Nellie Andreeva

Men of a Certain Age is officially dead. Following the dramedy’s cancellation by TNT, series creators Ray Romano and Mike Royce had shopped the series around. Now they took to the “Save Men of a Certain Age” Facebook page, whose online petition has garnered more than 10,000 signatures, to announce that those efforts have been unsuccessful and they are reluctantly throwing in the towel. Here is Romano and Royce’s gracious open letter to fans titled Hold Your Head Up:

Hi folks,

Sorry I haven’t been in touch.  Unfortunately there’s been nothing to report.  And at this point, since we want to be straight with you guys, I have to tell you that we’ve kind of reached the end of the road.  Hard to admit, but it’s true.

If you can think of a network, we called them. Of course, “Men of a Certain Age” doesn’t really belong on certain networks.  But we called them too.  We called everybody.  We tried online, satellite, alternate content providers, corporate sponsorship, Taxi TV, filmstrips… everything.  We’ve exhausted every possibility and then some.

I was certainly hoping – actually, naively expecting a different outcome.  I thought somebody would pick us up.  Ray and I feel strongly that there are places where MOACA would not only be an excellent fit, but a home run.  But we couldn’t persuade others to see it that way.  And at a certain point, you gotta move on.

Sure, a miracle could still happen somehow.  So please don’t “unlike” this page or unsign the petition.  It’s still good to be able to show the world how much you guys care about the show.

We can’t thank all you enough.  So many of you have worked your asses off to help us find the show a home.  To see the support continue to pour in now weeks and weeks later is really incredible.

It’s also hard to express how grateful we are to the awesomely talented 200+ people who made the show. The cast and the crew were not only the best but made it a joy to come to work each day.

And we also want to thank TNT.  I know it’s natural to look at it like “they’re the ones who cancelled it,” but a more accurate viewpoint is “they’re the ones who put it on.”  Honestly, the notion that a show about the lives of three 50 year olds was on television at all in this day and age is a miracle.  It shouldn’t be, but it is.  On top of that TNT gave us the rare opportunity to do the show the way we wanted.

The end result is, we’re proud of the work, proud of the critical response and mostly proud that the show seems to have secured a deep place in people’s hearts that isn’t always reached.  Like some of you, we feel a little like we’ve lost a friend.  But the good news is, the 22 episodes live on.  They even end in a good place (if too soon).

So think of us as not as a cancelled show but a “mini-series by accident.”

Because really that’s our biggest hope:  if you are a fan, turn other people on to it.  We want it to live on. Hey, for better or for worse, the ratings tell us there are plenty of people out there who haven’t seen “Men of a Certain Age.”  We hope they check it out.

Thanks, and see you on the hill.

—Mike Royce & Ray Romano

 

 

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