Jim Beaver--"Ellsworth" on "Deadwood"--on the Show's Cancellation
I received a very nice and informative note from actor Jim Beaver (above as Ellsworth), who portrayed prospector and Alma Garrett’s husband on HBO’s Deadwood, regarding the show’s cancellation.
He clarifies my previous post (ok, corrects) about executive producer David Milch also being unhappy about the cancellation of the series.
The following is reprinted with Jim’s permission.
Hi. Enjoyed your commentary about the demise of the Deadwood show.
Just wanted to point out that, regardless of network spin, David Milch was not the one who threw the show away. He fought tooth and nail to save it, even going so far as to try to raise the money himself for a fourth season. He was livid at its premature burial. John From Cincinnati was in development even before Deadwood, and was scheduled to go on the air with or without Deadwood. HBO picked it up in February, 2006, but didn’t cancel Deadwood till May. My suspicion is that HBO thought they’d do better financially with John than with Deadwood, which cost more than almost any show in history. TV producers commonly have more than one show in production; witness David E. Kelley and Dick Wolf. David Milch was very excited about Deadwood’s fourth season and, like all of us involved with the show, was devastated by its early termination.
Todd Epp
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Todd -- Congrats on getting a comment from Jim Beaver! I'm still grieving the loss of the series even though my daughters sent me all three seasons as birthday gifts. We watch them at the lake cabin along with HBO's other excellent historic series Rome, seasons 1 and 2.
The Deadwood series and Pete Dexter's book each demonstrated that Deadwood's lore and actual history are the trappings for a unique American legend similar to the Arthurian legend which has been the foundation of British history, heritage and fiction. Dexter's Al Swearingen is a deeply loathesome and cowardly figure while Milch's version is charismatic and highly conflicted between street survivor "scruples" and being absolutely pathological.
HBO blew it and now it's too late to retrieve the mistake. Jim Beaver's explanation shows how the promise of the fourth season was dismissed by people who had no idea what they were doing. Very sad for us.
However, I believe that the series, Dexter's book and other works to come will inspire a legend that will be visited again and again 500 years from now.