guruka108 wrote:I guess it's because it's SO well written and so well acted. I, like so many of you, fell in love with these characters right away.
Ah, oh. I have a nasty confession to make.
When it was first aired, i loved the first 3 episodes, but then i remember telling people i knew that something had happened and it just wasn't as good after that.
i actually said that? Jordon seemed to start talking a little bit and along with some other minor stuff, i felt like the tone of the show had gone from very dramatic to more light and comical. I actually told somebody i figured the show was doing poorly and they must have retooled it to be lighter.
I still liked it but thought it had come down a notch. But then, i didn't see more than half the episodes. I swear it was moved around a lot, possibly by local the local affiliate. During most of the holliday season i didn't see it. I swear i had trouble even finding it in the newspaper's television listings.
SOOoo, although i liked the show right away, i didn't realize just how spectacular it was until at least 3 years later when i managed to come by the entire series on VHS and had a chance to refresh my memory and see all those episodes i missed.
I had thought the Halloween episode was totally hilarious. After that scene where Rayanne gives Brian her big sob story about why she's affraid of the dark, i just about bust-a-gut laughing.
That was a truly great moment!
Why does all the best stuff on TV get cancelled?
I know the answer to this! In the past few years i've been absolutely certain that i should be a network exec in charge of schedule planning. The simple answer to the question is,
anything i think is really
exceptional won't last more than a season! If i like it pretty well it will be around but never a big hit. And, of course, if i hate it, it's got at least 3 seasons minimum before it bombs. If i don't watch it at all and can't render a verdict, it's pretty much up to chance.
Yes, it's true. TV shows, and indeed bands as well, fail based upon my personal taste. Only a show or 2 each season escapes my jinxing power!
(hmmm... right now I'm thinking of 'MSCL, 'China Beach', 'Once and Again', 'The Education of Max Bickford.)
Square Pegs -- Way cool -- bombed
MSCL-- Loved it -- bombed.
China Beach -- Thought it was very good -- it lasted for a while.*
I never saw Once and Again or The Education of Max Bickford so those weren't my fault.
Michael Hayes -- Throught it was great -- bombed
Hill Street Blues -- Loved the show but since i didn't start watching until a season or two in; had nothing to do with it's success.
Felicity -- Started out great and went south pretty fast -- I guess i wasn't so atuned to that one so i only started it's downfall by liking it. Still hung around a while.
Martin Lawrence - detested it -- was around for several seasons.
Family Matters -- Really really detested it. Hung around for what seemed like centuries.
Malcom In The Middle -- Hated it more than anything for several years -- seems to be alive and well after a couple seasons anyway.
Cheers -- excellent comedy - escaped through my watching hardly at all until the second season.
hmm. What was that show with Robert Pastorelli as a cop (detective) whose life was a mess and he was really an abnormally unpleasant main character? Gruesome cases. I
really liked it, partially because it was very unusual -- bombed. I put the BIG jinx on that somehow. Pastorelli died before it was time to film the new season.
A couple of exceptions that come to mind would be Miami Vice which i just thought was toooo cool, although they
did retool that one to be lighter and use less slang after the first season. I heard it was because people weren't able to follow it in that first extremely stylized black brooding season when i really liked it.
Anyway, if i thought about it some, i could list off the bands i've killed as well. My ability to turf them actually developed more quickly, back in the early 80s. Ones i like inevitably put out 2 or 3 albums max and then broke up, or otherwise disappeared.
So anyway, if anybody knows a show they liked that bombed, or one they hated that did well and perhaps you wonder why, just tell me what it is and i can tell you what i was doing at the time or thinking and shed some light on why it had the fortunes it had.