Beyond The Animated TV Grave is a sub-series of Beyond The TV Grave, and takes a look at short-lived prime time adult animated series that aired on ABC, CBS, or NBC. This ninth edition focuses on NBC's summer 2000 series Sammy, which was pulled from the schedule after two airings.
Background & Synopsis
Sammy was inspired by David Spade's family, who co-created, narrated, and co-executive produced the show. In the show, Sammy is a father who comes back to his son Jamie's life once Jamie becomes a TV star. David Spade voiced both Sammy and Jamie, a creative decision panned by critics upon its premiere.
Sammy was one or two new adult animated comedies commissioned by NBC to air during the 1999-2000 TV season. The other, God, the Devil and Bob, was the first to premiere when it made the schedule in March 2000. It was marred with controversy and was pulled from NBC's schedule after airing four episodes . Despite internal backing, affiliates were pulling the show from their schedules in droves, with some refusing to air it at all.
Not wanting to run the risk of replacing the fiasco that was God, the Devil and Bob with another adult animated offering, NBC opted to hold Sammy back until deep in the depths of summer 2000. Like God, the Devil and Bob, Sammy would air Tuesdays at 8:30 pm after a fledging 3rd Rock from the Sun. Unlike God, the Devil and Bob, Sammy wouldn't premiere until August, and its 3rd Rock from the Sun lead-in would be in the form of reruns. While there was space on the schedule for Sammy to serve as God, the Devil and Bob's immediate replacement, NBC chose to go with the safer option by plugging Frasier reruns into the time slot instead.
Ratings & Cancelation
NBC clearly had low standards for Sammy, with its time slot being a de facto death sentence. They also aired episodes out of order, with the premiere being the third episode produced and the second airing being the sixth episode produced. Even with low expectations, Sammy managed to underperform. Whereas 3rd Rock from the Sun's rerun garnered a paltry 3.7 Household rating at 8 pm, Sammy held onto roughly 75% of that with a
2.8 rating. It lost to sitcom reruns on CBS (Ladies Man's 3.3) and FOX (Titus' 3.5), and narrowly edged out a rerun of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on The WB (2.2). Fellow adult animated comedy Dilbert looked healthier comparatively, notching a 0.9 Household rating for a rerun out of its lead-in's 1.0 on UPN. It doesn't help that Sammy had to go up against Who Wants to Be A Millionaire (14.7) and started at the bottom of the hour, but the premiere was an underperformance from low expectations nonetheless.
The following week, while 3rd Rock from the Sun stayed steady at a 3.7, Sammy declined 18% to a
2.3 Household rating. Again, it came in a distant fourth in the hour, narrowly escaping fifth and looking more dire than sixth place Dilbert given NBC's larger audience size. It was pulled from the schedule after this airing, averaging a 2.55 Household rating for its two-week run. That's 42% lower than God, the Devil and Bob, NBC's lowest-rated show that aired squarely within the standard
1999-2000 TV season. It was also lower-rated than anything that aired in-season on ABC, CBS, and FOX, six shows that aired on The WB, and three that aired on UPN. It would have come in 130th place overall, and 31st on NBC with those ratings.
NBC replaced Sammy and 3rd Rock from the Sun reruns with various hour-long specials, like a Saturday Night Live rerun and an Access Hollywood primetime special. Both were modest improvements for the 8 pm half hour and vast improvements from Sammy's 8:30 performances.
Aftermath
Since Sammy was already being burned off in the summer when it was pulled from the schedule, the remaining 11 episodes in the first season's order never aired. The cartoon was rescued from perceived lost media status in 2021, when the series began to be uploaded to YouTube. As of December 2025, the full series can be viewed on YouTube here and here. They have brought in roughly 110K views between them, with roughly a third of those views being from the pilot.
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