A broken foot, a cancer surgery, behind-the-scenes shakeups. Commando Nanny endured a lot of drama for a sitcom--especially one that will never make it to air.
The WB confirmed the mercy killing on Thursday. The cast was informed of the decision Wednesday.
Commando Nanny, about a British army veteran hired to tend to the offspring of a wealthy Beverly Hills family, was to have barked orders on Friday nights. Instead, it joins the ranks of Scott Baio's 1997 Fox sitcom Rewind on the list of fall TV shows canceled before even one prime-time broadcast.
"The project suffered a number of unfortunate and untimely setbacks, which factored into this very difficult decision," the WB and Warner Bros. Television, which produced the series, said in a statement.
The problems began over the summer when original star Philip Winchester (Thunderbirds) was knocked out of action with a broken foot. With the show's Sept. 17 premiere looming, Winchester and his cast were cut; newcomer Owain Yeoman and his two good feet were hired.
But another tough break followed on Aug. 30, when Gerald McRaney, cast as the series patriarch, underwent surgery for a cancerous lung tumor. Although McRaney was said to have sailed through the procedure, production was pushed back to late September while he recuperated.
The first episode of Commando Nanny, with its new cast intact, finally was shot two weeks ago. But shortly after wrapping the episode, a top producer, Rachel Sweet, departed, forcing yet another delay, the Hollywood Reporter said.
Through his publicist, McRaney said unresolved "creative challenges" between the network and producers doomed the show. The prime-time fixture (Simon & Simon, Major Dad) said he looked forward to working on the series, but, now with it gone, he "look[ed] forward to look finding a new project soon."
Ironically, Commando Nanny, a show that couldn't make it to even the first commercial break, was the brainchild of Survivor's Mark Burnett--he of the credo "outwit, outplay, outlast."
Burnett based the show on his own experiences as a commando-turned-babysitter.
With Commando Nanny sidelined all fall, the WB improvised with Reba reruns--a successful stopgap the network plans to continue.
Through last week, the 9:30 p.m., Friday Reba repeats were averaging 3.9 million viewers, not far from the 4.5 million averaged by the new episodes airing at 9 p.m.
If it makes Commando Nanny feel any better, it's not the only star-crossed new show of the fall season.
Center of the Universe, CBS' latest offering from its favored fat-guy-normal-sized-wife genre, saw its scheduled Wednesday premiere shelved due to baseball. Or, rather, fear of baseball.
Correctly surmising that Game 7 of the American League Championship Series, pitting the Boston Red Sox against the New York Yankees, would draw more than passing interest, CBS opted to air reruns from 9-11 p.m., in place of fresh episodes of King of Queens, Center of the Universe and CSI: NY.
Center of the Universe, starring John Goodman and Jean Smart, now will bow on Oct. 27--just in time for what should be Game 4 of the Red Sox-wearing World Series.
So far, red has been a very popular color for baseball. Wednesday's historic Boston win and/or New York choke was watched by an estimated 29 million on Fox.
In victorious Boston, an estimated 76 percent of all TVs in use were locked in on the game, according to the Reporter. In defeated New York City, the number was about 43 percent. No word on how many Big Apple sets were kicked in, as well as being tuned in.
While CBS waved the white flag in the face of the Red Sox (and ran fourth for the night because of it), ABC hung in there with a new episode of Lost, and saw the survivalist show scrape together 16.8 million viewers.
UPN's America's Next Top Model 3, meanwhile, hit a season-high with 5.1 million viewers who couldn't care less about Babe Ruth, his curse or the identity of Pedro Martinez's daddy.