What were (and are) some of the most miserable sets on television (Part 2!)

The Dallas cast was a happier set aside from Victoria Principal - set was the Shelley Long of the nighttime soap it seemed

R1 the first thread works fine for me.

It does for me r2, in Web. It’s okay this one will do when that’s full.

Any gossip on the bts of Will and Grace?

Family Matters! It was not unheard of for a show to refocus on a popular cast member (ie Family Ties/Michael J Fox), but for a family-centered sitcom to switch to THE SHRILL, ANNOYING NEIGHBOR? They wrote out a daughter with no explanation and the mom was so miserable she left the series with just 9 episodes to go! Ruining syndication with confusion over the interloping, new mom for only a handful of episodes at the end.

I was a production assistant on the HBO show Carnivalé. It was a VERY difficult set to be on. The budget was gigantic for its time (pre- Boardwalk Empire and Game of Thrones) and there were a lot of shooting delays because of the period elements, special effects, and the huge ensemble cast. HBO execs were constantly breathing down our necks and the creator wasn't allowed to be the sole showrunner because he had never worked in Hollywood before, so there was a lot of head-butting about whose vision it was and the direction of the show, which he had already planned out as I believe he'd written a few novels worth of the story that became the show. I think he became sole showrunner on season 2 (which I didn't work on) and had even more trouble with the execs.

It's also no secret that Nick Stahl (who played the lead) has suffered from substance abuse issues for years. I think he was even a missing person in real life at some point, and while shooting this he was always hard to get on-set, would frequently disappear, and they had to cut quite a few of his scenes just because of the time constraints. He was popular with the rest of the cast though and an extremely nice guy in my (very limited) interactions with him). Just very troubled.

America’s got talent apparently

At one time, I was sorely tempted to write a Roman a clef murder mystery about the making of those stupid "Fifty Shades" movies.

I'd heard that the leads hated each other, the male lead despised the material, and the idiot amateur frau who wrote the godawful books had creative control and was on the set causing mayhem all day. Now, wouldnt that make a great setup for a murder mystery? Someone kills yhe horrible amateur frau author, and everyone there had a motive...

50 shades of grey not television. Boo!

[Quote] the male lead despised the material,

Oh boo hoo. No one forced him to take the role.

BUMP

Bump again!

I've been binging Shameless since I cut the cord a few months ago, and it was briefly mentioned in the previous thread that except for William H. Macy, the cast hated Emmy Rossum and was glad when she left. Is she a straight-up nasty person or just actressy and affected?

Bump

Watching Vampire Diaries and on season 6. the amount of chemistry between Ian and Nina is totally missing since she's not on the show anymore. i'm thinking i'll re-watch The Originals instead of hanging out through the next 2 seasons, but it makes ok background stuff while i work from home. we'll see. so far it seems lame.

it's weird...Nina and Ian had amazing chemistry on the show and were a couple in real life and then it was just over and he was on to Nikki Reid immediately. maybe that's why she left the show pretty quickly.

I had a producer fired who was later caught with child p0rn. I own this thread. At least that tramp Julie McCullough was over 18 when she exposed herself in that dirty magazine and when she played an unmarried pregnant girl for those dessicated harlots [italic]The Golden Girls[/italic].

No info here, but I am guessing most of the actors on Curb Your Enthusiasm detested Larry David and it was hell to work there, especially as there was no script and they were required to improvise.

R16 Some actors really get off on improvising. In any case it wouldn't be a surprise for them, why would they detest Larry David?

Too late R8, E L James was already murdered on Twitter when she had a Q&A:

It was always funny watching EL James during an interview, you could tell she wanted to appear smart by having her glasses in her hair, as if it made her look like she had just finished reading prior to being on camera. Just made her look like even more of a fat twat.

R17 is right. A lot of actors and comedians are in fact very impressed with their powers of improvisation. I've seen actors make the [very] occasional funny remark when something goes wrong in a scripted performance, but I've NEVER seen an improv show that could be sensibly called "entertainment". I have no idea how audiences deem this a skill.

Curb Your Enthusiasm is worth watching because Larry David is a genius at comic plotting, but it would be much improved (see what I did there) if he'd bothered to script it. As it is, everyone sounds like Woody Allen on a bad day.

R14 Nikki's always been a messy bitch. I'm surprised they have lasted this long. I also love how Ian still likes to talk shit about Nina. He's one of the reasons she left TVD along with some drama involving Chris Wood (who's fucked around with an actress on every CW show) and is now married to DL fave Melissa Benoist.

r21 i've heard that about Nikki as well, she seems a bit of a mess.

i wasn't aware that Ian talks shit about Nina, that's low, especially they seemed to be so close (professionally and personally).

I also heard about the Chris Wood shit as well. it sounds like she just wasn't down with it all, cut her losses and decided her personal life and career would survive that shit, and if that is the case, i am happy she did what she needed to do to get out of that situation. it's just kind of sad it turned out the way it did, but happy for everyone for better mental health. i guess we all grow up and realize we need to go a different way in our lives than others expect us to.

[Quote] i've heard that about Nikki as well, she seems a bit of a mess.

Which isn't exactly a secret thanks to Thirteen.

[Quote] i wasn't aware that Ian talks shit about Nina, that's low, especially they seemed to be so close (professionally and personally).

The last snarky comment Ian made was about Nina's diet and having tart breath 😄 Oh the horror. I think he does it because of the attention from TVD stans.

[Quote] it sounds like she just wasn't down with it all, cut her losses and decided her personal life and career would survive that shit, and if that is the case, i am happy she did what she needed to do to get out of that situation.

I would have left too. But her career doesn't seem to be on the upswing. I think she's got some wine business with Julianne Hough? Who now has her own devoted thread on here because of Ben Barnes.

After Nina and Ian broke up he was the jerk, but also the show's fan favorite, and the female lead got the "suck it up, buttercup!" treatment from the show's producers, so she left.

I wonder how happy the set of the still-on-air spin off Legacies is with Mathew Davis being a total Deplorable?

Greys Anatomy, full off divas from the top down. Ellen couldn't stand that even though she was the star she had the least interesting storylines, Sandra got on with it and only really clashed with Patrick, everyone knows about Isaiah and T.R., Eric constantly had young girls in his dressing room, Chyler was dealing with her mental health issues and wasn't helped by the frostiness from Ellen due to her feeling threatened by another main in the cast with the last name Grey. The set is still a mess but now Ellen has almost full control, so from her point of view it's a much better place than it was during the first 10 years.

[Quote] Chyler was dealing with her mental health issues and wasn't helped by the frostiness from Ellen due to her feeling threatened by another main in the cast with the last name Grey.

And Chyler's husband recently went on a twitter rant about her affair with Jesse.

Doesn't surprise me, Jesse gets about.

I literally thought this was about bad set design. I was sitting here thinking, wow, DL people are really detail oriented and specific in their TV watching.

Nope, we were just chatting about set politics. they exist.

R27 which makes all his speeches about black women look even more phony. I feel sorry for his ex wife.

R30 Especially as he seems to go for white women most of the time.

2 white women out of a whole bunch of SOs is not “most of the time”

R32 ok Jesse 🙄