A couple of weeks ago I was paging through the (then) most recent issue of Entertainment Weekly. In their “What to Watch” TV section there was mention of a documentary on Trio, a station I had never heard of. It was called “Brilliant But Cancelled”. I was intrigued.
Sounds cool to me. But, hell, it could also be a shameless way of promoting Trio’s own stable of show. Too bad I don’t get Trio so I could check it out myself.
My question here is: Does anyone get Trio? See the show? Was it any good? What shows did they talk about? And if it was any good, is there any way I could borrow a tape??
I’ve seen the show. It’s pretty funny. Some shows they talked about is The Clumbsys, a sitcom about a family that falls down a lot; The Orson Welles Show, a show that would have been a landmark but the networks thought it was too sophisticated for viewers; a show with Sammy Davis Jr. as a devil and Christopher Lee as Satan; some really lousy crime shows about men who gain supernatural powers like “The Man With The Power”; a show written by Conan O’Brien about an out-of-work actor (Adam West) who used to play a detective and he goes to crime scenes thinking that he’s still a detective; a show about people flying everywhere; a number of “stranded on an island” shows including one which is like an adult version of Lord of the Flies. Those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head…
All week Trio is showing shows that were canceled after only a few episodes, so that’s the only thing they’re advertising.
I hope EZ Streets is on there. It was truly one of the best crime dramas I’d ever seen and it got canned after a season. Great writing, awesome continuity (the entire season was one long story), fantastic actors (Jason Gedrick, Joe Pantoliano, Ken Olin) and superb direction. Didn’t stop CBS from giving it the boot and replacing it with gagWalker,Texas Ranger.
bean_shadow, that was actually a different program, although it is part of the station’s “Brilliant But Cancelled” theme month. I forget the name of that show, but it was hosted by Faith Ford (from Murphy Brown).
The actual “Brilliant but Cancelled” documentary highlighted some great shows, like My So Called Life, The Critic, LateLine and others that were so cutting edge that they were either cut short by the networks or never even aired. They discussed network politics that came into play, the networks’ inability to properly distill the shows’ theme into a 30 second spot, and shows dying by way of time-slot-itis.
Very cool documentary if you’re into TV. Generally, I find Trio to show some pretty interesting shows. I love their “Sessions at West 57th” series - each episode features two musical performances in a very intimate setting. Performers have ranged from Henry Rollins to Ricky Lee Jones to Suzanne Vega to Elvis Costello to PJ Harvey. There’s always someone great on.
Morgainelf - If I remember correctly from previous threads you live in my neck of the woods (Worcester, MA). So I have to ask, what’s your cable provider?
I watched both documentaries over the weekend: The Greatest Shows You’ve Never Seen and Brilliant but Cancelled. Both were really entertaining & informative.
I had never really heard of Trio before this promotion, but they’ve hit upon a fantastic idea. There’s so many great shows that have disappeared, never to be seen again. In order for a show to hit syndication (rerun-ville), it usually must have at least 100 episodes (typically 5 years worth) in the can. So there are countless shows that are destined for oblivion just because they never hit that magic number.
I always though that some network/channel could find a way to put these shows to use. Many of them have a dedicated following–and the network could get the programs dirt cheap. The biggest objection to this would be that you couldn’t air them in the typical manner–you’d have to approach each series as a “mini-series”. The shows would rotate in and out of their time slot.
So, now I see that Trio has wised up & is willing to give something like this a try. First they’re educating viewers to the whole “brilliant but cancelled” concept, and now they’re actually airing some great shows that likely would have never been seen again.
Already they’re airing: East Side/West Side– a show featuring George C. Scott as a social worker. This show tackled some pretty serious social issues, but it was way before it’s time.
Trio has also brought back: Action, Ernie Kovacs, The Amazing Teddy Z, and United States.
They’ve hit on a great & original idea…I hope they stick with it (and expand it!)
I haven’t had a chance to catch those documentary shows on Trio, but I have watched a few of the show reruns. One sitcom that I always thought was funny but didn’t last long was The Norm Show, and later just Norm with Norm McDonald. That one was only on a couple seasons, but it was much funnier than anything else around.
Trio is Channel 244 on my cable system, so that goes to show that it’s not widely available.
The show on the failed pilots was pretty funny. I remember seeing many of them including “The Man with the Power”.
“Brililant, but Cancelled” was a 90-minute show on very short-lived shows. In it, the show makes the assertion that “Bridget Loves Bernie” was the highest rated show ever to be cancelled. David Birney thinks that CBS got tired of getting all the angry mail from conservative Catholics and Jews.
Trio was the network that brought back Laugh-In, starting from the pilot episode back in 1967. The shows held up wonderfully and I was watching happily until they stopped halfway through the fourth season and started repeating from the pilot. I kept tabs on the show, thinking this was just a mistake, but no, they did it again. I cannot figure out any reason for stopping a syndicated rerun in the middle of a season. It’s just weird.
Anyway, I discovered that Trio had many other shows of interest, especially music shows that feature people you don’t see on MTV these days. It’s a good channel, worth keeping an eye on.