Tuesday, February 5th, 2008

The Three Strike Rule: “Friday Night Lights” Update

by Scott Malchus

We had a good response to the Friday Night Lights writeup last week, and I thought that all the loyal fans out there should be made aware of Ben Silverman’s recent comments about the fate of this beloved (apparently cult) show.

Silverman is the new head cheese at NBC, and he was recently thrown some questions by one of the writers at RADAR. When asked the fate of FNL, his response was:

“I love it. You love it. Unfortunately, no one watches it. That’s the thing with shows. People have to watch them. We’re NBC, we have a reputation to uphold. And, man, with this writers’ strike … well, we’ll see what we can do. But start watching ‘30 Rock.’”

So there you have it, folks — when a network goes out of its way to NOT promote a quality show (especially when there’s a frickin’ strike going on and all we have to watch is Deal or No Deal and American Gladiators), they let it die a sad death.

Maybe all of us diehards should start sending jockstraps to send a message: Keep this show on the air!

Tags: , , ,

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 5th, 2008 at 10:14 pm and is filed under Television, The Three Strike Rule. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  • JonCummings
    Pardon me, but exactly WHAT reputation does NBC currently have to uphold? The network of "Fear Factor" and "American Gladiators"? If you ask me, they're sitting about where they were in 1981-82, when Fred Silverman left "Hill Street Blues" and "Cheers" on the air despite horrible ratings--and look what happened there. If his own kid is now going to throw FNL under a bus--and, it sounds like, potentially "30 Rock" as well--then he ought to study dad's legacy a bit more intensely.
  • Malchus
    I think the days of letting a series grow may be over. I don't think we'll see the likes of a "Hill Street Blues," a "St. Elsewhere," or a "Homicide," ever again. It's too difficult to syndicate dramas, so the networks don't see value in keeping struggling shows on the air.
  • WHarrisBullzEye
    Honestly, if the market for TV-DVDs continues to grow as astronomically as it has, it wouldn't surprise me if we were heading in the direction of shows being released straight to DVD. I mean, it's already happening with stuff like the "Futurama" and "Family Guy" movies, and a lot of canceled shows are recouping their investments for their production companies via their DVD releases. It seems like a logical step to me.
  • ken
    Let's not forget, this was the same network that cancelled "Freaks & Geeks" but it's not like anyone involved with that show (Apatow, Rogen, Cardellini, Franco, Segal, Feig etc) ever went o to do anything of substance.
  • I agree in principle, but I've long feared that FNL might run out of steam after two seasons. This year has been good, but it's slipped a little from last year. They're also running out of ways to win a game on the last play -- by Season 4, they'd need to have a meteor strike the opposing safety while some as-yet-unintroduced player streaks past.

    I'd be content seeing this season through to some sort of closure for Smash and Riggins.

    If we have two terrific seasons to treasure on DVD, I'd see that glass as half-full. And I can't imagine we'd be seeing the last of this terrific cast.
  • Obviously, I can't think of many terrific adjectives at this early hour.
  • Malchus
    It would be nice if NBC gave their loyal fans some closure. Should they decide to cancel the series, there will be a lot of loose ends. Not that you'd know it by their (lack of) advertising, but this week is the season finale! I don't think the storytelling is complete.
  • WHarrisBullzEye
    I know it's not REALLY a football show, but if it ends up being kicked to the curb by NBC, I wonder if a network like ESPN would consider picking it up. I mean, it's certainly enough about football that it wouldn't feel like too much of a stretch...

    NBC drives me crazy, anyway. They killed "Studio 60," "Kidnapped," and "The Black Donnellys" last year, and - worst of all - this year they've kicked "Journeyman" to the curb in favor of the awful "Bionic Woman" reimagining. Why? Because "Bionic Woman" is an NBC-Universal show and "Journeyman" isn't. That's clearly the only reason, since "Journeyman" has a huge following, while I don't know anyone who isn't disappointed with "Bionic Woman."
  • Malchus
    Ugh. "Bionic Woman" was terrible. I couldn't even get to the second episode. Unfortunately, I think that ESPN has gotten out of the dramatic series business. I'd be happy if they shipped the show off to sister station, USA, if it means keeping it on the air.
  • WHarrisBullzEye
    And, yet, it was just announced that they're releasing a DVD set of the first several episodes of "Bionic Woman," in a transparent attempt to create a fanbase for a show which quite clearly doesn't have a substantial one.

    I went into this in more detail over on Premium Hollywood, but my point, essentially, was that TV geeks search the 'net for any reference to their favorite shows and freely comment if they disagree with you, but while I'm still getting shit from people about how unimpressed I was with the pilot for "Moonlight," yet I haven't heard a single word of complaint about my repeated bashes of "Bionic Woman."
  • Thierry
    Any chance the Sheinhardt Wig Company people will veto Silverman in case he decides to cancel 30 Rock?
blog comments powered by Disqus