Who are the very worst TV showrunners ever

[TMC]

Carol Black and Neal Marlens on practically any show that they did outside of The Wonder Years. To give you some perspective, here is an excerpt from an Entertainment Weekly review from 1994 on Ellen (at the time, called These Friends of Mine):

It’s silly to criticize a sitcom for being trivial, of course. But there’s a knowing wink behind every joke in These Friends that just wasn’t there in, say, your average I Love Lucy or Dick Van Dyke Show episode. Part of the problem here is that the people who made These Friends, including creator-writers Carol Black and Neal Marlens (The Wonder Years), want you not merely to laugh at but to identify — nay, mind-meld — with these characters. They want you to poke your own friend in the ribs and say, ”Isn’t that exactly what we always say?” or ”Don’t you know people who always do that?” God bless Lucille Ball — at least she never asked me to think of her as my doppelgänger.

I’m tempted to say that These Friends of Mine is about nothing — because it is, wearyingly so — but you know where that would lead: We’d have to pin some of the blame for These Friends‘ ponderous joshing on the increasingly mimicked original about — nothing show, Seinfeld. And that show, as brilliant as it has been, is undergoing its own little identity crisis this, its fourth, season. The series has become something of a victim of its own success, as the subtle self-awareness that creators Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David built into their show has gradually become just another attitude option for lesser sitcom writers on other series. Seinfeld itself is not immune to this; recent episodes not written by David have verged on self-parody.

The ongoing Seinfeld rip-off that’s fascinating whenever it’s not actually annoying is the one Paul Reiser is doing weekly on Mad About You. From the hangdog expression he wears like a mask to the choppy sentences that have the rhythm, but not the content, of real jokes, Reiser is appropriating the Seinfeld attitude with casual brazenness. One imagines he must get down on his knees every few days and thank The Great Casting Agent for giving him Helen Hunt, who provides Mad with its sole element of originality. As Paul’s wife, Jamie, Hunt has developed a vivid, varied character at just the moment when Seinfeld‘s Julia Louis-Dreyfus has become more of a caricature.

But back to our original target: Maybe DeGeneres will yet turn These Friends of Mine into something worthy of her. Watching her stand-up act, I’ve always thought of her as an exceptionally smart, unusually honest camp counselor, and what’s most dispiriting about the pilot show is the way she has dimmed her usually bright-eyed, big-smiling countenance to approximate the patented Seinfeld deadpan. Still, this is only the first episode. Apparently, Black and Marlens’ involvement will be decreasing in future episodes, and DeGeneres actually does have her own, fresh comic persona to develop and deepen. Not that we want a deep sitcom, of course; that would be verging on Seinfeld territory.

It's even debatable exactly how much credit they should receive for the success of The Wonder Years:

In 1989, after working on the show for 18 episodes, Marlens and Black left the show due to “personal issues”; Marlens declined to elaborate. Bob Brush was named executive producer.

Brush: I joined the show then after the first six episodes as kind of a co-executive producer, and then I was there the next season for the first 11 or 12 [episodes], and when Neal and Carol left, I took the show over at that point. It was mid-season, so it was a kind of a scramble to keep the show moving forward at that point.

Lauria: Initially, when Neal and Carol left, we were a little down about it. But Bob had been here. So we kind of felt like if anybody should take over it should be Bob.

Mills: Neal and Carol got carte blanche with this show; the president of ABC, Brandon Stoddard, loved them. Because of that they could make it however they wanted to make it. And [when they left] I was so worried that I was sobbing, and I think I was even screaming. I said, “You can’t do this! You can’t create something that could be really iconic and then bail!” But they had to. Bob Brush was new, he’d just come in, and I liked him, but I just didn’t think he was going to be able to handle it. But he was seamless. I don’t know how he did it; he kept the writing excellent, and he kept the quality of the show excellent.

Marlens: We didn’t really watch the show very much after we left. When you do something creative and you do it from a personal place, and then someone else comes in tries to continue and execute what it is you started — there are always going to be things that are very different from what you would have done. At the end of the day, I think the show worked, and that’s about all you can ask for. You either have to do it, or be happy with the way someone else does it.

Brush: Everybody was writing from their own childhood experiences. And of course, my job was to make sure these stories became universal in the telling. But I know for myself it was a tremendous experience to write about those old memories. As a matter of fact, I had a therapist that I was still talking with, and I had to finally give up the therapy because he was watching the show and he became convinced that I was Kevin Arnold. So he was analyzing Kevin Arnold at that point [laughs].

And it seems like just about every show that they did, had some sort of series production trouble. Here's some tidbits on what went on behind the scenes of what was then known as These Friends of Mine:

But “These Friends” has endured its own personal struggles, which it has managed to keep relatively quiet. In his friendly review of the show two weeks ago, TV Guide critic Jeff Jarvis wrote that he hoped the creators and executive producers, Carol Black and Neal Marlens, stick with the show. Black and Marlens, who are married, created the enormously successful “The Wonder Years” and then left it for others to run after the first season.

What Jarvis apparently didn’t know was that Black and Marlens had relinquished the creative reigns to “These Friends” before it even premiered--with Marlens and DeGeneres in something of a creative standoff, according to sources.

Black and Marlens, who declined to be interviewed for this story, envisioned an edgy, ensemble show centered around the sometimes dark comic interplay of a smart single woman and her pals, while ABC, Walt Disney Television and DeGeneres herself preferred a star-driven show with a softer tone.

*

Early last year, DeGeneres, a hard-working club comedian known for her low-key observational humor, was receiving various TV offers. She chose Black and Marlens because she thought they had the same comic sensibility. DeGeneres had a small role in their last sitcom for ABC, “Laurie Hill,” which was canceled early in the 1992-93 season because it failed to hold onto “Home Improvement’s” lead-in audience.

ABC ordered 12 episodes of “These Friends” after seeing the pilot, which was shot in April, 1993, and then bumped it from last season’s fall schedule to make room for “Grace Under Fire.” “These Friends” finally began production in October, for a midseason debut, but ground to a halt midway through shooting. Among the creative differences that cropped up was a disagreement over how much risque humor was appropriate. The premiere episode featured a guy who repeatedly barked like a dog during sex.

“I don’t think that way,” said DeGeneres, 36. “That’s one thing I’m really known for in my stand-up: I do an hour-and-a-half or two of clean comedy.”

DeGeneres knows that many fans believe that TV stars are like the characters they play, and she doesn’t want people to see her in a false light.

“Because I’m playing myself, and the show was created around me, I’m really sensitive to things like that,” DeGeneres said. “It’s not that I’m offended by the guy in the pilot barking, but it certainly isn’t something I would have written. It’s just not me. Then the press started questioning it: ‘Why were you clean for so long and now you’re doing this?’ I don’t want people thinking I’m all of a sudden doing something else because I’m on TV.”

There also seemed to be a question at ABC and Disney whether “These Friends,” as seen by Black and Marlens, were nice friends. In one episode, Adam, played by Arye Gross, pretends to have a neck injury from an accident to take advantage of free massages and collect insurance money. In another, Adam witnesses--but doesn’t help out--a woman getting mugged, and then he is reluctant to come forward as a witness because he doesn’t want the woman, who he winds up dating, to think he’s a wimp.

“It wasn’t that there was massive conflict,” said Dean Valentine, president of Walt Disney Television. “What happened, basically, is that the network was pressuring the show to go in a certain direction by putting Ellen in front and making it clear that these people were really friends. I don’t think Neal (or Carol) completely disagreed, it just wasn’t their vision.”

Black and Marlens, meanwhile, had enough to deal with. Black was pregnant and the couple’s home had just been burned in the Malibu fires. To avoid complications in their lives, sources said, they voluntarily chose to reduce their roles to creative consultants, turning the show over to their co-executive producers, David Rosenthal and Warren Bell. Next season, Black and Marlens are not expected to take executive producer credits on the show at all.

At the request of ABC and Disney, Rosenthal and Bell set out to make the last six episodes “Ellen-centric,” as Rosenthal said. They also began collaborating more with DeGeneres.

“I was totally out of the loop,” DeGeneres said. “I wish I were as powerful as Roseanne, and knew everything that was going on, and had a part of everything, but I certainly am not that powerful.”

*

When Black and Marlens backed off, the co-executive producers added a bookstore and cafe called Buy the Book, where DeGeneres works, and they added a character in the bookstore, Joe the coffee guy (David Higgins), and they played up the role of her boss (Cristine Rose).

“Ellen is such a strong personality, such a strong talent, that when you’re watching the show, you really want to know what’s going on with her at every moment,” explained Rosenthal, 26. “For a new show coming out of the blocks, she carries a lot of the weight emotionally and comically. It’s all on her shoulders.”

At one point, ABC was considering not broadcasting the first seven episodes at all, but then decided to air them all in mixed order. Ironically, three of the first four high-rated episodes were from the original batch overseen by Black and Marlens. After tonight’s show, another episode has been slotted for May 24 following “Roseanne,” and the other five will be scheduled this summer.

“These Friends” is all but assured to come back in the fall with a full-season order. “I personally would be very disappointed if viewers don’t see the show on our fall schedule,” said Alan Sternfeld, ABC’s senior vice president of program planning and scheduling.

They also seemed to be absolutely incapable of adapting or readjusting their writing to a multi-camera sitcom setting. Here is a portion of an article about their short-lived series for ABC, Laurie Hill:

Fundamentally, Ms. Black says, with a multiple-camera show there is more pressure to lace the script with jokes, while the single-camera format lends itself more to story and character development.

"With multiple camera, you get a room full of people and try to come up with the funniest possible joke," says Ms. Black of typical story development sessions on sitcoms.

"There are television writers who are just wacky, funny people," says Mr. Marlens. "That's how their brains work. I don't think we're that kind of people."

"Growing Pains" was a successful, four-camera, joke-driven show, but by the end of the first year Ms. Black and Mr. Marlens were miserable. With "The Wonder Years," they felt they had found a half-hour format compatible with their writing style. John J. O'Connor, writing in The New York Times, offered that "ABC's 'Wonder Years' is the kind of small, beautifully crafted weekly series that is so good it prompts immediate speculation on how long it can be held together."

Technically, "Laurie Hill" was a hybrid -- not quite sitcom, not quite drama -- devised by Ms. Black and Mr. Marlens to balance their creative sensibilities with budget realities. They decided to write "Laurie Hill" as if it were being shot with a single camera, then produce it with four.

"If you're writing a movie," says Ms. Black, "you just write it the way you want to. And it's funny where it's funny, and it's not where it's not, and that's not a problem." For "Laurie Hill," it was a problem.

The problem with the laugh track was no laughing matter. "Laurie Hill" was shot on a closed set. There was no audience reacting to the lines, a situation that affected the actors and their pacing. Without living, breathing viewers, the script and the interaction among the actors created their own rhythm. But at the end of the day, "Laurie Hill" didn't exactly feel right without a laugh track to create the illusion of an audience.

"People may not know it except on a subliminal level," says Mr. Marlens. "But their expectations, after years of conditioning, are that multiple-camera shows have a laugh track." Even Ms. Black and Mr. Marlens concede that the show "felt a little barren" without a laugh track. With a typical laugh track, though, it felt equally out of sync." The only one-camera show I know of that used a laugh track successfully was 'M*A*S*H,' " says Mr. Marlens.

They went back into the pilot several times to try to resolve the problem. They even went to the people who had created the "M*A*S*H" laugh track. "We tried what they call a 'chuckle track,' basically a low-key laugh track," says Ms. Black. "We weren't happy with that, either."

Then they took the show and screened it with an audience, recording real laughs. "That was much worse," says Ms. Black. "There were laughs that were way too loud in some places and not enough in others."

Ultimately, they went with a variation on a chuckle track that didn't completely satisfy anyone, although Ms. Black believes viewers would have gotten comfortable with the difference, as they had with "M*A*S*H."

The network loved the pilot, according to Mr. Valentine. "ABC felt the pilot was absolutely wonderful," he says. In fact, they claimed to love it more than Mr. Valentine found believable, "particularly given what I perceived as the scheduling problems."

During the summer, word filtered back to Ms. Black and Mr. Marlens that ABC was unhappy with the scripts. It was the first concrete indication that the network was developing serious problems with the show.

"ABC was clearly unhappy creatively," says Mr. Valentine. "It never amounted to anything specific, just that it didn't feel like other shows. They wanted the structure to be like other shows. They wanted it to be funnier, more like a sitcom."

So Ms. Black and Mr. Marlens tried funnier -- funny lines as opposed to letting the humor emerge from the situation. As a result, the second episode felt vastly different from the other four that were broadcast. It follows Laurie through a maze of plumbing disasters and her troubles with an obnoxious patient. At one point, the waterlogged living-room ceiling collapses. At another, Laurie bursts into tears and a colleague asks how long it has been since she had sex with her husband.

One-liners didn't feel right, either. Ultimately, Mr. Valentine says the network's position regarding the show's scripts and tone was self-serving. ABC needed the show's time slot, he says, and it would be far easier if it failed.

[TMC]

I haven't mentioned a lot of animation-related showrunners but one that should go straight near the top of this list is John Kricfalusi, who created The Ren & Stimpy Show. Without going too deeply, it was an open secret that John K. was extremely abusive towards his staff and co-workers. He was also incredibly slow with getting his work done on time. And as the Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party" Cartoon would prove, John K. really needed Nickelodeon to keep his worst indulgences in check. The fact that John K. is an all around scumbag in his personal life was just the tip of the iceberg.

To give you some better context:

John Kricfalusi made a name for himself with The Ren & Stimpy Show, the third of three animated series that kickstarted the Nicktoons franchise, heralded a wave of creator-driven cartoons during The '90s, and codified the Gross-Out Show. However, Kricfalusi was notoriously hard to work with and turned in multiple episodes of Ren & Stimpy late due to his rampant perfectionism. His inability to keep a deadline eventually got him fired from his own show. Over a decade later, he was given the opportunity to take the reins of the show again with Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon", which met such a negative reception that it killed Spike TV's animation block in mere months, led to the downfall of gross-out cartoons, and caused Ren & Stimpy fans to begin considering Bob Camp, one of the co-founders of Kricfalusi's animation studio Spümcø, the true creator of the show and characters.

Kricfalusi lost his remaining respect and reputation in 2018 when he was revealed to be a sexual predator who had groomed two underaged girls after he was fired from Ren & Stimpy, and harassed female crewmembers of Adult Party Cartoon. The final blow came in 2019 when he released the short film Cans Without Labels, which had been in Development Hell since 2012 following a successful Kickstarter campaign and was felt to be not worth the wait when it finally did come out. All of this has made Kricfalusi's name toxic among animation fans. When Comedy Central announced a Ren & Stimpy reboot, they made it a point to mention that Kricfalusi would not be involved in any capacity. That the show was getting a reboot at all was enough to spark harsh criticism, due to its association with Kricfalusi's sordid history. It would take nothing short of a miracle for Ren & Stimpy to regain the respect it used to have, while the statutory rape allegations will likely prevent Kricfalusi from getting work ever again.

[70s show watcher]

scoey mitchill he was a fine actor but he produced some awful sitcoms in the mid 80s anybody remember me and mrs c or 13 east ? well if you don't trust me you did not miss anything

[TMC]

Cary Fukunaga hit with more accusations of abusing his power in pursuit of young women on his sets

Last month, twin sisters Hannah and Cailin Loesch, who appeared on the Fukunaga-produced Netflix limited series Maniac, and former HBO Betty star Rachelle Vinberg and accused the Emmy-winning director of taking advantage of his position by pursuing relationships with them -- or "grooming" them. Now, Rolling Stone reports Fukunaga did something similar when he was a director on the set of Apple TV+ World War II miniseries Masters of the Air. "According to two production sources, the celebrated director’s focus was not on the scene’s main players, but rather on two of the background actresses — one of whom had recently turned 18 — dressed as prostitutes from the 1940s," reports Rolling Stone's Cheyenne Roundtree. "Taking pictures of the young women, he egged them on while they posed suggestively, bent against a wall and kneeling on the ground. One of the sources claims Fukunaga acted under the guise of needing the photos for continuity purposes — a task normally expected to fall on a production’s wardrobe department and not the man at the helm of a 600-plus cast and crew. To the two production sources who watched the 10-minute interaction unfold, Fukunaga crossed a professional line, using his position in ways that felt uncomfortable to those looking on." When Rolling Stone asked about allegations of pursuing romantic relationships with multiple young women on his sets, Fukunaga did not respond. But Fukunaga's attorney, Michael Plonkster, released a statement saying the director had “not acted in any manner that would or should generate” an article focusing on claims of misconduct made against him. Plonkster added: “There is nothing salacious about pursuing friendships or consensual romantic relationships with women. Nevertheless, because that would not fit your narrative, you conclude he has done something wrong...He creates a work environment that is creative, collaborative and welcoming to all."

[TMC]

Originally Posted by TMC

Not a scripted show but Entertainment Tonight when Linda Bell Blue was the executive producer (from 1995-2014). Simply put, ET under her watch went from being a classy, respectable infotainment program that strived to cover all bases of the world of show business, to a hyper-active, sensationalistic, melodramatic, borderline trashy tabloid show. It went from bad to worse when Hard Copy was cancelled in 1999 and that show's staff was absorbed into ET's. Linda Bell Blue also by most accounts, had a very hectic and chaotic managerial style, where you virtually had to walk on egg-shells. She could be described as like Meryl Streep's character in The Devil Wears Prada.

It almost get a kick out of going through the old TWoP forums on Entertainment Tonight from the 2000s. It basically serves a perfect window into how that show became a complete shell of itself under Linda Bell Blue's watch. Pat O'Brien's memoir also has some nice little insight of what it was like working under LBB.

After spending decades in the juicy world of sports and entertainment broadcasting, Pat O’Brien has written a memoir detailing those experiences.

In I’ll Be Back Right After This, the 66-year-old takes us from the rise of the NBA to his time in the entertainment industry. In the end, O’Brien, who battled alcoholism throughout his career, reveals a world that isn’t quite so glamorous when the studio lights are off.

“I just figured people should know what some of these people were like to work with,” O’Brien said on The Damon Amendolara Show. “I was very harsh with Linda Bell Blue, my executive producer, because there was no worse person to work for. The funny thing about it is a couple of (my former colleagues) have called me and said, ‘Why did you do that?’ And I said, ‘Listen, we were in the business of destroying people’s lives. How does it feel?’”

“I’m not destroying anybody’s life, but we would put out rumors (that would just ruin) people’s days by saying stuff that wasn’t true – and my stuff is true. So once they turn the table on you, it’s a little different.”

According to O’Brien, Blue would force hosts to find roundabout ways to ask questions that could result in dramatic previews. If O’Brien were talking to, say, Julia Roberts, he might ask if it’s harder to find work in Hollywood as you get older. He then might ask if that depresses her, which leads to asking if she’s depressed in general, which leads to asking if she’s ever committed suicide. Then the show could say in its preview, for example, “Did Julia Roberts ever contemplate suicide? Find out tonight!”

The answer, of course, was no.

“It was a moronic way to play it, and that’s why these shows suck right now,” O’Brien said. “That’s why the ratings have gone down so much because people have figured it out. But you put out anything to get ratings.”

The bottom-line is that before Linda Bell Blue came along in 1995, Entertainment Tonight was an informative entertainment show about the latest movies, television, and music. But then, they switched the format to a more tabloid/gossip-styled show.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by 70s show watcher

scoey mitchill he was a fine actor but he produced some awful sitcoms in the mid 80s anybody remember me and mrs c or 13 east ? well if you don't trust me you did not miss anything

These shows appear to be so obscure, that there at the moment, aren't any Wikipedia pages on them.

This is apparently, the only known remaining footage of 13 East that's readily available online:








Here's all of news articles that I could find on Google that references 13 East:

• Comedy remains king of TV - UPI Archives - UPI.com
  
• ENTERTAINMENT : NBC's 'Cheers' Tops Ratings Week - Los ...
  
• BURNETT TO STAR IN NBC SITCOM - The Washington Post

Meanwhile, here's the information that I could find on Me and Mrs. C:

• Weekend TV Highlights - UPI Archives
  
• NBC's 'ALF': Alien Laugh Form - The Washington Post
  
• TV REVIEW : 'ME AND MRS. C' WILTS AMONG RERUNS
  
• TV REVIEW : 'ME AND MRS. C' WILTS AMONG RERUNS

[TMC]

Originally Posted by TMC

Michael Landon from Little House on the Prairie comes to mind. He I believe, also served in that capacity on Highway to Heaven.

A more modern example could be Seth MacFarlane with The Orville.

And while Alan Alda may not have officially been the showrunner on MASH, he had a lot to do with its direction.

While she wasn't officially the showrunner per se, it's been often suggested or said that Moesha jumped the shark and went downhill in quality once Brandy Norwood and her mom, Sonja took on more active creative roles:
http://www.lipstickalley.com/showthr...o-its-downfall

Co-Creator of TV Hit 'Moesha' Fired

Television: Vida Spears is ousted, apparently in power struggle with UPN comedy star Brandy.

Vida Spears, a creator of UPN's hit comedy "Moesha" and one of the TV industry's few African American show runners, has been fired from the comedy because of a power struggle with star Brandy and her mother and manager, Sonja Norwood, sources said.

The ousting of Spears, which took place Tuesday, was not wholly unexpected to those working on the series where tensions had been building for weeks over the show's creative direction. Brandy also wanted to be named as an executive producer, which Spears opposed, they said.

Spears was managing "Moesha" on her own this season after working with partner Sara V. Finney (now overseeing the "Moesha" spinoff, "The Parkers"). She had resisted plans by the Norwoods and UPN to bring more dramatic and gritty urban elements to the comedy; instead she favored hewing to the show's comedic and more family-oriented roots, said several sources involved with the series.

The popularity of "The Parkers" was particularly galling to the Norwoods because of a feud between Brandy and Vaughn, who had been featured on "Moesha" for the first four seasons as Kim, her boy-crazy best friend, production sources said. The two actresses were seen fighting constantly, and Brandy finally demanded that Vaughn be taken off the show. Because Kim was one of the comedy's most popular characters, producers decided to create a new show involving her.

Hot Topics Thicken Plot for 'Moesha': Television: UPN comedy turns to grittier material that veteran staffers call stereotypical.

But as Brandy moves into adulthood, and her character moves into college, UPN, Brandy and her mother felt the show had lost much of its relevance and depth. The concern was that Moesha and her family had become "too perfect," turning the comedy into more of a Saturday-morning version of a black family.

The show's writer/producers were repeatedly pressed to add edgy elements to the show, but the creative forces behind "Moesha" successfully opposed it. So "Moesha" did not include stories of black gangs and guns or sex among young people.

I honestly don't think that had Vida Spears still been running the ship, that the show wouldn't have gone through the infamous storyline about Moesha's dad, Frank having a secret love child (played by Brandy's real life brother, Ray J), while he was still married to Moesha's late mother.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by RetroGuy2000

I've never believed that Joss Whedon was a bad showrunner, even though he made some missteps.

Marti Noxon never should have been tapped to be an executive producer on BtVS; she only ever wrote a couple of good episodes, and didn't seem to have the ability to provide much continuity between episodes, leading to an uneven feeling to Season 6.

The thing with Marti Noxon, is that when she came on the worldbuilding started to fall apart and she started breaking some of the established patterns and rules of the logic of the series - it's when the worldbuilding was ignored to fit the plot of the week or the season arc.

[TMC]

Did ER really start declining in quality from Season 7 onward? For one thing, while the show was always a drama, there was still a good mix of lighter medical storylines that balanced it all out.

It should be noted that Season 6 was Neal Baer's last season as an executive producer and writer. The episodes that he wrote usually had their share of humor. For example, he wrote the one in which Carter takes out Benton's appendix.

Once Baer was gone (he went off to work on Law & Order: SVU), the principal show runner for Seasons 7-9 was Jack Orman, who had first written for ER in Season 4 and rose through the ranks. He and Baer had co-run the show in Season 6.

But it was under Orman's solo watch that the show became more soapy and dark.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by TMC

I've briefly mentioned him once before, but this time I go further in discussing Dan Schneider, who created/executive produced All That, The Amanda Show, Drake & Josh, Zoey 101, iCarly, Victorious, Sam & Cat, Henry Danger, and Game Shakers for Nickelodeon. I don't know where else to begin except to say that with all due respect, Schneider's brand of comedy is in my estimation, an acquired taste.

He has this extremely bizarre sense of humor that could often show a dark and mean-spirited edge. Schneider seems to love putting random non-sequiturs throughout his shows, where his characters do or say something just because and the randomness of it is supposed to be funny. I'm guessing that his shows were so successful with teens, adults, and children because of all of the crazy, loud, childish, and weird characters being showcased.

I must add however, that the dialogue and writing in these shows are occasionally, laced with sexual innuendos and double entendres. Not only that, but he also litters his shows with what could be considered unpleasant stereotypes about minorities (especially black women). He also likes to incorporate his obvious foot fetish in his shows.

Maybe it's really just a coincidence, but Schneider also always seemed to pit the girls on his shows against each other. This even extends to his non-Nickelodeon shows like What I Like About You with Amanda Bynes and Jennie Garth.

Don't take my word for it, but there's a "blind item" online that suggests that Nickelodeon wanted to get rid of Victorious (despite its popularity) as fast as possible before the proverbial "stuff hit the fan". There was allegedly a lot of sex and drugs going on behind the scenes that would've been extremely bad for Nickelodeon's image.

What we do know for sure however, is the behind the scenes mess that was Sam & Cat:

• The problems seemed to start when, instead of being renewed for a second season, the series had its first season episode order doubled from 20 to 40. This is an unheard-of number for a scripted show; most American series don't exceed 24 episodes a season, with cable shows often having far less. (Even in the 1950s, when it was not uncommon for series to have upwards of 30 episodes per season, this would have been unheard of.) This meant that the cast and crew didn't get a break from their schedule and also didn't get to possibly renegotiate contracts between seasons.
• This grueling schedule put a strain on everybody, with McCurdy and Grande both reportedly ready to move on. Both stars began showing up late on set, and McCurdy did not appear at the Kids Choice Awards in 2014, saying point-blank on Twitter the reason was the way she was treated by Nickelodeon. There was also the Contractual Purity of being young adults working at the kid-friendly Nickelodeon; Grande's music career has taken off, and McCurdy was struggling with personal problems, including her mother's death in late 2013 and the leak of several racy (though not explicit) photos.
• Amidst all of this, the show wasn't renewed for a second season and instead was placed on "permanent hiatus", with all crew members let go apart from post-production to finish the episodes already filmed. Nick then officially cancelled the show.

Dan Schneider's shows are in a nutshell, repetitive and contained the same premises and formula for the most part. iCarly, Zoey 101, and Victorious in particular, were about cute, down-to-earth girls (Carly Shay, Zoey Brooks, and Tori Vega respectively) as a foils to a wacky ensemble in a high concept environment. And they're peppered with tons of bikini scenes and closeups of feet.

And the formula in itself, is comprised of mean-spirited, lowbrow humor where nerds and fat people get made fun of, the black characters are loud and obnoxious, and the parents are neglectful idiots.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by TMC

Dan Schneider's shows are in a nutshell, repetitive and contained the same premises and formula for the most part. iCarly, Zoey 101, and Victorious in particular, were about cute, down-to-earth girls (Carly Shay, Zoey Brooks, and Tori Vega respectively) as a foils to a wacky ensemble in a high concept environment. And they're peppered with tons of bikini scenes and closeups of feet.

And the formula in itself, is comprised of mean-spirited, lowbrow humor where nerds and fat people get made fun of, the black characters are loud and obnoxious, and the parents are neglectful idiots.

Inside Dan Schneider's alleged Nickelodeon misconduct

Dan Schneider Accused of “Disgusting, Controlling” Behavior While at Nickelodeon. A new Insider exposé details a “traumatizing” on-set environment with underage actors and concern over sexually suggestive scenes involving Ariana Grande, Victoria Justice, and Jamie Lynn Spears.

[TMC]

6 TV Shows That Changed Showrunners & Suffered Because Of It (And 4 That Got Better)

10
Better: Michael Piller Salvaged Star Trek: The Next Generation

9
Worse: Most Prefer To Forget Gargoyles Season 3, Greg Weisman Included

8
Better: The Simpsons' Golden Age Was Shepherded By Al Jean & Mike Reiss

7
Worse: The Simpsons' Decline Coincided With Mike Scully Becoming Showrunner

6
Worse: Seinfeld Wasn't Quite As Good After Larry David Left

5
Better: American Dad! Became More Than A Family Guy Clone When Seth MacFarlane Stepped Back

4
Worse: Community's Season 4, Made Without Dan Harmon, Is Its Worst

3
Worse: Dexter Took A Downward Turn After Clyde Phillips' Departure

2
Better: Manny Coto Turned Star Trek Enterprise Around

1
Worse: The Walking Dead Was Never As Good As It Was When Frank Darabont Was In Charge

[TMC]

Originally Posted by TMC

It almost get a kick out of going through the old TWoP forums on Entertainment Tonight from the 2000s. It basically serves a perfect window into how that show became a complete shell of itself under Linda Bell Blue's watch. Pat O'Brien's memoir also has some nice little insight of what it was like working under LBB.



The bottom-line is that before Linda Bell Blue came along in 1995, Entertainment Tonight was an informative entertainment show about the latest movies, television, and music. But then, they switched the format to a more tabloid/gossip-styled show.

Since it was recently removed from TV Tropes, here's a brief summary of what Entertainment Tonight was like when Linda Bell Blue was the executive producer:

Linda Bell Blue spent 19 years (1995-2014) as the executive producer of Entertainment Tonight after serving in a similar capacity on its sister program Hard Copy. It was upon that point that Entertainment Tonight slowly but surely, transformed from being a classy, infotainment program to a sensationalistic tabloid type of show. When Hard Copy went off the air in 1999, and that show's staff was absorbed into Entertainment Tonight, that's when the tabloid-ization of ET really went full throttle. Once the 2000s rolled around, ET became a weird blend of pointlessly smarmy and vacuously chipper Happy Talk. And as ET slid into the Reality Show psychology of the present era, there was a deliberate avoidance of focusing on the projects anymore (unless there's a Paramount/CBS tie in, which is why they reported endlessly on NCIS and Donny and Marie Osmond) and just going celeb scandal wall-to-wall, with endless promos for stories that wind up being shorter than the oft-played promos themselves. To clarify, within a half-hour block, they could discuss five things, which are almost always completely useless celeb gossip topics. They'll repeat these five things and their corresponding footage about a dozen times each before showing you what they promised, which includes maybe one or two more sentences or minutes of footage, but no new information. Its jumpiness and repetitive editing seemed to be done by or for someone with attention deficit disorder or extreme short term memory. And yet, the show still tried to retain its old maudlin pretense of being somehow an advocate for the stars and their audience.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by 70s show watcher

la law was a good example of this when steven bocho left and david e Kelly took over it was a very smooth changeover that really does not happen with most shows

Speaking of which, here is an opposite example for LA Law:

• The rot began when the show lost three of its original cast members (Harry Hamlin, Jimmy Smits, and Michele Greene) at the end of the fifth season. New cast members Conchata Ferrell, Michael Cumpsty, and Sheila Kelley tried gamely, but Season 6 was nowhere near the quality of previous seasons.
  
• Season 7 was even worse: Ferrell, Cumpsty, Amanda Donohoe, Cecil Hoffman, and original cast member Susan Dey all departed the show, along with series creator/executive producer Steven Bochco and consultant David E. Kelley. The show lapsed into an Audience-Alienating Era, with ridiculous soapy stories, Big Lipped Alligator Moments, Romantic Plot Tumors and a severe decline in script quality. The series began to (slightly) pick itself up mid-season, when John Masius and John Tinker, Bochco's replacements, were let go and William Finkelstein took over, but by then much of the show's fandom had abandoned it. L.A. Law limped through one final season before it succumbed to low ratings.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by icecream

Aaron Spelling was credited as an executive producer all of the 10 seasons he was alive right at the end of every episode, along with E. Duke Vincent.

To make things clear, a producer or executive producer of a show has many definitions. An executive producer for television is define as -

http://getinmedia.com/careers/tv-executive-producer

"In many ways, television production departs greatly from the formula for filmmaking, as do the job functions associated with certain titles. On a television series, the executive producer may be creator and chief writer of the product. This person is the ultimate creative force and business authority behind the property, rather than just the chief financial backer or the studio’s enforcer on a film set."

In the most simple and basic terms, an executive producer controls what goes on the television show.