GLOW (lost unfinished final season of Netflix comedy-drama series; 2019-2020)

A poster for the show.

Status: Lost

GLOW was an American drama-comedy series that revolves around a fictionalization of syndicated women's professional wrestling circuit Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling in the 1980's. The series was streamed on Netflix and was created by Liz Flahive (who was a writer for the Showtime series Homeland, Nurse Jackie and would later write Captain Marvel in 2019) and Carly Mensch (who wrote for Weeds, Nurse Jackie and Orange Is The New Black). It premiered on Netflix on June 23, 2017 and was praised upon it's debut and as of the writing of this article, is currently sitting at 92% on Rotten Tomatoes. The show aired three seasons with it's final episodes premiered on August 9, 2019. A fourth season was greenlit a month later but was canceled a year later due to the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, also known as COVID-19.

Plot

The series takes place in Los Angeles in 1985 and a struggling actress Ruth Wilder (played by Alison Brie) auditions in a fledgling professional wrestling promotion called the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling along with other women. She occasionally clashes with the show's director Sam Sylvia (played by Marc Maron) due to his unconventional work style. Ruth discovers early on that Sylvia has employed her former best friend, actress Debbie Eagan (played by Betty Gilpin) to star in the program. Ruth and Debbie had fallen out after Ruth had an affair with Debbie's husband, Mark, whom Debbie then divorced. Tension between Ruth and Debbie could cause to make or break the program. The series would sometimes follow the personal and professional lives of the show's fictional cast and crew in Southern California and Southern Nevada.

Final Season & Cancellation

On September 20, 2019, Netflix announced they renewed the show for it's fourth and final season with the same cast and crew returning and was expected to premiere in 2022 (three years after the previous season). Six months later, Brie posted on a set photo on Instagram revealing that production on the final season had begun. According to Deadline, the show had completed one episode and was about to film the second episode. However, production was shut down in March 2020 due to the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, also known as COVID-19, with the productions location Los Angeles, becoming a hotspot for positive cases. Many film and television productions that were filming in Los Angeles had to shut down as well, including Stumptown, The Society & I Am Not Okay With This. The series was ultimately canceled in October 2020 as a result of the worsening pandemic with Flahive and Mensch saying “COVID has killed actual humans. It’s a national tragedy and should be our focus. COVID also apparently took down our show...Netflix has decided not to finish filming the final season of GLOW. We were handed the creative freedom to make a complicated comedy about women and tell their stories. And wrestle. And now that’s gone. There’s a lot of shitty things happening in the world that are much bigger than this right now. But it still sucks that we don’t get to see these 15 women in a frame together again.”. The cast ended up getting paid in full despite the season never being finished.

Avaliblity

No plot details or footage from the final season or the only episode that was filmed has been released. It's likely the episode was never edited given the time between Brie's Instagram post and production getting shut down. Hours after news broke of the season's cancelation, Marc Maron pleaded with Netflix to end the series with a two-hour movie (similar to what Netflix did with Sense8), while Alison Brie was pessimistic about such a movie happening. Given how quick production on the season was shut down and cancelled, it's very unlikely that anything from the final season of GLOW will ever see the light of day.

See Also

• Bill Longson vs Whipper Billy Watson (lost footage of professional wrestling match; 1947)
• Braden Walker's "Knock Knock" promo (lost original pre-tapes of WWE backstage segment; 2008)
• Bret Hart-Hulk Hogan photoshoot (lost professional wrestling promotional photos; 1993)
• Bret Hart vs Tom Magee (found untelevised professional wrestling match; 1986)
• Catch-As-Catch-Can Wrestling (lost early BBC televised professional wrestling matches; 1938-1939; 1946-1947)
• Celebrity Wrestling (partially found ITV professional wrestling reality show; 2005)
• Collision in Korea (found professional wrestling event in North Korea; 1995)
• Collision in Korea wrestler sketches (lost North Korean pencil sketch portraits of professional wrestlers; 1995)
• ECW Anarchy Rulz (lost build of cancelled Nintendo 64 port of professional wrestling game; existence unconfirmed; 2000)
• ECW at E3 2000 (partially found footage of professional wrestling at gaming trade event; 2000)
• ECW Hardcore TV final episodes (lost episodes of Professional Wrestling Show; 2001)
• FMW at E3 2000 (partially found footage of professional wrestling at gaming trade event; 2000)
• The Game (partially found Disturbed cover of professional wrestling theme song; mid 2000s)
• GFW Amped (partially found unaired professional wrestling show; 2015)
• Girls Gone Wild: Live from Spring Break (found WWE/Girls Gone Wild crossover special; 2003)
• Gotch-Hackenschmidt Match Film (lost world championship match; 1908)
• Gotch-Hackenschmidt Match Film (lost world championship match; 1911)
• Jake "The Snake" Roberts DDTs Hulk Hogan (lost Snake Pit segment; 1986)
• The Last Battle of Atlanta (found untelevised professional wrestling steel cage match; 1983)
• "Plane Ride From Hell" (lost photographs of drunk wrestler incidents; 2002)
• Radio WWF (lost professional wrestling radio show; 1993-1994; late 1990s-2000)
• Screwed: The Bret Hart Story (lost unfinished wrestling documentary film; 2005)
• Sex University (lost WWE webshow; 2006)
• Shin Nihon Pro Wrestling Gekitou Densetsu (lost build of unreleased Virtual Boy wrestling game; 1995)
• Strange Kentucky People (lost recording of Chris Jericho "tribute"; 1994)
• TNA Impact! 2 (lost build of unfinished professional wrestling game; 2009)
• WCW 2000 (lost work on unfinished PlayStation 2 game; 2000)
• WCW All Nighter (partially lost professional wrestling compilation show; 1994-1995)
• WCW Classics (partially found professional wrestling compilation show; 2000-2001)
• WCW Internet-only Special Events and PPVs (lost audio streams; 1997-1998)
• WCW/nWo Live (lost build of cancelled PlayStation professional wrestling game; 1998)
• WWE 24x7 (lost professional wrestling compilation show; 2007)
• WWE Brawl (lost build of cancelled fighting game based on professional wrestling; 2012)
• WWE SmackDown vs Raw Online (lost build of cancelled online professional wrestling PC game; 2010-2011)
• WWF Attitude (lost professional wrestling recap show; 2001-2002)
• WWF Backlash (non-existent unfinished Nintendo 64 professional wrestling game; 2001)
• WWF Excess (partially found professional wrestling talk show; 2001-2002)
• WWF In Your House 8: Beware Of Dog (partially found untelevised professional wrestling matches; 1996)
• WWF Livewire (partially found professional wrestling recap and talk show; 1996-2001)
• WWF No Mercy (lost Game Boy Color games based on Nintendo 64 wrestling game; 2000)
• WWF Shotgun (partially found July to December season of syndicated wrestling show; 1997)
• WWF Xperience (found pay-per-view event footage; 1996)