The NBC police drama suffered from low ratings since its premiere last month
By Tim Ryan, Honolulu Star-Bulletin.
NBC bid aloha to the TV police drama "Hawaii" yesterday.
Last week, NBC executives told the TV show's producers that they could complete four more episodes even though the show was being taken off the air through November. But during the weekend, the network executives decided that the show was being canceled altogether.
The production was filming at its Mapunapuna sound stage yesterday morning when producers Jay Benson, Jeff Reiner and Francis Conway got the word from the network. The trio interrupted filming a few minutes later to tell cast and crew.
"The network said it's over, you're done, stop rolling the cameras," a production source said.
Cast members, production executives and crew stood together yesterday on set sharing tears, hugs, handshakes and alohas.
"This is a very sad day for us," a "Hawaii" staff member said. "We did our homework. We had cultural and technical advisers; we showed Hawaii beautifully; we became ohana."
Producer Conway said he was deeply saddened by the cancellation.
"I care about these people personally and professionally in a very special way," he said, adding that the show was fun.
"Hawaii" had struggled with poor ratings since its premiere last month.
NBC considered moving "Hawaii" to either Monday or Friday nights and away from its Wednesday-night slot against ABC's hit "Lost."
Co-star Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, who played Capt. Harada, was pragmatic in his assessment of "Hawaii's" early departure.
"That's show biz," he said. "It may be traumatic ... but the bottom line is that these things happen every day in this business."
Tagawa had been critical of the show's writing.
The cancellation is also a disappointment to the Hawaii Film Office, which worked with NBC to get the show here and played a major role in getting the Mapunapuna sound stage.
"This production has been exemplary in every way as good neighbors," HFO manager Donne Dawson said. "They represent some of the best people in the industry."
"We obviously will talk with other productions to see what may be down the pike, but we don't know if the timing is right," Dawson said.
It will take about five weeks to break down the sets at the Mapunapuna sound stage, which NBC leased for a year beginning last May. The network spent about $1 million to retrofit the space and another $3 million to build sets for the show.
NBC will continue to pay the $57,000-a-month rent until the lease expires in May.
The cancellation also means loss of projected spending here. Each episode cost about $2.1 million, or more than $17 million for the already completed eight shows, about $10 million less than if all 13 episodes were filmed as scheduled.
Hawaii (NBC) cancelled after 8 episodes
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that was a cool show.
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