10 Step Foolproof Guide To Making An Awful TV Show

2. Get The Network Executives Involved

Network executives obviously have a vested interest in ensuring that a show is profitable, which means it must do well in the ratings. This can be simply a case of vetoing a particularly outrageous idea which wouldn't sit well with their primary demographics, and it can turn out to be for the best. For example, Joss Whedon admitted that the network's worries about sponsorship issues cut Buffy's tenure at a fast food place short, which thankfully relieved everyone of an expanded version of that tedious storyline. However, occasionally network interference erases the aspects of a show which make it unique. Birds of Prey (2002), an adaptation of the long-running comic book about a team of female superheroes, aired right at the start of the superhero boom. It never really got off the ground, and the writer and co-executive producer Hans Tobeason later alleged that the WB had been reluctant to focus on a wheelchair-bound Oracle and insisted that the series centred on the duller Huntress. The budget was also cut. Most controversially, Birds of Prey was given the rights to use Batman and teased his appearance appropriately only for it to culminate in very brief cameos, because the reboot which was to become Batman Begins was still in the works. All in all, we'd rather have had Batman Begins, but Birds of Prey was sadly a missed opportunity.