5) How I Met Your Dad
After the finale of long-running favourite How I Met Your Mother managed to offend most of the sitcom’s many fans, the show’s creators were really keen on appeasing the viewers by giving them a spinoff.
Rather than a conventional off-shoot featuring familiar characters, How I Met Your Dad would have been independent from HIMYM. The link would have been that it gender-swapped the premise – with Sally recounting how she met her children’s father.
A pilot was made with Greta Gerwig in the lead (and Meg Ryan voicing older Sally in the wraparounds). Unfortunately, CBS and co-creators Carter Bays, Craig Thomas and Emily Spivey disagreed on the direction of the show. While the network wanted to reshoot the pilot with a new cast, the creators wanted a guaranteed full-season order first. Neither backed down and so, we never found out how those kids met their dad.