2015’s Galavant delivered a fun and witty fantasy meta-comedy, but sadly, audiences just did not tune in for the show.
What Is It?
The musical comedy fantasy TV series follows Galavant, a once-heroic knight who embarks on a quest to reclaim his lost love, Madalena, from the evil King Richard—only to find out she prefers power over romance. Along the way, Galavant teams up with Princess Isabella and his squire, Sid, leading to hilarious misadventures filled with satirical humor, medieval antics, and catchy musical numbers.
Aired: ABC, 2015-16, 2 Seasons Totaling 18 episodes
Starring: Joshua Sasse, Timothy Omundson, Vinnie Jones, Mallory Jansen, Karen David
Created by: Dan Fogelman
Why Was It Cancelled?
This series hit the schedule in 2015, acting as a mid-season fill-in while Once Upon A Time was on its Winter hiatus. And while it seemed like a perfect fit, appealing to both the adult and younger audiences watching that fantasy entry, not many people tuned in during Galavant‘s first season and it seemed sure to be cancelled based on its low ratings. But ABC extended a surprise renewal to the show and it returned for its second season at the top of its form (with the first episode thumbing its nose at the cancellation predictions by the now defunct TV by the Numbers in its title: “A New Season aka Suck It Cancellation Bear”).
Unfortunately, despite the support from the network, still nobody was watching. The show slipped to historically low levels for a Prime Time broadcast network television series and there was no miracle renewal a second time around. The simple fact is that Galavant was cancelled because it failed to find an audience. And you can’t blame ABC because they gave it a chance by renewing it after its low-rated first season and they had it scheduled in a pretty friendly spot. People just did not tune it. Perhaps ABC did not promote it enough. Perhaps a musical/fantasy/comedy just didn’t appeal to the general audience. Perhaps the show was just a bit too quirky for its own good. But for whatever reason, the show did not catch on and the Cancellation Bear eventually did catch up with it (before getting cancelled himself).
Fortunately, the show wrapped up its main storyline by the end of its second season and did not leave viewers hanging (though it also set up a potential new storyline). And really, it would be hard to sustain a comedy like this for too many years, though I believe it had at least a couple more seasons in it, especially since the first two were in the eight-to-ten-episode range. This show could have even ventured into a great Game of Thrones parody if it had lasted a little longer. But instead of a happily ever after, it got cast into the TV Wasteland.
Can It Be Revived?
The show’s composer Alan Menken had mentioned at one point that it could head to Broadway, but to my knowledge, nothing ever happened with that. It has only been nine years since it left the air, so it is possible to bring it back and pick up the story some time after the events of the second season with the time gap factored in. But since the audience was not interested on the first go around, is there any reason to believe that there are enough fans out there to lobby for a revival?
That all depends on whether the show has had enough time to turn into a cult favorite. Galavant is definitely a clever, intelligent, and fun series, and it has been available on streaming since it was cancelled. Perhaps it has built up enough of a following during that period that the fans could make some noise and generate some interest in a return of the series. It would probably take getting creator Dan Fogelman involved for anything to happen, and he does have some clout now after the successes of This Is Us, Only Murders in the Building, and the recent sci fi series Paradise.
If fans were to start staging watch parties and trying to get the show trending on social media, that could bring it some attention. And if they were to stage a campaign to buy it VOD, that would certainly impact the bottom line (you can find more campaign ideas at this link). Perhaps these actions could spur the interest of Fogelman, and if he gave some support to the campaign, maybe a third season could happen on streaming which would be the perfect home for the show. The first two seasons of Galavant are on Disney-owned Hulu, and a third season could make a nice addition. I don’t know if there are enough fans out there to make this happen, but I know that I would certainly enjoy another round of episodes from this show that was taken from us all too soon.
Where Can You Watch It?
The entire series was released on DVD, but that has since gone out of print and it is fetching pretty high prices from third-party sellers. As mentioned above, it is currently streaming on Hulu and you can also buy it VOD from sellers like Amazon.com.
Stream Galavant on Hulu or Buy It VOD
Did you watch Galavant and would you support fan efforts to save the show? Chime in below in the comments.
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Would love a third season!