One Day at a Time Isn't Totally Dead Yet
In March, Netflix announced that it was cancelling the sitcom One Day at a Time after three seasons. The show focused on a Cuban-American single mom—a nurse and Iraqi War vet—living with her two kids and her mother, played by the iconic Rita Moreno. Despite it's enthusiastic audience, One Day at a Time was teetering on the edge of cancellation for most of its run, and the organized campaigning of the show's fans reportedly kept it alive after its second season. But Netflix, despite shelling out $100 million to hold on to NBC's Friends for another year, said it couldn't justify keeping One Day at a Time around for season four.
But the creative team behind the show hasn't given up. According to Deadline, during a panel at the ATX Television Festival, co-creator and executive producer Mike Royce told the audience that the cast and producers were still hoping to get picked up somewhere else for a fourth season and, fingers crossed, beyond. He did admit it was a long shot though: "All I can say is that there’s hope—there’s not not hope. I've been through three 'save our show' campaigns—they didn’t work. This is beyond miracle status. We just need to make sure it works out. We’re talking and we hope to have news sooner rather than later."
Actress Isabella Gomez urged the audience, "We are not dead yet. Let these networks know you want us back!"
At its best, One Day at a Time tackled decidedly modern topics like immigration, assimilation, coming out, and post traumatic stress disorder, all presented in the extremely old school format of a three-camera, laugh-tracked sitcom. Considering how it managed to package serious topics in such an unrelentingly positive way, it's no surprise that the people behind it are hopeful that the show can find a second life somewhere else. Other popular, inclusive sitcoms have pulled it off, like when NBC picked up Brooklyn Nine-Nine after it got the axe at Fox. But often, cancelled shows get picked up by Netflix. Hopefully One Day at a Time can make the jump from the streaming giant to somewhere else.
Originally Appeared on GQ
