Why Did HBO Really Cancel ‘Deadwood’?
Whenever listicles of prestige series “canceled too soon” make the rounds, Deadwood is almost always on them. The groundbreaking HBO drama ran from March 2004 to August 2006, spanning three seasons, and concluded more than a decade later with Deadwood: The Movie on May 31, 2019.
Set in the 1870s South Dakota gold rush town of the same name, Deadwood followed a sprawling cast of characters whose lawlessness and ambition collided as the camp evolved into a community. Known for its gritty realism and poetic, profanity-laced dialogue, the series explored power, corruption, and survival on the American frontier. Led by Ian McShane as Al Swearengen and Timothy Olyphant as Seth Bullock, the show earned eight Emmy Awards, while McShane won a Golden Globe for Best Actor in 2005.
HBO / Courtesy: Everett Collection
By the end of Season 3, series villain George Hearst (Gerald McRaney) was in the process of leaving town in triumph, after having crushed his rivals. Reformed sex worker and all-around goddess Trixie (Paula Malcomson) can’t let that stand, so she shoots him, but fails in her assassination attempt, placing her in imminent danger. The season finale left several storylines unresolved, including the fates of Swearengen’s empire and Deadwood’s struggle for justice.
And then the show was canceled. But why? Why end so abruptly? And on a cliffhanger, no less?
Cost was a huge issue. Deadwood was expensive to produce — period pieces, large ensemble cast, location shoots, elaborate sets — and cost concerns were a recurring pressure, costing a jaw-dropping $4.5 million per episode. Sadly, HBO would not find partners to agree to split the bill with them.
Show creator David Milch was less than happy. He created a superior product and brought the network acclaim, and now it was being thrown out because of a bunch of financial reasons. Milch had this to say about the series’ cancellation: “I am deeply disappointed by how things turned out. (HBO) felt like they had to make a choice, and this is how they chose. I know they tried to work it out, and I tried to work it out with them.”
HBO / Courtesy: Everett Collection
According to HBO executive Chris Albrecht, he called Milth to negotiate, but his defiant reaction meant the beginning of the end. “By the time the weekend was over, the trades had it that we were canceling ‘Deadwood,’ because I’m sure what happened with Tim is he called his agent and said, ‘Holy f***, they’re canceling ‘Deadwood!’ David should have just shut up and calmed down over the weekend. We would have talked about it on Monday, and we would have come to a solution that would have resulted in a Season 4 and an ending to the story, or the series, okay? But he did what he did, and it got out of our hands. We never canceled the show. The show canceled itself.”
HBO reportedly offered a shortened Season 4 (either six or eight episodes) to Milch. Rather than accept, Milch is said to have rejected it outright. The decisive moment was reportedly a phone call between Milch and Albrecht. HBO’s side claims that Milch’s response was: “F**k it, how about none?”
HBO / Courtesy: Everett Collection
And thus the series ended, not with a bang, but with a whimper. Thirteen years later, it finally received a proper sendoff with a made-for-TV movie that gave fans a chance to revisit the beloved residents of Deadwood, offering long-overdue closure and a bittersweet farewell to one of television’s most richly written worlds.
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