In the late 70's, NBC heavily hyped a new sitcom on their fall schedule called
SNIP, starring David Brenner. At the very last moment, NBC lost confidence in the show and pulled it before any episodes aired. About 4 were filmed
Have any of these ever surfaced? I'd like to finally see this ill-fated series.

It is not public knowledge why the Snip TV series was pulled before any of its four episodes aired. The reason why it was pulled is just because one of the supporting characters in this series was openly gay. That openly gay character would have been the first such character depicted on an American network television series. Had Snip not been pulled by NBC, it would have aired for 3 to 5 seasons. It is unclear if anyone would watch a series like Snip. A year later, Soap premiered on ABC. That series had an openly gay character, but ABC didn't pull that one. You can learn more about this series on David Brenner's IMDB profile.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0107464/bio

I watched a few of them a while back at the Museum of TV. While the show is kind of dated in a Welcome Back Kotter/Chico and the Man way, it would have been a big hit if it had aired then. I believe there are about 6 of them that were in the can when they were axed.

'Snip' completed filming on 7 episodes, and was in production on the 8th episode when NBC ordered a stop to production. Of the 7 episodes filmed, 5 had completed post-production.

The 5 finalized episodes were broadcast once in Australia, and received big ratings. Since then, the series has been exhibited at a few film festivals showing the work of Mr. Brenner.

This would make for a very interesting DVD release, perhaps in conjunction with another short-run comedy series from that era...'Fay' would be my pick as it was another brilliant NBC comedy yanked too soon.