The 1979 cycling movie, “Breaking Away,” may have won an Oscar, but when it came time to make a TV spin-off, repeating success was not as easy as riding a bike. ABC aired a prequel series of the same name in 1980, but it never caught on despite decent reviews, and was quickly cancelled. The movie was a coming-of-age story about a teenager named Dave (Dennis Christopher), living in an Indiana college town who dreams of becoming a competitive cyclist. “Breaking Away” won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and received four other nominations — including Best Picture.
Steve Tesich, the film’s Oscar-winning screenwriter, turned to the small screen for the prequel series, which premiered on November 29, 1980. Only three actors from the movie reprised their roles in the TV show, including Jackie Earle Haley as one of Dave’s friends, Moocher, and Barbara Barrie, who had been nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for playing Dave’s mother. (She would get a matching Emmy nomination for the TV show.)
Christopher did not come back to play the lead, so Shaun Cassidy stepped in. Likewise, Dennis Quaid played another friend, Mike, on the big screen, but Tom Wiggin took over the role on TV. A review in the Kentucky New Era criticized Cassidy’s acting chops, but otherwise suggested the series had promise. Unlike the best shows based on movies, however, reality got in the spokes of these expectations.
The Breaking Away TV show was canceled before all the episodes had even aired
Despite the success of the movie and the fact that several people behind and in front of the camera returned for the series, “Breaking Away” struggled to find an audience. Sensing that the show was in danger of cancellation, star <a href="https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=P3VkAAAAIBAJ&sjid=cn4NAAAAIBAJ&pg=2846,2228539&dq=breaking-away+shaun-cassidy&hl=en” rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank”>Shaun Cassidy made a plea to viewers to turn in and save “Breaking Away” from the axe. It didn’t work, and ABC canned the series airing just seven of the eight episodes they’d produced. The unintentional series finale aired on January 10, 1981.
Why did the series fail when the movie had succeeded? The Madison Courier published a post-mortem unpacking the cancellation, noting that the show had a good creative pedigree, wasn’t up against anything too popular in its time slot, and it wasn’t too high-brow for general audiences — the same general audiences who had liked the movie, after all. Yet, the series couldn’t compare to the best coming-of-age shows of all time. The newspaper concluded that things that seem like a sure thing in the TV business just don’t work out sometimes and it’s hard to say why. Nowadays, “Breaking Away” is just one of many ’80s shows nobody talks about today.
Enjoyed this article? Sign up to TVLine’s free newsletter, and follow us on Google or add us as a preferred search
Read the original article on TVLine.
