TV URBAN LEGEND: Charles in Charge tried to spin off three different cast members in the final eight episodes of the series, using the same strange approach for all three attempts.
Generally speaking, once you have had a successful TV series as a producer, the desire is, naturally, to have ANOTHER successful TV series, especially since TV series are generally finite in nature (except for Law & Order: SVU, which will outlast the heat death of the universe), so if you have one show in Season 4, it would be nice to have another show just starting out, so that you can always keep at least one show on TV at any given time. That's the hope, at least. One of the easiest ways to get a new show is to, of course, spin off a show from your existing popular show. When you are spinning off a new show, one of the best ways to do so is to use what is called a "backdoor pilot," which is to say, an episode of the main show that is designed to also act as a pilot for the new series. Therefore, you get the audience of the existing popular show to get used to these new characters on the possible spinoff. I have a whole feature where I spotlight backdoor pilots (including ones that turned into series and ones that did not).
However, no TV show has ever tried something quite so audacious as to what Charles in Charge did in the final eight episodes of its run in 1990, where it did three different backdoor pilots for three different cast members of the series, all of whom were playing different characters than they played on Charles in Charge. It's super weird.
WHAT WAS CHARLES IN CHARGE?
Charles in Charge launched in 1984 as one of a series of TV series that were trying to capitalize on the success of the 1983 hit film, Mr. Mom, where Michael Keaton played a stay at home father whose wife was going back to work. Shows like Who's the Boss, Growing Pains and Charles in Charge all played off the novelty of a man taking on a stereotypically female role. In the case of Charles in Charge, Scott Baio played Charles, a college student who worked as a male live-in nanny to the Pembrokes, a family with three kids (ranging from pre-teen to teen). Baio was just coming off his run as Chachi Arcola on Happy Days. The series only lasted for one season at first, but it was then revived as a syndicated series in 1987, almost two years after Season 1 ended. Charles remained a nanny, but he had a brand-new family, the Powells (who, conveniently, also had three children, ranging from pre-teen to teen). Charles' best friend throughout the series, Buddy Lembeck, was played by Baio's co-star from an early 1980s film, Zapped!, Willie Ames (Aames was also one of the kids on Eight is Enough).
The breakout star of the kids was Nicole Eggert, who played the oldest daughter, Jamie. Ellen Travolta, who had played Chachi's mother on Happy Days, joined the syndicated version of the show, playing Charles' mother. The syndicated version ran for another four season, ending in late 1990. Before it ended, though, the show tried three very unusual backdoor pilots.
WHAT WAS SO STRANGE ABOUT THESE CHARLES IN CHARGE SPINOFFS?
As the series was ending, Baio wanted to see if they could find a way to give Travolta a shot at a spinoff, but producers Kathy and Bill Greer felt that she just wasn't that interesting. However, they were willing to give it a shot, provided that Travolta played a different character. This led to "Almost Family," an episode where Charles visits his Aunt Sally, who happened to be played by...Ellen Travolta! Sally owned a car wash filled with wacky characters. She was going to have to close up shop, but luckily, it was revealed that her ex-husband had messed up some of the books, and she had a big tax rebate coming that would allow her to remain open.
Ellen Travolta in a spiky wig was quite a sight. Travolta's real-life husband played one of the workers at the car wash. Scott Baio directed the episode and co-wrote it with his father, Mario.
Willie Aames' spinoff was a strange one, as the show was willing to try to give Buddy a spinoff, but Aames had tired of the character, so instead played Buddy's cousin, Dudley, who gets a job working at a Hawaiian resort filled with, yes, you guessed it, wacky characters. Charles was offered the gig at the hotel, but when it looked like he couldn't make it, Buddy offered it to his cousin. When Charles arrived in Hawaii, the job was already taken. Dudley was just the same sort of imbecilic character that Buddy was, so I don't know why Aames felt it was worth his while if he didn't want to play Buddy anymore...
Baio directed this one, as well, and producers Kathy and Bill Greer wrote the episode.
That was the same creative team in the final attempt at a spinoff, in the penultimate episode of the series, where middle daughter, Sarah (played by Josie Davis) visits her family in Arizona, where her cousin Amanda looks just like Jamie (and is played by Nicole Eggert). The show was a novel approach, really, as an Eastern European teen is staying with the family as part of an exchange program, and that is used to contrast with the problems that Amanda is going through with the fact that she wants to date a boy who is from Mexico. Amanda has a bratty little sister and a Bill and Ted-esque brother who is roughly her age.
The late David Graf, of Police Academy fame, played the father of the family.
It is worth pointing out that, in recent years, Nicole Eggert has made a number of claims about inappropriate sexual behavior from Baio during her stint on the show, beginning when she was 14 (Baio admits to a sexual relationship with Eggert, but he insists that it did not happen until she was 18). The youngest son on the show during the syndication years, Alexander Polinsky, also made accusations against Baio, claiming he was physically and emotionally abusive. Baio denies all of the allegations.
The legend about the spinoffs is...
STATUS: True
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