“Mork & Mindy,” the latter of which originated from what was first thought of as a “horrible” episode script. (There’s also “Joanie Loves Chachi,” though as the saying goes, you can’t win ’em all.) On the other end of the spectrum, you’ve got shows like “Seinfeld,” which drew impressive audiences back in the day but didn’t give birth to any sort of spin-off series.
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However, it wasn’t for a lack of trying that the “show about nothing” has nothing by way of spin-offs. George Costanza actor Jason Alexander pitched a couple of spin-off ideas, one of which would have centered on Cosmo Kramer’s (Michael Richards) lawyer, Jackie Chiles (Phil Morris), who was a parody of O.J. Simpson’s defense attorney Johnnie Cochran. And as it turns out, Morris made a similar pitch, as he stated at a 1999 press event (via the Chicago Tribune) that he was developing a spin-off that would see his fast-talking lawyer character working at a “very austere white law firm.” He added that “Seinfeld” co-creators Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David were on board as executive producers and that he was hoping for a midseason 1999 launch on the parent show’s network, NBC.
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The series, as Morris explained, was likely not going to feature anyone from the main cast of “Seinfeld,” as the actor doubted Richards was up for reprising Kramer. “Julia [Louis-Dreyfuss] isn’t that interested in another weekly grind, and I don’t think Jason is, either,” he continued. “Jackie has his own energy and conflicts. We’ll go from there.”
