Billy Baldwin's Thoughts on Cancellation

Your last major TV gig was "Dirty, Sexy, Money", which was canceled after just two seasons. Do you think ABC gave it a fair shot?

It's really hard to say, because we were dealing with circumstances that haven't been dealt with since the Great Depression ...


They ordered 13 episodes, then we got orders for the back nine, and then the writers' strike hit and we never shot the back nine. So they ordered 13 episodes for a second season, which we shot, and in that hiatus during the writer's strike, they replaced the show runner and they brought another guy in, and he sort of wanted to make some adjustments and take it in another direction with the support of the network.



I'd say, if there wasn't a global economic meltdown and a writer's strike, then we would still be on the air ...

Look at the above-the-line [budget] on this show: You've got Blair Underwood, Lucy Liu, Jill Clayburgh, Donald Sutherland, Billy Baldwin -- all these people are getting paid.

I don't know what the per-episode cost was on that show, but if I were a betting man, I'd say it was north of $3 million an episode. That's not cheap.



I think they did the best they could do considering the circumstances. If the show had numbers that were a little bit better, or if the show was a little bit cheaper, or certainly if there was no writers' strike or credit default swaps or derivative whores on Wall Street, we'd all be singing a different tune right now.

Wouldn't that be nice if I was in the middle of season 3 on "Dirty, Sexy, Money" right now? I miss it. We had a lot of fun doing that show.

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