Saturday, October 07, 2006

another one bites the dust

One of the least-coveted titles for a new television show is that of the first-canceled television show, across all networks. The (un)lucky winner this year: "Smith"

Bummer.


The show had such promise too. At this point it's only been "taken off the schedule", but headstones are already being prepared. If you look at the history of heist shows, though, they tend not to do so well.... so, "Smith" had an uphill climb from the start. I guess no matter how good the writing, acting, and production values are.... if your show doesn't pick up an audience, it's over. All this goes without saying, though.

It seems none of the new television shows this season are doing so hot. There doesn't seem to be one great standout of the new year.... Strange when critics and networks are heralding their own self-proclaimed renaissance of quality television.... it seems all the viewing public really wants is "CSI" and "Grey's Anatomy".... even "Lost" noticed a dip in ratings for its season premiere. This is no surprise either.... year after year after year, television viewing audiences prefer the kid gloves, not the challenging stuff. Dr. McDreamy et. al. are television fluff and an unstoppable juggernaut of female wish fulfillment drama.

Looks like now I'm gonna have to start watching "Heroes", just like everyone else in the country.

1 comment:

Writeprocrastinator said...

The unfairness of it all. CBS treated the show like a step-child and didn't even give it fair promotion. Everywhere I went on Long Island this summer, I've seen billboards for virtually every show but this one, and I wouldn't even know about the show except for your blog.

After the premiere, I did see a snippet mention during football, but there was no real push. Why even bother to fund something like this and at a great cost in actor salaries and quality production, if the network never wanted it to succeed?

I mean it is a tax write-off, but not an effective one. At some point, the networks will realize when their entire slate is reality shows that the basic cable networks can crank out for cheaper, that they've squandered their future.