What Would’ve Happened Next on ‘So Help Me Todd,’ ‘Quantum Leap’ & More Canceled Shows
There are few things more frustrating as a TV viewer than your favorite show ending with not just a few loose ends but a major cliffhanger. Such was the case for more than a few canceled shows from the 2023-2024 broadcast TV season.
The good news? For some of those cliffhangers, we’ve gotten scoop on what would have come next if the show had been renewed since the creative teams behind those shows had started planning; while in some cases, they were able to craft a series vs. season finale ending, others could not. For example, Star Trek: Discovery was able to go back to film an epilogue that revealed the future of not just the show but its main character. And So Help Me Todd‘s creator had the rest of the series (five more seasons!) planned out, and he shared those plans with TV Insider.
Scroll down as we take a look at what we know about what would have happened next on those and more canceled TV shows from the 2023-2024 season.
CSI: Vegas
An early cut of the finale, about which TV Insider spoke with star Paula Newsome, introduced a new serial killer that presumably would have been a major arc in a fourth season of the CBS drama. Unfortunately, the series was canceled, and fans were left with only a slight cliffhanger: the future for Josh (Matt Lauria) and Allie (Mandeep Dhillon). The two seemed poised to maybe finally get together, and Newsome admitted to us that she doesn’t think Max would have necessarily been a fan of that workplace romance. “Truly, how do you do that? You know what I’m saying? They always talk about a lawyer who represents himself has a dummy for a client. So how do you separate your heart and your head? But that’s just more grease for the mill in the land of CSI: Vegas,” she said. And if was, in fact, what we saw of Max’s reaction if the two did get together in a fourth season, could that have led to more tension between Max and Josh and Max and Allie?
Extended Family
The first (and only) season of the NBC comedy didn’t end with a cliffhanger, which executive producer Mike O’Malley told Deadline was by design. “My last show, Heels, ended on a cliffhanger. There was a possibility of maybe getting four or five additional episodes [of Extended Family] if things after the strike didn’t get picked up. It really didn’t put us in a position to end on a cliffhanger because we didn’t know up until the last minute that [the finale] was going to be this season’s last episode,” he explained. As for not having Trey (Donald Faison) and Julia (Abigail Spencer) get married during the season, he shared, “Before the strike, we were looking to end on a rehearsal dinner the night before they got married. But we wanted to slow that down a little bit. We thought if we’re lucky enough to get a second season, leading up toward that would be a better idea.”
The Good Doctor
While the medical drama did have enough time to craft a series finale, that doesn’t mean there weren’t already plans in place if there was an eighth season. “I would’ve introduced Glassman’s [Richard Schiff] cancer at the end of Season 7 and then played that into [Season] 8. And then I’m not sure about Claire [Antonia Thomas], but I probably would want to save her return for something as substantial as this,” co-showrunner Liz Friedman told TV Insider. (Glassman died, while Claire survived and was shown in the future after a time jump.)
Not Dead Yet
The ABC comedy ended with someone finding out Nell (Gina Rodriguez) sees ghosts: Duncan (Brad Garrett), following a near-death experience. That could’ve led to a “really yummy and delicious” plot in a third season, Rodriguez told TV Insider after the finale, “and set up a lot of obstacles for Nell, who’s still trying to keep this very close to the chest because she doesn’t really know what it is … It sets up just a lot of opportunities to open up a lot of storyline, a lot of fun.”
Quantum Leap
Sure, the drama did end with Ben (Raymond Lee) still jumping through time, rather than being brought home, but at least he and ex-fiancée Addison (Caitlin Bassett) were reunited when she joined him on the leaps. At the time of the finale, before the cancellation, co-showrunner and executive producer Dean Georgaris shared with TV Insider that a third season would have explored “a two-person leap, but I don’t think it’s always going to go the way they expect. I don’t necessarily think just because they’re together in one leap means they’re automatically together in the next leap. I think we’re all excited about, who becomes the hologram and how does the hologram work and what other discussions does having a swap code if it works or if they can get it to work again bring up for the people in Quantum Leap? If we really start to explore that you can go in and out of a leap, does Ian [Mason Alexander Park] want to go? Does Jenn [Nanrisa Lee] want to go? Is there an occasion where Magic [Ernie Hudson] would want to go? Or can they not get the code to work again? In which case you’ve got now two people you’re trying to bring back—or are you trying to bring them back?”
So Help Me Todd
This legal dramedy ended on quite the cliffhanger, with Margaret (Marcia Gay Harden) framed for the crimes of Merritt Folding—who stepped off the elevator! Creator Scott Prendergast detailed what would have come next for TV Insider—and took us through the series finale in Season 7. Among the highlights: Merritt would have been the big bad for Season 3, Margaret would have been arrested, and Todd (Skylar Astin) and Susan (Inga Schlingmann) would have gotten back together.
Star Trek: Discovery
The Paramount+ drama got something that shows very rarely do: the chance to go back and film a coda after learning about the cancellation after production had wrapped on the season. And so everything following Michael (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Book (David Ajala) on the beach at Saru’s (Doug Jones) wedding was added to give the captain (admiral in the future) and the ship a send-off.
When executive producer Michelle Paradise learned about the cancellation, “I was in the very early stages of looking at [Season 6],” she told TV Insider. “But one of the things we always knew since ‘Calypso’ was done is that we had always wanted to find a way to tie that up. So I was in the early stages of trying to work on a story where we would ultimately tie that up.”
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