I don't think so, which is a pity because it would be a great opportunity to make this happen.

I'd personally like to see them fire Ryan and make the show about his new workplace. Keep BJ on The Office as a writer only and make his acting duties on the new show very light. It sounds like they're not considering this sort of thing, though.

It depends. Usually, when they introduce characters solely for the purpose of spinning them off, it's referred to as a backdoor pilot.

They did an episode of The Danny Thomas Show (aka Make Room for Daddy) in which they had Danny arrested for running a stop sign in a small North Carolina town. Danny interacted with the sheriff, wacky hijinks ensued, and America laughed. The sheriff, of course, was played by Andy Griffith, and the small town was Mayberry.

That's probably the most successful backdoor pilot, but there have been others -- most of which were unsuccessful (anyone else remember Who's the Boss? spin-off Living Dolls? Anyone? Anyone?)

My wife does, she tells me.

The most recent unsuccessful backdoor pilot I recall was for a cop show set in LA from Crossing Jordan. The only other relatively recent one was for the Jess show set in California from Gilmore Girls. That one actually got the greenlight but it was then retracted.

That's what she said

If memory serves me right it had Halle Berry and the wife from King of Queens (Lea Remny?).

Weren't CSI: Miami and CSI: New York backdoor pilots?

Yeah, they've done backdoor pilots for practically forever in Hollywood. Happy Days started as a backdoor pilot on Love American Style, and in turn begat the backdoor pilot for Mork and Mindy.

I remember Married with Children having a number of backdoor pilot episodes during the course of its run. One of them, Top of the Heap, actually became a short lived series.

Yep. Characters from CSI: Miami were first introduced on CSI, and characters from CSI: NY first appeared on CSI: Miami.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSI:_NY

Thanks for that info! Very interesting about Andy Griffith. I didn't know that.

Good memory -- Michael Learned from the Waltons played a woman who ran a modelling agency. Remini and Berry were two of her models (along with a couple of actresses who went nowhere). Remini's character was a friend of Alisa Milano's Who's the Boss character from their old neighborhood, so that's how they set the show up initially.

Was that the one with Matt LeBlanc?

I know. I must be sick or something. I do remember Remini and Milano hanging out in Milano's room or something.

Yeah, I never saw it but it was with Matt and Joey Lauren Adams from Chasing Amy. It's probably pretty bad, but I would still be curious to see it.

I don't know why they wouldn't use any of the regulars from The Office. I agree that BJ could be ripe for a series in "corporate" and Rashida Jones could be there, too. Fill in the rest with some of the characters that walked out recently and we'd already know many of the cast.

You have it all wrong... it's like this...

Thursday will be the normal The Office
Friday will be the results show

Although I never was a fan of Empty Nest; I’m a Golden Girls fan (own the DVDs) and the season two finale (“Empty Nests”) episode was a backdoor pilot episode for the series; but when Empty Nest finally premiered a year later, the entire cast was retooled and only one actor from the backdoor pilot ended up on the show.

Now I'm just waiting for the Scrubs Spin-Off... "Coxy!"

All I can say is that I bow to JasonF's knowledge of television bits and odditys.

It's das Monkey's world ... the rest of us are just living in it.

Yes, Frasier did so poorly.

I hope they introduce the characters from the upcoming US remake of The IT Crowd in an Office episode.

Unfortunately, I remember that show well.

One, for introducing me to a woman named "Michael" and two, for the uber-hotness that was young Leah Remini.

Didn't "Just the Ten of Us" spin off of "Who's The Boss" too? I watched the entire run of that show, mostly for the red-headed sister (I think her character name was Jaime - god, that's knowledge I don't need to know.)

Joe Bologna played the dad.......?

"Just the Ten of Us" spun off from "Growing Pains". I loved both of those shows.

Growing Pains -- the dad on Just the Ten of Us was the coach at Mike Seaver's school.

I don't know offhand whether that was a true backdoor pilot, or simply a case where Bill Kirchenbauer's character on Growing Pains was popular enough that they decided to spin him off.

One time it work and then nada for almost FIFTEEN YEARS. Yeah I still stand by my point.

Would Laverne & Shirley's appearance on Happy Days be considered a backdoor pilot? (Episode 49: A Date With Fonzie S3, aired 11/11/75 - Lavern & Shirley premiered in January of '76)

And then the awful Nurses was "birthed" from Empty Nest.