There's Good TV Out There... Somewhere...
"The King of Queens" ended its 9-year run tonight.
Yeah... I missed it too...
Of course, in my case, my other viewing options from 9-10pm on a Monday night were too good to pass up, or at least to DVR. I mean seriously, airing a series finale opposite the penultimate episodes of "24" and "Heroes"??? I can't even get a DVR to tape 2 shows correctly... 3 just wouldn't be possible. Although it is a sign of the times when TV execs can find a way to botch up even something like this by putting it in the worst possible time slot. This has been going on for years with some great new shows that never made it: show debuts, gets critical raves, but oops... it's up against a juggernaut like "American Idol" or "ER" or "CSI" or "Desperate Housewives". Show flops in the ratings, show gets canceled.
More and more these days, it's the sitcom that falls victim to this, and the killer is usually a reality show. People just don't want their shows scripted anymore, at least not with a laugh-track. That's a shame, because what were the shows that people know all the catch phrases from? Sitcoms. People my age make each other laugh by quoting "The Simpsons" ("D'oh!"), "Family Guy" ("Giggedy-giggedy-giggedy..."), "How I Met Your Mother" ("Suit up!"), and it wasn't that long ago that everyone was quoting "Seinfeld" or "Friends" or something like that. But now you have "Til Death" on Fox, which is about to be killed off by "Survivor", and "Dancing With the Stars" may be about to kill off "Mother" and "Everybody Hates Chris"... not to mention the fact that they extended THAT show to 90 minutes tonight, causing a 4-network pile-up between 9 and 9:30.
Thank god the drama still survives. Where I work, we do gather around the industrial-size water-cooler each Tuesday morning to talk about the previous night's episode of "Heroes". For a while, it was "24", but the two shows of course are on opposite each other, so we can only watch one, and more people talk about "Heroes". Now I'm not asking TV for original ideas, because like Hollywood, those come few and far between, but at least roll out some interesting characters! You've got so many on "Heroes" that it seems like they just leave the rest of TV with too few to go around. Now I know reality TV has given us interesting "characters" as well, but who seems to have the longer shelf life, Jack Bauer or Sanjaya?
I don't think this is due to the fact that, as some say, the network sitcom has run out of ideas and is just recycling the same tired funny dad with hot wife and sarcastic kids idea over and over again. I think it's due to the fact that the audience that used to all gather as one to get their laughs from "The Cosby Show" or "Cheers" or "Roseanne" has splintered as we've been presented with more and more options on cable. Not just new shows, both of the sitcom and reality genres, but syndicated repeats. You know what my first thought was when I realized I was going to miss the last episode of "King of Queens"? "Oh well... I'll catch it in reruns..." Many other fans of the show probably said, "I'll just wait for the DVD of the last season to come out."
Not to begrudge the networks their moneymaking abilities, because DVDs of TV shows have become the biggest seller in the format. However, the networks put these things out so quickly after the season ends that people no longer feel they have to watch the show the first time around... which leads to lower ratings for the first-run episodes. Well, the technology may be different these days, with DVD and DVR and digital cable, but ratings are still ratings... and the #1 rule of programming still applies: If it doesn't have ratings, it gets canceled.
With all these other options now, it's impossible to figure out what people will like. Now if we had 3 or 4 networks and just a few niche cable channels like 20 years ago, you could distill everything that's out there down to some lineups that would be absolute powerhouses of great shows. Of course, it also means that you'd have to get rid of the crap, and really, whatever would we do without shows like "I Love New York" and "The Naked Trucker and T-Bones Show"? (note: HEAVY sarcasm) Well, since the genie's out of the bottle, there's no going back, but now it just makes it harder to A) find a really good show, and B) get enough support behind it to make it last. Obviously, we're never getting rid of reality TV, nor do the networks want to, so really, the task for those who still believe in the power of scripted drama and sitcoms is to do their absolute best to create shows that can hold their own or do better than reality TV. Perhaps we need a comedy "Manhattan Project" or "Space Race" of sorts...
Meanwhile, I'm going to figure out what I can watch tomorrow night INSTEAD OF "American Idol"... besides the Mets game...
Yeah... I missed it too...
Of course, in my case, my other viewing options from 9-10pm on a Monday night were too good to pass up, or at least to DVR. I mean seriously, airing a series finale opposite the penultimate episodes of "24" and "Heroes"??? I can't even get a DVR to tape 2 shows correctly... 3 just wouldn't be possible. Although it is a sign of the times when TV execs can find a way to botch up even something like this by putting it in the worst possible time slot. This has been going on for years with some great new shows that never made it: show debuts, gets critical raves, but oops... it's up against a juggernaut like "American Idol" or "ER" or "CSI" or "Desperate Housewives". Show flops in the ratings, show gets canceled.
More and more these days, it's the sitcom that falls victim to this, and the killer is usually a reality show. People just don't want their shows scripted anymore, at least not with a laugh-track. That's a shame, because what were the shows that people know all the catch phrases from? Sitcoms. People my age make each other laugh by quoting "The Simpsons" ("D'oh!"), "Family Guy" ("Giggedy-giggedy-giggedy..."), "How I Met Your Mother" ("Suit up!"), and it wasn't that long ago that everyone was quoting "Seinfeld" or "Friends" or something like that. But now you have "Til Death" on Fox, which is about to be killed off by "Survivor", and "Dancing With the Stars" may be about to kill off "Mother" and "Everybody Hates Chris"... not to mention the fact that they extended THAT show to 90 minutes tonight, causing a 4-network pile-up between 9 and 9:30.
Thank god the drama still survives. Where I work, we do gather around the industrial-size water-cooler each Tuesday morning to talk about the previous night's episode of "Heroes". For a while, it was "24", but the two shows of course are on opposite each other, so we can only watch one, and more people talk about "Heroes". Now I'm not asking TV for original ideas, because like Hollywood, those come few and far between, but at least roll out some interesting characters! You've got so many on "Heroes" that it seems like they just leave the rest of TV with too few to go around. Now I know reality TV has given us interesting "characters" as well, but who seems to have the longer shelf life, Jack Bauer or Sanjaya?
I don't think this is due to the fact that, as some say, the network sitcom has run out of ideas and is just recycling the same tired funny dad with hot wife and sarcastic kids idea over and over again. I think it's due to the fact that the audience that used to all gather as one to get their laughs from "The Cosby Show" or "Cheers" or "Roseanne" has splintered as we've been presented with more and more options on cable. Not just new shows, both of the sitcom and reality genres, but syndicated repeats. You know what my first thought was when I realized I was going to miss the last episode of "King of Queens"? "Oh well... I'll catch it in reruns..." Many other fans of the show probably said, "I'll just wait for the DVD of the last season to come out."
Not to begrudge the networks their moneymaking abilities, because DVDs of TV shows have become the biggest seller in the format. However, the networks put these things out so quickly after the season ends that people no longer feel they have to watch the show the first time around... which leads to lower ratings for the first-run episodes. Well, the technology may be different these days, with DVD and DVR and digital cable, but ratings are still ratings... and the #1 rule of programming still applies: If it doesn't have ratings, it gets canceled.
With all these other options now, it's impossible to figure out what people will like. Now if we had 3 or 4 networks and just a few niche cable channels like 20 years ago, you could distill everything that's out there down to some lineups that would be absolute powerhouses of great shows. Of course, it also means that you'd have to get rid of the crap, and really, whatever would we do without shows like "I Love New York" and "The Naked Trucker and T-Bones Show"? (note: HEAVY sarcasm) Well, since the genie's out of the bottle, there's no going back, but now it just makes it harder to A) find a really good show, and B) get enough support behind it to make it last. Obviously, we're never getting rid of reality TV, nor do the networks want to, so really, the task for those who still believe in the power of scripted drama and sitcoms is to do their absolute best to create shows that can hold their own or do better than reality TV. Perhaps we need a comedy "Manhattan Project" or "Space Race" of sorts...
Meanwhile, I'm going to figure out what I can watch tomorrow night INSTEAD OF "American Idol"... besides the Mets game...
Labels: crap, television
posted by Dave | 10:44 PM
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