Heather Graham's Sex And The City-Style Series Was Canceled After Just One Episode

After HBO's hit series "Sex and the City" ended in 2004, "Emily's Reasons Why Not" on ABC tried to fill the void with another show centered on a neurotic, single career woman looking for love. With a gap in their lineup due to "Monday Night Football", the network needed a show to fill in during the winter and spring of 2006. Heather Graham plays Emily, an editor of self-help books who is encouraged by her therapist to make a list explaining why her previous relationships have failed. The network believed the show's girl-power energy and sassy ensemble made "Emily's Reasons Why Not" poised to draw a large audience. But instead of hitting its stride, the series completely fell flat.

"Emily's Reasons Why Not" earned an unfortunate distinction: it became one of the few series ever canceled after just one episode. Much of that had to do with the show serving as the antithesis of "Sex and the City": sanitized, shallow, and tone-deaf. 

Heather Graham comes across as distractingly spacey as the title character, and her dating hijinks feel overly Disney-fied. Her romance problems could easily be applied to a high school character. Because it aired on ABC, the show could not push far with sexuality, so the humor leaned on lazy, juvenile stereotypes instead. In the pilot, Emily suspects that her Mormon boyfriend is — gasp! — gay. This ends up being the only joke that runs through the entire episode.

One of the biggest attempted punchlines comes when Emily just pouts while her friends stand by and watch her boyfriend's "very gay behavior." While the early 2000s were not especially progressive, the show hammers the joke so relentlessly that it would not have landed even at the time. Emily also has a gay best friend whose contrived flamboyance is off the charts. Queerty appropriately named "Emily's Reasons Why Not" as one of the worst attempts at being a queer sitcom ever.

Fortunately, this brief misstep did not derail Heather Graham from having a solid television presence. She later appeared in series such as "Californication," "Flaked," and "Bliss," as well as the Netflix film "Best. Christmas. Ever!" and is set to appear in Mike Flanagan's "Carrie." Rather than feeling like a successor to "Sex and the City," the series played it so safe that it stripped away any chance of originality. That creative miscalculation is likely why ABC pulled the plug before viewers even had time to settle in.