diff --git a/ui/src/dashboards/components/TemplateControlDropdown.tsx b/ui/src/dashboards/components/TemplateControlDropdown.tsx
index abd77e7245..b3bb99d09f 100644
--- a/ui/src/dashboards/components/TemplateControlDropdown.tsx
+++ b/ui/src/dashboards/components/TemplateControlDropdown.tsx
@@ -23,8 +23,8 @@ const TemplateControlDropdown: SFC<Props> = ({template, onSelectTemplate}) => {
     ? {minWidth: calculateDropdownWidth(template.values)}
     : null
 
-  const selectedItem =
-    dropdownItems.find(item => item.selected) || dropdownItems[0]
+  const selectedItem = dropdownItems.find(item => item.selected) ||
+    dropdownItems[0] || {text: '(No values)'}
 
   return (
     <div className="template-control--dropdown" style={dropdownStyle}>
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ const TemplateControlDropdown: SFC<Props> = ({template, onSelectTemplate}) => {
         buttonSize="btn-xs"
         menuClass="dropdown-astronaut"
         useAutoComplete={true}
-        selected={selectedItem.text || '(No values)'}
+        selected={selectedItem.text}
         onChoose={onSelectTemplate(template.id)}
       />
       <label className="template-control--label">{template.tempVar}</label>
diff --git a/ui/src/shared/components/Dropdown.js b/ui/src/shared/components/Dropdown.js
index bfafc56369..3bbccb8e30 100644
--- a/ui/src/shared/components/Dropdown.js
+++ b/ui/src/shared/components/Dropdown.js
@@ -117,9 +117,13 @@ export class Dropdown extends Component {
   applyFilter = searchTerm => {
     const {items} = this.props
     const filterText = searchTerm.toLowerCase()
-    const matchingItems = items.filter(item =>
-      item.text.toLowerCase().includes(filterText)
-    )
+    const matchingItems = items.filter(item => {
+      if (!item) {
+        return false
+      }
+
+      return item.text.toLowerCase().includes(filterText)
+    })
 
     this.setState({
       filteredItems: matchingItems,