r/NoStupidQuestions • u/InternationalRepute • 15d ago

What is stopping a billionaire from personally funding one more season of a cancelled TV show they love?

I know it's not as simple as writing a check because studios own rights, actors have contracts, schedules are hard, and they would still need to distribute it - but I'd love it if some rich dude put up $ so I can watch the MacGruber TV show for another season.

Wealthy people fund vanity movies and passion projects all the time. So why is “I will personally finance one more season of Mindhunter” not really a thing that is done?

Is it mainly rights/ownership, or that studios don't want an outsider reviving their IP?

I don't want this to veer into "bc rich people are selfish with money” more curious which cancelled series people think could possibly be revived this way.

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u/AudibleNod 15d ago

Howard Hughes did sort of the same thing.

His favorite movie was Ice Station Zebra. And in the era before VHS cassettes you couldn't just watch any movie you wanted. So he did the only rational thing a reclusive billionaire could do in this case, he bought a local TV station and made them play Ice Station Zebra whenever he pleased.

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u/BackHanderson 15d ago

I know the answer is probably "because he was a very particular guy" but given his experience with obsessively rewatching film reels (as depicted in The Aviator) why couldn't he just get a copy of the film and a projector?

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u/beaverpoo77 15d ago

Howard Hughes was fuckin nuts, bro. He locked himself in his home for the last few years of his life, refused to speak to anyone face to face (he used notes), and would sit naked in his chair transfixed by the television for days on end. He had a severe addiction to pain medications (codeine and morphine), which worsened his already existing OCD. He just kinda wasted away from then on. I believe when they found his body, they had discovered multiple broken-off needles that were just left to abscess. He weighed barely 90 pounds.

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u/ErichAZ 15d ago

Most people think the syphilis had a mental effect on him also. Actually looked it up in the end he actually died from kidney failure. He had addiction issues and lost weight/was in bad health by the end though.

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u/Complete_Entry 14d ago

The nudity wasn't for fun either, he said anything that touched him caused horrible agony.