By Brian Gallagher For Dailymail.com 3:06 AM February 17, 2023, updated 6:56 AM February 17, 2023
Just weeks after Hulu surprisingly canceled their hit sitcom Reboot, series star Johnny Knoxville is speaking out after receiving plenty of critical acclaim.
The 51-year-old actor (born Philip John Clapp) played Clay Barber, a substance abuse actor and comedian who starred on the hit sitcom Step Right Up, which was rebooted into the Hulu series.
The show was his first scripted series to be a series regular, though he revealed to Vulture he’s still working out the cancellation.
The cancellation was first announced in late January, despite creator Steve Levitan trying to find a new home for the show.
He announced earlier this month that the show was dead entirely after efforts to find a new home failed.
Speaking Up: Just weeks after Hulu surprisingly canceled their hit sitcom Reboot, series star Johnny Knoxville opens up about Johnny’s character after receiving critical acclaim: The 51-year-old actor (born Philip John Clapp) played Clay Barber, an actor and comedian with a history of substance abuse starring in the hit sitcom Step Right Up, rebooted on the Hulu series
Knoxville revealed, “Obviously I would have liked it to have ended differently, but I realize I’m a very lucky person.”
“We put on a great show and it will be there for people to watch forever. That’s a pretty awesome thing,” he added.
“Hopefully I don’t come across as angry or sad. I’m so thankful for everything that happened, but of course I’m a little bit pissed about the ending,” Knoxville admitted.
He admitted he has “a lot of feelings about it,” and while he’s “grateful and grateful” that he got to do the show, he’s still “stunned and shocked that it’s over.”
“I’m still trying to process it. I mean come on it was a Steve Levitan show. We delivered a very strong first season. This is my first series, so I was spoiled,” he said.
“Everyone kept telling me that it’s rare to work with people you like on a show of this caliber. We all got along so well. We said, “Oh, this is going to be fun for five or six seasons,” he admitted.
“We took it for granted. Boy were we surprised. Oscar Wilde said, “Life imitates art far more than art imitates life,” but he didn’t see what happened with Reboot,” Knoxville continued.
“We’re disappointed that it was cancelled, but I’m not unmusical either. People have real problems in this world. Canceling an actor show isn’t the end of the world. That said, we loved it and were confident it would continue,” he said.
Disappointed: Knoxville revealed: “Obviously I would have wished it had ended differently, but I realize I’m a very lucky person.”
The series followed the cast of a hit early 2000s sitcom called Step Right Up, rebooted with the original cast grappling with a world-changing must faster than they thought.
The cast also included Keegan Michael Key, Rachel Bloom, Judy Greer, Calum Worthy, Krista Marie Yu and Paul Reiser.
The show received rave reviews from critics and received two Critics Choice Award nominations, one for Best Comedy Series and one for Best Actor in a Comedy Series for Keegan Michael Key.
When asked if he had any insight into the reasons for the show’s cancellation, Knoxville admitted, “I have no idea why it was canceled.”
“Everything is played very close to the waistcoat. I know we made fun of Hulu a lot on the show, but I have more faith in the executives than canceling it for such a stupid reason,” he said.
When the interviewer suggested that the reason might be, “Hulu has a very arbitrary algorithm and Reboot didn’t meet its requirements,” Knoxville thought that might very well be true.
He added that creator Steve Levitan had written two scripts for season two at the time of the cancellation, but hadn’t read them.
“I know there are two scripts and I could ask Steve to read them, but I’m afraid it would hurt too much to read them because I know they don’t get shot,” Knoxville said.
Insight: When asked if he had any insight into the reasoning behind the show’s cancellation, Knoxville admitted, “I have no idea why it was canceled.” Silly: “It was all played very close. I know we made fun of Hulu a lot on the show, but I have more credit for the executives than canceling them for such a stupid reason,” he told Randomly: When the interviewer suggested the reason might be, “Hulu has a very arbitrary algorithm and reboots didn’t meet the requirements,” Knoxville thought this might very well be true