What these smiling execs don't mention is that for every new show, an old one has been axed. Take a look at NBC's "Law & Order" franchise: while fans may be looking forward to the newly announced "Law & Order: Los Angeles," the original series has been torn from the lives and hearts of its heavily invested fans canceled forever. (Well, that might be a bad example since "Law & Order" repeats will still air on USA roughly 18 hours a day, but you get the point.)
Granted, I do understand that some shows need to go. I don't think anyone was sad to see to see the cancellations of ABC's "Scrubs" (again) and "Romantically Challenged," and it was pretty clear that is was time for "Heroes" (NBC) to go. Yet a few of the losses are truly heartbreaking. Therefore, I have decided to dedicate this column to two of the sitcoms that have been unceremoniously tossed aside.
I would like to begin with a moment of silence for "The New Adventures of Old Christine." Tuesday's shocking news that, after years of critical acclaim and respectable ratings, CBS would dump the sitcom brought me to a very dark place. Now, odds are that as a college student, and not a middle-aged woman, you've probably never bothered watching this show, but that was a mistake.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus' performance as wine-drinking, narcissistic and profoundly oblivious single-mom Christine Campbell might have been the funniest comedic acting on television this season. That "Christine" is gone while "Cougar Town" which is basically the same show except with Courteney Cox and without actually being funny has been renewed is just wrong.
Less surprising, but equally depressing, is the now official news that "Better Off Ted" is gone for good. ABC appeared determined to do whatever necessary to make sure that nobody ever tuned into this absurdist workplace comedy despite high critical praise, moving the timeslot on a near weekly basis, bumping it from the schedule for random intervals and sandwiching it between episodes of the truly awful "Scrubs: Med School." "Ted" could have been great, but it never got a shot.
Admittedly, there are a few new shows that I'm genuinely excited about. NBC, in particular, seems to be on the upswing after a disastrous 2009 marred by the failure of "The Jay Leno Show." The network's two new serialized dramas the political conspiracy thriller "The Event" and the J.J. Abrams-produced "The Undercovers," a spy adventure about a pair of married ex-CIA agents look like they could actually succeed in filling the void left when "24" and "Lost" go off the air for good this spring. I'm also looking forward to "No Ordinary Family" on ABC, about a family that gets in a plane crash and suddenly gains superpowers. If done wrong this kind of show could be truly awful, but based on the extended trailer, it seems to be loaded with potential.
Nevertheless, for every new show with potential, there is one, like CBS's ridiculously unnecessary remake of "Hawaii 5-0," that is a waste of primetime space.
I understand why shows that underperform have to go, but it still hurts to see worthwhile shows replaced with such cannon fodder; as Jimmy Kimmel snarkily noted about the new crop of ABC shows, despite the current optimism, the networks are "going to cancel about 90 percent of them. Maybe more." I hope next time around they choose the right ones.
