10 Interesting Facts You Need To Know About The About The Abruptly Canceled Partners (2012 TV Series)
The 2010s was a golden era for some really great and unique sitcoms like Veep and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. However, the abruptly canceled Partners was not one of them. It followed the co-dependent and sometimes ridiculous relationship of two architects Joe (David Krumholtz) and his gay best friend Louis (Michael Urie) as they tried their best to manage adulthood and each other. The show also starred Sophia Bush and Brandon Routh as the two besties' significant others.
Unfortunately, the show was canned shortly after its pilot with only 13 episodes to its name. However, there were some pretty interesting things about the show that either most of us forgot or didn't know. Therefore, we have put together a list of ten facts you need to know about the show.
10 Made By The Same Creators Of Will And Grace
David Kohan and Max Mutchnick were responsible for one of TV's most revolutionary and iconic shows, Will & Grace. For years after the massive success of Will & Grace, they had struggled to create another hit show and they hoped that Partners would be their new hit.
Sadly, the show just never got the ratings it needed to stay afloat and CBS really had no choice but to cancel it.
9 The Show Was Based On Their Friendship
Unlike many other shows, the real-life muses for the show were the creators themselves. Kohan and Mutchnick have been friends and colleagues for decades. The whole show was a way to represent their dynamics with Joe representing Kohan and Mutchnick, who is also gay, being mirrored by Louis.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, they said that they had tried for years to make a show about their friendship, long before they even made Will & Grace.
8 Legendary Sitcom Director James Burrows Directed All Of The Episodes
There are few sitcom directors who are as prolific as James Burrows. He has worked on dozens of shows starting all the way back in the 1970s and has worked on some of TV's most iconic series like Taxi, Cheers, and Will & Grace.
Therefore, it would have seemed that the show was primed for success with him directing all the episodes. Unfortunately, many blamed the lack of chemistry between the leads and the over-the-top way in which some of the characters were portrayed.
7 It Was Sophia Bush's First Major Role After One Tree Hill
There was a time when One Tree Hill was one of the most successful teen dramas on TV and Sophia Bush was one of its stars as Brook Davis. After the show ended, Bush made her way onto the set of Partners, hoping to recreate her success.
Unfortunately, it was not meant to be. Luckily, she soon found her way as one of the leads on Dick Wolf's Chicago P.D. where she played the role of Detective Erin Lindsay.
6 Michael Urie's Role Was Specifically Written For Him
In an interview with E! Online, Michael Urie revealed that the role of Louis was specifically written for him.
This actually made lots of sense given that Urie had unsuccessfully tested for two of Mutchnick and Kohan's other shows, Twins and Four Kings. Luckily for Urie, those shows also never made it past their first season, either.
5 The Role of Joe Was Actually Written For Glee's Chord Overstreet
In an interview, David Krumholtz revealed that he wasn't exactly the creator's first choice. Instead, they had originally planned for Glee's Chord Overstreet to take on the role of Joe.
However, it wasn't clear if he could leave his Glee commitments, so he was replaced by Krumholtz. At the time, Krumholtz, who was still best known for his role on Numb3rs, was struggling to find a major role on TV. Unluckily, Partners wasn't it.
4 There are 7 Unaired Episodes
When the show was canceled in 2012, it was immediately removed from the schedule and the remaining seven episodes of the show were not aired in the United States.
However, they were aired in some places around the world. Currently, none of the major streaming sites have the show, and therefore, fans who were hoping to see the rest of it will unfortunately not be able to.
3 It Is Very Similar To Another Show Called Partners
One of the other major reasons that the show was perhaps not as successful was that the show was immediately compared to another show called Partners. Created in 1995 for Fox, it starred Jon Cryer and Tate Donovan and it was similar to the 2012 version in more than just its name.
The Fox version focused on the story of two friends, Bob and Owen who also happened to be architects, have a weird secretary, and just like the 2012 version, one of the characters got engaged in the first episode.
2 One Of Their Former Colleagues Called Them Out
Jeff Greenstein created the earlier Partners and if his name seems very familiar it would be because he was a writer and an executive producer on Kohan and Mutchnick's hit show Will & Grace.
Greenstein quickly called out the creators on Twitter and accused them of ripping off the show's premise and story from one of their colleagues. Both Kohan and Mutchnick denied that there were any similarities between the show and said it was simply a coincidence and nothing more.
1 They Were Warned To Change The Name
Kohan and Mutchnick were actually surprised that the name had turned out to be an issue. However, they should not have been as they were warned to change the title.
Kohan admitted that James Burrows, who was involved with both Partners shows, had urged them to change the title but was overruled. Although they did come up with other titles, they eventually all agreed on Partners and unfortunately, that seemed like the first of many things that led to the shows early death.