That Time Adam Sandler’s ‘Terrible’ TV Show Was Canceled After Only Filming 1 Episode

Adam Sandler may be known for his laugh-out-loud comedies like Billy Madison and Grown Ups, but he actually had a series in the early 2000s that was unfortunately canceled after filming just one episode. Back in 2003, Variety reported that Vince Calandra was tapped to serve as showrunner for The WB’s then-upcoming series The Mayor. 

Calandra would also serve as executive producer on the show from Sony Pictures Television and Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison. Sandler also served as executive producer, alongside Doug Robinson, Jack Giarraputo, and Adam Resnick, with the latter writing the pilot. The Mayor, which received a six-episode order for midseason 2004 from The WB, would have seen Ben Feldman portray an 18-year-old who is elected as mayor of his small town. 

The six-episode order didn’t last very long, unfortunately. In September of 2003, The Futon Critic reported that The WB had retracted its order for The Mayor, and just a few months after it axed the potential . While pre-production had already started, no episodes beyond the pilot were filmed, and reportedly, executives were unhappy with the show’s direction at that point. 

While not much was known about why The WB canceled The Mayor, aside from where the direction of the show was going, it was evidently not a good pilot. The Reddit thread, r/lostmedia, brought up a book called An Episode Guide to 150 TV Sitcoms You Probably Never Saw, and in it, The Mayor was discussed, or Kid Mayor, as it was called. One user, @abecedaire, dropped in some tidbits about the series, noting that alongside Ben Feldman, it would have also starred Samm Levine, with comedian Bone set to recur in the show. Though, that’s not the most surprising detail.

Pitch Perfect star Anna Kendrick was also going to star in the sitcom as the mayor’s snarky sister. However, it didn’t go as planned, as Kendrick said that “it was so apparent that it was terrible – after the first episode, they were like, ‘You can all go home.’”

The plot of The Mayor is definitely a unique and intriguing one, but even with Adam Sandler attached, the show couldn’t be saved. Luckily, I don’t think Sandler really minded, considering he is still one of the most well-known and beloved comedic actors of our time. It would be interesting to see this show get another try, but considering it’s been 20 years, it is probably a little late.