In 1976, he was to co-star as a divorced hairdresser in the beautician comedy series "Snip", a TV takeoff of the
Warren Beatty movie
Shampoo (1975). Just before its scheduled September 30th debut, NBC abruptly canceled the show -- so fast in fact that TV Guide did not even have time to remove a special feature on the show in its Fall Preview of September 18-24. Why? One of the show's supporting characters, a fellow hairdresser named Michael, was openly gay and NBC got cold feet at the last minute. Had "Snip" premiered, it would have been a first on American series TV. Instead,
Billy Crystal went on to receive that honor with his gay character a year later on the popular series
Soap (1977). Seven episodes of "Snip" were completed when it got the ax. The only place the series ended up airing was in Australia, and it became the highest rated show in Australian history at that time.
