Arrow was on target, and that’s a very good thing for anyone who’s watched the CW in the past decade or so.
The show bore “the pressure of keeping the whole network on the air,” according to Marc Guggenheim, co-creator and executive producer of the DC Comics superhero TV series that ran for eight seasons from 2012 to 2020.
Warner Bros. TV chairman Peter Roth “took us out to lunch and basically laid out for us in incredible detail the reality that if Arrow wasn’t a hit, there would be no more CW,” Guggenheim said on Wednesday’s edition of The Showrunner Whisperer podcast.
The DC Comics story is about rich, spoiled playboy Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell), who is lost at sea, but then returns determined to rid his city of crime. The show was so successful, that the Arrowverse franchise grew up around it, with shows including The Flash and Supergirl.
Guggenheim said he doesn’t believe the dark, gritty show would be done today, with the network producing fewer scripted series.
“I don’t think we could have done it with the amount of leeway and creative freedom that we had. It was a very special, unique time in the business,” he said.
Guggenheim’s take on the CW’s current creative atmosphere echoes sentiments shared in June by actor Jared Padalecki, who had been on the CW for 25 years between shows like Gilmore Girls and Supernatural and lamented the cancellation of his latest show, Walker.
“My understanding is — and again, this is just what I’m told — that [owner] Nexstar is going in a different direction with the CW,” Padalecki told Variety. “I mean, they have an hour of Trivial Pursuit and an hour of Scrabble coming up.”
“They’re just changing the network around,” he said, “where it’s not really going to be a TV network as much as it’s going to be, ‘Here’s something fun for an hour that you’ll never watch again, but hopefully you watch it. And it’s cheap!’ And I hate to say that, but I’m just being honest. I mean, f— it. They can’t fire me again.”
All eight seasons of Arrow are now available to stream on Netflix, along with several other former CW series including Supernatural, The Flash, Supergirl, Black Lightning, and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow.
We can thank Arrow‘s Oliver Queen for saving Starling City — and for saving an entire television network, too.
In a new interview with The Showrunner Whisperer podcast, Arrow co-creator and executive producer Marc Guggenheim reveals that after the Stephen Amell-led superhero show earned a pilot order at The CW, Warner Bros. TV chairman Peter Roth “took us out to lunch and basically laid out for us in incredible detail the reality that if Arrow wasn’t a hit, there would be no more CW… Now we also have the pressure of keeping the whole network on the air.”
Arrow wasn’t an easy sell, either, when it debuted on The CW in 2012, Guggenheim remembers: “We were trying to do a superhero show in a way that had never been done before.” The closest thing to it at the time was the WB/CW’s Superman origin story Smallville, he notes, “but Arrow was nothing like Smallville. It was much grittier, it was much darker, it had a lot more action… That made it challenging.”
But the gamble paid off: Arrow became one of The CW’s top-rated shows, with the series premiere becoming the network’s most-watched telecast in three years. Arrow ran for eight seasons and launched a fleet of spinoffs known collectively as the Arrowverse, with The Flash, Supergirl and Legends of Tomorrow all running for multiple seasons on The CW, joined later by Batwoman and Black Lightning.
Now Guggenheim looks back on those days fondly — and believes we may not see them again, with The CW now pivoting away from original scripted shows: “I don’t think we could do Arrow today… I don’t think we could have done it with the amount of leeway and creative freedom that we had. It was a very special, unique time in the business.”
Arrow fades out with a beautifully poignant, surprising, not so surprising, nostalgic, hopeful, and gut-wrenching final episode. Seriously, y’all I cried buckets. Arrow’s finale is everything we love (and hate) about the show. Most importantly, it gives fans closure while leaving room for possibility. Summing up the entirety of an eight-year television show in a single hour is no easy task, but Arrow smartly zeroes in on what matters. The core characters are saying goodbye to Oliver Queen, but our hero is saying goodbye to us. In a life often mired down by uncertainty, Oliver’s decisions leave no room for doubt. He understands with perfect clarity the point of it all. Arrow has meant many things to many people, but Oliver has the final word on what it all meant to him. The answer may be surprising to some, but I am certain those who have loved Arrow best have always known the point of Oliver Queen’s story.
Marc Guggenheim and Beth Schwartz gave me plenty to obsessively dissect. There’s symbolism to analyze; Greek philosophy and religion to wax poetically about; shade to throw; song lyrics to quote; snarky jokes to make; sweaty-tank-top-and-leather-pants men to drool over; missed opportunities to rage over; EPIC feels to feel; surprises to scream about IN ALL CAPS; tears to cry; and lessons to learn. And gifs. Of course, there will be gifs. You’ve been with me the whole ride, so let’s go on one more mission together. Say goodbye to Arrow with me, my friends. I had to break this into two parts because of the gifs. Get comfy. We’ll be here awhile. Let’s dig in (one last time)…
Star City Post Crisis
I’ve spent years and an incalculable amount of hours and pages railing against Oliver and his God complex. How many times did I tell Oliver and his ever-present guilt, “You can’t save everyone! You aren’t friggin Jesus!” How many times did I point out the flaw in his tunnel vision pursuit of saving the city? “How does the mission ever stop? What are you going to do? ERADICATE CRIME?”
Rather than listen to my honest and, quite frankly, damn good advice – Oliver Queen told me where to stick it. Instead of accepting his limitations as a human being, accepting what he cannot change, Oliver became the superhero equivalent of Jesus. He brought back all his dead loved ones (with some notable exceptions) and eliminated all criminal activity in Star City. Not even future Mayor Rene Ramirez can screw it up. The only way that’s believable is if there’s divine intervention. Game, set and match Spectre. Central City looks like Detroit in comparison now, which I firmly believe is Oliver shoving Bart’s key to the city right up his – Anyway… the ungrateful twats of Star City live in Disney World now.
Source: Entertainment Weekly, Variety
