Network to the Rescue: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|''"Because it's probably the greatest picture ever made."''|'''Alan Ladd''', Fox's Head of Production during the making of ''[[Star Wars]]'', when asked why it was so expensive to make.}}
Studios turn down good scripts, networks [[Cancellation]], [[Screwed
Sometimes, a movie, show, book, or video game is an iffy bet, at best. But sometimes a Studio/Network/Publisher (or more accurately a visionary Executive at said organization) realizes that this work is simply brilliant and will make sure the product has all the resources to fund it, promote it, and make sure it gets made. This loyalty stands even when the movie has passed its budget twice, or the series is number 10,371 in the ratings. When the product is a hit, such boldness and support can result in [[Moment of Awesome (Sugar Wiki)|Moments of Awesome]] for those Executives who defied the predictions of failure from their colleagues and instead stuck by the creators of the work.
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The quote above comes from Alan Ladd, Jr., the Fox executive whose unwavering faith in ''[[Star Wars]]'' helped that movie get made when even its own cast and crew had doubts about it. Fox demonstrated similar patience when ''[[Titanic]]'' ran way over budget, failed to meet schedule deadlines, and encountered myriad problems in filming.
Sometimes, a network or studio [[Screwed
Where TV is concerned, sometimes [[Network to the Rescue]] can result in, or be the result of, an [[
Speaking of ''[[Star Trek]]'', [[Network to the Rescue]] is not quite the same as a network ''grudgingly'' taking back a show because they just don't want to upset viewers, as happened with ''[[Star Trek:
This trope doesn't apply to sure bets or things that are relatively low-risk. For instance, while Fox performed a Studio to the Rescue for [[A New Hope|the first]] ''[[Star Wars]]''; by the time they decided to make the prequels, it was a foregone conclusion that they would make tons of money.
Compare with [[Adored
----
{{examples}}
* ''[[
▲== Anime/Manga ==
▲* ''[[The Big O (Anime)|The Big O]]'' pretty much flopped in Japan, and for a long time it seemed like the season one cliffhanger would [[Left Hanging|leave viewers hanging.]] [[Germans Love David Hasselhoff|Fortunately, the show was much more popular in America]], and [[Cartoon Network]] paid a chunk of the cost to make the second season happen. This would later come back to bite the show when Cartoon Network began its [[Network Decay]], and they ended up [[Screwed By the Network|screwing up the airing of a couple episodes (including accidentally airing a repeat over the]] ''[[Screwed By the Network|finale]]''[[Screwed By the Network|) and ended up canceling the show before a reportedly expected third season]], despite it having paid off financially.
* The dub of ''[[Digimon Frontier]]'' was aired at six every morning for a few years before the creation of Jetix finally gave it a more favorable timeslot, meaning now people would actually know it existed.
** [[Averted Trope|Sadly averted]] in the UK, where the season [[No Export for You|still hasn't aired to this day]].
* [[Psyren]] was this in manga form, while it didn't test very well in Japan, [[Shounen Jump]] knew it would do well in America, and thus allowed the Mangaka to finish the story, some ''one-hundred and seventy'' chapters later.
* How about Company To The Rescue? After [[Bandai Entertainment]] decided to no longer be involved in the home video department, meaning their most notable show in their lineup,
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* ''[[Superman]]'' was rejected by every comic strip syndicate & comic book publisher twice when editor Sheldon Meyer convinced the publishers of DC Comics to take a chance on it. Result: the Man of Steel is now one of DC's historical icons.
* George Herriman's ''[[Krazy Kat]]'' was weird, surreal, and incredibly unpopular among the general public in its time. However, William Randolph Hearst ([[Citizen Kane
* Mike Grell's ''[[The Warlord|Warlord]]''. Carmine Infantino (editor in chief of DC at the time) cancelled it after the third issue, [[Screwed
== Film ==
* Many ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' fans were convinced that no movie studio could do the books justice. However, New Line Cinema took a chance on [[Peter Jackson]]'s unorthodox and expensive approach to making the movies and actually stunned everybody with three good movies.
** Originally, Peter Jackson tried to sell the project as two movies. When he shopped it to New Line, they said, "Why do you want to do this as two movies?" He got ready to lay out his arguments for why you couldn't possibly do justice to LotR in one movie, which had been the request of a previous studio; then they said, "This should be three movies."
* ''[[Jaws (
** Richard Zanuck wasn't an executive at Universal, he was formerly a executive at 20th Century Fox, but by the early 70s, he was a producer, a role he still is very much in.
* With "happy" sci-fi like ''[[Star Wars]]'' and ''[[Superman (
** It should be noted that both ''[[Star Wars]]'' and ''Superman'' were both cases of
* Paula Parisi wrote a book called ''[[Titanic]]: And the Making of [[James Cameron]]''. You get an idea of how close that movie came to not even being made. But Fox executive Bill Mechanic among others truly demonstrated balls of steel.
** Many years later, Mechanic took a chance on [[Henry Selick]] (who had become a pariah in Hollywood after ''[[James and
* Speaking of ''[[Titanic]]'', Fox also held firm for another wildly over budget and risky movie by [[James Cameron]] that was met with heavy skepticism all the way up to its release. It was in its time, the highest grossing movie of all time, only recently being upstaged by ''[[Avatar (
* As detailed on that page, this is pretty much the reason ''[[District 9]]'' exists.
* It is a well-known fact that up until very recently, stage-plays aimed at Black audiences were considered amateur fluff at best. [[Tyler Perry]] wrote and directed plays centering on Black themes that achieved box-office success on-par with the more mainstream fare. Nevertheless, he had a hard time getting Hollywood studios to make movies based on them. Lionsgate Entertainment stepped in and started producing them, with low budgets, but giving Perry wide control over the projects. Each movie generated considerable profits but the kicker was when both ''Why Did I Get Married'' and ''Madea Goes To Jail'' opened at the top of the box-office. Lionsgate and Perry came out huge winners.
* Producer Joel Silver backed the making of ''[[The Matrix]]'' even though cyber-movies like ''[[Johnny Mnemonic]]'' and ''[[Strange Days]]'' had both failed miserably. Also, no one had even heard of the Wachowski brothers, nor did anyone think that [[Keanu Reeves]], [[Laurence Fishburne]], and Carrie Moss had any kind of "star-power". Oh well, luckily for us, Joel Silver saw it differently...
* A case where the [[Power of Friendship]] overlaps with this trope: When [[Robert Downey, Jr.]] was constantly in and out of drug-related rehab, producers were unable to find insurance on him, and thus he wasn't cast in movies anymore. [[
* Even though the [[Star Trek (
** Similarly ''[[Star Trek VI:
** Paramount has a considerable track record as a Studio To The Rescue. Consider the case of ''[[Forrest Gump]]'' above. Or, more famously, ''[[
*** Not as much network to the rescue as a producer to the rescue. Paramount had been bought out by Gulf+Western and they were considering to actually close down the studio. Robert Evans fought a lot to get the Godfather made, but boy did it pay off.
* ''[[The Iron Giant]]'' was saved and primarily backed by Pete Townshend Of [[The Who]]. Why? He liked the story.
** There's more to it than that. He loved the original book, ''The Iron Man''. He even made a record out of it. It's among his favorite books. So of course he liked the story, he'd always loved it. But by the time the movie was made, he actually had the rights to it.
* After ''[[Firefly]]'' was [[Screwed
== Literature ==
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* Much like the Beatles example below, Bloomsbury, a British publisher, took a chance on the first ''[[Harry Potter]]'' novel after 8 other publishers turned it down. I bet those eight publishing companies feel pretty dumb right now.
** And even they would have turned it down if it weren't for the fact that one of the editors took the manuscript home and his daughter read it and asked for more. The publishers were all focusing on critically analyzing it from their perspective rather than thinking what the kids would want. The entire first chapter of the series consists of telling instead of showing, something one's English teacher would drill into them as bad, but that kids don't care about.
** Good point, but that can apply to almost any example here. Remember it takes a
*** [[Word of God]] says that the main reason she was told "no" so many times was because of the ''length'' of the novel. Those publishers are probably kicking themselves now.
* [[Dr. Seuss]] can top that: his first book, ''And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street'' was rejected by almost ''30'' publishers before Vanguard Press published it.
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== Live Action TV ==
* [[NBC]] is gaining a big rep for being the
** This is probably the result of NBC not having a lot of hits to begin with, so standards for renewal are lower. But a ''real'' case of them coming to the rescue recently is for shows like ''[[Chuck]]'' and ''
*** More like "Subway To the Rescue", but nevertheless, NBC heard the fans and renewed ''Chuck''.
*** Same for ''[[Parks and Recreation]]''. Despite the consensus that it [[Growing the Beard|grew the beard]] in Season 2 and escaped the notion of it being a pale knock-off of ''[[The Office]]'', the viewing audience dipped below 5 million, startlingly low for a show on broadcast TV. Nevertheless, the loads of critical praise Season 2 has received was a key factor in NBC renewing the show despite the declining ratings that show no signs of improved life.
** ''[[Hill Street Blues]]'' did a lot of things that are commonplace in a cop show today, but sure weren't back in 1980 when it was created. Things like the shaky-cam, imperfect heroes, cut-up dialogue, etc. The ratings of its first season weren't good, but ''Hill Street Blues'' later won a truckload of Emmys and is generally considered one of the best, if not ''the'' best, cop show of all time.
** ''Hill Street Blues'' is not even the most prominent example of a network coming to the rescue simply because an exec thought a show was quality work and deserved airtime. In its first season, ''[[Cheers]]'' finished ''dead last'' in the ratings. The major network exec at the time kept it on the air until it could find its audience because he thought it was [[Too Good to Last]].
** Another big one for NBC is ''[[Friday Night Lights (TV series)|Friday Night Lights]]''. It was a constant ratings disappointment in its first two seasons, but gained enough fans among the network executives that it was saved by an experimental schedule of having the next season be only thirteen episodes, which would first air on [[Direc TV]] in the fall and then on NBC itself in the spring. It was such a success that ''two'' more similarly constructed seasons were ordered towards the end of it. Notably, those three seasons are essentially being constructed as one long epilogue, with a large part of the focus going toward giving each character a three or four episode arc to send them off the show.
** NBC rejected ''[[Seinfeld]]'' after the pilot bombed in audience testing, but NBC exec Rick Ludwin liked it and took money out of his personal corporate budget to finance more episodes and talked the network into airing it as a summer replacement series. It got good enough ratings that they picked it up full-time in the middle of the next season.
** Actually, ''[[Star Trek]]'' fits this trope. The first pilot for was turned down by both CBS and NBC, but the latter network did something unheard of in the 1960s (and still fairly rare today) and asked [[Gene Roddenberry]] to do a second pilot episode.
*** And later it was more like Network's Biggest Figurehead to the Rescue when Lucille Ball made vague threats to execs that convinced them to bring it back for season 3.
** Late Night With [[Conan O
** ''[[The Tonight Show]]'' With Jay Leno: In contrast to [[Conan O
* The pinnacle of NBC's balls of steel (at least in the 1980s) is none other than ''[[The Cosby Show]]''. When the show's producers Marcy Carsey and Tom Werner approached ABC with the concept, they balked, claiming audiences would NEVER "buy the idea of a wealthy, affluent, well-to-do Black family". In addition, [[Bill Cosby]] was no star in film or television, and back then, stand-up comics didn't get shows that revolved around them (unlike today with, ''Seinfeld'' and ''[[Everybody Loves Raymond]]'' and the like, which owe their success to Cosby). NBC, however, harbored no such [[Too Dumb to Live|misguided notions]] and went ahead with it anyway.... and scored a major financial windfall in the process. ''The Cosby Show'' ranked number one in the Nielsen ratings five years in a row, and in the process, many other NBC shows, a lot of them heretofore struggling in the ratings, became hugely popular among viewers as well. All this gave NBC much needed revenue to avoid going bankrupt. ABC, for their part, saw many of their once mega-successful programs take a tremendous nosedive in the ratings, which in turn, led to a huge decline in revenue, causing the network to be bought out by a company only a tenth of their size, Capital Cities Communications. If you listen closely, you can hear the ABC execs banging their heads to this day....
** To be fair, ABC learned from their mistakes and went ahead with another sitcom about a [[Family Matters|well(ish)-off Black family and their eccentric, nerdy neighbor]].
*** Unfortunately, however, the part about the family got seriously lost in translation as the eccentric, nerdy neighbor became more and more of a [[Breakout Character|fan favorite]] and got more and more episodes written about him, to the detriment of characters who were actually part of the family, some of whom ended up [[Chuck Cunningham Syndrome|just vanishing into thin air]].
** The NBC attitude about race seems to be another legacy of the legendary Brandon Tartikoff. When ''[[Miami Vice]]'' was being cast, he insisted on the show having significant roles for Blacks. Also he allowed [[Stephen J. Cannell]] to build ''[[
* CBS managed to get one over on NBC after they dumped ''[[JAG]]'' after the first season. 9 years of solid ratings and 2 wildly successful spin-offs (''[[NCIS]]'' and ''[[NCIS: Los Angeles]]'') later, CBS is still laughing all the way to the bank.
* Similar thing happened with ''<nowiki>
* [[FOX]] initially did this with ''[[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]''. Then, after a drop in ratings, they moved it to the [[Friday Night Death Slot]] midway through the second season, and, according to a deluge of on-site news reports, axed it.
** Similarly, Fox surprised a lot of people by renewing ''[[Dollhouse]]'', despite low ratings in the [[Friday Night Death Slot]]. Of course, knowing that they would be crucified in effigy for giving a Joss Whedon show just half a season [[Firefly|a second time]] probably had a lot to do with it.
* The pilot for ''[[Lost]]'' was the most expensive ever; and none of the actors in it were major stars. In fact, one executive was fired for even giving it the go-ahead. However, [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] stuck with it, since going back would mean a loss of millions. Also ABC head Stephen McPherson thought it had 'some potential'. ''[[Lost]]'' is now considered one of TV's greatest dramas, [[Continuity Lock Out|if you know what's going on]].
** Another example: after the show started
* ''[[Law and Order]]'' wasn't expected to be a hit, but NBC stuck with it, and it enjoyed a twenty year run before being canceled. Two of its American spinoffs (''[[Law and Order Special Victims Unit]]'' and ''[[Law and Order: Criminal Intent]]'') also enjoyed long, successful runs, but a few others (''[[Law
* ''[[
** In 2004, the general perception of ''[[
*** ''Doctor Who'', back in '63, got the "second pilot" treatment before ''Star Trek'' did. The same could also be said of ABC's ''[[
* First ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'' got [[Screwed
** After 10 seasons on the air (not even counting the KTMA season). As Kevin Murphy said on the ''[[The Lord of the Rings (
** Another, even earlier case came when MST was on the Comedy Channel before it merged with Ha! to form [[Comedy Central]]. Ha! wanted to remove MST from the line-up, but Comedy Channel considered it the "flagship of its fleet" and refused to merge unless it remained. Not only did they keep it on, they gave it a contract for three 26-episode seasons.
* ''[[Scrubs]]'' was ditched by NBC after the seventh season and given a proper final season on ABC. Which was successful enough to warrant a ''ninth'' (and what would turn out to be final) season.
* After several networks passed on it, HBO took a chance on a script about a middle-aged guy, his dysfunctional wife, his dysfunctional business partners, his shrink, and his homicidal mother. Today, it's known as ''[[The Sopranos]]''.
* Believe it or not, Fox (seriously this is becoming a [[Running Gag]]) actually rejected the concept of ''[[American Idol]]'' numerous times before they finally decided to make a go of it and were rewarded with the highest rated program of the 2000's (Of course, [[Adored
* The BBC was planning to end ''[[
** Ironically, the far darker and more memorable Season 4 finale wasn't supposed to be the final episode of the show, merely the cliffhanger into a fifth and final season. The BBC decided to call it a day at that point, despite the extremely strong ratings (besting ''[[Coronation Street]]'', Britain's biggest soap opera, in the ratings with over 10 million viewers). [[Your Mileage May Vary]] on whether the cancellation was an aversion of this trope however, as Gareth Thomas had emphatically declined to reprise his role as Blake except for a one-off appearance in the finale (in which he was thoroughly [[McLeaned]] at his own insistence) and there weren't many more places to go with the story arc without turning it into a [[Franchise Zombie]].
* Warner Brothers were quietly supportive of ''[[Babylon 5]]'' throughout the first four years of its run, repeatedly not canceling it and in fact giving it modest budget increases between seasons simply because a lot of the network executives apparently just really liked it, to the extent of not even giving production notes after the start of the second season and just letting the production team get on with it. They were rewarded by moderate ratings increases and a high profile among SF fans, arguably higher than that of rival series ''[[Deep Space Nine]]'' which cost more than twice as much to make. When they were faced with the task of canceling the show due to a complex international co-funding agreement with the PTEN network collapsing, they encouraged the TNT cable network to come on board and save the day, ensuring that the show got to its planned ending. Warner Brothers eventually reaped a strong reward: international, VHS and DVD sales have seen the show make more than five times its budget back in profit since the show ended.
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** ''[[Medium]]'' was canceled by NBC and rescued by CBS... which put it right after ''[[Ghost Whisperer]]''...
*** And now in a case of irony, Ghost Whisperer's been cancelled but Medium will remain.
** ''[[Southland]]'' was also canceled by NBC and rescued by TNT... which already has the [[Darker and Edgier]] cop show ''[[Dark Blue (TV series)]]''.
* When [[
** Related to this, when studio execs were hesitant to fund ''[[Life of Brian]]'', [[The Beatles|George Harrison]] stepped in with a few million pounds and carte blanche for the Pythons to do whatever they want, purely because he was a Python fan and wanted to see the movie. Eric Idle later described it as "the most expensive movie ticket ever purchased."
* As much flak as Fox gets for [[Screwed
* While ''[[CSI]]'' and its spin-offs are mainstay hits on TV, there was a time when a forensics-based [[Police Procedural]] was considered geeky [[Science Fiction]] at best. CBS took the chance on it, only after much hand-wringing and after the other major networks passed.
* When networks either turned it down or imposed stupid limits on ''[[Star Trek:
* Although ''[[Castle]]'' started off slow, and it would've been easy for ABC to cancel it, the network stuck with it, and has even renewed it for a third season. In the process the seem to have broken the Fillion Curse.
* Disney acquired the rights to ''[[Power Rangers]]'' as part of a larger buyout, and while they continued the show they never really knew what to do with it. It eventually got to the point where they stopped airing reruns, scheduled the show in a routinely-preempted [[Friday Night Death Slot|Death Slot]], and gave up on new episodes in favor of [[
** Which it was. This is actually a case of this going incredibly well. Since the move to Nickelodeon, ratings for the show have more than tripled. In fact, ''Samurai,'' which airs at noon on Saturday, has actually outperformed the prime-time schedules for both Nickelodeon and the Disney Channel.
* When ''[[Glee]]'' was initially picked up, no one thought it would work simply because there had been so many other musical shows that had failed miserably, but FOX had total faith in it. The show is a ratings giant and had been nominated for ''19 EMMYS''. Look who's laughing now!
* CBS rejected the first pilot of ''[[The Big Bang Theory]]'' but liked some of the ideas in it enough to ask them to do a second pilot, ultimately leading to a giant hit for the network.
* ''[[
** Eight series later, it became another cancelled-at-a-cliffhanger series as the Beeb dropped the series entirely. It wasn't until a decade later that digital channel Dave commissioned new episodes. It was a pretty good partnership for both the channel and the franchise, to put it lightly.
* After NBC canceled both daytime and primetime editions of ''[[The Price Is Right]]'' in 1963, ABC stepped in and picked it up. But due to the network's budget issues and low affiliate numbers, it was canceled after two years. ABC had better success in 1968 nabbing [[Let's Make a Deal]] from NBC.
* Fred Silverman, who was CBS's then vice president for programming, canceled ''The $10,000 Pyramid'' in 1974 after only a year as NBC's ''Jeopardy!'' (which NBC programmer Lin Bolen tried to mercy-kill by slotting it against ''Pyramid'' and failed) was beating it. Five weeks later, ABC Entertainment president Martin Starger nabbed ''Pyramid'' and it not only had a six-year run on ABC but a nighttime version and an Emmy win. The real kicker, however, was that Silverman later replaced Starger in 1975, causing him to now see the program as an awful ink blot on an otherwise distinguished career at CBS. In addition, even before ABC picked up the daytime version, Bud Grant, CBS's then vice president for daytime programming, actually disagreed with the cancellation decision and before he carried it out, he gave series creator and executive producer Bob Stewart the phone number for Viacom, a syndication firm founded by CBS, and suggested to him that he have them help stage the weekly nighttime version in the first place. ''Pyramid'' later did a [[Take That]] against Silverman during the show's [[Grand Finale]] with a mock category named "Hit Shows on NBC-TV", a not so subtle jab at the fact that Silverman, now working as president and CEO of NBC, was green lighting flop after flop on the network. Silverman was not amused and, presumably in retaliation, swiftly cancelled another show from Bob Stewart that was airing on NBC at the time, ''[[Chain Reaction (TV series)|Chain Reaction]]''.
* The CW canceled ''The Game'' after three seasons. BET picked it up, and when they premiered the fourth season nearly two years later, it ended up being the biggest sitcom telecast on cable in history, drawing over 7 million viewers.
* When ''[[Due South]]'' premiered in 1994 on CBS, it was continually shifted around on the network's schedule and had episodes pre-empted (this, despite the fact that the show was at one point garnering better ratings than ''[[Friends]]'' in the U.S., and the fact that, until ''[[Flashpoint (TV series)|Flashpoint]]'' came along in 2009, ''South'' was the highest-rated Canadian-made program on American television). CBS ended up cancelling (then [[
* Family Net put the musical anthology The Venue in the [[Friday Night Death Slot]] in January 2011 with the intention to drop its Saturday Night slot the very next month. They apparently listened to the fans and kept the Saturday Night airing due to the popularity. However, they took it off the air altogether in favor of
* ''[[Stewart Lee|Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle]]'' underwent a mix of rescued/[[Screwed
* ''[[For Your Love]]'' was originally aired on NBC and cancelled after six episodes, it was then picked up by the WB and ran for another four seasons, it's rather surprising that they stuck with a show that so few people seemed to watch, you rarely ever hear FYL mentioned when people are talking about WB shows(not to mention the WB was almost as infamous as FOX for cancelling shows left and right), they even renewed the show after it suffered a 70% ratings decline during the third season. Though it did kinda get screwed during it's last couple of years on the network as it was regularly shifted around the schedule and six episodes of the fifth season(including the series finale) were not aired, though [[TV One]] later picked up the series for reruns and aired the missing episodes.
* Subverted with ''[[Airwolf]]''. [[USA Network]] tried to rescue it from [[CBS]]' cancellation but had [[No Budget]] to do so: they were forced to use stock footage to cover up the fact that they ''didn't actually have the helicopter''. The fact that said footage was [[Stock Footage Failure|painfully obvious]] and that they couldn't afford any of the show's stars didn't help matters. The show was dead for good at the end of that season.
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** This happened repeated times for them. People were shocked when they decided to stop doing live shows and instead just do studio albums. People were even wary of Sgt. Pepper, but Martin gave their full support and it did pay off.
** A bit of a zig-zag: The "Paul is dead" myth has yet another story as to how it developed. EMI had qualms about the public accepting the Beatles' 1966 song "Paperback Writer" because it wasn't a typical pop song about love and romance. Brian Epstein, the boys' manager, thought of drumming up publicity for it by having one of the Beatles "die." George and Ringo refused, and John offered to take part but since he was a practical joker, everyone would have caught on. So Paul was the one who "died." At that point, all he cryptic clues that have led people to believe to this day that the McCartney out today is either a twin brother or a highly-trained lookalike were strategically planted.
* [[Kanye West]] got turned down by label after label who didn't believe his brand of hiphop would sell (in the words of one executive "No one's gonna wanna buy a CD from a rapper who looks like [[The Fresh Prince of Bel
* [[Michael Jackson]]'s first concert in Malaysia was almost not to be. Due to a bunch of religious zealots who were offended by his "crotch-grab" move, the show almost got canceled as the ministry of the state he would be performing in revoked his performance permits amidst the complaints and the original sponsor pulled out. A new sponsor quickly stepped in just as things looked bleak, and he got a new venue at a different state. The concert was a success.
* On a few occasions in [[Country Music]], a major label has picked up an independently-distributed song after it started making waves, and helped the song rise to prominence with the resources an indie couldn't provide on its own. This first happened when Curb Records picked up Perfect Stranger's "You Have the Right to Remain Silent" in 1995 several weeks into its chart run, but has since happened with other acts including Eli Young Band (whose "When It Rains" spent 30 weeks just under the top 40 before Universal Republic picked it up from independent distribution) and Gloriana (picked up by Warner/Reprise from the independent Emblem Music Group several weeks into the chart run of "Wild at Heart").
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== Professional Wrestling ==
* [[WCW]]'s Eric Bischoff rejected Steve Austin's new character idea of him being a hardass, take-no-prisoners redneck [[Anti
** Similarly, "Mean" Mark Calaway was dropped by WCW. Vince McMahon gave him a call and said he had an idea for character. They had a meeting but nothing came from it. Later on, Calaway answered the phone and Vince apparently said "Am I speaking to the Undertaker". Calaway said "Yes!", and the rest is history.
*** Hulk Hogan was actually the one who started this, informing Vince about Calaway after Calaway had a bit role in ''Suburban Commando''.
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== Tabletop Games ==
* ''[[Dungeons
== Video Games ==
* After [[Activision]] in 2008-2009 decided not to publish certain videogames, such as the ''[[Ghostbusters]]'' game and ''[[Brutal Legend]]'';<ref>because CEO Bobby Kotick did not deem them to possess [[Cash Cow Franchise|money-printing values]]</ref>
* Was anyone expecting ''[[Capcom vs. Whatever|Tatsunoko vs. Capcom]]'' to be published internationally, as [[Public Medium Ignorance|most people don't know what a Tatsunoko is?]] Capcom USA went the extra mile and dealt with the crazy licensing issues involved in getting characters from [[Tatsunoko Production]].
* ''[[Red Dead Revolver]]'' was originally being developed by Capcom but was dropped. Rockstar Games bought the game in 2002 and completed it while giving it a [[Spaghetti Western]] feel. It did well enough to warrant the sequel, ''[[Red Dead Redemption]]''.
* ''[[Sakura Taisen]]'', being largely a [[Dating Sim]] series, has long been labeled a holy grail of localization, with plenty of hardcore fans in the West who knew there was little reason anyone should give the games a chance. Enter [[Nippon Ichi|NIS America]], who in April 2010 decided to give the US the fifth game in the series. Which was originally released in 2005. On the [[
* [[Atlus]], and recently [[Nippon Ichi|NIS America]] are really the patron saints of this, at least in the RPG world. So many great, niche games which [[No Export for You|you would never expect to come to the States]] do so because of these companies.
** The same goes for [[XSEED Games|XSEED]]. Their announcement of localizing the [[
* Tell the truth: were you still betting on ''[[
** Not only that, but they gave the game no big announcement prior. They just showed up at [[Penny Arcade|PAX]] with a playable demo to show that yes, it was real.
** Though for how [[No Such Thing
* Back in 2007, a little title called ''[[Hotel Dusk: Room 215]]'' was released to positive reviews and fairly good sales worldwide. Flash forward to 2010, and its sequel ''[[Last Window]]'' sees release in Japan... only to flop and for its developer Cing to go bankrupt soon after. Despite this, Nintendo of Europe still translated ''Last Window'' for its markets, despite ''Hotel Dusk'' not selling as well there. [[No Export for You|Nintendo of America, on the other hand...]]
* [[Nintendo]] has a history of this with ''[[Dragon Quest]]''. They localized ''[[
** It hasn't all been perfect, however. ''[[Dragon Quest Monsters
** Speaking of Nintendo, after considerable bombardment due to Operation Rainfall, NoA decided to give ''[[Xenoblade Chronicles]]'' a release on American shores, but needed a sample size to ensure that future Rainfall games might be worth the effort. Say what you will about them, but GameStop volunteered for at least the alpha batch. As a result, they are scheduled to carry the game on its 04/03/2012 release exclusively until further notice. If you still think to pirate the game after that date, please reference Ezekiel 25:17.
* A third installment of the ''[[True Crime: Streets of LA|True Crime]]'' series from Activision was being produced by United Front Games. The first sandbox GTA-style game to be set in [[Hong Kong]], the game's footage looked very promising and there was quite some anticipation for it, until Activision made the [[Sarcasm Mode|extraordinarily wise]] decision to cancel the game two months before its release on the reason that "it wasn't good enough". The game was screwed and thrown into the same heap as ''[[Guitar Hero]]'' and ''[[Tony Hawk Pro Skater]]'', which were also canceled at the same time. The game seemed doomed until [[Square Enix]] took the game under its wing, renaming it ''Sleeping Dogs'' since they couldn't buy the rights to the game's original franchise but letting the game remain as it was; even giving the developers extra months to refine the gameplay. As of this writing, ''Sleeping Dogs'' is slated for a late 2012 release.
== Western Animation ==
* Though its quality is disputable, [[Adult Swim]] at one point started airing a promo in which they say ''[[Squidbillies]]'' has been getting low ratings... and how clearly the reason was that the [[Viewers
** Same with ''[[
** Somewhat inverted with ''[[Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!]]''. [[Adult Swim]] promotes the hell out of it and gives it gets the red carpet treatment but the fanbase isn't biting and the show has low to middling ratings. It's not a [[
* [[Cartoon Network]] saved ''[[
* FOX's (gasp) treatment of ''[[Futurama]]'' was very... bad. It managed to get four seasons before being cancelled, but reruns on Adult Swim kept it alive. Then, Comedy Central bought the rights to the show and revived it.
* CBS felt [[Scooby Doo]] had run its course in 1976 and canceled it a month before the fall season. ABC programming head Michael Eisner wasted zero time in getting Scooby, who had a 13-year run on the network.
* ''[[The Critic]]'' was cancelled by both ABC and FOX. The latter was truly offensive because the series was getting strong ratings in a post-''[[The Simpsons (animation)|Simpsons]]'' slot. (It was theorized that new executives hated the show and wanted it gone, as well as FOX not owning it and having less interest in it succeeding.) UPN ''attempted'' to invoke this trope by wanting to pick it up for a third season, but FOX prevented that. Comedy Central eventually came to the rescue by securing rerun rights and rerunning it for years. While this didn't revive the show (outside of a brief webisode run), it did keep the series from fading into obscurity and made it a cult hit - earning it an eventual DVD release.
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