Things to think about....

So as some of you may have read on here or know about me, I am not a big fan of canceling TV shows after the first season. I always think a shows first year is hard on the show and when a show is good (has good writing, story, heart, etc) it could take some time to build up an audience. Well in my boredom on a saturday night I was reading about the TV show MASH and it was almost canceled because of low ratings. At the end of the season it was ranked 46th.....
I just wish TV execs had patience for new shows, looking at you NBC (Kings, Southland)

Ok my rant is over

Reasonable rant. Some start off rough. Has anyone seen the first season of X-Files? Yeesh. It's filled with very wooden acting and basic story convention. Then it became the incredible and lucrative franchise, with two spinoffs. One doing pretty well for itself (Millennium.).

People who run Networks don't see it the same way as they once did but then again television is a much different entity than it was during the days of M*A*S*H, The Cosby Show and even Roseanne. It's just different.

One word:

Seinfeld.

First 2 or 3 seasons did horribly in the ratings.

Cheers was dead last in the ratings for its time slot during its first year, but was the #1 show on TV a few years later. If it premiered during this era with those numbers, it wouldn't have lasted one season.

It depends on the show. I don't think you give some execs enough credit. I watched Kings, and it was a sboring as television could be. Even with low ratings, if something special had been there, it may have been saved. Look at Arrested Development. It did horribly. But we got three seasons from it because someone high up saw what the few people who watched it saw. And now look, every day more and more people are getting into it. The fact of the matter is entertainment is a business, but networks are willing to lose a little money early, if they think it could get them alot later. But if no one thinks it's going to ever do anything, theres no reason to keep pumping cash into a sinking ship. Theres shows I loved that got cancelled too early, and theres been shows that have made it despite there being reason perhaps to cancel. Really, if a show you like gets cancelled, you should really be mad at yourself, and your fellow TV watchers. We have nothing invested into these show, the people who make them have their own money, and often, years of their lives invested. If it's going down like Oceanic 815, who can blame them for wanting to cut their losses and move on to the next thing?

I'm still pissed that Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared only got one season each. Granted, I watched those shows on DVD long after they first aired, but I hated that I couldn't watch more of them.

Debaser77 wrote:I'm still pissed that Undeclared only got one season. Granted, I watched [it] on DVD long after they first aired.

Not me. Every episode live. *sigh*

Thundermatts wrote:It depends on the show. I don't think you give some execs enough credit. I watched Kings, and it was a sboring as television could be. Even with low ratings, if something special had been there, it may have been saved. Look at Arrested Development. It did horribly. But we got three seasons from it because someone high up saw what the few people who watched it saw. And now look, every day more and more people are getting into it. The fact of the matter is entertainment is a business, but networks are willing to lose a little money early, if they think it could get them alot later. But if no one thinks it's going to ever do anything, theres no reason to keep pumping cash into a sinking ship. Theres shows I loved that got cancelled too early, and theres been shows that have made it despite there being reason perhaps to cancel. Really, if a show you like gets cancelled, you should really be mad at yourself, and your fellow TV watchers. We have nothing invested into these show, the people who make them have their own money, and often, years of their lives invested. If it's going down like Oceanic 815, who can blame them for wanting to cut their losses and move on to the next thing?

Agreed. If people aren't going to invest in a show and watch it and tell their friends to watch it, the show isn't going to last. Granted, I think there are shows that get cancelled unfairly and without merit. Look at the last season of Angel. It was a great season and when the word got out that it was getting cancelled, people rallied behind the show in very interesting ways but it didn't matter. Sometimes it just a matter of the bottom line and it's not always fair but it's business.

Tmatts you make some good points. You say Kings was boring I say it was a very good thinking show (not a lot of action). I just think NBC did some poor things with promoting the show. Had they promoted the show to certain demos(demographics) it may have done better, all NBC did was show butterflies for its promos and then they changed the night the show was on multiple times.
But look at a show like Southland, NBC canceled it after one season, luckily a cable station has picked it up and will air it (but I dont own cable:( )

but look at the bad things nbc has done they gave up on Scrubs (now on ABC- not as funny but still decent) and Medium (gave up on it and now CBS is using it as a good show)

Just aggravating that it feels like the people in charge of picking shows are not doing there jobs....
Kings would have been better than Trauma which was nothing, imho, but an opportunity to cling to the success of ER

Three syllables, one word: Fuller-verse.

shark6495 wrote:Tmatts you make some good points. You say Kings was boring I say it was a very good thinking show (not a lot of action). I just think NBC did some poor things with promoting the show. Had they promoted the show to certain demos(demographics) it may have done better, all NBC did was show butterflies for its promos and then they changed the night the show was on multiple times.
But look at a show like Southland, NBC canceled it after one season, luckily a cable station has picked it up and will air it (but I dont own cable:( )

but look at the bad things nbc has done they gave up on Scrubs (now on ABC- not as funny but still decent) and Medium (gave up on it and now CBS is using it as a good show)

Just aggravating that it feels like the people in charge of picking shows are not doing there jobs....
Kings would have been better than Trauma which was nothing, imho, but an opportunity to cling to the success of ER

I didn't think Kings was boring because I'm an idiot who needs alot of action. I think Kings was boring because it was.

You don't need to tell me what Demos is short from.

People in charge of picking shows? lol aren't you the guy who keeps saying he worked in TV? And that's the sort of things you say? People in charge of the show pickin'? Well Wooo-EEEeeee doggy. Them there show pickers sure aint worth a damn.

wow tmatts i was not picking on you or anything I was saying I thought it was entertaining and i can see why some people thought it was boring because there was very little to no action in many episodes. I meant it as it had me thinking a lot and I enjoyed it. Again just because you know who a demo is does not mean everyone knows what I am talking about. Thirdly my show pickers: look I understand there are network vps in charge of creative programming/new programs/test groups etc. I did not want to go all technical. Plus I have worked with some people at local tv stations who I would not say were very bright. I never rose above producer/director at local tv stations and it was enough for me to say "enough I am done" well the morons I was working with paired with the crappy pay and not to mention the long hours..... yea tv = not as much fun.....

so tmatts I was not picking on you or anything I enjoyed the show Kings and enjoyed comparing it to the Biblical David and Goliath (stupid catholic high school pushing all that info into my mind)

And lastly Tmatts, we have too much in common to start fighting (our names, enjoying comics, our love of the Bengals, and probably our home cities) so there....

Sorry good sir, I felt like I was being talked down to, and I'm a jerk. I actually like ya a alot, and apologize for my bad behaviour.



But stay away from JP 4

haha agreed

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