Alternate histories of TV shows

Since i'm posting for the first time....
"China Beach" becomes a huge hit for ABC on Wednesday nights, that ABC decides to grab "Matlock" away from NBC to air before "China Beach" and the ratings go through the roof. both "CB" and "Matlock" last a long time on ABC. With MNF also doing well, and their Tuesday Night shows doing well, ABC seems to be dominating Prime Time. ABC also gets more College Football, taking the CFA away from CBS, while giving up their portion of the baseball contract to NBC, who shifts their Saturday games to 3:30.
 
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Father Ted - Ted wakes up in a cold sweat and realises its all a dream...or is it? Father Jack is a teetotal moral campaigner, Mrs Doyle is a brothel owning madam, Dougal is a university professor and Bishop Brennan is a hippy peace campaigner. Ted himself is a middle manager contemplating the church as a career. Or at least he was!
 
China Beach: not much has changed expect this show runs up until let's say the late 90s, when Dana Delany decides to get a career in movies. ABC let's her do an China Beach reuinon movie, then she gets the lead in a movie based on, you guessed it- the Vietnam War, continuing in her McMurphy role, as a nurse. The movie becomes a big hit.

St. Elsewhere: nothing changes, expect that ABC grabs it for their Tuesday night schedule, and it performs well causing the show to last until let's say 1994.
 
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Sale Of The Century: nothing changes much expect that the Winners Board stays put. However, once a player clears the entire board he or she is retired, with no risk involved. SOTC lasts until the early 90s, when NBC needs room for A Closer Look a half-hour information program hosted by Faith Daniels. On the last daytime SOTC, someone wins a car and retires. SOTC goes into syndication the next season, with much larger prizes than the daytime show, and quickly is popular in early fringe.
 
Married with Children: Not much has changed except for a few. The series debuts on March 15, 1987 instead of April 5 like IOTL. With David Garrison still on It's Your Move, Steve Rhodes is played by Charles Rocket. The series gets a 12th season as FOX doesn't move it to different slots on different nights, and gets a proper finale with the Bundys winning the lottery.

MWC Scenario 2: It still gets cancelled, but FOX decides to pick up the spinoff to MWC entitled NO MA'AM. That runs until 2000.

Beverly Hills, 90210: Premieres in 1989 instead of 1990.

Also, creator Darren Star goes with his original idea (Potomac, 20854. He is from Potomac, MD). The show only lasts one season.

Freaks and Geeks:

Scenario 1: Judd Apatow's friend at FOX, Peter Roth, isn't replaced by Doug Herzog from Comedy Central, and the show Sick In the Head (a show about a young therapist. It would have starred David Krumholtz, Amy Poehler, and Kevin Corrigan) is ordered to series in Jan. 1999. As a result, Apatow and Paul Feig decide to put Freaks and Geeks on the back burner.

Scenario 2: The show lasts two more seasons. We get to see Lindsay, Kim, Ken, Nick, and Daniel (after he dropped out and back in) graduate.

Fates of the cast:

Weirs: Lindsay's parents would find out about her tour with the Greatful Dead. Also, Paul Feig mentioned something about how she may have had to deal with an extended acid trip or soemthing. She is probably grounded for several months, and her 11th grade year turns out to be a waste. However, I can see her buckling down and doing well her senior year, which gets her into a good college. As for Sam, Feig talked about making him a drama club geek. I am not seeing it. I think that Sam wanted to get away from "geeky" pursuits (he probably only played D&D in the season one finale because Daniel played). If I was responsible for writing a second season, I would have had Sam work with his father at the new department store (Harold's store, A-1 Sporting Goods, would have closed down because of the opening of the big box store) to save up for a car and to be able to fund his lifestyle. I would have also had him become cooler slowly but surely (and taller if John Daley got tall around that time) and start dating more (I would have had him going out with Maureen Sampson, and I would have also invented a new character for him to go out with that he also had a crush on [she would be a year younger, and she would have been played by Kaley Cuoco or Mischa Barton]).

Freaks: Since Lindsay's parents found out, I could see them telling Kim's mother about what they did all summer. Also, I think that Feig was thinking about making Kim pregnant (from the Dead tour, not Daniel). Her junior year wouldn't have been much better than Lindsay's. Also, I can see Nick breaking up with Sarah (after telling her that he still liked Lindsay). However, his feelings for Lindsay wane after junior year, and he gets a new girlfriend. He also continues to work with Harold Weir and take drum lessons, and he joins the Army upon graduation (his dad would have made him).

As for Daniel, I can see him dropping out for a time, but after Mr. Rosso talks to Nick and Ken (and maybe Lindsay depending when it happened), Daniel decides to return after finding out that he only needs 10 credits or so to graduate. After saving up from some part time jobs, he eventually goes to an auto tech school. Him and Sam become better friends as the show goes on. He still also plays D&D with Sam (and Bill, Gordon, and Harris) from time to time when they can. Ken even gets involved with it.

Geeks: Feig said that Bill would have eventually become a jock. I am not sure how that would have worked out. I know that Martin Starr was a jock in real life, but his character was pretty uncoordinated and immature. As for Neil, though, I can see him becoming a part of the Glee Club like Feig said that he would have (to separate himself from his parents and their failing marriage). He also starts to grow apart from Bill and Sam.
 
CHICOM! Combat's Hanley and Saunders show up at Inchon and lead their company against the merciless horde of Red Munchies
 
It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia - "The Gang Buys a Boat" is never made, and instead "The Gang Gets Successful" takes its place. As a result, "How Mac Got Fat" becomes a completely different episode (instead of being a quasi-flashback episode using footage from "The Gang Gets Successful", it's a quasi-flashback episode detailing the Gang's attempts of making a sequel to "Super Size Me" using Mac as the lead).
 
A-Team-Ate-Teen

Remake of the 1980's series 'The A Team' running on HBO for two seasons (2015-2016). Echoing the Bo Bregdahl controversy still fresh in the mind of the viewers, the eerie follows the exploit of the four members of the nominal A-team 18 (hence the name).

At the start of the series, the team is held hostage by a nondescript Islamic terrorist group after being captured in 'ennemy territory' during a deep intrusion raid gone bad. They are released due to a political controversial prisoner swap, but immediately placed in detention pending an investigation on the nature of their raid. Due to some shady dealings surrounding their unit and the exact nature of their raid, the time their plane lands on US soil, the press, pushed by a rather shady US senator has already branded them as traitors and criminals. However, by the time the plane lands, they are no longer aboard, having made their escape on one of the refueling stops. Knowing that there will be no safe place for them until they cleared their name, the team decides to tackle the problem head-on and goes back to the US to investigate. In the meantime they also make some money as mercenaries on jobs organized for them by the shady 'Big Mama' Wesson, a Detroit wheeler-dealer / neighborhood activist / robin hood justice warrior.

The series is noted for playing in the year 2018, at the time of filming still three years in the future. Yet, it almost earily predicted real life by incorporating a back story of the 2016 elections being fought between Democrat 'Catherine Carter-Kennedy', a career politician and 'Rushmore Limbeck', a former talk show host turned tea party populist. At times both 'CCK' and Limbeck are suggested to be behind the cover-up of the A-Team mission.

Fitting for a HBO series, the show was gritty and direct and offers no clear heroes and villains. The Team, Big Mama, CCK and Limbeck, all have jobs that are controversial and all play fast and loose with the law as well as with moral principles. However the series also had its fair share of action and real clever trickery and one could watch virtually every episode as a straightforward heist movie without bothering about the back story.

In the end it was this duality that doomed the series. Critics often derided it as HBO's attempt at making a pulp superhero series like in imitation of the ones like 'Flash' or 'Green Arrow' airing on Fox, but had to load it with their HBO gravitas.
Although it had solid ratings, the series did not live up to the networks' expectations and was canceled after its second season.

Viewers had to wait two more years until real life 2018 to learn whether Miss Carter-Kennedy or Mr. Limbeck won the election.
 
Rob Grant and Doug Naylor have more control over the making of the US pilot of Red Dwarf and manage to persuade Chris Barrie to reprise his roll of Rimmer. They recognise that there is no point just refilming the British series - they need to do something different. One way of doing this is changing the characters of most of the remaining main parts. They cast Craig Bierko in the roll of Lister and manage to get Terry Farrell to play the Cat instead of Hinton Battle. Robert Llewellyn is cast as Kryten and Jane Leeves as Holly.

They manage to get the series commissioned and the first season is reasonably popular, although most fans still prefer the UK version. Due to falling ratings the series is cancelled half way through the second season.

Cheers,
Nigel.

I will say that the US version of Red Dwarf is made and that is a success and lasts for 10 series.
 
The Simpsons - “Who shot Mr. Burns? Pt2” Instead of Maggie, it is revealed that Lisa had shot Burns by disguising herself as Maggie. She is then promptly arrested(Also no Principal and the Pauper)
 
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