Another thread about a potential OLTL spinoff got me thinking and I think I came up with some good ideas!

Why don't we take this thread to come up with a spinoff concept for a soap of your choice...

The rule of the thread is that this show needs to be a COMPANION to the mother soap, meaning it has to function on its own but not taking the stars off the mother soap, so the continuity must be protected. So pick some actors to do "double duty" and a way that it won't screw with the original show.

Here's my examples, using OLTL as the "mother soap".

My two best ideas:

LIFE BEYOND LLANVIEW

Regular Cast: Tina, Cain, David Vickers the Dog

Semi-Regular Cast: Sarah, CJ

Financial Angle: Cheap to produce, using little studio time as most scenes shot on location as Tina and Cain travel the country seeking money and power. Small regular cast, minimal need for continuity with OLTL.

Premise: Spin Tina and Cain into their own series, where it follows their adventures and exploits in their efforts to strike it rich. Along the way, they run into people they've wronged in the past who keep foiling their plans in the present (this dethroning by Carlo Hesser being the first in a trend for the hapless duo). Other past enemies who come into play: True love Cord Roberts, Pamela Stuart (Tina convinced Pamela to con Asa into marriage), Con man ex-husband David Vickers, Evangelist ex-wife of Cain's -- Angela Holliday (now running the Tabernacle of Hope), Jill Larson back as Ursula Blackwell, an embittered Kate Sanders played by Marcia Cross (!) working with Jamie Sanders (another Tina arch-enemy), Tonja Walker as Alex Olanov, James DePaiva as Max Holden (friend or foe?), Kassie DePaiva's Blair, Robert S. Woods as Patrick London ("Faux Bo") not-so-dead after all!, perhaps Karen Witter or Krista Tesreau in new supporting roles...

Of course Justis Bolding could hold a supporting role as Sarah keeps getting sucked into her mother's schemes, willingly or unwillingly, and they could cast a hunky young actor as a grown CJ, kicked out of the military because they discovered he was gay. Guest appearances by Erika Slezak, Jerry verDorn, Melissa Archer, Bree Williamson, Robin Strasser.

Future Potential: Could return any of the guest stars to the regular OLTL series, and could establish CJ Roberts to be absorbed into the regular OLTL. CJ could have served in battle with Brody Lovett as well. The series could lead Tina and Cain back to Llanview by the finale, or leave it open-ended to do a second season on location if the show proved popular.

LLANVIEW PD

Regular Cast: Bo, Rex, John, Talia, Antonio, Michael, Marcie, Sophia, Carlo

Financial Angle: Costs kept down because of using the same LPD sets and going on location for crime scenes and investigations. Minimal need for continuity with main OLTL because this would focus on the characters' work lives, and only needs casual mention of the personal issues taking place on OLTL. Spotlights OLTL "stars" like Bo, Rex, John, and Antonio, much like GH: Night Shift spotlighted Robin, Patrick, and Jason.

Premise: In this crime melodrama, Bo resumes his job as Police Commissioner (Ramsey IS dead, after all), and the series follows the exploits of the Llanview Police Department, featuring Antonio, John, and Talia. Carlo Hesser could lead as the main villain that most crimes and criminals will lead back to, culminating in a tense standoff between Carlo and daughter Talia. Other opportunities would be a case that takes Antonio to another city, where he runs into ex-wife Andy Harrison (Max's sister), who is working the case in her current hometown. Charissa Cree Chamorro could return as Sophia Pellegrino, who returned to active duty on the force after recovering from her back injury (that took her off OLTL years ago). Michael McBain can consult on autopsies as Medical Examiner. Maybe Marcie can return to her work as receptionist at the police station. John and Michael are stunned when a nightclub in Atlantic City links their mother Eve McBain (who dated Bo, didn't she?) to murder. We learn Eve had an affair with Carlo Hesser at one point during her marriage and Michael may be a Hesser. (John and Talia would share a brother!) Rex also featured working as a private investigator independent from the LPD, but getting wrapped up in all the same cases, and keeping the Bo/Rex friendship alive.

Guest appearances by Erika Slezak, Catherine Hickland, Hillary B. Smith, Ilene Kristen, Farah Fath, Trevor St. John, Susan Haskell, Wendee Pratt.

Future Potential: Could bring Sophia back to the regular OLTL series, since she was fairly popular. Crime dramas are pretty popular, and it capitalizes and expands on generally popular characters and actors from OLTL. With GH: Night Shift capitalizing on the medical drama feel of ER/Grey's Anatomy/House, this spinoff series would capitalize on the crime drama feel of Law & Order/CSI.

All My Children Retirement Resort!

All the over 60... hell over 55 characters live in a fancy retirement estate and interact in typical soap fashion

The Young and the Restless relocate in an affluent Miami neighbourhood.

I always thought that after the baby switch drama on AMC, Krystal and Babe should have went back to their hometown, wherever it was, and that could be a spin-off show. It'd be much more middle class/rural and more real life-ish.

A spin-off idea for GL:

"Cross Creek"

Premise: Happily reunited couple JOSH and REVA LEWIS (Robert Newman and Kim Zimmer, respectively) return to their native Tulsa, OK, where Josh has accepted a job as associate pastor at his family's former church; and where Reva can keep an eye on her family: her father, HAWK (Gil Rogers), a bait-and-tackle shop owner, who also provides guided tours of the area's lakes; her brother, RUSTY (Terrell Anthony), chief of detectives with the Tulsa Police Department; and her sister, ROXIE (Cady McClain), now working as a barmaid at the Red Dog, Tulsa's sleaziest honky-tonk, after being released from the Brookhaven Sanitarium. Once back in Tulsa, however, old wounds are re-opened in the form of Reva's high-school rival, MAVIS (played by OLTL's Catherine Hickland), now married to JEFF McCURDY, Josh's own rival on the baseball diamond at their alma mater, Glencoe Hills High; and general manager of his family's automobile dealership. At the same time, Josh, with the help and guidance of Grace Church's long-standing pastor, REV. ROGER MEADE, must attend constantly to the needs of his parishioners and the community; and Josh and Reva's son, SHAYNE, returns from serving in the Peace Corps with a surprise: his pregnant, Bosnian bride, ANYA, who is definitely Eastern Europe's answer to Shayne's flamboyant mother.

Edited July 18, 200817 yr by Khan

^^^ Khan, that's an absolutely fuckin BRILLIANT idea. I love it. They should cancel GL and start over with "Cross Creek".

This reminds me of a great post from Daytime Confidential:

Okay it's Saturday and I need to be a.) doing a load of laundry or b.) working on one of my gazillion writing projects, but to stir up the muse I am going to indulge in a little fan fic and tell you my ideas for spinoffs for four of the soaps currently on network TV.

Before someone mentions budgets, ratings or demos, this is just for fun. I know all too well that in this climate a new five-day-a-week soap on network television is about as likely as a pregnancy scare for Cher, but hey where would J.K. Rowling be without an imagination?

The Young and the Restless: There Goes The Neighborhood

First up is Y&R, daytime's reigning ratings champ-just in case you missed the Daytime Emmy's telecast. Since Jefrrey and Gloria have now reunited why not give them their own show and we the viewers back Genoa City?

Have the tacky, nouveau riche couple move to a posh, Connecticut enclave populated by Old Money dowagers, hoteliers, their trampy reality TV star granddaughters and the like. The soap could be called There Goes The Neighborhood. Because frankly that's exactly what I would be saying if Glo moved into my hood!

The Bold and the Beautiful: Madison Avenue

With Eric and Steph's youngest daughter (together that is) now handling advertising for Forrester Creations, it would make perfect since to spin Felicia (and if he's lucky, her storyline-deprived brother Thorne) off into her own 30-minute companion sudser set in the advertising world.

After her one-billionth spat with Daddy Most Dysfunctional Eric over Donna, Felicia receives an offer she can't refuse- to head up her own advertising agency in Manhattan funded by sexy, billionaire financier Grayson "Grays" Mc Alester, one of Eric's best friend's from college. Cast Trapper John and Falcon Crest vet Gregory Harrison in the lead role opposite Leslie Kay, while rounding out the cast with Donna Mills as his bitchy, estranged wife Hillary, Billy Warlock and Ted King as his feuding sons Brighton and Steele (hey this is a B&B spinoff, be glad I didn't call him Thrust!)-both of whom will fall hard for Felicia. Tamara Braun and Ashley Benson will play polar opposite daughters Vanessa and Carisse. Youngest daughter Carisse is the apple of daddy's eye, while blacksheep Vanessa twice shamed the family, first by posing nude for a men's magazine and second by penning the best selling roman a clef Daddy Knows Best. Vanessa returns in the pilot to seek revenge on her little sister and attention from their father by convincing her former lover, Greek shipping heir Stavros Andropolous (Ignaccio Serrichio) to seduce and film Carisse, then sell the video to a Direct-to-DVD porn peddler played by Jason Brooks (ex-Peter Bake, Days).

All My Children: A Second Shot at Forever or Angie's Anatomy (j/k)

Many AMC fans would agree, the best part about this past season has been the breathtaking returns of 80's supercouple Angie and Jesse. Why not capitalize on that popularity and buzz by spinning Darnell Williams and Debbie Morgan into their own soap?

Angie could be offered the Chief of Staff position at a top notch medical center in Atlanta (gotta rep for my new town). Meanwhile Jesse joins the ATL police department's Hip Hop Crimes Unit, putting him just where Angie never wanted him to be again, in constant danger.

Frankie and Cassie would follow their parents to the Dirrty South where Cassie of coursegets caught up in the allure of the volatile hip hop industry (facilitating many more visits of music superstars to ABC daytime) by falling for ATL's premiere rap superstar, who can't seem to stay out of the tabloids or jail, as Frankie struggles to open up an inner city clinic.

To fill the void on AMC, bring back a divorced Livia and pair her with Samuel (as we all know Erica will eventually head back for another Jack Attack). Reggie and Dani could also return to Pine Valley and pick up where they left off, which was at a very promising place before TPTB ruined it by having her deflowered by the walking aborted fetus.

Samuel's son could take a liking to Dani, as a scheming Colby teams up with Reggie to keep the couple apart or...they could all get trapped in a bomb shelter eat from a poison root and have the deadly upchucks at Pine Valley Memorial until Dr. Maria Santos returns to make 'em all better and reunite with a not-so-dead Edmund. He didn't eat the pancakes.

Days of Our Lives: Pacific Lives

Days' just hasn't been the same since one of its most beloved and iconic couples-Jack and Jennifer-said their goodbyes. Why not bring them back to Salem for three months to help launch their own soap set in California?

Jennifer (preferrably my Missy Reeves but if not, Jensen Buchanan or Kimberely Simms) is hired to anchor a new morning show with two other women, an aging journalist-Madeline "Maddie" Walker played by Linda Dano, a black, child sitcom star-turned-memoirist played by Renee Goldsberry and a sassy gay fashionisto and wellness guru played by Steven "Cojo" Cojacuru.

Dano's character would be unlike her signature turns as Felicia on Another World or Rae on wel, all of ABC Daytime. Maddie Walker is no sweetheart. She's a bitter, jealous shrew of a woman, with a myriad of substance abuse problems, who treats her beloved assistant like dirt and has sex with the handsome young plastic surgeon (Victor Webster) who gives her bi-weekly botox injections and medicinal marijuana. She's also the ex-wife of Colin Banning, the head of the network who handpicked Jenn for the show. Maddie will stop at nothing to ruin Colin's new protege, even sinking her own show.

Meanwhile, as Jenn's career is seemingly on the rise, Jack's tanks. He is fired from the LA newspaper he works for because of an expose he does on a corrupt politician (played by Gordon Thompson), whose brother (Corbin Bernsen) is on the board on the media conglomerate that owns the paper.

Depressed and unemployed, Jack starts his own blog to report about the sketchy goings on in L.A. Think: The Drudge Report meets Perez Hilton. When the site becomes a huge, Daytime Confidential-size hit (Yeah I've got an ego so what? Mama always said I was a Diana Ross, not a Supreme!), Jennifer finds her job in jeopardy because-you guessed it-the same media monopoly that owned Jack's old newspaper also owns the network that airs her new daytime show!

To draw in the teen and twentysomething crowd, Jack and Jenn's daughter Abby (Danica Stewart) secures an internship at a posh fashion magazine where she immediately clashes with Isis (played by Davetta Sherwood) another intern and scholarship student and has mad, hot sex with Brody. Wait...that's The Hills, my bad!

Isis believes Abby got her gig because of her famous parents and is determined to see Abby fail. No use complaining to Senior Editor and Intern Supervisor Matt Hamilton (David Tom). He's even harder on Abby-who he views as a spoiled brat-than Isis. But could that be because he's falling for her? Abby's little brother Jack Jr. (J.J.) is now fifteen as has fallen hard for media heiress Dominique Van Zandt, the daughter of the corrupt politician Jack is out to take down.

Okay, that's all for this episode of if Jamey Wrote The Soaps. I'll post my dream spin off ideas for the As The World Turns, Guiding Light, One Life to Live and General Hospital manana. That means tomorrow in Spanish. Sorry, I couldn't make the little thingy go over the "n".

God, just reading this thread is better than anything on daytime right now!

And each post probably contains more long-story projection than any soap has seen in 10 years!