History ExecutiveMeddling / LiveActionTV

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* The short-lived E! reality show ''Living Lohan'', which centered around the lives of Creator/LindsayLohan's family (though Lindsay herself never appeared in the show ((she was heard on the phone in one episode)) supposedly because she thought it was exploitative and wanted no part of it) ended because the producers started demanding the family to do more "crazy" things for the sake of drama, like Dina faking being pregnant and Michael Jr cheating on his girlfriend, which did not go over well with Dina, she refused the demands and quickly ended the show.

* Creator/{{Lucasfilm}} president Creator/KathleenKennedy, apparently not content with already being despised over the ''Franchise/StarWars'' ContinuityReboot, is said to have meddled extensively in the various live-action series to the point that Creator/JonFavreau threatened to quit. Kennedy was the one who fired Creator/GinaCarano for her RoleEndingMisdemeanor while cancelling the ''Rangers of the New Republic'' show she was set to star in, and also forced a revision of ''Series/TheBookOfBobaFett'' to [[MerchandiseDriven bring Grogu back]] early which rendered the first two seasons of ''Series/TheMandalorian'' a ShaggyDogStory.

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* The short-lived E! reality show ''Living Lohan'', which centered around the lives of Creator/LindsayLohan's family (though Lindsay herself never appeared in the show ((she was heard on the phone in one episode)) supposedly because she thought it was exploitative and wanted no part of it) ended because the producers started demanding the family to do more "crazy" things for the sake of drama, like Dina faking being pregnant and Michael Jr cheating on his girlfriend, which did not go over well with Dina, she refused the demands and quickly ended the show.
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** One instance of meddling in particular resulted in the creation of one of the show's most famous sketches. When the CBC picked up ''SCTV'', they requested that an extra segment with "identifiably Canadian content" be added to pad it out (as the commercial time was two minutes shorter than those distributed for U.S. syndication). Cast members Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas thought this was a bizarre request, since it was already a Canadian production to begin with; they [[TakeThat responded]] with "The Great White North" -- a [[StylisticSuck purposely crappy]], ad-libbed filler sketch featuring the [[CanadaEh overly stereotypical]] Bob and Doug [=McKenzie=]. To their shock, Bob and Doug became [[BreakoutCharacter breakout characters]], and were eventually included in the U.S. airings as well.

** Robert Beltran slammed his employers at a Star Trek convention for ignoring him and the rest of the cast (especially Tim Russ, who played Tuvok, and Garrett Wang, who played Harry Kim), over Seven of Nine and the Doctor. He then threatened to leave. As a compromise, the producers introduced a relationship between his character and Seven of Nine, who was at that time the most popular character on the show. Not a good compromise. The relationship was not hinted at until past the half-way point of the last season; and was actually a simulation. Their actual relationship was not shown until the last episode.

** This trope was the reason surrounding Season 6's Jim's elimination. The reason why he "showed no passion" during his last dinner service was because he found out the producers wanted him to start a feud with Robert. The producers also apparently tried to get him to say things in confessionals that he wasn't comfortable saying. Tek Moore (who also competed in Season 6 and, believe it-or-not, ended up in a relationship with Jim) has echoed similar sentiments saying that the producers would come and swap out ingredients such as salt for sugar.

* The original ending of ''Series/HannahMontana'' was an AllJustADream scenario. The show was [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFG2iFcdOgI revealed to be the dream]] of a young Miley Cyrus. Thanks to ExecutiveMeddling it was thought to be too confusing for children and the ending was changed to [[spoiler:Miley giving up the movie in Paris to attend college with Lilly]]... The original ending however was later added as a alternate ending in the Final Season DVD set.

*** Several games were unaired in the first season; probably because they were a little too afraid to air some of them. Part of the reason was that Ryan Stiles and Greg Proops, whenever they messed up on a Hoedown, swore like mad. Later seasons they didn't censor ''as'' much.

The most popular and widely broadcast form of entertainment, unsurprisingly gets the most [[ExecutiveMeddling meddling]].

** Willow's character was the subject of a lot of meddling. In the unaired pilot, she was played by Riff Regan, who actually looked like she could be a geeky social outcast, as opposed to... say... Creator/AlysonHannigan. She wasn't recast for this reason, however -- she frequently flubbed lines and generally played the character as too nervous.
** But the most famous example of ''Buffy'' meddling involves Creator/TheWB's notoriety for jumping to ridiculous conclusions about what would upset the audience. Remember when the "Graduation" season finale of ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' almost didn't air in the wake of the Columbine tragedy? True, it involved the image of a class full of students coming to school armed to the teeth... to ''fight [[BigBad a giant demon-thing]]'' in a showdown between good and evil that had been set-up as the climax for the entire season. [[DistancedFromCurrentEvents This was apparently considered too close]]. Yeah...
*** The WB also postponed the ''Buffy'' episode "[[{{Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS3E18Earshot}} Earshot]]", as the episode involved a plot to mass-murder students (with a RedHerring that it would be by shooting). It was supposed to be the next episode to air following Columbine, so the network instead aired a rerun of "[[{{Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS3E6Band Candy}} Band Candy]]". The irony is that Buffy keeps the character Jonathan from killing himself in "Earshot", which makes it all the more significant that he is the one to give her the Class Protector Award in "[[{{Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS3E20TheProm}} The Prom]]", the episode that was originally to air after "Earshot". OutOfOrder like that, it makes little sense.
*** Creator/JossWhedon's comments regarding the decision to postpone "Earshot" indicate that he agreed with it wholeheartedly. However, Joss was very angry about the delaying of the Season Finale, to the point of advising fans to "pirate the damned thing," a rare (maybe unique) instance of a producer encouraging fans to pirate copies of his own show. A key difference was that "Earshot" was not significant in the seasonal arc (likely why Whedon was okay with its postponement), but making viewers wait months to see the payoff of the season-long StoryArc was pretty cruel. TV would be much better without the MoralGuardians.

* Apparently the people behind the low rated ''Series/JoanOfArcadia'' were pressured to make the show "less talky" and [[RatingsStunt stunt-cast in order to increase ratings]]. They were also forced to change the missions God gave to Joan from "ForWantOfANail" interventions that changed the course of people's lives to an endless stream of [[AndKnowingIsHalfTheBattle "life lessons"]] for her alone. And demanding Adam cheat on Joan, which his actor was ''not'' pleased about.

* The 1983 ABC TV movie "TheDayAfter" suffered from such severe executive meddling in so many ways and by so many different executives that its director vowed he would never work in television again.

* A positive example with ''Series/LawAndOrder'', when the show was forced -- in the name of expanding the demographic reach -- to replace Lt. Cragen and Paul Robinette with Lt. Van Buren and Claire Kincaid, respectively. Kincaid quickly became one of the show's most popular characters (as well as one of the most well-beloved female characters on the show, to the point that the show repeatedly tried to recreate the character after the actress left the show) while Merkerson remained until the end, having stayed for 17 of the show's 20 years (Lt. Van Buren and [[Creator/SamWaterston ADA Jack McCoy]] would both return for the 2022 reboot). Not only were the execs right, they were ''actually ahead of their time''. (Cragen, of course, returned to the franchise with the spinoff ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'', so it was a win for everyone except Robinette.)

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** UPN forced the show to use a power ballad, being the much-loathed “Where My Heart Will Take Me” pop-song for its theme tune instead of the purpose-written classical piece "Archer's Theme", which ended up being used for the closing credits.

* ''Series/{{Castle}}'' had an in-universe example in season 2, when the BodyOfTheWeek, a late-night talk show host played by Creator/TomBergeron, was poisoned [[spoiler: because the network execs forced him to fire his best friend and hire a YoungerAndHipper replacement.]]