Why Was The Show Cancelled?
Was it cancelled because of this cast conflict? Or was it against something bigger in the ratings?
One thing I can see, now that I have the complete series DVD set, is that for the second season someone in charge made a decision to go "light" with the show and make it into a semi-comedy. Check out any of the Season 2 episodes and compare them with the first season. This probably didn't help. Not to mention the problems already with the cast turnovers.
shareI remember after his hitting the big time, Burt Reynolds was asked in an interview in a magazine about Riverboat and he refused to go there except the gist of his opinion was that it would not be pleasant what he had to say about Darren McGaven so I guess they really did not get along and it outlived Riverboat.
I enjoy a lot of the shows of the Golden Age of TV since I was a kid during that time, guess I am telling my age, but in the westerns I have to get past the fact that they did not put much effort into being accurate about grooming and wardrobe. There was no Brill Cream and few if any crew cuts in the old west. Not everyone looked like they had just stepped out of a barber shop. That is just a pet peeve that I have. Once I get past that, I usually enjoy them. I will have to get Netflix to send me a disk of Riverboat. Will be fun to watch anyway.
DM had a reputation for being difficult and arrogant; Reynolds for a
red-hot temper. It's not hard to see why they didn't get along. In
the end, Reynolds became the bigger star, so the laugh is on McGaven.
In any case, I caught a few episodes of this show on Youtube and found
it duller than paste.
Thanks. I will have to check it out. Watched the show as a kid and enjoyed it. Of course at that time I did not pay attention to who was in it. I still like both of them and sometimes people cannot work together no matter how good they are at a job. I hope DM eventually mellowed and learned to not be such a jerk. RIP
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