While I appreciate the sentiment you expressed during the last episode of Angel, that you wish to be considered a “friend”, I’m afraid I must decline the offer. You see, I resent the fact that you cancelled one of the best shows on television in favor of producing that “Superstar” dreck. Friends don’t cancel good shows.
Fuck you, WB, and the frog you rode in on. You killed an excellent series, had the temerity to tout the fact that it was the last episode to raise ratings, and then had the “big brass testes” to thank me for watching. No, you are no friend to me.
Totally. That was the lamest thing I’ve ever seen and I can’t believe anyone at WB approved it. The response from all the Angel boards has been ovewhelmingly negative. The only thing I can figure is some exec at WB said “hey, we’re gettin’ a lot of bad press from this cancellation of Angel so let’s throw the fans a bone” and approved the creation of that slap in the face.
(if you have no idea what we’re bitchin’ about: WB cancelled Angel, on of their higher rated shows in favor of more reality programming. After the season finale last night, they broadcast this little “thank you” montage that seemed to imply Angel was voluntarily going off the air. It was smarmy even for network TV which is sayin’ a lot…)
Don’t worry folks. According to an article I read in the Daily News last week (I only read their TV column), the WB doesn’t have a single show in the Top 120!
Being one of Nature Noblemen, I am serenely untroubled by peasant opinion.
To prove this, I bestow upon you a Blessing–May Flying Monkeys Come Out Of Your Assholes!
You will be able to catch and eat them, and thereby add a valuable source of protein to your wretched diet, which consists otherwise of yaws, goiters, and the fleas you pick from your own ulcerous hides.
Bosda, it wouldn’t do any good to write a letter to the WB. The postcards, the full page ads in trade magazines, the constant press is magazines and newspapers, and the fucking billboard that drove by their window twice a day for a month didn’t do any good.
Then contact your neighbors, my little strumpet, & tell them not to watch the WB.
Or better still, make a listy o’ folks that advertise there, & write to the sponsers.
Tell them a boycotts being organized, my little Fountain of Inane Drivel.
Or do I mean “dribble”? Most Buffy fans do remind one of horse slobber.
The good news in all of this is that I am almost out of any reasons to watch TV at all. Seems like as recently as a year or two ago there was something on just about every night that I would watch. At this point, I think I turn the tube on about once a week (excluding DVDs). Hell, another year and I may be free of TV completely.
“One of the highest-rated shows on the WB”. Isn’t that kinda like being, I dunno, “The biggest crowd of the season at an Expos game”?
While it was relatively high-rated, it had to have the biggest budget per episode on the network (larger, older ensemble cast than Smallville, with about equal special effects dependancies). You can pull in respectible ratings and still lose a network money.
Plus, the season, as a whole, sucked the suck of a thousand sucks far too often. An entire episode built around the gag of Angel and Spike sharing a Vespa? Another one built around Angel turning into a muppet? Can’t you see that they were desparately running out of ideas? It was time to go.
I’m just pissed that I didn’t get to see Gunn die on camera.
Ditto. I’ve got one show standing between me and cancelling my cable altogether (well, one show and one extremely Spongebob-obsessed toddler, anyway). TV anymore seems so lacking.
And Bosda–I’m a little unclear on what point you’re trying to make here, but you’re being a bit of a jackass about it.
You think a show like “Friends” with a minimum six million dollars per week budget just for salary was turning a profit in first-run? Series routinely lose money for the network in first-run; it’s in syndication that they start making back the money.
I can’t tell from your post whether you watched the show on a regular basis or not. Either way, while I didn’t particularly care for the ep in question, your summation is not a reasonable or accurate description.
Citing “Smile Time” as a sign of idea-bereftitude? Now this is just blasphemy.
Dude, why are you being such a raging hemroid? You said to write them. I pointed out we did write the motherfuckers, and more. And you’re response is to charm us with your stunning wit…Ok, let’s try this.
You’re absolutely right, you piece of shit. I’ll get out my postcards right now and get to work and the mail room will shake with the power of my wrath until the interns who are responsible for shredding the mail are crying for mercy.
Friends earned $2 million per 30-second spot in the series finale, paying up to 70% of the costs for the final year in that one night linky
see a chart on all average ad rates for the full season here . See Angel earning $75,000, less than half of Smallville and well below Gilmore Girls, 7th heaven, and One Tree Hill. Let me repeat that, significantly less than One Tree Hill. 30 second spot on a regular episode of Friends cost $473,000. That’s 6 minutes of ads to pay for salary, I’d say that Friends was close to break-even this year. AND it will generate a hell of a lot more syndication revenue than Angel, the market for half hour comedies in syndication is just larger than the market for hour-long vampire shows.
Judging from this information, it’s pretty obvious that the WB isn’t getting the best bang for their buck out of Angel, and decided to go with cheaper programming. There’s two problems with syndication money, firstly it’s driven by the ad revenue that the show can generate, and Angel’s shown that it can’t drive ad revenue anymore for first-run programming. That’s a pure sign that it’s past it’s prime as a TV show. Secondly, it comes in the future, and I doubt that the WB would be lasting much longer if it went into a lot of short-term debt to recoup their expenses at some unknown later date.
I watched most of this season, but hardly anything in between this year and Gunn’s debute (watched a bit of Jasmine, a bit of Fred’s world, etc, but not regularly). There were highlights, but there were also very low points creatively. Smile Time would have been a lot more “creative” if all the puppets didn’t talk like Crank Yankers, and if Angel looked less like Bert when he was in puppet form. And if Spike didn’t have to job to a puppet.
Want other low-lights? How about the logic gap in not saving Fred, with the decision based solely on how many people would die to save her, without even thinking about how many people would die once an Old One unleashed her demon army on the world? (Remember, when they made that decision, they had no idea that her temple was already destroyed.) How about the horrible Angel and his Werewolf Girlfriend sub-plot that went nowhere? How about using two episodes to tell the two horrible plots that I already spoke of instead of using the time to establish Angel’s transformation into somebody that nobody trusted, instead of rushing that all into the second-last episode? How about Lindsey telling them all that there’s an apocolypse going on and they have to get on the ball, only to have Angel and Spike go off to Italy next week?
Like I said, the season had its high points, but it sucked royally on several occasions, as well, and it was tired and it was time for it to die.
Citing a one-time revenue cow like a series finale to refute the idea that syndication money is an issue is silly.
I already conceded that Angel wasn’t a revenue cow for advertising dollars, so your chart, while interesting, is pointless.
I don’t find it reasonable for someone who didn’t watch entire seasons at a time to be judging the quality of individual shows. IOW, you’re entitled to your opinion, but your opinion is wrong.
I realize that Angel may not’ve been raking in the advertising bucks for the Frog. I also realize that the show was probably a lot more expensive than, say, reality programming. What I’m bitching about is the smarmy “Goodbye and thanks from your friends at the WB” outro for the series. THAT’S slimy.
