Sad Reasons These TV Shows Were Canceled

Robert Schimmel's life was more tragedy than comedy, up to and including his 2010 death in a car accident. One such tragedy was the story surrounding his planned sitcom, "Schimmel" — and how it never got past the pilot.

In 1999, Schimmel signed on to do a sitcom with 20th Century Fox. Mike Scully, executive producer of "The Simpsons," was set to have a hand in it. A pilot was shot — in which a very young Brie Larson played his daughter — and got picked up by the Fox network in 2000. Mere days after the announcement, however, Schimmel was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and given six months to live.

Production on his sitcom stopped while he went into treatment, and he managed to make a full recovery. Variety reported in January 2001 that production was intended to resume, but the network axed it after the schedule got a little too crowded. The pilot's cold open surfaced on YouTube in 2006 and Schimmel posted some outtakes to his Facebook page in August 2010.

"Family Forensics UK" was a strange reality show, even by the Mad Max wasteland standards of weirdness that was mid-aughts reality TV. The show had a forensics team move into a family's home over a weekend and treat it like a crime scene, after which they'd offer a profile of the family and their secrets. If this doesn't sound familiar, it's because it only lasted one episode on Living TV (now Sky Witness).

"Family Forensics UK" aired on November 16, 2005. Shortly after, word broke that Michael Brown — one of the show's investigators — was convicted the previous month of engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child. Living TV apologized, saying that they weren't aware of Brown's past, and that he also violated his contract by not telling them of any criminal charges. A production spokesman said (via Digital Spy), "Due to the serious nature of these offenses and out of respect and to protect the families involved, Living TV took the immediate and difficult decision not to transmit the rest of the series." 

One month later, the BBC reported that Brown was previously convicted for underage sex in 1989 and spent a year in jail. He was further sentenced to at least two years for his conviction from that October. Somehow, a show entirely about investigation didn't do any due diligence into their own investigators.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

"The Jeremy Kyle Show" was one of the longest-running tabloid talk shows in the UK. For those unfamiliar, take a minute to imagine "The Jerry Springer Show" for a class of people who call French fries "chips." In typical tabloid talk fashion, things often got controversial, violent, and embarrassing. A popular tool on the show was a lie detector, and it was one such segment that led to the show finally getting canceled.

During the first week of May 2019, a man named Steve Dymond went on "The Jeremy Kyle Show" to prove that he hadn't cheated on his ex-partner. Dymond failed the lie detector test, and Kyle mocked him. Family and friends report that Dymond, who was already diagnosed with depression and on medication, was distressed and humiliated. On May 9, Dymond was found dead in his home of a morphine overdose, which many suspected to be a suicide. The ITV network put out a statement expressing sympathies for Dymond's family and said, "Given the gravity of recent events we have decided to end production of 'The Jeremy Kyle Show.'"

If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline​ at​ 1-800-273-TALK (8255)​.

"Grace Under Fire" was one of the first big hits from TV megaproducer Chuck Lorre. The show starred Brett Butler as Grace, a single mother raising her kids after a divorce. Grace was a recovering alcoholic, while Butler herself was anything but recovered. This caused problems for her and everyone around her, which ultimately ended the show.

Butler became infamous for her volatile backstage behavior, with a bad temperament and a drug addiction that kept feeding off each other. She was known for berating her coworkers, which led to five executive producers over a mere five years and the departure of two cast members. Entertainment Weekly reported that the low point was "Vegas Night," a crossover event between "Grace," "Ellen," "Coach," and "The Drew Carey Show." Production teams for the other shows were mortified by her behavior, which often delayed production. "Drew Carey" crew members were given T-shirts declaring "I Survived Brett" afterwards.

On top of her erratic behavior were her trips to rehab for painkiller addiction. Each visit stopped production, dropped ratings, and just added to the frustration. One of these trips was partway through Season 5. Unable to handle Butler's erratic behavior anymore, ABC shut down the show. The production company claimed (via the Orlando Sentinel), "We have decided to suspend production ... so that Brett may have time to resolve some personal issues." Production never resumed.

If you or anyone you know is struggling with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

"Ellen" was a hit sitcom in its time, but it will always be remembered for one thing: "The Puppy Episode." It saw the main character Ellen, played by Ellen DeGeneres, come out of the closet — not long after DeGeneres herself did in real life. "The Puppy Episode" drew monster ratings and got massive publicity, but it also marked the beginning of the end for the show.

Going forward, DeGeneres and ABC clashed behind the scenes. The New York Times reported that ABC tried to limit the number of LGBTQ storylines and even at one time slapped a special viewer's advisory in front of the show. DeGeneres was quick to point out that shows about heterosexual relationships had no such warning.

GLAAD media director Chaz Bono noted to Variety the dangers in the show becoming "too" LGBTQ, especially after it became important to the plots: "This is network prime time. When a show treats gay issues over and over again, it becomes 'a gay show,' and the average viewer says, 'Hey, I'm not gay — I'm not going to watch it.'" The show's ratings declined, and it's certainly possible that the audience and networks weren't quite ready.

If the show's cancellation wasn't proof enough of this, the hit that Laura Dern's career took was. Dern, whose character made Ellen realize that she was gay, started getting death threats. Dern hit a career peak with "Jurassic Park," but the backlash to "The Puppy Episode" meant that she stopped getting offered roles for a significant period of time.

In 2017, CBS put out a sequel series to the classic Denzel Washington film "Training Day." The show was clearly meant to be a major cornerstone for the network: the production team included Antoine Fuqua (director of the movie) and producer Jerry Bruckheimer, and had a legit star in Bill Paxton. Nonetheless, the show only garnered modest ratings — not exactly renewal-bait.

Then the show hit a bigger issue: after four episodes aired, Bill Paxton died at the age of 61. All 13 episodes were in the can at the time, so production wasn't impeded, but that was a small consolation given the sudden death of the well-liked star. Many sources, including Deadline, predicted that Paxton's death guaranteed the show wouldn't get another season. This proved accurate: there was a small uptick in ratings after his death before they tanked. "Training Day" already had a weak path forward, one that turned impossible without Paxton.