gray) appeared and revealed that she was the owner of a modeling agency. This was a backdoor pilot for another spinoff, ''Models Inc.'', which followed the mother and a group of up-and-coming models at the agency.
* ''Series/TheBionicWoman'':
** The episode "Biofeedback" appeared to be a backdoor pilot for a series about another super-powered OSI agent, Darwin Jones.
** The second episode featuring Max the bionic dog only had Jamie Sommers in it at the very beginning and the very end; sadly, ''The Bionic Dog'' never got produced as a series.
* A sixth-season episode of ''Series/{{Bones}}'', "The Finder", featured the show's main cast taking a back seat to a new collection of characters led by an old friend of Booth's played by Geoff Stults. It was a backdoor pilot for a new series called ''Series/TheFinder'', also created by Hart Hanson (the creator of ''Bones''). (An early tip-off for knowledgeable fans was that this violated the normal format for episode titles: ''The X in the Y''.)
* The "Kelly's Kids" episode of ''Series/TheBradyBunch'' was meant to be a backdoor pilot. In that episode, Ken Berry played a friend of the Bradys who, with his wife, adopts not only a white orphan but also his black and Asian best friends as well, much to his bigoted neighbor's chagrin. The pilot didn't sell... or at least not until ''twelve years later'', when the concept was revived as ''Series/TogetherWeStand'', a short-lived CBS sitcom starring Elliot Gould.
* The last season of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' was full of Poorly Disguised Pilots, from reintroducing Faith to giving Dawn her own supporting cast for an episode. Creator/JossWhedon has also mentioned in interviews that Spike's one-episode appearance in Season Three was meant to appear like one of these, in order to distract from the rumors of the upcoming ''Series/{{Angel}}'' spin-off. Two ''Series/{{Buffy|TheVampireSlayer}}'' episodes that season can be seen with hindsight as genuine backdoor pilots for ''Series/{{Angel}}'': "Anne" had the dark-fantasy-LA setting and some of the atmosphere, and "Amends" introduced the audience to the idea that Angel had way bigger issues than just the conflict between the happiness curse and loving Buffy.
* An episode of the detective series ''Series/BurkesLaw'' served as a pilot to spin off another detective series, ''HoneyWest''.
* The TV remake of Stephen King's novel ''Carrie'' would have been a better and more faithful adaptation than the big screen version if the producers hadn't decided to try and turn it into a pilot for a TV series by adding an absurd new ending. Suffice it to say, the network wasn't interested and what resulted was a decent movie that got done in by a terrible ending.
* ''Series/CharlesInCharge'' had three episodes in the final season which were failed attempts at a pilot for a new series. In each a character would visit somewhere where there would be a character that looked suspiciously like one of the regular cast members. Ellen Travolta, who played Charles' mom, had an identical twin sister who ran a car wash in New York. Willie Aames' character Buddy had an identical cousin working in a hotel in Hawaii. Nicole Eggert's character had an identical cousin living in New Mexico.
* ''Series/CharliesAngels'' had an episode called "Toni's Boys" where the angels met a team of [[GenderFlip Gender-Flipped]] counterparts -- three young studs (with a habit of taking off their shirts) and an older female mentor. Nothing ever came of it, but it seemed like an attempt to introduce a second show using the Charlie's Angels formula, but aimed at a female audience instead - their "Charlie," Toni, was played by Barbara Stanwyck (and unlike John Forsythe, she appeared on screen!).
* ''Series/{{Charmed}}'' attempted to do this with the Billie character, but it didn't work out; in fact, if the show has a {{Scrappy}}, it's her. The 5th season opener, "A Witch's Tail" effectively served as one of these for Brad Kern's spin-off ''Mermaid'', though the plan didn't make it past pilot stage. The producers claim that the PDP nature of "A Witch's Tail" was unintentional, and that it was only after making that episode that they realised the potential in the idea.
* ''Series/CHiPs'' featured an array of wacky martial artist characters called "Force Seven" who seemed to come out of nowhere for one episode. After the initial setup of the crime of the week, a phone call throws the story to them, while Ponch and John aren't seen again. The series also tried to launch a series about two female cops called Mitchell and Woods in an episode called... guess.
* The Season 7 ''Series/ColdCase'' episode "Free Love" looked like a PDP for two reasons: 1) it wildly varied from other episodes, being set in New York instead of Philadelphia; having Lilly alone helping the FBI guy who was introduced two episodes earlier; and [[RomanticPlotTumor hints]] of them becoming an OfficialCouple, and 2) [[ShoutOut she considers joining the FBI in the episode, while he muses about the creation of a Cold Case FBI unit]]. Nothing came of it, though.
* An episode of ''Series/{{Combat}}'' was a backdoor pilot for ''Series/GarrisonsGorillas'', although it ended up not being shown as part of that series.
* ''Series/TheCosbyShow'':
** The episode "Mr. Quiet" introduces the local youth center, run by a nice guy named Tony (played by Tony Orlando!) and staffed by some interesting, quirky characters, each of whom gets honest-to-god ''title cards'' in the closing credits, something that had never happened before on the series. The episode spends almost as much time with Tony and his pals as it does on the Huxtables, and their plots only sort of relate to each other. The Huxtables are clearly starring in the B-plot of the episode. No series was born from Tony and the youth center, however.
** Then there's ''Series/ADifferentWorld'', a spin-off series centered on the life of students at Hillman College.
* ''Series/CriminalMinds'': In season five's "The Fight," the team is "assisted" by a secondary team, led by Forrest Whitaker. The other team is given the larger share of screen time, and the main cast is mainly given dialogue to allow the new team to expound on their back story. The following year they got their own show, ''Series/CriminalMindsSuspectBehavior''. [[SarcasmMode And that worked out well.]]
* The ''CrossingJordan'' episode "Sunset Division" is an example. However, the pilot was never picked up.
* ''Series/{{CSI}}'' did this to launch ''Series/CSIMiami'', which in turn launched ''Series/{{CSI NY}}''.
** And the episode "Hollywood Brass" certainly feels like a PDP. Were they thinking about a Jim Brass spin-off set in LA?
** Similarly with the ''Series/{{CSI NY}}'' episode "The Thing About Heroes", which introduced at least one major character from the Chicago police department.
** Rumours circulated for a while about a possible CSI London (Although for accuracy, it should be SOCO London, as the real-life CSI equivalents of the British Police are called Scene Of (the) Crime Officers[[note]] The NYPD relies on ''CSU--Crime Scene Unit''[[/note]]) such that, when Mac Taylor of ''Series/{{CSI NY}}'' visited London, there was an expectant hush among some viewers... which dissipated almost immediately, since London was just a stock-footage pretty backdrop for a mystery phone call, part of a very definitely American story arc.
* ''Series/{{Dallas}}'' had an episode called "Return Engagement", which allowed ''Series/{{Knots Landing}}'' to begin by showing Gary and Val getting married and moving into the cul-de-sac house recently built by Bobby Ewing.
* ''Series/DawsonsCreek'' introduced a new character, Will Krudski, into the gang for one episode in Season 3, who would serve as the protagonist for spin-off series ''Series/YoungAmericans''.
* It would take less time to list the installments of ''[[Creator/{{Disney}} The Disney Sunday Movie]]'' that ''weren't'' Poorly Disguised Pilots. And even less time to list the pilots that became series, because only one did (''The Last Electric Knight'', which became ''Sidekicks'').
* ''Series/DiagnosisMurder'' had several episodes intended to be spin-offs, but none were ever picked up:
** "Retribution," a two-part episode was intended to be a pilot for "The Chief." Fred Dryer starred at the hard-nosed Los Angeles chief of police who played various political games to provide law and order. Neal [=McDonough=] would co-star as Ross Canin, a mob boss who was actually an undercover policeman acting as Masters' ultimate inside man.
** "A Mime is a Terrible Thing to Waste" featured Rachel York as Randy Wofle, an eccentric woman with various jobs who gets involved in murder cases.
** "Blood Ties" was to be a pilot for a series called "Whistlers" with rule-bending detective Amy Devlin (Kathy Evison) and her more outrageous partner Taylor Lucas (Zoe [=McLellan=]).
** Ironically, ''Diagnosis: Murder'' itself was a spinoff of ''Jake And The Fatman'' (which itself, in turn, spun off from ''{{Matlock}}'').
* ''Series/DiffrentStrokes'' had several:
** ''Hello, Larry'' is often referred to as one of these, but actually debuted as a separate show. However, when NBC put it in the time slot directly following ''Diff'rent Strokes'', they wrote in a connection between [=McLean=] Stevenson and Conrad Bain's characters that allowed for several crossovers between the shows. It was an (unsuccessful) attempt to boost ratings for ''Larry'', but not a spinoff.
** ''Series/TheFactsOfLife'' started this way, following from the episode "The Girls School" (albeit with some significant changes from the pilot.)
** The episode "Almost American" was a failed pilot for a show about immigrants studying for their citizenship exams, featuring a Czech immigrant named Milo.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** The William Hartnell-era 'cutaway episode' "Mission to the Unknown" is the only episode of ''Doctor Who'' not to feature either the Doctor or his companions. It was an attempt at pitching a spinoff Dalek SpaceOpera series for an American audience, and so the episode focuses on members of an anti-Dalek military force as well as establishing the Daleks in alliance with a bunch of never-seen-before alien species (which also all had silly voices and outrageous designs, for {{Toyetic}} reasons). A pilot for this series was written, but never made, although Creator/BigFinish recorded an audio adaptation of it, and some of the ideas wormed their way into ''Series/{{Blakes 7}}'' later on.
** Whether intended as one or not, "School Reunion" is one, setting up the premise of ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures'' by establishing old-school companion Sarah Jane Smith as still in the monster-busting game and in the company of K9.
** The two-parter that introduces the Torchwood Institute in its modern incarnation is this, though less blatant, as Jack Harkness is not directly mentioned and no ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' regulars [[note]]as defined by characters, not actors -- Creator/FreemaAgyeman was in both, but as two different characters[[/note]] appear in either episode.
* ''Series/TheDukesOfHazzard'' had more than one (the better-known one-season ''Enos'' was also a spinoff, but had a more traditional stand-alone pilot, and of course the character was already known by the ''Dukes'' audience):
** The second season gave us "Mason Dixon's Girls", a PoorlyDisguisedPilot concerning a private detective and his two sexy ActionGirl associates, the brunette Tinker and the blond Samantha. It's amazingly blatant, even setting aside the obvious ''Series/CharliesAngels'' ripoff. The show's then story editor Bruce Howard 'fessed up to it being a disguised pilot (it was in his contract that he could write a spinoff).
** "Jude Emery", a show about an unconventional Texas Ranger who drove a Korean War surplus Jeep and had a gun that didn't work, was another -- a ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'' ancestor written by the show's creator Gy Waldron (this was the final episode he wrote for the series - [[ExecutiveMeddling he'd been thrown off the show after the first season]]).
* ''Series/EightIsEnough'' had a two-part episode where David, the oldest son, who was about to get married, inexplicably drove off with his fiance's sister, where they got involved with competitive hang gliding before driving off into the sunset. (When the pilot did not get picked up, David returned, got married to his original fiance...and later got divorced.)
* The ''Franchise/{{Emergency}}'' episode "905-Wild" was a pilot for a Jack Webb production centered on animal control officers, starring Mark Harmon and Albert Popwell, which did not get picked up.
* ''Series/TheFactsOfLife'', following from ''Series/DiffrentStrokes'', tried to launch other shows this way. ''Seven'' times, in fact, none of which resulted in a series:
** "Brian & Sylvia" was about Tootie's cousin's interracial marriage to a pre-''MacGyver'' Richard Dean Anderson.
** "The Academy" was a third-season episode about Stone Academy, a boys' school near Eastland. It failed, but they tried again with ''another'' Stone Academy episode with the same cast the next year, "The Big Fight."
** "Jo's Cousin" would have led to a show about, well, Jo's cousin, a 14-year-old girl growing up in Brooklyn in a family full of men.
** "Rumor Has It..." and "Peekskill Law" was a final-season two-parter that would have led into a show featuring Blair and her law-school mentor.
** "Big Apple Blues", also from the final season, showcased Natalie and would have led to a show about her moving to New York and living in a Soho loft with several eccentric tenants(one of whom was pre-SNL David Spade as a young medical intern).
** Finally, the series' last episodes, "The Beginning of the End/Beginning of the Beginning", ended with Blair buying the Eastland school, turning it co-ed, and presiding over it in a would-be continuation series.
* The ''Series/GilmoreGirls'' episode in which Jess goes to find his father in California was an obvious pilot for a series that was never picked up. Apparently, it was supposed to be called ''Windward Circle''. Adrian Pasdar tried out for, but didn't get, the role of Jess's dad.
* ''Series/TheGoldenGirls'' had an episode called "Empty Nests", which in turn spun off the series ''Empty Nest''. However, the actors, characters, and premise were very different from the show that actually made it to air - David Leisure was the only actor to be retained, and even he was playing a different character (in the pilot he was playing a test pilot called Oliver).
* ''GossipGirl'' featured a backdoor pilot for a prequel spin-off (called ''Valley Girls'') about the teenage life of Lily Bass. While the creation of the spin-off was announced before the backdoor pilot premiered, the network ended up canceling ''Valley Girls'' before it ever aired.
* The last two episodes of ''Series/GreenAcres'': one takes place in a hotel in Honolulu, the other is about Oliver's former secretary. Neither show got made, of course.
* Blatantly used in the episode of ''Series/GreysAnatomy'' in which Addison travels to California, the setting for her spin-off ''Series/PrivatePractice''.
* ''Series/HappyDays'' spun off ''Series/MorkAndMindy'' and ''Series/LaverneAndShirley'' in this way. (Mork and Mindy didn't even take place in the same time period, which was {{handwave}}d away.)
** The original Mork episode of ''Series/HappyDays'' wasn't intended as a backdoor pilot, since it turned out to be a dream at the end. Creator/RobinWilliams proved so popular that Mork was retconned into a real person and spun off into his own series. Before ''Series/MorkAndMindy'' premiered, the ''Happy Days'' Mork episode was rerun with the original ending replaced by a new ending revealing that Mork was real after all and had only made Fonzie ''think'' he'd been dreaming.
** There was a much lesser-known spinoff called ''Out of the Blue'' about an angel named Random, that was tied in with an episode in which Chachi sells his soul to the devil.
** And the final episode of ''Series/LaverneAndShirley'' featured Carmine going to New York to try to become a Broadway Actor/Dancer in an obvious busted spin-off pilot.
** And ''Series/HappyDays'' was spun off this way from ''Series/LoveAmericanStyle'', which by the nature of the program could try out all kinds of pilots without making them ''too'' poorly disguised.
* ''Series/HerculesTheLegendaryJourneys'':
** A couple of episodes at the end of the fourth season ("Twilight" and "Top God") that had Hercules and Iolaus reminiscing about their younger days as teenagers for no particular reason. These episodes served as the basis for a later spin-off titled ''Series/YoungHercules''. Ian Bohen, the actor who originally played the "Young Hercules" in the flashback episodes, ended up being replaced by Ryan Gosling in the actual spin-off. Notably, ''Young Hercules'' already had a pilot in the form of a feature-length movie, which was filmed during the parent series' third season and being shopped around on its own.
** The final two episodes of the first season were a backdoor pilot for ''Series/{{Xena|WarriorPrincess}}''.
* The final season of ''Series/{{Highlander}}'' is an example of this. It featured a string of episodes centered around various new female Immortals, an attempt to see which one the audience liked best for a [[DistaffCounterpart female-centric spin-off]]. The attempt was unsuccessful, and ultimately, recurring Immortal Liz Gracen was spun off to the short-lived ''Highlander: The Raven'' series. One of those female test runs was called The Raven. That ended up being the name of the new series, even though it didn't star that character and Liz Gracen's character Amanda had never been associated with a black bird of portent before. It took an incredibly clumsy credit sequence that tried to make the case that thief Amanda is like a Native American mythological Trickster God Raven to justify the title. Why not just call it RuleOfCool and be done with it?
* ''[[Film/HomeAlone Home Alone 4]]'' started off as a stand-alone TV special, but during filming the producers decided that it would be a perfect lead-in to a ''Home Alone'' TV series, and got several of the key players to sign contracts for such a series, as well as making adjustments to the plot to facilitate it (Kevin's parents [[spoiler:didn't get back together]] in the original script, but they did in the finished version). In the end though, ''Home Alone 4'' failed miserably in the ratings, and the series was not to be.
* The ''Series/HomeImprovement'' episode "Talk to Me" had RealLife friends Creator/DaveChappelle and Jim Breuer appearing as two friends that were in the Tool Time audience and get advice from Tim about relationships (which unsurprisingly leads to trouble for all three). The intent was apparently for the duo to get their own SpinOff show from there, but then ExecutiveMeddling intervened. ''Buddies'' saw much of it - leading to it not premiering for a year and Breuer replaced by Christopher Gartin. The show bombed out quickly and Chappelle considers it an OldShame.
* ''Series/{{House}}'' had a PDP story-arc that lasted for several episodes. House and Wilson were feuding, and House hired a private investigator to follow him (and patients). The network admitted the character was introduced purposely to see if audiences would be interested in a spinoff. Reaction was mixed, and eventually the character disappeared. Instead of being ultimately forgotten, the scrapped character returned lately on season 6 with a more reasonable tie to the plot and far less air time. He's also basically the same character only un-Flanderized.
* The ''Series/{{iCarly}}'' episode "iMeet Fred" is the forerunner to the ''Series/{{Fred}}'' show.
* ''Series/TheIncredibleHulk'' series was given a follow-up made-for-TV movie trilogy after its cancellation, but the first two installments, "Return of the Incredible Hulk" and "Trial of the Incredible Hulk", were really just tryouts for other Creator/MarvelComics heroes, namely Comicbook/TheMightyThor and Comicbook/{{Daredevil}}.
* Two eighth-season episodes of ''Series/{{JAG}}'' introduce the ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' team lead by Gibbs: "Ice Queen" and "The Meltdown". An interesting side note is the changes that were seen from this testing. Most notably, the female character was replaced by a Secret Service liaison, and the romantic tension between Abby and [=DiNozzo=] was completely dropped.
** Notably, 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 by NBC, before the show was picked up by CBS. The first season of ''NCIS'' retreads many episodes of that canceled season.
** ''NCIS'' launched its ''own'' spinoff with the two parter episode "Legend". The new series was billed as ''Legend'', other titles included ''NCIS: OSP (Office of Special Projects)'' and ''NCIS: Undercover'', but would eventually get the much-less-compelling name ''Series/NCISLosAngeles''.
** ''NCIS Los Angeles'' tried to launch another spinoff in a two-parter titled "Red", featuring a mobile NCIS unit; this appears to have been passed on as of May 2013.
** NCIS New Orleans, starring Scott Bakula, was introduced as a two parter in the mainline series.
* The ''Series/KnightRider'' episode "Mouth of the Snake" had Michael and KITT playing second fiddle to a ''Sentinel''-like crimefighter and his sidekick in what appears to have been a backdoor pilot for a show that was never picked up. (Actually, it did; it was called ''Code of Vengeance'', but was extremely short-lived and changed much about the premise, to the extent that most people couldn't tell it was a SpinOff.)
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[[folder:M-Z]]
* ''Series/MacGyver'': "The Coltons", after a 3-4 minute scene with Mac, became entirely about the exploits of a family of {{Bounty Hunter}}s, each of whom had previously appeared in the series separately. The series never came to pass, but individual Coltons did continue to turn up for the remainder of the series.
* ''Series/MagnumPI'' had at least three:
** The first season episode "J. Digger Doyle" presented the character of security expert Joy "Digger" Doyle of the episode title, in hope of launching her own series, but the idea didn't follow through.
** The third season episode "Two Birds of a Feather" again served as a potential pilot for a new show, which didn't sell, but was heavily reworked to become ''Series/{{Airwolf}}''.
** The fourth season episode "The Return of Luther Gillis" (a sequel to the same season's "Luther Gillis: File #521"), featuring old-fashioned hard-boiled St. Louis private eye Luther Gillis, was planned as a pilot for a spinoff - it didn't sell, but unlike J. Digger Doyle this character did appear in later episodes.
* ''Series/TheManFromUNCLE'' second season episode "The Moonglow Affair" was a backdoor pilot for the [[DistaffCounterpart U.N.C.L.E. spinoff series]] ''Series/TheGirlFromUNCLE''.
* ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'':
** The episode "Top of the Heap" (the 100th episode) was one of the few episodes that didn't have the entire Bundy family. It had Al in the beginning trying to get his TV back from his friend [[spoiler:and in the ending where Al breaks in and takes the TV]]) and "Oldies but Young'uns" (which didn't focus much on Al's friend and his dim-witted son played by Matt Le Blanc, but did have them in the plot for the B-story about Kelly dating the dim-witted son) were used as test-pilots for the eventual spinoff ''Top of the Heap'', which only lasted six episodes.
** "Radio Free Trumaine", revolving around a radio station at Bud's college (with Steve Rhoades getting a job as a college dean), and "Enemies", about a group of Kelly's friends and starring Alan Thicke. Neither was picked up by the network.
** The finale, focusing on Kelly, was to be spun off into a series about her moving out and starting her own life away from the Bundys. Contract disputes and lack of interest kept that from happening.
** Another ''Married...With Children'' spin-off would have been centered on Al and his friends from "NO MA'AM" (National Organization for Men Against Amazonian Masterhood), but the FOX network was afraid that it would have been too misogynistic.
* The ''Series/{{Martin}}'' episode "Goin' for Mine" was a backdoor pilot, about Pam James wanting an A&R job at a record label by trying to get an unsigned singer signed. Martin Lawrence's titular character was only shown in the cold open, and the episode featured a number of actors that were to star in the proposed series. The show was not picked up as a full series.
* ''Series/TheMaryTylerMooreShow'' had three actual {{Spinoff}} series, which all had separately produced pilots. However, it also had two backdoor pilots:
** The final episode of its second season was used for an attempted backdoor pilot starring Bill Daily as an incompetent city councilman.
** One episode's plot involved Rhoda ''almost'' moving back to New York, a few seasons before ''Series/{{Rhoda}}'' was launched. It doesn't appear to have been intended as a backdoor pilot per se, but may have been a trial balloon for the concept.
* The last original episode of ''Series/MiamiVice'' shown on NBC, "Leap of Faith," was a backdoor pilot about a Youth Crime Unit going undercover as college students, a somewhat similar concept to the series ''21 Jump Street'' (and ''The Mod Squad'', which predated both). The show's main stars Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas are seen only in the first few minutes of this episode, and none of the other regulars appear at all.
* 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 ''Series/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.]]
* When ''Series/MurderSheWrote'' star Creator/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.
* ''Series/TheNanny'' had a second-season episode called "The Chatterbox", where Miss Fine took Maggie to get her hair done at a salon called "The Chatterbox", the workers at which had a surprising amount of screen time. The series wasn't picked up by Creator/{{CBS}}.
* ''Series/TheOfficeUS'' season 9 episode "The Farm" was originally the pilot for a SpinOff about Dwight's family. When the pilot wasn't picked up, it was re-edited into an episode of the regular series.
* The final season of ''ThePractice'' seemed like a lame last attempt to pump life into a dying show by adding a new main character, the "dastardly" Alan Shore, but it culminated in him leaving the firm and joining a new one, which spawned the more popular (and decidedly more comedy-based) ''Series/BostonLegal''.
* The third season finale of ''Series/OneOnOne,'' "Phatheadz," reduced star Flex Alexander to a bookending cameo and left out all the others to focus on a never-before-heard-of relative and the barber shop he ran, and the daughter of the owner of the shop (Shannon Elizabeth) who wanted it to become a hair salon. In the end they teamed up and called it "Pharenity" (Shannon wanted to call the salon "Serenity") - unlike most [[PoorlyDisguisedPilot PDPs]], this one also had a happy ending and eventually became the UPN sitcom ''Cuts''.
* ''Series/PrettyLittleLiars'' launched ''Series/{{Ravenswood}}'' this way, using the Season 4 Halloween episode as a setup for the SpinOff. The main plot of the episode involved the girls looking for A in the town of Ravenswood, while the B-plot featured Caleb meeting Miranda Collins while riding a bus to Ravenswood to help Hanna. Once they arrive, Caleb and Miranda get dragged into one of the mysteries of the town and at the end, Caleb stays behind so he can help Miranda figure things out.
* The ''Series/PunkyBrewster'' episode "Fenster Hall" was one of these. It was twice the length of your average episode, and aside from a brief scene in the beginning, pushed Punky and Henry into the background, not featuring any of the other main cast members at all.
* The ''Series/{{Quincy}}'' episode "Suffer the Little Children", with Tony Dow as an on-site therapist who lives with troubled families. The very last episode of ''Quincy'', "The Cutting Edge," was another one of these.
* ''Series/TheRockfordFiles'' had at least three Poorly Disguised Pilots during the run of the series. It did succeed in spinning off one short-lived series, ''Richie Brockelman Private Eye'', a series that had already had one stand-alone pilot two years earlier on the ''NBCMysteryMovie.''
** [[http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2014/07/28/the_rockford_files_episode_that_inspired_the_sopranos_1979_s_just_a_coupla.html Most interestingly, what turned out to be the penultimate episode of the series, "Just a Coupla Guys"]], sent Jim to New Jersey where he was largely displaced in the narrative by a mob family [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything headed by a guy named Tony who's upset that his son Tony Jr. is pranking other mobsters and a wife who takes comfort in the family priest while she's more or less trapped in a large suburban house]]. The writer, Creator/DavidChase, was hoping to spin the mob characters off into a series that he would produce (he'd flirted with the idea in an earlier episode, "The Jersey Bounce", as well). NBC rejected the pilot he ''did'' get to produce, but he didn't stop believin' in the idea of a show centered around mobsters even after that went all black, and ... [[TheSopranos you know the rest]].
* There is a run of episodes during Season 9 of ''Series/{{Roseanne}}'' that revolve around Roseanne and Jackie causing a commotion amongst rich folk while wearing expensive, tacky clothes. In case you didn't already suspect it was a stealth pilot for Roseanne's planned American version of ''Series/AbsolutelyFabulous'', the stars of the original British version even turn up in one of the episodes.
* ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'' attempted a spinoff named ''Witchright Hall'' in an episode where Sabrina's cousin Amanda starred as a new student in a school for delinquent witches. The episode where Amanda's mother got together with a plumber was supposed to lead to a spinoff, too. Marigold had two daughters, he had three sons, [[Series/TheBradyBunch you can do the math]]. Amanda had no spinoff luck.
* ''Series/TheSixMillionDollarMan'':
** The episode ''The Ultimate Imposter'' barely featured Steve Austin at all, and was a backdoor pilot for a series about an OSI agent who had skills directly uploaded to his brain. The series was never made, and eventually resulted in an unrelated TV movie.
** The ''Six Million Dollar Man'' episode that introduced the Bionic Woman was, ironically, not one of these at all; Jamie ''died'' at the end and was intended to stay dead. She was loved enough that she got better.
* ''Series/{{Smallville}}'':
* One episode was 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 called ''Mercy Reef''. The proposed series would have diverged widely from the episode's version of the character; in the unaired pilot, Aquaman was played by Justin Hartley rather than Alan Ritchson, who played the character in ''Smallville''. After the pilot failed, Hartley was cast as GreenArrow on ''Smallville''.
** There was an episode of ''Smallville'' that quickly trapped Clark in order to bring in the newly formed JusticeLeagueOfAmerica (Green Arrow, Comicbook/{{Cyborg}}, Aquaman, and [[TheFlash 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 resulting show]] is not even a spinoff, but has since gone forward starring a different actor with a completely different plot and version of the character.
** The third-to-last episode centered on BoosterGold and BlueBeetle, possibly as a test for a future series, but nothing has come of it since then.
** ''Arrow's'' episodes with Barry Allen led up to ''Series/TheFlash2014'', his own solo show.
* The ''Series/StargateSG1'' two-parter "Lost City", the season 7 finale, is a backdoor pilot for ''Series/StargateAtlantis'', introducing Elizabeth Weir, [=ZPMs=], and the Antarctic outpost. Originally, it was supposed to be a separate movie between the two series and the Antarctic outpost was supposed to be Atlantis itself, but the spin-off was moved to a different galaxy when ''SG-1'' was [[PostScriptSeason renewed for the eighth season]].
* The producers of ''Series/StarskyAndHutch'' considered giving informant Huggy Bear a spin-off. The second season episode "Huggy Bear and the Turkey" (which would have been the name of the proposed series) saw Huggy paired with former Sheriff "Turkey" Turquet (Dale Robinette) as Private Investigators who have been hired to find a woman's missing husband. The series was never made.
* The final season of ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' featured the episode "Lower Decks" which, for the first time, focused the A-plot on four younger crew members, three of whom had never been seen before and a fourth who got a lot more character development. There were a flurry of rumors that the four young officers were going to be the stars of the then-recently announced spin-off series ''Series/StarTrekVoyager''. This turned out to be untrue, though Alexander Enberg, who played young Vulcan engineer Taurik in that episode, appeared as young Vulcan engineer Vorik in a recurring status on ''Voyager'', the name likely changed to avoid the need for royalties.
* The ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "Assignment: Earth" ends with Kirk and Spock assuring everyone that they are sure Roberta Lincoln (played by then-unknown Teri Garr) and her super-spy boss Gary Seven (played by Robert Lansing) will have many more interesting adventures to come. Sadly, they didn't; the most they got was an occasional appearance in the ExpandedUniverse. The episode was originally written as a straight pilot and then [[DolledUpInstallment reworked to include the Trek characters when a buyer couldn't be found]]. Note how Kirk and Spock are rather awkwardly shoehorned into a storyline to which they contribute very little. As Kirk himself put it in the episode, "I have never felt so helpless."
** 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 (not at that time, anyway - he was later a regular on ''{{Series/Automan}}'' and ''[[KungFu Kung Fu: The Legend Continues]]'').
* The ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' episode "[[Recap/SupernaturalS09E20Bloodlines "Bloodlines" (S09, Ep20)]]" was supposed to be a pilot for, well, ''Supernatural: Bloodlines''. It barely featured the main characters, introduced many new ones in a very different setting (a [[UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}} big metropolis]], as opposed to the small towns & backwoods environment of most ''Supernatural'' episodes), and had important divergences with the show's canon. The episode even ends with a cliffhanger which is a blatant SequelHook. The spinoff ended up not being picked up by the network.
* ''Series/ThatsSoRaven'' had an episode entitled "Goin' Hollywood" featuring a young girl (Alyson Stoner) who acted on a fictional show about the 1950s called "Better Days". The series would have followed the girl's attempts to balance her acting career with her normal life as a middle schooler. The series was not picked up, but the idea was later re-tooled into ''Series/HannahMontana''.
* ''Series/ThreesCompany'' had one of these, to get the Ropers to their own show (it worked, although ''The Ropers'' wasn't nearly as big a hit).
** Considering that ''Series/ThreesCompany'' was a remake of the British show ''Series/ManAboutTheHouse'', it makes sense that the American version would attempt their own version of ''George and Mildred''.
** And the hour-long final episode rushed through wrapping up Terri and Janet's storylines in order to (literally) set the stage for ''Three's A Crowd'', an Americanized version of ''Series/ManAboutTheHouse'''s spin-off ''Robins Nest''.
* The 1996 ''TouchedByAnAngel'' episode "Promised Land" was a pilot for the series of the same name that would run for 3 seasons.
* The 1950s western series ''{{Trackdown}}'' had an episode called "The Bounty Hunter" which was a stealth pilot for ''Series/WantedDeadOrAlive''.
* ''Series/TheTwilightZone'' TOS episode "Cavender is Coming", a pitch for a sitcom about a bumbling guardian angel and his various encounters with other "deserving humans" in need of heavenly assistance. Just to make sure the viewer got the idea, it was even broadcast with a LaughTrack. This was actually the ''second'' time the show tried to sell a series on this theme; "Mr. Bevis," in which the title character was under the care of a guardian angel, was the first. Neither sold (it would be decades before CBS had [[Series/HighwayToHeaven shows about]] [[Series/TouchedByAnAngel guardian angels]] on their schedule).
* ''Virtuality'' was a pilot presented as a special TV Movie.
* ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'' had an episode called "SonsOfThunder", which served as the pilot for an identically named spin-off. The episode featured the new characters almost exclusively over the regular Walker cast.
* The episode "3...2...1..." of ''Series/{{Warehouse 13}}'' was this for an as-of-yet unnamed spin-off of the show featuring HG Wells.
* ''Series/WhosTheBoss'' had a two-part third season finale in which Mona visits her brother who runs a hotel in NYC, but the planned spin-off was canceled before the episode aired because Creator/{{ABC}} feared that Mona's absence would hurt the parent show. Another episode launched ''Charmed Lives'', which featured Fran Drescher and Donna Dixon and lasted three episodes. A third spinoff, ''Living Dolls'', starred Leah Remini and Halle Berry as aspiring models; it had two PoorlyDisguisedPilot episodes, the first of which was omitted from the original run.
* ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess'' had one in season 5 that explained that the Amazons were founded by a girl TrappedInAnotherWorld (played by Selma Blair of ''Film/CruelIntentions''). According to the DVD special features, what actually happened here was that the original show, ''Amazon High'', was developed separately from ''Xena'', but wasn't picked up, so they decided to get a cheaper episode of ''Xena'' out of it. The idea was eventually reworked into ''Series/{{Cleopatra 2525}}'' with the girl from the present day ending up in the future instead of the past.
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[[folder:General]]
* Between 1956 and 1989, it was not uncommon for American networks to fill time in the summer months by airing failed pilots. Since actually saying "Hey, come watch these shows that we passed on!" wasn't likely to draw viewers in, the networks often packaged them as Poorly Disguised Pilots of a different sort. By dressing them up as part of a "series", they could perhaps pick up a few more viewers by hiding the fact that they ''were'' failed pilots. [[http://www.tvobscurities.com/articles/unsold_pilots_on_television_56_66/ This web article]] describes the phenomenon and provides several examples of the form, with titles like ''Preview Tonight'', ''Comedy Theatre'', and the longest-running, ''Vacation Playhouse'', which ran on ABC from 1963 to 1967.
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[[folder:A-L]]
* 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 ''Franchise/{{Dragnet}}'' style.
* The entire last season of ''Series/{{Alias}}'' was used as one, suddenly introducing three new characters into the mix who quickly became the main focus of the show as Vaughn and Weiss were removed as regular characters and Jennifer Garner's pregnancy was also given to Sydney, preventing her from going into the field much. When it became clear that things weren't going to work out, two of them were killed off with little resolution of their own story arcs.
* ''Series/AllInTheFamily'':
** One episode of the second season introduced Edith's cousin Maude Findlay, who was even more of a fiery liberal than Mike and feuded massively with Archie. When audiences responded favorably to the character, Norman Lear made the second season's final episode a pilot for the {{spinoff}} ''Series/{{Maude}}'', where the Bunkers visit Maude and we meet the rest of her family (even though Carol is played by a different actress).
** The season 5 episode "The Jeffersons Move on Up" had the Bunkers' neighbors moving to Manhattan as a springboard for [[Series/TheJeffersons their own series]].
** The season 2 episode of ''Series/{{Maude}}'', titled "Florida's Goodbye," could also be considered a poorly disguised pilot for ''Series/GoodTimes''. However, in ''Good Times'' the Evans family had inexplicably relocated from New York (where Florida's husband Henry was a firefighter) to Chicago (where husband James was often unemployed), and the Findlays were never mentioned at any time during the series.
* ''Series/TheAndyGriffithShow'' both was one, and spawned one of its own.
** ''The Danny Thomas Show'' had the title character arrested and sent to jail in the small town of Mayberry -- home of Sheriff Andy Taylor and son Opie.
** Later, ''The Andy Griffith Show'' produced episode "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C." when Gomer Pyle joined the Marine Corps, leading to the spinoff ''Series/GomerPyleUSMC''.
* The ''Series/BarnabyJones'' episode "The Killin' Cousin," set up as a pilot for a series called ''Tarkington'', featured a father-and-son pair of detectives (the Tarkingtons) who believed Betty Jones murdered two of her cousins. The episode was a three-time loser - the pilot didn't sell, it was the final episode of ''Barnaby Jones'', and it was the last episode of '''any''' series from QM Productions to air.
* ''Series/BeingHuman'' had an episode centering on a young vampire named Adam, who ate up most of the screen time. He became a central character in the [[{{Webisode}} online]] young-adult spinoff ''Series/BecomingHuman''.
* ''Series/BeverlyHills90210'' spun off one series, which in turn spun off another:
** Near the end of season two, Kelly Taylor (Jennie Garth) tries to pursue a relationship with one of Dylan [=McKay=]'s (Luke Perry) friends named Jake Hanson (Grant Snow) after they meet while he's doing contracting work at her parents' house. After several episodes of romantic tension, it finally culminated in an episode where he moved to an L.A. apartment complex and Kelly let go for good. This then became ''Series/MelrosePlace'', which revolved around the tenants of the complex where Jake lived.
** ''Melrose'', in turn, had an episode where Amanda Woodward's mother Hilary (played by Linda Gray) appeared and revealed that she was the owner of a modeling agency. This was a backdoor pilot for another spinoff, ''Models Inc.'', which followed the mother and a group of up-and-coming models at the agency.
* ''Series/TheBionicWoman'':
** The episode "Biofeedback" appeared to be a backdoor pilot for a series about another super-powered OSI agent, Darwin Jones.
** The second episode featuring Max the bionic dog only had Jamie Sommers in it at the very beginning and the very end; sadly, ''The Bionic Dog'' never got produced as a series.
* A sixth-season episode of ''Series/{{Bones}}'', "The Finder", featured the show's main cast taking a back seat to a new collection of characters led by an old friend of Booth's played by Geoff Stults. It was a backdoor pilot for a new series called ''Series/TheFinder'', also created by Hart Hanson (the creator of ''Bones''). (An early tip-off for knowledgeable fans was that this violated the normal format for episode titles: ''The X in the Y''.)
* The "Kelly's Kids" episode of ''Series/TheBradyBunch'' was meant to be a backdoor pilot. In that episode, Ken Berry played a friend of the Bradys who, with his wife, adopts not only a white orphan but also his black and Asian best friends as well, much to his bigoted neighbor's chagrin. The pilot didn't sell... or at least not until ''twelve years later'', when the concept was revived as ''Series/TogetherWeStand'', a short-lived CBS sitcom starring Elliot Gould.
* The last season of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' was full of Poorly Disguised Pilots, from reintroducing Faith to giving Dawn her own supporting cast for an episode. Creator/JossWhedon has also mentioned in interviews that Spike's one-episode appearance in Season Three was meant to appear like one of these, in order to distract from the rumors of the upcoming ''Series/{{Angel}}'' spin-off. Two ''Series/{{Buffy|TheVampireSlayer}}'' episodes that season can be seen with hindsight as genuine backdoor pilots for ''Series/{{Angel}}'': "Anne" had the dark-fantasy-LA setting and some of the atmosphere, and "Amends" introduced the audience to the idea that Angel had way bigger issues than just the conflict between the happiness curse and loving Buffy.
* An episode of the detective series ''Series/BurkesLaw'' served as a pilot to spin off another detective series, ''HoneyWest''.
* The TV remake of Stephen King's novel ''Carrie'' would have been a better and more faithful adaptation than the big screen version if the producers hadn't decided to try and turn it into a pilot for a TV series by adding an absurd new ending. Suffice it to say, the network wasn't interested and what resulted was a decent movie that got done in by a terrible ending.
* ''Series/CharlesInCharge'' had three episodes in the final season which were failed attempts at a pilot for a new series. In each a character would visit somewhere where there would be a character that looked suspiciously like one of the regular cast members. Ellen Travolta, who played Charles' mom, had an identical twin sister who ran a car wash in New York. Willie Aames' character Buddy had an identical cousin working in a hotel in Hawaii. Nicole Eggert's character had an identical cousin living in New Mexico.
* ''Series/CharliesAngels'' had an episode called "Toni's Boys" where the angels met a team of [[GenderFlip Gender-Flipped]] counterparts -- three young studs (with a habit of taking off their shirts) and an older female mentor. Nothing ever came of it, but it seemed like an attempt to introduce a second show using the Charlie's Angels formula, but aimed at a female audience instead - their "Charlie," Toni, was played by Barbara Stanwyck (and unlike John Forsythe, she appeared on screen!).
* ''Series/{{Charmed}}'' attempted to do this with the Billie character, but it didn't work out; in fact, if the show has a {{Scrappy}}, it's her. The 5th season opener, "A Witch's Tail" effectively served as one of these for Brad Kern's spin-off ''Mermaid'', though the plan didn't make it past pilot stage. The producers claim that the PDP nature of "A Witch's Tail" was unintentional, and that it was only after making that episode that they realised the potential in the idea.
* ''Series/CHiPs'' featured an array of wacky martial artist characters called "Force Seven" who seemed to come out of nowhere for one episode. After the initial setup of the crime of the week, a phone call throws the story to them, while Ponch and John aren't seen again. The series also tried to launch a series about two female cops called Mitchell and Woods in an episode called... guess.
* The Season 7 ''Series/ColdCase'' episode "Free Love" looked like a PDP for two reasons: 1) it wildly varied from other episodes, being set in New York instead of Philadelphia; having Lilly alone helping the FBI guy who was introduced two episodes earlier; and [[RomanticPlotTumor hints]] of them becoming an OfficialCouple, and 2) [[ShoutOut she considers joining the FBI in the episode, while he muses about the creation of a Cold Case FBI unit]]. Nothing came of it, though.
* An episode of ''Series/{{Combat}}'' was a backdoor pilot for ''Series/GarrisonsGorillas'', although it ended up not being shown as part of that series.
* ''Series/TheCosbyShow'':
** The episode "Mr. Quiet" introduces the local youth center, run by a nice guy named Tony (played by Tony Orlando!) and staffed by some interesting, quirky characters, each of whom gets honest-to-god ''title cards'' in the closing credits, something that had never happened before on the series. The episode spends almost as much time with Tony and his pals as it does on the Huxtables, and their plots only sort of relate to each other. The Huxtables are clearly starring in the B-plot of the episode. No series was born from Tony and the youth center, however.
** Then there's ''Series/ADifferentWorld'', a spin-off series centered on the life of students at Hillman College.
* ''Series/CriminalMinds'': In season five's "The Fight," the team is "assisted" by a secondary team, led by Forrest Whitaker. The other team is given the larger share of screen time, and the main cast is mainly given dialogue to allow the new team to expound on their back story. The following year they got their own show, ''Series/CriminalMindsSuspectBehavior''. [[SarcasmMode And that worked out well.]]
* The ''CrossingJordan'' episode "Sunset Division" is an example. However, the pilot was never picked up.
* ''Series/{{CSI}}'' did this to launch ''Series/CSIMiami'', which in turn launched ''Series/{{CSI NY}}''.
** And the episode "Hollywood Brass" certainly feels like a PDP. Were they thinking about a Jim Brass spin-off set in LA?
** Similarly with the ''Series/{{CSI NY}}'' episode "The Thing About Heroes", which introduced at least one major character from the Chicago police department.
** Rumours circulated for a while about a possible CSI London (Although for accuracy, it should be SOCO London, as the real-life CSI equivalents of the British Police are called Scene Of (the) Crime Officers[[note]] The NYPD relies on ''CSU--Crime Scene Unit''[[/note]]) such that, when Mac Taylor of ''Series/{{CSI NY}}'' visited London, there was an expectant hush among some viewers... which dissipated almost immediately, since London was just a stock-footage pretty backdrop for a mystery phone call, part of a very definitely American story arc.
* ''Series/{{Dallas}}'' had an episode called "Return Engagement", which allowed ''Series/{{Knots Landing}}'' to begin by showing Gary and Val getting married and moving into the cul-de-sac house recently built by Bobby Ewing.
* ''Series/DawsonsCreek'' introduced a new character, Will Krudski, into the gang for one episode in Season 3, who would serve as the protagonist for spin-off series ''Series/YoungAmericans''.
* It would take less time to list the installments of ''[[Creator/{{Disney}} The Disney Sunday Movie]]'' that ''weren't'' Poorly Disguised Pilots. And even less time to list the pilots that became series, because only one did (''The Last Electric Knight'', which became ''Sidekicks'').
* ''Series/DiagnosisMurder'' had several episodes intended to be spin-offs, but none were ever picked up:
** "Retribution," a two-part episode was intended to be a pilot for "The Chief." Fred Dryer starred at the hard-nosed Los Angeles chief of police who played various political games to provide law and order. Neal [=McDonough=] would co-star as Ross Canin, a mob boss who was actually an undercover policeman acting as Masters' ultimate inside man.
** "A Mime is a Terrible Thing to Waste" featured Rachel York as Randy Wofle, an eccentric woman with various jobs who gets involved in murder cases.
** "Blood Ties" was to be a pilot for a series called "Whistlers" with rule-bending detective Amy Devlin (Kathy Evison) and her more outrageous partner Taylor Lucas (Zoe [=McLellan=]).
** Ironically, ''Diagnosis: Murder'' itself was a spinoff of ''Jake And The Fatman'' (which itself, in turn, spun off from ''{{Matlock}}'').
* ''Series/DiffrentStrokes'' had several:
** ''Hello, Larry'' is often referred to as one of these, but actually debuted as a separate show. However, when NBC put it in the time slot directly following ''Diff'rent Strokes'', they wrote in a connection between [=McLean=] Stevenson and Conrad Bain's characters that allowed for several crossovers between the shows. It was an (unsuccessful) attempt to boost ratings for ''Larry'', but not a spinoff.
** ''Series/TheFactsOfLife'' started this way, following from the episode "The Girls School" (albeit with some significant changes from the pilot.)
** The episode "Almost American" was a failed pilot for a show about immigrants studying for their citizenship exams, featuring a Czech immigrant named Milo.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** The William Hartnell-era 'cutaway episode' "Mission to the Unknown" is the only episode of ''Doctor Who'' not to feature either the Doctor or his companions. It was an attempt at pitching a spinoff Dalek SpaceOpera series for an American audience, and so the episode focuses on members of an anti-Dalek military force as well as establishing the Daleks in alliance with a bunch of never-seen-before alien species (which also all had silly voices and outrageous designs, for {{Toyetic}} reasons). A pilot for this series was written, but never made, although Creator/BigFinish recorded an audio adaptation of it, and some of the ideas wormed their way into ''Series/{{Blakes 7}}'' later on.
** Whether intended as one or not, "School Reunion" is one, setting up the premise of ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures'' by establishing old-school companion Sarah Jane Smith as still in the monster-busting game and in the company of K9.
** The two-parter that introduces the Torchwood Institute in its modern incarnation is this, though less blatant, as Jack Harkness is not directly mentioned and no ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' regulars [[note]]as defined by characters, not actors -- Creator/FreemaAgyeman was in both, but as two different characters[[/note]] appear in either episode.
* ''Series/TheDukesOfHazzard'' had more than one (the better-known one-season ''Enos'' was also a spinoff, but had a more traditional stand-alone pilot, and of course the character was already known by the ''Dukes'' audience):
** The second season gave us "Mason Dixon's Girls", a PoorlyDisguisedPilot concerning a private detective and his two sexy ActionGirl associates, the brunette Tinker and the blond Samantha. It's amazingly blatant, even setting aside the obvious ''Series/CharliesAngels'' ripoff. The show's then story editor Bruce Howard 'fessed up to it being a disguised pilot (it was in his contract that he could write a spinoff).
** "Jude Emery", a show about an unconventional Texas Ranger who drove a Korean War surplus Jeep and had a gun that didn't work, was another -- a ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'' ancestor written by the show's creator Gy Waldron (this was the final episode he wrote for the series - [[ExecutiveMeddling he'd been thrown off the show after the first season]]).
* ''Series/EightIsEnough'' had a two-part episode where David, the oldest son, who was about to get married, inexplicably drove off with his fiance's sister, where they got involved with competitive hang gliding before driving off into the sunset. (When the pilot did not get picked up, David returned, got married to his original fiance...and later got divorced.)
* The ''Franchise/{{Emergency}}'' episode "905-Wild" was a pilot for a Jack Webb production centered on animal control officers, starring Mark Harmon and Albert Popwell, which did not get picked up.
* ''Series/TheFactsOfLife'', following from ''Series/DiffrentStrokes'', tried to launch other shows this way. ''Seven'' times, in fact, none of which resulted in a series:
** "Brian & Sylvia" was about Tootie's cousin's interracial marriage to a pre-''MacGyver'' Richard Dean Anderson.
** "The Academy" was a third-season episode about Stone Academy, a boys' school near Eastland. It failed, but they tried again with ''another'' Stone Academy episode with the same cast the next year, "The Big Fight."
** "Jo's Cousin" would have led to a show about, well, Jo's cousin, a 14-year-old girl growing up in Brooklyn in a family full of men.
** "Rumor Has It..." and "Peekskill Law" was a final-season two-parter that would have led into a show featuring Blair and her law-school mentor.
** "Big Apple Blues", also from the final season, showcased Natalie and would have led to a show about her moving to New York and living in a Soho loft with several eccentric tenants(one of whom was pre-SNL David Spade as a young medical intern).
** Finally, the series' last episodes, "The Beginning of the End/Beginning of the Beginning", ended with Blair buying the Eastland school, turning it co-ed, and presiding over it in a would-be continuation series.
* The ''Series/GilmoreGirls'' episode in which Jess goes to find his father in California was an obvious pilot for a series that was never picked up. Apparently, it was supposed to be called ''Windward Circle''. Adrian Pasdar tried out for, but didn't get, the role of Jess's dad.
* ''Series/TheGoldenGirls'' had an episode called "Empty Nests", which in turn spun off the series ''Empty Nest''. However, the actors, characters, and premise were very different from the show that actually made it to air - David Leisure was the only actor to be retained, and even he was playing a different character (in the pilot he was playing a test pilot called Oliver).
* ''GossipGirl'' featured a backdoor pilot for a prequel spin-off (called ''Valley Girls'') about the teenage life of Lily Bass. While the creation of the spin-off was announced before the backdoor pilot premiered, the network ended up canceling ''Valley Girls'' before it ever aired.
* The last two episodes of ''Series/GreenAcres'': one takes place in a hotel in Honolulu, the other is about Oliver's former secretary. Neither show got made, of course.
* Blatantly used in the episode of ''Series/GreysAnatomy'' in which Addison travels to California, the setting for her spin-off ''Series/PrivatePractice''.
* ''Series/HappyDays'' spun off ''Series/MorkAndMindy'' and ''Series/LaverneAndShirley'' in this way. (Mork and Mindy didn't even take place in the same time period, which was {{handwave}}d away.)
** The original Mork episode of ''Series/HappyDays'' wasn't intended as a backdoor pilot, since it turned out to be a dream at the end. Creator/RobinWilliams proved so popular that Mork was retconned into a real person and spun off into his own series. Before ''Series/MorkAndMindy'' premiered, the ''Happy Days'' Mork episode was rerun with the original ending replaced by a new ending revealing that Mork was real after all and had only made Fonzie ''think'' he'd been dreaming.
** There was a much lesser-known spinoff called ''Out of the Blue'' about an angel named Random, that was tied in with an episode in which Chachi sells his soul to the devil.
** And the final episode of ''Series/LaverneAndShirley'' featured Carmine going to New York to try to become a Broadway Actor/Dancer in an obvious busted spin-off pilot.
** And ''Series/HappyDays'' was spun off this way from ''Series/LoveAmericanStyle'', which by the nature of the program could try out all kinds of pilots without making them ''too'' poorly disguised.
* ''Series/HerculesTheLegendaryJourneys'':
** A couple of episodes at the end of the fourth season ("Twilight" and "Top God") that had Hercules and Iolaus reminiscing about their younger days as teenagers for no particular reason. These episodes served as the basis for a later spin-off titled ''Series/YoungHercules''. Ian Bohen, the actor who originally played the "Young Hercules" in the flashback episodes, ended up being replaced by Ryan Gosling in the actual spin-off. Notably, ''Young Hercules'' already had a pilot in the form of a feature-length movie, which was filmed during the parent series' third season and being shopped around on its own.
** The final two episodes of the first season were a backdoor pilot for ''Series/{{Xena|WarriorPrincess}}''.
* The final season of ''Series/{{Highlander}}'' is an example of this. It featured a string of episodes centered around various new female Immortals, an attempt to see which one the audience liked best for a [[DistaffCounterpart female-centric spin-off]]. The attempt was unsuccessful, and ultimately, recurring Immortal Liz Gracen was spun off to the short-lived ''Highlander: The Raven'' series. One of those female test runs was called The Raven. That ended up being the name of the new series, even though it didn't star that character and Liz Gracen's character Amanda had never been associated with a black bird of portent before. It took an incredibly clumsy credit sequence that tried to make the case that thief Amanda is like a Native American mythological Trickster God Raven to justify the title. Why not just call it RuleOfCool and be done with it?
* ''[[Film/HomeAlone Home Alone 4]]'' started off as a stand-alone TV special, but during filming the producers decided that it would be a perfect lead-in to a ''Home Alone'' TV series, and got several of the key players to sign contracts for such a series, as well as making adjustments to the plot to facilitate it (Kevin's parents [[spoiler:didn't get back together]] in the original script, but they did in the finished version). In the end though, ''Home Alone 4'' failed miserably in the ratings, and the series was not to be.
* The ''Series/HomeImprovement'' episode "Talk to Me" had RealLife friends Creator/DaveChappelle and Jim Breuer appearing as two friends that were in the Tool Time audience and get advice from Tim about relationships (which unsurprisingly leads to trouble for all three). The intent was apparently for the duo to get their own SpinOff show from there, but then ExecutiveMeddling intervened. ''Buddies'' saw much of it - leading to it not premiering for a year and Breuer replaced by Christopher Gartin. The show bombed out quickly and Chappelle considers it an OldShame.
* ''Series/{{House}}'' had a PDP story-arc that lasted for several episodes. House and Wilson were feuding, and House hired a private investigator to follow him (and patients). The network admitted the character was introduced purposely to see if audiences would be interested in a spinoff. Reaction was mixed, and eventually the character disappeared. Instead of being ultimately forgotten, the scrapped character returned lately on season 6 with a more reasonable tie to the plot and far less air time. He's also basically the same character only un-Flanderized.
* The ''Series/{{iCarly}}'' episode "iMeet Fred" is the forerunner to the ''Series/{{Fred}}'' show.
* ''Series/TheIncredibleHulk'' series was given a follow-up made-for-TV movie trilogy after its cancellation, but the first two installments, "Return of the Incredible Hulk" and "Trial of the Incredible Hulk", were really just tryouts for other Creator/MarvelComics heroes, namely Comicbook/TheMightyThor and Comicbook/{{Daredevil}}.
* Two eighth-season episodes of ''Series/{{JAG}}'' introduce the ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' team lead by Gibbs: "Ice Queen" and "The Meltdown". An interesting side note is the changes that were seen from this testing. Most notably, the female character was replaced by a Secret Service liaison, and the romantic tension between Abby and [=DiNozzo=] was completely dropped.
** Notably, 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 by NBC, before the show was picked up by CBS. The first season of ''NCIS'' retreads many episodes of that canceled season.
** ''NCIS'' launched its ''own'' spinoff with the two parter episode "Legend". The new series was billed as ''Legend'', other titles included ''NCIS: OSP (Office of Special Projects)'' and ''NCIS: Undercover'', but would eventually get the much-less-compelling name ''Series/NCISLosAngeles''.
** ''NCIS Los Angeles'' tried to launch another spinoff in a two-parter titled "Red", featuring a mobile NCIS unit; this appears to have been passed on as of May 2013.
** NCIS New Orleans, starring Scott Bakula, was introduced as a two parter in the mainline series.
* The ''Series/KnightRider'' episode "Mouth of the Snake" had Michael and KITT playing second fiddle to a ''Sentinel''-like crimefighter and his sidekick in what appears to have been a backdoor pilot for a show that was never picked up. (Actually, it did; it was called ''Code of Vengeance'', but was extremely short-lived and changed much about the premise, to the extent that most people couldn't tell it was a SpinOff.)
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[[folder:M-Z]]
* ''Series/MacGyver'': "The Coltons", after a 3-4 minute scene with Mac, became entirely about the exploits of a family of {{Bounty Hunter}}s, each of whom had previously appeared in the series separately. The series never came to pass, but individual Coltons did continue to turn up for the remainder of the series.
* ''Series/MagnumPI'' had at least three:
** The first season episode "J. Digger Doyle" presented the character of security expert Joy "Digger" Doyle of the episode title, in hope of launching her own series, but the idea didn't follow through.
** The third season episode "Two Birds of a Feather" again served as a potential pilot for a new show, which didn't sell, but was heavily reworked to become ''Series/{{Airwolf}}''.
** The fourth season episode "The Return of Luther Gillis" (a sequel to the same season's "Luther Gillis: File #521"), featuring old-fashioned hard-boiled St. Louis private eye Luther Gillis, was planned as a pilot for a spinoff - it didn't sell, but unlike J. Digger Doyle this character did appear in later episodes.
* ''Series/TheManFromUNCLE'' second season episode "The Moonglow Affair" was a backdoor pilot for the [[DistaffCounterpart U.N.C.L.E. spinoff series]] ''Series/TheGirlFromUNCLE''.
* ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'':
** The episode "Top of the Heap" (the 100th episode) was one of the few episodes that didn't have the entire Bundy family. It had Al in the beginning trying to get his TV back from his friend [[spoiler:and in the ending where Al breaks in and takes the TV]]) and "Oldies but Young'uns" (which didn't focus much on Al's friend and his dim-witted son played by Matt Le Blanc, but did have them in the plot for the B-story about Kelly dating the dim-witted son) were used as test-pilots for the eventual spinoff ''Top of the Heap'', which only lasted six episodes.
** "Radio Free Trumaine", revolving around a radio station at Bud's college (with Steve Rhoades getting a job as a college dean), and "Enemies", about a group of Kelly's friends and starring Alan Thicke. Neither was picked up by the network.
** The finale, focusing on Kelly, was to be spun off into a series about her moving out and starting her own life away from the Bundys. Contract disputes and lack of interest kept that from happening.
** Another ''Married...With Children'' spin-off would have been centered on Al and his friends from "NO MA'AM" (National Organization for Men Against Amazonian Masterhood), but the FOX network was afraid that it would have been too misogynistic.
* The ''Series/{{Martin}}'' episode "Goin' for Mine" was a backdoor pilot, about Pam James wanting an A&R job at a record label by trying to get an unsigned singer signed. Martin Lawrence's titular character was only shown in the cold open, and the episode featured a number of actors that were to star in the proposed series. The show was not picked up as a full series.
* ''Series/TheMaryTylerMooreShow'' had three actual {{Spinoff}} series, which all had separately produced pilots. However, it also had two backdoor pilots:
** The final episode of its second season was used for an attempted backdoor pilot starring Bill Daily as an incompetent city councilman.
** One episode's plot involved Rhoda ''almost'' moving back to New York, a few seasons before ''Series/{{Rhoda}}'' was launched. It doesn't appear to have been intended as a backdoor pilot per se, but may have been a trial balloon for the concept.
* The last original episode of ''Series/MiamiVice'' shown on NBC, "Leap of Faith," was a backdoor pilot about a Youth Crime Unit going undercover as college students, a somewhat similar concept to the series ''21 Jump Street'' (and ''The Mod Squad'', which predated both). The show's main stars Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas are seen only in the first few minutes of this episode, and none of the other regulars appear at all.
* 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 ''Series/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.]]
* When ''Series/MurderSheWrote'' star Creator/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.
* ''Series/TheNanny'' had a second-season episode called "The Chatterbox", where Miss Fine took Maggie to get her hair done at a salon called "The Chatterbox", the workers at which had a surprising amount of screen time. The series wasn't picked up by Creator/{{CBS}}.
* ''Series/TheOfficeUS'' season 9 episode "The Farm" was originally the pilot for a SpinOff about Dwight's family. When the pilot wasn't picked up, it was re-edited into an episode of the regular series.
* The final season of ''ThePractice'' seemed like a lame last attempt to pump life into a dying show by adding a new main character, the "dastardly" Alan Shore, but it culminated in him leaving the firm and joining a new one, which spawned the more popular (and decidedly more comedy-based) ''Series/BostonLegal''.
* The third season finale of ''Series/OneOnOne,'' "Phatheadz," reduced star Flex Alexander to a bookending cameo and left out all the others to focus on a never-before-heard-of relative and the barber shop he ran, and the daughter of the owner of the shop (Shannon Elizabeth) who wanted it to become a hair salon. In the end they teamed up and called it "Pharenity" (Shannon wanted to call the salon "Serenity") - unlike most [[PoorlyDisguisedPilot PDPs]], this one also had a happy ending and eventually became the UPN sitcom ''Cuts''.
* ''Series/PrettyLittleLiars'' launched ''Series/{{Ravenswood}}'' this way, using the Season 4 Halloween episode as a setup for the SpinOff. The main plot of the episode involved the girls looking for A in the town of Ravenswood, while the B-plot featured Caleb meeting Miranda Collins while riding a bus to Ravenswood to help Hanna. Once they arrive, Caleb and Miranda get dragged into one of the mysteries of the town and at the end, Caleb stays behind so he can help Miranda figure things out.
* The ''Series/PunkyBrewster'' episode "Fenster Hall" was one of these. It was twice the length of your average episode, and aside from a brief scene in the beginning, pushed Punky and Henry into the background, not featuring any of the other main cast members at all.
* The ''Series/{{Quincy}}'' episode "Suffer the Little Children", with Tony Dow as an on-site therapist who lives with troubled families. The very last episode of ''Quincy'', "The Cutting Edge," was another one of these.
* ''Series/TheRockfordFiles'' had at least three Poorly Disguised Pilots during the run of the series. It did succeed in spinning off one short-lived series, ''Richie Brockelman Private Eye'', a series that had already had one stand-alone pilot two years earlier on the ''NBCMysteryMovie.''
** [[http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2014/07/28/the_rockford_files_episode_that_inspired_the_sopranos_1979_s_just_a_coupla.html Most interestingly, what turned out to be the penultimate episode of the series, "Just a Coupla Guys"]], sent Jim to New Jersey where he was largely displaced in the narrative by a mob family [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything headed by a guy named Tony who's upset that his son Tony Jr. is pranking other mobsters and a wife who takes comfort in the family priest while she's more or less trapped in a large suburban house]]. The writer, Creator/DavidChase, was hoping to spin the mob characters off into a series that he would produce (he'd flirted with the idea in an earlier episode, "The Jersey Bounce", as well). NBC rejected the pilot he ''did'' get to produce, but he didn't stop believin' in the idea of a show centered around mobsters even after that went all black, and ... [[TheSopranos you know the rest]].
* There is a run of episodes during Season 9 of ''Series/{{Roseanne}}'' that revolve around Roseanne and Jackie causing a commotion amongst rich folk while wearing expensive, tacky clothes. In case you didn't already suspect it was a stealth pilot for Roseanne's planned American version of ''Series/AbsolutelyFabulous'', the stars of the original British version even turn up in one of the episodes.
* ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'' attempted a spinoff named ''Witchright Hall'' in an episode where Sabrina's cousin Amanda starred as a new student in a school for delinquent witches. The episode where Amanda's mother got together with a plumber was supposed to lead to a spinoff, too. Marigold had two daughters, he had three sons, [[Series/TheBradyBunch you can do the math]]. Amanda had no spinoff luck.
* ''Series/TheSixMillionDollarMan'':
** The episode ''The Ultimate Imposter'' barely featured Steve Austin at all, and was a backdoor pilot for a series about an OSI agent who had skills directly uploaded to his brain. The series was never made, and eventually resulted in an unrelated TV movie.
** The ''Six Million Dollar Man'' episode that introduced the Bionic Woman was, ironically, not one of these at all; Jamie ''died'' at the end and was intended to stay dead. She was loved enough that she got better.
* ''Series/{{Smallville}}'':
* One episode was 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 called ''Mercy Reef''. The proposed series would have diverged widely from the episode's version of the character; in the unaired pilot, Aquaman was played by Justin Hartley rather than Alan Ritchson, who played the character in ''Smallville''. After the pilot failed, Hartley was cast as GreenArrow on ''Smallville''.
** There was an episode of ''Smallville'' that quickly trapped Clark in order to bring in the newly formed JusticeLeagueOfAmerica (Green Arrow, Comicbook/{{Cyborg}}, Aquaman, and [[TheFlash 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 resulting show]] is not even a spinoff, but has since gone forward starring a different actor with a completely different plot and version of the character.
** The third-to-last episode centered on BoosterGold and BlueBeetle, possibly as a test for a future series, but nothing has come of it since then.
** ''Arrow's'' episodes with Barry Allen led up to ''Series/TheFlash2014'', his own solo show.
* The ''Series/StargateSG1'' two-parter "Lost City", the season 7 finale, is a backdoor pilot for ''Series/StargateAtlantis'', introducing Elizabeth Weir, [=ZPMs=], and the Antarctic outpost. Originally, it was supposed to be a separate movie between the two series and the Antarctic outpost was supposed to be Atlantis itself, but the spin-off was moved to a different galaxy when ''SG-1'' was [[PostScriptSeason renewed for the eighth season]].
* The producers of ''Series/StarskyAndHutch'' considered giving informant Huggy Bear a spin-off. The second season episode "Huggy Bear and the Turkey" (which would have been the name of the proposed series) saw Huggy paired with former Sheriff "Turkey" Turquet (Dale Robinette) as Private Investigators who have been hired to find a woman's missing husband. The series was never made.
* The final season of ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' featured the episode "Lower Decks" which, for the first time, focused the A-plot on four younger crew members, three of whom had never been seen before and a fourth who got a lot more character development. There were a flurry of rumors that the four young officers were going to be the stars of the then-recently announced spin-off series ''Series/StarTrekVoyager''. This turned out to be untrue, though Alexander Enberg, who played young Vulcan engineer Taurik in that episode, appeared as young Vulcan engineer Vorik in a recurring status on ''Voyager'', the name likely changed to avoid the need for royalties.
* The ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "Assignment: Earth" ends with Kirk and Spock assuring everyone that they are sure Roberta Lincoln (played by then-unknown Teri Garr) and her super-spy boss Gary Seven (played by Robert Lansing) will have many more interesting adventures to come. Sadly, they didn't; the most they got was an occasional appearance in the ExpandedUniverse. The episode was originally written as a straight pilot and then [[DolledUpInstallment reworked to include the Trek characters when a buyer couldn't be found]]. Note how Kirk and Spock are rather awkwardly shoehorned into a storyline to which they contribute very little. As Kirk himself put it in the episode, "I have never felt so helpless."
** 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 (not at that time, anyway - he was later a regular on ''{{Series/Automan}}'' and ''[[KungFu Kung Fu: The Legend Continues]]'').
* The ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' episode "[[Recap/SupernaturalS09E20Bloodlines "Bloodlines" (S09, Ep20)]]" was supposed to be a pilot for, well, ''Supernatural: Bloodlines''. It barely featured the main characters, introduced many new ones in a very different setting (a [[UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}} big metropolis]], as opposed to the small towns & backwoods environment of most ''Supernatural'' episodes), and had important divergences with the show's canon. The episode even ends with a cliffhanger which is a blatant SequelHook. The spinoff ended up not being picked up by the network.
* ''Series/ThatsSoRaven'' had an episode entitled "Goin' Hollywood" featuring a young girl (Alyson Stoner) who acted on a fictional show about the 1950s called "Better Days". The series would have followed the girl's attempts to balance her acting career with her normal life as a middle schooler. The series was not picked up, but the idea was later re-tooled into ''Series/HannahMontana''.
* ''Series/ThreesCompany'' had one of these, to get the Ropers to their own show (it worked, although ''The Ropers'' wasn't nearly as big a hit).
** Considering that ''Series/ThreesCompany'' was a remake of the British show ''Series/ManAboutTheHouse'', it makes sense that the American version would attempt their own version of ''George and Mildred''.
** And the hour-long final episode rushed through wrapping up Terri and Janet's storylines in order to (literally) set the stage for ''Three's A Crowd'', an Americanized version of ''Series/ManAboutTheHouse'''s spin-off ''Robins Nest''.
* The 1996 ''TouchedByAnAngel'' episode "Promised Land" was a pilot for the series of the same name that would run for 3 seasons.
* The 1950s western series ''{{Trackdown}}'' had an episode called "The Bounty Hunter" which was a stealth pilot for ''Series/WantedDeadOrAlive''.
* ''Series/TheTwilightZone'' TOS episode "Cavender is Coming", a pitch for a sitcom about a bumbling guardian angel and his various encounters with other "deserving humans" in need of heavenly assistance. Just to make sure the viewer got the idea, it was even broadcast with a LaughTrack. This was actually the ''second'' time the show tried to sell a series on this theme; "Mr. Bevis," in which the title character was under the care of a guardian angel, was the first. Neither sold (it would be decades before CBS had [[Series/HighwayToHeaven shows about]] [[Series/TouchedByAnAngel guardian angels]] on their schedule).
* ''Virtuality'' was a pilot presented as a special TV Movie.
* ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'' had an episode called "SonsOfThunder", which served as the pilot for an identically named spin-off. The episode featured the new characters almost exclusively over the regular Walker cast.
* The episode "3...2...1..." of ''Series/{{Warehouse 13}}'' was this for an as-of-yet unnamed spin-off of the show featuring HG Wells.
* ''Series/WhosTheBoss'' had a two-part third season finale in which Mona visits her brother who runs a hotel in NYC, but the planned spin-off was canceled before the episode aired because Creator/{{ABC}} feared that Mona's absence would hurt the parent show. Another episode launched ''Charmed Lives'', which featured Fran Drescher and Donna Dixon and lasted three episodes. A third spinoff, ''Living Dolls'', starred Leah Remini and Halle Berry as aspiring models; it had two PoorlyDisguisedPilot episodes, the first of which was omitted from the original run.
* ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess'' had one in season 5 that explained that the Amazons were founded by a girl TrappedInAnotherWorld (played by Selma Blair of ''Film/CruelIntentions''). According to the DVD special features, what actually happened here was that the original show, ''Amazon High'', was developed separately from ''Xena'', but wasn't picked up, so they decided to get a cheaper episode of ''Xena'' out of it. The idea was eventually reworked into ''Series/{{Cleopatra 2525}}'' with the girl from the present day ending up in the future instead of the past.
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