After ordering a pilot tentatively titled “Showtime” in 2019, HBO introduced in late 2021 that its Los Angeles Lakers-inspired collection can be often known as “Profitable Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty” and debut in March of the next 12 months. (It dropped the “Showtime” title attributable to a sure competing premium cable community.) Sadly for followers, Sunday’s Season 2 finale additionally serves because the collection finale — HBO has introduced that the present has been canceled.
The present, a dramatized retelling of the rise of the Eighties “Showtime” period of the Lakers, was renewed for a second season a month after its debut. The present relies on Jeff Pearlman’s guide “Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the Eighties.”
Simply final month, Pearlman expressed his fear {that a} Season 3 wouldn’t occur for the collection, citing the continuing Hollywood strikes as a significant purpose why as actors and writers couldn’t promote the present. He tweeted, “I’m telling you — the way forward for ‘Profitable Time’ hangs within the stability. We want viewers. The strikes are crippling. Please assist unfold the phrase. Season 2 is wonderful. However … HBO is huge on #s.”
Pearlman added, “And, to be blunt, I’m frightened there received’t be a season three. And it’s not about me. I’m fantastic. It’s a couple of solid of wonderful younger actors who stay this.”
“Profitable Time” had all the proper parts in place: a compelling story, primarily based on an period in basketball that was dominated by a group led by legends Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Sadly, the present by no means fairly hit its stride.
Season 1 didn’t even show a recreation of basketball till the fifth episode; Season 2 moved at lightning pace and labored by means of 4 years of the group’s story in a single go.
Former Lakers gamers additionally haven’t been particularly proud of the present. Jerry West’s lawyer wrote a letter claiming the present “falsely and cruelly portrays Mr. West as an out-of-control, intoxicated rage-aholic.” His letter was backed up with statements of help from Abdul-Jabbar and Jamaal Wilkes.
Abdul-Jabbar additionally wrote concerning the collection on Substack, the place he described the show as “boring” and finally concluded, “Yeah, there’s an incredible, compelling, culturally insightful story in there. ‘Profitable Time’ simply ain’t that story.”
Maybe the largest roadblock to the present’s success was that the real-life story of the time interval in Lakers historical past was too good to dramatize. As nice as Quincy Isaiah and Solomon Hughes are, it’s troublesome to the touch the charisma and presence of Johnson and Abdul-Jabbar of their prime (and even in 2023).
As Johnson himself put it, capturing the essence of the group isn’t any small feat. He mentioned in 2022, “To start with, you may’t do a narrative concerning the Lakers with out the Lakers. The actual Lakers. You gotta have the blokes. There’s no option to duplicate Showtime. I don’t care who you get.”
The group at “Profitable Time” definitely had their work minimize out for them, and, sadly, it simply wasn’t sufficient to maintain the collection going.
