It can be a rocky transition going from movies to television, especially after years in the business — unless, of course, you’re legendary actor James Caan. After decades of success on the big screen in movies like “The Godfather,” “Misery,” and “Rollerball,” Cann made the switch at the age of 63 when he landed a lead role in “Las Vegas.” The show cast Caan as Ed Deline, the head of security for a swanky Las Vegas casino, and surrounded him with plenty of talent, including Josh Duhamel, who remembered Caan fondly when he passed in 2022. However, NBC was still pretty sure the show wouldn’t survive.
Creator Gary Scott Thompson said despite the flashy setting, big-name actors, bigger-name cameos, and sky-high budget, the show wasn’t projected to be a hit. “We’re the fat, ugly, b***ard, redheaded stepsister,” Thompson told Entertainment Weekly in 2008. “That season [2003], the acclaimed shows at NBC were ‘Coupling,’ ‘Whoopi,’ ‘Happy Family,’ ‘Lyon’s Den,’ and ‘Miss Match.’ We were the one that was not supposed to succeed. That underdog mentality brought the cast together.”
And what the cast produced when they came together was a top-30 show in its first season, which is impressive considering NBC put it on Monday night against some fairly stiff competition. “We were going to get destroyed by ‘Monday Night Football,’ then ‘Everybody Loves Raymond,’ then ‘Skin,’ and then ‘My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiancé,” Thompson told Entertainment Weekly after Season 1. “But we’re still hanging in there.”
Las Vegas endured despite its sky-high budget
Recreating the glitz and glamor of a Vegas casino is not cheap, and “Las Vegas” creator Gary Scott Thompson found that out first hand while filming the pilot, which came in at a staggering $5 million. After that, each episode came in around $2 million, which was still double what a typical drama cost to make at the time. Part of that budget had to do with securing stars like James Caan. “He was always my first choice,” Thompson told SFGate, “but I never thought he wanted to do TV. We are lucky to have him. Plus, he’s a real sweetheart.”
“Las Vegas” ended up sticking around for five seasons, and Caan was there for four of them before deciding it was time to return to the big screen. “TV is really tough — 87 episodes is a long time to be away from a feature career,” Thompson told Hollywood.com. “… He was itching to do a movie and he couldn’t do them while we were shooting.”
Caan also may have seen the writing on the wall, as the show plummeted in the ratings during Season 4 and was barely renewed for its final season. The series replaced Caan with Tom Selleck, but it didn’t help. Flagging ratings and the writers’ strike spelled doom, and the show’s cancellation left its fans on a cliffhanger. The series all but disappeared after that, but it has recently found its way onto streaming, with “Las Vegas” now available to stream on Peacock.
