As a member of the rock group the Eagles, Glenn Frey had five Billboard No. 1 hits, making the band 13th on the list of all-time hitmakers. His group's run on the charts lasted a full decade.
But two weeks ago, Frey got to be part of a less enviable record. The show in which he had his first starring role, "South of Sunset," became one of only four shows in network television history to be canceled after its first episode. CBS dumped "South of Sunset" after it got what is thought to be the lowest rating ever for a network prime-time series premiere, attracting only 9% of the available viewers.
"You struggle so hard to get on a network's schedule," said "South of Sunset" executive producer Stan Rogow, who created the series with John Byrum. "So you've got to take this as a good news, bad news sort of thing. I just don't think anybody figured on how bad the news was going to be."
What made "South of Sunset's" demise even more unusual was the extremely heavy promotion CBS gave the show during its World Series coverage. Frey and his co-star, Aries Spears, had so much air time on the promotional spots that they seemed as much a part of the Series as John Kruk's paunch.
"South of Sunset" starred Frey as Cody McMahon, described in CBS publicity material as "a once-successful studio security chief (who) now works out of an office at a questionable Beverly Hills address." Newcomer Spears played his sidekick, Ziggy Duane, a hip young guy from South-Central Los Angeles. The show was designed to get CBS some of the male audience at 9 p.m. Wednesdays that has been so dominated by the ABC sitcom "Home Improvement."
"There were other shows that tested better, but ("South of Sunset") provided a certain balance. CBS' weakness is with young males; we acknowledge that," said David Poltrack, CBS senior vice president for planning and research. "We hadn't added much this season that was going to address that weakness. That's what put this show on the schedule."
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But, as is so often apparent in hindsight, "South of Sunset" had a huge set of hurdles to overcome from the beginning. Despite the seemingly endless amount of promotion during the World Series, it suffered from having a late start in the fall TV season. Then CBS decided it wanted changes in the pilot, so the first show was not available for advertisers or critics to review.
