History TroubledProduction / ChannelAwesome

** "The Contest of Champions" storyline was originally meant to be [[BreatherEpisode a lower-stakes story-arc]] for the show, but it soon ballooned into becoming the longest-running arc in the show's history thanks to several production delays. Due to the complicated nature of setting up a TournamentArc with elaborate set-pieces and multiple characters, Lewis had trouble finding time to actually film the segments he needed while also maintaining his weekly schedule. The order of the Contest was also mostly set in stone, as extensive host segments were already filmed at the Channel Awesome studio shortly before Lewis left the site. A wrestling match between Linkara and Heavy Wrex ended up being delayed for over a year thanks to the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic, as Wrex's actor was immunocompromised. Lewis's attempts to finish the storyline by the end of 2021 reached another snag as the effects needed for his match against Sphynx Yonder were not able to be finished before October. Since the next round was meant to be Halloween-themed and had already been delayed for two years in a row, this led to Lewis airing the semifinals with Billy Tor before the Sphynx Yonder match, [[OutOfOrder despite it taking place afterwards in the storyline]]. By 2023, Lewis has vowed either to complete the storyline that year or do a write up so he can get it over with, which he ultimately did, releasing the final part on Christmas Day, complete with a scathing SelfDecepration of the entire thing.

** "The Contest of Champions" storyline was originally meant to be [[BreatherEpisode a lower-stakes story-arc]] for the show, but it soon ballooned into becoming the longest-running arc in the show's history thanks to several production delays. Due to the complicated nature of setting up a TournamentArc with elaborate set-pieces and multiple characters, Lewis had trouble finding time to actually film the segments he needed while also maintaining his weekly schedule. The order of the Contest was also mostly set in stone, as extensive host segments were already filmed at the Channel Awesome studio shortly before Lewis left the site. A wrestling match between Linkara and Heavy Wrex ended up being delayed for over a year thanks to the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic, as Wrex's actor was immunocompromised. Lewis's attempts to finish the storyline by the end of 2021 reached another snag as the effects needed for his match against Sphynx Yonder were not able to be finished before October. Since the next round was meant to be Halloween-themed and had already been delayed for two years in a row, this led to Lewis airing the semifinals with Billy Tor before the Sphynx Yonder match, [[OutOfOrder despite it taking place afterwards in the storyline]]. By 2023, Lewis has vowed either to complete the storyline that year or do a write up so he can get it over with.

** ''TheMovie'''s production went mostly smooth, but the one bump that the "Not So Awesome" document reported on was the required studio space was expected to be the Channel Awesome studio in Chicago (the same one ''WebVideo/NostalgiaCritic'' was being filmed at). While Rob and presumably Doug were fully on board with letting Lewis and his crew film there, Michaud [[ExecutiveMeddling demanded that filming be done under supervision]]. Discouraged by the lack of trust, Lewis instead shot the movie at another studio in Minnesota for which production had to pay more for than if they had filmed at Channel Awesome. Interestingly, the other studio didn't bother with supervising the filming.

** "The Contest of Champions" storyline was originally meant to be [[BreatherEpisode a lower-stakes story-arc]] for the show, but it soon ballooned into becoming the longest-running arc in the show's history thanks to several production delays. Due to the complicated nature of setting up a TournamentArc with elaborate set-pieces and multiple characters, Lewis had trouble finding time to actually film the segments he needed while also maintaining his weekly schedule. The order of the Contest was also mostly set in stone, as extensive host segments were already filmed at the Channel Awesome studio shortly before Lewis left the site. A wrestling match between Linkara and Heavy Wrex ended up being delayed for over a year thanks to the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic, as Wrex's actor was immunocompromised. Lewis's attempts to finish the storyline by the end of 2021 reached another snag as the effects needed for his match against Sphynx Yonder were not able to be finished before October. Since the next round was meant to be Halloween-themed and had already been delayed for two years in a row, this led to Lewis airing the semifinals with Billy Tor before the Sphynx Yonder match, [[OutOfOrder despite it taking place afterwards in the storyline]].

** This wasn't the only problem Liz was forced to deal with. She was recruited as a production assistant, but as she was considered Creator/LewisLovhaug's guest and not "talent", she was: roped into providing transportation for the cast when the Walkers came up short on vehicles; was kept from having coffee or lunch, leading to her getting constantly hungry; and forbidden from having off days or participating in group photos and the wrap party. She did not even receive compensation or even a simple thanks for her work on the movie.

** In the end, it was this hellish production which caused the Walkers to make the next anniversary crossover an anthology, and to swear off anniversary specials entirely until the tenth anniversary in 2018 (which was cancelled after the "Not So Awesome" document sparked a contributor exodus from Channel Awesome and all but destroyed the site). After ''Boldly'''s release, Channel Awesome put out a newsletter pointing to weather as the deciding factor to stop the troubled anniversary productions, while avoiding any mention of their own gross mismanagement.

* ''WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall'': ''TheMovie'''s production went mostly smooth, but the one bump that the "Not So Awesome" document reported on was the required studio space was expected to be the Channel Awesome studio in Chicago (the same one ''WebVideo/NostalgiaCritic'' was being filmed at). While Rob and presumably Doug were fully on board with letting Lewis and his crew film there, Michaud [[ExecutiveMeddling demanded that filming be done under supervision]]. Discouraged by the lack of trust, Lewis instead shot the movie at another studio in Minnesota for which production had to pay more for than if they had filmed at Channel Awesome. Interestingly, the other studio didn't bother with supervising the filming.

* WebVideo/ThatDudeInTheSuede's review of the fourth ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' movie had to be this for sure. WebVideo/JesuOtaku and Suede were already quite busy beforehand, making scheduling recording quite hard. Not all the details have been made clear, but the suicide of former Channel Awesome contributor [[WebVideo/YouCanPlayThis JewWario]] ''had'' to have made production awkward. The final cut of the review featured [=JewWario=]'s voice for about the first three minutes. It is unknown if it is all of the audio he had recorded or the episode, and he had to be written out using some clever dialogue. His voice is clearly someone else trying to do an impression of him during the last few seconds in order to get him out of the review.

** With production ready to resume in March 2015, Jones abruptly fired Jake Norvell from the film, later claiming that Norvell had slept with Jones's girlfriend and bragged about it. (Norvell and Raye, the girl in question, whom he later married, would claim that Brad and Raye had never dated and Jones fired Norvell for dating Raye when Jones was interested in her.) The film was then believed to be unreleaseable, both due to Norvell's contract and the fact that about 5% of his scenes were not completed.

* WebVideo/ThatDudeInTheSuede's review of the 4th Pokemon movie had to be this for sure. Jesuotaku and Suede were already quite busy beforehand, making scheduling recording quite hard. Not all the details have been made clear, but the suicide of former Channel Awesome contributor [[WebVideo/YouCanPlayThis JewWario]] ''had'' to have made production awkward. The final cut of the review featured [=JewWario=]'s voice for about the first 3 minutes. It is unknown if it is all of the audio he had recorded or the episode, and he had to be written out using some clever dialogue. His voice is clearly someone else trying to do an impression of him during the last few seconds in order to get him out of the review.

** With production ready to resume in March 2015, Jones discovered that the film's lead actor, Jake Norvell, was having an affair with Jones's girlfriend, and when Norvell [[{{Jerkass}} pompously bragged about it]], Jones promptly fired him from the site and the film. The film was then believed to be unreleaseable, both due to Norvell's contract and the fact that about 5% of his scenes were not completed.

** The contributors were forced to cover their own costs traveling to the remote shooting location in the Nevada desert, and Creator/DougWalker had to be told by both Lindsay and Creator/NoahAntwiler to provide food and water for his cast -- because ''they were shooting in the Nevada desert'' -- which is something even student projects would have done. Doug's failure to cover for hotels and catering, and Doug repeatedly ignoring any attempts to give him production advice, would become a consistent problem with the anniversary specials going forward.

** On-set injuries continued to be an issue. During filming, [[WebVideo/VampireReviews Elisa Hansen]] was duct-taped to a wall and began to feel light headed, requiring them to take her down and just wrap her in a blanket secured with tape for the scene. (Elisa later debunked rumors she passed out on set.) WebVideo/BennettTheSage, WebVideo/IronLiz, and Orlando all suffered stunt-related injuries which Creator/AllisonPregler later blamed on a lack of safety precautions. After Liz's knee was stomped in by Orlando, she alleged that Rob withheld ice from her unless she signed a contract absolving TGWTG of liability for the injury.
** This wasn't the only problem Liz was forced to deal with. She was recruited as a production assistant, but as she was considered Creator/LewisLovhaug's guest and not "talent", she was: roped into providing transportation for the cast when the Walkers came up short on vehicles; was kept from having coffee or lunch, leading to her getting constantly hungry; forbidden from having off days or participating in group photos and the wrap party; and did not receive compensation or even thanks for her work on the movie.

** According to Allison, the camaraderie that was present during the earlier anniversary specials was gone by ''Boldly'', and Doug's humor had become derivative, self-indulgent, sexist, and mean-spirited. Lindsay and Lewis confronted Doug over a scene in the script (of Mechakara assimilating the Nostalgia Chick) that, as originally written, was a prolonged rape joke. Lindsay claimed that Doug couldn't understand how the humor was offensive and only marginally improved the scene before it was filmed.

** The cast and crew were given a week for filming, with Doug -- assuming that simply having the equipment and crew would make things go faster -- overworking everyone by scheduling two days' worth of work for each day of shooting. Because of the arguments between Doug and Rob, the shoot quickly fell behind schedule. The contributors became exhausted, with [[Creator/BradJones Jillian Zurawski]] unable to shoot a lightsaber duel that was subsequently struck from the script. After a particularly grueling eighteen-hour shoot, the cast were only given three hours of sleep before being asked to shoot the closing party scene.
** On one occasion, Doug failed to inform the cast that his camera crew were leaving early for the day for personal reasons, meaning there were not enough cars to drive them back to their hotel. Allison, WebVideo/{{Phelous}}, and [[WebVideo/SadPandaQAndA Sad Panda]] were left behind at the shooting location while the rest of the cast went to Applebee's (though, as Allison later acknowledged, Doug soon realized what happened and treated all three of them to a meal at Subway).

** In the end, it was this hellish production which caused the Walkers to make the next anniversary crossover an anthology, and to swear off anniversary specials entirely until the tenth anniversary in 2018 (which was cancelled after the "Not So Awesome" document sparked a contributor exodus from Channel Awesome and all but destroyed the site). After ''Boldly'''s release, Channel Awesome put out a newsletter pointing to weather as the deciding factor to stop the troubled anniversary productions, while not owning up to their own gross mismanagement.

** On one occasion, Doug failed to inform the cast that his camera crew were leaving early for the day for personal reasons, meaning there were not enough cars to drive them back to their hotel. Allison, WebVideo/{{Phelous}}, and [[WebVideo/SadPandaQAndA Sad Panda]] were left behind at the shooting location while the rest of the cast went to Applebee's (though, as Allison later acknowledged, Doug soon realized the three of them had been left behind and treated them to a meal at Subway).

** On one occasion, Doug failed to inform the cast that his camera crew were leaving early for the day for personal reasons, meaning there were not enough cars to drive them back to their hotel. Allison, WebVideo/{{Phelous}}, and [[WebVideo/SadPandaQAndA Sad Panda]] were left behind at the shooting location while the rest of the cast went to Applebee's.

** His big crossover review between him, [[WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment Spoony]] and [[WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall Linkara]] for ''Film/AloneInTheDark2005''. To begin with, Doug lost his voice the day before Spoony and Linkara arrived in Chicago (hence the use of [[SyntheticVoiceActor text-to-speech]]). Secondly, construction work was being done outside Doug's house, so they had to film the review in his basement. In addition, they didn't decide which Uwe Boll movie to review until the day they started writing. Spoony gives the scoop [[http://spoonyexperiment.com/2009/09/10/alone-in-the-dark-noahs-commentary/ here]].

* While the [[WebVideo/TGWTGYearOneBrawl Year One Brawl]] wasn't as bad, it still had problems. In a blog post, Creator/LindsayEllis said that the reviewers had yet to form [[TrueCompanions the sense of camaraderie]] that there was in later crossovers, plus, among other things, an unnamed reviewer (implied to be [[UnPerson ThatAussieGuy]]) spread lies about Lindsay's sex life.

Channel Awesome, formerly Website/ThatGuyWithTheGlasses (TGWTG), has faced loads of problems spanning over many different reviewers and events, especially with the anniversary {{Massive Multiplayer Crossover}}s:

* While the [[WebVideo/TGWTGYearOneBrawl Year One Brawl]] wasn't as bad, it still had problems. In a blog post, Creator/LindsayEllis said that the reviewers had yet to form [[TrueCompanions the sense of camaraderie]] that there was in later crossovers, plus, among other things, an unnamed reviewer (implied to be [[UnPerson That Aussie Guy]]) spread lies about Lindsay's sex life.

** His big crossover review between him, Spoony and [[WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall Linkara]] for ''Film/AloneInTheDark2005''. To begin with, Doug lost his voice the day before Spoony and Linkara arrived in Chicago (hence the use of [[SyntheticVoiceActor text-to-speech]]). Secondly, construction work was being done outside Doug's house, so they had to film the review in his basement. In addition, they didn't decide which Uwe Boll movie to review until the day they started writing. Spoony gives the scoop [[http://spoonyexperiment.com/2009/09/10/alone-in-the-dark-noahs-commentary/ here]].

** During post-production, after Spoony left TGWTG, Phelous was forced to take his workload in handling the special effects. The Walkers gave Phelous the job of handling the movie's 3D animation, unaware that he wasn't a 3D animator. At one point, Phelous finished an effect and received enthusiastic feedback from Doug ("LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT"), only to later hear from WebVideo/{{Welshy}} that the Walkers were gossiping that Phelous had been "half-assing it" because there wasn't enough debris in the shot.

* Creator/DougWalker has dealt with loads of problems during his time as WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic.
** His big crossover review between him, Spoony and [[WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall Linkara]] for ''Film/AloneInTheDark2005''. To begin with, Doug lost his voice the day before Spoony and Linkara arrived in Chicago (hence the use of [[SyntheticVoiceActor text-to-speech]]). Secondly, construction work was being done outside Doug's house, so they had to film the review in his basement. In addition, they didn't decide which Uwe Boll movie to review until the day they started writing. Spoony gives the scoop [[http://spoonyexperiment.com/2009/09/10/alone-in-the-dark-noahs-commentary/ here]].
** Similarly, not as bad as the other examples, the [=MAGfest=] review of ''Film/TheLastAirbender'' turned out to be incredibly difficult and rushed. A detailed explanation of all the problems and issues is in the commentary, but, for starters, that shot of the DVD case with ''The Last Airbender'' in it hitting the ground which lasts less than one second? It took them something like ''fifty takes'' to get that one shot.
** Doug and Lewis have both referred to their crossover review of ''Film/SupermanIVTheQuestForPeace'' as a cursed review. Several introductions were filmed and scrapped (in one instance, the footage filmed around the same time as the ''Alone in the Dark'' review was lost), and it kept getting pushed back after Doug did a Top 11 countdown of the stupidest moments of the ''Superman'' film series.

** The ''Boldly'' [=DVDs=] were put on TGWTG's online store with a release date before Ed even got started making them. Allison contacted CEO Mike Michaud, who told her that it would take two weeks to make them and meet the date. When Allison pointed out that it was possible to make them sooner, Michaud shouted "TWO WEEKS" at her nonsensically over the phone. In the end, Allison and many TGWTG fans never received their [=DVDs=] due to an order mix-up that was never fixed.

** On-set injuries continued to be an issue. During filming, [[WebVideo/VampireReviews Elisa Hansen]] was duct-taped to a wall and began to feel light headed, requiring them to take her down a9nd just wrap her in a blanket secured with tape for the scene. (Elisa later debunked rumors she passed out on set.) WebVideo/BennettTheSage, WebVideo/IronLiz, and Orlando all suffered stunt-related injuries which Creator/AllisonPregler later blamed on a lack of safety precautions. After Liz's knee was stomped in by Orlando, she alleged that Rob withheld ice from her unless she signed a contract absolving TGWTG of liability for the injury.

** In the end, it was this hellish production which caused the Walkers to make the next anniversary crossover an anthology, and to swear off anniversary specials entirely until the tenth anniversary in 2018 (which was cancelled after the "Not So Awesome" document sparked a contributor exodus from Channel Awesome and all but destroyed the site). After ''Boldly'''s release, Channel Awesome put out a newsletter pointing to weather as the deciding factor to stop the troubled anniversary productions, while not owning up into their own gross mismanagement.

** Michaud [[ExecutiveMeddling pressured the Walkers]] to rush out something to commemorate Channel Awesome's five year anniversary. However, most of the site's contributors -- by now understandably not keen making the specials -- declined to make contributions to the anthology.

** There were a lot of problems with the studio they worked on, ranging from the humidity of the studio warping their sets to their difficulty in audio echo control to the props they had to work with.

** Continuing from all his anniversary breakdowns, Doug essentially doomed himself before DR had even started, saying in the ''Boldly'' commentary that he was going to work himself sick because he had really wanted this new show to go the way he had always dreamed. Even two years after it had ended, he and others who had worked on it admitted that he was fretting a lot because he wanted certain scenes to be perfectly emotional.
** The Walkers did learn their lesson in one respect though. Both Lindsay and Allison have gone on record to say they hated their characters in their anniversary specials and didn't get listened to when they had complaints (Allison even said they only know the “swoony girly” type or the “tough bitch”). In this show, it was said that both Rachel and Malcolm had a hand in the scripts and could improvise anything emotional, which was why Rachel continually expressed delight with Rebecca's character.
** Doug also tried to improve on his scheduling, saying this is where he started doubling the hours he told people they would be working, so they could either have the time if things went wrong or be done early and be happy.

** The unplanned and unofficial wrap party left a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths, as the script's implication that the rest of the TGWTG contributors were ending their shows along with Doug's -- seemingly reinforced by Doug's personalized farewell letters to everyone present -- naturally made them miffed, and they felt that Doug didn't care about what they would have to do to get by in his absence.

** Continuing from all his anniversary breakdowns, Doug essentially doomed himself before DR had even started, saying in the ''WebVideo/ToBoldlyFlee'' commentary that he was going to work himself sick because he had really wanted this new show to go the way he had always dreamed. Even two years after it had ended, he and others who had worked on it admitted that he was fretting a lot because he wanted certain scenes to be perfectly emotional.

** WebVideo/{{Phelous}}, who handled some of the special effects, was asked to do a green screen scene, but pointed out that he could simply shoot the scene himself at home and save the production time. Despite the Walkers seemingly agreeing to this arrangement, Phelous was told immediately upon reaching his hotel room to come back and shoot the green screen scene. Phelous and Allison had to convince Rob to turn around and drive them back to the hotel. The scene was then cut from the film.

** According to Allison, the camaraderie that was present during the earlier anniversary specials was gone by ''Boldly'', and Doug's humor had become derivative, self-indulgent, sexist, and mean-spirited. Lindsay and Creator/LewisLovhaug confronted Doug over a scene in the script (of Mechakara assimilating the Nostalgia Chick) that, as originally written, was a prolonged rape joke. Lindsay claimed that Doug couldn't understand how the humor was offensive and only marginally improved the scene before it was filmed.