What are some dark reasons a TV show got cancelled?
Robert Urich, born in 1946, was a popular actor of mainly television and, on occasion, the big screen. His movies included, Magnum Force, The Ice Pirates, Turk 182, and a handful of others. On television, he appeared as a guest and star on, The F.B.I. Kung Fu, S.W.A.T. Soap, Love Boat:The Next Wave, Vega$, Spenser: For Hire, and a host of others.
In 1996 he was offered the lead in, The Lazarus Man.
It was an intriguing mystery. Rather like Robert Horton’s, Shenandoah, of 30 years earlier it concerned a man who wakes up with no memory of who he is. It was set in Texas just after the American Civil War. He has a memory of being attacked and spends the series trying to find out who he is. He awoke to his new life in a grave and so called himself, Lazarus. We do find out his identity as the season progressed and that he was a bodyguard for Lincoln and present the night of the assassination at Ford’s Theatre where he tried to save the president. He, and the president, were betrayed by an army officer and at the end of the first season, he has to bring that man to justice.
The first season did well enough that season 2 was commissioned and Urich was to be paid nearly one and a half million dollars for the show.
Unfortunately, before filming began, he was given the terrible news that he had been diagnosed with cancer, synovial sarcoma. Extremely rare, cancer attacks soft tissue. The television production company, without asking the advice of doctors, immediately cancelled the show.
According to Robert, “There’s really a law against what they did. They found out I had cancer, and they just canceled the show. They didn’t ask the doctors if I could work. They didn’t ask if I could go back to work.”
As tough as many of the characters he played he took them to court. There was a settlement in his favour, but the show remained cancelled.
Robert’s acting career continued. He starred in another show for 2 years, The Love Boat, after announcing that he was clear of cancer.
Unfortunately, the cancer returned and he passed in 2002. I remember the shock when I read the paper in Ireland announcing his death. He wasn’t a huge star here so it was only a minor item. But I had been a huge fan, particularly of, Spenser: For Hire.
The tragedy for his family did not end there. He had married an actress, Heather Menzies, who had played Louisa Von Trapp in the movie, The Sound of Music. In 2017 she died from brain cancer surrounded by her and Robert’s 3 children. N
