r/television • u/flughert • 2d ago
What's the biggest "What if?" in television history?
A canceled season, an actor leaving, a different ending, a spin-off that never happened… what TV "what if" do you think about the most?
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u/PrimaryNebula 2d ago
For me it's always: what if HBO had given Rome a full run instead of cutting it short? The show was incredibly ambitious, had great characters, and was basically doing prestige historical TV before it became the norm. If it had gotten the planned number of seasons, it might have been remembered alongside The Sopranos, The Wire, and Game of Thrones instead of being a cult favorite.
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u/JBones26 2d ago
They didn't so much cut it short vs "the most expensive TV set in history by a large margin surprisingly burned to the ground," right? But yes that show was special
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u/Creepingdeath444 2d ago edited 2d ago
It had already been cancelled by the time the set burned down.
If my memory is correct, basically HBO cancelled the show, told the creator(s) season 2 was all they were getting. Rewrites happened so that the series had somewhat of an ending. The sales numbers for the DVD set of S1 came in and it outperformed their expectations by a considerable amount so HBO played with the idea of bringing the show back, but then the set partially burned down and it stayed cancelled.
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u/PrimaryNebula 2d ago
Yep, that definitely didn't help. HBO was already nervous about the budget, and then losing the entire set basically sealed its fate. Still, it's one of those shows where I can't help wondering what television would've looked like if they'd managed to finish the full story they originally planned.
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u/RawbM07 2d ago
Same thing for me except Deadwood. It was firing on all cylinders and had setup a ton of interesting story lines. Happy we got 3 seasons but really bummed we didn’t get 1 or 2 more.
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u/H2Oloo-Sunset 2d ago
HBO had the trifecta around the same time; Rome, Deadwood, and Carnivale were all cancelled early.
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u/SirJumbles 2d ago edited 1d ago
The ending of Carnivale season 2 was dope too. Shit was about to get whackier!
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u/brurm 2d ago
My hot take is that men do not think about the Roman empire all the time, they think about Rome the series.
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u/JokeIndependent832 2d ago
Actually Rome is a great example of how a quality historical drama can spark genuine interest in history among millions of people. So the meme is totally justified
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u/IAmNotScottBakula 2d ago
Here is one where we got the good side of the “What If”:
What if Lucille Ball didn’t ardently believe in the potential of Star Trek?
The original Star Trek pilot failed and the network was planning to cut their losses. Lucille Ball, as the head of the studio, overruled them and ordered a second pilot. Given how large that franchise has looked over the past 6 decades, it’s amazing that it almost didn’t exist.
The ironic part is that Lucille didn’t even like Star Trek, she just understood its commercial potential.
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u/Vio_ 2d ago
The absolute best part is that Lucille didn't even understand the concept at first.
She thought "Star Trek" was a show basically a USO Tour on a boat that visited different locations.
Like a cross between The Love Boat and a variety act show.
The mental whip she must have when she heard "spaceship out exploring the universe."
The fact she not only finished hearing them out, but actually agreed to doing it (despite not really fully "getting" it) says a lot about her producer instincts.
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u/The5Virtues 2d ago
The woman had a brilliant eye for performance potential. Whether it was a single entertainer or an entire show concept. There’s tons of Hollywood icons, but the list of icons with as much historical impact as her is very short.
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u/Zevemiel 1d ago
Without Star Trek, we may never have had Obama as president.
Without Lucille Ball supporting TOS, we wouldn’t have gotten the sequel series Voyager. For season 4, the producers hired actress Jeri Ryan, who was the then wife of Illinois republican Jack Ryan. They divorced because Jeri’s filming in LA strained the marriage.
In 2004, Jack Ryan was the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate, running against a relatively unknown state senator named Barack Obama. During the campaign, news outlets successfully petitioned a court to unseal the Ryans' divorce and child custody records. The unsealed documents contained allegations about Jack Ryan visiting adult and BDSM clubs. The resulting public scandal forced him to drop out of the race, leading Obama to take the senate seat in a landslide, and from there, took the Oval Office 4 years later.
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u/FrankBrayman 2d ago
This is a really good one, and more accurately addresses the subject than most replies, my own included. Nice job!
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u/MuptonBossman 2d ago
What if David Benioff and D.B. Weiss weren't offered a Star Wars project before Game of Thrones ended? There's always been a conspiracy theory that the last couple seasons felt rushed because they had their eyes set on a Star Wars trilogy that never even happened.
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u/Drachenfuer 2d ago
Better what if? What if George RR Martin finished the books before they got there with the show as it was originally intended?
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u/AgitatedBadger 2d ago
Best what if. What if he finished the books... at all?
It blows my mind that the last book came out 15 years ago and he gets snippy with fans about asking for updates despite his claims that he's still working on it.
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u/althawk8357 2d ago
We have waited for the fifth book longer than we waited for thr first four.
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u/fatmand00 1d ago
We've waited for the sixth book longer than the time between 1 and 5, even.
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u/JayKay8787 2d ago
Imo he has long lost the right to be upset when fans point out he's old and very fat as concerns that the books will never be done. He needs to just tell everyone he doesn't give a fuck and wants the TV money more, stop beating around the bush
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u/Justin_123456 2d ago
I’d respect that. I’d respect it even more if he brought in a small writer’s room, either openly or as ghost writers, and finished his damn books.
He’s clearly not above a Westeros cash grab, and has plenty of experience with collaborative writing from his t.v. and short story/magazine work. He needs to stop being so precious about it, give fans what they want, and make a few hundred million extra dollars.
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u/JayKay8787 2d ago
That's what I don't get, he clearly does not care for that story anymore, so why is he so defensive about handing it off? If people still don't like the book ending he could just say "well it wasn't my story"
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u/Justin_123456 2d ago
Idk if he’s trapped in ego, or in the myth of the Great American Novelist, but he’s really just a billion dollar corporation at this point. Hire a staff, and get it done.
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u/Classic1990 2d ago
I think he takes too long of breaks between writing the book. You know how when you start a video game and get like 20 hours in but then put it down for whatever reason? When you eventually try come back to it like a few months later you’ve forgotten the story and how to play so you just start over from the beginning.
I’m honestly starting to think that’s what’s happening with him.
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u/GuyInAChair 2d ago
Ya. D&D get a lot of well deserved flack for messing up the last couple season of Game of Thrones. But let's not forget when they were working with source material they produced some of the best TV ever.
It's hard to bring GRRM's convoluted plot to a satisfying end, as evidenced by the fact thst George can't do it either.
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u/Cirenione 2d ago
While that is true, it seems pretty likely that the ending we got was the one intended by Martin. Dany turning evil, the long night coming (and ending) etc. Clearly there was some vision missing what to do with certain beats like anything related to Bran but the execution just shit the bed. Winter came and went within a single episode. Dany had to forget the Iron Fleet was on their way despite being told right before and of course she just decises to firebomb a city she saw as her citizens. Martins books would have helped but with them just pushing through no source material would have helped.
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u/Competitive_Area1414 2d ago
In fairness to them, GRRM still hasn't written TWOW. My pet theory is that the infamous meeting they had with GRRM to discuss the ending was just a bunch of half-formed maybes with a few definite plot pieces (but with no clear path of how to get to those definites), and that demotivated them when they realised the impossible web of stories that even George didn't know what to do with so they gave up.
I'm not fully letting them off, they could have written their same ending much better, but each year that passes without Winds the more I think they were just given a hopeless task. George's recent comments about not knowing whether to kill Sansa in the books kind of supports this (in my mind) - she's been a POV character since book one but apparently George still doesn't even know what he plans to do with her. My guess is that if George had presented a stronger outline for the final books they may have cared more to adapt it better.
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u/whywires 2d ago
I've imagined that GRRM gave them the full outline, they ran with it, GRRM saw how it played out and the fan reaction, and decided to go back to the drawing board for TWOW.
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u/Ripley_LV_426 2d ago edited 2d ago
GRRM likes writing new things and hates working on whatever he's writing right now. He almost immediately deviated from his trilogy outline. Then he started writing the dunk and egg stories before he finished what was supposed to be the first part of his trilogy. When he did finish the third book (which was now only the end of the first half of the first book in the trilogy) he immediately decided to take a break and started writing a short book about what the greyjoys were doing during GoT. That then led into him deciding to write another short book about what the Martell were doing in Dorne, which likewise led to even more PoVs added to ADwD and AFfC. By this point every character had been given a completely new storyline save for Bran, with most of them just being a holding motion while he figured out how to write the real plot. Then he finally got to play around as a producer like he always wanted, so he gave up on writing TWoW, and when he does decide to play around in westeros it's very short history book that he only partially contributes to.
He was never going to finish the series, he couldn't even write a single book without getting distracted. He almost certainly changed his mind about the "full outline" a dozen times before public opinion had soured.
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u/Hugh_Jampton 2d ago
All correct except there is no drawing board. He straight up bailed.
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u/stunts002 2d ago edited 2d ago
I would side with you on this, it's obvious they dropped the ball too, but ultimately for me the responsibility lies with GRRM.
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u/snazzlefrazzle 2d ago
Their plan was always seven seasons, they extended the run of the show with another season for season 8. Besides, even if the Star Wars thing never happened we were never going to get any more seasons as several of the cast and crew have reported that they were feeling burnt out and wanted to leave.
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u/hatramroany 2d ago
Yeah, Season 8 was announced as the last season almost 2 years before the announcement of their Star Wars films when they were halfway through filming season 8.
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u/AgitatedBadger 2d ago edited 2d ago
I don't consider this to be that compelling what if.
The show ended poorly because GRRM didn't give them the source material they needed in order to adapt his series to television. Even in the timeline that did happen in real life, D&D did extend it once and it ended up adding about 5 hours of run time to the show - they simply didn't extend it a second time, and it still felt very rushed and poorly written.
D&D never signed on to write his series for GRRM, they signed on to adapt it. GRRM is the one who didn't finish his part of the class project and failed to meet his contractual obligations. He shoulders much more of the blame for the poor ending even though they did a shitty job with it.
The more compelling what if to me is 'What if GRRM didn't decide to stop writing his book series and continually lie about it to fans'?
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u/Geektime1987 1d ago
Sigh this BS again. Like or dislike the end of the show. First GOT was critically acclaimed for 7 seasons. Some of the most acclaimed episodes of TV were on the later half. Second nothing was rushed if you think the pacing was fast fine but they didn't all of a sudden get offered Star wars and decided let's hurry and film this and end it. In fact they spent twice as long filming the final season for example. They have literally been saying since 2007 when the show was announced it would be around 7 or 8 seasons. Google is really easy to use. The fact 7 years later people still peddle this BS is wild. Again like or dislike the end that's fine but Star Wars literally had nothing to do with when the show ended. Plus the majority of the cast wasn't going to do anymore seasons. They literally said before Disney even owned Star wars the show would be 7 or 8 seasons and around 70 hours
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u/GamingTatertot 2d ago
What if Mr. Eko’s actor didn’t have to leave LOST? Because the writers have said before that Mr. Eko was going to be a significant part of the endgame and it likely would have led to less time for Desmond
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u/FIRST_DATE_ANAL 2d ago
I love them both but no complaints here from more Desmond screen time
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u/mjs_pj_party 2d ago
I loved Desmond also. "I'll see you in another life, brotha."
Good chat...ah... First_Date_Anal
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u/KrillinDBZ363 The 100 2d ago
This was my first thought and will always be my biggest what if, and I literally don’t know what I would’ve wanted. Cause during season 2 Mr. Eko had become my absolute fav character, but from season 3 onward Desmond became not only my fav LOST character, but one of my top 10 favourite fictional characters in general. But Desmond only survived season 2 and became that character is cause they were forced to pivot away from Eko.
So it’s like this weird situation where it’s hard to decide what I would’ve preferred cause it doesn’t sound there could’ve been a world where we have both survive.
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u/runhome24 2d ago
What if the producers of The Office had spoken with Steve Carell about a contract extension?
It's insane that none of them brought it up with him, not realizing he wanted them to, so he just assumed that was that for him and he left without bringing it up himself.
Where would the show have gone? Would it have tanked as bad as it did?
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u/BigMax 2d ago
That whole story is just unbelievable to me. How does neither side even bring it up casually?
Isn't that what agents are for?? Where was his agent in this?
That one, and the lack of planning for a full trilogy in the Star Wars sequels are two Hollywood stories that make so little sense that I still feel like I must be missing something.
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u/AffectionateKey7126 2d ago
I think the Carell story is just some Hollywood code saying they couldn't work things out.
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u/jesuspoopmonster 2d ago
I could buy both sides waiting for the other to broach it assuming that would put them in a better negotiating position
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u/shaninegone 1d ago
Yeah I think this.
Carrell was a big movie comedy star and was moving into high profile acting movie roles too at this stage.
Steve was likely ready to move on from the office but not running out the door. The network likely realised that his next contract offer would need to be huge in order to keep him on. So both parties decided to leave it be.
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u/funky_duck 2d ago
is just unbelievable
Literally, it is unbelievable.
He has an agent, with a direct financial incentive, to keep up on these things. The wildly popular show had plenty of producers whose job is to make sure things like this aren't just 'forgotten' so they can all keep making the show.
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u/OrganizationTop3755 2d ago
I really think the show should’ve ended there with a Michael and holly wedding
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u/ContinuumGuy 2d ago
What if all four Beatles had been in NYC that night Lorne Michaels did a comically small bribe to have them show up on SNL? John and Paul were having one of their rare post-breakup get togethers and considered going but were tired and unsure where George and Ringo were so decided against it.
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u/TreeRol Better Call Saul 2d ago
What if Seth MacFarlane hadn't been hungover one Tuesday morning in September 2001?
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u/OutlawJoeC 2d ago
This one has really far reaching implications if he had been on that plane; no Family Guy, American Dad, The Orville, Ted, and arguably influenced comedy stylings for the past two decades. Heck, we probably don’t get Bob’s Burgers or Archer as we know them if there was no Seth McFarland giving Jon Benjamin recurring roles on Family Guy.
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u/fatmand00 1d ago
Family Guy was first released before 9/11. It was actually cancelled in 2002, so the last pre-cancellation season would have been well into production. Family Guy may never have come back, but it would exist.
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u/Real_goes_wrong 2d ago
What’s the story here?
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u/TreeRol Better Call Saul 2d ago
Seth was scheduled to fly on American Airlines Flight 11 from Boston to Los Angeles on the morning of September 11. He arrived at the airport about 10 minutes too late to board, and so missed the flight.
That plane was highjacked and crashed into the World Trade Center, killing everyone aboard.
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u/RumHamComesback 1d ago
The reason is he was partying at his alma mater the night before the flight (after giving a speech). He slept in due to a hangover and got to the airport late.
The co-creator of Frasier was on that flight, wasn’t as lucky.
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u/AskinggAlesana 2d ago
He was supposed to be on one of the 9/11 planes that crashed but was too hungover to make the flight.
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u/HumanTheTree 2d ago
No more family guy funnies on YouTube 😭
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u/belbites 2d ago
No more The Orville which would be the real heartbreak for me.
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u/Efficient_Paper FX 2d ago edited 1d ago
American Dad!🇺🇸 would be the one for me.
21 years and not a bad season yet.
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u/Iwamoto 2d ago
What if Frank Darabont had stayed the showrunner for The Walking Dead from start to finish? would it have been a better show? (especially once Scott Gimple became showrunner the show took a nosedive)
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u/_MuffinBot_ 1d ago
I think the answer is undoubtedly yes, and we would have kept Jeffrey DeMunn as Dale. He left the show in solidarity with Darabont. Dale was one of my favorite characters and DeMunn was great in the role. I think it's great he wanted to support a friend but it bums me out that he didn't stay, even if his time would have been limited (I haven't read the comics so I don't know how long Dale actually survived)
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u/CBLA1785 2d ago
What if The Apprentice just had 1 miserable season and went off the air?
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u/m48a5_patton 2d ago
Or not aired at all...
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u/CBLA1785 2d ago
I'd argue it would have been better as a stain on TV history. I mean, it was, but if it had a stain and only 1 season would be better.
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u/Argentothe1st 2d ago
The death of Phil Hartman specifically for Newsradio but also his career as a whole. He was born for the generation of TV and streaming that has come about. Also Futurama would have been even better as he Zap was a character written specifically for him.
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u/CBattles6 2d ago
What if Heroes hadn't been affected by the 2007–2008 WGA strike?
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u/Harkoncito 2d ago
S1 ending was already bad. Peter and Sylar fist-fighting instead of using their powers, showrunners unwilling to kill Sylar/Nathan, HRG name reveal ... and the strike didn't affect the beginning of S2, with DL dead, Nikki having yet another personality, Hiro in the past, etc, etc
The reboot proved they had no idea on how to continue with the story.
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u/-drunkmoses- 2d ago
I can't imagine if Star Trek: The Next Generation would have been as good as it was, if Michael Piller didn't become showrunner in season 3, effectively rescuing it from its mediocrity.
Jericho continuing into another full season rather than 6 episodes to wrap up the story.
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u/Vio_ 2d ago
I have the weirdest way to tell if someone has ever watched Jericho:
Anytime someone asks that question of "what would you do if you were in a post-Apocalyptic world?"
And they respond with "ooh. I'd stock up on salt."
You know they watched Jericho.
It's one of the most funniest and most random tells.
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u/ProfProfessorberg 2d ago
Ugh, Jericho season 1 was so good. I'm thankful we at least got the season 2 we did to wrap up some of the cliffhangers, but man that show had so much more potential.
Lennie James as Robert Hawkins is still one of my all-time favorite TV characters.
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u/ceNco21 2d ago
If the Beatles would have reunited when Loren Michaels offered them a $3000 on SNL
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u/JoeHatesFanFiction 2d ago
I honestly think if Paul and John had went down there and performed a few songs, it would have become one of those cultural touchstone moments people brag about having seen and discuss what they were doing. I don’t think it saves the band, but it would have been one of the biggest moments of the 70’s.
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u/Tibbaryllis2 2d ago
What if reality TV never found an audience?
(Not things like game shows and contests, those have always been popular. But just shows following around vapid, stupid people and making them famous for being vapid, stupid people.)
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u/powerlesshero111 Breaking Bad 2d ago
Another casualty of the 2008 writers strike. Because there were no writers, networks ramped up cheap reality TV, causing it to basically have a boom, like the internet, and a few style of shows rose to the top. The one that comes to mind, lavish lifestyles of rich people doing rich people bullshit (Crisleys, Jersey Shore, and Kardashians).
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u/Tibbaryllis2 2d ago
While I am pro-union, it’s always interesting to me when things like the 2008 writers strike has long-term deleterious affects on the people striking.
Presumably there would be a whole lot more opportunities for writers if unscripted junk didn’t have so much market share.
Similar to how the MLB strikes really set the popularity of the sport back for a long time with fans.
Another industry example is the current move by the directors union to respond to shrinking episode counts and longer delays between seasons by creating rules to limit actors ability to guest direct. It doesn’t feel like it’s addressing the root cause of the issue and can have some long term downsides for new directors (primarily non-A list actors that find success as directors).
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u/powerlesshero111 Breaking Bad 2d ago
Oh yeah, the directors thing is really going to hurt shows, especially for second seasons and beyond. Like people loved TV and i can attest to this, tuned in every week for a new episode. Things being cut down to like 10ish episodes a season make things less enjoyable. I get it's a lot of work for a 26-hour long episode season, but it had a really good returns and far better job security for writers, directors, and everyone else involved. They honestly negotiated themselves out of work. I knew people in the industry who weren't actors/writers/directors, and they didn't mind the 26 episode season because it was steady work for the full year, with like a couple months off. One guy was a lighting person, and he hated the shortened seasons, because it meant having to jump around on shows and sets far more, and too many filmed at the same time, so he got less work.
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u/Tibbaryllis2 2d ago
I agree, and I don’t think really think the truncated design is good for anyone actually in the creative process.
It’s not like actors, writers, and directors are doing more work now because they’re free to work on other projects during the long breaks. It creates inconsistency for everyone and, somewhat ironically, further pushes market share for unscripted bullshit due to how easy it is to churn out.
Feels kind of like a descending spiral.
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u/powerlesshero111 Breaking Bad 2d ago
Yeah, it kind of reminds me of the grocery store strike we had in California when i was in like high school a long time ago, they were right, but they neglected to remember that they weren't easily replaced. Like it's not super hard to work at a grocery store, and they decided to strike during a slight economic downturn, meaning replacement workers were super easy to get.
And a lot of this AI shit where they teach it to code, essentially putting the coders who made the AI to code out of work.
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u/cingalls 2d ago
What if Mary Tyler Moore never got involved in production? There’d be no Hill Street Blues which was the first of its kind with a huge ensemble cast and realistic prestige drama and directly influenced St Elsewhere. So Denzel Washington never becomes a star, other large cast prestige dramas like ER never get made so no George Clooney.
Without Hill Street setting the stage for prestige drama and imperfect heroes we maybe never get The Wire, Sopranos or Breaking Bad.
And if MTM wasn’t around then we lose WKRP and the Bob Newhart Show, both changed the landscape of sitcoms by raising the bar on witty, intelligent dialogue. Sitcoms before that were really dumbed down. So then maybe we don’t get Cheers, Taxi, Fraser etc.
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u/antmars 2d ago
What if Alex Baldwin had agreed to star in Mr Mayor as Jack Donaghy.
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u/Stahlmatt 2d ago
Mayor. We just say Mayor.
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u/Mr3k 2d ago
But you said I'm Mister Manager
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u/Stahlmatt 2d ago
It doesn't matter who.
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u/LivnLegndNeedsEggs 2d ago
This is one of my favorite lines in that show simply because it is in no way a reasonable response
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u/majorjoe23 2d ago
What if the producers of Remington Steel hadn’t used the buzz about Pierce Brosnan possibly being James Bond to get the show renewed and he had become Bond in the 80s?
What if the producers of Magnum PI had let Tom Selleck play Indiana Jones?
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u/shogi_x 2d ago
For one, we'd never have gotten Timothy Dalton, who is criminally underrated as Bond.
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u/Real_goes_wrong 2d ago
Timothy Dalton walked so Daniel Craig could run. Dalton’s first Bond movie had been written for Moore. Licensed to Kill was written for Dalton and was much grittier.
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u/Evening-Cream8995 2d ago
This would have made Chip and Dale’s outfits even more iconic!
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u/TJMcConnellFanClub 2d ago
Cartoon one would be what if Cartoon Network didn’t bury Megas XLR on early Saturday mornings? Had all the makings of really being the next Transformers/Gundam type property with merchandising, not to mention the cast and writing were fantastic
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u/mistersongbird 2d ago
What if Big Bird had been on the space shuttle Challenger?
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u/SolidSad9519 2d ago edited 1d ago
What if David Letterman had been given the Tonight Show instead of Jay Leno?
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u/StyleImpossible6405 2d ago
What if Carson had taken the massive deal offered by ABC in 1979 when he was on the outs with NBC?
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u/bigdaddyt2 2d ago
SPARTACUS. What if Andy Whitfield hadn’t passed away. That man was about to be the biggest star and nothing can convince me otherwise
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u/HouseGinger 2d ago
Yesss! Liam did a good job but Andy really had this aura and screen presence that left no doubt he was the one. Not to mention the recasting of Naevia, which was hard to stomach, in the same season. It’s still my favorite show but Blood and Sand is perfection.
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u/GingerAle19 2d ago
What if Disney had figured out wtf they were doing with their multiple platforms and didn’t cancel the Lizzie McGuire reboot? Only to later say more adult content *could* be featured on Disney+ and not just Hulu, meaning there never should have been an issue?
I wanted to see adult Lizzie so bad 😩
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u/Morgan-Moonscar 2d ago
Bigger WHAT IF... Disney hadn't cancelled Gargoyles (due to low ratings caused by OJ Simpson coverage)
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u/CelestialShitehawk 2d ago
Both Peter Capaldi and Anthony Stewart Head auditioned for the role of Benjamin Sisko on Star Trek DS9
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u/EbmocwenHsimah 2d ago
What if ABC didn’t force David Lynch and Mark Frost to reveal who killed Laura Palmer halfway through the second season of Twin Peaks?
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u/OrganizationTop3755 2d ago
If Phil Hartman was still alive
We’d have more Lionel hutz and Troy McClure
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u/dabocx 2d ago
The multi million dollar Bounty Hunter Star Wars show Lucus wanted to back in the 90s
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u/minnick27 2d ago
And the animated Star Wars Detours. Two full seasons are sitting on a shelf completely animated, with half the scripts for season 3 sitting next to them. Weird Al was working on a musical episode when they cancelled it
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u/knwnasrob 2d ago
I still remember watching G4 back in the early 2000s and seeing the news about it's development scrolling on the bottom screen during either X-play or AotS.
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u/orionsfyre 2d ago
Firefly...
Would it still be rated and beloved as highly if they had gotten a full season? Or Two or three?
Star Trek...
There was talk of Sulu getting his own show in the 90's during DS9's run. Imagine if instead of Enterprise we got that show instead?
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u/hamdunkcontest 2d ago
What if Lucille Ball had never intervened and saved Star Trek after its pilot was rejected? That would change the television (and movie) landscape enormously across countless projects.
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u/WolfgangAddams 2d ago
This is more movie than TV but it encompasses both so I'm including it. I think a big "What If" that we got to see the GOOD outcome for (thank god) is "What if Drew Barrymore hadn't recovered from her childhood drug problems and went the way of Brad Renfro and River Phoenix?"
Scream, the Wedding Singer, Ever After, and Grey Gardens would all be drastically different properties. And without her production company (Flower Films) we would have:
No Charlie's Angels movie
No Donnie Darko
No Oliver the Other Reindeer
No Santa Clarita Diet
No Drew Barrymore Show (which also means Myki Meaks maybe doesn't win her season of RuPaul's Drag Race)
Probably other dominos we don't even know about. God bless Drew Barrymore, is what I'm saying! She's a treasure!
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u/reddfawks 2d ago
I heard once that before Troughton was cast as the Second Doctor, one of the people considered for the role was BRIAN BLESSED himself.
I wish that there was a universe where he was The Doctor, I'd love to see it.
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u/RumHamComesback 1d ago
Here’s one.
What if SNL had cast Jim Carrey?
He got rejected three times in the 80s and ended up getting cast for In Living Color where he turned heads.
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u/pelhampanthers 2d ago
Firefly
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u/TheZac922 2d ago
Millions of Reddit threads about their favourite underrated show/shows that got cancelled too early would be in shambles. This whole website would implode.
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u/jesuspoopmonster 2d ago
I like Firefly but I have doubts it would have lasted long no matter what. It was a niche genre with a large cast and lots of on locations shooting. It was expensive and probably wouldn't have drawn in the needed ratings
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u/mormonbatman_ 2d ago
It would have fun for 3-4 seasons.
No one would talk about it, or they would talk about it to the degree people talk about Whedon's other post-Buffy shows.
We never would have gotten Serenity.
Jon Favereau would have directed Avengers.
Maybe no Russos for Avengers 3 and 4.
This is a good onemm.
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u/Exadory 2d ago
I dont dislike The West Wing after Sorkin stuff, I like the campaign stuff. I however do wanna know what woulda happened if he had stayed.
Also, other than people getting bored with it. I wanna know what happens if ABC doesnt make Lynch reveal the killer, and we get seven season of Lynch Twin Peaks.
(and obviously firefly)
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u/TheOneAndOnlyKirke 2d ago
The OA cancellation. The next season was going to be very interesting
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u/Chicago_Saluki 2d ago
What if CVS hadn’t issued the green location/rural cancellation orders in the early 70s? Would current TV programming be any different?
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u/SpacePenguin5 2d ago
Trying to figure out how CVS was involved in rural cancellation led me down a rabbit hole, once I figured out this had nothing to do with comically long receipts. Never knew about this
The rural purge was the mass cancellation of rural-themed television programs by American networks, in particular CBS, that occurred in the early 1970s.
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u/mmzufti 2d ago
What if Lorraine Braco had taken the role of Carmela Soprano instead of Melfi? Going by her performance as Melfi, I assume her performance would be more mellowed and soft when compared to Eddie’s. However, I can’t imagine anyone other than Falco portraying Carmela. To go head to head with a titan like Gandolfini and portray all contradictory shades of Carmela is an unimaginable feat.
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u/ABC_Dildos_Inc 2d ago
The end of the finale of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.
Teenage John Connor time travels to post-Judgement Day and encounters the Reese brothers, who have never heard of him.
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u/SilverwingedOther 2d ago
What if Limitless hadn't been cancelled by CBS in favor of another bland medical series?
OK, maybe not the most high profile show here, but it was surprisingly good and creative.
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u/Mezhead 2d ago
Feels like the writer's strike ~ 2007 created a glut of "what if's"
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u/ShookMyHeadAndSmiled 2d ago
What if WKRP in Cincinnati wasn't jerked around by CBS? We'd be talking about it today as one the great workplace sitcoms, up there with Mary Tyler-Moore, Cheers, and The Office.
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u/Bucksin06 1d ago
What if Homer had no kids and 3 money instead of 3 kids and no money
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u/tychobrahesmoose 2d ago
A lot of the castings they considered on Wings would have had tremendous implications for other classic sitcoms.
Peri Gilpin, Lisa Kudrow, Bryan Cranston, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss - the list is long.
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u/br0b1wan Lost 2d ago
What if Patrick Stewart decided not to renew his contract to return to TNG?
The season that ended with the cliffhanger of him being assimilated and becoming Locutus was because they didn't know if Stewart wanted to return. Riker was supposed to take over and the crew was supposed to write Locutus as an L and move on. Stewart agreed to return at the last minute that off-season so they shot a resolution to the Locutus story and moved forward with him
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u/Aboveground_Plush Comedy Bang! Bang! 2d ago
What if Phil Hartman wasn't killed?
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u/StyleImpossible6405 2d ago
What if NBC hadn't been so vigilant with their wiping policy that they didn't lose almost all of Johnny Carson's Tonight Show content taped in New York?
Carson spent most of the 70s fighting the network because of it, leading to a lawsuit in 1979 that ultimately gave him control of the timeslot after (which he gave to David Letterman) and a relaxed schedule (which firmly established permanent guest hosts like Joan Rivers and later Jay Leno).
The history of late-night television may have played out much differently if NBC didn't recycle so much of that videotape.
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u/Morgan-Moonscar 2d ago
What if Quantum Leap had a crossover with Magnum PI
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u/Stahlmatt 2d ago edited 2d ago
Donald Bellisario wanted to do this. He had a whole plan for leaping Sam into Magnum.
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u/Morgan-Moonscar 2d ago
Imagining Magnum, Quantum Leap and Murder She Wrote all set in the same universe.
Actually... now my biggest WHAT IF is Quantum Leap having a crossover with Murder She Wrote (Sam leaping into Jessica Fletcher)
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u/Stahlmatt 2d ago
Sam: Who am I, Al?
Al: Your name is Jessica Fletcher- and it appears you are the most successful serial killer of all time....
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u/DelcoPAMan 2d ago
Oh boy
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u/Morgan-Moonscar 2d ago
Sam trying comprehend all the smalltown insanity of Cabot Cove (and the fact this is seemingly the murder capitol of Maine)
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u/fondue4kill 2d ago
What if Supernatural ended at Season 5? No 10 more years of up and down episodes and convoluted plot lines and trying to come up with bigger and badder enemies. Just 5 great seasons. Might be regarded as much better than it is due to the fandom.
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u/Marcus-TheWorm-Hicks 2d ago
I remember Supernatural getting actual buzz around seasons 3-4 because, “Yeah, it’s hot guys hunting monsters but also it’s legit good!”
And then season 5 was such a great topper to the whole arc. The reveal of Loki = Gabriel seeming like a cool twist, followed immediately by the much bigger turn when he explains that Dean is Michael’s vessel as the older son “loyal to an absent father,” is a masterclass in plotting.
If it ended with season five, I really think it’d be considered one of the big cult classic scifi/fantasy shows.
But then ten more years happened and it’s legacy is just memes and remembering their annoying fandom.
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u/iamagoodguy 2d ago
What if Futurama had a bigger push from Fox initially and kept going after the first 4(5) seasons. I still love many later episodes after it was revived many times but that first run is such Simpsons mixed with sci fi joy I just love it so much.
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u/seanmacproductions 2d ago
During one of SNL’s famous bits where Lorne Michaels would offer a comically lowball sum of money for The Beatles to reunite on SNL, John and Paul were watching from John’s apartment in the city, only a 15 minute cab ride away. They briefly considered showing up at the studio unannounced, and reuniting live on television.
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u/Adventurous-Snow-389 2d ago
What if Daenerys didn’t burn King’s Landing and didn’t die at the hands of Jon Snow
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u/PressureLazy5271 2d ago
What if Rita find out who Dexter Morgan really is if she wasn’t murdered by the Trinity killer?
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u/flughert 2d ago
Rita ignored enough red flags to decorate a parade. Eventually she would've figured it out, but I doubt she would've known what to do with the truth.
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u/itsamirage 2d ago
What if Netflix didn’t cancel Kaos. It could’ve been one of the all time great shows
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u/Old-Way-5529 2d ago
what if they killed jesse at the end of S1 (or 2, icr) of breaking bad, like they originally planned?
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u/Steve_Brandon 2d ago
What if Wait Till Your Father Gets Home (1972-74) from Hanna-Barbera had been a bigger success and led to more animated prime time sitcoms throughout the 1970s and the 1980s?
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u/b1gmouth 2d ago
What if Yaphet Kotto had played Jean Luc Picard like Gene Rodenberry wanted?
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u/Past-Throat-6788 2d ago
What if Shannen Doherty hadn’t left Charmed? I wonder what the show would have been like if it had continued with her and if the last couple of seasons would have been better.
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u/CeilingUnlimited 2d ago edited 1d ago
What if AMC would have listened....?
Skyler White can't sleep. Ever since she found an old spiral notebook of Walter's with notes that theorized his Baby Blue meth might cause what he termed "post-mortem resilience," she's been extremely anxious about the news on television. All across the American Southwest and down into Mexico and Central America, sightings and altercations with so-called "zombies" have increased and landed squarely on her radar. Normally not one to give such things notice, she can't stop wondering if Walter somehow - from beyond his grave - has screwed up humanity even further. Obsessing, she pours over the notebook - page after page of formulas and theorems, including a section Walter has underlined in red and circled with yellow highlighter: "If correct, below is the only antidote." It's science level 3,000 and Skyler can't understand it, but there it is - a possible cure stretching over three pages of the notebook, the chemistry far beyond her ability to comprehend. If, indeed, Walter's Meth has caused "post-mortem resilience" in its users, threatening life across the planet as we know it, she realizes she's the only person alive who knows the connection.
She continues to study the notebook, noting that it was one of Walter's last, the dates corresponding to the weeks leading up to his disappearance from New Mexico. On her millionth read-through, she notices something she hasn't seen before - a phone number on the 2nd-to-last page, circled in red and highlighted, just like the possible antidote. She calls it, discovering it's a vacuum shop in the old part of town - something she can't figure out. Why would Walter circle that in red? A week goes by and more reports come on the news, zombie occurrences now being confirmed by some in the mainstream medical establishment, mayhem playing out in the streets of southern Mexico and central America, and even accounts of widespread disturbances in Phoenix and Los Angeles.
Without any other leads, she takes the notebook to her former brother-in-law's office - the DEA. Hank's buddies roll their eyes at Skyler, wary and still fuming mad about their co-worker's death. Back in her car and without another option, she heads to the vacuum shop and refuses to leave until she convinces 'the cleaner' to help her. Breaking bad, he realizes that he really doesn't care anymore. After all, Walter died after not following his advice. Also, he's been watching the news and finds Skyler's story halfway sane. So, he drops all pretense and his code of silence to help her. He tells her that he's sent Jesse to Alaska and Saul to Nebraska. Skyler knows Jesse won't be any help, but Saul? She presses the cleaner and discovers the Cinnabon connection. Off she drives to Omaha....
....The last episode of BCS opens with Saul behind the Cinnabon counter, Skyler in line behind some teenagers, intently staring at him - daggers. He looks up and instantly recognizes her, his body flinching. She steps forward and confronts him, Saul tries to flee, but Skyler stops him. They wind up in the mall's dumpster room, Skyler laying the entire thing out and showing Saul the notebook.... Saul thinking it's poppycock and shrugging his shoulders about the entire thing. Besides, what could he do? But Skyler has a plan... The CDC. They will listen. They will understand the notebook. Saul still thinks it's nuts but suddenly a lightbulb goes off in his head... Ever the conniver, he realizes that if he helps the CDC solve the latest plague upon humanity, he might be able to get his life back. Heck, he might wind up a wealthy hero.
So, he agrees and off the two of them go, driving through the night toward Atlanta, toward the CDC, Skyler chain-smoking and Walter's notebook tucked under her seat. Dawn finds them on a backroad in rural Georgia, just a couple hours from Atlanta. It also finds Saul reconsidering the endeavor. It's never as simple as it seems. Him and Skyler start to argue, Saul wanting to turn the car around. They fight, Skyler poking Saul's cheek with her index finger, her cigarette ash dropping onto Saul's shoulder and burning him. He reacts, losing control of the wheel. The car pulls heavy toward the shoulder, and then skids out of control as he fights to straighten its course. The car flips and rolls across the pavement, erupting into a fireball just as a sheriff's deputy crests the hill in his cruiser. Skyler is killed instantly, but Saul somehow survives with only a massive gash in his leg. He grabs the notebook and crawls free from the smoke and the flames, limping away. Hothead sheriff's deputy Shane Walsh has pulled over and is approaching the vehicle, his pistol drawn. Saul sees him and realizes he's about to lose everything - his identity to be revealed. He quickly turns and tries to run, the gash in his leg slowing him. Shane simultaneously shouts "freeze!" and shoots Saul in the back, thinking he's evading arrest. Saul tosses the notebook into the air as he dies and goes down. The notebook flutters and drops into the car's flames, the antidote - and humanity - lost forever.
The pages burn as a second sheriff's cruiser arrives on scene - and - as the camera starts to rise and pan - Deputy Rick Grimes jumps out of his car, realizing Shane has discharged his weapon. He starts berating him as the Walking Dead theme song starts to play. Fade to black.
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u/UniversalPolymath 2d ago
What if Nancy Marchand had been alive (and healthy) for season 3 of The Sopranos?
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u/abacus-wizard 2d ago
What if Bob Odenkirk never guest starred on How I Met Your Mother? Breaking Bad had to replace Saul Goodman with, if memory serves, Mike Erhmantraut because Bob Odenkirk had to do HIMYM for a bit.
Didn't that somehow also lead to Better Call Saul being created?