Recently Hach's Hachland has taken claim to killing the CBS one hour drama A Gifted Man. Was the cancellation of A Gifted Man caused by Hachland's article? Or was there another reason it failed?
Inside this article we will take a look at why television shows get cancelled and what can make a good television show. This is especially needed for well, you the person who enjoys television shows. Plus with the recent news of a bunch of cancellations on the network front we will try and help the networks find the next big show.
So with a lot more fanfare let's get to it....
A Good Title
Having a good title in anything will help you. But having a great title will make well, things great. You don't see a good show becoming a great show due to it's title. But then again it's title could destroy it. Like Pan AM for instance, what is/was that!? I don't get it. Is it a Chinese cooking show in the morning or a AM talk show for some sort of Asians?
But then you have a sold title like House. It defines what the show is. It's about a House, a strong thing. It tells the people what the show is about and let's you know what to expect. While a show like called Bent, that makes one think of something like a bunch of college kids getting messed up. Yet, it was a supposed comedy staring Amanda Peet. Who's best comedy work was being well, a b!tch in Saving Silverman.
It's all about a good title that tells the public what to expect and tells us what's going to be going on. You remember E.R. That told us what it was about. I don't know what they were trying to tell us with that ABC show GCB. What does that even stand for?
Confusing A Confused Concept
One of the shows that recently got canned was a show called Awake. I got into this show, while it only lasted for a short amount of time it sucked me in a bit. While the concept is something I quite enjoyed it could be quite confusing to others. The concept was about a guy who didn't know if he was dreaming or awake. You see he and his family had gotten into a car accident and well, shortly after one of his family members had died. In one world we learn it was his wife, the other it's his son. Yet, his two lives are very blurry and get quite confusing especially with a two therapists in the show telling him he's lying or that the world they're in is real.
The concept is actually in my mind pretty smart. Yet, that's what the problem may be. It's a one hour drama that makes you think and well, today people don't think.
I think the show Awake could have made it and gone on to a very successful life. But the confusion was way too much. They should have gone with a more of a half an hour to each "world", but they didn't. It mixed together too much thus leading to not only a confusing concept but just plain confusion.
Believable Characters
Something that is usually missed out on is the believability of certain characters in certain roles. People aren't going to believe a cat is a dog, nor a dog is a cat. We're not going to believe that someone with the body size of a Andre The Giant is little whipper snapper.
For example CBS gave us this new show NYC 22, which sadly I never got to watch nor well, not many people did. It was about rookie cops, it had some decent supporting names too. Such as Robert De Niro as a creator and big name celebrities such as Adam Goldberg and Leelee Sobieski. Both of which have done other movies and tv shows, yet we're supposed to believe that they're making it as rookies.
Goldberg if you don't remember was part of the classic war drama Saving Private Ryan. In which he was brutally killed, just like this predictable show.
Kicking A Dead Horse
Networks want you to believe that their shows are original and unique, but sometimes they continue using the same concept again and again. This happens more often than you think such as on the ABC Network. They cancel shows faster than Obama flip-flops and it leaves for concepts being repeated. Like as the show The River. Now I personally didn't watch the show more than once, aka the pilot and gave up on it.
The show to me at least seemed to be similar to other shows like Lost. Yet instead of being based in and around a island it was based around a River of some sorts. I'm not quite sure, but I think people went out looking for someone. It was really confusing and seemed repeated from Lost. About missing people and monsters or whatever.
You see this repeated concept used often, while we learned while watching South Park, that everything has been done before. Ala "Simpson's Did It" Numerous other shows have been repeated and redone. Such as cop shows aka CSI's. Thus the sad cancelling of CSI: Miami a once juggernaut of Monday Nights.
Friday Night
Shows that begin and later die usually are thrown to the wolves of Friday night. For some reason the world does not watch television on Friday Nights. As we've seen with numerous Joss Whedon dramas. Yes, Whedon has made it big with his new movie The Avengers. But numerous and by I mean numerous I mean nearly every television show he has created or been a part of has died on Friday Nights.
We can call this the Whedon factor. The Whedon factor is based on science fiction shows plus Friday equals cancellation. Yet there is a few exceptions to the Whedon factor such as shows like Fringe and the new NBC show Grimm. Both of which are heavily into the science fiction genre yet have some how developed heavy followings.
Big Name, Stupid New Show
We've seen this happen more and more and more and oh, well, you know more. A big name celebrity who had made it big in another facet of their life or even in another television show tries to make it big or continue their success in a new show. Some what like the Spin Off Factor, but more of a new show but big failure of sorts.
Shows like 'Till Death that had Brad Garrett greatly known for his role in Everybody Loves Raymond trying to make it on his own as a leading star and well, it just didn't work out. It failed miserably much like some of the shows that were canceled this year.
From every network we saw a Big Name, Stupid New Show from NBC to ABC to even CW. From stars like Sarah Michelle Geller, Laura Prepon, Jorge Garcia, Kathy Bates, Christina Ricci, Wilmer Valderrama, Christian Slater, Megan Mullaly, Amanda Peet, Kristin Chenoweth, Eriq La Salle, Ashley Judd, Michael Clarke Duncan, Jaime Pressly, Juliette Lewis, Leslie Hope, Adam Goldberg, Leelee Sobieski, Poppy Montgomery, Dylan Walsh and even comedian gold mines like Cheech Marin and Rob Schneider.
Obviously it has worked in the past and currently works today for instance look at some of the sitcoms on ABC like The Middle and Last Man Standing. In which stars like Tim Allen, Patrica Heaton and Neil Flynn have succeed in being a Big Name, Stupid New Show.
It rarely works and yet when it does sometimes it is golden.
Spin Off To Nowhere
To continue the last theme with Big Name, Stupid New Show, but this version is the spin off. Spin offs is a way for a network to continue the success of a show and turn it into more gold by taking one of it's characters and making them a star in a new show. Another thing in which has occurred more times than rain has fallen in Seattle. Speaking of Seattle, Frasier who made his name on Cheers and than later on of course on Frasier starred in Seattle.
Many spin offs don't gather the same success as Frasier many die a horrible death. CSI:Miami who was recently cancelled was a spin off from CSI. While it did last near 10 years it did get cancelled. The show The Finder is a spin off of sorts.
It was spun off from from Bones, while I enjoyed the show it didn't land a strong enough following. It was a better show to be aired on say the USA Network.
As you see every year the networks pushes out new shows and each year they cancel them way too fast. If only they would let them sit out there and let us get entertained before they entertain their axes.
But then again, we should thank them. Because most of them do SUCK!!
Do you remember any show that was cancelled that didn't suck? Tell us!
