Apple's Way was a mid-season replacement for The New Perry Mason. The series did not gain the ratings CBS had hoped for, partly because it had to compete with NBC's long-running Top 20 hit The Wonderful World of Disney and ABC's popular crime drama The F.B.I.. The concept was "re-booted" in the second season to focus on plots that dealt more with such issues (such as freedom of speech, drug use, terminal illness) as opposed to the more rural-specific plots of the first season. The second season was produced by successful veteran producer-writer John Furia Jr. Furia hired Worley Thorne as story editor. The series was canceled during its second season and replaced with Cher.