Five years later, English and Shukovsky were back at CBS with another series: The Lawyers, starring Alan King, Peter Gallagher and Jamie Gertz. Once again, the network didn't like the casting choices; once again, the couple refused to make changes. Only this time, CBS told English and Shukovsky to take a hike. Since the network didn't own The Lawyers, CBS had no interest in holding onto either the show or English and Shukovsky, with whom CBS had a multiseries deal dating back to 1990. The series never made it past its initial pilot.
"The empowerment these corporations have now has made it very difficult for creators," English says. "You see a lot of very smart people dropping out. And there's so much you're not going to see. The perfect example is The Sopranos, which was developed for Fox and rejected by every network. I will say that there are some wonderful shows on now, and there will always be wonderful shows. But I think that there are more terrible shows than there ever were, and how many more of these horrible reality things do we have to endure just because they're really cheap to make? It's so sad."
