The Beautiful Life

The Beautiful Life
GenreTeen drama
Created byAdam Giaudrone
Starring
Opening theme"Samurai Showdown" by Shane Newville
Composers
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes6 (4 unaired)
Production
Executive producers
Production locationNew York City
Running time42 minutes
Production companies
Original release
NetworkThe CW
ReleaseSeptember 16 (2009-09-16) –
December 18, 2009 (2009-12-18)
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview)

The Beautiful Life (also known as The Beautiful Life: TBL) is an American teen drama television series, which ran on The CW from September 16 to September 23, 2009. The series starred Mischa Barton, Elle Macpherson, Sara Paxton, and Corbin Bleu. It revolved around a group of male and female models sharing a residence in New York City.[1] Mike Kelley served as the showrunner for the series, based on the script by former model-turned-writer Adam Giaudrone, and Ashton Kutcher was the executive producer.[2] The CW ordered 13 episodes for the first season.

On September 25, 2009, The Beautiful Life was canceled after two episodes due to low ratings.[3] This was the first network television cancellation of the 2009–10 television season. Six full episodes were produced, while the cancellation came during the filming of the seventh episode.[4] Due to scheduling conflicts for some of the planned guest stars, some filming had also taken place for other planned episodes. On November 17, 2009, The New York Daily News reported that the CW planned to air the remaining completed episodes during the summer months. However, a CW spokesperson stated that "the status of unaired episodes has yet to be determined", and as of now, the remaining episodes remain unaired.[5]

The first five (of six reportedly produced) episodes were streamed on YouTube, with Kutcher stating, in December 2009, "What we feel like we're doing is creating, in some ways, an industry first.... A show that couldn't find its legs on television, we believe can find its legs on the Web."[6] The five episodes, when they first streamed, had been sponsored by HP.[7]

  1. ^ "Mischa Barton Opts for 'A Beautiful Life'". The Hollywood Reporter. March 13, 2009. Retrieved December 8, 2009 – via Reuters.
  2. ^ Rao, Priya (July 28, 2009). "Material Girls: The Stars of 'The Beautiful Life'". wwd.com. Retrieved December 8, 2009.
  3. ^ Rice, Lynette (September 25, 2009). "CW cancels Mischa Barton starrer 'The Beautiful Life'". ew.com. Retrieved December 8, 2009.
  4. ^ CW Cancels "The Beautiful Life", The Hollywood Reporter, September 25, 2009
  5. ^ Sidman, Amanda (November 17, 2009). "CW mulls resurrecting Mischa Barton's 'The Beautiful Life;' unaired episodes to run this summer". Daily News. New York. Retrieved December 8, 2009.
  6. ^ Fischer, Molly (December 17, 2009). "Mischa Returns to the (Very) Small Screen". New York Observer. Archived from the original on January 6, 2010. Retrieved October 27, 2018.
  7. ^ Baar, Aaron (December 19, 2009). "HP To Sponsor 'Beautiful Life' On YouTube". MarketingDaily. Archived from the original on January 18, 2010. Retrieved October 27, 2018.