Another One Bites the Dust…Actually, Two
By stephanie - Friday, December 2nd, 2005
And the arbitrary cancellations commence…Threshold is now out…as well as Alias.
I’m going to vent about TV networks a second. They are run by morons. It’s not that Threshold was this amazing show. It wasn’t. This was not Must See TV. It was just…OK. In a few episodes, it had gotten a bit formulaic, but it wasn’t bad.
But blame Brannon Braga for that overly polished sci-fi thing he does, that on the surface looks good but ultimately ends up killing the franchise. (Can we say Star Trek?) This type of sci-fi just isn’t compelling enough to draw in anything more than the die-hard sci-fi viewer, desperate for a space fix.
It would be appropriate for the Sci-Fi channel, not CBS. Unfortunately, the Sci-Fi channel isn’t so kind to its middle of the road shows either. Alas, such sci-fi has no home anymore, not even in syndication, it seems.
Alias, on the other hand, was a popular show that just got killed thanks to poor casting decisions, tired writing, and scheduling snafus. Alias used to be one of the best shows on television. That is, until they killed Vaughn off (or did they???). Regardless, Alias even with its faults is still one of the better shows on television, but the constant schedule shuffling was taking its toll.
It seems like someone wanted to kill it. Congratulations. I hope you’re happy.
What happened to normal TV seasons anyway? They would start in September and end sometime in May (the school year). In that time, the show would STAY PUT. They’d give it a year. They wouldn’t move it around to multiple time slots or cancel it after four episodes (remember the Wonderfalls tragedy?).
Now, if a show doesn’t immediately pull in some sort of “audience” – which we’re all dubious of…do you know anyone with a Neilson box? – then it’ll get axed immediately. Or, if it’s lucky, it’ll get moved around a few times to confuse viewers as much as possible and then they’ll ax it.
TV executives need to calm the heck down. Shows need to breathe, like fine wine. Stick them in a time slot, and leave them there for a year. Then review during the summer. There’s no point in canceling so quickly. The costs involved in initial production, casting, set development, and promotion must be enormous. It can’t make fiscal sense to cancel TV shows so wantonly.
When your show is doing well in a time slot – KEEP it there. Don’t keep changing it every season. People are busy. We don’t have time to keep up with your producer ADD.
And then they wonder why cable TV has gotten so compelling. Duh.