Now we may never know who was wearing that duck costume at the Halloween garden party. Or for that matter, who killed Alice’s dog.
In the Metro Times last month, Bill Krebs, Grosse Pointe Park native and co-creator of the NBC primetime soap-satire Grosse Pointe Garden Society, made an impassioned plea to readers to watch reruns of the show’s first season on the network’s streaming service, Peacock.
“Everyone should binge the show on Peacock,” Krebs urged. “There has been talk of possibly moving us over to their streamer. We are using this month to gain as many eyeballs as possible.”
Apparently our best efforts were not good enough. NBC recently announced it was canceling the series set in metro Detroit’s stately old-money suburb after just 13 episodes, meaning the identities of the duck-disguised party animal and the canine killer, as well as the show’s other cliffhangers, may never be revealed.
The network had great expectations for GPGS. It moved the series from 10 p.m. Sundays to 8 p.m. Fridays last midseason in hopes of boosting its viewership, and it was the last of six prime-time series NBC canceled for next fall, well over a month after axing the other five. NBCUniversal had toyed with the idea of moving the series to Peacock for its second season, but ultimately decided its summer ratings didn’t justify the option and the deal fell through.
Some cast members from GPGS, shot on location in Atlanta rather than Grosse Pointe due to tax incentives, seem to be taking the cancellation hard. Anna Sophia Robb, who starred as harried high school teacher Alice Morris, posted a cast photo on her Instagram Stories and wrote, “Damn. I will miss our GPGS family. Grateful and proud of all that we made together.”
Melissa Fumero, who played sexy society wild-child Birdie Bradley in the series, wrote on her Instagram Stories, “This one stings. This job is not for the faint of heart.”
Fumero, perhaps best known for her work on the sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine, added in her own Instagram post, “Oh, Birdie. You were one for the books. You felt like an amalgamation of every role I’ve ever played. I’ll miss so many things about this job, but most of all I will miss the incredible group of humans it brought together. I won’t miss the shoes. 👠It’s really hard to make a show. Even harder to keep it on air. I’ll forever be proud of what we made. Thanks for watching. 💖💐🥀🥀🥀”