Why CBS canceled Robin Williams’s final comedy

It is now considered a footnote, but Robin Williams’ last television credit before his death was for “The Crazy One”, a unique camera comedy created by David E. Kelley that was broadcast from September 2013 to April 2014. “The crazy one” was remarkable in the sense that it was the first time of Williams ” Transmission of “Mork and Mindy” (with Pam Dawber) before the three decisions of Williams). His very generous turn in “Good Will Hunting.”

Williams would happily have made a joke on how it is not an ego, but a mere ego.

“Los Locos”, however, was seen (at that time) as a bold step for Williams. It was the last high profile star to recognize that television was no longer a movie “underneath”, but a prestige medium in itself. (For many decades, film stars firmly refused to appear on television, watching it under them). “The Crazy You” also starred Sarah Michelle Gellar as the daughter and protected from Williams’ character, as well as James Wolk, Hamish Linklater and Amanda Setten. Josh Groban (!) And Brarett also had recurrent papers, and, being an articulation of David E. Kelley, the show attracted numerous great stars for invited places, including Kelly Clarkson, Ed Asner, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Brad Paisley and David Copperfield.

“Los Locos”, however, was canceled after his first season, lasting only 22 episodes. This is surprising, given the pedigree of the program. In 2016, however, after Williams’s death, Kelley spoke with indiewire about “The Crazy You”, And he had a very palpable explanation of why he was canceled. It seems that, he felt, the program was not very good.

The premise of “The Crazy You” was mature for the potential. Williams played Simon Roberts, an advertising executive in Chicago who is trying to save his relationship with his daughter, Sydney (Gellar). Simon has gone through several divorces and has fought with addiction since he saw Sydney for the last time, so he decides to try to reconnect with her giving him a high profile work as his assistant. Sydney was in love with his officemate Andrew (Linklater) and he, Sydney and Simon worked with Zack (Wolk) high operation (Wolk) and his bisexual girlfriend Lauren (Setton), a firm’s assistant. (It seems that interoffice fraternization is not verboten). The series not only allowed the dynamics of the comic soap opera, but also had many opportunities to ridicule Madison Avenue, with Williams often improvising comically terrible advertising campaigns for false products.

Kelley admitted, however, that the program was never up to its potential. He hated his stories and felt that his writers never found his step. Nor was he used to the 30 -minute television structure, having cut his teeth in the dramas of an hour. As he told indiewire:

“The program was not very good. (…) It started with great grades, but after seeing three or four episodes, I thought the narrative was quite bad. He was not a half -hour person, so I said that to half an hour people and was willing to step back.”

However, after some episodes, Kelley felt that he should be able to intervene and improve the program anyway. Unfortunately, CBS was not susceptible to the idea … and for cynical reasons.

When Kelly offered to intervene to return the “Los Locos” withdrawal, CBS surprisingly rejected it. The network felt that the programs no longer needed to be good, since most of the audience now only partially watch television while they had an eye on social networks. As Kelly recalled:

“Robin Williams was great … but the stories made me want to hold my nose. (…) I went to CBS and said:” This is not very good. “() His answer was basically we don’t care if it’s good.

Kelly was crushed, seeing that the business he had dominated for so long was so bitter for his own art. Kelly had already won 10 Emmy at this time in his career, specifically for successful shows such as “La Law”, “The practice”, “Picket Fences” (which almost crossed with “The X-Files” once) and “Ally Mcbeal”. I knew what quality television was like and, often, a lot of creative margin was given as a result. When CBS told him that “the crazy people” were “good enough”, he took it personally and moved away from the main networks.

After 22 episodes, the classifications fell, “The Crazy You” was canceled, and Kelly was able to wash the hands of the whole matter. He moved to other successes such as “Big Little Lies” and “Big Sky.”

“The Crazy Uones” is currently available to transmit in any service, although you can rent and buy through Prime Video and Appletv. It is not lost, but the series is a curiosity. It is an opportunity to watch the final television performances of Robin Williams. And 22 half -hour episodes of Williams is nothing to rule out.