Missed Opportunities

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cam_winter

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What are some examples where shows had an opportunity to do something awesome but didn't seize it?

The biggest one I can think of at the moment is that the Simpsons didn't get to go with Comic Book Guy's original name Louis Lane. The throwaway gag where they revealed his real name was funny, but they could have built an entire, possibly hilariously geeky, episode around the idea that he is obsessed and tormented because he has a name so close to Lois Lane.
 
I don't know if you would call it a missed opportunity or not but I remember when I first heard about the Billy & Mandy/Kids Next Door crossover, I thought for sure there would be a bathroom jokes about Numbuh 1 and Numbuh 2
 
How about the potential for having Toph from Avatar developing a crush on Sokka? It's brought up once in the series, then completely dropped. It might have added some extra drama and poignance to the series.
 
Justice League:Crisis On Two Earths missed a golden opportunity to do a DC Universe movie set in the DC Animated Universe (DCAU). It was still a pretty good movie though, but it would've been really cool to bring back Kevin Conroy and everybody and have it actually be based in the Justice League series's continuity.
 
Hey Arnold had a huge missed opportunity with the first movie. Trying to compete with Recess with a similarly-styled "save the neighborhood" theme was incredibly disappointing. Mostly everyone who watched the show knows that the mystery behind Arnold's past had to be solved some way, and The Journal should have led to the feature film of Arnold going to San Lorenzo. *Sigh* I guess that's what fanfiction is for now....
 
In South Park, Luigi, Mark and Rebecca Costwald should had desserved more cameo appearances.

I guess I might get my shares of flames if I mention the hidden tomboy side of Trixie Tang in the Fairly Oddparents.

In Total Drama Action. I think voting off Geoff and Bridgette so early might be a mistake. I knew they become host of the Aftermath but I read a good fanfic on Fanfiction.net titled "Total Drama Action Redux" where it was Katie and Sadie the host of the Aftermath. Of course, Justin dropping his role of antagonist when Courtney arrived was a mistake as well.
 
The episode of Phienas and Ferb "Oh There You Are Perry!". It was an episode that had a enough idea for a full length episode, but was just a very mediocre standard ep with no interaction between Perry and his new owners, pit him against a completely one note unfunny scene-chewing new nemesis, and a pretty good song that got undercut by that stupid "Larry" joke (which was dumb because there are PLENTY of female names that rhyme with Perry)

Also, having Haru, Teo and The Duke join the Gaang after the Day of Black Sun. All they did was run around in the background and bail with Hakoda when the Western Air Temple is attacked.
 
Unless you mean appearances by Uncle Scrooge and Donald's nephews, there were at least three Darkwing Duck episodes with Gizmoduck in it (thus counting as a crossover IMO).
 
As much as I enjoy Eight Crazy Nights, it's a shame the writers focused so much on the gross out jokes. I think there was a lot of untapped potential in the characters themselves. (Then again, it is an Adam Sandler movie.)
 
It would have been great to at least get the voice cast from the DCAU back, I prefer the designs of Crisis on Two Earths over their DCAU counterparts, with the exception of Batman. So I'm glad they didn't set it in the DCAU.
 
A ducktales and Darkwing Duck crossover, how the heck did Disney not realize that this should have happened?

This one from Who framed Roger Rabbit which leaves me questioning to this day, Tex wolf cameo. I would have laughed to see Wolfie going nuts over Jessica during her performance(I just picture it as him being busted by two cops as they take the wolf away, he kills himself and his soul flies out of a ceiling window howling). Too bad they couldnt get the rights to the other MGM cartoon characters despite droopy making a cameo.

And if ones we hate count as well, they missed out on how Harris met Lonette in Cool world.
 
I've always wondered how certain shows would turn out if they were picked up by the networks they were originally pitched for. I recall Nickelodeon passed on Ed Edd n Eddy and Adventure Time, while CN passed on SpongeBob. The fact that EEnE lasted a decade on a network known for keeping shows from being produced for so long is quite the anomaly.
 
Spongebob Squarepants isn't over yet, so I guess this is still a possibility. (Though i'd rather the staff from Seasons 1-3 handle this premise) I would love to see a prequel episode where Spongebob moves out of his parents house, and meets Patrick and Squidward.

Sonic X was a massively wasted opportunity. It was the first (and only) Sonic cartoon to stay true to the videogames, featuring characters like Super Sonic, Amy Rose, Chao, Tikal, etc. but then the staff decided to have Sonic hop to another dimension and hangout with some annoying humans. Season 2 could've easily rectified this, since Sonic was back in his homeworld, but then they decided to bring back one of the humans and put all of the characters in outer space. WHY?

King of the Hill should've done an episode where Dale finds out the truth about John Redcorn. I know the truth would've destroyed his family, and his life, but he can't go his whole life being played for like a fool by Nancy. (I did have an idea for a twisted final episode of the series. Dale finds out the truth, snaps and goes on a killing spree against Nancy, Redcorn, and everyone who knew the truth, but never told him. Only Hank and Peggy survive. The FBI puts them in the witness protection plan, and relocates them to Highland with new names and identities. Hank's name is changed to Anderson. (Two idiotic teenagers who live nearby then go on to make their lives a living hell..)
 
IIRC Nickelodeon also passed on Phineas & Pherb. I wonder if music would've been that much of a focus if Disney wasn't so captured by the Gitchie Gitchie Goo song and it went with Nick instead. And interesting...I didn't know SpongeBob was pitched to CN.



I always felt the same way--not necessarily Dale going on a killing spree--but I always felt it was unfair Dale always scratched the surface but never actually found out about the affair. I mean, yeah, his oblivion was a fun running gag, but eventually I always expected him to find out.
 
Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics. All the characters that HB had and could have used for the third team and we get (yech) the Really Rottens.:sad:
 
I can think of a few, mostly pilots and the like.

Plastic Man not getting picked up. I mean, this cartoon was, well, it was incredibly cartoony and faithful to the character. John K of all people stamped his seal of approval on it. For the life of me, I can't figure out why they went with Johnny Test.

Ultraman USA not getting anything outside of a DTV film. Hanna Barbera apparently worked with Tsubyara productions on animating this film, but balked at making a full series, which led Tsubyara to go to Australia of all places to produce a live action show. It's either that or Ted Turner took one look at the above fight scene and shook his head.

And on that tangent- Swat Kats getting killed by Ted himself. It was bad enough the show was dumbed down to hell and back. It was still THE most popular show in syndication at the time. Why did Ted kill it? Because he didn't like how it looked compared to Captain Planet. I would have EASILY taken Ultraman and Swat Kats over Planet any day of the week.

I'm going to third this as well. If you take the time to wrap up every other plot point, you should have done this one as well.
 
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