The TV thread

He was good in Tag. I really wonder if the coronavirus will end up saving this show. The order was cut - instead of the "back 9" after the original 13-ep order, they only shot five. I think the potential for a very good show is there, they just can't figure out what they want the show to be. A romantic triangle, a PI procedural, a quasi-arc driven show. They should really lean into the Rockford Files profile, utilize "Portland" more (a lot more white-supremists in these parts than you'd think, meth heads, career criminals), they could poke at the culture more (like Portlandia did). But it just seems like a show that needs to move confidently in one direction or another (if it gets a second season).

 

I actually thought that was a strength of the show - Most of the season was 'story of the week' or little two or three episode arcs, but there was also stuff happening across the whole span of episodes that was interesting. Also, IIRC, Smolders' contract allowed for a max of 18. They weren't effected by coronavirus (yet), but obviously, they would probably have been shooting season two by now. (I'm not sure if many shows are going to get renewals right now, even if the ratings warrant it.)

 

I think the "tweeners" are more likely to get renewed - remember a lot of pilots were in production when Hollywood shut down. There are several shows that get "straight to series" orders, including one that sounds a lot like Stumptown, but set in Montana, female private eye, searching for two lost sisters. Though you never know which shows are picked up for fall, and which make more sense as a mid-season launch. Perhaps they pair the Montana show with Stumptown.

 

Season 3 of Ozark starts today. Holding off watching until tonight.

Hell on Wheels has been a pretty good innings-eater. It was filmed in Alberta near Calgary, beautiful country until the snow starts flying.

 

And meth... bad teeth... worse tats... strip clubs... male and female polygamy... Current Affair flashbacks... legless hero... alcoholism... jail... Christmas parades... Shaq... Myrtle Beach... badass jet ski riding... even badder assed hairstyles... politics... vote for me condoms... Vegas... suicide... Wal Mart campaign managers...

 

Rabbit holes and stumbled onto this which don't think I ever saw.

The concept while rudimentary was really ahead of its time.

 

Some time ago, I came upon a list of programs that won best comedy series at the Emmys. This was the only one on the list I hadn't heard of. It won the trophy for only year it ran (1969?), but I guess the ratings weren't quite up to the network's standards, so they axed it.

 

Please don't encourage plastic surgery. It's gross.

 

I actually remember that show. I was thirteen or so, but I knew about James Thurber, principally because my parents owned and I had gotten caught up in his book "The Years With Ross", which was about Thurber's relationship with Harold Ross, the legendary editor who started The New Yorker. Lots of anecdotes about Ross, Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley.Alexander Woolcott, and the rest of the Algonquin Roundtable, particulary those who wrote for the magazine. If you saw "Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle", that's the same group of people. I can't remember a damn thing about the show now other than that I did watch it a bit. William Windom did very well as the Thurber character.

Sheeze, that was fifty years ago? No wonder I don't remember much about it.

 

Amazing that you can win the Emmy for Best Comedy in your 1st season and still be canceled for poor ratings.

Kind of like the David Blatt of TV except for Blatt lost in the Finals and got to coach 41 games the next season before being canceled.

 

I came across a reel of obscure tv show title sequences from the 70s and 80s (you know, the shows that never aired a Christmas episode because they didn't make it that far). It's amazing who pops up in some of these.

Short-Lived and Easily Forgotten TV Series From the '70s