10. Joanie Loves Chachi (1982)

10. Joanie Loves Chachi (1982)

If there were one Happy Days character fans wanted to spend more time with, no question it was The Fonz...’s cousin. Or so Miller-Boyett Productions gambled when it created a spin-off around burgeoning teen idol Scott Baio and his character Chachi, whose sweet romance with Joanie Cunningham (Erin Moran) formed the backbone of several Happy Days episodes—and garnered Baio thousands of fan letters per week. Ultimately, though, giving them their own series panned out about as well as Chachi’s would-be bandana-tourniquet fad: Joanie Loves Chachi lasted just 17 episodes, with viewers initially turning in to see the young couple try to realize their musical ambitions in Chicago, then tuning right back out once they realized every episode would find them actually singing to each other. There were other factors, to be sure: Baio would later blame its failure on being abandoned by the Happy Days writers and (ever classy) his late co-star’s “chemical issues.” Whatever the reason, audiences clearly decreed that, at best, they only kinda liked Chachi. [Sean O’Neal]

11. Models Inc. (1995)

Aaron Spelling’s spin-off of a spin-off centered on modeling agent Hillary Michaels (Linda Gray), who’d first appeared on Melrose Place—a show that had, itself, grown out of Beverly Hills, 90210. While Hillary’s daughter, Amanda Woodward (Heather Locklear), ruled over that apartment complex’s sexy morons, Hillary’s agency employed a pair of sisters, a beautiful rube, and a young Carrie-Anne Moss. Despite Spelling’s backing and Gray’s own pedigree—she’d previously earned an Emmy nomination as Dallas’ Sue Ellen Ewing—Models Inc. stumbled as it hit the catwalk. The show’s storytelling was more baroque than breezy, the majority of the cast personable but dull. Creators Charles Pratt Jr. and Frank South had planned to explore Hillary and Amanda’s contentious relationship in the second season, but they never got the chance—nor the ratings boost a Locklear guest appearance might have provided. Adding Dynasty vet Emma Samms as an even more ruthless executive proved to be a desperately batshit, midseason turn and it failed. Models Inc. was canceled after just one season. [Danette Chavez]

12. Gloria (1982)

All In The Family was responsible for a multitude of spin-offs—The Jeffersons, Maude, Archie Bunker’s Place, Good Times, 704 Hauser—of varying degrees of success. Near the bottom of that scale would be 1982’s Gloria, which revolved around the least interesting member of the Bunker family, Sally Struthers’ Gloria Stivic, daughter to Archie and Edith and newly abandoned wife of Meathead. As the pilot explained, Rob Reiner’s Meathead/Mike had run off to a commune with one of his students, leaving Gloria and her young son Joey (future Aquabats frontman Christian Jacobs) to soldier on alone, with Gloria finding work as the assistant to a kindly old veterinarian played by Burgess Meredith. With zero involvement from All In The Family creator Norman Lear, and without appearances from Carroll O’Connor’s Archie—who, as Struthers later explained, felt shut out after the show relocated to a new production studio, and vaguely insulted after it added a dog named “Archie”—Gloria couldn’t make it on her own, after all. The show ended after just one season. [Gwen Ihnat]