USA Network cancels film about Seattle-area cyanide killings

LOS ANGELES -- USA Network took the highly unusual step of canceling the production of a television movie about two Seattle-area drug-tampering deaths after a major pharmaceutical company expressed concern about the project.

The cable network said Wednesday it pulled the plug on "Who Killed Sue Snow?" on Nov. 22, five days before filming was to begin in Vancouver, British Columbia. The movie was based on the 1986 deaths of two Seattle-area residents who took cyanide-laced Excedrin.

The action by USA followed objections by Johnson & Johnson, whose subsidiary manufactures Tylenol.

The New Brunswick, N.J.-based company threatened to pull all advertising at the network and ask other pharmaceutical manufacturers to do the same, the Los Angeles Times said Wednesday, citing sources involved in the project who requested anonymity.

The sources said Johnson & Johnson wanted to avoid reminding the public of seven Chicago-area deaths in 1982 from cyanide-tainted Extra Strength Tylenol. It is unclear whether Excedrin maker Bristol-Myers Squibb also raised concerns. A Bristol-Myers spokesman said he could not confirm whether the company had done so.

John McKeegan, a spokesman for Johnson & Johnson, confirmed Tuesday that the company complained about the movie, but denied that it threatened to pull advertising.

"We were advised of the program and didn't feel it was appropriate," McKeegan said. "And we communicated that to the network."

USA officials said the project was pulled after Johnson & Johnson argued that the movie was irresponsible.

"USA Network and its advertisers agreed that it would be in the public's best interest to stop production of this movie," said Ron Sato, a USA spokesman. He said the project was killed over concerns that a TV movie about drug-tampering fatalities might lead to copycat crimes.

"We made the right decision and we stand by it," Sato said Wednesday.

USA has dropped from first to fifth place in prime-time ratings among cable networks, and can little afford to lose a valuable advertiser at a time when an expected industry-wide advertising slowdown has media companies worried. Drug companies are the nation's fifth-largest advertisers, spending $2.4 billion in the first six months of this year on all media, according to Competitive Media Reporting.

Still, it is virtually unheard of for television executives to pull a program because of advertisers' concerns. "I can't remember a case where a show was canceled because of pressure from an advertiser," said Jack Myers, chief economist for the Myers Reports, a New York-based research firm specializing in media.

It is unclear who at USA made the decision, which leaves the network responsible for costs of more than $1 million and led to about 150 actors and crew members losing their jobs, the Times said. USA is part of USA Networks Inc. a media company owned by media mogul Barry Diller, who has controlling interest, and Seagram Co.

The movie was to star Katey Sagal, the wife on Fox's "Married . . . With Children," as Stella Nickell, who was convicted of lacing the Extra Strength Excedrin capsules that killed her husband. To make the murder look like the work of a random killer, Nickell laced other Excedrin bottles and placed them on store shelves in the suburban Seattle town where she lived.

Sue Snow, 40, bought one of the tainted bottles, swallowed two capsules and died. Nickell, who is serving a 90-year prison sentence, was the first person in the country to be prosecuted and convicted of murder under federal anti-tampering laws.

The first signs of trouble emerged three weeks before the cameras were to roll when USA executives shared advertiser concerns with Columbia TriStar Television, which was producing the movie. Though it's not clear precisely how drug manufacturers learned about the movie, in recent years, with growing sensitivity toward violence and profanity on television, network advertising sales departments have routinely allowed sponsors to preview programming.

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