‘Happyish’ canceled by Showtime after one season; relive its difficult journey
Sometimes, shows do not just work out despite the best of intentions and even a good group of people involved. This is a subject that we discussed at some length yesterday with the end of “The Comedians” on FX, given that it had the likes of Billy Crystal and Josh Gad in its cast.
Today, we are speaking in a similar fashion about “Happyish” on Showtime, which was unceremoniously canceled today by Showtime after just a single season on the air. Remember here that this is not a network with a tendency to get rid of projects in their first year. They like to have faith in their series, and hope to see them grow steadily in the ratings over time as more and more people discover them. It is becoming increasingly difficult, after all, to encourage viewers to watch a series live.
However, what made “Happyish” so different from the standard Showtime series is the path that it had to get to the small screen. It was originally ordered to series back when Philip Seymour Hoffman was the male lead, but after the actor’s untimely death Steve Coogan was brought in as the replacement. The show never received a large viewership in the first season, and nor did it receive a tremendous amount of awards-show buzz. Back when Hoffman was in the cast, there was almost immediate talk about it being a contender for the Emmys and other awards shows.
This was a project that understandably wanted to move forward after what happened behind the scenes; you have jobs on the line, and other cast members sticking around including Kathryn Hahn. Unfortunately, Hoffman was such a huge part of the series that it may have never been able to recover from that. This is no disrespect to Coogan, a fine actor who did what he could in the situation.
Hopefully, all parties involved here find work elsewhere soon enough.
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