MTV announced today that they have decided to cancel Buckwild in the wake of star Shain Gandee’s death, saying “We love the cast and the show and this was not an easy decision, but given Shain’s tragic passing and essential presence on the show, we felt it was not appropriate to continue without him.” Okay, fair enough, I suppose. I mean, you would need the better part of a week to explain to me how a second season is “not appropriate” but the fact that they’re still airing the big “WV to the NYC” special they already shot is all hunky dory, but fine. I’m on board with the general principle.
You know who’s not on board with the general principle, though? The show’s producer, J.P. Williams, who absolutely lost his sh-t in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter:
“This is the network that has shows about teen pregnancy. They’ll stick by a show that allows you to abandon a child, but a kid dies by accident doing what he does for a living [mudding] and they cancel the show?” he fumes. “There’s something that smells of s— here on every level.”
Well, yeah. MTV does draw some pretty fuzzy, squiggly lines when it comes to morality, but saying it “smells of sh-t on every level” is probably a bit much. Could they have continued the series? Sure. But it would have been more about a group of kids mourning the loss of a close friend than “a buncha rednecks ridin’ four-wheelers and sh-t,” and that’s a very, very different show. A show, by the way, that Williams plans to keep shooting with or without MTV.
In fact, he suggests that he will continue shooting the series and will look to produce a Buckwild film, which he would self-finance if need be. “My job is to protect these kids,” he tells THR, adding: “This will get ugly.”
Considering he just threatened his former bosses and basically called them immoral weasels who are partially responsible for the destruction of the two parent household (which, for the record, they kinda are), I’d say we’re already at “ugly.”
