8 Actors Who Knew The TV Show Was Doomed On Day 1
This bunch of actors knew straight away that their TV show wasn't destined to be a hit.
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00:00From a set of Disney Channel sensations quickly figuring out that a titular show was a bad move
00:05altogether, to one of the galaxy's most adored bounty hunters also not being a fan of the
00:09direction his character was written to head down, each of these TV actors could sense a bumpy road
00:14ahead from the get-go. The always doomed Gareth here from WarCulture.com, and here are 8 actors
00:20who knew their TV show was doomed on day one. 8. Colin Baker helped produce a Doctor Who
00:26charity single pleading for its comeback While the BBC's iconic Doctor Who series may
00:31currently stand as one of the most cherished and respected small-screen franchises ever to
00:35warp into our lives, the show was definitely on the ropes towards the end of its first run in the
00:39late 80s. In fact, things got so bad when it came to the overall quality of the sci-fi time-travelling
00:45property with Colin Baker at the wheel of the Doctor that the show was put on ice for 18 months
00:49in 1985, on the back of BBC One controller Michael Grade feeling it had just become too violent and
00:55a very clunky studio show. Then, in a move that still needs to be heard to be believed,
01:00the decision was made by British songwriter and Who superfan Ian Levine to assemble a
01:05collection of artists together to record a universally panned charity song by the name
01:09of Doctor in Distress, to drum up support for the series edging towards cancellation.
01:14Clearly sensing he needed to do something in a bid to keep his failing Doctor dreams afloat,
01:19Baker himself also agreed to appear in the ill-fated tune, with Hans Zimmer of all people
01:24playing the song on a synthesizer. All of the jarring beats in the world couldn't save Baker
01:28from eventually getting the regeneration treatment after just three years including
01:32said lengthy hiatus in the Time Lord saddle. 7. Clayne Crawford's Lethal Weapon Honesty
01:39Being handed the chance to lead a TV adaptation of one of the most cherished action movie series
01:43of all time isn't something most actors would be in too much of a rush to turn down. And sure
01:48enough, when presented with this exact opportunity a couple of years back, Clayne Crawford was happy
01:53enough to sign on the dotted line and commit himself to the role made famous by Mel Gibson
01:57of Martin Riggs in Fox's incoming Lethal Weapon action series alongside Damon Wayans' Roger Murtaugh.
02:04However, in the time after the dust settled on his eventual firing from the production,
02:07a few years into its run due to alleged misconduct on set, Crawford was quick to
02:12note how he sensed he wasn't in an environment suited to him out of the gates. As he'd tell UPI
02:17in 2020, I was surrounded by people that didn't care that much about the artistry of it,
02:21and I should have known that going in. Classing the entire project, one that would come to an end
02:25following its subsequent claimless season, as nothing more than a cookie cutter, and feeling
02:30wholly unfulfilled by the experience on the back of appearing in the critically acclaimed Rectify
02:35show, Crawford seemingly knew from the get-go that chasing the money may not have been the wisest
02:39call on this occasion. 6. Chris Harris Knew That A Top Gear Reboot
02:44Was Doomed From The Start News of the trio who helped turn the
02:47petrolhead delight that was the BBC's Top Gear into their household name and eventually became,
02:52not returning to the show on the back of Jeremy Clarkson decking a producer over some steak,
02:57left the series' future in doubt in 2015. Hellbent on keeping the Top Gear legacy alive despite
03:02Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond opting to take their brand of calamity to Amazon Prime,
03:06though, the BBC ultimately decided to relaunch the show with a completely new lineup of hosts.
03:12But from day one, one of said new faces in the form of Chris Harris could sense this particular
03:17attempt to keep the Top Gear brand going was doomed from minute one. As Harris would admit to
03:22Metro when talking about how the show managed to eventually strike the right balance with later
03:26attempts at recapturing some genuine chemistry between the hosts, the first time I did this in
03:312015-2016 I thought, oh god, whatever done. Noting how former Radio 1 host Chris Evans,
03:36no not that one in particular, was doomed, because people were always going to hate it
03:40because it wasn't Jeremy, Harris was understandably relieved to find that the BBC had got their
03:45chemistry right upon his eventual first day alongside current co-hosts Andrew Flintoff and
03:50Paddy McGinnis. 5. Temura Morrison knew he talked too much in the Book of Boba Fett
03:56After finally making his live-action return and ultimately getting his mitts back on his iconic
04:00Beskar armor over the course of Disney Plus' The Mandalorian, news of Temura Morrison getting yet
04:06another opportunity to strut his stuff as the immortal Boba Fett in his own damn book was
04:11enough to leave most Star Wars diehards needing a long soak in a bacta tank. Unfortunately though,
04:16said long-awaited Booker of Boba Fett didn't exactly deliver on the promise of the badass
04:20bounty hunter, getting a chance to really remind fans why they had clamoured for so long to see
04:25him given the spin-off treatment he so richly deserved. And this is a sentiment seemingly
04:29shared by the leading man himself from early on in the show's production, with Morrison eventually
04:34going on record to note to ET how he wants the character to get back to his badass ways if he
04:38returns later down the road. In another conversation, this time with NME, Morrison
04:43would also express his desire to have Boba remain as an often-silent assassin instead of having him
04:48talk too much throughout shooting, admitting to trying to pass off some of his dialogue to
04:53co-star Ming-Na Wen at one point. As he put it,
05:084. Charlie Barnett wasn't fully on board with Ordinary Joe
05:16Cut down after just one season in March of this year, NBC's Ordinary Joe getting cancelled not
05:22long after its first 13 episodes trickled onto the network didn't actually come as too much of
05:27a surprise to one of the show's stars as it goes. According to Charlie Barnett, who plays Joe's
05:32best friend Eric Payne as the former embarks on three parallel journeys on the back of opting
05:38for three entirely different routes when faced with a life-altering choice post-graduation,
05:42the actor himself admitted to Digital Spy that he fought against it at first going into it,
05:48due to not being sure that it was obtainable. Confessing that the story itself gets really,
05:53really, really confusing, the Eric Thespian's fears of his program being a little too difficult
05:58to execute, to the point of roping in a sizeable network audience, ultimately came true later down
06:03the road, with the actor eventually declaring that it was always going to be a challenge to
06:08compete with the likes of Netflix and Hulu with a show this complicated, and he was not necessarily
06:13surprised to see it dead. 3. John Rhys-Davis thought
06:17Slider's scripts were gibberish. Quite clearly cherishing the world he was occupying at the time,
06:22and sensing the limitless potential housed within the late 90s sci-fi fantasy show by the name of
06:27Sliders on Fox, it was this love of the concept that left John Rhys-Davis positively seething
06:33for much of his time bringing Professor Maximilian Arturo to life. As the Gimli icon would explain to
06:38Digital Spy in 2016, the entire scenario wound up being the single biggest missed opportunity of his
06:43life, due to the constant battles he found himself in with the series' writers during his time as
06:48part of the first three seasons of the show. Branding the scripts often handed to him as
06:53incomprehensible gibberish, Rhys-Davis would go further inventing his frustrations at the
06:57writers on set, stating, I would go to the writers and complain, but they would say,
07:02John, why don't you just say the words as written? And I'd say, I'll tell you what,
07:05I will actually say the words as written when you can actually write intelligent sentences.
07:10In the end, after Rhys-Davis departed during season three, Fox would ultimately opt to cancel
07:14the flailing show before it was picked up by the Sci-Fi Channel for its final two seasons.
07:19The Jonas Brothers just went along with it, despite Disney's writing being terrible.
07:24They may form one of the most unstoppable pop trios on the planet, and have even made some
07:28headway in Hollywood in more recent times. But the Jonas Brothers didn't exactly get
07:32off to the best of starts when it came to their detour into the world of acting. Nick,
07:36Joe and Kevin have each all gone on record at various points to admit to sensing how much of
07:40a bad idea their first real standalone project, whilst working under the Disney Channel banner,
07:45was from the second they started to get to grips with the writing being handed over to them.
07:49With the late-naughty show by the name of Jonas, and later Jonas LA,
07:53focusing on the fictionalized version of this heartthrob boy band, Joe would tell Vulture that
07:57some of the weird slapstick humour writing was terrible before noting,
08:01We went along with it at the time, because we thought Disney was our only real shot,
08:05and we were terrified that it could all be taken away from us at any moment.
08:09Again reiterating their regret over agreeing to the whole Disney debacle,
08:13Nick in particular would confess when talking about the show's second season during their 2019
08:17Chasing Happiness documentary, We shouldn't have done that. It really stunted our growth,
08:21you know? I feel like it was just a bad move. Fair to say the lads have done alright since
08:25this early House of Mouse mishap though, eh? 1. Matt LeBlanc Knew Joey Was Doomed From The Start
08:31Trying to follow up arguably the biggest sitcom ever to grace the world's TV screens is a tall
08:36order, whatever way you slice it. Trying to do so just a few months on from its highly emotional
08:41finale being taken in by over 50 million passionate fans around the globe was downright insane.
08:47And sure enough, the ill-advised Friends spinoff that was Joey didn't exactly manage to recapture
08:52lightning in a bottle despite boasting one of the most lovable elements of that NBC game changer
08:56front and centre. But clearly feeling as though the burden of having to carry an entire episode
09:01on his back was a lot of responsibility, and the pressure was so much, Matt LeBlanc himself has
09:06since confessed to Radio Times, it was doomed from the start. In Friends, I was sharing a 22-minute
09:12episode with six other characters. In Joey, the script was all me. Going further, LeBlanc would
09:18allude to the showrunner, who had also just finished up on Friends, and himself likely
09:22benefited from taking a year off instead of diving straight into the spinoff. In the end,
09:27though, Joey was savaged by the critics and didn't live past its second season before being canned.
09:32LeBlanc would also take a much-needed five-year break from the acting world not long after Joey's
09:37cancellation, before rocking up in BBC2 and Showtime's episodes and eventually winning
09:42a Golden Globe in 2011 for playing a fictionalised version of himself.
09:46How's he doing? He's doing alright.
09:48And that's our list! Know of any other actors who knew their TV show was doomed on day one?
09:53Then let us know all about them in the comments section right down below!
10:16Bye-bye!