Programs Cancelled Before They Premiered

Thousands of potential television shows never get past the pilot stage. Others are given a slot on a preliminary network schedule yet never materialize. But only a handful of shows have been pulled abruptly by a network after producing several episodes and with promotional efforts underway. These shows are the unhappy few to be cancelled before they had a chance to premiere. Read all about The Robert Taylor Show, Snip, Mister Dugan and The Dictator.

Nothing is more unusual in the world of broadcast television than for a network to pick up a pilot, give it a slot on its schedule, begin promoting this new weekly program and then, out of nowhere, cancel it at the last minute with several episodes already “in the can” and ready for broadcast. Simply producing a pilot is expensive and time consuming. Ordering one to series is a substantial commitment.

Between 1960 and 1990 there were fewer than half a dozen examples of programs being removed from a network’s schedule, with episodes already filmed, and never being broadcast at a later date. Certainly, there have been rare cases where a network would decide to shelve a new series temporarily after a number of episodes had been filmed and promotion had begun. Perhaps there was no place on the schedule, no open timeslot, no weak show to replace. It might be several years before these episodes would air but ultimately the network would broadcast them.

In May of 1959, for example, NBC picked up a Western called Whispering Smith (in this case, without a pilot) to star Audie Murphy [1]. Production soon began on Whispering Smith but it wouldn’t premiere until May 15th, 1961. In 1965 CBS ordered a drama called Coronet Blue but didn’t air the series until the summer of 1967. One bizarre case was the pilot telefilm for NBC’s Griff, starring Lorne Greene. Twelve episodes were filmed and aired during the 1973-1974 season but the pilot wasn’t broadcast until June 17th, 1975, long after the series had been cancelled.

Just getting on the air doesn’t mean a new show will be successful. A large percentage of freshman programs will only run for one season. Others will never make it past the halfway mark, wrapping after only thirteen episodes. Given the costs involved, the networks generally broadcast all completed episodes even after announcing a show’s cancellation. If the Nielsen numbers were low enough, though, a show could be pulled immediately.

If completed episodes were left unaired following the removal of a program from a network’s schedule, they were often scheduled during the summer repeat season. The Texas Wheelers (ABC, 1975), Fay (NBC, 1976), Holmes & Yo-Yo (ABC, 1977) and What Really Happened to the Class of ‘65? (NBC, 1978) are all examples of shows that had at least one episode burned off during summer months.

Not all shows pulled abruptly with episodes already “in the can” would ultimately see those episodes broadcast. The aforementioned Whispering Smith ended its network run in September of 1961 with several episodes left unaired (either five or six). An infamous example of a show being pulled with episodes left unaired is ABC’s The Tammy Grimes Show, which premiered on Thursday, September 8th, 1966.

In its September 26th issue Broadcasting reported that ABC had cancelled the sitcom [2]. Only three episodes had been broadcast; a fourth was shown on Thursday, September 29th. Ten had been completed when the cancellation notice came in and the remaining six were never aired. Other shows that were cancelled with additional episodes never broadcast include Kodiak (ABC, 1974), The Oregon Trail (NBC, 1977) and Gibbsville (NBC, 1976).

Still, in each of the above cases, whether the show in question was shelved temporarily or ended with episodes left unaired, at least it made it on the air. The same can’t be said for the following programs.

This hour-long drama starring Robert Taylor was part of NBC’s 1963-1964 schedule when it was unveiled in February of 1963, slotted for Thursdays from 7:30-8:30PM [3]. Tentatively titled The Quiet War the series would follow Special Assistant Christopher Logan as he navigated the political currents at the Department of Health, Education and Welfare [4].

According The Chicago Tribune, episodes of the series would be based on “official files” from the department and would involve “cases concerning epidemics, illegal adoptions, narcotics, civil defense, mental illness, and exchange teachers” [5]. George Segal was announced as co-star in July of 1963 [6]. Only weeks later The New York Times reported that NBC had cancelled The Robert Taylor Show after four episodes had been filmed [7].

The network was allegedly upset over the fact that Four Star Productions, the company producing the series, had failed “to gain the complete cooperation of the department [of Health, Education and Welfare]” [8]. A spokesman for the department stated that “we have given no permission for official department endorsement. We have been cooperating with Four Star and had a written understanding with them to the effect that we would provide information and review services. But the series is their responsibility and we stipulated that they could make no attribution of stories as coming from official department files” [9].

NBC replaced The Robert Taylor Show with Temple Houston, starring Jeffrey Hunter as a lawyer (the son of Sam Houston) working in the South prior to the Civil War. In August of 1963, Cynthia Lowry called the cancellation the “biggest mystery in town” and reported that NBC had spent $750,000 on the show [10].

On January 13th, 1976 The Chicago Tribune reported that comedien David Brenner was forced to postpone a two-week engagement at the Blue Max nightclub at the O’Hare Regency Hyatt Hotel in Chicago because he was filming a television pilot [11]. On February 3rd the paper listed potential pilots for NBC’s 1976-1977 season; included was a sitcom called Sniff starring David Brenner as hairdresser in Massachusetts (the paper suggested the network planned to “water down the biting movie comedy, ‘Shampoo’”) [12].

David Brenner in Snip

When NBC released its fall schedule the sitcom, now titled Snip, was given a Thursday timeslot [13]. The series was from producer James Komack, the man responsible for Chico and the Man and Welcome Back, Kotter). Brenner’s character, David, was in love with Beverly, played by Lesley Ann Down. The two had worked together in Philadelphia before Beverly, disgusted at David’s behavior, ran off to Cape Cod. David followed her and somehow got a job at her beauty parlor.

Michael, the character played by Walter Wonderman, would be homosexual. Said critic Gary Deeb of The Chicago Tribune, “Letting Komack produce a series with a regular gay character is sort of like assigning John wayne to write a history of the American Indian. You know you’ll be suffocating in stereotypes right from the start” [14]. Komack saw things differently. He told The Los Angeles Times:

“The calls began right away from upstairs at NBC–Have I been cleared by the Gay Media Task Force? Very nervous calls. So I met with ‘em. They wanted us to play the gay hairdress very straight–no limp wrist stuff, no curves, no frills. I said great. It made it funnier. Walter Wanderman plays him so straight the lines like ‘If you can’t trust somebody you met at the Y?’ are twice as funny. When I told these three NBC vice presidents we had full approval, they began to look at me suspiciously. This guy from the task force greeted them so enthuisastically they began to look at each other nervously. That’s gay power. Nobody knows who they are.” [15]

On Thursday, August 28th, as part of a massive reshuffling of its schedule, NBC pulled both Snip and Gibbsville (a drama series starring John Savage and Gig Young). Said NBC’s programming chief, Irwin Segelstein, “We were simply working out a schedule; we were not deleting programs. When you delete a program, you cancel it and buy it out. We have not done that” [16]. Both shows would presumably premiere later in the season. The cancellation came so late that TV Guide was unable to change its annual Fall Preview issue, which listed both shows. The magazine did include a notice that they had been pulled, however.

David Brenner and Lesley Ann Warren in Snip – September 18th, 1976
Copyright © TV Guide, 1976 [1]

In October, Les Brown of The New York Times reported that Snip cost NBC roughly $150,000 per episode and, “according to insiders [...] is no longer considered a contender and is likely to be run off sometime after the first of the year when it might least harm NBC’s quest for a higher weekly rating average” [17]. The network cancelled the series for good in November, a move Jimmy Komack understood. “It was just a little too hot to get on,” he told The Los Angeles Times, and the NBC programming staff that had bought the series were no longer with the network when it was supposed to premiere. Still, he expected the completed episodes to eventually see the light of day [18].

David Brenner spoke with TV Guide in December and revealed that he had no idea why the series had been cancelled: “We did seven shows and were just starting to work on the eighth when the cancellation came. I don’t know the exact reason for the cancellation, but I know people who saw the tapings laughed. I’ve always had trouble with executives. I guess I still have trouble with them” [19]. In January of 1977 Lesley Ann Warren told The Los Angeles Times “we shot seven shows with tremendous script problems from the beginning. Then one day mid-rehearsal someone came in and said ‘Get your bags and get out’” [20].

The seven episodes of Snip that were filmed prior to the sudden expectation were never broadcast in the United States.

The story of this sitcom begins where another ends. On March 14th, 1978 Beatrice Arthur announced that she was leaving Maude, explaining that “it’s been a glorious experience, I’ve loved every minute of it. But it has been six years and I think it’s time to leave [21]. Barbara Brogliatti, representative for Norman Lear’s Tandem Productions (Lear created the series, which was spun-off from All in the Family, and Tandem Productions produced it), noted that “she had been talking about it, but we certainly didn’t expect it. We weren’t warned” [22].

Arthur told the Associated Press how Maude would end: “Norman had had an idea some time ago in which Maude becomes a Congresswoman and moves to Washington. Norman said if you go on for another year, we’ll do it in Washington with a new cast. And if you don’t, it’s a hell of a way to end the show” [23]. The final three episodes of the series, titled “Maude’s Big Move,” saw her heading to Washington and three new characters were introduced: Maude’s political assistant, Sam (played by Dennis Burkley), her legal assistant, Maggie (played by Barbara Rhodes) and her secretary, Aretha (played by Sarina C. Grant). The last episode was broadcast on Saturday, April 22nd, 1978.

In October of 1978 The Chicago Tribune reported that John Amos was working on a new television series called The Washington Story, a potential midseason replacement for CBS [24]. By November the series had been retitled Onward and Upward [25]. The sitcom was created by Norman Lear; Amos would play a first-year Congressman. In December Onward and Upward was officially made part of CBS’s mid-season plans and given the 8:30-9PM timeslot on Sunday following All in the Family [26]. Also that month The New York Times revealed Onward and Upward’s connection to Maude, writing that the new series “picks up what was to have been a new development in the series ‘Maude,’ until Bea Arthur, the star, decided to retire from the show last year” [27].

Then, in mid-December, Amos quit the series over “different opinions with the producers about the direction the show was to take” [28]. His role would be recast, the pilot would be reshot, and the series would still premiere in March of 1979 as expected. Gary Deeb reported that Amos was “dissatisfied with the program’s story lines and deeply disturbed by the emphasis on ‘hard jokes’ instead of more realistic humor” and suggested that leaving Onward and Upward — for which he would have been paid roughly $20,000 per episode — was “another indication that Amos is ruled more by his conscience than by his pocketbook” [29]. Amos left Good Times under somewhat similar circumstances in 1976.

John Carmody of The Washington Post closely followed developments in his “The TV Column,” reporting on January 8th, 1979 that Onward and Upward would premiere on March 4th [30]. On January 18th he noted that the show had been retitled Mister Dooley [31]. On January 23rd he reported that relatives of Finley Peter Dunne Jr., a columnist who created a character named Mr. Dooley in the late 1890s, had contacted T.A.T. Communications (the production company behind Onward and Upward/Mister Dooley) and the series now had no title [32].

Finally, on February 15th, Carmody revealed that Cleavon Little had been signed by TAT Communications to star in the sitcom, now called Mister Dugan, which would premiere on March 11th [33]. Then, on March 9th, Carmody reported that Mister Dugan would not debut at 8:30PM on Sunday, March 11th as planned. Although three episodes had been filmed and CBS was ready to air the series, T.A.T. Communications halted production [34].

Barbara Rhoades, Sarina C. Grant, Cleavon Little, Dennis Burkley and Nedra Volzin in Mister Dugan

According to The Los Angeles Times, the decision to pull the series was made after the pilot was shown to the Congressional Black Caucus in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, March 6th. Representative Cardiss Collins stated that the episode “portrayed blacks in a demeaning manner. This black congressman had all white people on his staff. It was flip, slapstick-type material… It made some of the people sick to see that in this day and age something like this could be portrayed on television” [35].

Alan Horn, president of T.A.T. Communications, explained that “if we had believed very strongly that we were presenting a positive image of a black congressman, then notwithstanding whatever the Congressional Black Caucus had said, we would simply have done the show anyway. This company’s track record in staning up to pressure groups is a good one; we believe in the First Amendement” [36].

Horn estimated that the company stood to lose $1 million over Mister Dugan, including production costs on the three completed episodes and paying out contracts for the cast and crew for three other episodes that were never filmed [37]. In March 22nd editorial The New York Times criticized Norman Lear for bowing to outside pressure:

The show centered about a black freshman congressman, played by Cleavon Little. Mr. Lear gave a preview of the first episode to black members of Congress; they were displeased. So the show was dropped. Mr. Lear felt that the portrayal of the first black Congressman on television should have more “importance and dignity.”

TV critics long ago concluded that situation comedies could hardly be more bland than they already are, but this method of clearing shows in advance could bring them to new heights of insipidness. If Mr. Lear had taken the trouble to clear the Bunker family saga with residents of the Bunker neighborhood in Queens, he would doubtless have been told that Archie lacked importance and dignity. Whoever thought we’d see the day when Mr. Lear let editorial judgements be made “All in the Family”? [38].

Earlier, however, Gary Deeb had applauded the pre-emptive removal of Mister Dugan from the airwaves:

“Mr. Dugan” was trash, the sort of strident abomination that has turned so many thoughtful Americans against TV in the last few years.

More specifically, it was another in a series of weekly comedy programs that portray black people as ignorant, finger-snapping bumpkins. For further details, you need only watch “What’s Happening,” “Diff’rent Strokes,” “The Jeffersons,” or “Good Times.” Indeed, the bosses of network TV, who consider themselves human-rights liberals, have seen to it that their video plantations are populated with “happy darkies.” [39]

Deeb also lambasted Norman Lear and T.A.T. Productions for not realizing on their own that the series was offensive, suggesting that “if Lear & Co. truly had no clue as to the sociological ugliness of ‘Mr. Dugan,’ then they’re admitting to a serious affliction for which they ought to seek a cure before force-feeding us more twaddle” [40].

Barbara Rhoades, Cleavon Little and Dennis Burkley in Mister Dugan

And yet, after all that had happened, there was still life in the concept. On Wednesday, August 8th, 1979 CBS premiered a new sitcom called Hanging In, about a new university president and the trials he endures from his staff. Included in the cast were Dennis Burkley, Barbara Rhodes and Sarina C. Grant. Recall that they also appeared in the final three episodes of Maude, in the pilot for Onward and Upward and the three episodes of Mister Dugan. Nedra Volz, who had appeared in the pilot for Onward and Upward and Mister Dugan, was also in Hanging In, which ran for just four episodes.

Playing the new university president? Bill Macy, who had starred alongside Beatrice Arthur for six years on Maude as her husband.

CBS announced in January of 1988 that it had several new sitcoms in the works for mid-season, including one called The Dictator starring Christopher Lloyd as “a deposed tyrant from a small Caribbean island who moves to Rego Park and opens a laundromat [41]. In early February it was given the 8:30-9PM time slot on Tuesdays following Coming of Age, another new sitcom about a former pilot living in a retirement home [42].

In The Dictator, Lloyd would play Joseph Paul Domino who, after being deposed, moved to Queens with his wife Isabel (played by Deborah Rush) and children Reggie and Andrew (played by Robyn Lively and John David Cullum). Helping “The Dictator” run his laundromat was General Vesuvio (played by Joe Grifasi). Guest starring in the premiere episodes would be David Alan Grier and Peter Crombi [43].

By the end of February CBS had decided to create a two-hour comedy block on Tuesdays. Yet another new sitcom, Trial and Error, would kick of the night at 8PM, followed by The Dictator and Coming of Age. Frank’s Place would move from Mondays to fill the 9:30-10PM period. The block would premiere on March 15th [44].

And then, on Monday, March 7th, the Writers Guild of America went on strike. The very next day CBS replaced The Dictator with My Sister Sam, which was on hiatus. According to USA Today The Dictator was set to tape its third episode on March 8th and the network didn’t want to premiere the series with so few episodes available [45]. Newsday put the number of completed episodes at three [46]. Either way, there weren’t enough.

TV Guide Advertisement for The Dictator – March 12th, 1988
Copyright © TV Guide, 1988 [2]

On Thursday, April 14th CBS officially cancelled The Dictator and The Los Angeles Times noted that three episodes had been completed prior to the strike with five others ordered [47]. Regardless of how many episodes were actually finished none of them would ever be broadcast.

In the mid-1990s the networks became increasingly willing to shelve new programs even if there were six or eight episodes completed. Between 1996 and 2006 at least fourteen scripted programs were pulled from network schedules with between two and eight episodes in the can. What follows is a list of those fourteen programs noting the network, the year the program was produced and/or intended to be broadcast, a brief description, cast, and the number of episodes completed.

• Raising Caines, NBC (1995/1996) – Sitcom starring Mel Harris, Judge Reinhold and Barry Corbin about a family trying to make the right choices about raising their children. Six episodes. [48]
• Secret Service Guy, FOX (1997) – Sitcom starring Judge Reinhold as a “regular Joe” security guard who takes a bullet for the President and becomes a member of the Secret Service. Unknown number of episodes. [49]
• Rewind, FOX (1997) – Sitcom starring Scott Baio and Mystro Clark, set to premiere on September 11th, 1997, about an advertising executive who flashes back to his childhood in the 1970s. Two episodes [50]
• Manchester Prep, FOX (1999) – Drama adapted from Cruel Intentions, reportedly cancelled due to racy content. Two episodes [51]
• When I Grow Up (aka Fling), FOX (2001) – Romantic drama created by Glen Gordon Caron starring Brooke Langton as a woman who winds up working with the private investigator, played by Josh Hopkins, her husband hired to investigate her. Seven episodes. [52]
• The Grubbs, FOX (2002) – Sitcom starring Randy Quaid as the ultimate underachieving family man. Eight episodes. [53]
• The Jake Effect, NBC (2003) – Sitcom starring Jason Bateman as a lawyer who suddenly quits to become a teacher. With Nikki Cox and Greg Grunberg. Aired on cable channel Bravo in 2006. Seven episodes. [54]
• The Ortegas, FOX (2003) – Sitcom starring Cheech Marin, Renee Victor and Al Madrigal as a family that runs a talk show out of its backyard. Six episodes. [55]
• Still Life, FOX (2003/2004) – Drama about a family dealing with the death of the oldest son who serves as narrator. With Susanna Thompson, David Keith and Jensen Ackles. Seven episodes. [56]
• The Men’s Room, NBC (2004) – Sitcom about three male friends at different parts of their lives. With John Cho, Scott Cohen and Brian Skala. Six episodes. [57]
• Misconceptions, The WB (2006) – Sitcoming Jane Leeves as a woman who learns her daughter’s biological father isn’t the successful doctor she thought he was. Six episodes. [58]
• Waterfront, ABC (2006) – Drama starring Joe Pantoliano as the troubled mayor of Providence, Rhode Island. Six episodes. [59]
• The Singles Table, NBC (2006/2007) – Sitcom about five single guests at a wedding who become friends. With John Cho and Alicia Silverstone. Six episodes. [60]
• Thick & Thin, NBC (2006/2007) – Sitcom starring Jessica Capshaw as a woman who has lost 60 pounds and must learn to live as fit, single woman. Six episodes. [61]

In addition to these scripted programs, there have also been many examples of non-scripted/reality shows being pulled before any completed episodes can be broadcast.

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Last Updated April 14th, 2009