Lawless (American TV series)

Lawless
Created byKen Sanzel
StarringBrian Bosworth
Glenn Plummer
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes6 (5 unaired)
Production
Production companyColumbia Pictures Television
Original release
NetworkFox[1]
ReleaseMarch 22, 1997 (1997-03-22)

Lawless is an American detective television series created by Ken Sanzel for Fox. Notable for starring former NFL player Brian Bosworth, it performed so poorly on television it was canceled after its premiere.[2][3][4][5][6][7]

Premise

The series centers on John Lawless, an ex-special forces operative who became a motorcycle riding private investigator in Miami's South Beach.

Cast

Production

The pilot was initially written and produced by Ken Sanzel, starred Daniel Baldwin as the lead, and had a vastly different tone from the final product.[8] After the initial pilot was produced, Frank Lupo was hired as the showrunner and cast a new lead actor and reshot the show to be more in line with his prior work.[8] In January 1997, it was reported that Brian Bosworth had been cast as the series lead with filming set to begin in the South Beach neighborhood of Miami Beach, Florida after Bosworth and the producers decided against filming in Hawaii.[9] On his decision to set the series in Florida instead of Hawaii, Bosworth stated he wanted to go for authenticity despite the allure of filming in Hawaii as he observed:

People go to Hawaii to smoke dope and chill. People go to South Beach to smoke crack and kill.[9]

The show was cancelled partway through its premiere after it had flipflopped between Friday and Saturday air dates and the remaining five episodes shot were never released.[8]

References

  1. ^ Friend, Tom (January 17, 1997). "Ex-Linebacker Is Back From the Depths, on TV and Smiling". The New York Times. Retrieved December 20, 2010.
  2. ^ "Miami Splice: Crockett And Tubbs Cloned?". Sun Sentinel. Archived from the original on June 12, 2012. Retrieved December 20, 2010.
  3. ^ "South Beach Will Be Home To New Series". Sun Sentinel. Archived from the original on June 12, 2012. Retrieved December 20, 2010.
  4. ^ "RATINGS: THE PEACOCK WINS IT, BY A BEAK". Daily News. New York. March 26, 1997. Retrieved December 20, 2010.
  5. ^ "Looking back at TV's one-episode wonders". CNN. October 8, 2009. Retrieved December 20, 2010.
  6. ^ "Lone Star faces cancellation after one episode". Reuters. September 22, 2010. Retrieved December 20, 2010.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  7. ^ "Fox Kills Bosworth's 'Lawless'". E!. March 25, 1997.
  8. ^ a b c "*Interview* Director Ken Sanzel". ActionReloaded. April 14, 2021. Archived from the original on May 7, 2021. Retrieved January 22, 2026.
  9. ^ a b Allen, Jim (January 21, 1997). "'Boz' Ready For Action In Fox Drama". The Spokesman-Review. Archived from the original on January 23, 2026. Retrieved January 23, 2026.