Lethal Weapon - TV show

I'd hope so too but I guess the point of my post was that apparently he hasn't. In both cases he made a commitment and then broke the commitment in a less than mature way. Seems to me the time to quit was when they fired the other guy. It would have been more understandable than halfway through a season.

 

One thing that does become clear from listening to the podcast though is that while Crawford did step over the line with his yelling at the assistant Director ( which he admits freely he shouldn't have done and was a huge professional blunder) the blow up with Damon was preceded by a year and a half of Wayans making things as difficult as he possibly could not only for Crawford but the cast and show in general. He would frequently call out sick .He refused to do table reads and made it no secret to anyone within ear shot that he hated the show and didn't want to be on it. He would often delay shooting by being late to the set holed up in his trailer. Behavior that should have gotten him reprimanded or at least talked to by the producers and the studio. However to hear Clayne tell it apparently the supposed Show runner was mostly MIA and Peter Roth the head of Warners turned a blind eye to Wayans unprofessional behavior while immediately seizing on Crawfords.

The blow up with Wayans happened after a series of events during episode Crawford directed. First off on day one Wayans calls out sick, which puts production behind a day already. Then shortly thereafter the infamous shrapnel incident and Wayans supposidly went on a tirade demanding that the practical effects team be fired and just essentially refused to shoot for Crawford and just went home, again losing the rest of that day.

Then the day of the infamous blow up between Crawford and Wayans. Wayans flat out refused to do any scenes that involved running, or gun play as long as Crawford was director. Crawford even offered to give in to Wayans demands,restaged the scene so Wayans would have to do very little aside from holding a rubber fake gun for a few shots. Wayans refused and just basically ignored Crawford. It was then that Crawford lost it and unloaded on Wayans. The rest is of course history.

Now I think both Wayans and Crawford deserved a slap down and an ego check,but it seems to me that WB and the Lethal Weapon producers failed to control their set and failed to properly set both Crawford and Wayans straight. Because of that , the show is in dire straits and the rest of the cast and crew will likely lose their jobs because of it.

 

could they bring back Crawford? or will they recast Wayans? sad thing is I am still enjoying the show!

 

My best guess is IF the show survives this season and gets a renewal (which is very unlikely unless ratings are gangbusters) they will likely just leave this season stay at 13 and probably either recast Murtaugh or elevate the actress that plays Bailey and make her Wesley Cole's partner going into a probably also shortened season 4. With the later scenario it becomes a challenge to find a way to keep the actress that plays Trish Murtaugh and her kids employed. They theoretically could have Trish return to her role as a defense attorney as in season one or make her the DA so she is able to be kept on the show and interacting with the police department and thus keep the kids around too far in the background, but that's a stretch.

As for Crawford...unless theres a mandate by the network or a new show runner that's highly doubtful. I get the feeling if asked back he would probably tell them to go away. From the podcast i posted above it's clear he's just over it all. Although stranger things have happened. I personally would love to see him back along with a recast Murtaugh with Cole sticking around as a foil for them both but that's again wishful thinking.

 

I don't think they would feel the need to keep the rest of the family around though, except for maybe Trish Murtaugh and even then, the show could survive without her, in their eyes.

Bailey plus Riggs could be a possibility.

I doubt they would ever ask Crawford back, unless they decided his version of Riggs is the one they wanted and like you say, he probably won't want to do it anyway.

I think a lot will depend on the ratings and at this point, with all the negativity I can see those drop considerably.

 

I'd say that management failed at doing their job but it seems like they decided to not do anything on purpose rather than through incompetence, even if that decision show incompetence on their part anyway! Crawford made a good point during the podcast; he didn't think any of them actually watched the show and saw what they were doing. But even if they did, they'd not have seen it anyway as they wanted something else.

I think they ruined a decent show that had some good seasons in it. It was just a fun watch. Ah well, they either cancelled or ruined pretty much everything else I liked so I should not have been surprised

 

The sad fact is stuff like this happens all the time. The only reason we even know about this is someone from the inside leaked the story and the audio/video for the express purpose of making Crawford appear to be the villain of the story, when the truth is there are very few heroes in this story. Crawford made some bad choices that put him on the chopping block, but the more we learn it's becoming clear he comes out cleaner than some of the other parties involved.


This isnt the first hit tv show to go down in flames because of egos clashing behind the scenes and it won't be the last.

 

This is a pretty scathing opinion piece on the Lethal Weapon debacle. Whilst I don't agree that it's all Wayans fault, I agree he's probably due most of the blame for its almost inevitable cancellation.

It's time to blame Damon Wayans for the Lethal Weapon fiasco

I do think if the objective was to ensure the long term health of the show, that the wrong actor was let go. Instead the studio gambled that by getting rid of Crawford, Wayans would have incentive to stay. Instead they backed the wrong horse and now what could have been easily a 5 season minimum solid hit will likely end at two and 3/4ths season footnote. It's Sad ,really.

 

It's far easier to blame employees than it is to blame the people who were responsible for ensuring employees behave properly. There's definitely truth in that article but everyone is pitting this as a Wayans vs Crawford situation, when in reality it was a management vs Crawford situation.

They did nothing to reign in Wayans and actively worked towards ensuring Crawford took the entire blame for what happened. As Crawford reacted more and more towards Wayans behaviour, he only grew more frustrated and angry about it. What the two of them should've done is sat down and talked it out as they then would've realised that they both had beefs with the producers and not really each other.

Weirdly after they got rid of Crawford, they did nothing in terms of addressing any of the issues Wayans had, resulting him being just as unhappy as he always was.

 

They both acted horribly. But at least Crawford seems a bit humbled. What Wayans did to the cast members who play his family was extremely unprofessional and he did no favours for his career, but then again, he doesn't want to work long hours so he can probably semi-retire. He obviously never wanted to do the show in the first place.

 

Crawford and Tom Keene from The Blacklist were 2 of my favorite characters on TV. Losing them both last spring was brutal. Maybe they can switch shows?

 

Except as far as I am concerned, the show ended at TWO seasons. I'm not watching Season 3 -- saw the trailer, and that was enough. But Wayans and the producers can all share the blame for what happened -- Wayans for being a diva, and the producers for their lack of leadership, which Crawford specifically discussed in the podcast.

 

I get the impression from Crawfords podcast interview that I posted a few days ago that WB,or at least Peter Roth, seemed to be highly favoring Wayans and was bending over backwards to placate him.

The fact is I doubt anything could have made Wayans happy with being on Lethal Weapon. According to Crawford, Wayans was more or less tricked into taking the job as a favor to Roth in exchange for developing a pet project of Wayans' preference. When it was clear the show had legs beyond both the pilot and the initial 13 episodes,Wayans became more and more miserable.

You are right that the studio is the main " villain" of this story mainly through their sheer lack of competence with handling the talent and cluelessness to why the show was a hit. However a lot of the problems could have been solved had Wayans been man enough to sit down with everyone and just lay it all out and come up with a solution to give Wayans an exit that would have been beneficial for all. I still say the way to go with it was either recast Murtaugh going into season 3 or change the setting of the show to Texas and follow Riggs with his new family. Put him with a new partner with the setting being Houston or Dallas. Yes you would have lost a lot of the recurring cast, but they could have found a way to have kept Bailey or a couple other familiar faces.

I was like you and wasn't impressed with the promos and such, but i found myself liking the first episode much more than I thought I would and the three episodes have been solid. Sean William Scott's Weasley Cole is growing on me. I miss the heck out of Crawford's Riggs, but Cole is a fascinating character in his own right. It would have been interesting to have seen this character paired with Riggs had they not kept Murtaugh.

In my mind, this is a spinoff of the original show. The original Lethal Weapon TV show ended with season 2. Riggs arc had a satisfying conclusion aside from killing him off . This in my head is a sequel series. I'm able to enjoy it as it's own thing. However I understand where you are coming from. Crawford wasn't a saint, but he got a raw deal. It seems like he was basically fired for caring about the quality of the show they were making while his co star apparently didn't give a damn and didn't want it in the first place.

 

I watched the entire podcast vid you posted earlier today (i.e. before I posted) and found it very interesting. After about 4 or 5 minutes I checked to see how long it was, and was shocked to see that it was more than an hour long! But Crawford was making a lot of sense, making good points, and doing so both passionately and humorously, so I kept watching. Glad you posted that, as I might not have seen it otherwise!

I'm with you 100% on the point that Crawford got a raw deal -- I've said that VERY thing twice already in this thread.

If you're enjoying the show at all with SWScott, that's fine, but "I'm done with it". I can be like that, if a show crosses a line with me, I'll walk away. I wasn't a big Crawford fan to begin with -- before this show, I don't think I'd seen him before, or noticed him in anything if I did see him, and didn't start off liking him, but I did like the show, and as I mentioned earlier in the thread, he kind of grew on me. I now think Crawford is a standup guy, I think he explained himself quite well in the podcast. Could he have handled things differently? Sure, and he admits that, but I think others (including first and foremost Wayans) could have and should have handled things differently as well. Gotta feel sorry for the crew members who got fired too, seemingly for nothing more egregious than loyalty or sympathy for Crawford, who actually showed appreciation for what they were doing.

I still wouldn't call myself a Crawford fan, but I do like him, especially moreso for how he's handling himself now, as shown by the podcast. If he turned up on another show, I wouldn't get excited about it, but I'd definitely tune in to check it out.

On the other hand, I would be very interested in seeing Hilary Burton in something else, and I like Jordana Brewster even more than I already did (and have for quite a few years) for taking a stance and quitting after Crawford got fired.

So another good show goes down the proverbial tubes...
plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose