Endless observations have been made over the years regarding Heather Locklear's impressive show-saving abilities, and much of that is based on some very compelling evidence. She revived Dynasty, she elevated Melrose Place from fairly entertaining trash to deliciously addictive guilty pleasure, she swooped into Spin City to lighten the ailing Michael J. Fox's workload halfway through the series and boosted ratings for a bit, and now she's returning to Melrose tomorrow night in an attempt to save that train wreck as well. She's obviously doing this out of some sense of show-saving duty, not unlike the Spider-Man of primetime soaps, but her inability to save a disaster is not unprecedented. Let's look back at the Melrose reboot-sized flops even Heather Locklear couldn't rescue.
As frequent Twitterers, we're big fans of @ShitMyDadSays, where a man who lives with his parents turns all of his father's withering comments and insults into Tweets. (Example: "Son, no one gives a shit about all the things your cell phone does. You didn't invent it, you just bought it. Anybody can do that.") So when we heard that he was getting a book deal, we were happy for him. Then, when we heard it was becoming a show on CBS, we had to scratch our heads. First of all, the swear words he uses (including the one in the frickin' title) are part of what makes it so funny, and second... it's a show about a grumpy old guy who berates his live-in adult son? How is that different from half the shows on television? We looked back at some of our favorite abusive TV dads from brilliant but cancelled shows.
Spaced. Extras. The Office. The Young Ones. Have you ever wondered why most British TV comedies end after only two seasons, which in brief British season numbers translates to a paltry 12 episodes? Blame Fawlty Towers. The 1975 series, starring John Cleese as an easily outraged hotel manager, is considered one of the funniest shows in British television history, and yet Cleese called it quits after only two series, before he ran out of ideas (which was the reason he gave for leaving Monty Python's Flying Circus). Released in a newly remastered boxed set today -- along with the remastered set of Rowan Atkinson's Blackadder -- it becomes painfully apparent that this is a show we would have gladly watched for another hundred episodes. After all, 12 episodes is only half of a regular American TV season, and we've watched full seasons of some pretty awful shows over the years.
NBC has announced that it has cancelled Southland before even a single episode of Season 2 aired in the show's terrible new Friday timeslot. Apparently the show was just too dark for the network to air at 9 PM, though that wouldn't have been a problem if there wasn't a giant chin taking up the 10 PM slot five nights a week. And could it really have been so much darker Season 1? Wasn't it pretty gritty and profanity-filled from the get-go? The only remotely encouraging news coming out of this is that John Wells (who executive produces and runs the show's production company) says that they are shopping around for a new home for this engagingly realistic cop drama.
It was a lofty premise for network TV: A show based on a bible story, with a modernized feel but set in an imaginary town filled with a messed up monarchy. It looked totally lush, with gorgeous set design. It was doomed before it even started.
As announced earlier this week, the powers that be over at Fox have given the go-ahead to a sci-fi Western pilot. Seems a mite strange, given that Fox completely mishandled the last sci-fi Western they tried to air just a few years back. Not only did Fox cancel the short-lived Joss Whedon series Firefly, but they also aired episodes out of order and generally ignored the show's rabid fanbase. What's to say they won't pull the same antics with a new, similarly themed show?
Though it was critically acclaimed at the time, thirtysomething kind of gets a bad rep now for being a show about white, middle class yuppies whining, and sure, it was a show about white, middle class yuppies whining, but it was also a lot more than that. Created by My So-Called Life producers Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick, the show was written by the likes of Paul Haggis (let's put our Crash hatred aside and remember Letters from Iwo Jima and Casino Royale, people), and Winnie Holzman, and at the time, had this perfectly timely resonance with people dealing with the complications of modern suburban life like no other show before it.
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles suffered many setbacks in its lone two seasons, from budget cuts that stripped the essential action from the show, to the insufferable Riley and Jesse diversions, to far too many boring Sarah-centric episodes designed to make us just fall in love with the miscast Lena Headey, but despite all of that, it really was a fantastic show. And as August winds down and I get more and more amped for all my favorite shows to return, I just can't get the disappointment that Cameron, Derek, Ellison and John Henry won't be returning to my viewing schedule out of the back of my mind.
I was in the single digits throughout most of the '90s (I'm 21 now), and with a strict upbringing, I was never allowed to watch too much television, which meant that I missed out on some classics that a lot of people grew up with. So, during my college internship this summer at TWoP, the editors enlightened me with a list of some must-see shows that I had no prior knowledge of. All the shows take place in high school, and we get to follow a main character who has to deal with the misfortune that comes with been a teenager, regardless of popularity, in the face of those wonderful-yet-overused stereotypical high school cliques. And just let me tell you, after watching the pilots, I've concluded that the fashion in the '90s was not good to young folks, and I'm glad I was too young to have been a victim of shoulder pads, big hair, platforms and the misuse of jean jackets. But I digress. Here is my take on five pilots -- the good, the bad, and everything in between.
Disclaimer: After seeing this list of TV shows, I'm aware that you might think that I've been living under a rock.
Hulu and ABC have been knocking it out of the park lately with their partnership. After adding Lost, Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives and Castle, they've also begun streaming their catalog with today's epic addition of the entire series of My So-Called Life. Re-watch it, re-live it, and if you're anything like me, re-hate Angela for ignoring Brian Krakow and loving Jordan Catalano, who can't read. They made a whole episode about how he can't read! Search thousands of recaps and more
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