10 TV Shows With Massive Budgets That Failed
6. Cop Rock
Cop shows were all the rage in the '80s and '90s, so ABC decided to add a different twist to the format by making it a musical.
Yes, you've read that right. Cop Rock was a show about LAPD officers singing their way through solving crimes, with lyrics that you simply have to hear to believe. If you're wondering why such a thing was ever greenlit, then you should look no further than the show's creator.
Steven Bochco came fresh off writing and producing Hill Street Blues, a wildly successful cop drama that was regarded as revolutionary at the time. His stocks were high and ABC put their trust in him, but Cop Rock was misguided and ended up being one of the decade's biggest TV flops.
While Bochco recovered relatively quickly -- he created NYPD Blue just three years later -- ABC took a $25 million hit (huge money at the time) for just eleven episodes, and went on trying to pretend like it never happened.