Don't think it's cancelled

When CBS last Thursday announced it was picking up 11 shows for the fall season, one high-profile Florida show wasn't on it.
Cane officially Chopped!!!!

And that show was Cane, the splashy soap about a rich Cuban-American family in the rum and sugar business in South Florida. Network TV's first Latino drama got loads of local attention because when you think rich Cuban-Americans in the sugar business, the first family to come to mind is the Fanjuls of Palm Beach, the socially prominent family which owns a multi-billion-dollar sugar cane business.

The Fanjuls weren't initially thrilled with the show, saying through their attorney that the series was loosely based on them. Cynthia Cidre, Cane's creator, claimed that wasn't true and told me last fall that, "I have never even heard of these people until the trouble started."

To ease concerns, the network changed the show's setting from Palm Beach County to the fictional Florida community of Playa Azul. It didn't matter. After a promising pilot, Cane fizzled pretty quickly. Now, I love nice guy Jimmy Smits, but he had a tough time oozing menace as a Cuban Tony Soprano who had no problems murdering a low-life threatening his family.

In the end, Cane wasn't able...to get enough viewers. And I have a hunch that a rich Cuban-American family from Palm Beach isn't all that broken up about it.

Posted by Kevin Thompson at February 21, 2008 10:33 AM