Network to the Rescue: Difference between revisions

* 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.

** 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.

* [[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.

* ''[[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!

*** ''Doctor Who'', back in '63, got the "second pilot" treatment before ''Star Trek'' did. The same could also be said of ABC's ''[[Life On Mars]]''--it got a second pilot (albeit with a new cast save for Jason O'Mara and a relocation from San Francisco to New York City) after ABC executives nixed David E. Kelley's pilot.

* First ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'' got [[Screwed by the Network|screwed by]] [[Comedy Central]] after a change in leadership. Then the [[Syfy]] came to the rescue. Then Sci Fi screwed them as well, again, after a change in leadership.

* 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."