Despite being among the most remarkable and ambitious shows in TV history, HBO unceremoniously
canceled Deadwood after just three seasons.
In 2019 13 years later the show finally returned with a wrap-up film.
So just why did HBO get rid of Deadwood in the first place?
The business of making television is somewhat separate from the business of broadcasting
it.
While many networks are part of entertainment conglomerates that also include production
companies, the studios that make TV shows can shop a series around to different networks,
which then pay a hefty licensing fee for the right to air it.
Studios may also team up to make shows, particularly expensive ones like Deadwood.
HBO is a division of Warner Media, and the network co-produced the show with Paramount,
which held the international rights.
That necessitated a lot of talks and contracts between Warner and Paramount over splitting
the profits from Deadwood.
Those companies reached an impasse about their arrangement before a fourth season of Deadwood
could go into production, and so both parties walked away from the table, in effect canceling
the show.
"And here's my counteroffer to your counteroffer: Go f--- yourself."
That may not be as exciting as a standoff in the thoroughfare, but it's the reality.
Then-HBO chief executive and chairman Chris Albrecht told the Chicago Tribune,
"Not having a fourth season of Deadwood is not the result anyone wanted."
By that time, the possibility had disappeared like a dead miner's body into Mr. Wu's pigpen.
But the network really did fight to keep Deadwood alive.
HBO wanted creator David Milch to concentrate his efforts on his next show for the network,
the surreal, spiritual and short-lived surfing drama John from Cincinnati, so executives
offered him a six-episode final season of Deadwood, as opposed to the traditional 12.
He turned it down.
Milch said:
"It seemed to me that some sort of partial order for the show would make it impossible
to do anything but superimpose all sort(s) of interpretations that would deprive it of
its own emotion."
Then, just days before Deadwood's third and final season premiered in 2006, HBO announced
that those episodes would not be the end of the line, as the network had accepted Milch's
pitch to wrap up the series with a pair of two-hour specials.
Network spokesperson Nancy Lesser said,
"He found a way to bring closure to the narrative and remain true to the themes of the material
and spirit of the characters."
Those two specials ended up as just one movie, released 13 years later.
Deadwood wasn't just canceled because the people who write the checks had a fight about
money.
It also earned a de facto cancellation because of some passive-aggressive behavior by HBO.
According to TV Series Finale, Deadwood wasn't "officially" canceled at all.
The cast's so-called options simply weren't picked up.
An option is a clause in an actor's contract that gives a show's production company the
chance to sign the performer on for more episodes at the end of the contract's term.
In the case of Deadwood, actors' contracts were valid for three seasons, with an option
for a fourth.
This binds an actor to a show, preventing them from leaving to make other TV shows or
movies, thus saving writers from the task of explaining character absences.
But the fourth-season option for Deadwood's stars wasn't exercised.
The actors were essentially released from their obligation to Deadwood, meaning they
were available to go do other things.
HBO and the show's producers essentially said, "you're no longer needed," which is just another
of saying, "show's over, go home."
"No deceit too prolonged.
No errand too demeaning.
Get outta here!
No rebuke too vile!"
Television is a numbers game.
By and large, the shows that bring in the most overall viewers are the ones that get
a rubber-stamp renewal season after season.
HBO is an ad-free network and operates on a paid subscription model, but it still has
to take ratings into effect.
If it airs shows that not enough people are watching, then it's a waste of the company's
money.
It's also not going to bring in many more people willing to pay an extra $10 or $20
a month on their cable bill.
This was the problem with Deadwood.
Despite the critical praise and awards attention from the Emmys and Golden Globes, it never
exactly pulled in Game of Thrones-level numbers.
The first season of Deadwood averaged a respectable 4.5 million viewers, but only about 2.4 million
viewers cared enough about Al Swearengen and Seth Bullock to tune in for season two.
A downward ratings trajectory made an early cancellation inevitable.
Every episode of Deadwood was densely packed with inscrutable characters and complicated
dialogue.
"To inform within decency's limits.
We've had this discussion before."
"Citizens better die pustulatin' than touch indecent ink."
Deadwood was already a difficult show to make, even before creator David Milch's tendency
toward last-minute rewrites.
According to IndieWire, actor Timothy Olyphant told the audience at Film Independent Presents'
"An Evening with Deadwood" about the time Milch came to him in his trailer to tell him
that he'd just decided to kill off Bullock's stepson, which required a complete reworking
of the show.
Olyphant joked:
"The season became about that kid dying.
[The decision] happened at lunch."
According to Vulture, Milch was a consummate perfectionist who hung out on the Deadwood
set, barking out dialogue suggestions from off-camera and ordering scenes reshot, even
if he wasn't the credited writer or director.
Ian McShane, who played Swearengen, remembers rewrites coming in so late that the pages
were still warm from the copy machine.
More takes means more money, and Deadwood wasn't a cheap show to begin with.
Period-appropriate sets and costumes, horses, wagons, animal handlers, and a large regular
cast all contributed to a budget of around $4.5 million per episode at its most expensive.
It must have been hard for HBO to justify keeping Deadwood around when it didn't bring
in huge ratings.
Long before the era of Peak TV brought high-quality content to most every cable network and streaming
service, HBO held itself up as the home of prestige television, bearing the famous slogan,
"It's not TV, it's HBO."
The premium channel carefully selects what handful of shows it will air at any given
time, and while it tries to offer a little something for everyone, it can often find
itself with a certain "brand."
In the mid-2000s, the flavor of HBO was solidly hip, envelope-pushing shows set in the present
day.
A sampling of its lineup at the time included Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Comeback, Extras,
The Sopranos, and Big Love.
Among those shows about cranky TV writers, deluded actresses, cranky British actors,
depressed mob bosses, and plural marriage sat Deadwood, an often brutal, slow-moving
Western where the characters talked like they were doing Shakespeare with more profanity.
It was an anomaly on HBO's schedule, and it was simply too weird to live.
"Always superfluous, bloodshed!
The deeper damage is best."
While Deadwood was never a ratings smash, casting directors and filmmakers were among
those aware of the show's undeniably talented ensemble cast.
By the show's third season in 2006, many Deadwood performers were already looking to move on
to other roles and other challenges.
Ian McShane had roles in a number of films lined up, including voice work in The Golden
Compass and Kung Fu Panda, and live action parts in Hot Rod and The Seeker: The Dark
is Rising.
Molly Parker showed up in Hollywoodland and The Wicker Man, along with another period
series, the '70s-set CBS drama Swingtown.
Timothy Olyphant jumped right into Live Free or Die Hard and Hitman.
For many parties, Deadwood's cancellation came at the right time in their careers.
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