ITC had initially planned a 13-episode third season of the show (solely for the purpose of increasing the show's syndication package from 48 to 61 episodes, with some reports indicating it to have been running concurrently with a spin-off starring
Catherine Schell as Maya). Unfortunately, not enough stations had placed renewal orders for the following season. It was rumored that had the show continued into a third season,
Tony Anholt would've passed it up (after this episode finished filming, Anholt hired a new agent and went back to theater work where casting agents could see him in roles other than Tony Verdeschi). In a 1986 Starlog interview,
Martin Landau expressed his belief that the real reason the show's third season failed to materialize was due to head of ITC
Lew Grade's interest in branching out into motion pictures, which absorbed most of his finances. Schell confirmed this, stating that their third season was sacrificed to provide advertising budgets to support three different ITC films to prevent them from failing at the box office (
The Cassandra Crossing (1976),
March or Die (1977),
Circle of Iron (1978)); the three films failed anyway at this series' expense. The only TV series Grade had funded after this show's second season (besides
The Muppet Show (1976)) was
Return of the Saint (1978), which only lasted one season due to its budget also being diverted toward Grade's film projects. Grade lost control of ITC in 1982; apparently, his film
Raise the Titanic (1980) ended up sinking him.
