CBS Canceled This 2006 Ray Liotta Crime Drama After Only Three Episodes

Ray Liotta was nothing if not a very respected actor. He provided arguably the greatest voiceover performance ever in "Goodfellas," which is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to his impressive career. He also starred in comedies like "Heartbreakers" and grounded dramas like "Marriage Story." The man could do it all. However, when he first branched out into television as a lead actor on a series, it didn't go as well as he'd probably hoped.

In 2006, Liotta took on his first leading role in a TV show with "Smith." Airing on CBS, it was a crime series that very much seemed in his wheelhouse. Surprisingly, though, it was canceled after just three episodes and didn't even make it halfway through its planned seven-episode first season (as TV Series Finale reported in October 2006). Eventually, the full seven-episode run was broadcast on Hallmark, but it was, put mildly, a decidedly short run.

The series centered on Bobby Stevens (Liotta), who seems to be a normal family man with a 9-to-5 job on the surface. However, he's actually an expert thief hoping to pull off just a few more jobs so he can finally leave his life of crime behind for good. Bobby's core group of partners each bring their own area of expertise to every job. All the while, the FBI is determined to catch the so-called Smith.

It's not that Liotta had never done TV before. He made a fantastic cameo on "Just Shoot Me," for example. But this was the first time he'd truly dived into the world of scripted television in a meaningful, serious way. Unfortunately, the ratings weren't there and certain critics were extremely harsh. "There's bad, and then there's criminally bad," as USA Today wrote of the show at the time

"I liked the fact [Bobby Stevens] was somewhat of a leading man but also with an edge, had a family life ... was a complicated character," as Ray Liotta told CBS in 2006. "There was a lot of sides to him. Virginia Madsen is my wife. That's not chopped liver."

Virginia Madsen, who famously starred in the horror classic "Candyman," played Hope Stevens. The cast also included the likes of Amy Smart ("Crank"), Simon Baker ("The Guardian"), and Jonny Lee Miller ("Hackers").

Liotta never set out to be an actor. All the same, he became a great one who worked a lot, which also meant traveling around a lot. Part of what appealed to him about TV, "Smith" in particular, was that it kept him in Los Angeles. As he explained in that same CBS interview:

"What's great and against this is everything's on location. Most of the series are at a studio, but ours is all locations. It always seems to be an hour, hour and a half away in L.A. traffic. 14, 15 hour days, and you're driving. I'm not complaining, by any stretch of the imagination, but it's like doing an independent film. I like that pace. I like things when things are moving along and you're not sitting around waiting."

This show didn't pan out, but Liotta would do plenty of more TV before he passed away in 2022. He appeared on the star-studded Western series "Texas Rising" in 2015 and also starred alongside Jennifer Lopez in the NBC cop show "Shades of Blue," in addition to his efforts on series like "Black Bird" and "Hanna." Perhaps not surprisingly, though, he primarily worked on movies for several years after the failure of "Smith."