10 TV Shows Probably Made Out Of Spite

Putting together a TV series that finds an audience and keeps them satisfied for years and years is extremely difficult, often far more so than producing a single movie.

And as such great TV is generally only born from genuine commitment and belief in the project, rather than trying to stick it to somebody out of spite.

And yet, Hollywood can be a mightily childish, infantile place, whereby creatives and executives alike attempt to settle grudges, get their own back, and basically flip the bird at anyone they feel slighted by.

Perhaps a showrunner felt mistreated in the past, an author believed their source material was ruined by a previous adaptation, or a network wanted to milk their beloved IP for another go-around despite the star's lack of interest.

The reasons are myriad, but in each of these 10 TV shows, it's clear that there was an intense desire to get one over on somebody.

In some cases that ire clearly fed the show's creativity and the results were miraculous, while in others it simply indicated a series that came to market for all the wrong reasons...

The Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series may have premiered in 1997, but the IP had its origins much earlier, when Joss Whedon sold a feature film script based on the concept in 1991.

Though Whedon was involved in the film's production as an advisor, he left after growing frustrated with changes to his vision.

Fox executives removed many of his jokes, he bristled with director Fran Rubel Kuzui, who was re-shaping the film into a broader comedy project, and Whedon also fought with actor Donald Sutherland, who deviated from Whedon's script with heavy improv.

Despite being poorly reviewed, Buffy was a modest commercial success, albeit not enough for Fox to press on with any further films.

But a few years later, Whedon was approached to adapt his vision into a TV series, which he successfully packaged and sold to the WB Network.

With his original tone kept in tact and original star Kristy Swanson swapped out for Sarah Michelle Gellar, Whedon was finally able to bring his distinct vision of supernatural high-school drama to the masses.

Whatever you make of Whedon today, he absolutely got the last laugh on those Fox executives who so thoroughly compromised his vision back in the early '90s.