David (pictured above on a recent trip to Philadelphia) is a resident of Northern California and all-around very funny person. This month he discusses his most-missed casualties of the '07-'08 season.

Three Shows Down

They’ve cancelled 4400 and the Dead Zone and all but officially cancelled Journeyman. Of all these I am most disappointed by the end of 4400. The nature of Journeyman allows us to leave it with some things unanswered but 4400 not so much. I really wanted to see what Marco did with his cool new power. Alas, I will never know.

Dead Zone was a mercy killing. There was absolutely no element of production that didn’t suffer due to the massive change in staff and location last season. The only reason Marci and I watched it was to make fun of it. Which is sad cause it was a solid show once upon a time.

Journeyman was an interesting premise helped a lot by a very good cast. I also like how he told his wife in the first episode. Still this show’s been on borrowed time for a while.

What’s most interesting about this is the online response is how typical it is. A show is cancelled; the same responses are kicked out.

The Network is Stupid.

There is no Reason to Watch Cause they just gonna cancel it anyways. (This comes regardless of how long the show’s been on. Three episodes or Three Hundred)

Damn Writers Strike (This one’s new). Which actually makes little sense.

They should have given it a better time slot. The criteria for this time slot is always “some other time” and when said person is most likely to be home.

The network hates X and screws his shows. Cause networks are in the habitat of spending millions of dollars just so they can pull the rug on someone as some sort of prank.

They should give it more time to build it audience, look at Seinfeld. Don’t however look at the other 150 shows that started weak, and got weaker.

The Martians are responsible. (Shh don’t tell anyone.)

The reason shows get cancelled most of the time is not enough people watched.

 

I am a fan of serialized dramas. However, I must face the following facts:

Serialized Dramas are expensive.

Audiences prefer other shows more. Sitcoms, reality and procedural dramas.

Serialized Dramas lose viewers easily and pick up viewers with difficulty.

Serialized Dramas costs escalate faster then other shows.

Television is a business. Why is American Idol still on and Arrested Development and not? Because that’s good business.
You can’t spend quality.

The television business does not reward good intentions or even being right in the long run. Executive A renews Journeyman despite low ratings. Executive A gets canned. Journeyman suddenly becomes a hit. Executive A will not get his job back.

Thus I am faced with the fact that the kind of shows I like don’t often get made, and frequently get cancelled. Stupid Martians.

 

Write to David at David@CreaturesEast.com

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(c) The Patient Creatures (East) - 2006