Amazon Cancels ‘Mad Dogs’

Amazon will not go forward on a second season of Mad Dogs. A series of 19 tweets from executive producer Shawn Ryan Feb. 28 started out with, “1) Wanted to report that a decision was made not to make any more episodes of Mad Dogs.”

Mad Dogs, whose cast includes Steve Zahn and Michael Imperioli, follows four former college friends who reconnect at a pal’s seaside villa in Belize. It becomes evident that the friend, played by Billy Zane, is mixed up with shady local characters, and his four mates suddenly find themselves in a ton of trouble.

Ryan, who created The Shield for FX, said Mad Dogs, a remake of an English series, was initially envisioned as a 10-episode arc in its entirety. Ryan said Amazon asked for an outline for subsequent seasons in order to green light the first batch of episodes. Tweeted Ryan:

“We had that conversation on Thursday with [Amazon Studios chief] Roy Price and company. Cris [Cole, creator] and I laid out a story for Season 2 we believed in,” then, “Ultimately, Amazon didn’t want to make that story and we didn’t want to make the kind of story they wanted us to make…”

Ryan added that “It made more sense to declare victory after ten episodes, which was our original plan all along anyway.”

Cast member Romany Malco too took to Twitter, at @TeamRomany, to talk Mad Dogs. “Couldn’t have asked for more. Got to work with incredible talent. Felt challenged from beginning to end and made tons of new fans!” he wrote.  

An Amazon representative confirmed the series’ end.

Sony Pictures Television produced Mad Dogs.

Michael Malone

Michael Malone, senior content producer at B+C/Multichannel News, covers network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television. He hosts the podcasts Busted Pilot, about what’s new in television, and Series Business, a chat with the creator of a new program, and writes the column “The Watchman.” He joined B+C in 2005. His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy and New York magazine.