(no subject)

[spatch]

SO WHAT DOES FOX DO when it finds the new hour-long drama it shoved into a Friday night slot of obscurity turns out to be a creative, unique, witty show that not only gets great reviews from critics but also gets people who hate TV to tune in and watch?

They shove it into the Thursday timeslot against CSI, the number one show in America.

And what happens the week after?

They cancel it. And replace it with a reality show involving "ugly women" who are given makeovers and forced to compete in a beauty pageant.

Jesus.

Wonderfalls, you deserved so much better. Whatever happened to letting a show run out its 13 ordered episodes and not canning it after fucking FOUR?!

Comments

[seph.livejournal.com]

Not that it's necessarily of the same caliber, but it's not as bad as what they did with Dark Angel -- cancel it for the sole purpose of replacing it with a horrible show that only aired maybe two episodes. TV people aren't bright.

[maren.livejournal.com]

oh my god, they cancelled it! GRRRRRRR! i thought that was the best show i'd seen in a long time! not to mention the hometown setting!

incidentally, rob, i like your tastes more every day.

[trysha.livejournal.com]

They could have done like they did with firefly.

Reordered the episodes, so that they provided maximum confusion to the viewer (but the most action up front!) and then cancel it.

[dcart.livejournal.com]

Like I posted on eschwa, I probably should have learned my lesson with Firefly. I'd vowed not to watch anything else new on Fox, but the temptation of seeing a Tim Minear produced show was just too much.

Fool me twice, shame on me.

[cheezdanish.livejournal.com]

It'll be out on DVD by the end of next month, just you watch. And they'll make their profit off that.

Cynical? About Hollywood? Moi? OF COURSE I AM!

[annilita.livejournal.com]

I have to admit that I never saw Wonderfalls, as I don't usually watch TV on either of those nights, BUT...

The concept of the whole Ugly Duckling show is just so insulting and annoying and WRONG that I feel the anger rise within me any time I see a commercial for it. Fox is on crack. There is simply no way around it.

Keith

[(Anonymous)]

In Minneapolis they were running it at midnight on Thursdays. Thereby guaranteeing that no one would see it.

[clickie]

I was basing judgement on whether or not to watch [i]Wonderfalls[/i] on TWoP's recaps, and the recapper seemed to hate the show more than any show, ever. So it wasn't a universal critical darling, like [i]Freaks and Geeks[/i] or something.

I'm still sad about the horrible treatment of [i]Andy Richter Controls the Universe,[/i] which was played on a random schedule, two times a week. Finally, they just canned it altogether, even though there were still like 4 episodes in the can. Bah. FOX sucks.

On the other hand, I think society at large is grateful that [i]girls club[/i] was canned after only two episodes.

[annilita.livejournal.com]

My hubby and I loved Andy Richter. Fox is run by crack heads.

We get the HD channel with our Direct TV set-up and they show the reruns of Richter on there. It's worth the extra money for HD just for that.

[yuda.livejournal.com]

I, myself, saw about 15 or 20 minutes of it (admittedly, I came in mid-show) and I thought it was terrible.

Ultimately, they probably weren't making any money on it. If you want art, go to PBS. ;)

[mykwud.livejournal.com]

ANDY RICHTER CONTROLS THE UNIVERSE. Amen, brother and/or sister. That show had the potential to be the male-equivalent of Ally McBeal with the right marketing. Stupid, stupid Fox.

As for Wonderfalls, I really feel for what I never got the chance to see but kept hearing was an insanely clever show. However, we XTC fans knew from the very beginning that Andy Partridge's theme-song for the show had doomed it from the start... everything the man's ever had his music in has been complete flop. (Jerry Macguire excepting.)

[daisyglaze.livejournal.com]

I haven't ever actually watched an episode of Wonderfalls, nor even seen a trailer for it or nuthin' but I know that Tim Minear is an incredibly talented, hilarious, stand-up dude, and now I'm totally bummed that Fox even exists.

[luckimunki.livejournal.com]

I've realized that FOX plays a role in the Grand Scheme of TV, and they simply are unwilling to break out of it. The first element of their role is having only one or two long-time running, hit, quality shows at a time. Everything else is short-lived or crap. In fax, FOX revels in its crapitude. They believe in crap, and they pledge their allegiance to the flag of the united states of crapcrapcrap every morning.
The second element of FOX, and this is sort of their saving grace, is that they set new trends in television production. Sometimes it's a negative thing (when people were marvelling at hour stupid Reality TV shows like "Survivor" are, they came up with "Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire?" and it's only gotten worse since), but a lot of the times their shows set new standards for what will work in television for the next few years. "The Simpsons," "Ally McBeal," "X-Files," "Buffy," and scads and scads of other shows have been created for FOX, thought to be stupid at first, and became huge hits, copied everywhere. No other trends have been set like this except for the DIY Reality shows like "Trading Spaces" and "Queer Eye" on cable.
FOX could be the best network on television if they wanted to. Rupert Murdoch could sink more money into production and garner really quality writers, producers, and actors and take over every Prime Time night on television if he wanted to. But he doesn't. His attitude is that what he has is enough to make him billions, why should he spend more?

I have another entire theory about how UPN could be saved, but we won't go into that now.