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* ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]''. [[Creator Breakdown]] and severe depression on behalf of [[Hideaki Anno]], Gainax's shifty accounting practices ending in their CEO being arrested for tax fraud, sponsors pulling out in droves once the show dove off the deep end... Yeah, it's amazing that they even ''managed'' to finish that show, even with all the budget-saving [[Limited Animation]] at the end. Do we have another candidate for the ''Apocalypse Now'' of anime?
** ''[[Rebuild of Evangelion]]'' is also becoming a contender in light of Anno's more recent [[Creator Breakdown]] episodes and a host of various issues.
* ''[[Code Geass]]'' for its first season. Reportedly, [[Sunrise (company)|Sunrise]] was wary of trusting a full series to director/co-creator Goro Taniguchi, thanks to his reputation for perfectionism and his other quirks, so he was only handed 25 episodes to begin with. The staff often had to piggyback off of other parts of the studio that were working at the same time (for example, the ''Geass'' staff didn't even have their own photocopier) and the writers were only three or four episodes ahead of the broadcast, about half the "buffer" that most series have. When the series became a runaway success, things went much better, but fans tend to blame the series' being split in half for the perceived drop in quality in the second half.
* ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny]]'' is an example of this, partly because of head writer Chiaki Morosawa's battle with cancer during production, which resulted in her turning her scripts in late, and thus, necessitating the numerous [[Clip Show|clip shows]] throughout the series. Also, although Shinn was supposed to the main character of the series, Kira was thrust back into the spotlight from episode 39 onwards, because of his popularity with the Japanese audience. Finally, there was director Mitsuo Fukuda being demanding on the voice actors on the way how they're supposed to to be portrayed (specifically, [[Naomi Shindo]] [the voice of Cagalli] and [[Maaya Sakamoto]] [the voice of Lunamaria]). [[Word of God|This was confirmed]] by [[Rie Tanaka]] (the voice of Lacus and Meer) at her [http://www.animevice.com/news/nyaf08-interview-with-rie-tanaka/78/ 2008 New York Anime Festival appearance], as well as [[Kenichi Suzumura]] (the voice of Shinn) in one of his Twitter posts.
** Of course, the very first ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam]]'' show's production was no picnic, either (as is chronicled in the tongue-in-cheek "Making Of" series ''[[Gundam Sousei]]''). Then came ''[[Zeta Gundam]]'', which suffered fewer financial hardships than the original, but both the TV series and the [[Compilation Movie]]s rather infamously suffered complications as a result of the romantic blunders of various men involved in production with at least three voice actresses.
*** Most (in)famous of which was the legendary feud between the [[Prima Donna Director]] and scriptwriter [[Yoshiyuki Tomino]] and equally self-important mecha designer Mamoru Nagano. It became doubly notorious because not only both men were feuding over the Beltorchika Irma's [[Seiyuu]] [[Maria Kawamura]],<ref>Nagano won and they still seem to be [[Happily Married]].</ref> but over [[Creative Differences]] as well.<ref>Nagano routinely hated Tomino's style and the direction where he was taking the show, up to the point that [[The Five Star Stories]] basically started as his [[Start My Own]] towards their other collaboration, [[Heavy Metal L-Gaim]].</ref>
** ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam F91]]'' also fell to this. Originally intended to be full series before it was dropped, a lot of compromises were made in order to compress what material Tomino had into a feature-length movie. ''[[Crossbone Gundam]]'' would ultimately resolve many of the plot points from that film.
** ''[[Mobile Suit Victory Gundam]]'' also became rather notorious. As while it's considered one of the darkest works in the franchise, the series was also made at the height of Tomino's [[Creator Breakdown]], with telling consequences.
* ''[[The Dream Machine]]'' the final movie of the [[Author Existence Failure|late]] [[Satoshi Kon]] has experienced its share of trouble, having gone from production into [[Development Hell]], back into production only to fall back into development hell. First Kon's death from pancreatic cancer put the film on hold to determine the next course of action. Kon's widow and Studio [[Madhouse]]'s Masao Maruyama told they would finish the film and production resumed. However at Otakon 2011 Maruyama reported the movie has been put on hold due to financial difficulties. Maruyama is still determined to finish the film eventually with about 600 shots out of 1500 had been animated at that point.
* For a long time, ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' looked like a happy subversion. Ken Akamatsu wanted to do a shounen-action series from the start, but [[Executive Meddling|his producers]] wanted a [[Harem Genre|harem show]] like his extremely popular ''[[Love Hina]]'' series. Akamatsu ''faked'' a harem series, using the first two volumes to lay down characterization, then slowly segue into the fighter series he wanted from the start. This resulted in an extremely intelligent and popular series known for its [[Amazon Brigade]] and ridiculously badass ten-year old protagonist. However, some three hundred chapters later, the executives tried to take the rights to the series away from him. He responded by ending the series abruptly, with a carefully crafted final chapter that managed use the [[Where Are They Now? Epilogue]] to [[Torch the Franchise and Run|make sure no one else could use his series]]. It remains to be seen if there will be any more releases filling in the unanswered questions.
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=== Comic Books ===
* David Herbert apparently attracts this kind of production with all his works except [http://www.livingwithinsanity.com/index/ Living With Insanity]. [http://www.tnemrot.com/ Tnemrot] was supposed to be a print comic and was written in late 2008, going through seven artists before Tatiana Lepikhina joined and is now a webcomic. [http://www.indyplanet.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=3429 Gemini Storm] was also written at the same time, came out in March 2010 and the second issue is still expected to take another month or two before being released. He has also mentioned other projects that haven't gone anywhere due to artists dropping out or simply disappearing.
* [[The Clone Saga]]. To make a very long story short: a mix of artists wanting to do a bit of [[Continuity Porn]] and a bunch of very profit-oriented directives transformed what was originally to be a short special event leading for a milestone number of ''[[Spider Man|Spiderman]]'' into a slog that seeped for ''two years'' and tens of titles, which was unable to be finished despite the wishes of almost everyone involved because it sold well, but the reason it sold well for a long while was because the fans wanted to see how the writers could [[The Chris Carter Effect|finally tie the immense tangled web of subplots]] they wrote themselves into for editorial mandate to keep going as long as it sells.
* [[JLA-Avengers|The popular crossover]] between the [[Justice League of America]] and [[The Avengers (Comic Book)|The Avengers]] languished for 20 years because [[DC Comics]] and [[Marvel Comics]] couldn't decide on ''[[Cavemen vs. Astronauts Debate|who would win in a fight]]''. It was eventually discovered the reasons those decisions took so long was basically [[Executive Meddling]] from Jim Shooter, then the new head of Marvel, whom didn't like the lineup chosen for the crossover (it teamed the [[X-Men]] with the [[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|Teen Titans]], when he [[Creator's Pet|preferred]] it wouuld have been with the [[Legion of Super-Heroes (comics)|Legion of Super-Heroes]]) and in true temper tantrum blocked every decision he could.
* Anything that isn't part of the mainstream [[Marvel Comics]] tends to suffer from this. One of the more documented ones was [[The New Universe]]. Touted as "The World Outside Your Window", the franchise fell apart from the beginning - writers tossed in 616-type elements (aliens, powered armors, etc.), financial backers pulled out before it even started, and people were too engrossed by that slogan. Despite canceling half of the franchise and starting a massive storyline that started with the destruction of Pittsburgh, it never got off its feet and died nearly three years later.
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=== Video Games ===
* ''[[Action 52]]'' is a [http://www.cheetahmengames.com/MYQUESTISOVER.html peculiar case]. All 52 games were shoved out over the course of three months, the programmers contracted to work on the thing (who were reportedly college students at the time according to a number of sources) having no real schedule to speak of. Combined with misguided marketing and pie-in-the-sky hubris far exceeding the producers' actual talents, [[Obvious Beta|the results]] [[So Bad It's Good|speak]] [[So Bad It's Horrible|for themselves]].
* ''[[Aliens: Colonial Marines]]'' was rife with various issues over its production. This ranged from [[Development Hell]] and Gearbox Software's utter mismanagement of the game's development (which also included outsourcing the game to various other developers before sloppily putting the final touches) to accusations of embezzlement and Gearbox's Randy Pitchford [http://blogjob.com/oneangrygamer/2015/07/randy-pitchford-defends-aliens-colonial-marines-blames-gamers-for-not-liking-it/ blaming gamers for not liking the game]. It comes as little surprise that the final product looks nothing like what was promised in previews.
* ''[[Daikatana]]'', as chronicled in [http://replay.waybackmachine.org/20000619155817/http://www.gamespot.com/features/btg-daikatana/index.html Knee Deep in a Dream]. First, Ion Storm had some internal warring because the ''Daikatana'' team felt the development of ''Dominion: Storm Over Gift 3'' was stealing resources and staff. Then, they tried to move from the old ''[[Quake (series)|Quake]]'' engine to the ''[[Quake II]]'' one, a process [[Porting Disaster|much more complicated and time-consuming]] than they thought. During the development of the game, the staff changed completely three times and the game ended up [[Vaporware|delayed]] so much that when it came out, it was already outdated. The resulting product ended up being a complete bust and pretty much [[Creator Killer|ended the fame and career]] of the then-fledging [[John Romero]].
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* Atari's home port of [[Pac-Man]] was supposedly the demo version, made with great difficulty over six weeks due to the differences in underlying hardware. When the developer showed it to the suits, they said "OK, we're shipping this." It did well on the strength of the title but took a pounding in the media.
* The [[Sega Saturn]] game ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog|Sonic X-Treme]]'' is perhaps the most tragic example of all, as unlike the other examples here, the game was never finished. The problems started when the design team decided to use the ''[[NiGHTS Into Dreams|NIGHTS]]'' engine for the game, but Yuji Naka would have none of it and forbade them from using the engine, setting the developers back several weeks, then the publishers decided that they wanted to use the engine in the boss battles for the whole game, causing further delays, Chris Senn ended up doing most of the work himself, tirelessly working 20 hours a day until doctors told him he had 6 months to live, he then realized that there was no chance of finishing the game before the holiday season, so there was no choice but to pull the plug on the game.
* ''[[
* [http://hardcoregaming101.net/lastactionhero/lastactionhero.htm Two] [http://www.mobygames.com/game/snes/last-action-hero developers] claims this happened to the infamous ''[[Last Action Hero]]'' licensed game. After the planning stage, word from a lawyer came that Arnold Schwarzenegger did not want to be "associated with violence" due to his then-recent involvement in family-friendly comedies, and that the game could not feature him using firearms, completely ruining the original concept. This lead to the game being hastily retooled as the deadline was fixed with no chance for extension. Communications with the legal department was exceptionally slow, leading to the developers being clueless on even basic questions such as whether or not Arnold's character could punch, and the development of the PC version was ground to an halt after the graphic artist refused to do work because of an unrelated payment issue with the publisher.
* The [[Sega Saturn]] game for ''[[Magic Knight Rayearth]]'' was initially listed as one of the first games for the system. It didn't show up until ''six months'' after support for the system came to an end. What caused this game from [[Working Designs]] to fall this far down? Numerous problems, including:
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** ''[[To Boldly Flee]]'', the Year 4 special, in contrast with the above, has little to no injuries, but it had a ''very'' rushed and constrained scheduled (about a week to film enough content for a three hours film), during which Doug Walker was in a yet another depressive mood and got very emotional on his scenes. To made up for the smooth filming, the ''post-production'' was the troubled one, with the special effects insertion and edition taking more time than expected, and then the servers refusing to upload the files, having to show the episodes each two days instead of daily as originally announced.
** Because of all of the above troubles and the increasing coordination troubles, for the fifth anniversary it was decided that they would instead do an [[Anthology]] project. The resultant effort was ''[[The Uncanny Valley]]'', where the individual pieces had no production troubles by themselves. The only problems were that some segments were uploaded sightly late, and the perception that [[Welshy]]'s contribution, a mini-documentary called "The Dark Side of Internet" about [[Why Fandom Can't Have Nice Things]] because of over-possessive fans trolling and stalking creators, was [[Roman a Clef|obviously inspired]] by his dealing with his [[Fan Dumb]] and the subsequent burnout he experienced, not helped by him leaving Internet for a while after this. This anthology was the last site-wide anniversary special since then.
* On a smaller scale, the big crossover review between [[The Nostalgia Critic]], [[The Spoony Experiment|Spoony]] and [[Atop the Fourth Wall|Linkara]] for ''[[Alone in
=== Western Animation ===
* The 90's [[Incredible Hulk]] [[Animated Adaptation]] is this [http://marvel.toonzone.net/hulk/interviews/sebast/ according to the original producer.]
* [[Disney]] and [[Pixar]] have had several of these:
** The very first ''[[Toy Story (franchise)|Toy Story]]'' was subject to constant [[Executive Meddling]], pushing to make it [[Darker and Edgier|more adult and cynical]]. When a preview cut was declared unwatchable, production was shut down for two weeks, while Lasseter and the others basically rewrote the entire movie.
** ''[[The Emperor's New Groove|The Emperors New Groove]]'' started as ''Kingdom of the Sun'', a [[Prince and Pauper]] epic directed by ''[[The Lion King]]'''s co-director Roger Allers. Since the writers weren't very successful in adding original material and test audiences weren't reacting well, another director, Mark Dindal, was hired to see if things evolved. As [[Animation Lead Time|the deadline got closer]] and Allers and Dindal were basically working at two movies simultaneously (the former with a drama, and the latter with a comedy), the higher-ups intervened and Allers quit. After a six-month interval where Dindal and some writers reworked the movie, the film became the screwball comedy that eventually saw the light of day. It was all documented in ''The Sweatbox'', a film shot by Trudie Styler (as her husband Sting wrote songs for the movie) that Disney makes sure that never gets released.
** ''[[Ratatouille]]'' was originally developed in 2001 by Jan Pinkava, but Pixar lost faith in Pinkava and ultimately replaced him with [[Brad Bird]].
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=== Video Games ===
* In ''[[Fallout 4]]'', you discover that [[Meaningful Name|Hubris Comics]] was trying to make the Silver Shroud radio serials into a successful TV show. Unfortunately, it was rife with infighting, drama, and backroom passions - which proved to be all for naught as the nuclear apocalypse put said show and its creators off the air permanently.
=== Web Original ===
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* The ''[[Animaniacs]]'' episode "Hearts of Twilight", yet another ''[[Apocalypse Now]]'' spoof.
* ''[[Metalocalypse]]'': Every single in-universe album during the show's run. The first is done underwater in an attempt to sound as "analog" as possible, deafening the producer. But the biggest example of this trope is the second album: the band procrastinated big time getting it out, causing mass panic. When they finally got to it, Nathan demanded to perform in a suit of armor that made recording difficult, Pickles was starved while everyone else ate, Toki and Murderface produced their own song which, due to how bizarre it was, failed to even make it on the album and to top it all off, Guitarist Skwisgaar Skwigelf was forced by feedback to do his guitar parts skydiving, and thanks to Toki deleting the parts, they did it twice.
* An episode of ''[[What's New, Scooby
* The Wacky Deli episode of ''[[Rocko's Modern Life]]'', in addition to being a parodic take on the creation of an animated show, has the titular show being one complete mess from beginning to end.
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