The Lone Shark - Permanent Suspension of Production (Cancellation)

Permanent Suspension of Production (Cancellation)

Tensions between SoundView Television's station management and The Lone Shark’s producers built up, aggravated by Jim Sharky's inferences about the Station Manager’s personal life during the ″Semenex Taste Test″ episode. Finally, in August 2001, during the live broadcast of ″The Morpheus Episode″,a three-second clip of an adult video portraying anal sex was shown during a demonstration of the capabilities of the Morpheus file sharing application. A week later, just a few hours before the next live episode of The Lone Shark was to be televised, Producer Sean Haffner received a phone call from the SoundView Television Station Manager informing Haffner that (in response to the airing of the adult video clip) the program was suspended from production. A few days later, Sharky and Haffner each received formal notices of suspension of production. The suspension stated that The Lone Shark would not be televised for a period of four weeks. After four weeks, the program could resume production, but only pre-taped episodes were to be televised for a period of six months. Once the six-month penalty period had ended, The Lone Shark was to resume the production of live episodes. The letters also stated that the producers could appeal the suspension. Sharky and Haffner decided not to appeal, because (coincidentally) both producers had more pressing personal issues that would have curbed production of The Lone Shark for at least the next six months, anyway (Sharky was going through a divorce and Haffner’s father had become ill with a terminal disease).

In September 2001, after the initial four-week production suspension period had ended, Executive Producer Jim Sharky contacted the SoundView Television Station Manager to inquire about resuming the in-studio production of The Lone Shark. Sharky was informed that, because no appeal of the suspension had been made by himself or Haffner, a little-known clause in the Producers’ Contract with SoundView allowed the Station Manager to permanently suspend the program from production.

In May 2002, Producer Sean Haffner (speaking on behalf of himself and Jim Sharky) appealed to a meeting of the local Cable Advisory Council, which he had been told could possibly aid in restoring the production of The Lone Shark. Although only two of the Council members had actually viewed a recording of the offending episode, the remaining Council members decided that they did not need to view the recording before making a judgement on Haffner’s appeal. The Council voted 4-2 against recommending restoration of The Lone Shark’s production (the two council members who had viewed the recording actually voted in favor of Haffner’s appeal).

When their appeal failed, Sharky and Haffner were prodded by supporters of The Lone Shark to file a lawsuit against SoundView Television demanding that the program be allowed to resume production. After mulling over the possibility of legal action, Sharky and Haffner decided that their personal lives (which, at times over the previous ten years, had suffered because of their dedication to The Lone Shark) would take precedent. They took no further actions to resume production of the program and in June 2002, production of The Lone Shark television program was permanently dismantled.