10 Ditched TV Storylines That Thankfully Never Happened
6. Liz Adopts A 12-Year-Old Boy In Season 2 - 30 Rock
At the end of 30 Rock's second season, Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) announces that she's ready to have a child, resulting in an adoption arc throughout the show's third season, which is mysteriously nixed by the time season four begins.
The original plan was for Liz to adopt a 12-year-old boy at the end of season two, though the adoption would ultimately be called off after the boy stole from her and vanished.
Nevertheless, the storyline wasn't cancelled for any creative reason, but simply because NBC reneged on their original promise to heavily promote the lead-up to it on their network.
The writers promptly threw it out, and after the adoption plot fizzled, it wasn't returned to until near the end of the show's run, with Liz and Criss (James Marsden) adopting two children in the series finale.
Hilariously, though, the sudden abandonment of the adoption plot was lightly mocked in the season five episode "Operation Righteous Cowboy Lightning," where Kenneth (Jack McBrayer) says to Liz, "I couldn't put the memo in your mailbox because it's full of unread adoption materials." Brilliant.
All in all, saddling Liz with an adolescent, even for just a few episodes, would've been one sitcom-y step too far. The fact that the adoption plot petered out over the course of season three really just compounded that it was the right call.