Journey Planet 58 - Cancelled Too Soon

Action debuted on September 16, 1999 and it ended on December 2, 1999 after one season and 8 episodes, although additional episodes were burned off on FX in December of ‘99 and August and September of the following year, the last three episodes were burned off. The series starred Jay Mohr as Peter Dragon, Ileana Douglas as Wendy Ward, Buddy Hackett as Uncle Lonnie, Jarrad Paul as Adam Rafkin, and Jack Plotnick as Stuart Glazer. The series was a send up on Hollywood culture, focusing on producer Peter Dragon. The series originally aired on Fox in the U.S. Action has been available on DVD, but appears to be out of print. It does, however stream on Showtime and Amazon Prime.

The candle that burns twice as bright only lasts half as long, eh? So how bright does a TV show that’s only going to last 8 episodes before the axe get to burn? The answer is “As bright as it wants to because that’s what Peter Dragon says and unfortunately for you, he’s employee of the ^%$(%$%ing millennium.”

In the late 90’s, Bosom Buddies creator Chris Thompson had an idea to do a TV series about Hollywood. Rather than the usual selfcongratulatory navel gazing pap that might be pitched…he wanted to do a show about the ugly, ugly, smarmy, and just plain ugly side of making films. His idea was to follow the exploits of a foul mouthed big budget wunderkind producer who is vacuuming the carpets in his office to find the final shreds of his thrice-sold soul to sell those again for his next hit film.

The premise had teeth and the initial work on it looked great, the only issue was where could you show such a series without sanitizing it? The plan was to take it to HBO, which had recently gotten into making its own series content, beginning with the prison show Oz in 1997. It was a match made in heaven…a TV show built to create newer and filthier never-before-seenin-nature cursing airing on a network where such a spectacle was not only allowed, but was likely to gather an audience. It was destiny, it couldn’t lose…and that’s why Action is getting ready to release its 22nd season this spring…oh, wait, yeah…that didn’t happen.

75