The 2009 TV season was just all over the place. So many shows were coming and going that it was a little hard to keep track. I think the dust has settled and we can finally start taking stock and make some definitive statements about the status of a lot of these shows.
A very long time ago I wrote about Mad TV probably needing to go. It was a tough call on my part; I love comedy, people of diverse backgrounds were getting seen, the show taped 2 blocks from my LA apartment. So I wanted to be loyal but it just suffered from weak writing. Weekly comedy is hard. Hell, COMEDY is hard, but those folks had access to top resources and just weren’t willing to get out there and find a stronger comedic voice. So as much as people have maligned SNL they just do better. The final episode and season finale of SNL, ironically, chose a lot of similar topics.
Man, a long time ago I also wrote about Knight Rider’s first episode and I had high hopes. But they fell into the young white guy is the hero of every scene formula and that’s all she wrote. Another cable show that got a little press The Beast and Nip/Tuck are gone too.
Kyle XY, well, I also wrote about this show just being too good and the network not knowing what to do. Hour long fantasy/sci fi shows have very loyal fans. And they’re a lot of them. But networks get INTO these deals and every single time they are surprised when they’re not making enough money on these hour long shows after 2 seasons and then start talking cancellation. Every time. Look at Battlestar that show is technically gone, but Caprica is on the horizon now because the networks have fans flooding them show interest. The fans TRIED with Kyle but SO FAR the networks aren’t listening.
But don’t believe everything. Case in point. They killed Family Guy and voila. It came back. They killed Scrubs and voila it came back. And this brings us to the strange new trend of Network Hoping. Networks with weak programming blocks are picking dropped shows. ABC took Scrubs. And CW just dropped The Game and now BET is pretty much locked in on finalizing a deal. FOX let Futurama go years ago. But did you know they’ve been making Futurama movies? Yeah, three of them. And fans like me have been collecting them. So now Comedy Central is renewing the show. I wouldn’t be totally surprised if a network like Lifetime picked up the recently canceled Samantha Who. It looked like something like that MIGHT happen for Reaper. But, poor Reaper, it’s gone for good now. It was SOOO good and at first CW just canceled it. Then there was this mailing in socks campaign by the fans. So they renewed the show but gave it a delayed renewal last YEAR and now it’s pretty much dead. I figure if the network can’t find another hit this summer they’ll bring it back. And if they bring it back I will update this article. But some cast members are already booked on new shows. But again; fantasy shows so rarely are giant hits like Heroes and that’s the only way they can make it.
Now a sad situation is My Name is Earl fiasco. As you may or may not know Chuck was canceled, but due to fans like me who made videos, the show got renewed at the last minute. The Earl group tried a similar tactic on Twitter, but it didn’t work out. Sad. Good show and I’m surprised because half hour comedies are cheap-for the most part. Earl was kinda filmic (not set in and around a living room like Rosanne or Family Matters) so it probably cost a little more to make.
Speaking of surprises. I PREDICTED the cancellation of Better Off Ted. But guess what? It’s staying on the air! I reasoned that the show was actually TOO funny and good for ABC, but what I forgot about was one of the stars being involved with Ellen and a network not wanting to ruffle feathers of a money maker. Totally forgot about that. It’s similar to the reason that Kath and Kim is still on the air-but they finally killed it! As awful as that show is, because Molly Shannon has a history with NBC they’re letting it live. The EXACT same reason they’re keeping Amy Poehler’s awful show Parks. Love Amy but man what a horrible premise for a show. Not the workplace but Amy playing one character. A dumb one too. Who the hell thought that was the way to go? Ah well, TV…