Doing business the Disney way

IN THE LATE 1980s, Bob Iger - then head of ABC Entertainment - greenlit a TV series called Cop Rock. In a golden TV era filled with popular cop shows such as Miami Vice and Cagney & Lacey, Cop Rock was breaking the mold by telling the stories of cops in song and dance. It sounded unusual, but Iger trusted the instincts of the creative producer Steven Bochco who already had a string a hits such as LA Law and Hill Street Blues.

As luck would have it, Cop Rock turned out to be a massive critical and commercial failure. Nobody wanted to watch cops sing - not even the people who enjoyed Broadway musicals. The show ran for just 11 episodes before the plug was pulled. And critics frequently list it as one of the worst TV shows of all time.

Iger didn't lose his job, and he didn't fire Bochco. He regarded the incident as a kind of necessary risk one has to take in a creative industry where there are no guaranteed success formulas. He'd rather take risks with something completely new than stick to the tried-and-tested.