Possibly brilliant soaps that never got made

[LoyaltoAMC]

I believe that during the Luke/Laura hurrah of the early 80s, there was talk of doing a GH spin-off called "General Hospital: West" that would follow the lives of the staff of an LA-based hospital. I believe Norma Monty (Gloria's sister) or Pat Falken Smith or both had written a bible for it. I don't think it ever went beyond talks. If we want to open this up to prime time, there was talk of doing a Knots Landing spin-off at two different periods. During the 4th season, David Jacobs had tentative plans to spin off the Kenny/Ginger characters into a more youth-oriented soap, but nothing ever came of that. Several seasons later, Jacobs wanted to spin off the younger characters (Paige, Michael, Olivia, Peter Reckell's character) into a summer soap, but nothing ever came of that either.

[Sylph]

It's open for primetime, too.

[JackPeyton]

I am gonna bust out my old comp and see if i have the pilor for Hell House on it..

[EricMontreal22]

I've brought up Gottlieb/Malone/Griffith's Bourbon Stree many times--MAN I wish this had happened. One of the soap columnists (I forget who) actually used to brag a lot about owning a copy of the pilot A genuinely spooky late night soap -- not Passions type supernatural. Sigh

[All My Shadows]

I think I might have enjoyed that. In the KNOTS episodes I've seen, I thought Kenny and Ginger were interesting characters, they just didn't fit in well with the rest of the cast, and you know, I think it's mainly because of the age differences. The other couples were late 30s/early 40s while the Wards were much, much younger. Hence, I think a youth-oriented soap would have worked for them. Could have been "Melrose Place" ten years before there was "Melrose Place."

Going into primetime, there have been some more recent shows that I really wanted to see get to screen, but they never made it. I think two or three seasons ago, there was a primetime soap pilot for ABC dealing with a family-run real estate agency. Among the cast members were Judith Light as the nutjob matriarch and Peter Facinelli as one of her sons. That was all I needed to tune in: a delicious diva and bangable bad boy. There were two titles, and I know the second one was "SOLD!" but I can't for the life of me remember the first one. Whatever it was, I hope it was better than "SOLD!"

Ah, I just looked it up on Futon Critic. It was up for the 2005-2006 season and was actually created by Silvio Horta of "Ugly Betty." You know, reading the synopsis, it comes off a lot like "Brothers & Sisters" and "Dirty Sexy Money," so in a way, I'm glad it never made the air. I could do without another "OMG! Rich family is SO eccentric and SO crazy and they have SO many problems! Watch pretty girl drive her brand new Mercedes!" show. "Dallas" and "Dynasty" are fun because we're supposed to take them seriously. DSM is too comedic for me.

And also, there was the 2004 "Dark Shadows" pilot for The WB that I still want to see. When "Smallville" bites the dust, how could a "Dark Shadows" remake NOT be the perfect Thursday night companion for the still-awesome "Supernatural"?

[TC]

This is one that got made but I never saw... "Secrets of Midland Heights".. was it any good?

[detroitpiston]

I remember a 90210 spin-off that was planned after the original gang graduated from high school. It was gonna have Denise Dowse in a more prominent role and Heather Tom's sister was gonna star in it as well. They even introduced some of the other characters in the beginning and end of season three. But because of MP's low ratings, Fox decided not to do it.

[EricMontreal22]

Wasn't that Dark Shadows pilot--which emphasized young characters--meant to be awful?

[EricMontreal22]

The 1997 Waggert written Soap Encyclopedia for Days mentions when they lured Deirdre Hall back to the show in 1990 or so they offered the promse of Eproducing her own spin off. Manhattan Days and Pacific Days/Pacific Nigths (*set in Hawaii) are ones I've heard about as well as more recnelty one about the teens of Salem High?

And in the mid 80s htere were plans for a Caliope based comic spin off

[Paul Raven]

Re Secrets of Midland Hights.

CBS placed it at 10:00 Saturday nights where it failed up against Fantasy Island.

I remember reading that the producers were originally asked for a format suitable for an 8.00 timeslot,then had to revamp for the later hour and the mix wasn't right.

I recently found out about 2 proposed soaps from the early 70's.

One was a Doctors spin-off featuring the characters of Steve & Carolee.It was entitled The World of Hope.The Doctors at that time was no 8 out of about 16 soaps.

The other show featured movie /primetime star Robert Cummings.It was called Loyalties and was from Ralph Andrews productions.I don't know if any network was attached.

I remember reading in a Soap Opera Update article about a proposed NBC show called Best of Friends.I guess this was in the mid 90's-I think Jackie Smith ex ABC daytime pres was at NBC and was mentioning it.It was loosely based on Aussie soap Neighbours and she said it would be a more'gentle' show-less melodramatic than the usual daytime fare.

Henry Slesar ,who wrote Edge of Night for many years, also had a spy serial proposed for CBS entitled Cannon.This was in the 60's.I think this got him the Edge job.

[JackPeyton]

I liked it. It played like a WB supernatural soap opera.

It use to be on the internet, im sure it still is.

[PAsoapfan]

The one show I really wanted to see get picked up by ABC 2 years ago was -SECRETS OF A SMALL TOWN

[All My Shadows]

The DS remake, as far as I know, was to be similar to the original series, but the storylines would be reworked. Obviously, they were gonna have Barnabas show up from the very beginning. I don't know anything about it being focused younger characters, but DS always did have a healthy set of 20somethings, so it wouldn't have been too out of the ordinary. The only cast member I was familiar with was Blair Brown, who was going to play Elizabeth.

[Paul Raven]

Some proposed primetime soaps that made it to pilot stage

Midas Valley 1985 ABC

Set in Silicon Valley, California, follows the lives of a group of people involved in the competitive world of computer electronics and the greed, passion and intrigue set among them.

Cast included:

Robert Stack

Jean Simmons

Catherine Mary Stuart -Kayla DOOL

Brett Cullen-Dan FC

Stephen Eliot - Douglas FC

Dark Mansions 1986 ABC

Cast included

Joan Fontaine (Loretta Young originally signed on for this role but pulled out)

Michael York - Charles KL

Melissa Sue Anderson

Lois Chiles- Holly Dallas

Nicolette Sheridan

Grant Aleksander Phillip GL

Scruples ABC 1981

A spin off from the hit CBS mini series

Cast included

Roy Thinnes -Sloane OLTL

Dirk Benedict

Priscilla Barnes

Jessica Walter

Brett Halsey-John Y&R

Peyton Place The Next Generation NBC 1985

This movie based on the 60's television series, brings back some of the major characters. It begins when a young girl Megan comes to town and she bears a resemblance to Allison Mackenzie, who disappeared 20 years ago.

From the original cast

Christopher Conolly

James Douglas

Dorothy Malone

Pat Morrow

Ed Nelson

Tim O'Connor

Barbara Parkind

Evelyn Scott

Ruth Warrick

and

Deborah Goodrich-Silver/Connie AMC

Bruce Greenwood

John Beck

Back in the 60's NBC filmed a pilot 'Della' for a proposed series 'Paradise Bay'

Della Chappell is a very wealthy and incredibly reclusive woman. When a big company wants the land Della lives on, the town sends out Barney Stafford to talk to her. She invites Barney over to negotiate the proposal. Barney soon takes a liking to Della's equally reclusive daughter. After spending some time with Jenny, he realizes that Della has a dark secret, one that keeps them from the outside world.

Cast included

Joan Crawford

Diane Baker

Paul Burke -CC SB

[EricMontreal22]

Wait wasn't Paradise Beach made?

as for DS I think the main controversy was that Barnabas was now an 18 year old or something

It did?? all i could find was one fansite that said this: Dec 2007: Three Years Later, Still No Dark Shadows

Surprisingly, aside from a one-time convention appearance, the 2004 Dark Shadows Pilot still has never surfaced, and it looks like it probably won't at this time.