By Jonathan Klotz
| Published
One good thing about the rise of streaming is that studios have given up on backdoor pilots. Low-episode-count streaming shows don’t leave a lot of room for a random episode about two college radio DJs, a New York hair salon, the family farm, or a time-traveler, all of which were among the many, many attempts by producers and studios to keep a franchise running. Back in the day, an episode that barely featured the main characters and followed a side character, or even entirely new characters, meant that someone was testing the waters to see how the new series would work with existing fans. Sometimes it failed; The Nanny’s hair salon is an infamous example, and sometimes it worked, such as a little show called NCIS coming out of JAG.
Backdoor Pilots In Space
One of the most notable early examples of a backdoor pilot comes from Star Trek: The Original Series and the time-traveling alien, Gary Seven. Played by Robert Lansing, the time-traveling Gary Seven went back to 1968 in order to prevent World War III, but he runs into the crew of the Enterprise, who happened to go back in time to conduct research. It was a repurposed pilot, intended to become a series if Star Trek: The Original Series was canceled after its second season, which explains why Kirk and Spock play second fiddle to Gary Seven and Roberta (Terri Garr’s first major TV role).
Star Trek: The Original Series isn’t the only show with a backdoor pilot that was intended to take the place of a fan favorite show. Highlander’s final season is filled with female Immortals being tested to see which one the audience would gravitate towards, eventually ending in the short-lived Highlander: Raven, featuring the character Amanda. Supernatural introduced the Wayward Sisters in Season 13, an obvious attempt to recreate the magic of Sam and Dean with sisters this time, and in retrospect, a huge missed opportunity. Imagine if the Duffer brothers decided to spin off Stranger Things following the Season 2 introduction of Kali? That’s the closest kids today will get to experiencing what executives used to do to highly successful genre shows all the time.
Audiences Hate Backdoor Pilots
It was always jarring as a viewer when all of a sudden, a brand new location and a brand new cast turned out to be the focus of an episode. That was the case when Married with Children aired “Radio Free Trumaine” as part of Season 9. There’s no Al, no Peg, and the entire episode focuses on a pair of college radio DJs, Mark (Andrew Kavovolt) and Oliver (Eric Dane), who go up against the college’s new Dean of Students, the Bundy’s neighbor Steve Rhoades (David Garrison). Bud gets involved when his attempt to win over April (Keri Russell) gets recorded and played on air, but that’s it for the regular cast. It’s one of the most blatant backdoor pilots in history, and as with so many of them, it led nowhere.
Looking back, a college sitcom starring Eric Dane and Keri Russell should have been a hit. Fan reaction to the episode was immediate and visceral. In 1995, fans on the internet raging against a show was brand new. Once America Online lit up, producers pulled the plug on plans for a spin-off. “Radio Free Trumaine” is still one of the most blatant backdoor pilots in history. Over a decade later, another sitcom tried the same thing, and the reception may have been better, but the result was the same.
Keeping A Show Going Past The Expiration Date
Rainn Wilson’s Dwight Schrute was one of the breakout characters from The Office. Everyone’s worked with a Dwight. The Assistant to the Regional Manager could have been an annoying foil, the show’s version of Gary Cole’s middle manager from Office Space, except he became beloved and the natural choice for a spin-off. Airing in 2013, the Season 9 episode “The Farm” introduced viewers to Dwight’s crazy family. They inherited his great-aunt’s farm, under the condition that they all work together to run it. It’s a premise that might as well have on-screen text in neon saying “This is a backdoor pilot.”
The Farm never happened, though NBC hemmed and hawed for so long that fans were convinced it was coming following the end of The Office. Instead, it’s one of the most recent failed backdoor pilots. Not all of them fail, and sometimes, you can argue the spin-off is better than the original.
Backdoor Pilots Didn’t Make It To Streaming
That was the case when JAG introduced Mark Harmon as Leeroy Jethro Gibbs and the team at NCIS, and again when The Vampire Diaries gave way to The Originals. The latter is an interesting case, as the family of vampire progenitors was the antagonists of Season 2, but everyone loved them, especially Joseph Morgan’s portrayal of Klaus, turning The Originals into a five-season hit on its own. It was so successful that it spun off Legacies, which also ran for four seasons. Not bad for a vampire teen drama.
Prior generations were used to the backdoor pilot. By the time a show started to approach Season 7, it was expected that there was going to be an attempt at a spin-off. Today, most shows don’t go past five seasons, and even then, they’re lucky to get that far. The Rookie, FBI, Fire Country, all of those are the last ones holding out on the concept of backdoor pilots, but let’s be honest, the generation watching those is the same that had to live through “Radio Free Trumaine.”
