When I was seven years old, I watched a lot of television. Among my favorite shows were Bewitched, Hogan's Heroes, Get Smart, The Andy Griffith Show and The Munsters. But my favorite show, above all others, was F Troop. I was terribly disappointed when the show was canceled after its second season. The cancellation came as a big surprise to me.
I understood at the time that a show would be axed for low ratings. Every week, I scrutinized the ratings published in TV Guide. This let me know if one of my favorite shows was at risk for cancellation. But I soon learned that a series could be scrapped for other reasons.
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F Troop was produced in black and white for its first season, but ABC demanded that the show transition to color for its second season. This significantly increased production costs. ABC expected the show's studio, Warner Bros, to absorb the additional costs. This situation existed for many shows and created heated negotiations between the studios and networks. Why shouldn't the networks have to pay a portion of the additional costs? I call this The Color Transition Wars. It was a brutal battle that ended in the cancellation of popular shows. I know of at least two shows, Mister Ed and The Patty Duke Show, that ended because no agreement could be reached. F Troop survived, but Warner Bros remained unhappy about the show's increased cost.
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Warner Bros' new owner, Seven Arts, found another reason to be unhappy - the silly little spoof monopolized much of the Warner Ranch. The site included an extensive collection of standing western sets constructed in the 1950s. Major western films, including High Noon and 3:10 to Yuma, had been filmed at this location. The sets had been expensive to build and made F Troop look more lavish than the average sitcom.
The success of the Sergio Leone westerns got Hollywood studios interested in producing more western features. How could Warner Bros do that with the F Troop crew getting in the way? Western features, including Cat Ballou (1965) and A Big Hand for the Little Lady (1966), had to negotiate with F Troop for the use of the western sets. The studio saw greater profit potential in feature films and thought it best to wrap up F Troop regardless of its sure and steady fan base. In the end, F Troop's cancellation had nothing to do with ratings. It had to do with sets.
I thought of this when I read that CBS cancelled Blue Bloods despite high ratings. The issue wasn't the show's sets, but it was something nearly as absurd. The show was defeated by its enduring popularity. In television, success can be a bad thing.
The first issue was production costs. Long-running contracts with cast and crew required regular salary increases, which made the series' production costs high. The cast and producers had to agree to salary cuts before the series proceeded the year before.
The series' longevity was squarely behind a second issue. Blue Bloods had already passed 200 episodes, which allowed the series to move effortlessly into the syndication market. At this point, most of the money to be made from reruns and streaming deals had already been made. Networks often cancel long-running shows once they've maximized their financial value on the back end.
A series' longevity means the series has an aging fan base. CBS is focused on making room for newer shows that might draw a younger demographic. While Blue Bloods brings in viewers, many are over the age of 50, which isn't as appealing to advertisers. CBS likely wants to retool its lineup to stay competitive with streaming platforms and cable offerings.
Each week, Blue Bloods broadcasts into more than 9 million households. These are people who have loyally and fondly tuned into the show for fourteen years. But television executives don't see that this matters. It's just like it didn't matter to Warner Bros. that F Troop was beloved by a large portion of the American public. The series was broadcast into more than 10 million households. That's a huge audience by today's standards. Reruns of the show continued to attract viewers in the syndication market. As one of that show's many fans, I was saddened by the show's cancellation and will always believe that it was a foolish mistake by Warner Bros executives.
I thank you for visiting.
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