Network to the Rescue: Difference between revisions

Sometimes, a network or studio [[Screwed by the Network|will destroy a good product]] and [[The Atoner|learn from its mistakes]]. Fox built up a reputation for never sticking with its shows due to ''Profit'', ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]'' and ''[[Firefly]]''. (Though [[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]] was given second and third seasons and a cushy timeslot, making it a case of this trope as well.) However, the network turned around and poured tons of money into promoting and producing ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'', ''[[Bones]]'', and ''[[24]]'', shows that were big gambles and have since become massive hits. Even more dramatic, Fox even went back and ''[[Uncanceled]]'' a show they had previously screwed, twice, - ''[[Family Guy]]'', one of their biggest hits, with sister show ''[[American Dad]]'' already in its sixth season and direct spin-off ''[[The Cleveland Show]]'' in its second. They even gave a second season to ''[[Dollhouse]]'', a move which surprised many, though the show was canceled before the second season finished its run (which many feel was done just to avoid what happened last time).

 

 

 

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.

 

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* ''[[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.

 

* ''[[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.

* Mike Grell's ''[[The Warlord|Warlord]]''. Carmine Infantino (editor in chief of DC at the time) cancelled it after the third issue, [[Screwed by the Network|after promising Grell a one-year run]]. When Jeanette Kahn, a fan of the series, took over as publisher and found out it was cancelled, she reportedly told her editors "Well, I just cancelled Carmine. Put it back on the schedule." The book was later made monthly, and at one time was the top selling title for DC.

 

== Film ==

 

** 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 (film)|Jaws]]'' was so stressful to make back in 1974, that most of the cast were ready to quit on director [[Steven Spielberg]]. However, legend has it has Richard Dreyfuss among others believed in him, as did Universal executive Richard Zanuck. They were handsomely rewarded for their faith.

** 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 (film)|Superman]]'' nobody thought a dark, depressing, and outright horrific sci-fi could be made. Nevertheless Fox took the chance on little-known British director [[Ridley Scott]] and a movie simply called ''[[Alien (franchise)|Alien]]''.

* 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 the Giant Peach]]'' and ''[[Monkeybone]]'' flopped) and a small animated feature based on a book. The result was ''[[Coraline (animation)|Coraline]]'', which became the highest-grossing stop-motion animated feature of all-time.

* 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. [[Mel Gibson]], a personal friend of Downey since ''[[Air America]]'', personally paid the insurance on him when he starred in his movie, ''[[The Singing Detective]]''. Downey's performance in that movie ignited the huge comeback that climaxed with ''[[A Scanner Darkly]]'', ''[[Iron Man (film)|Iron Man]]'', and his surprise Oscar nomination for ''[[Tropic Thunder]]''.

** Similarly ''[[Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country|Star Trek VI the Undiscovered Country]]'' was living in the shadow of the flop of The Final Frontier and the new restricted budget literally made the film impossible to make until a new head came in at Paramount, who knew director Nick Meyer personally and agreed to provide as much money as it would take so that the film could be made.

** Paramount has a considerable track record as a Studio To The Rescue. Consider the case of ''[[Forrest Gump]]'' above. Or, more famously, ''[[The Godfather]]''. Back in 1970, gangster movies were action flicks like the James Cagney version of ''[[Public Enemy]]'', not slow character dramas with lots of talking. And you certainly didn't make one with a completely unknown (and eccentric) director, a washed-up star, and a ton of people no one even heard of. Paramount did it; and the rest is history.

* 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.

*** [[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.

== Live Action TV ==

 

*** 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.

** 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 ''[[The A-Team]]'' around Mr. T. None of the other networks were this insistent on handing out parts to non-whites.

* 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.

** 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.

* ''[[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 & Order: Trial by Jury|Law and Order Trial By Jury]]'', ''[[Conviction]]'', ''[[Law & Order: LA|Law and Order LA]]'') were canceled after one season.

* ''[[Doctor Who]]''. Come on, it's practically the ''Avatar'' of television!

** After 10 seasons on the air (not even counting the KTMA season). As Kevin Murphy said on the ''[[The Lord of the Rings (film)|Lord Of The Rings]]'' [[Riff Trax]], "I'd like to fail like that."

** 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.

* 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 by the Network|a lot of people tend to complain that they actually]] ''[[Adored by the Network|did]]'' [[Adored by the Network|run with it and are still supporting it instead of their pet show]]...)

** 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.

** ''[[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.

* When [[John Cleese]] and his gang went together to create their show, they went to the BBC. The interview went basically with the interviewer asking every possible question in the book, and the gang replying with that they didn't quite know ("Will you have any music?" "Oh, we never really thought about that..." "Alright, so what's the name?" "Oh, well, we haven't come to that quite yet...." "Any guest stars?" "Oh, that's a good question..."), John Cleese himself stating that "they must have made the worst impression any group ever made". They ''still'' got 13 episodes to prove they were epic, and, well, we all know how that worked out: we got ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]''.

** 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."

* 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: The Next Generation]]'', the studio decided to make it syndicated, ''and'' renew it despite a poor first season. The studio gave the producers of ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' almost complete freedom to deconstruct a gigantic franchise.

* 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.

** 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!

* 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.

* 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 ''[[Glurge|Live at Oak Tree]]''.

* ''[[Stewart Lee|Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle]]'' underwent a mix of rescued/[[Screwed by the Network|screwed]] [[The BBC|by the BBC]]. According to Lee, he was summoned by the Beeb to produce a series with no need to do a pilot. He was in two minds, not wanting his manager's studio to make the show, but a BBC in-house studio. By the time he got around to telling the BBC, they now wanted to see a pilot, and eventually cancelled the non-existent series they commissioned in the first place. A couple of years later, the BBC again asked Leeto produce a new comedy series... thankfully this got made.

== Professional Wrestling ==

 

** 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''.

== Tabletop Games ==

 

 

== Video Games ==

 

* 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]]''.

* [[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 [[Ys]] games made them heroes in the eyes of the Ys fandom (and the fact that they did a great job with the localization definitely doesn't hurt).

* 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 ''[[Dragon Quest I]]'' in North America and used their magazine ''Nintendo Power'' to market the heck out of it. The results were apparently good enough to convince [[Enix]] to translate and publish the next three games themselves there. About two decades later, after [[Square Enix]] failed to generate strong sales for the previous two DS games, [[Nintendo]] published and marketed ''[[Dragon Quest IX]]'' around the West to great success. Their publishing of ''[[Dragon Quest VI]]'' a year later seems a strong sign of their devotion to keeping ''[[Dragon Quest]]'' relevant in Western markets.

** 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.

* 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.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Show Business]]

[[Category:Index to The Rescue]]