Executive Meddling/Live-Action TV: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

[[Executive Meddling]]: ruining great TV shows since the dawn of time.

* ''[[Dark Angel]]'', to the sadness of its fans, was canceled ''after'' the cast were informed they got a third season. Jessica Alba was even in the airport to fly out to film the series when she got the call. And then, irony upon irony. Fox replaced it with a show that lasted only one season (''[[Firefly]]'', also sunk because of [[Executive Meddling]]), causing an outbreak of fan wars on the internet.

* Virtually all American television shows produced before the late 1960s were subject to a particularly malevolent form of [[Executive Meddling]]. It was common at the time for stations in the Southeastern United States to edit shows to remove black characters who weren't in stereotypic roles (maids, criminals, sharecroppers, etc). If the black characters were pivotal to the story, then the episode, and in some cases the entire show, would simply not be broadcast in the southern market (one station in Jackson, Mississippi, [[wikipedia:WLBT|WLBT]], lost their license because of this and even the outright refusal to carry their network's newscasts because of their critical coverage of the Civil Rights Movement). There was therefore a tremendous amount of pressure on producers to not cast a black actor unless the character he or she was playing was a demeaning stereotype, because losing out on the southern market meant losing out on a lot of money.

** Ironically, a few years later, however, Newman's boss, the head of BBC TV, suggested the 12 episode story featuring the Daleks, allegedly because of his mother liked them so much, much to the displeasure of Verity Lambert's replacement, John Wiles.

** Modern ''[[Doctor Who]]'' isn't necessarily free of this, by all accounts; it has reportedly been mandated from above that every story must feature some kind of monster, regardless of whether it is appropriate to include one. The episode "Father's Day" was reportedly meant to not include any monsters at all, before this executive degree mandated the inclusion of the [[Clock Roaches]] that power the plot.

*** [[Michael Grade]] has become infamous for both this and his actions later on when he became head of rival [[Channel 4]], where he continued his meddling. Chris Morris pretty much said all that needed to be said in a few frames of [[Brass Eye]].

**** And chew on this: All of the controllers of the BBC have been knighted... except for Grade. The Queen is a huge fan of ''Doctor Who''.

** Whedon has confirmed that the "Buffy Working At A Fast Food Place" plotline would have been taken further in Season 6, due to network worries that it would alienate advertisers... and thank God for that.

* ''[[Angel]]'', in order to get a fifth season, changed location, changed their jobs from detectives to powerful corporate executives, shifted from a [[Arc]] based format to a [[Monster of the Week]] setup (for the first one third of the season; after that they managed to have at least somewhat of a [[Story Arc]]), and transplanted [[Breakout Character]] Spike from ''[[Buffy]]'' into the show. It worked to some extent, as the fifth season was better received than the previous one, though not enough so to bring about a sixth season.

* [[FOX]] insisted that ''[[Firefly]]'' have a "space hooker" and required Joss Whedon to write a second pilot because they wanted more action and less drama. They also threatened to pan-and-scan crop, no matter how it was shot, necessitating reshoots. Then they aired the episodes out of order and pre-empted a bunch of them for baseball. The series didn't even get to finish its first season.

** ''[[Head Trip]]'' has a [http://headtripcomics.comicgenesis.com/d/20071107.html solution for this problem].

* The first season of ''[[Dollhouse]]'' was heavily meddled with. The pilot was reshot because [[FOX]] found it too confusing. They also saw it prudent to make the writers focus on a [[Monster of the Week]] format for the first five episodes. They also decided not to air Episode 13, which is perhaps the most critically acclaimed of the series.

** Fox didn't "decide not to air episode 13." Whedon's contract with Fox was worded in such a screwy way that the unaired pilot actually counted as a 13th episode, meaning that Whedon was only contracted to air 12. The DVD distributors, however, needed a thirteenth.

** And now that the original pilot has been seen, one can understand why it was redone.

** From there, it turned into another "single people with relationship problems" type of show, the exact sitcom stereotype the series was trying to stray from. John Hemingway also lost his cool, brooding, intellectual demeanor in the process.

** Larroquette himself despaired when they moved his character, who worked as a night-shift bus station manager, out of his rat-trap boarding house to a nice apartment that he [[Friends Rent Control|obviously couldn't afford]] with [[The Couch|a couch]] facing the cameras. The [[Hooker with a Heart of Gold]] character had to find another career, too.

* Spock's pointed ears on ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]'' were almost the victim of panicky [[NBC]] executives, who were afraid that superstitious hordes of TV viewers would think he was Satanic. They went so far as to airbrush the points out of a number of promotional photographs. [[Gene Roddenberry]] managed to save Spock's ears by promising plastic surgery for the character if audience response was poor. As we know, it was anything ''but'' bad. After Spock's popularity was established, no one at NBC would ever admit to being anything but ''for'' pointed ears.

** Similarly, Roddenberry's original plan for perfect 50-50 gender equity among the crew of the ''Enterprise'' was scuttled by nervous suits who said, "Don't you see? It makes it look like there's a lot of ''fooling around'' going on up there!" It was only with great effort that he was able to retain a 30% female crew.

** If you believe Gene Roddenberry, the original [[Pilot]] episode for the original series, "The Cage", was considered "too intellectual" by the executives, so a new one was made (in fact, Gene had pitched the show as an action show, and the pilot contained little action). Gene Roddenberry then created the two-parter "The Menagerie" as a [[Framing Device]] in order to utilize footage from "The Cage". "The Menagerie" won a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation.

* However, when ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' had its pilot, the Meddling was a positive. "Encounter at Farpoint" was originally just about the crew visiting a strange starbase, in a one-hour pilot show. When the Execs wanted a "Two Hour Event", Gene and DC were forced to add in a new alien threat to pad the show out. This would be Q, one of the most beloved and important "villains" in ''Star Trek'' history.

** [[J. Michael Straczynski]]'s experience creating the ''[[Babylon 5]]'' sequel series ''[[Crusade]]'' for [[TNT]] was full of meddling; Turner execs reportedly asked him to add more sex and violence, and write a second pilot directly under their oversight. They even forced changes in the color scheme of the sets and uniforms after filming had begun. A [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshade was hung]] on this in one episode, with a sarcastic comment about interfering higher-ups back on Earth. The series was canceled before it even aired, and to add insult to injury, the episodes were aired out of their intended order.

*** After the intended first episode was thought to be too cerebral and therefore uninteresting, the execs actually insisted on a new pilot that ''would open with a fist fight''.

* Tracy Torme was forced out of the ''[[Sliders]]'' staff by Fox executives, who wanted less political and philosophical exploration in the show, and more action and sex appeal.

* Similarly, ''[[Andromeda]]'' executive producer Robert Hewitt Wolfe was constantly fighting with the Tribune suits, and he was ultimately fired halfway through Season 2. The plot of the show changed drastically at this point; Dylan's attempts to create a new Commonwealth were rushed to completion so he could be at odds with them instead.

** And when ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'' came over from the abusive [[Comedy Central]], the execs decided that it needed more sci-fi movies (which is partially justified, this was before their [[Network Decay]] started to kick in), and eventually feature wacky subplots during the host segments such as Pearl Forrester wanting to become a licensed mad scientist, because that's what the audience will care about. Proof that you can run a network with ''no clue'' about why people watch your programs. Luckily, none of this hurt the ratings and they made that stuff funny.

** ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'' is now getting this treatment as well.

*** At least ''Atlantis'' got the dignity of a five-season run. ''[[Stargate Universe]]'' only got two.

*** The fan reaction to Universe's two season run was the same as the reaction to ''SG-1'' getting ten. Half thought it deserved a longer run, and half thought it should have been canceled after the first season.

** Lindelof also revealed [http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,1562722,00.html here] that ABC had mandated some changes to the original draft of the Season 2 episode "Dave", which implies that all the events from the entire show had merely taken place inside the mind of Hurley, one of the main characters who had once been an inmate in a psych ward. Supposedly, ABC execs were afraid that the episode might offer an explanation for the mysteries of the show as a whole, years before it would actually end. Since the general implication is still included in the final episode, it's uncertain what changes, if any, have been made to the draft to accommodate ABC's concerns.

** Oh, no, they succeeded, all right. Originally, Jack was supposed to be a one-shot character shown only in the pilot (and played by [[Michael Keaton]]), who would be killed off by the Monster before too long. Instead of Jack, it would have been Kate leading the Losties. The ABC executives allegedly had a problem with this, protesting that it would lead to reactions of "betrayal, anger, and bewilderment" in the audience, and insisted that Jack be kept on as a main character, permanently altering the show's dynamic.

*** Before fans of Kate as she exists now get uppity about this change, it should be noted that Kate was going to be slightly older, not a fugitive and traveling with her husband whom she believed was alive somehow even though he had been in the rear section of the plane. If this sounds familiar it is because those elements were incorporated in the recurring character of Rose.

* ''[[Power Rangers SPD]]'' got hit especially hard: [[Executive Meddling]] caused a good chunk of the budget to go into the final episodes, meaning Disney didn't have enough money to, of all things, hire an actual actor to play the [[Sixth Ranger]]. Their solution? Come up with some contrived plot about him being a time traveler who manifested as a ball of light when not morphed, and just get a ''voice actor'' to play him. Sam only ever appears as a stuntman in the ranger suit or as the CGI ball of light, making interaction between him and the other characters exceedingly awkward; the creative team was apparently so frustrated that they just wrote around him more often than not, and probably would have sent him back to the future, if not for [[Stock Footage]] constraints. Fans despised this move, even ''before'' the [[Grand Finale]] threw in the sucker punch of Sam appearing unmorphed for about two seconds before returning to the future. Sam rivals [[Cousin Oliver]] Justin as one of the most unpopular characters in the franchise's [[Long Runners|eighteen-year history]]. It's been pointed out that at least Justin ''was'' a character, as Sam was basically treated like a weapon or a Zord.

* [[NBC]]'s Green/Earth Weeks; weeks in November and April respectively where every NBC show had to contain environmental themes. It was a great way for the suits to show off how "green" they were without actually doing anything.

** ''[[My Name Is Earl]]'' lampshaded this one when Earl is required to organize a "Scared Straight" Program and [[Executive Meddling]] forces him to include environmental themes. He protests, because it wouldn't have anything to do with the story and would just be awkwardly shoehorned in.

* ''[[iCarly]]'': Parodied in "iCarly Saves TV". iCarly was given a TV contract, but proceeded to be meddled with by a director fixated with a traditional sitcom and not the original idea of expanding iCarly into something of a variety show. This included replacing Sam, making Freddie an errand boy for the director, and eventually adding a talking [[Barney and Friends|Barney]]esque dinosaur.

** Happened with the show itself. Nick ordered a 5 episode storyline panding to the Sam/Freddie pairing fandom. That fandom is an incredibly loud online following that looks bigger than the show itself because they'd driven out every other type of fan during the major [[Shipping Wars]] that happened earlier in the shows run. Nick and the creator expected ratings to beat the 12.7 million ratings that "iSaved Your Life" recieved. Incidentally that involved the Carly/Freddie pairing. The first episode drew 7 million, which was good but likely a disappointment for the Nick who expected 13 million or more. [[It Got Worse]], as the rest of the episodes drove away viewers in their millions. By the time the arc ended, the final episode posted the lowest ratings in the history of the show. The show has never recovered, and continually breaks it's record for lowest rated episode now. Due to it's status as Nick's top show, it's dragged down shows it's ratings support like ''[[Victorious]]'', and has dragged down the network as a whole to the point where the Nick execs stated in public that they believed that the ratings system was broken, although this was quickly proven incorrect.

* The commentaries on the DVD release of ''[[The Weird Al Show]]'' reveal the truly epic levels of stupidity that were constantly forced on the show, mostly from the network's constantly fluctuating standards of behavior they were worried kids would imitate. For example, one of Al's few victories was to keep a gag about sticking his arms into a barrel full of melted chocolate, by arguing that most kids wouldn't have a barrel full of melted chocolate on hand to imitate the scene.

* Portrayed over the fourth season of ''[[Seinfeld]],'' which features a story arc of Jerry and George trying to pitch a show much like ''Seinfeld'' itself to NBC, which is slowly ground down into another lame cookie cutter sitcom. Unusually, no one seems to notice and they seem pretty proud of the final product. The most notable is Jerry pitching an idea to spend an entire episode simply on the characters waiting for a table in a restaurant (the setup of one of the show's most popular and iconic episodes) which the execs don't get. A flustered Jerry then gives an alternate idea for a ridiculous story where a man is sentenced to be Jerry's butler after hitting his car, which cracks all the execs up and becomes the story of the pilot episode.

* Sexy ''[[Frasier]]'' character Roz Doyle was impregnated and turned into a single mom by executives.

* A rare positive example in ''[[Generation Kill]]'': the first episode had major issues running over-time, partly because HBO kept re-inserting a lengthy scene that the director and producers were perfectly willing to live without and kept taking out of the cut. In the end, HBO simply allowed the episode to run over the original limit.

* The [[Showtime]] executives objected to an episode of the [[Genre Anthology]] series ''[[Masters of Horror]]'' called "Imprint", directed by [[Takashi Miike]], for its [[Nightmare Fuel|extremely graphic and disturbing content]]. Executive producer and creator Mick Garris made cuts to the episode, but it was shelved anyway, and is now only available on DVD. Another episode, "Jenifer", had several cuts made for violence, with the deleted scenes being available on DVD.

* One name in [[Toku]] is synonymous with [[Executive Meddling]]: ''[[Kamen Rider Hibiki]]''. Originally it wasn't even intended to be a ''[[Kamen Rider]]'' series, but [[Dolled-Up Installment|was shoehorned into the role]]. However, the unusually introspective and character-driven ''Hibiki'' quickly gained popularity -- [[Merchandise-Driven|but not toy sales]]. So around episode 30, most of the head staff was changed and the series was [[Retool|retooled]] to be more action-centric. This also included Eiki and Shoki being [[Demoted to Extra]], as well as the introduction of [[The Scrappy]] Kyosuke Kiriya. Shigeki Hosokawa, Hibiki's actor, reported that the new writing staff was "fraudulent" and harder to work with, to the point where they were re-writing the final episode ''while the final battle was being filmed''. Just to cap it all off, the ending was changed at the last minute, {{spoiler|denying Asumu the chance to become an Oni, the staff actually scrapping his costume in order to enhance Kiriya's}}; fans were livid at this revelation, and several Toei executives were upbraided for letting things go so far.

** As for the cast, Hosokawa has said that he'd gladly reprise his role as Hibiki, provided a more competent director were in charge; Kiriya's actor Yuichi Nakamura [[Rescued from the Scrappy Heap|redeemed himself]] with his performance as Yuto Sakurai in ''[[Kamen Rider Den-O]]''; and while Asumu remains screwed, his ''[[Kamen Rider Decade]]'' [[Alternate Universe]] counterpart (played by a different actor) receives the justice the original universe incarnation should have got, as {{spoiler|he himself becomes Hibiki after his mentor passes on his powers to the boy}}.

** On the flip side of the coin, way back in Season 1, Claire's friend Zach was originally supposed to come out as gay. This was scrapped due to pressure from Thomas Dekker's agent who believed him playing a gay character would affect Fox's interest in hiring him for the role of [[The Sarah Connor Chronicles|John Connor]].

* Heavily subverted by [[Kenny Everett]]; when he devised for his show a new character called Mary Hinge, he was ordered by Thames TV executives to change the name because the [[Spoonerism]] was "too blatant". So change it he did -- to Cupid Stunt, which is far '''more''' blatant.

* ''[[Home Improvement (TV series)|Home Improvement]]'' actually ''depicted'' in-universe Binford Tools executives meddling with ''Tool Time'', the [[Show Within a Show]]. Among examples were an executive threatening to fire Tim if he didn't promote an inferior power tool on ''Tool Time'', and another one making the cast wear tacky yellow jumpsuits with the Binford logo on them (except Heidi, who got a yellow bikini), allowing only Binford tools to be used on the show and confiscating all non-Binford tools, and finally trying to [[Trash the Set]] for a [[Grand Finale]] of ''Tool Time'' by staging an accident (ironically, the last idea was overturned, but Tim ended up accidentally starting a fire on the set, nearly trashing it except the firefighters were on hand).

* ''[[CSI: NY]]'' (or at least, one of its characters) was a victim when {{spoiler|Angell was killed solely due to budget cuts}}.

* The original '60s run of ''[[Outer Limits]]'' was rife with executive meddling from ABC. First, creator Leslie Stevens wanted to do a serious science-fiction show, but the network wanted a "[[Monster of the Week]]" kind of show. Stevens and producer Joseph Stefano reluctantly agreed, calling the monsters "bears", from an old vaudeville saying "bring out the bear", as in when the audience is restless, bring out the dancing bear. The original air date for the episode "A Feasibility Study" was delayed for months because a network censor objected to the ending where a community sacrificed itself to save the rest of Earth from being enslaved. The last straw for Stevens and Stephano was when the network decided to move the show against [[Jackie Gleason]] for the second season. They walked. The network then put one of their own executives in charge of the show, in a hope to keep the budget under control. It ended up being cancelled in mid-season.

* [[SCTV]] faced this numerous times, mainly from NBC, who gave them almost [[No Budget]], and tried to influence the show's content.

* ''[[The X-Files]]'' suffered from this terribly, especially in later seasons. On the whole, the show was not supposed to go 9 seasons; it was originally supposed to go five seasons and then be completed in a series of feature movies. When Fox extended the contract, it was agreed that seven seasons was long enough. "Requiem", the season seven finale, was written and designed to be the series finale, pulling in almost every major character from the series and setting it in the same place the pilot took place. But executive meddling wins again, and the Chris Carter and Co. ended up with the terrible task of writing two more seasons when most of the plotline had already been resolved. New, confusing plotlines were developed, new characters added, and it pretty much dissolved by Season 9. A bad end to a good show.

** Ironically, a more positive example came right when the show first began. The network brass told the writers to include plotlines that had to do with Earthly monsters, as opposed to just [[UFOs]] and aliens. Chris Carter agreed that the series couldn't have sustained itself that way, and the first [[Monster of the Week]] plot was the extremely memorable ''Squeeze'', featuring cannibalistc monster Eugene Tooms.

* Apparently the people behind the low rated ''[[Joan of Arcadia]]'' were pressured to make the show "less talky" and [[Ratings Stunt|stunt-cast in order to increase ratings]]. They were also forced to change the missions God gave to Joan from "[[For Want of a Nail]]" interventions that changed the course of people's lives to an endless stream of [[And Knowing Is Half the Battle|"life lessons"]] for her alone.

** And of course demanding Adam cheat on Joan, which his actor was ''not'' pleased about.

* Executive pressure forced David Lynch to reveal Laura Palmer's killer in the second season of ''[[Twin Peaks]]'', essentially guaranteeing is decline and fall.

** This is probably one of the worst examples of this trope. In most cases, [[Executive Meddling]] is merely irritating or ludicrous. Here, it was fatal. Concerned by the show's declining ratings, the execs pushed the creators to reveal the identity of Laura's killer - the central mystery of the series - in the middle of Season 2, thirteen episodes away from the finale. Without the focus provided by the search for the killer, the show quickly ran out of steam; the sub-plots, which before added colour to the story, soon became all ''[[Twin Peaks]]'' had to offer. The rationale for this case of [[Executive Meddling]] was ludicrous; attempting to end [[Twin Peaks]]' ratings slide by revealing the identity of the killer was akin to trying to stop the ''Titanic'' from sinking by blowing a hole through the middle of it.

** Just to show that this trope can go both ways on the same show, Sue Sylvester has become increasingly more and more out of place and less popular on ''[[Glee]]'', but [[Executive Meddling]] demands that the writers keep her on instead of disposing of her.

* ''[[Frankie Boyle's Tramadol Nights]]'' was originally going to be called "Deal With This, Retards" but [[Frankie Boyle]] was told that if he wanted the show broadcast on Channel 4 he'd have to change the name.

* In a blunder reminiscent of the rounding of Spock's ears in early ''[[Star Trek]]'' promotional material, some executives at ABC insisted that the new series ''[[Happy Days]]'' dress the character of Fonzie in a red nylon windbreaker and loafers, because they were afraid audiences would be driven away by the sight of an apparent motorcycle-gang member in leather jacket and biker boots. After the pilot the network compromised, agreeing to let Fonzie wear the jacket and boots only when he was on or beside the motorcycle, so that they could be perceived as "safety gear". Naturally, this spawned the [[Running Gag]] where Fonzie took his motorcycle ''everywhere'', even into living rooms and stores, [[Writer Revolt|in order to completely eliminate any moment where they would be forced to put him in the windbreaker and loafers]]. Of course, audiences were just as repulsed by the character of Fonzie as they had been by the character of Spock nearly a decade earlier; and once he became the show's breakout character, the leather jacket and boots suddenly, mysteriously, became far less threatening to the executives.

** The bad was on ''[[Maverick (TV series)|Maverick]]'': although he created the series, Warner Bros. compelled him to base the official pilot ("The War Of The Silver Kings") on a property they owned so that they wouldn't have to give him "created by" credit and the royalties thereof (something they hated to do on ANY of their television series in the beginning). Huggins understandably wasn't thrilled.

** The good was on ''Run For Your Life'': NBC (and the American Medical Association) asked Huggins not to name the terminal disease which Ben Gazzara's adventure-seeking lawyer was suffering from (he was told it would kill him within two years... the show lasted for ''three'') so viewers wouldn't start thinking they had it.

* The Lisa Kudrow vehicle ''The Comeback'' features fictional examples of this before it was canceled by executives who couldn't see the humor.

* Bam Margera became incredibly fed up with MTV during the run of ''[[Viva La Bam]]'': for example, an elaborate first episode that involved Bam turning his parents' entire property into a skate park went mostly unused, ending up as ten minutes' worth of filler when another episode resulted in scanty material (to ensure that the amount of work put into the skate park was seen and appreciated, two lengthy compilations of unused footage from this episode appeared on the Season 1 boxed set and Viva La Bands Vol. 2 DVD).

** Another example of wasted footage was the "CKY Challenge" episode, rendered almost unintelligible by MTV's editing. On the DVD commentary, Tim Glomb is watching the finished episode for the first time, and becomes angry at how terrible it turned out.

* [[AMC]] is showcasing [[Executive Meddling]] brilliantly. They've only recently started showing original programming, and they've done so with [[Oscar Bait|Emmy Bait]] that is nothing short of marvelous. ''[[Mad Men]]'', ''[[Breaking Bad]]'' and ''[[The Walking Dead]]'' have all been incredibly popular with fans, critics, and award shows. So of course AMC is slashing their budgets. And firing the show-runners. And everyone is [[Blatant Lies|applauding these well-thought-out, incredibly wise, surefire winning moves]].

* ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'' occasionally suffered from this. A particularly blatant example is the final sketch of the second series set in a funeral parlour where the funeral director suggests that the grieving widower eats his wife. The BBC said they could only broadcast it if the studio audience was shown reacting with disgust. The audience reactions were not particularly convincing.

* In 1995, nearly the entire cast of ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' was fired by NBC in the hope that "starting fresh" with a new cast would boost the show's poor ratings. 9 cast members, including Chris Farley and Adam Sandler, were cut from the show while a few others (such as Mike Meyers and Janeane Garofalo) resigned before they could be fired. These days the Farley/Sandler/Meyers years are remembered fondly by many fans who view it as a high point in the show's history.

* Subverted in the short-lived show ''[[Action]]'', which itself was subject to meddling by executives at...you guessed it, Fox. In the series' primary story arc, the screenwriter for the movie Peter Dragon is producing is constantly being given notes to change his script from everybody involved in the film until he has a nervous breakdown under the pressure.

* This was attempted on ''[[Living Single]]''. Kim Coles (Synclaire) was told that she needed to lose weight for her character, but her castmates said they would quit the show if the exectutives made her do that.

* ''[[Forever Knight]]'' very nearly fell victim to it-the execs wanted to get rid of the focus on Nick's redemption and get rid of Natalie and Janette because they felt Debora Dunchenne and Catherine Disher weren't sexy enough for their demographic. Fortunately, Geraint Wyn Davies threatened to quit if all of the changes went through. Duchenne/Janette was still cut, but the rest of the change ideas were dropped (although Lisa Ryder's Tracy character was probably an attempt to up the sexy factor a bit).

{{quote|'''Greenblatt:''' Unfortunately, that rabid fan base that was going crazy on the net didn't come to the show. And maybe they didn't come to the show because it was Friday, but you would think that audience would find the show. The show was getting a 1 rating. So I think ''Chuck''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s time had come. ... ''Chuck'' is over, let's alert the masses.}}

* ''[[Castle]]'' had an in-universe example in Season 2, when the [[Body of the Week]], a late-night talk show host played by [[America's Funniest Home Videos|Tom Bergeron]], was poisoned {{spoiler|because the network execs forced him to fire his best friend and hire a [[Younger and Hipper]] replacement}}.

* ''[[Community]]''... oh sweet god, ''Community''. After getting okay ratings the first season (this is NBC we're talking about), ''Community ''was moved to Thursday nights, 8 pm EST. The problem was that this put it up against ''[[The Big Bang Theory]]'', and the ratings suffered. It also didn't help matters that creator Dan Harmon was utilizing whatever [[Protection From Editors]] he had to introduce more and more weirdness into the show. While this was appreciated by the cult fanbase, NBC did not take it well. After a forced move to mid-season during Season 3 (which was widely protested by fans), ''Community'' was finally renewed for a fourth season... and then NBC (possibly pushed by Sony) pulled a dick move and ejected Dan Harmon from showrunner position, replacing him with the consulting producers from ''[[Aliens In America]]'' and ''[[Happy Endings]]''. The following exodus of executive producers, directors, and writers, coupled with circulated letters suggesting the actors only speak positively of the new show direction and the explosion of fan outrage, suggests the executive meddling here will not be taken well if Community does not perform to expectations - near impossible, considering it has been moved to the [[Friday Night Death Slot]].