On the horizon, a dark day for comedy approaches. Fox has decided to cancel That 70’s Show. And Malcom In The Middle. And King Of The Hill. And Arrested Development. And it’s temporarily shelving American Dad so it can try out some new stuff.
I apologize for such a depressing article, but at least you’re getting it from a guy who cares. There is a tiny bit of hope that King Of The Hill will be renewed, but they stopped production months ago, and considering how long it takes to make animation they said you wouldn’t see new episodes until January ’07 the earliest. Late last year, Mike Judge said it would be the last season of King of the Hill, and I just assumed he was retiring the show after 9 years to move on to something else. Since I heard it reported through the radio, it wasn’t clear that they simply stopped making the show, without so much as series finale, much less a graceful closing story line.
There is slightly more hope that Arrested Development will be picked up by ABC or Showtime, more likely the latter. If all 4 million viewers moved to Showtime, it would be their biggest show by a wide margin. This is because Showtime doesn’t have good shows. Of course, I’m not into soap operas about gay guys or old lesbians, so I’m probably biased. But I think we can all agree it’s no HBO. Anyway, I would pick up Showtime as long as it had Arrested Development, because it’s simply the greatest written comedy on TV today. Just in case none of that happens, they do have a 2 hour season finale set to air a month from now (only a month, those bastards!).
Just one more thing… If George Michael doesn’t get Maeby, there’ll be hell to pay.
I love Malcom and 70’s show, but good riddence to Arrested… I couldn’t get over the technique of shooting the whole show like it was taken by a drunk camera-man. The swaying views and bad camera angles. It made me want to throw up.
I don’t want to be seasick from my couch.
I thought that show had no viewers anyway, that’s why it’s being taken off. Right?
I forgot that a few people have problems with camera movements. I can save you some money: don’t rent The Blair Witch Project or Saving Private Ryan. They both have extensive handheld cameras. I don’t get seasick on a boat, so I’m immune to that effect.
My biggest problem with AD was the commericials, they just weren’t funny. They looked silly and dumb, so I avoided it for a long time, even though Agent Mystery had been telling me how good it is. After Agent Hulagun had it on, I started casually watching it, and was instantly hooked. It’s the most brilliantly written comedy on television today, and I think because it so expertly weaves setups and payoffs, that brilliance can’t be captured in a 30 second spot. I had a similar problem with Malcom in the Middle; the show is good, but stupid commericials marketed it as a live action Simpsons (which it isn’t), and it was a couple seasons before I caught on.
If I were Fox, I’d have a series of honest, personal celebrity endorsements from comedy and film greats, asking viewers why aren’t they watching it. Get people like Jerry Seinfeld, Ben Stiller, and every other great commedian I can’t think of right now. Just people regular audiences trust.
Like I wrote, it has 4M viewers, which sounds good enough to me, but not for Fox.
I wouldn’t care if Arrested Development used Michael J. Fox as a camera man – the show’s writing is still stellar! Although, I just heard about The 70’s Show being cancelled – Topher is concentrating on film, now, I hear? As much as I love Donna on that show, I think Laura Prepon is probably the one who’d be most scarred by losing out on the show. And I hesitate to say that because I’d probably marry that woman.
Yes, both Ashton and Topher quit this season, and I think they has planned to do it even earlier. The studio is negotiating to get them both back for the series finale.
I agree, of the kids, Prepon has the weakest career outside of the show. In the meantime, at least we get to hear Mila Kunis on The Family Guy.