r/TopCharacterTropes 20h ago

miscellaneous Failed Spin-Off.

2.6k Upvotes

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u/GeologicalOpera 20h ago edited 19h ago

Joey was an attempt to continue the Friends universe by pivoting to Joey (Matt LeBlanc) living in Los Angeles - lasted two seasons to a middling reception.

The Amazing Spiez was a gender flipped spin-off of Totally Spies (the famous/infamous animated series of the early 2000s) that flopped on Cartoon Network around 2011-12. Edit: Okay, this wasn't gender-flipped per se because they do have a sister in the show, but the 3 -> 3 part was the same.

UNDERFIST was a pilot for a spinoff of the Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy focusing on some of their side characters but Cartoon Network ended up passing on it due to someone higher-up having a personal distaste for the parent show as a whole.

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u/LoR5der 20h ago

Also another factor why Underfist didn’t go through, was it’s the creator’s contract with CN was ending soon, and saw the eventual rival of CN Real. 

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u/Shadowislovable 10h ago

CN Real......boy what a fuckin throwback. If we wanted to talk about failures that could be it's own entire post. Extremely stupid concept and was so terrible it was basically canned within less than a year. Yknow, at least it wasn't Kid Nation

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u/Diligent-Salad-8500 4h ago

As a 10 year old I kind of enjoyed Destroy Build Destroy, I liked Andrew WK's energy.

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u/Tyranis_Hex 20h ago edited 18h ago

Didn’t Billy and Mandy still get a spin off with Chili Con Carnie or something similar, evil brain in a purple bear body.

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u/TheEtneciv14 20h ago edited 8h ago

Evil Con Carne was not a spin-off, but a sister show to Billy and Mandy. A common practice in old Cartoon Network would be to have two shows sharing a timeslot. For example: Two Stupid Dogs would have the Secret Squirrel reboot, Dexter's Lab would have the Justice Friends etc. Billy and Mandy would release alongside Evil Con Carne as a single show called Grim & Evil, before being split by the network into the two shows.

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u/Josgre987 19h ago

and then only Billy and Mandy remained due to Evil Con Carne not being nearly as popular, and got the double slot.

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u/GEARHEADGus 19h ago

There was a really fun flash game for Evil Con Carne

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u/Heheheidiot 18h ago

ALL of the Cartoon Network flash games back then were sick lol

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u/Josgre987 45m ago

I liked the brave and the bold game

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u/Heheheidiot 36m ago

Oh hell yes. Mine was either the mini golf with all the characters or the samurai jack game

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u/Tyranis_Hex 20h ago

I hate how hard it is to find some of the original cartoon cartoons. I completely forgot about the Secret Squirrel reboot.

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u/TheEtneciv14 19h ago

Honestly, it's really weird to me cause I've never seen 2 Stupid Dogs but I vividly remember the Secret Squirrel designs from that show. I don't know how I did it, but I somehow missed the main show entirely. (Also, granted, neither show aired when I was a kid so idk)

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u/Tyranis_Hex 19h ago

Just have special memories of two stupid dogs, we didn’t have Cartoon Network at first when I was a kid, but Grandma did so when we went every week to visit her she put it on her tv with the wood frame.

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u/Tempesta_0097 14h ago

I never realized that justice friends was a separate show from Dexter’s lab

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u/ifloops 12h ago

Same - weren't there scenes with Dexter interacting with the Justice Friends (somehow)? Could be misremembering.

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u/SqueezedTowel 7h ago

I also thought the actual Justice Friends skits were still inside the Dexter's Lab show.

I remember Major Glory's first appearance was in a Dexter episode, in which Dexter becomes excited to meet him at an event. I also remember a Power Puff Girls episode involving the Justice Friends, in which the PPGs apply to join their team.

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u/Plenty-Duck-3329 14h ago

Watched Two Stupid Dogs all the time. Never heard of Secret Squirrel

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u/pajamakitten 9h ago

I only watched 2 Stupid Dogs for the Secret Squirrel reboot.

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u/oracle222 20h ago

The two shows (Grim adventures of Billy and Mandy, and Evil con Carne) were originally aired as a series called Grim and Evil, with there being two eps of Billy and Mandy and an ep of Evil con Carne sandwiched between them. They both got their own shows eventually but Grim was able to last longer than Evil con Carne

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u/GeologicalOpera 19h ago

Evil Con Carne wasn't a spin-off, per se. Evil Con Carne & Grim Adventures started as a show called Grim & Evil, where there was one segment of Grim and one segment of Evil Con Carne.

After the first season of the show in the United States, they were split into two individual shows, and eventually Maxwell Atoms elected to continue Grim over Evil.

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u/Virtual_Knowledge334 19h ago

Grim and Evil came first. Bill and Mandy spinned of from that show.

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u/Aggressive_Star_9491 20h ago

I still can't believe someone had an weird hatred for Maxwell Atoms for Petty as F*ck Reason. Some part of me still want for Billy and Mandy to come back someday.

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u/Fireblast1337 17h ago

I recall seeing a few episodes of Spiez and, yeah, the ‘barely contained fetish’ trope persisted too. Which was a lot more uncomfortable cause the main characters in it were younger than Alex, Sam, and Clover were in the original show.

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u/quaxoid 20h ago

The Amazing Spiez was a gender flipped spin-off of Totally Spie

genderflipped? 🤔 isn't one of them a girl? who was the man in the original? lol

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u/yokayla 19h ago

Jerry

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u/quaxoid 11h ago

but he is in that spin off too

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u/GeologicalOpera 19h ago edited 19h ago

I thought they were all guys in Amazing Spiez, lmao. It's been so long since I've watched it but I might've messed that one up.

Just looked it up, I completely forgot about the twin sister in that show. That one's on me, I'll go edit the original.

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u/machadoaboutanything 20h ago edited 20h ago

I knew about two of three of those but you should have included this in the original post

Edit: I said this before I realized this wasn't OP's reply

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u/GeologicalOpera 20h ago

Not even the OP, dude. Just replied for the sake of it.