As I watched Better off Ted last night, I was again struck with anger that the shows I like are always either on the bubble or sure of being canceled. [Edited to add: According to TV by the Numbers, Better of Ted gets 4.5-5 million viewers, a 1.9 in the 18-49 demographic. American Idol gets 18 million viewers, a 8.0 in the 18-49 demo.]
It all started when I was nine, and a little show starring Sarah Jessica Parker and a cast of odd characters. That show was Square Pegs. My best friend and I watched it every week, delighting in Patty and her fat friend’s journey through high school, the odd behavior of Johnny Slash and his buddy Marshall, the Valley Girl stylings of Jennifer, the grudging respect Jennifer’s boyfriend Vinnie began to show Patty as the year progressed, and the elevated diction of Muffy. Muffy and Brother Dan, the vice principal at the Catholic high school I graduated from, are the only people I have heard use the work behoove and mean it.
Square Pegs made it through one year on the air, but that was it. Its cancellation cut me to my core. I wish I could say that was the last time I was crushed as one of my favorite shows didn’t make it back on the air, but the list is too long for a blog post.
Twin Peaks almost canceled itself, with its quick drop in quality after the reveal of the central mystery. ABC put it out of its misery when it canceled it, but it still hurt.
Veronica Mars was one of the best shows I’ve ever seen, standing up to my incessant replays of its three short years.
This year, I fear that I will again have to bid a fond farewell to some high-quality shows. And that I will again be left with nothing but an unsatisfying cliffhanger to watch again and again on the DVDs as others revel in their Americal Idol, Dancing with the Stars, CSI, and Grey’s Anatomy. I will again curse the random sampling method of gauging viewer interest in their television shows. The Nielsens have been cruel to me over the years, and I would like to see a ratings system that I can at least believe is accurate.
Yet I still look forward to the upfronts. The announcements of which shows have been spared and which new shows I will get attached to in the fall. The mourning period that begins when the cancellations are for sure.
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I’m kind of a serial monogamist with television–but I’m the really annoying kind who plays the field looking for the replacement lover while still with the other lover. I started watching Supernatural when it first came on because it came on right after Gilmore Girls, starred Rory’s best boyfriend ever (Jared Padalecki), and could possibly help me fill the hole left by the long decline and eventual end of the X-Files. Plus I thought my then-boyfriend (now hubby) would enjoy watching it with me while we talked on the phone in our long-distance-relationship days. He liked it so much that he started recording it for us to watch together on the weekends when we were at his place. So, when it made the move to the timeslot of death (9pm Thursday against the ratings juggernaut that is CSI), it didn’t matter to me because we watched it every other weekend anyway.
When in season 2, every good show was moved to 9pm Thursday (and when I say good show, I don’t mean CSI, which I would rather die than watch, but The O.C. and Grey’s Anatomy), I will admit that I forgot about my Winchester boys. DH still recorded Supernatural on the downstairs DVR, but I almost always forgot to make time to watch it. (I spent most of my time upstairs watching tv with the dog.) So I missed at least half of the season.
I watched the first episode of Season 3, as it premiered one week before The Office began, but no other eps–until the writer’s strike took The Office off the air. With my Thursday nights free once again, I went on a binge of SPN DVDs and reruns sure to make me completely obsessed with everything Winchester. Now that I’ve watched all of Seasons 1 and 2 and gotten caught up on Season 3, I’m floundering a little. I’m looking for the next great thing as I long for the new episode of Supernatural that they will play this Thursday.
Which is a really long way of saying that I had a mini-Friday Night Lights marathon last night when I couldn’t sleep. The joy of seeing the episode that guest starred Logan from Gilmore Girls (Matt Czuchry) AND Weevil from Veronica Mars (Francis Capra) was almost more than a little insomniac tv fan could stand. I know that the overly dramatic storylines that are being interspersed this season are not fan favorites, but I am willing to overlook them for the joy that is the rest of the show. I don’t know how the writers and actors manage it, but everything is so real. The way that the teens interact with one another is achingly realistic, and the way that the Coach and Tami interact as husband and wife is so understated and human.
So, if you haven’t seen this wonderful show before, do us all a favor and pick up the DVD os S1, find a way to get caught up on S2, and start watching this show regularly. Then convert all of your friends and family members. (Yes, I am relying on Sprint’s marketing tactics from the late 80s and early 90s. Or was it MCI?)
If FNL is not to your taste, then perhaps you will enjoy my other potential new love: Chuck. Geeky electronics store employee becomes clandestine CIA/NSA supercomputer. What’s not to love?
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Uncategorized | Jennifer C. Rodland | 
April 16, 2009 4:00 am | 
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