NBC cancels Memphis drama ‘Bluff City Law’ after 1 season
It’s finally official: NBC has canceled the set-and-shot-in-memphis legal drama, “Bluff City Law.”
The cancellation of the series after its abbreviated first season was confirmed Monday night in an email sent to The Commercial Appeal by Stuart Levine, Vice President for Editorial & Media Relations for NBC Entertainment.
Though not unexpected (production on the program stopped in October), the announcement is an economic blow for the city and a disappointment for the program’s relatively small but devoted fan base.
Produced in Memphis in 2019, the show’s 10 episodes employed dozens of Tennesseans and contributed about $35 million to the local economy, according to network estimates.
The series made impressive use of Memphis as a shooting site, showcasing soul food restaurants, Beale Street clubs, riverfront parks and the Shelby County Judge D’army Bailey Courthouse, among other locations.
NBC’S top drama priority for the 2019-2020 current season, “Bluff City Law” was heavily promoted but lost viewers after its Sept. 23 debut, which attracted 4.6 million viewers and remained the highest-rated episode of the series.
Created by Dean Georgaris and Michael Aguilar, “Bluff City Law” starred TV veteran Jimmy Smits as Elijah Strait, a legendary local civil rights lawyer who, in the first episode, reunites with his lawyer daughter, played by Caitlin Mcgee.
Each week, the ensemble cast of Strait & Associates lawyers tackled various torn-from-the-headlines issues, representing underdog clients in battles against abusers of the environment, corporate bullies, white supremacists and other enemies of human rights.
The fourth episode, titled “Fire in a Crowded Theater,” was particularly prescient, given the ongoing protests for racial justice happening in Memphis and other cities. Inspired by the 2017 Charlottesville “Unite the Right” rally, the plot concerned the killing of a counterprotester at a “white supremacy” rally in Memphis that takes place in front of a “Liberty Mural” (created for the show) depicting Rosa Parks, Thurgood Marshall, Ida B. Wells, Sojourner Truth and Frederick Douglass. (That episode and the rest of “Bluff City Law” can be found in reruns on the new Nbcuniversal streaming service, Peacock.)
The cancellation of “Bluff City Law” seemed likely after production stopped in October. However, NBC insisted that the show was being considered for a second season.
State and local politicians, business leaders and tourism and film officials had worked hard to ensure that “Bluff City Law” would shoot its first season in
Memphis, after the pilot episode was produced here in March 2019.
With contributions from the state, Memphis Tourism and the Memphis and Shelby County Economic Development Growth Engine (EDGE), a $4.25 million incentives package was put together, to enhance the financial benefits already available legislatively for film and television production — and to ensure that “Bluff City Law” would not join the conga line of set-but-not-shot-inmemphis productions that includes “The Blind Side” and “Memphis Beat.”
Linn Sitler, head of the Memphis & Shelby County Film and Television Commission since 1987, said she regards “Bluff City Law” as “the most important milestone in my career.”
“The series not only left more money in town than any other client in the last 33 years, it broke through barriers by nurturing and hiring a record number of local crew persons of color,” she said.