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Lorne Greene was bitter about Bonanza's cancelation
14 years is hard to end!
After 14 years on Bonanza, Lorne Greene went right into another series, Griff. Unfortunately, that second show didn't have quite the same longevity and failed after half a season. The cancellation pushed Greene away from TV for a few years.
Greene expressed some healthy disappointment in Griff's flop status but said he wasn't heartbroken over the matter.
"You learn to live with ups and downs in this business," he told the Calgary Herald in 1974. "The most important thing is that producers and directors won't stop wanting your service."
According to the actor, Griff fell flat because of a few different reasons. Most importantly, it had a bad time slot— 10 p.m. on Saturday night isn't exactly a fruitful place to be on the television schedule. However, it was the show's competition that really squashed its chances.
Between cutting-edge shows like All in the Family and M*A*S*H, Griff just seemed like a relic of the past.
"We didn't make it," said Greene. "Some people said we were too much like Barnaby Jones. I don't buy that— but when you get right down to it, how much originality is there in any detective series?"
While he didn't spend too much time lamenting Griff's cancelation, Greene did still have some strong feelings about how Bonanza wrapped up. After 14 seasons as one of the greatest TV Westerns ever, Lorne emphasized that he didn't like "the way they did it" when it was finally time to put the series out to pasture.
"They told us the day before we finished an episode that this was the end, that it would all wind up the next day— just like that, after 14 seasons. I think we deserved better than that," he said.
While he may have held some ill will towards his former studio, Greene would team up with Universal Studios for Earthquake that same year.
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