Cybill Shepherd: Moonves Killed My Show After I Rejected Him

Cybill could have run for another 5 years, she says
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 14, 2018 6:25 AM CST
Cybill Shepherd: Moonves Killed My Show After I Rejected Him
Cybill Shepherd attends a special 40th anniversary screening of "Taxi Driver" during the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival at the Beacon Theatre on Thursday, April 21, 2016, in New York.   (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

Cybill Shepherd says her 1990s sitcom was smothered, then killed by Les Moonves after she rejected his advances. In an interview with Sirius XM's Michelle Collins Show, the star said Cybill, which was cancelled in 1998 after four seasons, "could have run another five years, but I didn't fall on the right side of Les," USA Today reports. She said problems began after assistants scheduled a dinner date with Moonves, then president of CBS Entertainment. "He was telling me his wife didn't turn him on, some mistress didn't turn him on. And I'm watching him drink alcohol and he says, 'Why don't you let me take you home?" At least a dozen other women have accused Moonves of sexual misconduct.

Shepherd said she declined the offer—and soon afterward, she began receiving notes about what her character shouldn't do or say, NBC News reports. She said in an episode about menopause, she was banned from saying "menses, menstruation, or period ... I had to fight to say period." The show was then canceled so abruptly that the final episode ends with a cliffhanger and the words "To Be Continued." Shepherd said she was also banned from working in the editing room for the final two episodes, which she found "very painful." She strongly suspects that the show's executive producer and head writer froze her out on orders from Moonves. (A CBS hitmaker believes her feminist agenda was the cause of Moonves' "personal vendetta" against her.")

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