By TheGrio Staff/originally published in Thegrio
HBO’s “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty” and ABC’s “The Wonder Years” have both been canceled. The networks announced that the two shows will not return for a third season.
The final episode of “Winning Time” aired on Sunday night, according to Deadline. Max Borenstein, the show’s creator, confirmed that Sunday’s episode would be the series finale. “Not the ending that we had in mind,” Borenstein posted. “But nothing but gratitude and love.”
“Winning Time” was a biographical comedy-drama series of the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers during their Showtime era of the 1980s, led by players Magic Johnson (Quincy Isaiah) and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Solomon Hughes), and Lakers owner Jerry Buss (John C. Reilly). The second season ended with the 1984 Lakers team losing game seven of the NBA Finals to their archrivals, the Boston Celtics, led by Larry Bird (Sean Patrick Small).
The series received backlash from the real-life players and coaches portrayed in the series. Johnson, Abdul-Jabbar, and former Lakers coach and general manager Jerry West all slammed the show for its historical inaccuracies.
“The Wonder Years” is one of several ABC shows to be canceled this year amid the writers and actors strikes, according to Variety. The show was an all-Black reboot of the popular 1980s coming-of-age series that starred Fred Savage.
The period piece followed the Black, middle-class Williams family, living in Montgomery, Alabama, in the late 1980s. Like the original, the show featured narration of the protagonist, telling the story of his 12-year-old self and his family. Don Cheadle narrated as Dean Williams, while Elisha “EJ” Williams played his younger self, Dulé Hill played father Bill, and Saycon Sengbloh played mother Lillian.
Lee Daniels served as co-executive producer of “The Wonder Years” reboot, along with Savage.