As two of our favorite series, “Eli Stone” and “Pushing Daisies” are vanishing as well. (We never warmed to “Dirty, Sexy Money,” although it has inspired me to do an issue of X-Factor called “Dirty, Sexy Monet” at some point in the near future.)
What’s really killer is that both ES and PD have entered their sophomore seasons more focused, more intriguing, more character rich and plot layered than in their launch years. The types of shows that appeal to hipper, younger audiences–the type that sponsors despise because of the greater likelihood that such viewers will record such programs and whiz past the commercials. It’s starting to seem that the valued 18-40 audience that networks supposedly covet is becoming a liability because they’re least likely to watch ads for products.
Personally I’d love to see a second life for both progams on HBO or Showtime or AMC, where ratings aren’t such an issue (“Mad Men” continues despite ratings that would have gotten “Eli Stone” canceled before its third episode.)
PAD
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Pushing Daisies is probably too quirky and smart for TPTB.
PAD, have you had any experience with that sort of thing? ;-}
ABC screwed up by not bringing Pushing Daisies or DSM back after the strike ended (or, for that matter, Private Practice). NBC did the same with a handful of its shows, under the theory that they’d be better off relaunching them in the fall than rushing them back against all the other post-strike returning shows.
The problem is, this meant that most of these shows were off the air for nine months. And none of them had been on the air long enough in the first place to build the kind of audience loyalty that would have people willing to wait (or remember) for that long. The only one of those long-delayed shows that’s doing anything close to its pre-strike performance is “Chuck” on NBC (which is also currently just about my favorite thing on television).
The moral of the story: viewers have short memories as it is, so don’t do anything that makes it easier to forget your show exists.
PAD wrote “Personally I’d love to see a second life for both progams on HBO or Showtime or AMC, where ratings aren’t such an issue”
Yet they can be, as any fan of HBO’s Carnivale knows.
Yeah, well, Carnivale did that to themselves. I’m the target audience for a series like that and even I lost patience with it.
PAD
As Alan quite rightly pointed out, viewers have short memories or more simply, out of sight, out of mind. While I think the writers strike put the first nail in a lot of coffins, the networks didn’t help with some of the bad decisions they mad when it was over. Perhaps it would have been difficult to get Pushing Daisies right back on the air- between getting new scripts ready on the front end and all the visual FX that needed to be done on the back end, I’m not sure they could have produced too many episodes, but why not a summer special just to keep it in the public eye?
Unlike Peter though, I found Eli Stone almost unwatchable. I saw a couple of episodes but to me if felt like Ally McBeal without all the quirks.
Unfortunately, I don’t think this is going to be Cowboy Pete’s last cancellation round-up in the coming weeks.
I was going to buy the Pushing Daisies DVD, and now it’s been cancelled before I even watched a single episode, I hate it when that happens. Anyway, I’m not in the US, so my “wait for the DVD” habits can’t hurt the shows, I suppose.
I’m still going to buy it, but it’s always a bit melancholic, watching a show that you know has been cancelled.
Peter, I LOVE that X-Factor story title! But you realize, of course, that it just leads to other such titles down the road:
“Easy Monet”
“We’re In the Monet”
“Monet Changes Everything”
“Monet Makes the World Go ‘Round”
I think you have the makings of a miniseries (or should that be Monetseries?) here…
Bryan Fuller, the creator of “Pushing Daisies,” has said that he’s been talking with DC about wrapping up the show’s plot threads with a comic series. He’s also apparently got a film pitch all set to go, for a “Pushing Daisies” movie.
The one that’s hitting me is MY OWN WORST ENEMY. While I can see why it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, I thought it was well made, made great use of the concept, and was layering in some intriguing plot threads. Unfortunately, it’s another one of those shows that they put up against Monday Night Football.
“Monet For Nothing”?
Uhm…guys. The point isn’t to find a pun for Monet. The point is to come up with a title that will make fanboy pulses race and provoke mental images that will prompt them to buy the book.
Granted, “Easy Monet” and “We’re in the Monet” comes close, but the former makes her sound šlûŧŧÿ and the latter borders on pørņ, so…
PAD
“Dirty, Sexy Monet” sounds hilarious. Can we have a comment thread for X-Factor #37 please?
I think Fuller said he wanted to continue Pushing Daises in a DC comic so there’s always that to look forward to
Also, I would like to officially endorse the title “We’re In the Monet” for an X-Factor issue. Hëll, a whole arc / TPB. 12 part. It’d move a few extra issues, I can guarantee that.
Hey, Joe!
I saw your article in Sci Fi Wire about the tv miniseries for A Color of Magic. I keep trying to get around to reading Pratchett’s books, but it just never happens.
Anywas, I was going to watch this on ION, then read elsewhere that it wasn’t going to air tomorrow night after all, then you updated your article also saying as much.
Thus I have turned to the powers of torrent. Hopefully it’s a good show. 🙂
Hmm. I bet “Pushing Daisies” would fit well in the DC Universe. The occasional show tune will be harder to pull of though.
I figure “Monet for Nothing” is the X-Factor/Apropos crossover title.
Yes, that would be possible, given that Kirkman got to use his Image character Invincible in a Marvel Team-Up.
On the plus side (maybe), Bryan Fuller may bounce over to Heroes, which could only help that series’ struggling writing issues.
The facts are these….this sucks!!!Emerson(Chi Mcbride) has had the funniest stuff to say the past few weeks” I’m looking for a rat’s ášš so I can give you one” and now they cancel the show.Are you serious?I was getting a full blown crush and Anna friel and Kristin chenowith is funny as hëll.
I was just telling some friends how good this show was too 🙁
Eli Stone was an example of great TV. I was turned off by the ads, but tuned in later the first season and found out what I had been missing. The show will be missed.
Never got into Pushing Daisies. With a toddler, there is only so much time (even with recordings) to watch things.
Iowa Jim
I watched Pushing Daisies from the very beginning and after the first episode I turned to my wife and said “This show is going to break my heart.” I KNEW it wouldn’t last. Wonderfalls v2.0
The problem was that it was a very hard show to describe to people in a way that made it sound like something they’d like. It’s hard to convey the parts of the show that made it so great.
Comic book? Whoop dee freaking doo. Better than nothing but the writing was only part of the reason I loved it.
Movie? That would be wonderful but I seriously doubt we’ll see it. Maybe it will be on a double feature with the Dead Like Me film. (Meanwhile, they are talking about a third X-Files movie. What, they didn’t take the hint?)
I loved the first episode of Dirty, Sexy, Money and quickly lost interest after that.
I never allowed myself to get attached to Pushing Daisies, precisely because I didn’t see it lasting, because it was so wonderfully quirky, and with a few exceptions, the wonderfully quirky shows don’t seem to last.
Eli Stone turned me off with the pilot by pushing the vaccinations cause autism message. I have two kids on the autism spectrum and that was a bit of a sore subject for me.
Hey, there’s still Ugly Betty, but it’s a girl show (but one I still like.)
I pray that Bryan Fuller can save Heroes from the mess it’s become. If not, I look forward to Fuller’s film career. I bet he blossoms like Judd Apatom post-Freaks-and-Geeks.
lorinheller, I had the exact same reaction to the Eli Stone pilot. Maybe a snap judgment on my part but I think it’s dangerous pseudoscience and I was appalled to see it presented the way it was.
Just a question for others. I’ve been watching Fringe, and like everything, I watch it on my Tivo. Not making a judgement on the show (I find it merely ok). However, with their much shorter commercial breaks, and announced length of commercials, I virtually never bother to fast forward through the commercials. I wonder if others have the same response, and if that might become a trend.
Just a question for others. I’ve been watching Fringe, and like everything, I watch it on my Tivo. Not making a judgement on the show (I find it merely ok). However, with their much shorter commercial breaks, and announced length of commercials, I virtually never bother to fast forward through the commercials. I wonder if others have the same response, and if that might become a trend.
I lost interest in Pushing Daisies with the third episode. It seemed like a one-trick pony, and I got tired of its obsessive, cutesy quirkiness.
Dirty Sexy Money lost me with the pilot, and Eli Stone turned me off just from the commercials.
I loved PUSHING DAISIES from the start, and I’m very sad to see it go. (I’ve also read that it ends on a cliffhanger, which will be frustrating but understandable. After all, explaining how everything worked could remove some of the magic. (Heck, Jesus raised the dead *once* and Ned does it on several times each week!)
I’m not sure how either comics or movies will work to continue the series. One problem with many live-action-to-comics transitions is that the elements of the live version get lots in the static world of comics, and I could see that being very true for the snappy patter of PUSHING DAISIES. As for a movie, I always thought of PUSHING DAISIES as a tv version of a Tim Burton movie — thing of the dark-and-light elements of EDWARD SCISSORHANDS — and a movie could seem like a rip-off of Burton’s style to those who don’t give it a chance.
“Uhm…guys. The point isn’t to find a pun for Monet. The point is to come up with a title that will make fanboy pulses race and provoke mental images that will prompt them to buy the book.
Granted, “Easy Monet” and “We’re in the Monet” comes close, but the former makes her sound šlûŧŧÿ and the latter borders on pørņ, so…
PAD “
and dirty, sexy monet doesnt? lol
The question about Fringe and fewer commercials….yeah I love that .i wish more shows did it and I dont zip thru the comercials as much with the show.
By the way comparing PUSHING DAISIES with a Tim Burton movie is dead on (no pun intended).I think that is what hooked me into watching it at first.
Anybody watch SMALLVILLE this week?It was really good but no new episodes until January 15th???UGH! I need my Tess Mercer fix dámņ it!!! I know she is bad but good grief that woman is sexy!!
Hmmm. Sad to read that ELI STONE has been cancelled. The show is quirky and a lot of fun. I was hoping that it could be my replacement in spirit for BOSTON LEGAL.
PAD wrote, “The point isn’t to find a pun for Monet. The point is to come up with a title that will make fanboy pulses race and provoke mental images that will prompt them to buy the book.
Granted, “Easy Monet” and “We’re in the Monet” comes close, but the former makes her sound šlûŧŧÿ and the latter borders on pørņ, so…”
And the problem with the latter two thoughts are? Heck, the book already has an “X” in the title!
Oh, God, Peter, what hath thou wrought?
“Mad Monet”
“Monet (That’s What I Want)”
“Monet’s My Problem” (based on the old Sam the Sham tune)
And, of course… “Lawyers, Guns and Monet”.
Gimme some research time, I’ll find others.
Miles
I watched the first and part of another episode of Pushing Daisies. I admired the artistry of the work, but very quickly got the message that abstinence is the best way to live life. As I don’t agree with that, I lost interest in the show.
I think TV producers are totally out of touch with their audience. I’m in the same boat as Iowa Jim…with two toddlers at home and a third on the way, we would not be watching TV at all were it not for our DVR. As it is, while we’re up to date on our favorite shows, others that we like but don’t feel a big urge to watch immediately are backstocked. So while we’ve seen ever Supernatural and Chuck so far, we’re one week behind on Heroes, haven’t seen more than the first episode of LAST season’s Smallville, and have Fringe, True Blood, Dresden (yes, I know it was cancelled a long time ago), Rome, Deadwood, and more movies than I could ever remember waiting around for us to have the time, energy and mood to want to watch.
And when we do watch, it’s without commercials. Sometimes while I’m editing them out, I’ll watch a movie preview or an intersting add if I catch it. But otherwise, we don’t see ’em.
So TV producers are missing the point of TV these days. For a growing portion of the audience, TV shows are no longer a way to feed ads to potential consumers. It’s purely entertainment. And more of us feel that we’re paying for it these days. Everyone with Cable/Dish service is paying for their TV, even the “free” broadcast shows. Moreso if we want to get HD broadcasts. So “free” tv isn’t even free these days, so I don’t think it’s totally unrealistic of people the want things like the ability to watch shows when they have time, and without commercials.
So TV shows have to change their model. How the record ratings, and most importantly, how they generate advertising revenue. Chuck pulled a pretty good one last night, and it was totally organic to the show. The Nerdherder fleet was pulled into the plot when one of the cars was used to capture the spy…and Chuck mentions it by name, not calling it the Nerd mobile, but calling it the Matrix…sure enough, the next shot showed a fleet of 2009 Matrix’s decked out as Nerd Mobiles. Good product placement that’s organic to the show/plot.
Independant commercials are a thing of the past. People don’t have time for them, and on rare occasions, don’t want to see them. And when they do, they want them to be as entertaining as they can be.
PAD – Re. Carnivale, one of the things I really appreciated about it was that after the glacial pace of the first season they took on board that criticism and the second was so much better for it.
Though lets not forget HBO also junked Deadwood a year before it was meant to finish, dropped Rome after two seasons, dropped John from Cincinnati after one and nixed Preacher before it even got off the ground.
The sad thing is, Carnivale being cancelled was a big deal as back in the glory days of Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Oz, etc. HBO simply didn’t cancel shows. They got to end naturally. Carnivale was a big deal at the time but on reflection it was sadly the first of many.
Showtime seem to be moving in the other direction though, giving stuff like Brotherhood and Dexter a chance after cancelled Odyssey 5 and messing about with Jeremiah.
I don’t think the Pushing Daisies’ message was that abstinence is the best way to live life. Remember, aside from his girlfriend, the piemaker can’t touch his golden retriever either.
I’ve also thought that a cable network would have been a better way to go, not only because of tolerance for shorter seasons but more importantly, cable viewers tend to be more accepting of original concepts. PD was probably just too quirky to last long on network TV.
“Though lets not forget HBO also junked Deadwood a year before it was meant to finish, dropped Rome after two seasons,”
Well, I don’t know where they could have gone with Rome. After Octavian becomes Princeps, it’s pretty much mostly peace for a long time, and then you’re in I Claudius territory. It was a good place to end. Still, I wish they would make historical shows about other times and places than Rome, Tudors and Wild West. How about classical Athens, or Byzantium, or the Plantaganets?
I have mixed feelings about Deadwood. The dialogue in that show was amazing, almost Shakespearian. But the stories felt to me like they were dwindling over time.
“Odyssey 5 and messing about with Jeremiah.”
I liked these shows. I didn’t know the circumstances of their cancellation. As sci-fi shows they were even more vulnerable.
The executive who cancelled Carnivale, Deadwood, and other shows was not the executive that bought them. The executive who cancelled the shows very shortly afterward was cancelled herself.
That is the fate of many shows bought by previous executives…the shows are killed like lions cub of previous the pride leader so the new executive can populate the world with his/her own progeny.
Micha wrote:
> Still, I wish they would make historical shows
> about other times and places than Rome, Tudors,
> and Wild West. How about classical Athens, or
> Byzantium, or the Plantagenets?
The Plantagenets? Oh, God, yes. Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, their sons Richard Lionheart, Geoffrey, and John Lackland, and on from there all the way to Richard III. Their stories beg to be retold in the same way as Rome or The Tudors.
Don’t forget Thomas Becket, Henry the Young and William Marshal. Just Henry II is enough for a series or miniseries. Of course, it’s been done before — Lion in the Winter, Thomas Becket — but not nearly as frequently as the Tudors and Rome which appeared in many good shows and movies. I wonder why nobody took it further. The 12th century is a cool time.
I would be even more interested in a show about classical Athens and about Byzantium — possibly Justinian. I don’t know why nothing has been done with them, which is all the more of a reason to explore them.
With Justinian you have an energetic emperor, rioting, religious conflicts, sex, intrigue, brutality, expensive foreign wars, attacks on constantinopole, chariot racing, amazing wealth, eunic generals, barbarians. Very interesting time. Like the Tudors, a time of transition.
Athens should be extremely interesting. A city state that is internally a democracy, externally pushing around its allies. Caught in a long war with Sparta. Great politicians developing democracy (Pericles) and demagogues. Rich against poor. sex scandals. banquets. Courtesans. Cultural strife (sophists). Socrates. Aristophanes. Litiguous society — jury trials. A lot of potetial.
I don’t think the Pushing Daisies’ message was that abstinence is the best way to live life.
Yeah, I wasn’t getting that message from it either. I mean, even the foremost advocates of abstinence wouldn’t float the notion that you can never kiss or even hold hands. “Pushing Daisies” is more a classic tale of separated lovers. If you’re going to read an abstinence message into that, you might as well say that’s also the message of “Ladyhawk.”
PAD