Family Ties had a popular minor character called Nick Moore, who was dating Mallory.
https://youtu.be/CcGTbCXmfAo
He was so well-liked, that NBC tried to make a spin-off show about him. They tried three times in fact. The first attempt was called Taking It Home, and co-starred Herschel Bernardi. After he died though, the pilot was re-tooled, with Nick working in a day care centre. That too wasn’t up to par, and so a third effort was made, resulting in this:
Lee Goldbreg, in his book Unsold Television Pilots: 1955-1989, notes that it was given an airing after an episode of Cosby on 27th August 1987, and became the second most watched show of the week.
Julia Louis-Dreyfuss mentions this pilot in the Seinfeld Roundtable DVD Extra, saying she met her future screen boss on set, and he devised a scene that made it into the show.
