Tru Calling. The show Fox hated so much, they cancelled it twice.
For those not up on the whole saga, here's the Reader's Digest version. Last year, the show was struggling on Thursdays (opposite Survivor, and the last season of Friends, so what wouldn't struggle?) and on the verge of cancellation. But it had a major creative upswing with the addition of Jason Priestley midway through the season, and got a miracle renewal for season two.
Except then, during the summer, the Fox execs (making a typically incomprehesible decision) looked at this new pilot they had called Point Pleasant, and decided it would be a much better fit for their schedule than Tru Calling. So they called up the Tru Calling folks, who had already completed six new episodes, and told them "never mind, you are cancelled after all." And then they shelved the six completed episodes.
Fast forward to this winter, when Point Pleasant finally aired... and totally stank on ice. Sorry. I wanted to like it. It had two Buffy writers on it, including Ben Edlund, creator of The Tick. But the show was like a reverse black hole. Anything that came near it (like a viewer) was pushed away by this powerful gravitational force. I watched one episode, and I was gone.
Fox soon yanked Point Pleasant, and decided to fill the time slot with "the lost Tru Calling episodes." Now there was no expectation of this leading anywhere. The sets had already been torn down, and the actors and crew had moved on to other things. Good ratings weren't going to bring Tru Calling back or anything. This was just a chance for its handful of fans to get some closure.
This week, they aired the 5th of the 6 episodes. And now, Fox has "cancelled" Tru Calling again. They have decided not to air the final episode next week after all. Maybe they feel they have to save an "unaired episode" for the DVD. Or something. Who knows? They're Fox, so I'm probably giving them too much credit to assume they even thought that much about it. These are the people that cancelled Firefly and Wonderfalls.
I'll admit, I had mixed feelings about Tru Calling last year anyway. I enjoyed it very much, but acknowledge it wasn't great. When I heard it was renewed, I was sort of happy, but also sort of angry, like "out of Firefly, Wonderfalls, and Tru Calling, you decided to renew Tru Calling??!" Well, I guess be careful what you wish for.
The saddest thing of all is, you know the "creative upswing" I mentioned in the last half of the first season? Well, these 5 episodes of Season Two carried the momentum brilliantly. The show was getting even better. Still a little rough around the edges, maybe, but it was starting to deliver on the "intriguing, continuing story arcs" in exactly the sort of the way I was just this days ago complaining that Alias hasn't been. There was even a glimmer of hope -- just a glimmer, mind you -- that, if given the rest of a full season to sort itself out, Tru Calling might just have found it's way into the area of quality I associate with cult shows like Veronica Mars, early Alias, Angel and Buffy, and the like.
In short, Fox has cut down another great show. This one they hated so much, they canceled it twice. Those farging iceholes.
2 comments:
These are the people that cancelled Firefly and Wonderfalls.
...and -- dare I bring this up again -- they might possibly cancel Arrested Development, the most originally brilliant network sitcom this side of Futurama and Seinfeld. (I say "network" because I've heard Curb Your Enthusiasm is great, but I have to catch up on them through DVD.)
Fox has always had issues with their programming. They still don't get that The X-Files fell apart on them not because of its cultish nature but because they let it stay on the air far too long. Their own folly has made them gunshy. Morons.
The X-Files is a whole interesting story unto itself. Arguably, it was the greatest thing to happen to Fox ever. They had Married... With Children and The Simpsons already, but The X-Files was really the show that enabled Fox be taken seriously as a network. No more "big three." With The X-Files, it becamse the "big four."
But if The X-Files had started today on Fox, it would never have survived.
The X-Files spent its first two seasons on Friday nights. It drew meager ratings, as all Friday night shows do, but attracted a devoted cult following. It was finally moved to Sunday, and became a breakout hit that lasted 9 years.
Years later, the spinoff series The Lone Gunmen would also be placed on Friday nights. Its ratings by the conclusion of the first season were actually very close to the ratings The X-Files drew on that night in its first season years before.
But Fox cancelled The Lone Gunmen.
This could quickly diverge into a discussion of the quality of The X-Files and The Lone Gunmen. (That's a topic I'm sure I'll eventually cover on this blog.) But the point I'm making is, if The X-Files had been on Fox today, it wouldn't have lasted for a second season. It might not even have finished out its first season.
So yeah... Fox is/are morons. Any smart and aggressive programming strategies they used to understand now seem to be firmly in the province of ABC -- who've struck gold repeatedly this year with Lost, Desperate Housewives, and (the not truly that good, but still amazingly popular) Grey's Anatomy.
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