# What caused that TV show to end? (real life reasons) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 28, 2005, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-caused-that-tv-show-to-end-real-life-reasons/310229 "2005-06-28T17:27:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-caused-that-tv-show-to-end-real-life-reasons/310229/41 "2005-06-29T10:19:40Z")
> [@SlyFrog](#): > > Oh, and _Under Cover_ basically ended when John Erik Hexum was accidentally shot and killed on set (I think he was the guy who shot himself in the head with “blanks”). The show was **Cover Up** with Jennifer O’Neill and Hexum. Yes, he killed himself with a blank, not realizing they are dangerous. ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-caused-that-tv-show-to-end-real-life-reasons/310229/42 "2005-06-29T10:23:42Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > (_Golden Girls_ actually had a new name- _Golden Palace_ and some cockamamie plot about the girls [minus Bea Arthur] sinking all their money into a beachfront motel, which [along with no Bea Arthur] helped euthanize it; _Strokes_ had just over-run its course.) Golden Girls and Golden Palace are two different shows. Golden Palace follwed the end of the Golden Girls but wasn’t a continuation. ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-caused-that-tv-show-to-end-real-life-reasons/310229/43 "2005-06-29T11:39:44Z")
> [@Garfield226](#): > > I realize that we’re not in GD and this isn’t the most important issue in the world, but do you know where I can find out more about this (in other words, but in the nicest way possible…“cite?”)? I’d always heard it was the other writers who let it get out of control, and the stars didn’t like it…Roseanne tried wrapping it all up in the end with the last few shows. > > TVtome (now [tv.com](http://tv.com)) gives Roseanne the writing credit to just the Halloween episode in season 8, and only a few (the more reasonable ones, IMO: halloween, the Christmas episode, Darlene’s baby’s birth, and the final episode) in the ninth season. (shrug) I have no cites immediately at hand and don’t feel much inclined to look them up. However, it is my understanding is that Roseanne always meddled with the scripting and was particularly bad about bullying the writers. Writers were hired and fired left and right, and Roseanne got so bad about micro-managing the writers in the last season or two that the bad writing for that period lies primarily on her shoulders. Of course, IIRC, it was always a tough show to work on for everybody involved. Roseanne was a holy terror. ---
**Author:** ![auntie\_em](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@auntie\_em](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/auntie_em)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-caused-that-tv-show-to-end-real-life-reasons/310229/44 "2005-06-29T12:03:57Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > The show **Maude** was cancelled because ratings plummeted when Maude had an abortion. (It was really a stupid idea for a show because in addition to being extremely controversial Maude had a teenaged grandchild and had made jokes in previous episodes about her menopause [in the past tense].) Actually, didn’t the abortion happen in the first season of _Maude_? ---
**Author:** ![auntie\_em](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@auntie\_em](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/auntie_em)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-caused-that-tv-show-to-end-real-life-reasons/310229/45 "2005-06-29T12:07:27Z")
> [@Dr. Rieux](#): > > No. the abortion episode was in Novermber, 1972, during the first season. The show ran until 1978. Sorry, **Dr. Rieux**. Should have read ahead . . . 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Nonsuch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonsuch/32/2922_2.png) [@Nonsuch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nonsuch)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-caused-that-tv-show-to-end-real-life-reasons/310229/46 "2005-06-29T12:08:46Z")
> [@Garfield226](#): > > I realize that we’re not in GD and this isn’t the most important issue in the world, but do you know where I can find out more about this (in other words, but in the nicest way possible…“cite?”)? I’d always heard it was the other writers who let it get out of control, and the stars didn’t like it…Roseanne tried wrapping it all up in the end with the last few shows. I’d like a cite for that, actually. Pretty much any contemporary article you find on _Roseanne_ will describe how fiercely Roseanne (the star) fought with her producers and writers for control of the show. Writers on _Roseanne_ were fired with such regularity the network supposedly stopped painting their names on their office doors. By the end (actually well before it), Roseanne was fully in charge, no matter who technically got credit for the scripts. ---
**Author:** ![Nonsuch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonsuch/32/2922_2.png) [@Nonsuch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nonsuch)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-caused-that-tv-show-to-end-real-life-reasons/310229/47 "2005-06-29T13:27:21Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > Didn’t Sarah Michelle Gellar ambush the producers of _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ by revealing in an interview that she was quitting at the end of the seventh season unbeknownst to them? I believe so, and I seem to also remember the network having to gently remind her that she was under contract, and thus couldn’t quit. Not the sharpest tool in shed is Sarah Michelle … On the topic of the thread, a couple of examples I forgot to mention earlier: **Fawlty Towers:** Despite pressure from the BBC and from viewers, John Cleese and Connie Booth felt they’d got all the first-rate comedy they were going to get from the premise, and opted to end the show rather than to prolong it and risk it going stale. **Monty Python’s Flying Circus:** The departure of John Cleese at the end of the third season (he had been making noises about leaving for a year prior) spoiled the writing dynamic that had made the show so creative, and the remaining members, somewhat demoralized, chose to do only six episodes of a fourth season. **Batman** : While this show was cancelled by ABC in its fifth season due to declining ratings, another network (CBS?) agreed to pick it up. However, the Batcave set had already been bulldozed, and the new network declined to renew the show rather than incur the expense of rebuilding the sets (which were the biggest and most expensive of any TV show of the time, IIRC). ---
**Author:** ![Slacker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@Slacker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slacker)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-caused-that-tv-show-to-end-real-life-reasons/310229/48 "2005-06-29T14:13:41Z")
Anyone remember **Hyperion Bay**? If any show is a perfect example of network executives destroying a good thing, this is it. It started out as a simple story about a formerly unpopular but currently successful guy returning to his hometown to open a division of the company he works for. I remember watching it with my (then) fiancee, and we liked it because the characters were likeable and the situations were believable. Apparently, the ratings didn’t agree, though, and half way through the first season the show’s creator was fired and replaced with a producer from _Melrose Place_. He tried to add some razzle dazzle to the proceedings, with the most obvious change being the addition of Carmen Electra to the cast. As you can imagine, the show immediately went straight down the crapper. All of the understated charm from the first episodes was destroyed in the first five minutes of Electra’s first appearance, replaced instead with over-the-top bitchiness, murder, and sex. I don’t usually think of shows like **Freaks and Geeks** as “lucky,” but hey - at least they got a whole season! Also - does anyone know what happened to **Wings**? I can’t find anything about its end days on the internet, so it might be as simple as poor ratings or just that the cast decided to quit, but I don’t know for sure. ---
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-caused-that-tv-show-to-end-real-life-reasons/310229/49 "2005-06-29T14:53:48Z")
> [@Nonsuch](#): > > **Monty Python’s Flying Circus:** The departure of John Cleese at the end of the third season (he had been making noises about leaving for a year prior) spoiled the writing dynamic that had made the show so creative, and the remaining members, somewhat demoralized, chose to do only six episodes of a fourth season. The BBC actually offered them a fifth season. They passed when (I believe) Eric Idle refused to continue. ---
**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-caused-that-tv-show-to-end-real-life-reasons/310229/50 "2005-06-29T15:15:59Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > Didn’t Sarah Michelle Gellar ambush the producers of _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ by revealing in an interview that she was quitting at the end of the seventh season unbeknownst to them? Kinda. By the beginning of the seventh season, the writing was on the wall. Whedon was reported to be spending most of his efforts on locking down Eliza Dushku for a Faith & Spike spin-off. Gellar did make her official announcement via Entertainment Weekly, but it didn’t come as a surprise to anyone on the show or any of us who were watching it. –Cliffy ---
**Author:** ![SlyFrog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@SlyFrog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlyFrog)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-caused-that-tv-show-to-end-real-life-reasons/310229/51 "2005-06-29T15:29:37Z")
> [@Mockingbird](#): > > The show was **Cover Up** with Jennifer O’Neill and Hexum. You know, that’s the name that I originally typed, but to be safe, I googled and the first site I saw called it “Under Cover.” That will show me not to rapidly use Googlefu over my own intuition. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![35340](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/8baadc/32.png) [@35340](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/35340)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-caused-that-tv-show-to-end-real-life-reasons/310229/52 "2005-06-29T15:59:01Z")
I miss Probe. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-caused-that-tv-show-to-end-real-life-reasons/310229/53 "2005-06-29T16:00:23Z")
> [@Cliffy](#): > > Kinda. By the beginning of the seventh season, the writing was on the wall. Whedon was reported to be spending most of his efforts on locking down Eliza Dushku for a Faith & Spike spin-off. Gellar did make her official announcement via Entertainment Weekly, but it didn’t come as a surprise to anyone on the show or any of us who were watching it. > > –Cliffy Sure was a hell of a surprise to Alyson Hannigan, who IIRC was informed of it by the EW person who was interviewing her & Anthony Stewart Head. ASH said he knew it was coming, which irritated AH even more. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-caused-that-tv-show-to-end-real-life-reasons/310229/54 "2005-06-29T16:02:53Z")
How did they end the **Drew Carey Show** which was brilliant for a while and then was switched around on its nights and entered limbo and was on life support for so long… ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-caused-that-tv-show-to-end-real-life-reasons/310229/55 "2005-06-29T16:09:10Z")
Then there’s Crusade, the spinoff of Babylon 5 about a starship and it’s crew trying to find a cure to an alien plague that’s trying to do in Earth, which died due to the meddling of network execs at TNT (they kept trying to dumb down/sex up the show, at one point made the producer start the show all over again and then work the original episodes in somewhere in the middle, and then finally just canceled it halfway through production before they aired it) TNT had a contract from WB to make a full season of the show, but WB decided not to get on TNT’s case about it since both companies were owned by the same guy :smack: Another example of a great show killed before it could hit it’s stride. It’s worth watching just for the X-Files (er… I mean, Y files) episode, actually. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-caused-that-tv-show-to-end-real-life-reasons/310229/56 "2005-06-29T16:11:01Z")
> [@Shirley Ujest](#): > > How did they end the **Drew Carey Show** which was brilliant for a while and then was switched around on its nights and entered limbo and was on life support for so long… Is it officially cancelled now? I believe I read something during last season that there were several episodes in the can and the network would play them whenever they had an open spot. So the show wasn’t really cancelled they had just stopped production. ---
**Author:** ![lisacurl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/41988e/32.png) [@lisacurl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisacurl)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-caused-that-tv-show-to-end-real-life-reasons/310229/57 "2005-06-29T16:12:10Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > Sure was a hell of a surprise to Alyson Hannigan, who IIRC was informed of it by the EW person who was interviewing her & Anthony Stewart Head. ASH said he knew it was coming, which irritated AH even more. Of course, other cast members (Nicholas Brendon for sure, and I think the chick who played Anya also) have said that Alison Hannigan is full of it, and that they all knew that the seventh season was the end. Ms. Hannigan is, by many accounts, a bit of a passive-aggressive bitch. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-caused-that-tv-show-to-end-real-life-reasons/310229/58 "2005-06-29T18:19:14Z")
> [@Soylent Gene](#): > > Both \*\*Bob Newhart \*\* shows ended bacause Bob wanted to moved on. I thought they ended because he woke up. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-caused-that-tv-show-to-end-real-life-reasons/310229/59 "2005-06-29T18:38:35Z")
The demise of the most recent incarnation of [To Tell the Truth](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0233119/combined) was likely brought about by Paula Poundstone’s drinking and subsequent legal trouble. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-caused-that-tv-show-to-end-real-life-reasons/310229/60 "2005-06-29T19:24:21Z")
How did **Northern Exposure** end? I luffed the show wildly and when the network started moving it around the schedule, it lost me. But, I need closure… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-caused-that-tv-show-to-end-real-life-reasons/310229.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-caused-that-tv-show-to-end-real-life-reasons/310229.md?page=4)