8 Actors Who Knew The TV Show Was Doomed On Day 1
This bunch of actors knew straight away that their TV show wasn't destined to be a hit.
Transcript
00:00 From a set of Disney Channel sensations quickly figuring out that a titular show was a bad
00:04 move altogether, to one of the galaxy's most adored bounty hunters also not being
00:08 a fan of the direction his character was written to head down, each of these TV actors could
00:13 sense a bumpy road ahead from the get-go.
00:16 The always doomed Gareth here from WhatCulture.com, and here are 8 actors who knew their TV show
00:21 was doomed on day one.
00:23 8.
00:24 Colin Baker helped produce a Doctor Who charity single pleading for its comeback
00:28 While the BBC's iconic Doctor Who series may currently stand as one of the most cherished
00:32 and respected small screen franchises ever to warp into our lives, the show was definitely
00:37 on the ropes towards the end of its first run in the late 80s.
00:40 In fact, things got so bad when it came to the overall quality of the sci-fi time-travelling
00:45 property with Colin Baker at the wheel of the Doctor that the show was put on ice for
00:48 18 months in 1985, on the back of BBC One controller Michael Grade feeling it had just
00:54 become too violent and a very clunky studio show.
00:57 And in a move that still needs to be heard to be believed, the decision was made by British
01:01 songwriter and Who superfan Ian Levine to assemble a collection of artists together
01:06 to record a universally panned charity song by the name of "Doctor in Distress" to
01:10 drum up support for the series edging towards cancellation.
01:14 Clearly sensing he needed to do something in a bid to keep his failing Doctor dreams
01:18 afloat, Baker himself also agreed to appear in the ill-fated tune, with Hans Zimmer of
01:23 all people playing the song on a synthesiser.
01:26 All of the jarring beats in the world couldn't save Baker from eventually getting the regeneration
01:30 treatment after just three years including said lengthy hiatus in the Time Lord saddle.
01:35 7.
01:36 Clayne Crawford's Lethal Weapon Honesty
01:38 Being handed the chance to lead a TV adaptation of one of the most cherished action movie
01:43 series of all time isn't something most actors would be in too much of a rush to turn
01:47 down.
01:48 And sure enough, when presented with this exact opportunity a couple of years back,
01:52 Clayne Crawford was happy enough to sign on the dotted line and commit himself to the
01:55 role made famous by Mel Gibson of Martin Riggs in Fox's incoming Lethal Weapon action series
02:01 alongside Damon Wayans' Roger Murtaugh.
02:03 However, in the time after the dust settled on his eventual firing from the production,
02:07 a few years into its run due to alleged misconduct on set, Crawford was quick to note how he
02:12 sensed he wasn't in an environment suited to him out of the gates.
02:15 As he'd tell UPI in 2020, "I was surrounded by people that didn't care that much about
02:20 the artistry of it, and I should have known that going in."
02:23 Plassing the entire project - one that would come to an end following its subsequent Clayne-less
02:27 season - as nothing more than a cookie cutter, and feeling wholly unfulfilled by the experience
02:32 on the back of appearing in the critically acclaimed Rectify show, Crawford seemingly
02:36 knew from the get-go that chasing the money may not have been the wisest call on this
02:40 occasion.
02:41 6.
02:42 Chris Harris Knew That A Top Gear Reboot Was Doomed From
02:44 The Start
02:45 News of the trio who helped turn the petrolhead delight that was the BBC's Top Gear into
02:50 their household name and eventually became, not returning to the show on the back of Jeremy
02:54 Clarkson decking a producer over some steak, left the series' future in doubt in 2015.
03:00 Hellbent on keeping the Top Gear legacy alive despite Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond
03:04 opting to take their brand of calamity to Amazon Prime, the BBC ultimately decided to
03:08 relaunch the show with a completely new line-up of hosts.
03:12 But from day one, one of said new faces in the form of Chris Harris could sense this
03:16 particular attempt to keep the Top Gear brand going was doomed from minute one.
03:21 As Harris would admit to Metro when talking about how the show managed to eventually strike
03:24 the right balance with later attempts at recapturing some genuine chemistry between the hosts,
03:29 "The first time I did this in 2015/2016, I thought, 'Oh God, what have I done?'"
03:34 Noting how former Radio 1 host Chris Evans - no, not that one in particular - was doomed
03:38 - because people were always going to hate it because it wasn't Jeremy - Harris was
03:42 understandably relieved to find that the BBC had got their chemistry right, upon his eventual
03:47 first day alongside current co-hosts Andrew Flintoff and Paddy McGinnis.
03:51 5.
03:52 Temura Morrison Knew He Talked Too Much In The Book Of Boba Fett
03:55 After finally making his live-action return and ultimately getting his mitts back on his
03:59 iconic Beskar armour over the course of Disney+'s The Mandalorian, news of Temura Morrison getting
04:05 yet another opportunity to strut his stuff as the immortal Boba Fett in his own damn
04:10 book was enough to leave most Star Wars diehards needing a long soak in a Bacta tank.
04:15 Unfortunately though, said long-awaited booker Boba Fett didn't exactly deliver on the
04:19 promise of the badass bounty hunter, getting a chance to really remind fans why they had
04:23 clamoured for so long to see him given the spin-off treatment he so richly deserved.
04:27 And this is a sentiment seemingly shared by the leading man himself from early on in the
04:32 show's production, with Morrison eventually going on record to note to ET how he wants
04:36 the character to get back to his badass ways if he returns later down the road.
04:40 In another conversation, this time with NME, Morrison would also express his desire to
04:45 have Boba remain as an often silent assassin instead of having him talk too much throughout
04:49 shooting, admitting to trying to pass off some of his dialogue to co-star Ming-Na Wen
04:54 at one point.
04:55 As he put it, "This scene tomorrow, I'm talking too much.
04:57 This Boba doesn't talk this much.
04:59 I've got all these paragraphs here.
05:01 I think we should get rid of it.
05:02 And John's gone to Atlanta, so don't tell him.
05:05 This morning on the set, I got a call from Atlanta.
05:07 John wants you to say all that dialogue.
05:09 And what Favreau says goes, I guess."
05:12 4.
05:13 Charlie Barnett wasn't fully on board with Ordinary Joe
05:16 Cut down after just one season in March of this year, NBC's Ordinary Joe getting cancelled
05:21 not long after its first 13 episodes trickled onto the network didn't actually come as
05:26 too much of a surprise to one of the show's stars as it goes.
05:30 According to Charlie Barnett, who plays Joe's best friend Eric Payne as the former embarks
05:35 on three parallel journeys, on the back of opting for three entirely different routes
05:39 when faced with a life-altering choice post-graduation, the actor himself admitted to Digital Spy
05:45 that he fought against it at first going into it, due to not being sure that it was obtainable.
05:51 Confessing that the story itself gets really, really, really confusing - the Eric thespian's
05:55 fears of his program being a little too difficult to execute, to the point of roping in a
06:00 sizable network audience - ultimately came true later down the road, with the actor eventually
06:05 declaring that it was always going to be a challenge to compete with the likes of Netflix
06:09 and Hulu with a show this complicated.
06:12 And he was not necessarily surprised to see it dead.
06:15 3.
06:16 John Rhys-Davis thought Slider's scripts were gibberish
06:18 Quite clearly cherishing the world he was occupying at the time, and sensing the limitless
06:23 potential housed within the late 90s sci-fi fantasy show by the name of Sliders on Fox,
06:28 it was this love of the concept that left John Rhys-Davis positively seething for much
06:33 of his time bringing Professor Maximilian Arturo to life.
06:36 As the Gimli icon would explain to Digital Spy in 2016, the entire scenario wound up
06:41 being the single biggest missed opportunity of his life, due to the constant battles he
06:45 found himself in with the series' writers during his time as part of the first three
06:49 seasons of the show.
06:50 Branding the scripts often handed to him as incomprehensible gibberish, Rhys-Davis would
06:55 go further inventing his frustrations at the writers on set, stating, "I would go to
06:59 the writers and complain.
07:01 But they would say, 'John, why don't you just say the words as written?'
07:04 And I'd say, 'I'll tell you what, I will actually say the words as written when
07:07 you can actually write intelligent sentences.'"
07:09 In the end, after Rhys-Davis departed during season three, Fox would ultimately opt to
07:13 cancel the flailing show before it was picked up by the Sci-Fi Channel for its final two
07:18 seasons.
07:19 2.
07:20 The Jonas Brothers just went along with it despite Disney's writing being terrible
07:23 They may form one of the most unstoppable pop trios on the planet, and have even made
07:28 some headway in Hollywood in more recent times.
07:30 But the Jonas Brothers didn't exactly get off to the best of starts when it came to
07:34 their detour into the world of acting.
07:36 Nick, Joe and Kevin have each all gone on record at various points to admit to sensing
07:39 how much of a bad idea their first real standalone project, whilst working under the Disney Channel
07:44 banner was, from the second they started to get to grips with the writing being handed
07:48 over to them.
07:49 In the late-naughty show by the name of Jonas and later Jonas LA, focusing on the fictionalised
07:54 version of this heartthrob boy band, Joe would tell Vulture that some of the weird slapstick
07:58 humour writing was terrible before noting, "We went along with it at the time, because
08:03 we thought Disney was our only real shot, and we were terrified that it could all be
08:07 taken away from us at any moment."
08:09 Again reiterating their regret over agreeing to the whole Disney debacle, Nick in particular
08:13 would confess when talking about the show's second season during their 2019 Chasing Happiness
08:18 documentary, "We shouldn't have done that.
08:20 It really stunted our growth, you know?
08:21 I feel like it was just a bad move."
08:23 Fair to say the lads have done alright since this early House of Mouse mishap though, eh?
08:27 1.
08:28 Matt LeBlanc Knew Joey Was Doomed From the Start
08:31 Trying to follow up arguably the biggest sitcom ever to grace the world's TV screens is
08:35 a tall order, whatever way you slice it.
08:38 Trying to do so just a few months on from its highly emotional finale being taken in
08:42 by over 50 million passionate fans around the globe was downright insane.
08:47 And sure enough, the ill-advised Friends spin-off that was Joey didn't exactly manage to recapture
08:51 lightning in a bottle despite boasting one of the most lovable elements of that NBC game
08:56 changer front and centre.
08:58 But clearly feeling as though the burden of having to carry an entire episode on his back
09:02 was a lot of responsibility, and the pressure was so much, Matt LeBlanc himself has since
09:07 confessed to Radio Times, "It was doomed from the start.
09:10 In Friends I was sharing a 22-minute episode with six other characters.
09:14 In Joey the script was all me.
09:16 Going further, LeBlanc would also allude to the showrunner, who had also just finished
09:20 up on Friends, and himself likely benefited from taking a year off instead of diving straight
09:25 into the spin-off.
09:26 In the end though, Joey was savaged by the critics, and didn't live past its second
09:30 season before being canned.
09:32 LeBlanc would also take a much-needed five-year break from the acting world not long after
09:37 Joey's cancellation, before rocking up in BBC Two and Showtime's episodes and eventually
09:41 winning a Golden Globe in 2011 for playing a fictionalised version of himself.
09:46 How's he doing?
09:47 He's doing alright.
09:48 And that's our list!
09:49 Know of any other actors who knew their TV show was doomed on day one?
09:52 Then let us know all about them in the comments section right down below!
09:56 And do not forget to like, share and click on that subscribe button while you're at it!
10:00 Also, if this kind of thing is your bag, then head on over to WhatCulture.com and find some
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10:07 based on!
10:08 I have been Gareth from WhatCulture.com, thank you very much for watching this video today,
10:12 I hope to see your faces very very soon but in the meantime, be very good to yourselves.
10:17 Bye!