Monday, September 10, 2007

In Celebration of The New TV season

Shows you wish you'd watched but didn't : Heroes, Friday Night Lights, The Shield, Gilmore Girls, Veronica Mars, Smallville

Shows you wish you hadn't watched but did: Desperate Housewives

Show you wish you'd stayed with: Deadwood, Lost, Battlestar Galactica, Rome

Shows you're glad you ditched: John from Cincinnatti, Nip-Tuck, 24, Prison Break, Studio 64 on the Sunset Strip

Shows you got just right : The Sopranos, The Wire. Big Love, The Brotherhood, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Office, Life on Mars

Shows good for an occasional viewing but you'd never tape: Monk, The Closer, Damages, House

Shows that shouldnt have been cancelled but were: Arrested Deveopment, Freaks and Geeks, My So-Called Life, Firefly, Sports Night and a whole slew probably I never even got around to sampling

Shows that jumped the shark this year: Rescue Me, Entourage, 24, My Name is Earl

Shows too soon to tell: Burn Notice, Mad Men, Thirty Rock, Flight of the Conchords

6 comments:

Sandra Ruttan said...

And the show cancelled that shouldn't have been, IMHO:

Arrested Development.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Ooh good new category.

Anonymous said...

I like HOUSE and even SUNSET STRIP better than you do...but I've never been able to make it all the way through an episode of DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES, so I have no regrets there.

The worst cancellation choices this season by me were DAYBREAK (but at least you could see it all online), HELP ME HELP YOU, and KIDNAPPED (which improved with each episode from a lukewarm pilot, not the best way to go about a serial).

DAMAGES had such a poor pilot and was so unengaging when I'd sample it later that it, like BATTLESTAR GALACTICA and LOST, is best left by me for those who enjoy it, and more power to them. I gave 24 a whole dumb first season (Dennis Hopper: "BAHAHAHAHA!"), and likewise, although I do like a lot of the cast that series has attracted and then discarded.

SONS AND DAUGHTERS was a much greater loss than ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT, as good as the latter could be.

Anonymous said...

http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/articles/2007/09/12/poll_public_says_tv_is_getting_worse/

Poll: Public says TV is getting worse
By David Bauder, AP Television Writer | September 12, 2007

NEW YORK --Terrie Williams doesn't know anything about what's coming up in this fall's new television season. And she's fine with that.

Williams, a mother of four from Richmond Park, Ill., is among the 62 percent of Americans who say that TV programs are getting worse, according to a poll by The Associated Press and AOL Television. Only 22 percent said they are getting better.

"They didn't curse on TV like they do now," said Williams, 38. "My daughter is 19 and I am still uncomfortable watching things with her. It's all about sex, sex, sex."

TV networks seem more interested in separating people to watch different sets around the house instead of bringing families together, said Williams, who has fond memories of watching "The Waltons" long ago.

The likelihood of people believing TV is getting worse increases with age, the poll found. Nearly three-quarters of people aged 65 and over believe that -- not surprising with most networks relentlessly chasing the youthful demographic that advertisers pay a premium to reach.

Television historian Tim Brooks cautioned that there may be a "good old days" effect at work in those poll results -- people who give a rosy tint to the past. Many critics believe that because there are so many channels now, there are a lot more good things to choose from.

"It's indicative of the love affair that people have with television," said Brooks, a Lifetime executive. "As with the people you're closest to, you're always complaining. Complaining in a loving way, of course."

That doesn't mean networks should dismiss these poll results, especially now that people have so many entertainment choices, he said.

Eugene King, a designer from Philadelphia, may typify what Brooks means. King, 51, agreed that television isn't what it used to be, yet can tick off all the things he likes to watch: "This Old House," "Masterpiece Theater," science fiction programs, even Jerry Springer ("You know it's a bunch of crap, you know it's coming, so you deal with it," he said).

He's aware enough to cite a specific new show -- NBC's "Journeyman" -- that he's eager to see. When pollsters asked which new shows people are most looking forward to seeing this fall, only 7 percent could name one.

King said he's tired of cop and forensics shows, can't stand game shows and is tired of constant envelope-pushing.

"They're trying to be as dirty as they can be, or as dirty as they can get away with," he said.

Midwesterners are most likely to think TV shows are getting worse, the poll found. And a startling 85 percent of white evangelical Christians who attend church at least once a week said TV is going downhill.

The poll found 71 percent of Americans believe there are too many reality shows on television, but that's actually an improvement from the 80 percent who said the same thing in an AP-TV Guide poll in 2005. And here's a caution for CBS: 9 percent of respondents spontaneously mentioned "Survivor" as the program they'd most like to see canceled.

"I'm not entertained by watching people eat spiders," said Jeanie Peterson, 59, of New Orleans.

Less than one American in 10 said they have watched a full-length television show over the Internet. For those under 30, it's 14 percent, the poll found.

The poll found 28 percent of Americans say they would like to see more news on television, compared to 17 percent in the 2005 survey.

The poll was conducted by Ipsos and involved interviews with 1,204 adults from Aug. 24-26. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 3 percentage points.

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AP Director of Surveys Trevor Tompson AP News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius contributed to this report.

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On the Net:

http://www.ap-ipsosresults.com

pattinase (abbott) said...

A friend of ours, Alison Quinn, was in Sons and Daughter and we thought that had good potential but they didn't give it a chance. (She's in a Curb this year and is doing an HBO pilot too)
24 lost me when Jack shot a suspect's wife in the knee to get him to talk.
House, I would like, if I wasn't a hypochondriac. Sunset Strip was just too portentous/pretentious for TV writers.
never saw Daybreak, Help Me or Kidnapped.

Anonymous said...

Quinn was excellent on SONS & DAUGHTERS, and I'm not sure I'd ever seen her before. Glad that she's getting some more high-profile work.