Even the most dedicated health fanatic eats a value meal once in a while. With that in mind, I’m allowing myself to violate my own promise to be more positive. Forgive me.
It doesn’t have to be, of course. But the people in charge think you’re stupid.
This became apparent to me when that asinine Friends was a hit. Six beautiful, young New Yorkers spent all of their time drinking coffee out of enormous cups or solving serious problems in their gymnasium-sized apartment. Problems like, “Rachael can’t find the right shoes and her mother is coming to visit! What is she going to do? She really needs those shoes.”
It ran for 10 years.
Shows that actually engage your grey matter (other than the part that says, “Lift Bud Light to mouth”) get canned because their smaller audiences can’t sustain the obscene cash flow that executives demand. Despite critical acclaim and armfuls of awards, shows like Arrested Development and now Pushing Daisies are canceled. Battlestar Galactica is among the best shows on TV, and Sci-Fi treats it like Sloth.
Perhaps there ought to be a Quality Network. We’ll call it QN – TV For People Who Are Insulted By Knight Rider. Smaller audiences, smaller budgets, reduced broadcasting hours and a couple dozen KILLER shows.
It’s starting to happen on cable (Mad Men is a fine example). While the Big Four networks pump out another season of Wife Swap, cable is producing television we actually want to watch.
NBC’s The Office seems like an exception, until you realize it was saved by iTunes. NBC wanted to can it.
Now you know why I don’t watch much TV.
One more thing: Get off my lawn.
Unfortunately awards don’t equal ratings in network executive’s minds. The problem is that many of them wouldn’t know good, engaging TV if it hit them over the head.
We’ll have to agree to disagree about Friends however. I didn’t like it when it first started but it got REALLY funny after about the 3rd season. It also has my absoulte favorite sit-com scene of all time, the “Trivia Game”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3ShNgZmLd0
Dang. Pushing Daisies? Seriously? That bums me out. Of course, I was bummed when they took Journeyman off. And my husband and I loved Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Seems like just when I get hooked and settled into a new show, they cancel it. Argh.