History TroubledProduction / LiveActionTV

** Some bits were dropped because the producers wanted to cast actors who had been in hit movies from that year in them, rather than some of the comic actors who could have made them work. At one point Creator/WillArnett was supposed to come out wearing flesh-tone underwear and parody the streaker who had across the Oscar stage in 1974. But the producers would only approve it if they could get Creator/JimCarrey.

* Creator/JamesFranco and Creator/AnneHathaway's poorly-remembered hosting gig at the 83rd Annual (2011) UsefulNotes/{{Academy Award}}s shows that this trope can have its negative effects even without financial, physical, legal, or personal issues playing a part, according to [[https://www.theringer.com/movies/2021/4/14/22381783/2011-oscars-james-franco-anne-hathaway-behind-the-scenes-story this anniversary story in ''The Ringer'']].

** While the premiere was a success, the new ''Countdown'' devolved into a mess within the year. Current TV failed to deliver on a promised UsefulNotes/HighDefinition studio and simulcast channel, while Olbermann reportedly became an abusive [[ThePrimaDonna Prime Donna]] behind the scenes. He started airing shows completely in the dark to cut costs, then refused to come to work for extended periods of time or major news events. In March 2012, Current TV decided to cut Olbermann loose and terminated his contract.

* E! Network's ''Fashion Police'' struggled greatly at the beginning of 2015, starting with the death of Creator/JoanRivers, the show's star and main attraction for most and the departure of George Kotsiopoulos. The show limped on with comedienne Creator/KathyGriffin sitting in for Rivers and Brad Goreski replacing Kotsiopoulos. However, scandal struck after the 2015 UsefulNotes/{{Academy Award}}s, after host Giuliana Rancic joked that attendee Creator/{{Zendaya}} looked like she smelled of "patchouli oil" and "weed" because she chose to wear her hair in dreadlocks that night. Rancic apologized, but that didn't stop both Griffin (no stranger to controversial statements herself) and Kelly Osbourne from quitting soon after. When the dust finally settled, E! announced they were putting the show on hiatus until September to "refresh" it before next award season, which led to a new panel comprising of Rancic, Goreski, Joan's daughter Melissa, Creator/MargaretCho, and [[Series/TheRealHousewives [=NeNe=] Leakes]] from the sixth season until its conclusion in November 2017.

** Content was also affected. TV-am had assumed that ''Breakfast Time'', like the rest of the BBC's news offerings, would consist of hard news and highbrow discussion, and tried to match this with similar content on their flagship programme, ''Good Morning Britain''. Instead, the BBC mimicked its American counterparts and made ''Breakfast Time'' fluffy and lightweight, making ''Good Morning Britain'' look boring by comparison. (For example, the debut episode began with David Frost conducting an eighteen minute interview with Conservative MP Norman Tebbit. As a former ITV executive noted “ at that time of the morning. The average person doesn’t want 18 minutes of anything… Much less Norman Tebbit!”) . Within two weeks, viewership fell sharply to just under 300,000.
** The talent on ''Good Morning Britain'' originally consisted of a 'Famous Five' of recognizable presenters: Creator/DavidFrost, Michael Parkinson, Angela Rippon, Anna Ford and Robert Kee. However, an administration error sent the cheques to the wrong people, leading Rippon to discover that she was making substantially less than the younger Ford, while both women were making ''far'' less than Frost and Parkinson.
** TV-am's troubles resulted in a boardroom coup on 18 March 1983, which saw a group of investors led by Jonathan Aitken, a Conservative MP, sack the station's chief executive, Peter Jay. Rippon and Ford supported Jay in the dispute, leading to their own sacking when Aitken's brother Timothy was appointed as the new chief executive in April. In a highly-publicised incident, Ford encountered Aitken at a party and threw a drink in his face; she and Rippon moved to sue TV-am, but the suit was dropped following an out-of-court settlement. Thus, just three months after its launch, ''Good Morning Britain'' lost two of its Famous Five (and came close to losing a third with Parkinson).

** Content was also affected. TV-am had assumed that ''Breakfast Time'', like the rest of the BBC's news offerings, would consist of hard news and highbrow discussion, and tried to match this with similar content on their flagship programme, ''Good Morning Britain''. Instead, the BBC mimicked its American counterparts and made ''Breakfast Time'' fluffy and lightweight, making ''Good Morning Britain'' look boring by comparison. Within two weeks, viewership fell sharply to just under 300,000.

** While the three lead actresses began the series as good friends (enough for them to act as each other's bridesmaids), tensions were running high by the third season - Creator/AlyssaMilano and Creator/ShannenDoherty admitting that there were days they'd only speak to each other to say their lines. Holly Marie Combs attributed this to creative frustration over fights with the higher-ups to give the necessary money for stunts and special effects, and Shannen Doherty's own burnout from a lifetime in the industry. She wanted off the show and maintains that she was pushing for Prue to be KilledOffForReal, but was told she had to stay because she was under contract, only for her to be fired between Seasons 3 and 4. Due to the negative relationship between all parties, she never appeared on the show again, and even pictures and archive footage couldn't be used; Brad Kern, who was executive producer, was told they'd have to pay her per-episode fee to use them, but later realised that could have been a lie and that they just didn't want to still be promoting her. Holly Marie Combs, who was a close friend, wanted to leave with her but was forced to stay by contract - although she was granted a pay rise and promoted to AndStarring in the opening credits. She and Alyssa Milano became producers in Season 5 in the hopes of avoiding similar situations again.

** The actresses were incredibly unhappy with the increasingly {{Stripperiffic}} outfits the sisters would be forced to wear. The sisters would frequently be transformed into various magical creatures that would require a different skimpy outfit (mermaid, genie, Valkyrie, wood nymph, etc.) and before the eighth season went to producers to protest against it. The show's costume designer for five years was fired and replaced with a new one, and the sisters' clothing became a little more modest (although the actresses claimed they would never refuse to wear anything). Creator/TheWB was constantly demanding "[[HotterAndSexier more skin]]" and marketing the episodes around the [[SexSells Fanservice elements]] -- which annoyed the showrunners, who felt they were being misrepresented.
** For the final season, The WB slashed the budget in half. As a result, series regular Dorian Gregory was PutOnABus and Creator/BrianKrause had to be temporarily written out for ten episodes (a decision the cast themselves were not quiet about how much they disliked it). Creator/KaleyCuoco had to be brought on as a new character Billie both to fill the {{Fanservice}} requirements and to lessen the lead actresses' shooting hours. For the final episode, the budget was so tight they had to rely on archive footage for a lot of things, and Shannen Doherty couldn't come BackForTheFinale[[note]]The word from the producers is that she wasn't asked and a picture would cost too much, but Shannen herself says she was asked and turned it down.[[/note]] -- and they also had to juggle Alyssa Milano and Rose [=McGowan=]'s other acting commitments (the reason Phoebe and Paige [[spoiler: are dead for half the finale is because of this]]).

** Years later, there were reports of sexual harassment and lewd comments in the writers' room. Brad Kern was accused of inappropriate behavior towards the female employees.

** Reception to the episodes were mixed. Many of the original viewers of the soaps were 50+ and were not quick to embrace their move online. It was also clear that an online soap opera was not as good of an idea as originally believed since online viewers are more accustomed to binge-watching an entire storyline instead of watching it unfold over months or years. In response, Creator/OprahWinfrey's OWN cable network began showing repeats of the online episodes, though this was ultimately unsuccessful.

* ''Series/BreakTheBank1985''. According to a biography, host Gene Rayburn was mainly picked for his name recognition (he was most famously the host of ''Series/MatchGame'', which lasted for most of TheSeventies) and, despite being known as a "silly" host on that show, was told not to joke around. He was later replaced with Joe Farago, and Rayburn became so frustrated that he placed an embargo on the episodes he hosted (to the point that they have never been rerun). This, combined with ''Entertainment Weekly'' accidentally revealing that he was older than the industry had thought, pretty much ended Rayburn's hosting career.

** Once it became clear that the show's ratings were garbage, CBS was forced to stick with it in the hopes that it would get better (and to attempt to recoup their lost investment of nearly $15 million). The network spent millions of dollars revamping the series. Creator/MarielHemingway (who played the lead character, Stephanie) exercised her option to quit and Creator/GeraldMcRaney and Creator/RaquelWelch were brought on as a fellow media tycoon and his ex-wife. Welch later admitted that she essentially [[http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,292839,00.html took the role]] for the [[MoneyDearBoy money]] because she wasn't getting the plum lead roles that she used to, even though her agent told her to stay away from it. The show was {{Retool}}ed as a ''Series/{{Dynasty|1981}}'' clone in an attempt to appeal to older viewers, but it was too late. The remaining episodes were burned off by airing two episodes per week, and then-CBS President Les Moonves later admitted the network had made a terrible mistake when they attempted to get away from their roots.

** While the three lead actresses began the series as good friends (enough for them to act as each other's bridesmaids), tensions were running high by the third season - Creator/AlyssaMilano and Creator/ShannenDoherty admitting that there were days they'd only speak to each other to say their lines. Holly Marie Combs attributed this to creative frustration over fights with the higher-ups to give the necessary money for stunts and special effects, and Shannen Doherty's own burnout from essentially a lifetime in the industry. She wanted off the show and maintains that she was pushing for Prue to be KilledOffForReal, but was told she had to stay because she was under contract, only for her to be fired between Seasons 3 and 4. Due to the negative relationship between all parties, she never appeared on the show again, and even pictures and archive footage couldn't be used; Brad Kern, who was executive producer, was told they'd have to pay her per-episode fee to use them, but later realised that could have been a lie and that they just didn't want to still be promoting her. Holly Marie Combs, who was a close friend, wanted to leave with her but was forced to stay by contract - although she was granted a pay rise and promoted to AndStarring in the opening credits. She and Alyssa Milano became producers in Season 5 in the hopes of avoiding similar situations again.

** Several months later, in June 2011, it was announced that Olbermann had been hired by the indie progressive network Current TV, and would relaunch ''Countdown'' and air it in his old timeslot. On top of getting his show back, Olbermann and Current TV worked out a deal where Olbermann would wield considerable power as the network's chief news officer, and also own an equity stake. He also got a new studio and several well-known pundits and celebrities as contributors. He was slated to become Current TV's signature prime-time anchor. The premiere drew more viewers than CNN. Quick fix, right?
** ...But within the year, the new ''Countdown'' devolved into a mess. Current TV failed to deliver on a promised UsefulNotes/HighDefinition studio and simulcast channel, while Olbermann reportedly became an abusive [[ThePrimaDonna Prime Donna]] behind the scenes. He started airing shows completely in the dark to cut costs, then refused to come to work for extended periods of time or major news events. In March 2012, Current TV decided to cut Olbermann loose and terminated his contract.

** Beyond that, sequences and even entire ''episodes'' were left on the cutting room floor due to Milch's displeasure with them, with Milch even admitting that much of the third season had been reshot.

** Many of the actors grew increasingly unhappy with how little they were given to do as the show's scope grew larger, (One of those who was unhappy was Elizabeth [=McGovern=], who played Lady Cora) with several of them quitting along the way. Some of these were major characters, forcing Creator/JulianFellowes to hastily write their deaths to explain their absence. The most damaging was Creator/DanStevens as half of the show's major romantic couple Matthew Crawley, who wanted to do other projects while still remaining on the show. Fellowes was so furious at Stevens for this that he refused to so much as let his name be spoken on set for the remainder of the show, and even downplayed Matthew's huge role in the first three series as much as possible, with him hardly ever being mentioned again. This led to the show feeling more like a trashy soap opera and less the highbrow drama (complete with an understated, witty sense of humor) as intended, and reviews quickly soured. Many fans also stopped watching at this point.

** Finally, his writing strategy was [[WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants to only write the first half of each series ahead of time, then wait to write the rest until filming was underway and he could see how the actors played off each other]]. (Whereas most TV writers write an entire season ahead of time and only make changes as needed) This sometimes resulted in some very awkward storytelling as he decided to beef up a certain character's role, only to discover their actor couldn't commit to the show any further like he wanted them to. The worst of these was Charles Edwards as Edith's love interest Michael Gregson, whose departure was so clearly a bad story option that Fellowes simply had him go missing in Germany and left his fate unknown for two years... before finally giving up and having Gregson discovered to have been killed.

** A SpinOff was conceived during Season Six after Paul left to pursue movies. There was internal pressure to keep the franchise going without any delays, despite the writers and producers being unsure of where to go from there. The last season was partly spent on a revolving door of potential Highlanderettes. (Paul was not contractually obligated to appear for the whole season, and six or seven episodes were fronted by his would-be replacements, none of whom stuck around.) They finally settled on the recurring character Amanda (Creator/ElizabethGracen) as "The Raven". Simple, right?

* In its final years, the original run of ''Series/TheHollywoodSquares'' taped in UsefulNotes/LasVegas. According to WordOfGod, these episodes were troubled because center square Creator/PaulLynde was upset with the lodging accommodations, and his mood was bringing down everyone else; he eventually got booted out (it wasn't the first time; he'd been fired late in the Creator/{{NBC}} run as well). Also not helping was that the celebs, George Gobels in particular, would rush off to gamble, and since they were taping in Vegas, many of the contestants were tourists (which didn't help since the entire season was basically one long tournament), and some were drunk.

* Creator/DouglasAdams described the creation of the TV version of ''Series/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy1981'' as "not a happy production. There was a personality clash between myself and the director. And between the cast and the director. And between the tea lady and the director." Said director, Alan Bell, puts the blame on Douglas, claiming they used to make lists of his ridiculous unfilmable ideas, to which Adams would reply that Bell "cheerfully admits he will say what suits him rather than what happens to be the case. And therefore there's no point in arguing." John Lloyd, the producer and co-writer of the radio show, was annoyed that he was made "associate producer" (he felt that the fact his credit literally explodes in the ending credits was a comment on how meaningless it was) and thought Bell was too concerned with getting things done efficiently, rather than getting them done ''right''. The second series simply didn't happen: Adams wouldn't do it without Lloyd or Geoffrey Perkins; Bell wouldn't do it with them. It was suggested that Perkins could be script editor (since this would minimise his interaction with Bell), and he viewed the possibility of [[ScheduleSlip trying to wring scripts out of Adams]] under these conditions with horror. Adams then suggested replacing Bell with Pennant Roberts, who had directed several of his scripts on ''Series/DoctorWho'', but this was declined on the grounds that a writer having any say in the choice of director (or, for that matter, a drama director handling what was classed as a sitcom) simply wasn't done in those days. Nobody would back down, so...

* The first season of ''Series/{{Iron Fist|2017}}'' had a shooting schedule so insanely tight that Creator/FinnJones was often given his fight choreography just ''fifteen minutes'' before filming started[[note]]Of course, learning the choreography right before shooting a scene isn't unique to ''Iron Fist''; Creator/CharlieCox and Creator/ElodieYung have discussed how they had to learn fights pass by pass as they shot ''Series/{{Daredevil|2015}}'' Season 2 because of the fast turnaround time. The differentiating factor is that Charlie Cox has a background in stage combat, plus had plenty of time to train and prepare in general building on his training from ''Daredevil'' Season 1, and Elodie Yung is a black belt martial artist, so their combined experience shows in the final product. With Finn Jones in ''Iron Fist'', the time between him landing the role and starting production was ridiculously short, and he didn't have as much fight training/background to fall back on, on top of the general difficulties the stunt team had with the creative team on executing their vision.[[/note]] This certainly helps explain the many complaints about his unconvincing fighting. Fortunately, ''Series/{{The Defenders|2017}}'' would greatly redeem many of the reservations people had about Danny's skill due to being helmed by Marco Ramirez and Doug Petrie, the showrunners from Season 2 of ''Series/{{Daredevil|2015}}'', instead of the notorious Scott Buck.

* Of all shows, the Fox News docudrama series ''Legends & Lies'' had many production problems and setbacks. During production of ''The Patriots'' season (about the Revolutionary War), new scenes were frequently rewritten the night before they were to be shot, and the show's production was halted for a while after they ran out of funding. Several local crew members opted not to return for Season 3, citing "drama." Also, Season 3 (''The Civil War'') was completely filmed, but there was doubt that it would ever see the light of day due to producer and commentator Creator/BillOReilly's sexual harassment allegations and subsequent termination from Fox News. It finally aired a year and a half after production with O'Reilly's involvement completely stripped. It's also very likely that Season 4 (supposedly about World War I) will never go into production at all.

** Shortly before Season 3 began airing, Wayans announced that he too would be leaving the show halfway through the season, citing that he wanted to spend more time with his family (issues which had naturally been exacerbated by his playing devoted family man Murtaugh), and even pulling out his character's famous CatchPhrase "I'm too old for this shit." FOX managed to coax Wayans back by altering his work schedule, but the show wound up getting cancelled at the end of that season.

* ''Series/FamilyFeud'' was not the first time that Creator/MarkGoodson and Richard Dawson had butted heads. Before ''Feud'' first hit the air in 1976, Richard Dawson was a recurring panelist on ''Series/MatchGame'' starting in 1973. Once he got the ''Feud'' gig, Dawson started to become noticeably detached from his surroundings (likely stemming from his ego -- why play second fiddle on one show when he had top billing in another?), as he began giving blunt one-word answers to every question, stopped joking around with the other panelists (important on a comedy-driven format), and even refused an on-air demand from host Gene Rayburn to smile. Also souring Dawson's mood on ''Match'' was a format change: initially, contestants playing the Head-to-Head Match segment of the BonusRound were allowed to pick any of the six celebrities, but [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome nearly all of them chose Dawson]] because he seemed to have an uncanny knack for matching the contestants' answers. To thwart this, the producers added a wheel that was spun in order to randomly select from among which of the six celebrities would be matched. Although its very first spin ironically landed on Dawson, it ultimately played a major role in his leaving ''Match'' entirely in 1978.

** The 2017 Creator/{{Netflix}} revival suffered from a very rushed production schedule compared to what the show had been like before, including an entirely new method of recording the theater segments that worked off time stamps rather than actually having the movie playing in front of them, which naturally leads to the odd joke's timing being a tad off.

** The controversial firings of Creator/KeithOlbermann (see above) and Ann Curry led ratings for both MSNBC and ''Series/{{Today}}'' (which had been the #1 morning news show for almost 20 years until that point) respectively to suffer. David Gregory, the longtime NBC political correspondent whose run on ''Meet the Press'' had been marred by gaffes and unfavorable comparisons to predecessor Tim Russert, was also fired under strange circumstances.

* ''Series/OurFriendsInTheNorth'' spent a decade languishing in DevelopmentHell, largely due to the fact that certain characters were based on real people. Then the first episode had to be completely reshot and rewritten after the original director left. In addition, Creator/MalcolmMcDowell's scenes had to be shot in one continuous block due to his limited availability, not to mention the fact that he lived in UsefulNotes/{{America}} and rarely did television.

** The dog Bear (portrayed by Graubaer's Boker) ended up replaced because Caviezel kept pulling on the dog's leash against all warnings, causing Boker to [[TheDogBitesBack bite him]]. As a result, Bear was paired more with Finch and Shaw in later seasons. Keep in mind Graubaer's Boker is a Belgian malinois, a highly intelligent breed trained to stay calm and focused in high-stress situations.

** Only after Pink Lady was signed to do the show in the spring of 1980 did NBC learn that neither of the singers, Mie and Kei, spoke English very well. Either nobody had asked, or their fluency had been greatly overrepresented, depending on who tells the story. This meant that they had to learn their lines phonetically and would make late rewrites pretty much impossible ... like one show that Creator/LorneGreene agreed to be on only four hours before air time.

* ''Series/{{Pitfall}}'', a short-lived game show hosted by Creator/AlexTrebek. The parent company, Catalena Productions, had trouble paying contestants their winnings and even stiffed Alex on his salary. Until his death in November 2020, he had the bounced check from Catalena framed in his living room, as a stark reminder of how his fellow Canadians shafted him.

* ''Series/HighlanderTheSeries'' had its own spin-off: ''[[Series/HighlanderTheRaven The Raven]]''. The show went through a lot of mutations, beginning as a totally unrelated script and eventually settling on a DistaffCounterpart played by one of ''Highlander''[='=]s supporting characters (Amanda Darieux, played by Creator/ElizabethGracen). A combination of pressure from the producers (Creator/AdrianPaul was in a hurry to leave), poor casting choices, a healthy dollop of MoodWhiplash, and a lack of direction marred the project. In the DVD featurette, the creative genesis of ''Raven'' is a fog: No one had an idea where to take Gracen's greedy thief, a strange fit for a selfless heroine. Problems mounted as antagonism grew between the two leads: Gracen had gotten involved with a French "Ambassador" who later turned out to be a fantasist (and a bad boyfriend, to boot) and convinced her that she had become a target in the [[UsefulNotes/BillClinton Monica Lewinsky]] scandal and that her co-workers were all UsefulNotes/{{CIA}} spies. And that's not even addressing the music composer who spent his days hitting bars instead of working, foreign investors who insisted on a LighterAndSofter tone for a series about lopping off heads, etc. The series wrapped up after 21 episodes, with a cliffhanger no less.

* The short-lived musical drama series ''Series/{{Smash}}'' inspired [[http://www.buzzfeed.com/kateaurthur/how-smash-became-tvs-biggest-train-wreck a long article]] on ''Website/BuzzFeed'' shortly before the second-season premiere about how the show's first season was a, uh, ''smash'' in an entirely different sense of the word, requiring a major {{Retool}}:

** They kept her, one of the few things that kept the show's quality up, but meanwhile the writing went off in weird directions. A subplot involving Julia's attempt to adopt a sister for her teenage son, Leo, began taking up a great deal of the show. It was kept in because [[RealitySubtext it mirrored a similar event in Rebeck's own life]], and even the network executives knew how personal it was to her and said nothing. Ellis, villainous assistant to Julia's writing partner Tom, [[CreatorsPet somehow became a major character]] (because Spielberg loved him), as did Leo (whose actor, Emory Cohen, also survived an attempt to recast him). The writers couldn't give Julia any serious challenges to overcome [[AuthorAvatar because she was based on Rebeck herself]], and naturally the showrunner portrayed her as totally heroic, even when she began having an adulterous affair that cost the character any sympathy she might have gained. Since there was no writers' room, and one hand didn't know what the other was doing, important character moments wound up being glossed over in episode after episode, to the point that the term "hatewatching" was used when people tried to explain why they tuned in.

** Ben Bova, also hired as science advisor, was similarly peeved at being ignored, so he quit not long thereafter, but couldn't take his name off the credits.

* Season 3 of ''Series/{{Supergirl|2015}}'' was derailed halfway through by numerous sexual harassment accusations against writer and producer Andrew Kreisberg. He was fired after an investigation, but the show was left in the awkward position of being partway through a story that he'd been the major brain behind, which everyone was naturally not comfortable at all with continuing (plus this would mean they'd still need to pay him for the story ideas). Thus, the second half of the season suffered very noticeably from the remaining writing crew trying their hardest to pull an alternate second half of the story out of their ass, often being very obvious about it.

** It was stuck in the pilot stage for a long time. Peter Stone wrote one pilot set in UsefulNotes/{{New York|City}} that was never filmed. Larry Gelbart wrote another one set in North Hollywood that ''was'' filmed (with Creator/JohnRitter, Valerie Curtain, and Suzanne Zenor), but not used when the show was ousted from Creator/{{ABC}}'s fall schedule. Creator/{{CBS}} then offered to take the show, but ABC backtracked and agreed to air the show mid-season if the pilot was rewritten and reshot with a new cast. Don Nicholl, Michael Ross, and Bernie West wrote a third pilot script set in Santa Monica, and it was shot with John Ritter as Jack, Joyce [=DeWitt=] as Janet, and Susan Lanier as Chrissy (taking over for Denise Galick, who was fired two days before shooting). Executives disliked Lanier's portrayal of Chrissy, and producers were so desperate to find a new one, they basically fast-forwarded through all the audition tapes for the character before eventually settling on Suzanne Somers ''one day'' before she was supposed to be on-set. However, John Ritter was almost fired before the pilot taped again, with executives believing his performance was too effeminate. ABC's Fred Silverman successfully fought to keep Ritter on the show, and the pilot was shot a third time before it was finally on the air.

* ''Conquest'', originally titled ''The Organic Intelligent'', was a sci-fi series about {{Artificial Human}}s that Creator/{{Netflix}} picked up in 2018 even though its creator, Carl Rinsch, had only a single prior feature film credit to his name, the infamous dud ''Film/FortySevenRonin'', and no experience as a ShowRunner. What happened next, as [[https://archive.is/DTPUG this article]] by John Carreyrou for ''The New York Times'' explains, was a meltdown that ensured that the show would never see the light of day.

** In season four, Smith made a deal with Creator/{{Global}} for them to air the show, but they wouldn't finance it. Smith & Smith Productions had to buy its own time slots on Global. They had to scramble to find additional funding to meet the show's budget, and even then Smith had to take a second mortgage on his house to cover it.