Forgotten TV shows I still like. With an intriguing mystery, a celebrity producer, and a million bucks on the line, Push Nevada came out swinging in 2002, only to get cancelled before it even got going.

Jim Prufrock (Derek Cecil) is an IRS investigator sent to the desert town (city?) of Push, Nevada, where the local casino has a $1.4 million discrepancy in its books. In town, Prufrock finds quite the conspiracy afoot, leading to murder… and more. One megacorporation owns the entire town, none of the residents have paid income taxes in decades, and Jim’s long-lost father might have something to do with it. Jim keeps getting into more and more trouble, but he just has to crack the case.

If Northern Exposure and Key West were Twin Peaks without the mystery, then Push Nevada is Twin Peaks with even MORE mystery. Everyone has something to hide, everyone is involved with the conspiracy in some way. (Or are there multiple conspiracies?) Why is a stolen Bible considered just as important as the missing money? Why does that one truck driver seem to know so much? What’s going on with Prufrock’s ex-wife and her erratic behavior? And on and on.

It’s asking a lot for the audience to root for an IRS agent as the show’s hero. Derek Cecil is really good as Prufrock, though. He’s a brainy numbers-cruncher, which helps at the casino, and he’s stalwart to a fault in his belief he’s doing the right thing. What sets him apart from Twin Peaks’ similarly stalwart Agent Cooper is how the show keeps putting Prufrock in situations that challenge his ethics, taking him farther and farther out of his comfort zone in every episode.

Mary (Scarlet Chorvat) is the love interest, who works at a bar where men pay women to slow dance with them, as if they’re at the prom. (Remember, it’s quirky!) Also good is Melora Walters as Grace, Prufrock’s exasperated secretary who also can’t help but get involved. John Polito makes some big waves early in the series as a prime suspect to the missing money. A running joke is how useless the local cops are, but one cop, Dawn (Liz Vassey) is of course revealed to be more than she seems.

Push Nevada was co-created by Ben Affleck, and one wonders if this was going to star him as Prufrock at some point. Affleck filmed an intro for the first episode, welcoming viewers to the show. The other co-creator was Sean Bailey, who went to be president of the Walt Disney Motion Picture Studios from 2010 to 2024. He and Affleck also co-created the reality show Project Greenlight. Affleck’s longtime friend and collaborator Matt Damon is also listed as producer, so perhaps Damon was considered to play Prufrock as well.

If Push Nevada is famous for anything, it’s that this wasn’t just a TV show, it was a million-dollar sweepstakes contest. Viewers at home were meant to watch the show looking for clues, and the person who interpreted the clues correctly won the million bucks. Because the show was cancelled abruptly, actor Derek Cecil filmed a short video of him revealing the unaired set of clues, and this ran during Monday Night Football! (Some websites are saying the video ran during the Super Bowl, but that’s not true. It was the night of Oct. 28, 2002.) Wikipedia has a surprisingly detailed breakdown of how the game was played if you’re interested. Basically, the clues added up to a phone number, and the first person who called it won.

Other observations:

• Not only was the show cancelled, it has the sad distinction of being the first cancellation of the 2002-03 TV season. No official reason is given, although Wikipedia shows 12 million viewers for the first episode, and 5 million or less for each following episode.

• If Push Nevada has any signature moment or visual, it’s Prufrock driving through the desert after being kicked out of town, only to turn around and head back for more. That’s his character and the series in microcosm.  

Thanks to cancellation, the mystery of what’s happening in Push has never been revealed. Therefore, I find it unlikely this show can be rediscovered. It’d have to be a full-on remake, telling the story from beginning to end properly this time. I just don’t know if Affleck and Bailey can be bothered after all this time.

All seven episodes of Push Nevada are currently available on YouTube.

I’m thinking of ending the “Forgotten TV Shows” blog series here, as it’s been very time-consuming watching and researching these shows. (Big Wolf on Campus has how many seasons?!?) Any suggestions on what to do next on this blog?

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Want more? Check out my novel MOM, I’M BULLETPROOF. It’s a comedic/romantic/dramatic superhero epic! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08XPXBK14.