The Best TV Shows That Never Were

by Lee Goldberg

“The Best Bathroom Reading EVER," - San Francisco Chronicle This lively and entertaining book looks at the three hundred best and worst TV series ideas—known in the industry as "pilots"—that never made it to primetime from 1955-1990. From the adventures of a Samurai D.A. to the antics of an invisible alien baby, Lee Goldberg reveals the most astonishing, funny, and bizarre shows that never were. "A must-browse for media freaks.” —USA Today “Irresistible and enthralling.” —Hartford Courant “Full of fool’s gold and genuine TV treasures.” —The New York Post “You’ll slap your head in disbelief—try not to hurt yourself—at the idea of John Denver as a singing FBI agent. You’ll wonder whether Joe Penny as a samurai district attorney would have been funnier—unintentionally—that John Belushi’s ‘Saturday Night Live.’ For tube-historians, this is a must see.” — People Magazine This book was previously published as "Unsold TV The Greatest Shows You Never Saw" and "Unsold TV The Almost Complete Guide To Everything You Never Saw on TV"

Genres: Nonfiction, Reference

228 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 25, 2015

About the author

Lee Goldberg is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of over forty novels, including Malibu Burning, Calico, Lost Hills (the first novel in his acclaimed "Eve Ronin" series), 15 "Monk" mysteries, five "Fox & O'Hare" adventures (co-written with Janet Evanovich), and the new thriller Ashes Never Lie, the second in his "Sharpe & Walker" series.. He's written and/or produced many TV shows, including Diagnosis Murder, SeaQuest, and Monk and he co-created the Hallmark movie series Mystery 101.

Reviews

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Best TV Shows That Never Were by Lee Goldberg is a 2015 Adventures in Television publication. I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was originally published in the 1990's , but has been released in digital format with some tweaks here and there.

Even the very casual TV viewer is aware of what a TV pilot is- but just to give you some more details – A TV pilot is basically the first episode of a proposed series. It is a stand alone in most cases, but can be a disguised within a popular long running series to give it an extra boost or lead in.

The point of this exercise is to test the reception of the viewing public to see if the show is worth continuing. Pilots can be expensive to produce and if the show doesn't generate enough interest from the networks or from advertisers it will never see the light of day.

This book organizes those pilots that never got a chance to entertain us, into groups – such as a 'concept' or 'high concept' shows.

What is a concept show?

Think “The Flying Nun” or may “Quantum Leap” , just to give you an example. Often these shows appeal to a select audience.

Some of the pilots filmed or pitched up until the early nineties- the time frame the book is mainly covering, were laugh out loud funny at times- “Mr. and Mrs. Dracula- (2 pilots), and at others times, I thought some of these pilots would have been successful if they had been given half a chance, such as “The World Beyond” from 1977 which reminded me of “The Ghost Whisperer” , which aired for five seasons- so go figure.



My favorite part of the book showcases the many pilots based on movies. The movie turned TV show, more often than not was a huge flop, with a few notable exceptions, such as M*A*S*H, which was a smash hit on both the big and small screen. Despite the very low success rate, it didn't stop anyone from continuing to make pilots based on films.

According the author, networks have always been suckers for the myth of the “pre-sold” idea, concepts that have a built-in audience and a minimum of risk. Nothing satisfies the desire for “pre-sold” ideas better than a movie.

Some worth noting are:

“The Bates Motel” - NBC – 1987- an anthology series.

Interestingly enough, in 2014 a new series aired on A&E, entitled “The Bates Motel” but is a prequel to Psycho.


“The Goodbye Girl” ( Goodbye Doesn't Mean Forever) – based on the 1977 movie- “The Goodbye Girl” - The pilot starred seventies perennials Karen Valentine and Michael Lembeck. ( 2 pilots- Jo Beth Williams starring in the second)


Then we have the pilots made for “The Name” such as “The Mary Tyler Moore”Show, as an example. These shows are built up around a well known, popular actor or actress at the time. There were some popular names the networks thought of capitalizing on- one notable example was “The Oprah Winfrey show” ( aka Natalie) This pilot was supposed to be sitcom based on Oprah's own life. Oprah herself called it horrible and chose to focus on her movie career.

The last part of the book provides a wonderful introduction to “Television Fast Forward” another book about television I enjoyed by this author, which is all about television remakes, reboots, and revivals.

The only thing this book is lacking in, is a few up to date examples of pilots that were unsold, or were passed on, as most of the examples here are from several decades ago and the modern television buff may wish to see a few mentions from the Millennial generation. I think the book would appeal to a wider audience if some newer material was added.

One small critque would be to add more up to date commentary because the material here is older, and is presented in a way that could be considered bland by some, so without a present day voice behind it, it seems truly dated and could do with a bit of freshening up.

Other than that, it's very interesting to see how far television as come over the years.

When this book was first published, the networks were feeling the pinch from the cable industry. Today, the competition is far greater with Netflix and You Tube to contend with, as well as changing viewing habits. But, the pilot is still a very valuable tool and Amazon Prime members have been given free access to the first episode of several series in order to entice them to purchase more episodes.

Overall, this was an interesting look into the television industry from the fifties through the early nineties, and the author is obviously a student of the business, is a big TV fan, and has a lot of insider experience, information, and insights.

This book would make a solid reference guide for the hardcore television buff, and for those who enjoy nostalgia or trivia.

I believe I have a better understanding now of how the networks think, why some pilots are sold, and others are not. Television is evolving rapidly and the way we watch is changing so quickly, I think it would be interesting to explore how networks decide what stays and what goes now, or if passed over pilots ever make it as original programming on cable networks like FX or TNT. How does Netflix and Amazon handle original programming and pilots? Lots of new territory to explore out there, but before we can understand the present or future we must first visit the past. This book would be good place to start.

Recommended to those who enjoy pop culture, list style books, television nostalgia, history, and trivia.

Overall 3 to 3.5 stars

[Les · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Beverly Hills... they don't throw their garbage away. They make it into television shows. - Woody Allen
Unlike productions in the other arts, all television shows are born to destroy two other shows. - Les Brown
All you see on television are debased images. - Prince
The nuclear generator of brain sludge is television. - Dave Barry
I must say I find television very educational. The minute somebody turns it on, I go to the library and read a good book. - Groucho Marx

Think of the most insipid, banal, worthless TV show you ever watched, now imagine that for every terrible show there were many,many, many more that never made it out of Pilot phase. And these shows are out there somewhere. Some we turned into movies of the week, late, late Late shows or that awful weird episode of one of your favorite shows.

This is a book to be read in small doses. Essentially it is a printed data list so it gets tedious fast.

If you think TV sucks well it could have been much, much worse

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I read the description of this book I was intrigued by what it had to offer. How many TV series that were seen by just the heads of studios should have become actual series? Of those how many did we see as specials of movies of the week? What became of these shows?

All of those questions were answered as I read the book. But not in a way that made them as interesting as they could have been. While I would have liked to have read more about various shows that were discussed in these pages I also realize that what the author was attempting to do was present as comprehensive a list as possible. Offering networks, casts, directors and a short synopsis of each show that never became a TV it did offer a great over view of what we missed. But it made for dry reading at best.

What was interesting was the fact that you began to notice just who seemed to come along in numerous failed series, no doubt doing some form of harm to their careers. At the same time there were quite a few who went from failed to successful series in no time. It should offer some hope to the stars who have recently made pilots that failed, noting that while one series might not make it those who worked on it might remember a face or a performance down the line.

How you decide to approach this book will alter whether you like it or not. As a sit down in the easy chair book it doesn’t fulfill the needs of a reader. As a “bathroom read” or book that offers information to be scanned over and not a start to finish book it’s wonderful. For TV fans, mostly those who can remember the time period it covers (1955-1990) it will be a treat to recognize the names of stars from those days as well as to discover the programs they were almost in but never realized.

The one question that will nag you in some cases is why certain pilots never became series? Not only that but what career alterations would have happened if the shows had gone on the air and the stars been attached to a series rather than have the option to move on to something else like a feature film? The book makes these thoughts come to mind and that makes it interesting enough to pick up for TV fans.

[Melisende · Rating 2 out of 5]

A synopsis of what-might-have-been, when TV pilots fail to make it as a series. For those with an interest in the genre.

[Tonya Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good reference book

After reading the plots lines of these unsold pilots, I think I would rather see some of those than what's on now.

[Charles Yoder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting. For some of these, it is obvious why they were never bought. Many others, though, had good casts and interesting concepts.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

this review originally published in Looking For a Good Book. Rated 4.0 of 5

In television lingo, a 'pilot' is a one-time television episode that is made to show television executives what a show might look like (apparently because these executives have no imagination from simply reading a script). Every year, there are MANY television pilots made by a variety of networks and studios, all trying to create the next 'hit' television series. And every year, most of those pilots are shown to some executives and then sent to a shelf never to be seen again. In this book, Lee Goldberg shares with the reader a number of pilots that were never sold to become series'.

For someone like myself, who grew up with television, who grew up as a fan of television, this is a great reference book.

I've written before on how I really like television reference books and this is a great addition to my bookshelf of television-related books. The difference here is that usually my tv-related tomes are something I refer to while watching a show or movie. Because this is a book about shows that were never aired, I'm not likely to use this as a reference. I did, however, really enjoy reading through this, getting a sense of the sorts of shows that were popular (or trying to be popular) in these previous decades.

There are some very nice little gems in this book. One of my favorites is a show called The Bakery, made in 1990. "An exceptionally well-made, innovative twist on the conventional cop show, developed for CBS for the 1989–90 season. Each episode of the proposed series would frequently time-shift between decades while following a core group of police officers through the 1960s, the 1990s, and the early part of the twenty-first century. " Author Goldberg doesn't hold back on his own thoughts and writes that "CBS should have made room" on their schedule for this.

In addition to reading about these shows, it's also fun to look at some of the actors who were making pilots. I don't think I was aware that Harrison Ford had a small role in a pilot ("The Possessed" in 1977), but it doesn't surprise me how many pilots William Shatner made.

The only disappointment here is that while this book is published in 2015 (reissued, I believe), it doesn't have much in the way of updated, modern pilots. I'm not sure the purpose of reissuing a book like this but not updating the information. This still only covers the years 1955-1990. I would imagine that trying to uncover information on television pilots in the age of 100+ television channels quite a challenge.

All in all, this is a great book for anyone who enjoys television-related history or just enjoy random trivia.

Looking for a good book? Lee Goldberg's The Best TV Shows That Were Never Made is a great book for anyone interested in television.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was given the opportunity to read an electronic copy of The Best TV Shows That Never Were via NetGalley and Adventures in Television. This is my honest opinion of the book.

This version of the book is a new edition of The Best TV Shows That Never Were, originally released in 1991. 300 unsold television pilots are compiled in this book, shows that were not picked up by any network. The author explains how the key to a pilot being sold to a network is a matter of timing and of price. Name recognition, whether it be the star of the show, the writer, or the director, can turn an average idea into a successful sale. Some pilots become series, but only air a few episodes before cancellation. Some pilots are simply scripts that are not understood by the potential network. Some pilots are cleverly worked into existing series, with the viewing audience as unwitting participants. For example, Assignment: Earth was aired as an episode of Star Trek, with Robert Lansing as a benevolent alien who comes to Earth to protect its citizens.

I found the potential pilots to be very interesting, as I could see some of the ideas contained within the pages of the book to be very successful in today's market. With many books in the science fiction/dystopian realm, the failed pilots about individuals with psychic abilities that help the police, or cyborgs that help to patrol the American West are not outside what readers might want to see on the screen. As a reference material, The Best TV Shows That Never Were is a great nod to popular culture, but its readability is limited and not very exciting.

[Morgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

In the Preface to the "new" Edition, the author states that the book was originally published in 1991, but with the exception of literally a handful of bits of new information here and there, it's a completely unchanged edition. While the loglines of the failed pilots are interesting, the author's commentary (when it's actually provided) is so wildly out of date. For instance, there are lines about an idea for a pilot being "resurrected recently for the Disney Sunday movie". Heard of that recently? Because I sure haven't. It makes the one or two actual updates (such as a reference to the new Bates Motel series) so jarring and out of place. This is more of a reprint and not an update; it should have been billed this way. In either case, there is precious little explanation as to the backstories behind any of the pilots, reasons for the failure, or generally any interesting factoids. Instead, most of the book is literally just titles, loglines, and cast lists broken up by very, very generalized categories. It's fun reading for awhile, then it just gets repetitive without anyone providing insight to the repetition.

A copy of this book was provided to me by NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

[Rebekah Crain · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was okay, but not anything spectacular to write home about- especially being a reprint of an older book. Nothing was mentioned about any shows from the last two decades [plus], which [in my opinion] would have added to the appeal for today's readers. What was included were failed pilots from the 50s through late 80s or so. I will say it was a fast, mildly interesting read. The author included the failed pilot names, the date they were made, the producer/director/writer info, the pilot/series synopsis, and then a brief cast list. The way he organized the information made it easy to read, though several of the shows he drew attention to were attempted reboots of shows already mentioned with only minor changes (the name or cast for instance). So, in some ways it got a bit monotonous. It was fun reading some of the bad plot ideas though and seeing what actors/producers/writers/directors had been associated with them.

All in all I'd say this book is worthy of a solid 3 stars, maybe even 3 1/2. Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for this review opportunity.

[Emily Daniel · Rating 1 out of 5]

ARC received from Netgalley for an honest review.

When I saw this book on netgalley I was excited, tv pilots that didn't make it seemed pretty interesting.

Unfortunately, this was incredibly boring, it was quite literally just plot after plot summary of the tv pilots, I was expecting there to be interesting anecdotes and trivia about each pilot, behind the scenes goss etc., but no, it was just plot summary and long list of cast names.

There were some interesting sounding shows in here (and some crazy ones), but most of them were just boring. I would have liked to have seen some shows from the more recent years as that might have made it a little more interesting.

Also, the way the book is put together is pretty unintersting, it was a lot of big slabs of text, with nothing to draw your eyes to.

Overall very disappointing.

[Melek · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was an entertaining, quick read that is all about flopped TV show pilots. It is interesting to see just how many people can try to make money using basically the same idea. No wonder why those have failed. There are some that I would like to see made, though.

By the way, I wouldn't call that an update. You can't throw a handful of new information in a book and touch nothing else and call it an update. It is a new edition of an old book, at best. There were some parts that obviously weren't even checked or read before being added to this edition. How come I read more carefully than the editors or the writer himself?

Overall, it is nice to read on a bus when you have nothing else to do. Unless you are interested in that, I would skip the details and just read the pilots. 2/5

[Amanda McGill · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was provided a copy of this book by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The description of the novel (tv pilots that never aired) sounded really interesting. I thought the pilots would be really funny and I could get an in depth look into the world of television.

Unfortunately that was not the novel at all. The novel basically consisted of tv pilot after tv pilot. For each tv pilot there was a short description and for the majority of the pilots, it was easy to see why the pilots were not picked up.

Overall, it was a disappointing read. I would only recommend the novel for those who are really into failed television pilots.

[Leyla Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really found this book interesting - not for everyone but I am a movie and television buff from wayback. Living in Australia we did not get to see these pilots, which in some cases is a pity as I would have liked to see them. It was interesting to see who where chosen to appear in them and it did leave me imagining what the pilots would have been like with some other actors. I would have liked the book to have some more anecdotal information as to why pilots where junked. Would love to see a TV doc based on this book - make it a pilot and series. Australians would love it.

[Theediscerning · Rating 2 out of 5]

This isn't the first time in 2015 this author republished sorely out of date, and not fully expanded, lists of TV programme data – even, this time, regurgitating something that was heavily condensed from his original work, what's more. It's mildly amusing to see the details succinctly put of the various disasters of TV series that never made it past pilot status – even if many were actually still broadcast in one shape or another – but it's not particularly edifying. One for a devotee of North American media only.

[Rowan MacBean · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received THE BEST TV SHOWS THAT NEVER WERE as an ARC from NetGalley.com.

There's not really a lot to say about this book, mainly because there's very little substance to it. There was some interesting trivia that kept my attention while I was reading it, but nothing stood out as especially entertaining, and none of it stuck with me. It makes good bathroom reading for TV fans, and it could be useful for a student writing a paper about the industry, but that's about all.

[Travis Jackson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Think you've seen some really crappy TV shows lately? You should see what was passed over! While you wont be able to actually see these passed over pilots (and maybe that's for the better), you can read about them in The Best TV Shows That Never Were. There are several hundred shows listed, some sound fairly decent, others you will find yourself wishing would have made it to the small screen. The others you will find yourself wondering who in the world thought they would be a good idea.

[Martin Maenza · Rating 4 out of 5]

For someone who grew up on TV (I used to subscribe to TV Guide and plot out my viewing), this book was an interesting read. I like to see what ideas might have made it to the airways. It showed that sometimes pilots with potential do not always end up making it to the public consciousness.

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting but way too much detail if you're not a TV buff. I enjoyed reading the plots but really didn't need to know all the actors, producers, etc.

I received this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

[Diana Belchase · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fun and whacky book. Very well done. A great read for fans of TV or for serious individuals interested in credits and history. Excellent!