In 1999, ABC canceled the show after three episodes. Two years later, the Showtime cable network bought the rights to air the series, including ten episodes which did not air on ABC.
The show became infamous in the decades after its debut, due to the fact that ABC executives chose to bring this show to air over David Lynch's original TV Pilot version of Mulholland Drive. While Wasteland would be canceled before the end of it's only season, Lynch would go on to turn his rejected Mulholland Drive pilot into a feature length film, which became one of the most acclaimed films of the 21st century, earning him an Academy Award nomination for Best Director.
The working title of the show was "wasteLAnd", which was suppose to take place in Los Angles (hence the capital letters) but the when it was rewritten, the story setting was changed to New York instead.
The mortuary where the dead roommate's ashes were taken was called "Steadlawn Mortuary" an anagram of "Wasteland" - gallows humor since that was the last filmed episode and everyone on the team knew the show was about to be axed.