Why do good shows get cancelled, and is there anything you can do to save them? The answer to the first question is always the same: Low ratings, although it is more complicated than that. Sometimes studios and networks clash over the creative direction of a show or the guy who liked your project is no longer in charge, and before you can say "show killer," you're on Friday night without a penny in promotion.
Because network chiefs get only two or three years to develop hits, shows get only two to three weeks to prove themselves. The TV business has become like the movie business: If you don't open big, you're dead. And since the only shows that open big anymore are inexpensive reality shows, why waste millions trying to develop the next Friends or Frasier?
That's what NBC has decided. With The Apprentice finale beating CSI last Thursday night, NBC programming boss Jeff Zucker can tell all those chumps developing the next "Must See" sitcom, "You're fired."
Not that the networks or studios will ever completely give up on scripted shows. There is just too much money to be made later, when the show is sold into syndication.
Twenty to 30 years ago, with less competition, networks could afford to be more patient. NBC waited over a year for Cheers, Hill Street Blues and St. Elsewhere to find audiences. Some of TV's most-loved sitcoms, including The Dick Van Dyke Show, All In The Family, The Mary Tyler Moore Show and even Seinfeld were slow starters.
A show like Arrested Development deserves to be added to that list. It is consistently funny and original, yet has failed to find a large audience this season Sundays on Fox.
Can fans speak up and save a show like Arrested Development? This time of year, with just weeks to go before fall schedules are announced (May 17-20), dozens of Internet-driven Save Our Show campaigns are launched. Some work.
A few years ago, Roswell fans sent UPN executives 12,000 bottles of Tabasco sauce -- a favorite food of the show's aliens -- when that show was on the bubble. UPN ordered a second season.
Farther back, shows like Cagney & Lacey, St. Elsewhere and even Star Trek had their runs extended by letter-writing campaigns (but it didn't work for Once And Again, Nothing Sacred and Now And Again).
Some shows have survived by switching networks. That's the tactic Angel fans are taking. There is word that producer Joss Whedon is trying to shop the show, cancelled by The WB, to UPN. That same move worked for Whedon before with Buffy The Vampire Slayer.
Switching networks might also be the last best hope for Wonderfalls, the quirky, Toronto-lensed Fox dramedy that was canned after four airings earlier this month. Creator Todd Holland is reportedly pitching the series to The WB.
They could at least air the nine unseen episodes that have already been shot and edited. This drives fans nuts. Will we ever see those unaired episodes of Keen Eddie or Andy Richter Controls The Universe? Maybe on future DVD sets.
In fact, DVD sales could even drive a failed series back on the air. It happened with The Family Guy, the edgy TV `toon cancelled by Fox. The series exploded on DVD, and this month production began on new episodes to air later on Fox or possibly the U.S. Cartoon Network.
Courtesy of The Winnipeg Sun |
