The Second Season
Now I know you just read the title and you have made your assumptions as to what this column is about. No, it's not about the NBA or NHL playoffs. Yes, I know college basketball ended two weeks ago, and baseball just started. No, by "second season", I would be referring to the new spring television season. It's gotten to the point where your "mid-season replacements" have become more ballyhooed than some of the fall premieres. And then they get yanked just as quickly.
Take "Wednesday 9:30/8:30 Central", for example. Yes, that was the name of the show. Was, as in the show is no longer on the air. Didn't know it was going to be? You're probably not alone. It aired twice. That's it. Twice. And then it was cancelled. It seems that the shelf life of a new sitcom is about the same as that of a head coach for the Washington Redskins. How do you give a show a chance to build an audience when you only give it two weeks? I watched both episodes, and I thought the second was better than the first. The third could've been better than the second, but we'll never know. "Wednesday 9:30/8:30 Central" had a bad opening rating, and then the second week was apparently not too rosy either, and that's all it took. Now, on the other hand, "The George Lopez Show" did decently the first week, did better the second week, and suddenly, it's a hit. All after two weeks.
And what's even worse is when a show doesn't get a chance to find its audience because it is constantly shifted. "The Tick" on Fox was the latest example last fall. After one or two weeks in its original Thursday time slot, they pre-empted it the next week for another show, then a special, then they brought it back on Thursday, then they aired another episode on a Wednesday, and then it took another week off, and then they announced it was cancelled. Well, what were they expecting? Most casual TV viewers don't read up on their TV listings enough to follow a TV show all over the weekday map. They watch a show one week, if they like it, they tune in the same time next week. If the show's not there, they assume it's gone and they watch something else. Even if it comes back, they may not go back, probably because they found something else to watch.
Ranting aside, let's look at some of the new shows that look pretty good. Of course, we have to start with the runaway hit of the moment, MTV's "The Osbournes". Ozzy goes from most evil man in America to the patriatch of everybody's favorite obscenity-spewing, dog doo-cleaning, neighbor-annoying family. I honestly don't get this show. America loves it, but the one episode I saw, I didn't understand. I mean, I thought it was pretty funny how they were blasting music and throwing cheese to get the neighbors to stop their 3 A.M. sing-alongs, but there were other parts where it just looked like outtakes from "The Real World". And speaking of which, I tried to give "Real World" another chance. I thought Chicago had possibilities, but after 5 or 6 episodes, even superhottie cast member Keri failed to hold my attention. Anyway, back to "Ozzy Minus Harriet"; I guess the appeal is in how over-the-top they are in terms of being anything but conventional. More like how a conventional family would look if you watched them after dropping acid. Maybe I'll just have to watch a couple more episodes to figure it all out. On the other hand, I never got Ozzy's music, either.
Back to ABC and George Lopez. He is very funny, and I know the whole buzz around this show is the fact that the cast is mostly Latino (a rare thing on network television), but honestly, that means nothing to me. I'd like the show no matter what the nationality of the cast members were, and isn't that really what ABC is trying to establish, that anyone can do a good show, regardless of race or ethnic origin? The Bob & Tom factor helped here, because George Lopez was a frequent guest on their show and still calls in occasionally to share the experiences from his new-found fame. The episode and a half I saw were both very good, very well written, and George is a natural. I highly recommend this one.
Over to Fox for two new shows I've had the opportunity to catch recently. "Greg the Bunny" has gotten a lot of good reviews, and they're well-earned. The simple concept of the puppets having their own lives is hilarious. The monkey character alone is three-times divorced and fighting a weight problem that causes him to have to be re-stitched in one episode when he blows out a seam. Also, any time you put Eugene Levy and Seth Green in a show and do it right, you have a hit. Also new on Fox is "Andy Richter Controls the Universe". Yeah, I know, dumb-sounding title, probably a show thrown together to give the former Conan O'Brien sidekick his 15 minutes of fame. However, the one episode I got to see (the second one is currently being recorded so that I can hit the sack at a decent hour tonight) was very good. I guess I'm just a fan of the quick-cut-to-a-fantasy-sequence bit that has worked so well in other shows, and this show does it well. Not quite as well as "Family Guy", a show I have re-discovered in the process of discovering the other two Fox sitcoms, but then again, there are some jokes you just can't do without animation. In the case of "Family Guy", the reason the show has never gotten more than a cult following is because it is pretty quick-witted, and you have to know your pop culture in order to get all the jokes, and you have to be paying attention. The thing packs in more laughs-per-minute than any of the best from Monty Python or Mel Brooks.
The only new offering I've seen from any of the other networks was "Watching Ellie" on NBC, and that of course was purely to see if the "Seinfeld curse" was alive and well with Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Well, despite some evidence and reviews to the contrary, it is. The show I saw was not very funny, the gag with the short guy trapped in the cat carrier was dumb and probably insulting, and the whole device of the clock in the corner of the screen had me doing what a lot of people who have seen this show have done: count down the seconds to the end of this thing. Even making it transparent like those annoying little network logos doesn't deflect attention.
However, perhaps the best programming move in recent days came from that cable titan, E! Yes, E! They put classic episodes of "Saturday Night Live" on at 7 P.M. every night, and it is great. Unlike the old 30-minute editions they threw together for syndication, these actually save most of the content of the original episodes, going from Dan Aykroyd and Jane Curtin's "Weekend Update" to Richard Dreyfus singing a tune with Paul Shaffer (with hair!) playing the piano, or from a Coneheads sketch to Billy Joel playing "Just the Way You Are". Classic TV like this should be treasured. Just goes to show ya, sometimes bringing back something that worked 25 years ago does just as well as a slew of new shows. Especially when you give it more than two weeks.
Take "Wednesday 9:30/8:30 Central", for example. Yes, that was the name of the show. Was, as in the show is no longer on the air. Didn't know it was going to be? You're probably not alone. It aired twice. That's it. Twice. And then it was cancelled. It seems that the shelf life of a new sitcom is about the same as that of a head coach for the Washington Redskins. How do you give a show a chance to build an audience when you only give it two weeks? I watched both episodes, and I thought the second was better than the first. The third could've been better than the second, but we'll never know. "Wednesday 9:30/8:30 Central" had a bad opening rating, and then the second week was apparently not too rosy either, and that's all it took. Now, on the other hand, "The George Lopez Show" did decently the first week, did better the second week, and suddenly, it's a hit. All after two weeks.
And what's even worse is when a show doesn't get a chance to find its audience because it is constantly shifted. "The Tick" on Fox was the latest example last fall. After one or two weeks in its original Thursday time slot, they pre-empted it the next week for another show, then a special, then they brought it back on Thursday, then they aired another episode on a Wednesday, and then it took another week off, and then they announced it was cancelled. Well, what were they expecting? Most casual TV viewers don't read up on their TV listings enough to follow a TV show all over the weekday map. They watch a show one week, if they like it, they tune in the same time next week. If the show's not there, they assume it's gone and they watch something else. Even if it comes back, they may not go back, probably because they found something else to watch.
Ranting aside, let's look at some of the new shows that look pretty good. Of course, we have to start with the runaway hit of the moment, MTV's "The Osbournes". Ozzy goes from most evil man in America to the patriatch of everybody's favorite obscenity-spewing, dog doo-cleaning, neighbor-annoying family. I honestly don't get this show. America loves it, but the one episode I saw, I didn't understand. I mean, I thought it was pretty funny how they were blasting music and throwing cheese to get the neighbors to stop their 3 A.M. sing-alongs, but there were other parts where it just looked like outtakes from "The Real World". And speaking of which, I tried to give "Real World" another chance. I thought Chicago had possibilities, but after 5 or 6 episodes, even superhottie cast member Keri failed to hold my attention. Anyway, back to "Ozzy Minus Harriet"; I guess the appeal is in how over-the-top they are in terms of being anything but conventional. More like how a conventional family would look if you watched them after dropping acid. Maybe I'll just have to watch a couple more episodes to figure it all out. On the other hand, I never got Ozzy's music, either.
Back to ABC and George Lopez. He is very funny, and I know the whole buzz around this show is the fact that the cast is mostly Latino (a rare thing on network television), but honestly, that means nothing to me. I'd like the show no matter what the nationality of the cast members were, and isn't that really what ABC is trying to establish, that anyone can do a good show, regardless of race or ethnic origin? The Bob & Tom factor helped here, because George Lopez was a frequent guest on their show and still calls in occasionally to share the experiences from his new-found fame. The episode and a half I saw were both very good, very well written, and George is a natural. I highly recommend this one.
Over to Fox for two new shows I've had the opportunity to catch recently. "Greg the Bunny" has gotten a lot of good reviews, and they're well-earned. The simple concept of the puppets having their own lives is hilarious. The monkey character alone is three-times divorced and fighting a weight problem that causes him to have to be re-stitched in one episode when he blows out a seam. Also, any time you put Eugene Levy and Seth Green in a show and do it right, you have a hit. Also new on Fox is "Andy Richter Controls the Universe". Yeah, I know, dumb-sounding title, probably a show thrown together to give the former Conan O'Brien sidekick his 15 minutes of fame. However, the one episode I got to see (the second one is currently being recorded so that I can hit the sack at a decent hour tonight) was very good. I guess I'm just a fan of the quick-cut-to-a-fantasy-sequence bit that has worked so well in other shows, and this show does it well. Not quite as well as "Family Guy", a show I have re-discovered in the process of discovering the other two Fox sitcoms, but then again, there are some jokes you just can't do without animation. In the case of "Family Guy", the reason the show has never gotten more than a cult following is because it is pretty quick-witted, and you have to know your pop culture in order to get all the jokes, and you have to be paying attention. The thing packs in more laughs-per-minute than any of the best from Monty Python or Mel Brooks.
The only new offering I've seen from any of the other networks was "Watching Ellie" on NBC, and that of course was purely to see if the "Seinfeld curse" was alive and well with Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Well, despite some evidence and reviews to the contrary, it is. The show I saw was not very funny, the gag with the short guy trapped in the cat carrier was dumb and probably insulting, and the whole device of the clock in the corner of the screen had me doing what a lot of people who have seen this show have done: count down the seconds to the end of this thing. Even making it transparent like those annoying little network logos doesn't deflect attention.
However, perhaps the best programming move in recent days came from that cable titan, E! Yes, E! They put classic episodes of "Saturday Night Live" on at 7 P.M. every night, and it is great. Unlike the old 30-minute editions they threw together for syndication, these actually save most of the content of the original episodes, going from Dan Aykroyd and Jane Curtin's "Weekend Update" to Richard Dreyfus singing a tune with Paul Shaffer (with hair!) playing the piano, or from a Coneheads sketch to Billy Joel playing "Just the Way You Are". Classic TV like this should be treasured. Just goes to show ya, sometimes bringing back something that worked 25 years ago does just as well as a slew of new shows. Especially when you give it more than two weeks.
Labels: television
posted by Dave | 11:36 PM
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