HEH! Work It's been Canceled!

[Drtooth]

REALLY?!?! You didn't see this coming ABC?


Somehow, I don't buy the fact that the GBLT community had a problem with it... it's just a BAD show and a ripoff of Busom Buddies and Tootsie. And those were at least GOOD. Still, I'm surprised Last Man Standing hasn't been canceled yet. That's just TERRIBLE! I tried very hard and it's just... BLEH!

ABC has been having extraordinary luck until they canned the soaps for cheap talk shows. The ABC Wednsday sitcoms (at least Modern Family and The Middle) managed to get them the sitcom success they've been craving since the 00's.

 

[D'Snowth]

Although I knew this series was destined to fail (let's face it, men dressing in drag hasn't been funny since Corporal Klinger), because quite frankly, it rang of desperatation because Hollywood has clearly been out of ideas for years that we're getting sitcoms about the last things there hasn't been sitcomcs about *cough*Outsourced*cough*, THIS i swhat scares me to death about networks anymore.

You know, back in thegolden age of television, networks would actually air the entire season, from start to finish, and then wait until after that season had finished its run to determine whether or not the series seems like it could be successful or not: nowadays, literally, two episodes, and you're gone. How do you expect a series to build up a following and an audience if you pull it off the air before it even has a chance? Granted, this show was destined for failure, but still, it may have caught on with some kind of demographic.

Again, networks scare me like that anymore, it really doesn't give me the confidence to try and push forward into branching out into television, because it makes me worry that suppose I have a show, and it doesn't seem like anybody is watching, and it's only been two episodes? The network will just go ahead and pull it off the air, and it didn't even get a chance to be seen, as opposed to running the entire first season, giving it time for people to take notice, THEN deciding whether or not the numbers indicate it was successful or not. Who are these people, network executives, or gestapo agents?

Plus, these guys THINK they know what they want, but they really don't... they think they want either carbon copies of The Office (yes, Modern Family, and those shows fall into that category clearly), or like someone said in another thread, NBC clearly wants a new Seinfeld and is trying it out on bad comedians like Whitney and now Chelsea Handler (and come on, the premise for Chelsea's show is STUPID... someone else plays her, while she plays her sister? That'd be like if Brad Garrett played Raymond and Ray Romano played Robert), and do any of these shows get any kind of positive feedback? No. You know why? Because people are sick of these kinds of shows... if you actually read through feedback and such, people express exactly the kind of television they want to see right now, and there's surprisingly a large number of people out there, ranging from people in their teens to baby boomers, who are basically saying, make shows like you used to again, make shows with genuinely funny concepts that don't have to rely on foul language, sexual situations, and cheap laughs, with genuinely likable and believable characters instead of sketch-show type characters that are thrown into the mix... Glee was SUPPOSED to fall into that category, but it's just like every other show on TV, there's nothing different about it, except that it's musical.

I have no faith in the future of American entertainment. I just don't. This might as well be one of thse "signs of the end-time" kind of things, because Ameican entertainment continues to go to **** in a handbasket at a break-neck speed.

 

[CensoredAlso]

TV has lost so much of its audience to the Web, and they really have no idea what to do. Plus they just don't want to spend the money on new ideas.

 

[charlietheowl]

I'm actually stunned it took this long for them to cancel it.

 

[D'Snowth]

TV has lost so much of its audience

Well, what do you expect? I mean seriously, what IS there on TV to watch nowadays anyway? You've got your choice of either: reruns of classic sitcoms heavily butchered to the point you lose 5% of the show for commercials, modern sitcoms that contain vulgar content and unlikable characters, reality shows that have no actual reality to them whatsoever, crime dramas that try to outdo the number of versions of Law and Order, or sports.

 

[Muppet fan 123]

Modern Family is a geniusly funny show. But recently, it's been.. well.. off.
It hasn't been funny in a while but it's second season was so good that I already dedicated myself to that show. The Thanksgiving and Christmas episodes were good actually. But it's still not that good. I have hope that it'll come back and better.
Surburgatory is a great show too. ABC still has some good stuff but it's ratings are still plumeting.

 

[Drtooth]

Although I knew this series was destined to fail (let's face it, men dressing in drag hasn't been funny since Corporal Klinger), because quite frankly, it rang of desperatation because Hollywood has clearly been out of ideas for years that we're getting sitcoms about the last things there hasn't been sitcomcs about *cough*Outsourced*cough*, THIS i swhat scares me to death about networks anymore.

I think Outsourced was dealt a terrible card. It was at least more genuine than that horrid Whitney show they replaced it with. The characters felt genuine, and it dealt with a growing concern about the subject matter... all the while not making Indians look like stupid versions of Apu from the Simpsons... that was something that was an unfortunate fixture in sitcoms for a while. It did good until NBC felt it needed to shove the thing at a 10 PM time slot... that almost killed 30 Rock too. I really hate that 30 Rock is on at 8, opposite Big Bang and Up all Night gets to 9:30 slot 30 Rock demands. It's not that Up all Night is a bad show, but it seems like a romantic comedy film cut up into half hour pieces. it's too boring for me.

You know, back in thegolden age of television, networks would actually air the entire season, from start to finish, and then wait until after that season had finished its run to determine whether or not the series seems like it could be successful or not: nowadays, literally, two episodes, and you're gone. How do you expect a series to build up a following and an audience if you pull it off the air before it even has a chance? Granted, this show was destined for failure, but still, it may have caught on with some kind of demographic.

Golden Age nothing... look at Seinfeld. That's regarded as one of the best sitcoms of all time, and it was on the cancellation block many times. They just managed to give it a chance. Even look at Family Guy... Fox canceled that twice before it became their cash cow.

But the golden era wasn't as kind as everyone thinks it was. I don't even need to explain this next example... Star Trek.

Plus, these guys THINK they know what they want, but they really don't... they think they want either carbon copies of The Office (yes, Modern Family, and those shows fall into that category clearly), or like someone said in another thread, NBC clearly wants a new Seinfeld and is trying it out on bad comedians like Whitney and now Chelsea Handler (and come on, the premise for Chelsea's show is STUPID... someone else plays her, while she plays her sister? That'd be like if Brad Garrett played Raymond and Ray Romano played Robert), and do any of these shows get any kind of positive feedback? No. You know why? Because people are sick of these kinds of shows... if you actually read through feedback and such, people express exactly the kind of television they want to see right now, and there's surprisingly a large number of people out there, ranging from people in their teens to baby boomers, who are basically saying, make shows like you used to again, make shows with genuinely funny concepts that don't have to rely on foul language, sexual situations, and cheap laughs, with genuinely likable and believable characters instead of sketch-show type characters that are thrown into the mix...

I don't like regression... I don't think everything should be sex and soft core... but once the cat's out of the bag, it's hard to let it back in. I also RULLY hate people saying "make stuff the way you used to again" because, who are we kidding? They'd find a way to screw that up on some level. No greater example of trying to regain a former glory and failing is ABC's 00's Sitcom line up. They were trying WAAAAAY too hard to go back to the 80's/90's glory days of TGIF and Home Improvement and Full House type family shows. And what did we get? According to Jim? My Wife and Kids? Hope and Faith? The three unfunniest shows on the planet. I uh... ashamedly admit I dig George Lopez... at least he had some good play with his mother character.

The thing is, try as you might, it's very hard to recapture the lightning in a bottle of a classic show. I see it this way... you either wind up with something completely different and unlikable or something exactly the same and a retread. I defy someone to say that if they made a new Animaniacs with the same voice actors, writers, producers... everything to the smallest detail that they'd love it just the same and not say that the quality is gone on some level.

Still, it seems to me that Chelsea and Whitney are BOTH victims of trying to make things the way they used to be... they have 1990's Friends ripoff/ seasonal replacement written all over them. The Office did manage to save sitcoms, just not as we know them. I have to say, I don't mind losing the laugh track for character development. I love stuff like The Middle and Raising Hope. They feel a lot more realistic than some Schnider from 1 Day at a Time knockoff making sexual comments to the camera and having the laugh track cranked up to 11 for a cheap joke. That's kinda what Friends was for me... and especially that lame, overrated Will and Grace thing.

 

[CensoredAlso]

I uh... ashamedly admit I dig George Lopez... at least he had some good play with his mother character.

That show I actually liked because it was so character driven. Each character had a specific comedic note to play, you anticipated it, and it always delivered. It's simple but effective.

 

[Drtooth]

Yeah, I felt Hope and Faith to be too forcefully and artificially homespun, According to Jim a bit homophobic (or at least too alpha male), and My Wife and Kids... well... just unfunny. I liked Damon Wayans MUCH better in In Living Color where they actually let him be funny. But there's just something about George's show that was appealing on some level. I started rewatching it, thinking I was just under some weird spell, and I found myself still laughing at it. Plus, it was nice that they dealt with kids who actually misbehaved and had real problems. But that play between George and his mother was just... I dunno... something about it was great. usually you'd see that sort of thing with a mother in law, not directly a mother.

Still, they were clearly grasping at straws with those sitcoms that they just couldn't grab. I will admit, my tastes have changed a bit... but I still think Full House, Perfect Strangers and Family Matters had a certain something about them that made them hard to not like. I didn't really dig some of the mid-late 90's TGIF titles... but then it's a biased about the treatment of Muppets Tonight and especially Dinosaurs. And I hate Step by Step for some reason (maybe because the show's wacky break out funny neighbor character wound up being a wife beater in real life)... but whatever 1980's-90's family sitcom magic ABC was trying to recapture in the 00's era, they just didn't.

Meanwhile, Modern Family and The Middle are family sitcoms that break the mold... The Middle is hardly the saccharine fairy tale that Family Sitcoms usually turned into, and Modern Family, as Office "knockoff" as it is, actually managed to outshine the Office for me. I love how all the subplots always converge at the end. It took thinking outside the box and giving us something new to get the quality they were always looking for.

Meanwhile, I tried VERY hard to watch Last Man Standing, and all it was Home Improvement's Alpha Male jokes without the punchline that the alphamale's always wrong and gets blown up... and Al.

 

[mr3urious]

Suburgatory is really good, too. The main character isn't a dumb bimbo, and I enjoy her snarky attitude. Plus, it was created by the same person who created As Told By Ginger (another criminally under-appreciated show), so I kind of get those same vibes watching it.