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March 24, 2006
Early New Sitcom List Looks BAD
From an article about how we're watching far more "old" sitcom TV than "new,"
The executives are certainly continuing to try, judging by the comedy projects in development this spring (ABC executives declined to speak for this article). Among the more likely to hit the air in the next year:
_"Community Service," starring Jay Mohr as a real estate agent who travels to the Midwest to win a woman's affection and ends up afoul of the law, on NBC.
_"The Winner," with Rob Corddry of "The Daily Show" as a successful man looking back on when he was a 32-year-old slacker living with his parents, on Fox.
_"The Class," helmed by a co-creator of "Friends," reunites a group of third-grade classmates when they reach their 20s, on CBS.
_"Angriest Man in Suburbia," a big-city accountant becomes a stay-at-home dad and it pushes him over the edge, on CBS.
_"Worst Week of My Life," a limited-run series on Fox. Each episode focuses on one day in the week leading up to a marriage.
_"Alpha Mom," a comedic look at a frenetic working mom, by the creator of "Scrubs," on NBC.
Just ew.
Posted by bonnie at 03:00 PM | TrackBack
March 20, 2006
TV Shows That Left Too Soon
This post comes from the Calgary Sun. Read it in its original format here. Glad to see a few of my favorite "gone too soon" shows (Freaks and Geeks, Action!, Boomtown, Family Guy, The Job, and Cupid. I, of course, would add shows like It's Like... You Know, Get Real, Class of '96, Relativity, Joan of Arcadia, Significant Others, Debt, Partners, and Getting Personal.
TV series cut short too soon: The Sun counts down the 25 best series that were cancelled before their time
By KEVIN WILLIAMSON
Imagine ripping a bonbon from Britney Spears' chunky, grasping talons.That's a little what it's like separating a TV critic from his favourite show.
For the courtship between critic and series is a complex one, first marked by the flush of pleasant surprise ("Hey, this ain't bad") and then cemented by fidelity ("I will watch you above all others'), foolish pride ("I must tell others about how glorious you are") and desperate prayer ("Don't let it be punted for a spinoff of Yes, Dear ... Don't let it be punted for a spinoff of Yes, Dear ...").
It is not something to be dismissed lightly. And it is a love affair we rarely forget, long after our beloved has been cheerlessly replaced by The Surreal Life.
Just last month Love Monkey -- a promising dramedy starring former Ed star and current CIBC pitchman Tom Cavanaugh -- was axed by the braintrust at CBS (a.k.a. Those Responsible For Ghost Whisperer) after a smattering of episodes.
The cancellation wasn't a shock, considering the network was probably at a loss with what to do with a series that had neither a laugh track nor a body count. Truthfully, I hadn't seen enough of it to declare it great -- or merely a project with potential. But then, we'll never know now, will we?
Love Monkey's demise did, however, get us thinking about all those other shows, some more recent than others, that have come and gone so fleetingly -- resigned to wander the intergalactic static in the hope that some alien civilization might some century tune in.
We know there are dozens -- possibly hundreds -- that have blinked into existence to be imprinted upon too-few minds.
But in the name of the common good, we arrived at this Sun-certified ranking of the 25 finest shows ever to be cancelled too quickly, cut short too soon.
1: TWIN PEAKS: Like many series consigned to an early grave, the influence of this David Lynch-crafted melodrama about murder in a small Pacific Northwest town was felt for years after its end. Would we have met Mulder and Scully or opened their X-Files had there not first been Peaks and Kyle MacLachlan's FBI agent Dale Cooper, with his deadpan demeanor and obsession with the occult? Peaks -- with its Lynchian atmosphere -- cobbled together painterly images with swelling melodies and abstract, disquieting non sequiturs. Never again would I look at cherry stems or apple pies the same way. Lynch wouldn't return to television until nearly a decade later when he produced a pilot entitled Mulholland Falls. ABC ended up scrapping the project, which led Lynch to retool it as a film.
2: ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT: A recent wound inflicted upon the collective unconscious was the criminally-inane nixing of this Emmy-winning family comedy. Starring Jason Bateman and filmed in a quasi-documentary style with a narrator and no insipid laugh track, Development never resorted to easy gags, deriving its laughs, ever so archly, from its characters, while refusing to underestimate the intelligence of its viewers. Both of them.
3: FIREFLY: This series from Joss Whedon (Buffy The Vampire Slayer) billed itself as the anti-Star Trek, a futuristic western about outlaws living on the fringe of a galactic empire. The show, fronted by Edmonton-born Nathan Fillion, wasn't remarkable for special effects or mind-bending 2001 concepts, but for its sharp performances and whip-fast wit. Firefly got the short shrift from Fox, which aired episodes out of order and pulled the plug before all its instalments had aired. Whedon exacted a revenge, of sorts, when he wrote and directed last year's feature film Serenity, based on the series.
4: EZ STREETS: Before he enraged gay cowboys everywhere by winning an Oscar for Crash, Canadian writer/director Paul Haggis created and produced this introspective crime epic about three violent men -- a cop, a criminal, a convict -- and the uneasy world they inhabit. With Streets, Haggis, who at the time was coming off the success of the lightweight Due South, demonstrated his skill at interweaving challenging narratives with intricately-shaded characterizations.
5: FREAKS AND GEEKS/UNDECLARED: These two short-lived comedies -- about the travails of the young and alienated -- were created by Judd Apatow, an Emmy winner whose credits include The Larry Sanders Show and last summer's The 40-Year-Old Virgin. In both, Apatow juggled laughter and pathos without sacrificing reality or low-balling viewers -- in other words, no pies, flutes or Krazy-glued body parts. Just nerds and their friends, confronting freedom, responsibility, the opposite sex and more than a few hapless parents.
6: ACTION!: These days, Jay Mohr is best known for doing a wicked Christopher Walken impersonation -- oh, and there was that stint hosting the reality-TV contest Last Comic Standing, how could we forget? -- but if Hollywood were a fairer place, he'd be remembered for starring in this Tinseltown satire as a Hollywood player who's every bit the velociraptor Jeremy Piven's agent in HBO's Entourage is. Speaking of Entourage, should Piven ever bolt, we could think of no more fitting a replacement than the ever-employable Mohr.
7: ANDY RICHTER CONTROLS THE UNIVERSE: Sidekicks are historically an underrated lot. Robin The Boy Wonder in the green short-shorts, Ed McMahon degenerating into a home-lotto pitchman. So perhaps Andy Richter, who rose to stardom as Conan O'Brien's right-hand man and staring-contest sparring partner, should have been braced for the lukewarm reception his ingenious, whimsical comedy Andy Richter Controls The Universe was greeted with. The gimmick of the show, co-produced by Richter, was letting viewers be privy to his inner-most fantasies (don't worry, it was all PG-rated), allowing Controls The Universe to offset its Dilbert-esque office setting with flights of imagination -- all to sublime comic effect.
8: THE TICK: The Seinfeld curse hasn't simply hexed the primary cast members -- at times it has also plagued supporting players such as Patrick Warburton, who portrayed Elaine's on-and-off boyfriend, Puddy. In 2001, Warburton landed the titular role in this live-action comic strip created by Ben Edlund and produced by Men in Black's Barry Sonnenfeld, only to find audiences indifferent to its wry and endearing tale of an endlessly cheerful, blue-suited crusader.
9: CRIME STORY: In 1986, while the world was watching Miami Vice, its producer Michael Mann created this sprawling crime saga set in the 1960s and starring Dennis Farina as a dogged, flawed detective who wouldn't be caught dead in a pink T-shirt. While Crime Story didn't have the immediate impact on the culture Vice did, its season-long arcs, graphic violence and hard-boiled cops make Mann seem prescient 20 years later.
10: BOOMTOWN: This L.A.-based procedural was at times too slick, but with its Rashomon-style storytelling -- each episode being told from differing points of view -- and jigsaw structure, it was a propulsive piece of pop entertainment. Even with former New Kid on the Block Donnie Wahlberg in the cast.
11: FAMILY GUY: How does a show that's still on the air make it on this list? Because it WAS cancelled by Fox and resurrected only because DVD sales convinced executives there was still cash to be milked from Peter Griffith's udders.
12: SPORTS NIGHT: Before he created The West Wing, Aaron Sorkin dazzled with this dramedy set at a sports cable network. The ensemble included Felicity Huffman, but the true star was Sorkin's mastery of the language.
13: ANGEL: When this Buffy spinoff was slain, executive producer Joss Whedon ended things by sending his heroes to certain death because even though they'd lose, the fight itself was just. The same could be said for Angel.
14: ROBBERY HOMICIDE DIVISION: Michael Mann returned to the streets briefly with this CBS crime drama. The problem? It didn't look like every other CBS crime drama. Which is why, coincidentally, it's listed here.
15: GREG THE BUNNY: Seth Green peaked when he starred in this sitcom about a world in which muppets are real.
16: THE JOB: Before Rescue Me, Denis Leary created and starred in this equally energetic and truthful dramedy.
17: THE CRITIC: Jon Lovitz voiced the titular toon of this Simpsons spinoff.
18: CUPID: Jeremy Piven before he was relegated to playing only 1) a jerk or 2) the star's best friend.
19: REUNION: Memo to self: Before you start watching another serialized drama, make sure it has a full-season order so the writers can tie up all the loose ends.
20: THE ADVENTURES OF BRISCO COUNTY JR.: Two universal truths about anything with Bruce Campbell: it will be cool and never find a large audience.
21: HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREET: This police drama lasted longer than most shows on this list, but like Rutger Hauer in Blade Runner, we still wanted more life.
22: ONCE AND AGAIN: A rare drama that dealt with divorce realistically.
23: WONDERFALLS: Joan of Arcadia with brains.
24: STAR TREK: The question is, would Star Trek have lasted for 40 years if it hadn't been cancelled after three seasons, since its early death only served to nourish its cult following?
25: NOW AND AGAIN: Not to be confused with Once and Again. Like he does with his other projects, creator Glenn Gordon Caron (Medium) subverted genre cliches with this tale of a modern-day Six Million Dollar Man.
THEY LIVED TOO LONG
Some TV shows die too soon, but others go on waaaay past their expiry dates:
- THE X-FILES: The first five seasons of this supernatural series were excellent. Then we had the move from Vancouver to Los Angeles, the muddled movie and the search for Mulder and ... need I go on?
- ALIAS: This spy serial fell apart after two seasons. It's currently limping toward its final episode -- three years too late.
- FRIENDS: What's so funny about watching a group of bored multimillionaires who just showed up so they can collect their $25-million-per-season paycheques? Nothing at all.
Posted by bonnie at 09:09 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
March 19, 2006
The Notebook
Wow. Thank you, TiVo. I don't know what combination of shows I thumbs-upped to get you to record The Notebook for me, but DAMN, that's a great little movie.
I had read recommendations from various friends about it, each advising readers to grab a big box of Kleenex before opening credits. The thing is, at about 90 minutes in or so, I had probably teared up at one point throughout the movie, and it didn't feel like a big deal. But certainly, I was enjoying the sweet lovestory and REALLY finding the performances to be top-notch (I'd never seen Rachel McAdams in anything before--or at least I'd never really taken notice of her).
Then BAM! Holy crap, that hit me hard. I'm still just bawling!
Okay, so, lovely little independent film with absolutely gorgeous cinematography, a predictable (but you couldn't possibly care, since it's done so well) story, excellent actors, and just the right level of character investment before any attempts to send you crying equal a very positive review from me, just two years after the film was in theatres.
Starz Edge is airing it and I assume it'll be in heavy rotation for a bit, if you (like me) procrastinate on seeing movies. Great for lovers, great for lost love, great for a good ol' cry just when you need it.