Is it just me, or are network/studio execs the hugest bunch of clueless and arrogant tools ever to walk the earth?
They seemed to be some combination of ignorant, confused and arrogantly meddlesome in just about every science fiction show up through about Battlestar Galactica.
Shows mangled in one way or another by cretinous network execs that I can think of off the top of my head:
I can understand canning a good new show because it just doesn’t have good ratings. What I don’t understand is messing with it’s time slot, and then claiming it doesn’t have good ratings. Or putting it on Sunday at 6:30 or 7, and having it constantly pre-empted by football… and then complaining about it’s ratings.
Or actually fiddling with the writers and the show runners and making them include totally extraneous elements just to sex up a show or make it more kid-friendly or whatever.
Are these guys that clueless? Is it arrogance? Is it that we’re not as clued-in as we think? Are they so venal as to deliberately torpedo shows they don’t like?
Some higher up doesn’t like show X, for whatever reason. Maybe they had a falling out with one of the producers over another show years ago, or this show got picked up instead of a show pitched by a friend of theirs, or they don’t “get it.” I heard this was a BIG problem for Futurama. A lot of nerdier jokes, abstract scenarios, etc…that someone who is more comfortable with a traditional sitcom just wouldn’t enjoy.
Ultimately they are the suits behind the industry, and every creative industry has them. The attitude that they must be stupid is pervasive everywhere. In the gaming market, for example, they are viewed as evil, idiots. Just think Robert Kotick.
The bottom line is: they aren’t the creative arm of the industry. They don’t give a flying F- about futurama and it’s nerdy jokes, or Diablo and it’s loot, or pushing daisies quirky style. All they care about is $$$ dem dollar bills.
Everything else is secondary. And that is kind of their job. Since they usually don’t have a clue as to why something creative does or doesn’t do well, not being creative types, and not necessarily having any aptitude for whatever the medium happens to be, they focus group, or they meddle, thinking: “X show did well and it had y thing, therefore this other show will do well if it too has y thing! I’m brilliant!”.
They did it back in the days of radio and it hasn’t changed. Back in the day, Fred Allen said the most worthless piece of humanity on the planet was a network VP.
‘Serenity’ was also the name of the original pilot which was aired out of order. I tend to think of that one as the ‘Big Damn Pilot’ or BDP, but that one doesn’t seem to have caught on like BDM did.
Thus it is, was, and always shall be: The Money vs The Talent. Michaelangelo had to put up with interference from the Pope. Art is always at the mercy of Monied Power. Might as well rail at the tides.
And it was Firefly by Duran Duran.
For the most part, it’s not that they’re stupid or even particularly evil (aside from the mundane evil of your average overgrown bureaucracy). Network executives are, for the most part, extremely intelligent, well-trained people whose job it is to make the network money. And they are, by and large, extremely good at this.
Unfortunately, the skillset that makes one extremely good at running a successful media conglomerate is pretty orthogonal to that which makes one a daring creative. The best writers tend to be those who seek out risky and thoughtful ideas, who make your head spin with their sheer ingenuity, and who want more than anything else to make something new. The best corporate business types are the ones who are expert risk/ benefit analysts, who can quantify and project the success of a given film/show down to the nth percentile of viewer engagement and reward-per-ad-dollar-spent. The former is how you get great storytelling. The latter is how you make shitloads of cash. Given the way market forces work, it’s not terribly surprising that the networks who emphasize the latter tend to be the ones that stick around. Which is great for them; maybe not so great for those of us who consume the media they create.
Regardless of any reasonable explanations, I just want to say that I will never forgive whoever did it for cancelling The Riches. Right. slam. in the middle. of a really great cliffhanger. Come on, you couldn’t give me just one more season to wrap things up?
Apparently, The Riches wasn’t making bank in ad money. Shame, 'cause that was a great show, terrific acting, great writing.
