7 TV spin-offs that spun out instead

TV now has enough spin-offs to make an Olympic figure skater dizzy. This fall, Fox is giving us a Batman prequel called “Gotham,” while CW’s “Arrow” will bond with a new superhero buddy, “The Flash.” CW is also working on a “Supernatural” spin-off, while CBS is extending two long-in-the-tooth franchises with “NCIS: New Orleans” and “CSI: Cyber.”

Yet CBS passed on “How I Met Your Dad,” a proposed spin-off of the long-running “How I Met Your Mother.” And emails leaked by a bored NSA intern reveal other spin-offs that didn’t quite make it onto the fall sked, including:

Law & Order: Fashion Victims Unit E! Entertainment Television’s first police procedural would have followed Joan Rivers, Kelly Osbourne and Giuliana Rancic as they patrolled Rodeo Drive with Tasers, ready to mete out swift justice to anyone caught wearing white after Labor Day.

The Orphan Blacklist A breakdown in negotiations between BBC America and NBC scuttled this prospective series about a feisty FBI profiler with daddy issues who discovers that her own clones are vying with her for the affections of a charming sociopath played by James Spader.

America’s Got Zombies In this proposed spin-off from “The Walking Dead,” Howie Mandel, Heidi Klum and Howard Stern were to have crisscrossed post-apocalyptic America in an armored Humvee, auditioning singing zombies to compete for unlimited supplies of brains.

Real Estate Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. ABC and HGTV failed to come to terms on this reality spin-off in which elite teams from S.H.I.E.L.D. and rival spy agency HYDRA would revisit communities destroyed by their high-tech weaponry, then race to relocate the emotionally shattered survivors in stylish and affordable new homes.

Bates Motel Kitchen Nightmares Norman Bates and his mom were unable to come up with enough money to hire Gordon Ramsay to upgrade their snack bar. Each week another prospective head chef would have been eliminated — permanently.

Throne of Ducks A&E’s first fantasy epic would have opened with a grisly death — the inventor of a popular duck call attacked by flocks of frenzied mallards after mistakenly sounding a mating call — followed by dynastic intrigue as his sons schemed to take over the family business.

Here Comes the Revenge of Two and a Half Broke Girls Two waitresses’ elaborate plan to avenge themselves against snooty Hamptons residents who leave them lousy tips would have been turned upside down by the unexpected arrival of a runaway child beauty pageant contestant.