This is an excerpt from a chat with Profit creator Stephen J. Cannell. I left part of the original introduction in. The complete chat can be found at http://pathfinder.com/people/interactive/cannelltrans.html
Producer/Writer Stephen J. Cannell Online with People Magazine - June 1, 1997
PEOPLE: Hi everyone. I'm Patrizia DiLucchio, your tres sympatique host, and on behalf of PEOPLE Magazine and Pathfinder, welcome and thanks for dropping by!
PEOPLE: One of your shows was last season's very intriguing "Profit." Why do you think it failed to find an audience? Might it have found an audience had it remained on the air for an entire season? Why aren't networks willing to take a risk with new shows anymore (the way they did with "Seinfeld," for example), and let them develop a fan base?
Stephen Cannell: This is the most distressing aspect of today's television. There are a lot of reasons why this happens. One of them is that networks are so competitive with each other, and the executives in charge are under so much pressure, to succeed, that they operate often as if there was a gun to their head. It takes great courage to stick with a show where the research and the demographics tell you that it isn't working. but your heart and guts tell you it is. What often happens is that it's just easier to throw it away.
I agree that "Profit" was really unique televison. It wasn't a clone of "Friends" or "ER."
PEOPLE: Or "The X-Files"...
Stephen Cannell: It was its own animal, and it would have had a chance had the networks stuck with it, as you suggest, for at least a year.
It was very unique in that the lead actor was the bad guy, and you found yourself being seduced by him because of this charm and sex appeal. However, he was sociopathic. It was a show that was basically constructed upside-down, very much like "Richard III." And it was going to take a long time before audiences in general would discover its dark mysteries. We didn't get the shot -- they canceled us after four episodes.
PEOPLE: Our loss. I LUVed that show...
astralj@hotmail.com
Back to the Articles Archive
Back to the Main Profit Page