Picking Up the Pieces : Un-Cancellation Sends ‘Love’s’ Producers Scrambling

“Anything but Love” got a happy surprise when ABC, after canceling the comedy May 21, decided a month later not to cancel and ordered nine new episodes as a backup series for the 1990-91 season.

The only catch: Some staffers had already signed contracts to work on other shows. They were anything but pleased that ABC’s delayed renewal canceled their chance to return to the series about workers at a Chicago magazine.

“We waited as long as we could. We were told it was dead, so we took other jobs,” said Bruce Rasmussen, former co-producer of “Anything but Love.” “This is not to say we’re not happy where we are, but our first choice would have been to stay on the show we were on last year.”

Although ABC made its decision in time to keep stars Jamie Lee Curtis and Richard Lewis on board--as well as executive producers Peter Noah and Robert Myman and co-executive producer Janis Hirsch--Rasmussen and executive story consultants Michael Saltzman and Bill Diamond had already departed to join the staff of NBC’s “Wings,” and co-producer Alan Kirschenbaum had become co-executive producer of ABC’s “Baby Talk.”

In addition, Noah said that because “Anything but Love” was not renewed when other series were, it lost its chance to compete for the services of many established comedy writers, who are routinely snapped up by other shows as soon as the networks announce their fall schedules.

“It’s a little aggravating,” Noah said when the renewal finally came. “Not only did we have a terrific staff, but ‘Anything but Love’ is a show that a lot of writers like. This is frustrating, I’ll have to admit that. But when the dust settles, we’re going to have terrific writers. To a certain extent, you are really at the mercy of the whims of the network, but we are really grateful to be given another chance.”

Since that conversation, the show has hired one new writer, Bill Bryan, who will join Bill Barol, a writer who signed on with “Anything but Love” at mid-season last year. Noah said that the production company may make a deal to add a creative consultant, but he considers the show fully staffed now.

From his post at “Baby Talk,” Kirschenbaum said that, while he is “a little sad” about not being part of “Anything but Love,” he is “ecstatic that the show is picked up” and does not expect the loss of a few writers to change the show substantially.

“Shows do go on,” he said. “Peter (Noah) is enormously talented; the only three irreplaceable people on the show are Peter, Richard Lewis and Jamie Lee. People change shows in this business; it’s very rare that somebody stays on a show for a long time.”

Harris Katleman, president and chief executive officer of Twentieth Television, which produces the series in association with Adam Productions (a partnership of Myman and John Ritter), said that he and Myman went to ABC to plead the show’s case as soon as it was canceled.

The studio also sent memos to everyone “from (ABC chairman and chief executive Thomas) Murphy on down to the person who opens the door,” Katleman said. The plea included copies of an indignant column by New York Newsday columnist Marvin Kitman, blasting ABC for canceling the “unique, innovative comedy.”

“My attitude was: I thought they (ABC) had made a major error and I just kept hammering at them,” Katleman said. “I told them, ‘You’re going to need this show desperately,’ and they concurred.”

Ted Harbert, ABC’s executive vice president for prime time, denied that ABC needed the show “desperately.” He added that ABC’s initial decision to cancel was anything but a mistake.

“With the information we had on May 21, it was a reasonable decision,” he said. “We had to give them a decision by then; they got their decision. We were torn about it; it came down to the very last second. It came down to, OK, 51 (percent) against. If we had another day, it might just as easily have gone 51 for.”

Though declining to offer specifics, Harbert said that ABC executives changed their minds because, after setting the fall lineup, they found that they didn’t have enough backup shows immediately available to go into production.

“What we learned about the availability dates of some of our backup shows created a sort of window of opportunity for ‘Anything but Love’ to pop back in there,” he said. While acknowledging that Kitman’s “second coming of Christ” review--as well as Myman and Katleman--carried some pull, “If we hadn’t been able to come up with that window of opportunity, all the good salesmanship in the world wouldn’t have had much effect.”

The network has asked the producers to be ready to go back on the air in October, but “if nothing (on the fall schedule) fails, ‘Anything but Love’ will not get on the air until next March,” Harbert said.

The 11th-hour rescue represents another chapter in “Anything but Love’s” quirky history. When it went on the air in March, 1989, it already had undergone an overhaul from the oiginal pilot. Hannah (Curtis) landed a job at Chicago Weekly Magazine, where she was helped by star reporter Marty Gold (Lewis). For the rest of the season, Hannah struggled as a researcher, shared a woodsy cabin with her father and developed her friendship with Marty.

When the show returned last fall, Hannah had a better job at the magazine, a tough new boss (played by Ann Magnuson) and her own apartment. The friendship with Marty continued. (Summer reruns of last season’s episodes air Wednesdays at 9:30 p.m.)

Now more changes are in store. Bruce Weitz (“Hill Street Blues”) will join the staff of the magazine next season, and John Ritter will play a photographer with designs on Hannah in the first few episodes. More importantly, the Hannah-Marty relationship will finally take a romantic turn.

According to Harbert, test audiences have not warmed to their platonic relationship.

“It seems that the idea of these male-and-female friendships makes people uncomfortable,” he said. “They don’t really get it--either you’re lovers, or you’re not. That’s not true in life, but in a television show, the audience wants to know.”