For all the blood, sweat, and manpower that ABC poured into finding a successor to “Lost” (a show that shaped the course of television in the early 21st century), I’d bet dollars to donuts the network never wagered it would take the shape of “Once Upon a Time.”
Conceived by “Lost” alumni and “TRON: Legacy” writers Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis, “Once Upon a Time” casts “House, M.D.” veteran Jennifer Morrison as Emma Swan, a seemingly unremarkable bail bond agent who, just like any hero’s journey protagonist worth their salt, discovers there’s far more to her world (and destiny) than she ever realized. The show itself combines jigsaw puzzle-style storytelling with well-known fairy tale characters — especially the Disneyfied versions, which was possible thanks to ABC being owned by the Mouse House — to create a dense lore and elaborate mythos that rivals anything J.J. Abrams or Damon Lindelof could ever hope to dream of. What you end up with is a series that miraculously finds a way to comfortably reside at the overlapping point between “Disney Enthusiasts” (I’d call them “Disney Dorks” for alliterative effect if I wasn’t worried that’d be taken the wrong way) and “TV Mystery Box Nerds” on a Venn Diagram. Is it any wonder it took off?
Ultimately, even at a time when it appeared as though the then-newfound curiosity known as streaming and Netflix’s all-at-once release strategy could make weekly network television go the way of the dodo, “Once Upon a Time” survived long enough to air 155 episodes spread across seven seasons from 2011-2018. There was even a point where ABC tried to expand the brand with “Once Upon a Time in Wonderland,” a spin-off centered on “Alice in Wonderland” characters like Sophie Lowe’s Alice and Emma Rigby’s Red Queen. (Also, Jafar from “Aladdin,” as played by “Lost” alumnus Naveen Andrews sans the unusual fingernails, is there too — long story.) Unfortunately, the show only lasted a single 13-episode season before network execs pulled a Red Queen and ordered its head to be lopped off. So, what happened?
Once Upon a Time in Wonderland went up against The Big Bang Theory and lost
When “Once Upon a Time in Wonderland” premiered on ABC in October 2013, everything seemed to be going swimmingly for the greater “Once Upon a Time” franchise. Its parent show was still a ratings beast in its recently kicked-off third season, so it certainly seemed like the interest was there for an expansion of the property. The critical reception was admittedly restrained (“Wonderland” only holds a 63% on Rotten Tomatoes), but even that would only partly explain why the series’ viewership started off well below what “Once Upon a Time” was pulling in at the time before further declining. As it turns out, there was, in fact, another substantial factor at play.
Speaking at the Television Critics Association’s press tour in July 2014 (via Entertainment Weekly), ABC’s then-Entertainment Group president Paul Lee admitted the network probably doomed “Wonderland” by airing it in the same Thursday evening time slot as the absolute ratings monster that was “The Big Bang Theory” over at CBS. The idea was the “Once Upon a Time” spin-off would lead into the soapy ABC medical drama mainstay “Grey’s Anatomy” on Thursday evenings and help (in Lee’s words) “build a night of empowered women,” as opposed to ABC using “Wonderland” to fill the gap in its schedule while “Once Upon a Time” went on its midseason break. In the end, however, Lee and ABC learned one of the cold hard facts of life: Nobody messes with Sheldon Cooper and lives to tell the tale.
Luckily, Horowitz, Kitsis, and their fellow creatives, which included the duo’s “Wonderland” co-creators Jane Espenson (herself a “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” linchpin turned “Once Upon a Time” staple) and the late Zack Estrin (“Prison Break,” “Lost in Space”), had gone in intending for the spin-off to tell a complete story during its first season, so those who did watch weren’t cursed with a never-to-be-resolved cliffhanger. It’s not exactly the sort of happily ever after you expect from a Disney fairy tale, but it’ll have to do.