G*dd*mn you, NBC!

I was worried that this was going to be bad news about Friday Night Lights, even though I've heard that unofficially, it's coming back...

 

NBC cancels 'Andy Barker, PI'
Network pulls comedy from schedule
By JOSEF ADALIAN

'Andy Barker, P.I.'
NBC has pulled the plug on the Conan O'Brien-created 'Andy Barker, P.I.,' starring Andy Richter.
NBC is giving up on "Andy Barker, P.I."

After a lightly promoted four-seg run, the Peacock has pulled Conan O'Brien's critically adored midseason laffer from its Thursday perch effective immediately. It will be replaced by "Scrubs," which had been set to inherit the 9:30 p.m. timeslot April 19.

NBC has been streaming and selling all six produced episodes of "Andy" for several weeks now. This week it will also air the skein's final two segs in network TV's death slot, Saturday from 8 to 9.

O'Brien, Jonathan Groff, Jeff Ross and David Kissinger exec produced "Andy," which starred Andy Richter as a CPA-turned-private eye.

 

Kidnapped was a great show...

I am very disappointed about Andy Barker P.I. being pulled... I thought it was funny and I think Richter is far too talented not to be on TV...

Andy Richter Controls the Universe remains one of the most overlooked and underrated TV shows ever... It was fucking hilarious and I don't think it lasted a full season...

 

I'm a big fan of Dave Foley, but he didn't add jack to "Thank God You're Here." Somebody referenced "Who's Line," and I liked the Brit version better than Drew Carey's, mainly because I thought there were more skits gone bad in it. There's just as much humor watching something go off the rails, but Carey's show felt like they filmed a lot more of it to get 22 usable minutes out of it. I still like the American version, but "Thank God" felt like it actually needed more footage to cull a full hour out of it. The warm-up montages were funnier than the sketches, but can't imagine how you could do that with such extravagent setups.

 

It can be argued that Cheers and Seinfeld are NBC's two best shows in the past 25 years. (You can throw Cosby in the mix, as well, but I think that was more of a ratings success than an actual critical success). The irony is neither Cheers nor Seinfeld started out as ratings winners.

 

In the big NBC cost-cutting announced last year, the suits said they were going all reality or game show in the first hour of prime-time.

 

They don't order more scripts this late in the season if they're not bringing you back.

http://community.tvguide.com/blog-entry/TVGuide-Editors-Blog/Ausiello-Report/Exclusive-Friday-Night/700017624

 

I think the networks are largely run by toads, by I can't fault NBC on this one. Studio 60 got a very fair shot and viewers rejected it. The ratings tanked. It's not like viewers never found it; they watched it and then didn't tune in again.

Like it or not, viewers rejected "The Black Donnellys" too. Here are the week to week ratings: 5.5, 4.5, 4.4, 3.9, 3.9, 3.7. And the pilot episode lost nearly half of its audience in the second half hour.

"Seinfeld," "Cheers" and other shows had a slow build of an audience, giving the network a reason to stick with it. That's not happening here. These shows are declining and are too expensive to stick with for a full season.

On a side note, I think shows aiming for a "smarter" demo, for lack of a better term -- like "Studio 60" and "Black Donnellys" -- are going to have an especially hard time until ratings systems are improved. In major markets right now, Nielsen actually has to wire into your TV and your home's wiring, so Nielsen families in those markets are more likely to be people with shitty TVs who don't mind someone tapping into their home's electrical system. That skews the Neilsen numbers to a poorer, less educated bunch. On top of that, the networks are making the monumental error of putting those shows on the web, allowing people with high-speed internet connections to watch them. That siphons off more educated and wealthy viewers. That contributes to shows like "America's Funniest Home Videos" staying on the air for 15 years.

 

I watched every episode of S60, but since it's been gone I honestly haven't missed it at all. Literally not once until this thread had I even thought about the show. That basically tells me how I felt about the show, though it was entertaining enough to keep me tuning in.

 

Man. Richter cannot catch a break.

He was on Conan promoting this show a few weeks ago and I thought he looked remarkably chipper for someone whose shows repeatedly get violated in the ass. Mizzou is right, "Andy Richter Controls The Universe" was hilarious. And he had a traditional sitcom on Fox that got the boot shortly after it debuted.

I think his problem is he's not leading man handsome. NBC doesn't know what to do with shows that don't star people straight out of the Abercrombie and Fitch catalogue. Look how it shit all over "Freaks and Geeks." And as others have said, look how it keeps jerking "Scrubs," the best damn show on TV, all over the schedule.

Fuck off NBC.

 

I don't know if you're just referring to NBC, but if you're talking about tv in general, every chubby husband with a hot wife in every sitcom says hello.

 

The creators of "According to Jim" find this thread hilarious.