I don’t see how rejoicing in others’ misfortune, even if it is minor and something easily recovered from (which it isn’t always) is anything other than petty. All these posts have been “oh, I didn’t like this TV show, therefore it couldn’t possibly be worthwhile, and I’m glad it’s dead.” Why be glad? The proper reaction to a TV show you don’t like is apathy, not antipathy. Anyone who actively hopes for the cancellation of a program merely because it isn’t to their taste needs to reasses the importance of television in their lives.
Well, I take the expressions of joy at cancellation as general expressions of dislike for the show, which surely everyone is entitled to.
As for the concern about people losing jobs, it strikes me as a kind of 'Think of the children! Won’t somebody PLEASE think of the children!" thing. Yeah, we should all be posting to the “save-the-jobless” boards all the time, but ya gotta kick back and have a little fun sometime, and rejoicing in the demise of hated TV shows seems like a fairly harmless way of doing so. In short, get that stick out of your ass, it’s making you walk funny.
How about “That show sucks.” Heck, it even takes fewer letters.
I will never understand how it is fun to rejoice in the misfortune of others, sorry. People like these shows, people work on these shows. There are approximately 8 million channels with original programming right now, so scarcity of space on the dial isn’t particularly compelling. If you don’t like a show, just avoid it. What the hell is the point of wasting all this energy actively hating it? It’s idiotic.
Cliffy, I just wonder if you’re not wasting all your energy in an idiotic fashion right now. Are you looking for converts? I don’t think it’s going to happen. If you don’t like the thread, just avoid it.
Am I the only one who hated Politically Incorrect? Actually, I probably would have liked it if it was hosted by anyone but Bill Mahr. I hope he stays unemployed and starves to death.
Bill Maher starve to death? Nah, not likely. I’m sure Hugh Hefner would let him crash at the Playboy mansion for a few years until he gets back on his feet if Maher were actually in personal or financial trouble. Maher spent so much time on his show kissing Hefner’s ass and getting in the face of anyone who dared to say anything bad about his idol, you’d think Maher was Hef’s long lost bastard son.
I forgot about that bozo Bill Maher. The premise was interesting, but the panel was useless. Most of those people had no problem spewing their childish opinions. AUGH. He was a definite channel changer. The truth is, his show went down the crapper after his moronic statement about the 9/11 hijackers.
All of T.G.I. Fridays: FAMILY MATTERS (Urkel nearly opened the Hellmouth and ended civilization), STEP BY STEP (Suzanne Somers is a millionaire while Nell Carter died broke… no God), BOY MEETS WORLD (though it was funny when it tried to be profound… and Shawn and Corey- “get a room!”), and PERFECT STRANGERS ("of course I have don’t be be reedeecul…cousin, what are you doing with that AK47? It looks li… AAAAGGGHHH!!!). Never has there been a night with as many predictable and witless offerings; Freddy Got Fingered: The Series couldn’t have been much worse.
Golden Girls- which of the four was sleeping with Satan to keep this one on life support for 57 years (and how did the producer of the often brilliant SOAP get so rich by sinking this low?).
Golden Girls’ brother, EMPTY NEST
DESIGNING WOMEN- after Delta Burke and Jean Smart (one of the most talented actresses on the small screen) left, they should have written just one more episode; in that one, Julia, Mary Joe, and Anthony are hired to redecorate a Russian palace and are taken into the basement of a farmhouse and shot by Russian Revolution Reenactors who are out of control.
HEARTS AFIRE- did anybody think this was funny?
ROSEANNE- I liked it in its prime but it sucked like Lewinksy on PCP after they won the lottery.
FALCON CREST, DALLAS, DYNASTY, KNOTS LANDING, and every other soap- lasted wwaaaay too long.
Mockingbird, if you have to ask, you wouldn’t agree anyway. So save it for a non-CS thread.
Meanwhile, my choices:
Ally McSqueal - gah, I hated that show. There is no way that any of those people could’ve gotten through law school. No way. The In-Laws - At least I think it’s cancelled, it’s gone from the NBC lineup at the moment and I’m hoping that it doesn’t come back. Jean Smart is too good for that crap. Three Sisters - Vicki Lewis was too good for that crap. Bram and Alice - I never watched it, because it was an insulting premise. In the first episode, Bram tries to seduce Alice because he does know that she’s his illegitmate daughter. Repugnant. LA Law - Going back in time a little for this one, but I loved this show and then Steven Bochco handed it over to his evil minion, David E. Kelley, and he ruined it. By the end it was just a shallow imitation of past glory. They were even rehashing storylines in that last season. Blech.
Then all those shows where the sexual tension kept the show fresh, then the show died when it was broken:
NORTHERN EXPOSURE (from the OP)
WHO’S THE BOSS
MOONLIGHTING
FRASIER (not cancelled, but should be- it’s at least two seasons since it should have been put out to pasture)
I was happy to see the back of The Waltons. I held a grudge against that show from the night Richard Thomas took David Carradine’s Best Actor Emmy (for his role of Kwai Chang Caine in Kung Fu. I was glad that in his acceptance speech, Thomas mentioned that he had totaled his car that evening. GLAD, I tell you!
As I recall, I was about twelve years old at the time, and not exceptionally emotionally advanced for my age.
But Richard Thomas can still bite me for doing Yes Virginia, There is a Santa Claus.
1 (tie): Beavis & Butthead / The Ren & Stimpy Show
I realize that most of this board probably considers me the biggest out-of-it square on the planet for my repeated harping on these shows. You know what, so friggin’ be it. I say that if a show requires 15 pages of rationalizations or Cliffs Notes to get any kind of enjoyment out of, it’s no good. If the simple act of watching the show is unpleasant, it’s no good. And I just find it incredibly fish when hundreds or thousands of people can talk about ANYTHING and nobody ever has anything bad to say. Just trying to hash all the arguments out gave me headaches. I’m just glad I don’t have to do them anywhere near as much anymore.
3. Married With Children
I know this was supposed to be edgy, envelope-pushing, etc., and I got it for the most part, but at least 95% of it I didn’t find the least bit funny. I’m amazed they got 11 seasons out of this tired, repetitive humor.
4. Moonlighting
All the talk about sexual tension and will they or won’t they etc. unfortunately drew attention from this show’s greatest failing…it never wasn’t that good. There were entire acts were hardly anything even interesting happened. I’ve forced myself to laugh on more than one occasion just to justify not turning the TV off and going to bed right then and there.
5. Men Behaving Badly
Oh, man. Talk about being doomed from day one. There are episodes of Courage The Cowardly Dog that I’d prefer to this misandrist load of dreck.