A Sad Day in Television Land
Well, it finally happened.
We all knew that it was coming, but the news is devastating nonetheless: Fox has cancelled Arrested Development. Okay - technically, they haven't yet used the word "cancelled," but... the network has chosen not to exercise its option to pick up Arrested’s back-nine episodes for this season, which means that the series will close up shop after its 13th episode. In TV-speak, that's as good as calling it "cancelled."
The immediate impact of this announcement is that Arrested will disappear for the remainder of the November sweep. The show will return in the less-critical month of December (December 5th, to be exact), when it will begin to play out its final episodes.
Might the show be rescued by a cable-network knight in shining armor? Perhaps. HBO and FX come to mind. But don’t get your hopes up; Arrested is not an inexpensive show to produce, and that fact, combined with its dismal track record (ratings-wise) over 2.5 years, may scare away even the most-enthusiastic of networks.
I’m still not quite sure why audiences were never able to discover Arrested. After all, this season television viewers were able to find and embrace another intelligent comedy, NBC’s My Name is Earl. This proves that intelligent, single-camera comedies can succeed on broadcast-network television.
We certainly can’t fault Fox. They tried; they really did. They stuck with the series through nearly three seasons. A lesser network would have pulled the plug by the end of the first season.
Arrested appeared to have it all. Along with its superior writing and well-above-average cast, it was blessed with a strong time slot (in seasons one and two it ran on Sundays, leading out of The Simpsons) and a first-year Emmy win for Best Comedy.
Yet, despite its advantages, viewers never seemed to warm up to Michael, GOB, Buster, Lucille, and the rest of the Bluth family. And that is a loss for all of us.
And so, we're left with nothing more than a plan to enjoy Arrested Development while it lasts.
'Tis a sad day indeed.
We all knew that it was coming, but the news is devastating nonetheless: Fox has cancelled Arrested Development. Okay - technically, they haven't yet used the word "cancelled," but... the network has chosen not to exercise its option to pick up Arrested’s back-nine episodes for this season, which means that the series will close up shop after its 13th episode. In TV-speak, that's as good as calling it "cancelled."
The immediate impact of this announcement is that Arrested will disappear for the remainder of the November sweep. The show will return in the less-critical month of December (December 5th, to be exact), when it will begin to play out its final episodes.
Might the show be rescued by a cable-network knight in shining armor? Perhaps. HBO and FX come to mind. But don’t get your hopes up; Arrested is not an inexpensive show to produce, and that fact, combined with its dismal track record (ratings-wise) over 2.5 years, may scare away even the most-enthusiastic of networks.
I’m still not quite sure why audiences were never able to discover Arrested. After all, this season television viewers were able to find and embrace another intelligent comedy, NBC’s My Name is Earl. This proves that intelligent, single-camera comedies can succeed on broadcast-network television.
We certainly can’t fault Fox. They tried; they really did. They stuck with the series through nearly three seasons. A lesser network would have pulled the plug by the end of the first season.
Arrested appeared to have it all. Along with its superior writing and well-above-average cast, it was blessed with a strong time slot (in seasons one and two it ran on Sundays, leading out of The Simpsons) and a first-year Emmy win for Best Comedy.
Yet, despite its advantages, viewers never seemed to warm up to Michael, GOB, Buster, Lucille, and the rest of the Bluth family. And that is a loss for all of us.
And so, we're left with nothing more than a plan to enjoy Arrested Development while it lasts.
'Tis a sad day indeed.
posted by TV Boy at 6:02 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home