I came up with this theory this weekend after hearing the story of the TV show The Inside. This was supposed to be 21 Jump Street for the 21st century, a group of FBI agents who looked young enough to pass for college/high school. Well, they shot the pilot and everyone hated it. They hired a new show runner who came in and changed everything around and they shot a new pilot. The pilot got picked up, but the show didn't last long.
Anyway, my theory is that a lot of really bad stuff gets made because of pay-or-play deals. The studios sign a big name person to star/write/direct a project and promise to pay them whether or not the project actually gets made. I haven't worked on a show yet that didn't have a producer walk into the accountant's office and ask for the cost of shutting down. At some point, it's in their best financial interest to just keep going, even if all indications say to pull the plug on the piece of crap. So even though everybody knows it's doomed, the money's spent and there's no point in not trying to get some of it back thru ticket-sales and dvd releases. Sad, but that's my theory.
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