A new series from Vancouver’s Make Believe Media takes an insider’s look at an all too familiar industry reality – TV shows that don’t make it past their first season.

Make or Break TV, a 13-part, half-hour factual series, premieres Sept. 4 on TVtropolis. Each episode candidly chronicles the behind-the-scenes drama of a short-lived TV series, as told via interviews with the writers, actors, directors and studio execs involved, plus clips from the cancelled shows.

‘This series isn’t about how TV shows get made, so much as how difficult it is to keep a show on the air,’ explains director and story producer Larry Raskin (PSI Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal, Cold Squad). ‘I think the statistic is roughly 70% of shows in the U.S. network system die after their first season, so the odds are against you from the get-go.’

The $100,000-per-episode series is financed by a licence fee, tax credits and producer investment. Post-production wrapped in June, and L.A.-based GRB Entertainment is distributing.

The failed series featured in Make or Break TV span from 1977 through to 2006, and were chosen because they were critically acclaimed or had an impact on the pop culture landscape. They include ABC’s Max Headroom (1987), Fox’s Profit (1996) and The Lone Gunmen (2001), and Spike TVs Blade: The Series (2006).

Raskin and Make Believe Media producer Lynn Booth (Very Bad Men, True Pulp Murder) managed to convince some major actors and industry players to talk on camera about their short-lived shows, including Eric McCormack (Lonesome Dove: The Series), Ken Olin and Joe Pantoliano (EZ Streets), Amanda Pays (Max Headroom), Paul Haggis (EZ Streets), Chris Carter (The Lone Gunmen) and Darren Star (Grosse Pointe).

Among the Hollywood studio execs interviewed are Warren Littlefield (NBC), Dana Walden and Gary Newman (20th Century Fox), Robert Greenblatt (Fox) and Stuart Bloomberg (ABC).

Raskin says most of the people they called were willing to participate. It didn’t hurt that they began interviews in November 2007 – just as the Writers Guild of America strike began – which proved timely, as many of the subjects they wanted to interview had some free time on their hands.

‘Although in a couple of cases we had people find out the day of our scheduled interview that their deal at the studio was terminated and they had to move out of their office,’ recalls Raskin.

One of the rare cases where a pivotal person refused to talk – but they went ahead with the episode anyway – was Fred Silverman, the NBC executive in charge of the 1979 disaster Supertrain, which went way over budget during production and lasted only nine episodes.

‘We managed to get enough other people to talk, and everyone acknowledged it was a problem show from the get-go,’ says Raskin.

However, he points out that their series isn’t about mud-slinging, which also helped convince people to play along.

‘We realized early on we wouldn’t get the creators of the shows to do an interview if that was the intent,’ explains Raskin. ‘However, we did push them to talk about controversies and wanted honest tales of what went down. Because these shows all died an early death, there was a slight tinge of bitterness. It’s never a good feeling when your show gets cancelled.’