10 TV Shows Made With INSANE Restrictions
3. Being Forced To Reveal Laura's Killer - Twin Peaks
However, it rarely goes well when the network attempts to control the specific direction of a TV show, and there are few better examples of this than Twin Peaks.
David Lynch and Mark Frost's mystery thriller series was an absolute sensation throughout its first season, and while Lynch and Frost's initial plan involved never revealing the identity of Laura Palmer's (Sheryl Lee) killer, they received enormous pressure from then-ABC executive Bob Iger to commit to resolving the big mystery.
ABC originally wanted the killer revealed at the end of the first season, but Lynch and Frost managed to hold them off until the seventh episode of season two.
However, soon thereafter the show's quality took a noticeable dip, as did its audience ratings, resulting in the network cancelling Twin Peaks at the end of its second season.
Lynch perhaps put it best when he said that revealing Laura's killer "killed the goose that laid the golden eggs," and while general audiences may have ultimately grown tired of the mystery never being resolved, the enigma had more life in it than the mere 15 episodes that ABC allowed before dropping the veil.