Howard Cosell’s “Saturday Night” variety show. A show, as Johnny Carson said, tennis star Jimmy Connors sang and Frank Sinatra didn’t. Or get the judge in the Patty Hearst trial to allow defense attorney F Lee Bailey to talk about the trial in progress only to have the network say no: Result: bland interview on what a nice woman Patty really is.
Putting Barbara Walters on the ABC Evening News where anchor Harry Reasoner didn’t want her (he went back to CBS and “60 Minutes” and the format didn’t play into Walter’s strengths. Had it’s amusing aspects of Dan Rather saying no anchor was worth $1 million a year and four years later he was getting $1.8 million to replace Walter Cronkite. Courage.
Jack Webb took over “77 Sunset strip” for the sixth and final season. He charged the format to a more noirish, less lighthearted show and got rid of everyone except Efrem Zimbalist. The good side was a few disasters like this, Webb was forced to revive his “Dragnet” career so we got four years of Friday and Gannon chasing down dope fiends and purse snatching dogs.
The last season of “Maverick” saw them try to introduce yet another Maverick brother Brent. Robert Colbert begged them not to cast him as that, preferring to be ion a dress and named Brenda
Watching that movie, we all wondered why after ten years with virtually no “Star trek” (alright, there was a cartoon) they decided to remake the NOMAD episode “The Changeling”. Roddenberry couldn’t come up with something more original?
Which is what they did. The show hit a rough spot for a couple of episodes afterwards, but regained its footing and was doing well dramatically when it was cancelled.
(Note: the ending was a season finale – setting up things for the next season – not a series finale.)
Well, they claim the actress wanted to leave. But she was driven to it by two seasons of bad decisions. (Too bad the original creative team mostly left after season 1.)
Examples: Minimize roles of interesting characters (Jennie, Frank & even Abbie) to concentrate on dull characters (Katrina, the gelded Horseman, and John Noble, proving acting talent can’t erase crap writing). Not to forget Hawley!
Incoherent plot & character arcs. Separating the two witnesses (whose chemistry was a gift) as much as possible. Introducing interesting characters only to kill them off immediately. Lack of witty writing. Etc…
Really, killing Abbie was the last straw–even if Nicole wanted to leave. Then they renewed the show…
I was only 10 or 11 when it was on, so all I know about it was I hear and read, but it’s my understanding that revealing the murderer was a result of a bunch of people butting heads and the show never did well after that. Looking at the wiki page for the episodes reminds me that I think part of the reason they made the reveal was because ratings were slipping to begin with.
Season 2 Episode 1 had 10 million viewers and immediately slipped to 15 and down to 11 million. The killer was revealed with 17 million people watching (must have been promo’d) but they mostly hung around 10 million viewers after that. Compare this to double the viewers for the previous season.
As for regaining it’s footing, I don’t want to derail the thread, but I’d say that’s debatable. It really changed gears after that.
It’s the question we all want to ask Lucas, Abrams, et al, as well.
Still, Khan (Best. Trek Movie. Ever.) was a sequel. So, 1 and 2 are reruns, 3 is a weak continuation of 2, 4 is a fair continuation of 3, and 5 is from another universe entirely. Then normal movies start coming. It isn’t like ST:The Motion Sickness was the worst ST movie made.
Is there even an example of a show that lost its major star/stars, and survived on to actually be successful? Seems to me that’s the point when the show starts shambling around like a zombie for another few seasons, before it finally drops dead after a few seasons.
*Note: I’m not counting ensemble cast shows like MASH, who lose a few prominent members, but rather shows that center around one or two main characters and then lose them.
Don’t forget, CBS tried teaming Rather and Connie Chung on the Evening News. It. Did. Not. Go. Well.
Back to the scripted shows.
Continuing Eight Simple Rules after John Ritter died.
Continuing Chico and the Man after Freddie Prinze died.
Continuing Bonanza after Dan Blocker died.
Trying the Sonny & Cher Show after they got divorced.
Continuing NewsRadio after Phil Hartman died.
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Is there even an example of a show that lost its major star/stars, and survived on to actually be successful? Seems to me that’s the point when the show starts shambling around like a zombie for another few seasons, before it finally drops dead after a few seasons.
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The Danny Thomas Show and Eight Is Enough survived loss of their original wives; Bonanza got by after Pernell Roberts left; Bewitched – famously – had two Darrens. Cheers lasted longer without Shelley Long than with her. While it can happen, the odds aren’t great.
I just remembered The Hogan Family. It started out as Valerie, starring Valerie Harper, who played the mother of three kids whose husband, an airline pilot, was frequently away from home. She was fired after the second season and her character was killed off. Sandy Duncan joined the show as her sister-in-law and the show was retitled Valerie’s Family. A year later it became The Hogan Family. It remained popular for at least three years after Harper’s departure, although the ratings took a nosedive after the series moved from NBC to CBS for its final season.
(I know, I know!)