Worst TV decisions

Cafe Society
41

Which is why complex characters who are nonetheless fundamentally despicible can be so compelling. Dan Feilding, Louie DePalma, J.R. Ewing, Spike, etc. are often more interesting characters than the leads that they are supporting.

My pet peeve is the networks’ insistence on pairing good comedies with crappy ones. When a popular lead in has a follow up that holds its audience well, networks invariably move the popular second show so that it can act as lead in for an untested or weak show. This happened in mid to late 80’s with Family Ties and The Cosby Show. Family Ties premiered following the mediocre Gimme a Break and got good ratings for a rookie show with a weak lead in. The Cosby Show replaced Gimme at 8:00, solidfying NBC’s Thursday night lineup. Cosby shot to number one, and Family Ties held nearly all of the audience, coming in at number 2. NBC, thinking that they were wasting the number two show on tv by having it in the less desirable second slot, moved it several times always losing some of the audience, and put dud after dud in the slot after Cosby, apparently believing that the Cosby magic would work with any piece of crap they put there, or that audiences were too lazy to switch the channel at the half hour. Family Ties was number two following Cosby in large part because 1. it was a good show and 2. it was a good complement to Cosby–a show about an upper middle class family focusing on the kids following a show about an upper middle class family focusing on the parents.

They did it right with Cheers and Night Court. Again, these shows, both workplace comedies in which the workplace relationships took the place of non-existent personal lives, complemented each other well. Night Court held Cheers considerable audience well, and NBC kept it following Cheers for the entire run, recognizing that it was not the type of show that would make a strong lead in.

ABC had a goldmine with Roseanne/Coach, but decided Roseanne was too popular to have a strong show like Coach follwing it, and needed to be used to build the popularity of other new or struggling shows.

The result of this strategy–any second slot show that gets too popular must become a lead in–results in there being very few solid comedy pairs that last more than a season or two.

And a second vote for the cancellation of The Beverly Hillbillies. The show was number 1 in its first two seasons then dropped off to sit steadily around number 8-12. In the 69-70 season, it was a respectable 18. The cast and producers were all willing to come back for another year, but CBS didn’t feel it fit the new image they wanted to project, and cancelled it. This was before shows jumping networks was common, as nobody wanted to adopt what was seen as damaged property.

42

Fox’s treatment of Futurama. 'Nuff said.

43

It was a bit longer than that, actually. Letterman held the top spot right up to the night that Leno had Hugh Grant on to talk about his notorious soliciting bust. A lot of it is actually lead-in, and the numbers prove it. On nights when NBC has strong prime time numbers, Leno has great numbers. On the nights when their prime time numbers are somewhat lower (like Monday nights during football season) Leno’s numbers are down. People tune in for Crossing Jordan and Law & Order and ER, and they just don’t bother changing the channel through their local news and Leno.

Meanwhile, Letterman’s numbers spiked after he came back from his open-heart surgery, and again after 9/11. People sought him out even when it meant consciously making the move from strong NBC prime-time shows.

Given all that, chances are that NBC could’ve had as much success if they’d gone Letterman as they have with Leno. They also would’ve saved themselves the hell of Helen Thomas, but that’s another story altogether.

My vote for biggest blunder: not coming to terms on a contract to keep Chris Noth on Law & Order. Dick Wolf wouldn’t budge, neither would Noth, and while L&O has continued on very strong without him, Noth’s career is not what one might hope, Mr. Big notwithstanding. He’s a Yale Drama educated actor, and he’s going nowhere. It’s a shame.

44

Er… yes. But this would suggest that the blunder was Noth’s, not NBC’s or Wolf’s, eh?

With the removal of Steven Hill, the original L&O lost its last original cast member. Jerry Orbach is the senior actor now, marking his tenth year on the series, with S. Epatha Merkerson close behind at nine. Neither of them seems interested in killing the goose with the golden eggs by demanding salary considerations out of line with Wolf’s thinking…

  • Rick
45

Cancelling every comedy that’s a different kind of funny than the canned “Friends” crap. FOX, I’m looking in your direction and holding “The Tick,” “Greg the Bunny,” and “Futurama” against you.

Ditto on the demise on Saturday morning cartoons. They’re not just for kids, darn it! I watched the WB Saturday cartoons until I went to college (except “Pinky and the Brain” when they added Elimyra)!

Comedy Central’s decline into the SNL Rerun Channel.
The cancellation of MST3K.

46

Perfect description of “Family Guy”, a show that was MADE for the 8:30 slot following Simpsons on Sunday night if there ever was one.

47

When the following were cancelled:

Cupid
Farscape
The Tick
Now and Again

48

The weird thing is, had he been cast in the part it might have saved his life. He died of a cerebral edema (swelling of the brain) while dubbing one of his old movies into English and preparing to finish Game of Death. On the day he died, he collapsed from heat exhaustion (the movie studio where he was dubbing wasn’t air conditioned) early in the day, then took a prescription medicine prescribed for one of his costars. Most likely either a case of undiagnosed heat stroke or an allergic reaction to the medicine, or both, caused the brain swelling that killed him.

Had he had a steady gig on tv, he most likely wouldn’t have been in Hong Kong when whatever killed him happened.

I’m seeing a bunch of shows I’ve never heard of being lamented here–The Tick, Cupid, Popular, Strangers With Candy. I see MST3K referred to a lot, but I have no idea what it means.

Now I understand the blank looks I get when I list “My Life and Times” as one of my favorite tv shows. The premise: an 85 year old man living in a nursing home tells stories to his grandson about his life. The stories are from various points in his past, so one episode may be set in the 80’s and the next in the early 2000’s (when there was apparently a second great depression). Helen Hunt played his wife in the stories when he was in his 20’s. I was hooked from the first episode. They ran it twice in its original time slot, jumped it around a lot, then dumped the remaining five or six episodes by airing them back to back in the summer.

49

MST3K was “Mystery Science Theater 3000,” one of the first regular series on The Comedy Channel, which became Comedy Central. After it ran for several years on Comedy Central, it was cancelled and picked up by the Sci-Fi channel, where it ran a few more years until they cancelled it as well. All total I think it was around 10 seasons? IMO it was the best comedy series ever.

“The Tick” was a live action version of the comic book; I think it aired on Fox.

“Cupid” was an ABC show from a few years ago; it starred Jeremy Priven as a man who claimed he really was Cupid. I never saw it.

“Popular” was on UPN. I never saw that one, either, partly for the reasons listed here (it was advertised as another teen comedy, which didn’t interest me).

And “Strangers with Candy” was another Comedy Central series, starring Amy Sedaris. It was something of a spoof of 70’s made-for-TV movies directed at teenagers. Sedaris played a female ex-convict in her mid-40’s who had to go through high school.

50

There was a cartoon version before that. 1994-1997, also on Fox, I believe. I liked it a lot better than the live-action version. The Tick was a parody of larger-than-life superheroes, and I don’t know if you can do that with a real person.

Slight nitpick, it was Jeremy Piven. Very good show; lots of good dialog and clever bickering (with co-star Paula Marshall). Reminded me of the early episodes of Moonlighting.

51

Actually, Hill was not in the first episode. It was a different DA. So when Noth left at the end of season 5, he was the last of the original cast to go.

52

I read an explanation about this once: It presents more opportunities for more story lines because there are all kinds of criminals/crimes/diseases that can be brought into play without changing the foundation of the series. Apparently, a story about a curmudgeonly CPA would have limited potential conflicts and/or adventures. And sales clerks don’t typically have much drama in their work days.

But we could do it with a cruise ship, bringing on different characters for every cruise - ya think??

53

Really?

The first episode was “Prescription for Death” (episode #1.1), and it aired September 13, 1990. According to IMDB, the cast was:

No one there seems to have the title of District Attorney. IMDB also lists the regular cast:

The only people credited as District Attorneys (as opposed to some assistant role) of the twleve-year run of the show are Steven Hill, Dianne Wiest, and Fred Dalton Thomas. I would therefore ask you for a cite, Lok - who do you claim played another District Attorney in the first episode, and what was the character’s name?

  • Rick
54

1- Dukes of Hazzard replacing Bo and Luke with cousins Coy and Vance. Even Daisy couldn’t make the show watchable with those two!

2- Dropping Twin Peaks. Best damn show ever.

3- Casting Donna Reed as Miss Ellie on Dallas. This narrowly beats out the whole Bobby died/didn’t die dream thing.

55

Anyone out there have the DVD collection yet? That’ll solve this. :smiley:

56

Never giving Tenspeed and Brown Shoe a real shot. Imagine a show with Ben Vereen and Jeff Goldblum that you had to hunt weekly to figure out when it would be on. Talk about a show with potential that never was given a chance.

57

When Fox wanted to get big fast in the early 90s, they bought a bunch of network affiliates and changed them all to Fox stations. That left the other networks scrambling to find affiliates. Suddenly we found ABC on Channel 30 in St. Louis, NBC on Channel 41 in Kansas City, CBS on Channel 19 in Cleveland, etc. I think one network wound up on Channel 57 (which no one even knew existed) in Detroit and NBC had to buy an overpriced, underpowered station in Miami just to get a station in the market.

58

The problem is, the pilot episode was not the first one shown (in a grand tradition dating back at least to Star Trek), it was the sixth one shown. In it, the DA was named Alfred Wentworth, played by Roy Thinnes. The episode was titled “Everybody’s Favorite Bagman” and there is more information at this site.

Lok

59

All in the family…

stays on after Sally Struthers leaves…

Then Rob Reiner…

Then Jean Stapleton…

Give it up guys!

Unfortunatly, my once-favorite show the Simpsons is suffering the same fate, only without everyone leaving. I can only console my self with old episodes to remember how great it once was. :frowning:

Also, my freind and I were discussing Saturday morning cartoons this past weekened. I found the first CD I’d ever bought, Yakko’s World (from Animanics) Anyone remeber the Speilburg Cameos where he would just show up (out of nowhere, often for no paticular reason) always wearing the same red cap & Hawaiian shirt? And why Wakko was from Liverpool, but his brother & sister were Americans? Hilarious.

And Tiny Toons! Egads, what happened?

My friend tells me that Basically the Mattel fun hour comes on now. Ewwww!

60

Hear hear!

And stopping Robin Williams from ad-libbing. Apparently in the early episodes, the script would say “Mork discovers eggs in Mindy’s fridge. Mork thinks they’re miniaturized space travellers–3 minutes” and Williams would ad-lib stuff like the “Fly! Be free! /Burial at sea” routine. But that meant multiple takes and that cost money.

But not as much as making the show boring would cost.

Fenris