Apple cancels Joseph Gordon-Levitt's 'Mr. Corman' after one season

Apple TV+ dropped the axe on Joseph Gordon-Levitt comedy-drama series "Mr. Corman" after a single season, making it the second show to be cancelled in the service's history.

Apple has opted out of renewing "Mr. Corman" for a sophomore season despite relatively positive reviews, reports Deadline. Along with starring, Gordon-Levitt created, wrote, directed and executive produced the show.

The half-hour series failed to bring in the same streaming numbers as other scripted shows, according to the report. Apple TV+ features a strong lineup of original TV shows including "Ted Lasso," "Mystic Quest," "Schmigadoon!" and "Physical," all of which have been renewed or are "looking good" for renewal, according to Deadline.

Described by Apple as "darkly funny, oddly beautiful, and deeply heartfelt," "Mr. Corman" tells the tale of a fifth-grade public school teacher in the San Fernando Valley. With a music career that didn't pan out and an ex-fiancee who moved out only to be replaced by a high school buddy, Josh struggles to cope with anxiety, loneliness and self-doubt.

The debut episode aired on Aug. 6 and the first — and only — season wrapped today.

Starring alongside Gordon-Levitt are Arturo Castro, Debra Winger, Bobby Hall aka Logic, Alexander Jo, Juno Temple, Jamie Chung, Shannon Woodward and Hector Hernandez.

Gordon-Levitt's other Apple TV+ project, the animated series "Wolfboy and the Everything Factory," aired on Sept. 24. All ten episodes are currently available for streaming.

News of the cancellation comes nearly two months after Apple cancelled "Little Voice," the songwriter drama produced by J.J. Abrams and Sara Bareilles.

Apple has a packed slate of upcoming original series and films including "Acapulco," "Finch," "Killers of the Flower Moon," "Swan Song," "The Tragedy of Macbeth" and "Wool." The company is reportedly doubling production efforts and expects to release one new show or movie every week in 2022.

24 Comments

davidmalcolm 9 Years · 404 comments

About 3 years ago

This doesn’t surprise me much. The production quality was good. But so much of it was just slice of life awkwardness. I honestly had to kind of force myself to watch it. I wanted to like it but the pacing just was too slow.

slow n easy 9 Years · 400 comments

I didn’t understand why the critics liked it. I thought it was one of the worst ones I’ve watched along with Physical.

Japhey 6 Years · 1772 comments

I agree with Davidmalcolm, I had to make myself watch it too, at times. It’s a shame because I really looked forward to this show earlier this year. I know a bunch of people will come to its defense for its accurate portrayal of anxiety, but I just found it uncomfortably depressing at a time when I’m actively seeking more uplifting stimuli. It’s saying something when the best episode of the whole season was the stand alone Arturo Castro one.
I love JGL, but RIP to this turd.

scampercom 19 Years · 95 comments

Two things: “The half-hour series failed to bring in the same streaming numbers as other scripted shows,” and “The series wrapped today.”

See, that’s part of the problem. In the old days people used to watch episodic TV over weeks, when episodes were dribbled out to us. But I’m spoiled, and now always wait till the entire series is available before I watch a second of it. And I’m not the only one.

scampercom said:

Two things: “The half-hour series failed to bring in the same streaming numbers as other scripted shows,” and “The series wrapped today.”

See, that’s part of the problem. In the old days people used to watch episodic TV over weeks, when episodes were dribbled out to us. But I’m spoiled, and now always wait till the entire series is available before I watch a second of it. And I’m not the only one.

How does waiting until a series is over before watching it make you spoiled? People have been doing that since TV shows were released on VHS and DVD. The biggest difference between physical media and digital streaming, aside from the quality of the product and the convenient access to it, is that the companies providing the service have immediate knowledge of a great number of metrics including how many people are consuming their product. I’m sure the people running the multi-billion dollar streaming companies have highly complex comparative algorithms that can accurately predict the number of people that will wait to watch a show all at once based on the number that watch week to week. I guarantee that these people know more than you, me, or anyone else here about all this and more. Don’t worry, these companies aren’t ignoring you or anyone else like you, its just that compared to other shows, the numbers obviously weren’t there for Mr. Corman. It’s not really a problem…it just wasn’t that good.