Entertainment
Kids Today Don't Have To Put Up With Backdoor Pilots
By Jonathan Klotz
| Published
One good thing about the rise of streaming is that studios have given up on backdoor pilots. Low-episode-count streaming shows don’t leave a lot of room for a random episode about two college radio DJs, a New York hair salon, the family farm, or a time-traveler, all of which were among the many, many attempts by producers and studios to keep a franchise running. Back in the day, an episode that barely featured the main characters and followed a side character, or even entirely new characters, meant that someone was testing the waters to see how the new series would work with existing fans. Sometimes it failed; The Nanny’s hair salon is an infamous example, and sometimes it worked, such as a little show called NCIS coming out of JAG.
Backdoor Pilots In Space
One of the most notable early examples of a backdoor pilot comes from Star Trek: The Original Series and the time-traveling alien, Gary Seven. Played by Robert Lansing, the time-traveling Gary Seven went back to 1968 in order to prevent World War III, but he runs into the crew of the Enterprise, who happened to go back in time to conduct research. It was a repurposed pilot, intended to become a series if Star Trek: The Original Series was canceled after its second season, which explains why Kirk and Spock play second fiddle to Gary Seven and Roberta (Terri Garr’s first major TV role).
Star Trek: The Original Series isn’t the only show with a backdoor pilot that was intended to take the place of a fan favorite show. Highlander’s final season is filled with female Immortals being tested to see which one the audience would gravitate towards, eventually ending in the short-lived Highlander: Raven, featuring the character Amanda. Supernatural introduced the Wayward Sisters in Season 13, an obvious attempt to recreate the magic of Sam and Dean with sisters this time, and in retrospect, a huge missed opportunity. Imagine if the Duffer brothers decided to spin off Stranger Things following the Season 2 introduction of Kali? That’s the closest kids today will get to experiencing what executives used to do to highly successful genre shows all the time.
Audiences Hate Backdoor Pilots
It was always jarring as a viewer when all of a sudden, a brand new location and a brand new cast turned out to be the focus of an episode. That was the case when Married with Children aired “Radio Free Trumaine” as part of Season 9. There’s no Al, no Peg, and the entire episode focuses on a pair of college radio DJs, Mark (Andrew Kavovolt) and Oliver (Eric Dane), who go up against the college’s new Dean of Students, the Bundy’s neighbor Steve Rhoades (David Garrison). Bud gets involved when his attempt to win over April (Keri Russell) gets recorded and played on air, but that’s it for the regular cast. It’s one of the most blatant backdoor pilots in history, and as with so many of them, it led nowhere.
Looking back, a college sitcom starring Eric Dane and Keri Russell should have been a hit. Fan reaction to the episode was immediate and visceral. In 1995, fans on the internet raging against a show was brand new. Once America Online lit up, producers pulled the plug on plans for a spin-off. “Radio Free Trumaine” is still one of the most blatant backdoor pilots in history. Over a decade later, another sitcom tried the same thing, and the reception may have been better, but the result was the same.
Keeping A Show Going Past The Expiration Date
Rainn Wilson’s Dwight Schrute was one of the breakout characters from The Office. Everyone’s worked with a Dwight. The Assistant to the Regional Manager could have been an annoying foil, the show’s version of Gary Cole’s middle manager from Office Space, except he became beloved and the natural choice for a spin-off. Airing in 2013, the Season 9 episode “The Farm” introduced viewers to Dwight’s crazy family. They inherited his great-aunt’s farm, under the condition that they all work together to run it. It’s a premise that might as well have on-screen text in neon saying “This is a backdoor pilot.”
The Farm never happened, though NBC hemmed and hawed for so long that fans were convinced it was coming following the end of The Office. Instead, it’s one of the most recent failed backdoor pilots. Not all of them fail, and sometimes, you can argue the spin-off is better than the original.
Backdoor Pilots Didn’t Make It To Streaming
That was the case when JAG introduced Mark Harmon as Leeroy Jethro Gibbs and the team at NCIS, and again when The Vampire Diaries gave way to The Originals. The latter is an interesting case, as the family of vampire progenitors was the antagonists of Season 2, but everyone loved them, especially Joseph Morgan’s portrayal of Klaus, turning The Originals into a five-season hit on its own. It was so successful that it spun off Legacies, which also ran for four seasons. Not bad for a vampire teen drama.
Prior generations were used to the backdoor pilot. By the time a show started to approach Season 7, it was expected that there was going to be an attempt at a spin-off. Today, most shows don’t go past five seasons, and even then, they’re lucky to get that far. The Rookie, FBI, Fire Country, all of those are the last ones holding out on the concept of backdoor pilots, but let’s be honest, the generation watching those is the same that had to live through “Radio Free Trumaine.”
Entertainment
I tested the best MacBook alternatives and found 7 worthy rivals
The 2025 Acer Aspire 16 AI is a stellar pick for casual users with limited budgets and simple workloads, particularly those who like a larger screen. (Younger students would make great use of it.) It’s portable for its size and long-lasting, so big ups if you frequently work on the go. We can’t say that it’s better than the Neo, but we can say it’s the best MacBook Neo alternative right now.
The Aspire 16 AI is my reigning favorite cheap Windows laptop. It offers great multi-core performance for the money, a healthy amount of RAM and storage, plus a smooth display and all the ports you could need. You mainly feel its “budget-ness” in its build quality.
Performance: The Aspire 16 AI’s Qualcomm Snapdragon X chip is about 40 percent slower than the Neo’s A18 Pro chip in single-core scenarios, so it doesn’t feel as responsive when you’re surfing the web or working in Word docs. That said, it’s just as good as running multi-core tasks like light video editing. (Our benchmarking showed that it’s 12 percent faster than the Neo in that regard. It’s a trivial bump, but it’s something.) At the time of writing, the Aspire 16 AI was the fastest sub-$900 laptop we’ve tested for multi-core workloads.
Note that the Snapdragon X CPU is a Windows on ARM chip, so it’s not compatible with as many games or specialty apps as Intel or AMD chips (which have x86 architecture — see above, in the Zenbook A14’s section). But a budget laptop isn’t really made for that kind of usage, anyway, so that’s not a huge concern here. I’d be more worried about it not working with an older scanner or printer.
Battery life: The Aspire 16 AI plowed past the Neo in our battery life benchmark, a video rundown test, lasting 17 hours and 22 minutes to Apple’s 14 hours and 50 minutes. Stamina-wise, it’s more on par with the M5 MacBook Air, which lasted 17 hours and 40 minutes. You can easily squeeze two full workdays out of this thing without needing to charge it in between.
Design: The Aspire 16 AI is pretty trim for a 16-incher. At 3.42 pounds, it’s only a little bit heavier than a 15-inch MacBook Air. (There are even slimmer, lighter 16-inch options — see the Asus Zenbook A16, below — but they’re way more expensive.) Its display is a bit dim and not as crisp as the Neo’s, but I appreciated its buttery 120Hz refresh rate and touchscreen capabilities. Its port setup is also great: While the Neo has just two USB-C ports and a headphone jack, this laptop tacks on two extra USB-A ports, an HDMI port, and a microSD card slot. That’s some MacBook Pro-level connectivity.
Value: For the same price as a 512GB Neo, the Aspire 16 AI offers double the RAM, better multi-core performance, more ports, a 120Hz touchscreen, and a backlit keyboard. But it’s not as well-made as the MacBook Neo; it lacks a fingerprint login feature, and it doesn’t feel as fast in everyday productivity scenarios. It also comes in one boring color. Still, it feels very fairly priced in an era when decent, cheap Windows laptops are getting scarce.
FYI: Acer also makes a 14-inch version of this laptop (the Aspire 14 AI), which comes with an Intel processor that alleviates the Windows on ARM compatibility issues. It offers double the storage, slightly better battery life, and slightly better single-core performance for only $500 to $700, depending on the retailer. I haven’t tried it, so I can’t speak for it personally, but our friends at CNET really liked it. You probably can’t go wrong with either size.
Entertainment
Tech keeps getting more expensive. Thats why these 4 cheap laptops are so special.
The elegant and long-lasting Asus Zenbook A14 from 2025 is my favorite laptop for most people with a budget cap of $1,000. Its ultralight yet rigid build makes it especially great for frequent travelers and remote workers. I’ll also note that it’s the only laptop on this list with an OLED display, if that’s a spec high on your wishlist.
Look for the ZenBook A14 on sale at Best Buy, where it’s dipped down to as low as $550 before (a steal). It starts with 512GB of storage and 16GB of RAM.
I’ve been hyping this 14-inch laptop since I first saw it at CES 2025. It’s an amazing Windows ultraportable and an awesome value.
Performance: The Zenbook A14 is a solid performer for the money. The MacBook Neo still beats it in single-core workloads (by about 31 percent), but it’s 28 percent faster in multi-core scenarios. In fact, it doesn’t have any multi-core competition among other laptops under $1,000. Compared to the $699.99 Acer Aspire 16 AI (above), which has a lesser Snapdragon X chip, this one’s Snapdragon X Plus chip offers 14 percent better single-core performance and 15 percent better multi-core performance. If you need a cheap-ish laptop that can do some heavier lifting, this one’s up to the task.
As with the Aspire 16 AI, be mindful of ARM-related software compatibility issues here if you’re buying a laptop for college or gaming.
Battery life: The Zenbook A14 ran for 21 hours and 47 minutes in our video rundown test before dying, making it the eighth-longest-lasting laptop we’ve ever reviewed. Our longest-lasting MacBook died exactly 30 minutes sooner.
Design: Picking up the Zenbook A14 for the first time usually elicits a gasp from people. Asus built its chassis out of a lightweight magnesium-aluminum alloy called “Ceraluminum” that’s scratch-, smudge- and shock-resistant. The base configuration is only 2.4 pounds, or 0.3 pounds less than the MacBook Neo, yet it doesn’t feel frail. The Ceraluminum makes it super durable without weighing it down. It’s slightly thicker than the Neo, but that’s so it can squeeze in an HDMI port and a USB-A port.
In a market saturated with boring silver laptops, I think the Zenbook A14’s modern-organic look is refreshing. It has a tan “Zabrinskie Beige” finish with a matte, almost ceramic-like texture, and it’s accented with gold reflective logos. It’s different without being too obnoxious for an office. Top that off with a bright, vivid OLED display, and this laptop is quite the looker.
Value: I’d have no qualms about paying full price for the Zenbook A14 — it’s a really solid value (but all the better if you can find it on sale). Raising your budget to the upper end of the “cheap” spectrum eliminates any build quality concerns and nets you a great blend of power and stamina for everyday productivity, even some light creative work. Plus: OLED!
Note that Asus released an updated Zenbook A14 with the Snapdragon X2 Elite chip for 2026. It has much better performance and an even longer battery life than the original model, but it starts at $1,349.99. It might go on sale for under $1,000 eventually, though it only just launched in April, so don’t hold your breath.
Entertainment
How to watch Gauff vs. Potapova online for free
TL;DR: Live stream Gauff vs. Potapova in the 2026 French Open for free on France TV. Access this free streaming platform from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.
The 2026 French Open has served up major surprises, particularly in the men’s singles. Both No. 1 seed Jannik Sinner and No. 3 Novak Djokovic were stunned by unseeded players, which led them to leave Roland-Garros unexpectedly early.
The women’s field isn’t quite as open, as world No. 4 Coco Gauff will be keenly aware, though No. 2 Elena Rybakina has already been eliminated, so Gauff — the defending women’s French Open champion — may feel confident about claiming the title for a second consecutive year.
Before she gets to the title she’ll have to get past a third-round match against No. 28 seed Anastasia Potapova. Can the 25-year-old Austrian knock out Gauff and cause yet another upset?
If you want to watch Gauff vs. Potapova in the 2026 French Open for free from anywhere in the world, we have all the information you need.
How to watch Gauff vs. Potapova for free
Gauff vs. Potapova in the 2026 French Open is available to live stream for free on France TV.
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France TV is geo-restricted to France, but anyone can access this free streaming platform with a VPN. These tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in France, meaning you can stream the 2026 French Open for free from anywhere in the world.
Live stream the 2026 French Open for free by following these simple steps:
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Watch the 2026 French Open for free from anywhere in the world
$12.95 only at ExpressVPN (with money-back guarantee)
The best VPNs for streaming are not free, but they do tend to offer pretty generous money-back guarantees. By leveraging these offers, you can watch Roland-Garros without committing with your cash. This is obviously not a long-term strategy, but it gives you enough time to stream the 2026 French Open before recovering your investment.
If you want to retain permanent access to free streaming platforms from around the world, you’ll need a subscription. Fortunately, the best VPN for streaming live sport is on sale for a limited time.
What is the best VPN for sport?
ExpressVPN is the best choice for bypassing geo-restrictions to stream live sport, for a number of reasons:
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A two-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $68.40 and includes an extra four months for free — 81% off for a limited time. This plan includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and a generous 30-day money-back guarantee. Alternatively, you can get a one-month plan for just $12.99 (with money-back guarantee).
Live stream Gauff vs. Potapova in the 2026 French Open for free with ExpressVPN.
I tested the best MacBook alternatives and found 7 worthy rivals
Phillies place RHP Aaron Nola on paternity list, option OF Otto Kemp
