Waiting for your wings, but you just got legs.

[luciazephyr]

The more I let myself think about it, the more angry I get over FOX canning Drive.

I get that this is a very competative world in television, but Jesus H. W. Christ. Let's think about this for a minute: what FOX shows are good? Can you name anything besides House? Does that constitute, to FOX execs, their threshold for good television? One show. That the entire network leans on like a crutch as it wobbles along.

I can't not compare this to Studio 60. I know some Sorkin fans are still sore about that cancellation, but, really, NBC gave S60 a lot of chances. It ran more than ten episodes when it's ratings hit below-par after the third episode. They kept falling and eventually NBC was forced to either yank or suffer a loss.

I've already forgiven NBC for S60. It just didn't catch on. And I don't think it held a candle to Sports Night and it was nothing next to West Wing.

So, that's the standard, right? CBS has modest but stable shows, NBC is patient, and ABC doesn't know when to pull the plug. I guess FOX fills the void of the network that gets some of the most awesome shows and fucks them over sideways.

It's not a niche I was aware we needed.

-Luce

Comments

[snoopypez.livejournal.com]

Well, NBC isn't quite as patient for all shows. :P They cancelled Andy Barker PI after three or four episodes. And the show only HAD six episodes to begin with! They didn't promote it well and all that, too.

Basically, NBC decided to try their hands at being FOX for a while. ;P

Not that that takes away the trueness of your post.

[lucia-tanaka.livejournal.com]

True, there is an exception to every rule.

I wish Drive was FOX's exception. No, no. My sincerest apologies- I wish Firefly was the exception. What did someone say earlier this year- that had it not been bastardized and tossed aside, Firefly would be in it's fifth season by now?

That still hurts.

[silver11016.livejournal.com]

One of the guys on the local Browncoat group wrote a very eloquent rant along this subject. As the archives are closed to nonmembers, here it is...

(sorry, I wish there was a way to cut-tag this sucker)

While that is true to a certain degree, there is also something else going on that is specific to Fox.

Fox has higher standards than most studios for what a show needs to achieve to avoid being canceled. Ratings and viewer feedback that might elicit a "lets give it a season and see" response from other studios often get a "too bad, time to cancel it" response from Fox. As a result, Fox is earning a reputation for canceling high-quality shows without giving them a chance (just watch the first post-return episode of Family Guy for the full list).

Unfortunately for Fox, and for all of us, this reputation is feeding the problem. People are getting so disillusioned by having their favorite new shows repeatedly canceled, that they're becoming less and less likely to tune in for new Fox shows. Thus, both Fox's assumption that ratings will be low and the viewers assumption that good shows will be canceled both become self-fulfilling prophecies.

No, the network decision makers at Fox are not evil. They want their shows to succeed and become the next big thing just as much as we do - maybe more, since their jobs literally depend on it. But while the fans are emotionally invested in the shows, Fox appears to be invested in them on a purely financial basis. What Fox lacks is faith - faith in the quality of their own shows, and the idea that those shows will come into their own, given time. They need to understand that not every great show hits the ground running. They need to look not only at the ratings and current financials, but also the shows themselves and the teams behind them, to better understand which shows will hit their stride later in the season, which may need additional investment to hit their stride in the second season, and which really should be cancelled because they're just not going anywhere.

The fact of the matter is that if Heroes or Battlestar Galactica had been Fox shows, they would have been canceled in their first season, just like all those Minear shows we so adore. By not recognizing quality when they see it, Fox is passing up the opportunity to own a lot of potentially legendary hits.

But until Tim et al are rich enough to open their own next-gen studio and show them how it's done, what are ya gonna do? Fans need to use every mode of communication possible to let the studios know what shows we like. Industry professionals need to work their way into Fox and try to effect a cultural change from the inside out. And the current Fox decision makers need to realize that with so much media saturation in our current culture, most hit shows will need a season or so to really find their audience, and that investing in the right shows for the long term can really pay off big.

[lucia-tanaka.livejournal.com]

*applaudes* Beautiful and completely true.

[alanddizzy.livejournal.com]

Very nice Very nice

[slodwick.livejournal.com]

I don't know anything for sure, obviously, but I have a friend who works on S60, and he informs me that they are NOT canceled, as of a couple days ago.

[lucia-tanaka.livejournal.com]

o.o


You pullin' my leg?

[slodwick.livejournal.com]

No, ma'am. I'm serious as Keith on SC night.

[lucia-tanaka.livejournal.com]

*sudden, huge swelling of hope for the future*

That's the best news I've heard all... ever.

[fofomazuzu.livejournal.com]

Does Bones count?

And like slodwick said, I think they are just having several time gaps. I believe I read an editorial that mentioned S60 haitus

[fofomazuzu.livejournal.com]

My favorite new show of this season is "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip." It's thought-provoking and intelligent -- so, of course, we hear NBC may cancel it. Is that true?
Donna O'Brien, Rochester, N.Y.

At press time, NBC said "Studio 60" will be back -- "The Black Donnellys," by "Crash" writer/director Paul Haggis, took its Monday spot -- but would not say when. We do know there are seven episodes left.

And that was posted on Mar. 18.