The hilarious cancellation of ‘Dilbert’ TV show is remembered in wake of Scott Adams’ removal from newspapers worldwide

It turns out there is at least one thing about Dilbert that can make you laugh. Unfortunately for creator Scott Adams, who just had his long-running strip pulled from syndication due to his recent online racist screed, it isn’t anything he actually wrote for the strip. It does reference downsizing though — but not in a way he would prefer you to remember.

It may surprise you to find out that Dilbert was actually adapted into an animated series of the same name. The Sony-produced program actually assembled some impressive talent based on the strip’s then-high-profile popularity. Seinfeld writer Larry Charles, who would go on to direct Borat, served with Adams as showrunner while talents like Daniel Stern and comedians Chris Elliot, Larry Miller, and Kathy Griffin served as the voice talent. The Simpsons composer Danny Elfman even wrote the theme song.

However, shifting time slots and the fact that the show aired on UPN as opposed to the major networks didn’t foster an environment for the series to thrive and, despite generally good reviews, it was canceled after two seasons. The last episode aired in July of 2000. And UPN didn’t exactly show it the door gracefully. In fact, it pretty much said not to let the doorknob hit it on the way out.

In a press release announcing the show’s demise, UPN declared, without any irony, that it would be filling the vacant time slot with “testosterone.” The show was replaced by Barry Levinson and Tom Fontana’s The Beat, a cop drama that focused on the lives of two NYPD uniformed police officers and their girlfriends. The series lasted only one season — one fewer than Dilbert — but the press release did no favors to Adams or his characters, practically conjuring up the image of a nerdy engineer being unceremoniously booted out of the lineup by a handsome cop (one played by a young and hunky Mark Ruffalo, no less).

Years later, and only a few months shy of his now-infamous rant, Adams would complain to The Wrap that the show’s cancellation was due to UPN’s decision to seek a Black audience, though there is no evidence confirming this — and how UPN expected to pull off this demographic feat with The Beat, featuring a nearly all-white cast and production team, is also a mystery. But Adams blaming cancel culture for his woes has been a constant theme of late. And ironically has probably led to his actual cancellation by the syndicates that once published him.