TV Shows That Don't Exist, Part 2
These shows were produced but never aired
Last month, I looked at one definition of TV Shows That Don't Exist: series that arrived with great fanfare, then turned out to be almost instantly forgettable. Today, it's time for a different, more literal definition: high-profile shows that produced one or more episodes that never actually aired. (Or, in a few cases, made episodes that didn't air for many years.)
Alan Sepinwall
Once upon a time, networks would try to recoup some of the cost of producing failed pilots by airing them as summer replacement programming. That's how Conan O'Brien's Adam West detective comedy Lookwell got briefly out into the world, and also how Quentin Tarantino might have seen Velvet, a terrible spy drama pilot that some Pulp Fiction fans have assumed was the inspiration for Mia Wallace's Fox Force Five. Eventually, though, the practice went away, in part because network executives were embarrassed to show the pilots — some because they were so bad, it would raise questions about the wisdom of whoever bought the scripts in the first place, some because critics might complain that they were better than the shows that actually got picked up. In more modern times, unsold pilots have occasionally leaked out anyway, but many of them have to live entirely in our imaginations.
Below, we've got remakes and continuations of classic films, shows from revered creators, shows based on iconic books and comic books, and more, including one that listeners of my first podcast probably remember:
