EasyAsABC

	today's feature ABC Bites the Big One
©2000-06 ©2016 gtslade

Before vainly trying to save another ABC programme, consider the following: Over the years, ABC have been killing fine shows with a unique formula — one shot in a bad slot, then cancel. You see sufficient episodes to crave more, but never get to see them again. Not even in reruns.

You never learn if Trevor is really Cupid, if Angela ever finds true love. You never see Mr Chapel exact revenge on the programming weasel who murders great shows.

Don't get screwed again. Do not invest your time and loyalty in any new ABC shows. Wait until they are renewed. Then it may be safe to take a chance.

Or not. They've sabotaged "The Practice" by shifting it to Mondays from its successful Sunday spot.
Producer David E Kelley says, "It's hard to believe that they could act in such bad faith. But no matter how low you set the bar of intelligence for ABC, they manage to slither under it ... It's folly to try to guess what's in their heads because that would start with the presumption that there's something [in them.]"

Below is my list of excellent and great shows aired once on ABC. Usually Thursdays or Saturdays, the so-called suicide slots, where they face the stiffest competition.

When will it occur to some network pinhead that they need to build an audience to compete with established hits? When will they run out of Barbara Walters banal filler to replace fine dramas and comedies they bump summarily?

Once in awhile, they stick by a show like "The Practice," but fail to learn from their success.

the list
Agent Carter (Hayley Atwell)
Cracker
Crossroads (Bob Urich)
Cupid (Jeremy Pivens, Paula Marshall)
Galavant
The Job
Leaving L.A. (Lorraine Toussaint, Melina Kanakaredes)
Life As We Know It
The Marshal
Maximum Bob
Me & the Boys (Steve Harvey, Madge Sinclair)
Motive
Murphy's Law (George Segal, Maggie Han)
My So-Called Life
The Naked Truth (Téa Leoni)
Norm
Relativity
Snoops (Paula Marshall, Gina Gershon, Paula Jai Parker)
Starman
Total Security
Vengeance Unlimited

No doubt, I'm forgetting some. Please send your choices and comments to me, gtslade@yahoo.com.

Producer Bernie Brillstein attributes the decline in network TV viewing to the practices of network programmers. In an interview broadcast on CNN Thursday 27th May, Brillstein said, "They're blaming cable, they're blaming the Internet and they're blaming everyone but themselves. So they keep doing the same thing and saying, 'Oh my god, what are we doing wrong?'" Brillstein said that he shopped his current HBO hit, The Sopranos, to the networks first.

"All of the networks turned it down," he said. "HBO bought it and it's become the most talked-about show on television." Network programming executives, according to Brillstein are running scared. "It's just that they don't know where to go. [So] they keep copying themselves. ... They've single-handedly, I think, in the last three years put the situation comedy business out of business."

	Brillstein box ©1999 Reuters.