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7 hit TV shows plagued by secret troubles

Photo credit: HBO / ABC / BBC / Gene Page / AMC
Photo credit: HBO / ABC / BBC / Gene Page / AMC

From Digital Spy

Producing a TV hit is no easy task, but it's still surprising when troubling tales emerge about blockbuster shows. For all their success, some of our favourite series have been blighted by production issues.

All might appear calm on the surface – with the final product earning rave reviews and record-busting ratings – but behind the scenes, it's a whole different story.

1. Designated Survivor

Photo credit: Netflix
Photo credit: Netflix

Kiefer Sutherland's political thriller was just dropped by its network ABC – and barring a possible last-minute save from Netflix, it looks as though Designated Survivor won't be serving another term.

Though Sutherland himself had made positive sounds about a third season, ABC president Channing Dungey explained that the network wasn't convinced by the "creative path" the show would be taking going forward.

Their concern was mostly spurred by what Dungey called Designated Survivor's "behind-the-scenes churn" – originally created by David Guggenheim, the series hired Amy B Harris as showrunner, only for her to step down over "creative differences" when the pilot was picked up to series.

Photo credit: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images
Photo credit: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

Above: Designated Survivor cast and crew, including creator David Guggenheim [far left] and showrunner Jon Harmon Feldman [far right]

Jon Harmon Feldman stepped in to oversee the early episodes, but was himself replaced by Jeff Melvoin for the first season's concluding half. That's three different showrunners, in the space of just 21 episodes.

With the show's renewal came its fourth boss – Keith Eisner ran things for the entire second season – but a fifth (as yet unnamed) showrunner was already waiting in the wings for a potential third season, which didn't end up happening.

Given all that, you can see why ABC didn't exactly consider Designated Survivor a safe bet.

2. Westworld

It's earned much critical buzz and a dedicated fan following for its gorgeous visuals and labyrinthine storytelling, but pulling together a show as complex and ambitious as HBO's Westworld proved more difficult than the show's creatives expected.

Partway through filming on the first season, executive producers Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy asked for production to go on an unplanned two-month break.

"As we head into the final phase of production on Westworld, we've made the decision to take a brief hiatus in order to get ahead of the writing," HBO said in a statement.

Photo credit: FilmMagic for HBO - Getty Images
Photo credit: FilmMagic for HBO - Getty Images

Above: Westworld showrunners Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy

"We came out of the gate very, very, quickly, because we wanted to get on the air as early as possible, and so we started shooting with only a handful of episodes in hand," Nolan later clarified. "Nothing that I have done prepared me for the sheer avalanche [of production requirements]."

Stubbs actor Luke Hemsworth later suggested that the longer-than-expected wait for season two – debuting two years after the first set of episodes – was the result of Nolan and Joy wanting to avoid a similar crisis.

"They don't want to go in doing what they were doing last time where they were under the cosh the whole time. They want to go in with a clear plan – A to Z and everything in between. At least have drafts in place."

3. Doctor Who

The first series of the revived Doctor Who can't be considered anything other than a success, saving a beleaguered sci-fi franchise and restoring it to its former glory as a flagship BBC One series.

But in the years since the 2005 revival, reports have surfaced suggesting that launching the TARDIS back into flight wasn't the easiest process.

"My relationship with my three immediate superiors – the showrunner, the producer and co-producer – broke down irreparably during the first block of filming and it never recovered," star Christopher Eccleston told Radio Times earlier this year. "They lost trust in me, and I lost faith and trust and belief in them."

Eccleston went on to suggest that he will "never" work with Russell T Davies – Doctor Who's then-showrunner – ever again, though Davies himself was magnanimous in his response.

"I have a duty of care towards any lead actor I work with, so I have a duty of care towards Chris in that moment," said Davies. "He's free to say and explore whatever he wants – that's fine. This duty of care involves respecting him and listening to him at all times. That's my job. And that duty of care towards him will extend for the rest of our lives."

4. Red Dwarf

Photo credit: Grant Naylor Productions
Photo credit: Grant Naylor Productions

Red Dwarf was seemingly cursed from the off: filming on the first episode almost didn't happen after a lengthy industrial strike at the BBC meant the project was almost shelved for good. Even once it was completed, creators Rob Grant and Doug Naylor weren't happy with series opener 'The End' and ended up reshooting significant portions of the episode.

Four years later and Red Dwarf V was hit by the departure of long-standing director Ed Bye, who helmed every episode up till that point. Juliet May was hired as Bye's replacement, but quickly found she was out of her depth.

"I just didn't have that encyclopaedic knowledge, or passion, for [science-fiction] that Rob and Doug had, and couldn't accumulate it quickly enough," she told RedDwarf.co.uk in a 2004 interview. "In the end, Rob and Doug's patience ran out."

The next series was no less troubled – with the BBC reportedly giving Grant and Naylor just four months to write and film all six episodes, the pair were still finishing the script for finale episode 'Out of Time' as it was being shot.

The whole thing was so last-minute that the cast, so the story goes, were forced to read their dialogue from tele-prompters built into the set. Ironically, the end sequence to 'Out of Time' ended up becoming of the show's all-time great moments ("Better dead than smeg!"), but the stress was all too much for Grant and Naylor's partnership, which dissolved shortly afterward.

5. Sliders

Remember this tongue-in-cheek sci-fi hit from the '90s? Poor old Sliders... it was fighting an uphill battle from the start, earning a considerable cult following despite FOX originally airing its episodes out of order.

Original showrunner Tracy Tormé eventually exited the series, citing conflict with the network over the direction the show was taking. Tormé quit after the third season and would later call that year's two-parter 'The Exodus' "one of the worst pieces of television ever produced, and the low point of the entire series".

'The Exodus' also wrote out original cast member John Rhys-Davies as Professor Arturo, with the Lord of the Rings actor later describing Sliders as "the single biggest missed opportunity of [his] life" in a 2006 interview with Digital Spy.

Photo credit: Universal / Everett
Photo credit: Universal / Everett

"I would go to [the writers] and complain," Rhys-Davis said. "But they would say, 'John, why don't you just say the words as written?' and I'd say, 'I'll tell you what, I will actually say the words as written when you can actually write intelligent sentences!'"

FOX actually axed Sliders after the third season, only for the Sci-Fi Channel to pick up the series, sans Rhys Davies. The show's fourth year was to be star Jerry O'Connell's last outing as series lead Quinn Mallory, though the show limped on for a fifth and final season without him.

Maybe there's a parallel world out there somewhere where Sliders enjoyed a simple and stress-free existence?

6. The Walking Dead

It's one of the most-watched TV shows in the world right now, but The Walking Dead is another series that's suffered from production issues and a showrunner merry-go-round.

Just four days before first season finale 'TS-19' was due to air, original showrunner Frank Darabont was reported to have fired his entire writing staff. Darabont was later given the boot himself – with his original plan for season two's premiere being thrown out – and he's currently seeking millions in damages as part of a lawsuit against AMC.

Jeffrey DeMunn, who played Dale on The Walking Dead and was a long-time collaborator of Darabont's, then decided to quit the show in protest, with his character being unceremoniously offed.

Photo credit: Gene Page/AMC
Photo credit: Gene Page/AMC

Glen Mazzara was hired as Darabont's replacement, but according to The Hollywood Reporter was himself let go in late 2012 after production was shut down "several times" because of a lack of finished scripts. "AMC and I were moving in different directions," Mazzara later said. "We came to a mutual decision to part ways."

The climax to Mazzara's final episode as showrunner, 'Welcome to the Tombs', was then reshot before transmission to incorporate script changes made by Scott Gimple, who had replaced Mazzara as series boss.

7. Charmed

The opposite of a charmed project, The WB's witty witchcraft drama could never catch a break. First, series creator Constance M Burge departed the show – allegedly because of, you guessed it, "creative differences" – and then Shannon Doherty, who played Prue, also made her exit.

"I don't know if she got fired, we never really found out what happened," Doherty's co-star Alyssa Milano later said during an appearance on Bravo's Watch What Happens Live. "I can tell you that we were on the air with her for three years, and there were definitely some rough days."

Doherty's replacement was Rose McGowan, who was later said to be unhappy with being tied to the show for so long. "Every year it would get picked up and every year I would cry," Female First quoted her as saying of Charmed in 2007.

Photo credit: L. Cohen/WireImage
Photo credit: L. Cohen/WireImage

Milano also claimed in a December 2017 interview that she and co-star Holly Marie Combs "produced the last five years of the show" in the absence of showrunner Brad Kern.

"We didn't have an on-set producer so Holly [Marie Combs] and I took on that role," Milano told Variety. "We would make on-set adjustments, because there was no one on set to make those adjustments."

Despite its troubles, Charmed ran for an impressive eight years and maintains a sizeable fan following to this day, with a reboot on the way later this year from The CW.


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