Kadir İnanır Was the Lead: The Shortest-Lived TV Series Lasted Just One Episode!
A little-remembered series from veteran Yeşilçam star Kadir İnanır’s career has resurfaced on social media. İyi ki Varsın, which premiered on Show TV in 2006, went down as one of the shortest-lived TV series. So why was a show with such a strong cast taken off the air so quickly?
Kadir İnanır appeared on Show TV in 2006 in *İyi ki Varsın*, a Gold Film production.
Kadir İnanır, one of Yeşilçam’s most unforgettable screen icons thanks to films such as Selvi Boylum Al Yazmalım and Yılanların Öcü, remained a fixture on television well into the 2000s. After Derman Bey, Kırık Ayna and Bütün Çocuklarım, he joined Show TV in the autumn of 2006 with İyi ki Varsın. Yet despite the veteran actor’s death in June, few viewers today even remember the series.
Produced by Gold Film, the show cast İnanır as Ali Kemal Özdemir, a wealthy businessman leading a quiet life in Istanbul with his wife and children. His marriage was fraught with problems, but divorce had never crossed his mind—until one night, when Bahar suddenly ran in front of his car and turned his life upside down. The minor accident brought Ali Kemal face to face with the young woman fleeing a man who was after her, setting the stage for a passionate, yet deeply troubled, love affair. The cast also included Eyşan Özhim, Hülya Darcan, Melis Birkan and Ümit Acar.
Deniz Seki was dropped from the lead role at the last minute, and the director walked away from the project after the first episode.
The real crisis erupted before the series even hit the screen. According to a report at the time, producer Faruk Turgut had cast Deniz Seki as the lead opposite İnanır. But after watching the promotional footage, Saner Ayar, then general manager of Show TV, decided Seki wasn’t the right fit for him and called for her to be replaced by Eyşan Özhim. The switch didn’t happen quietly; the parties ended up in court.
There was also a dispute over the director. Kemal Başbuğ left the project after filming the first episode. His replacement, Erhan Baytimur, wasn’t happy with the footage and reshot the scenes from scratch.
It’s just as well that İyi ki Varsın was taken off the air after its low ratings and its time slot was pushed back to 11:30 p.m.
All that hustle failed to pay off on screen. The series premiered with a 2.5 rating, placing 27th in the rankings, and Show TV wasted no time pulling the plug. Kadir İnanır, meanwhile, blamed the network. The veteran actor said the show’s broadcast day and time had been changed, and voiced his frustration: “Who puts a series on at 11:30 at night? When people are getting ready for bed, is anyone really going to sit down and watch?” He also argued that the network had acted unprofessionally and said he himself had asked for the series to be canceled.
In the end, Eyşan Özhim was the one who paid the price. In an interview a year later, the actress described what she had been through: “The series İyi ki Varsın, in which I starred alongside Kadir İnanır, aired just one episode. Yet we shot three episodes in 15 days without getting any sleep. The production team changed twice, and so did the director.” Some reports from the time say the second episode also aired, placing 34th with a 2.5 rating. Either way, İyi ki Varsın had already secured its place among the shortest-lived series in Turkish television history.
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