Poll Results - What network has the fewest shows that you MUST see?

We interrupt the coverage of the Twelve Days of Christmas for this important poll result. The question this week was: "What network has the fewest shows that you MUST see?" Seven people voted in this one, which is the same number (and maybe the same people) who voted in the poll on "What network has the most shows that you MUST see?" Certainly there's a certain synchronicity to the voting pattern. Finishing in fifth place with no votes was ABC. In a tie for third place with one vote each (14%) were FOX and NBC. In a solid second place with two votes (28%) is CBS. But the big "winner" with three votes (42%) is The CW.

So how does this compare or tie in with last week's results? Well the obvious one is that not only was The CW the network with the fewest shows people felt they must see it was also the only network that didn't have anyone say that it had the most shows they must see. Clearly the network will probably have to do a lot of work on their lineup for next year (about the only show I watch on The CW is Smallville). On the opposite end of the scale only one person regarded ABC as having more shows they wanted to see than any other network but no one thought it had the fewest. I think that qualifies as sort of a bland middle ground. As for last week's winner for the network with the most "must see" shows, FOX it also picked up a vote for having the fewest shows that were "must sees". Which I actually think is a reasonably accurate assessment. When FOX is on its game it's quite good, but the network also has a lot of crap clogging up the airwaves.

The only real question is about CBS. This is, you will recall, the network that has been dominating the ratings for the past few years. It's quite strong on most nights this year too. So the question is why this powerhouse line up has only one person who felt that it had the most shows that they must see, and two people who said it had the fewest? Such are the questions that unscientific polls raise.

New poll up in the morning (or maybe the afternoon - I currently have a raging headache and need sleep).

On The Elevent Day Of Christmas ...

My true love (TV) gave to me - Eleventh Day (January 5) Eleven dear dead TV folks.

Actually it was a lot more than eleven, and I had an awfully hard time boiling it down to eleven. In fact if you want to locate a complete - some might suggest obsessive - listing of everyone connected with TV who died in this year, check out the Inner Toob archives and search for "Hat Squad".

In 2006 we lost:

Dennis Weaver: Chester from Gunsmoke and Marshall Sam McCloud from the "McCloud" segments of NBC's Mystery Movie, plus the guy who was being chased by the big rig in Steven Spielberg's Duel.

Don Knotts: Barney Fife from The Andy Griffith Show and Ralph Furley, plus (let's admit it) The Don Knotts Show. He was also The TV Repairman in the movie Pleasantville and got his start on The Steve Allen Show.

Mike Douglas: The one-time Irish tenor hosted his eponymous afternoon talk show The Mike Douglas Show for 21 years, most of them based in Philadelphia. He and Merv Griffin set the gold standard that people like Rosie O'Donnell and Ellen DeGeneres strive to live up to.

Aaron Spelling: It is nearly impossible to list every TV show that Spelling was connected to, so here's just a sampler from each decade in which he worked in TV: Zane Grey Theater (1956-61, as a writer on 20 episodes), The Mod Squad (1968-73, Producer), Charlie's Angels (1976-81, Executive Producer), T.J. Hooker (1982-1986, Executive Producer), Melrose Place (1992-99 Executive Producer), Seventh Heaven (1996-his death, Executive Producer).

Jane Wyman Wyatt: Possibly TV's greatest mother - played Margaret Anderson on Father Knows Best and Amanda, wife of Sarek and mother of Spock on one episode of Star Trek.

Lister Sinclair: His name won't be familiar to my American readers but for longtime viewers (and listeners) of the CBC he was an institution. He was the first host of the science show The Nature of Things and was a frequent guest on shows ranging from Front Page Challenge to Wayne Shuster. Best known for his radio work, first as a plywright then as host of Ideas, he was the CBC's resident polymath. He seemed able to discourse on anything from Einstein's Theory of Relativity, to English grammar and word origins, to Disco (literally - his last work on CBC Radio was a ninety minute discourse on Disco music which made you think he was a fan when he barely considered it music).

Steve Irwin: The Crocodile Hunter left us far too young.

Ed Bradley: Who was on 60 Minutes for ages and was still the youngest one on the show until Katie Couric arrived. (Well not quite but you knew you were thinking it.)

Peter Boyle: From Everybody Loves Raymond of course but we'll also remember him from "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose."

Joe Barbera: If he'd only created Tom Jerry, that would have been enough. If he'd only created The Flintstones that too would be enough. But of course he not only created both but he did so much more.

Frank Stanton: Frank Stanton passed away on December 26, 2006 at age 98. As president of CBS from 1946 until his forced retirement in March 1973 he was in a very real way responsible for the creation of CBS Television (William S. Paley was initially focused on building the radio network rather than TV). Stanton oversaw the details, lobbied for the network before Congress, and stood up for CBS when the news division was under attack. He created much of what we know about TV today, good - the half-hour newscast came from Stanton - and bad - he actually came to the attention of CBS by creating a device to determine what people were listening too, the forerunner of the ratings box. He was even responsible for the CBS Eye. His relationship with his boss William S. Paley was by turns business-like and acrimonious but the two of them were a brilliant team. After Paley went through a series of other presidents he came to appreciate just how great he and Stanton had been together. Stanton summed up his philosophy about television in 1948: "Television, like radio should be a medium for the majority of Americans, not for any small or special groups; therefore its programming should be largely patterned for what these majority audiences like and want." And every TV executive since has been trying to accomplish that.

Correction: As Harry Heuser points out it was Jane Wyatt, not Jane Wyman who passed from the scene this past October. Jane Wyman is alive and presumably still kicking.

On The Tenth Day Of Christmas...

My true love (TV) gave to me - Ten Favourite Moments.

In no particular order:

Kristin Chenoweth in The West Wing: "He died." I've said it before and hopefully I'll say it many more times - Kristin Chenoweth is 4 feet 11 inches of utterly amazing talent, not just as a singer or comedic actor but as a dramatic actress. The way she says these words is heartbreaking, but it's her whole body language in the scene that sells it. We're used to seeing the confident Annabeth, who looks taller than she is because of the way she holds herself. In this scene she actually seems smaller than she really is, coping with the lost of her mentor, friend, lover (? - there was tension and I wouldn't be surprised if she eventually succumbed).

Ed Asner on Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip: "I won't pay a 73 million dollar fine; I won't pay a 73 cent fine; I won't time delay the news, and I won't say, 'I'm sorry.' I no longer recognize the authority of the FCC in this matter. I'm going to have to be ordered by a federal judge, and when they come to get my transmitter they better send a group a hell of lot more scary than the Foundation for Friendly Families or whatever the hell they are. Let those guys embed themselves with 2nd Marine Division for a while; they'll rejigger their sense of what's obscene." If only real network executives would stand up to bullies like the PTC and the American Family Association and the rest like this we'd have more quality shows like NYPD Blue was before Janet Jackson's nipple.

The tie breaker in the Survivor: Cook Islands finale: A moment of delightful ... something. Having shown mutual respect for each other by deciding that the final vote will be a draw between Sundra and Becky - though Yul offers Becky the "hidden Immunity 'Idol'" if she wants it - they are given the now traditional tie breaker challenge: make a fire using only twigs, coconut fibers, flint and a machete. Usually it doesn't take too long for one or both of he contestants to get fire. This time it dragged on, and on, and on. The Jury started yawning. Eventually - and apparently this was two hours after they started - host Jeff Probst gave the women some matches. Still no fire. Sundra eventually ran out of matches without getting a fire started. It all meant that Becky won the right to lose to either "Dolphin Boy" Ozzie or Yul "The Godfather" (who did win), but it was funny.

Jerry Springer doing the Waltz on Dancing With The Stars: I'm not a huge fan of Springer's at the best of times, and for the most part he was pure comic relief on Dancing With The Stars and he knew it. But when he danced the Waltz it was deadly serious. His only real goal on the show was to learn the Waltz so he could dance at his daughter's wedding. And when he finished and when to hug his daughter there wasn't a dry eye in the joint - including the judges. Sure he didn't have the ability of a Mario Lopez or the determination of an Emmitt Smith, but in that one dance he had heart.

The robotic foreplay scene on House: In the episode in which House is shot, he continues to treat the patient whose mysterious symptoms include a swollen tongue and an exploding scrotum (among other things). At one point House recommends that the patient undergo treatment using a surgical robot. He demonstrates the device on Allison Cameron. He caresses her cheek; he lifts the bottom of her blouse, exposing her navel and blows into it; he removes the top button of her blouse and pulls it open to expose the top of her lacy bra. It is an amazingly erotic scene that is revealing as to how House sees himself because (1) even while expressing intimacy he is still remote, clinical and detached, and (2) it is all an hallucination - even the degree of intimacy he shows there is beyond him in real life.

Hiro goes to New York on Heroes: Series premieres are full of great moments, and frequently the series themselves don't live up to those moments. In the pilot of Heroes the character of Hiro Nakamura is convinced that he has a special ability despite the ridicule of his friend and co-worker Ando who calls him "super-Hiro". Then he presses his power to the max and transports himself to Times Square in New York. He doesn't know the circumstances yet, but the sheer joy he feels as he stretches out his arms and shouts is amazingly endearing and makes him special among the people who are constantly trying to deny their abilities.

The death of Special Agent Graham Kelton on Vanished: Not all series can be winners and this series wasn't. People saw it as too derivative and not "realistic enough" or something. Derivative it probably was, a show along the lines of The DaVinci Code with huge conspiracies and a pair of FBI agents who weren't Mulder and Scully in terms of being attractive to the audience. Still, if the show had been a hit or at least popular enough to stay on the air for rest of the year people would have been amazed by what Executive Producer Josh Berman had up his sleeve. The show seemed to have been built around FBI Special Agent Graham Kelton (played by Gale Harold) but suddenly, at the end of the eighth episode Kelton is shot to death by an assassin, who intended to kill Senator Jeffrey Collins. It is the equivalent of Hitchcock casting Janet Leigh in Psycho and building her up as the apparent lead character in the film only to have her killed in the first third of the movie. And if Vanished had lasted 22 episodes instead of nine (with the remaining four episodes shot being relegated to the Fox web site where Canadians can't see them) it might have been far more memorable than it turned out to be.

The return of Sarah Jane Smith on Doctor Who:In just about every poll ever taken of Doctor Who fan(atic)s the favourite "companion" was always listed as Liz Sladen (who looks very good for 58) playing Sarah Jane Smith. She started on the show with the Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee) but really connected with the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker). Of all the companions - and I did check this out - she was the only one who left the TARDIS not of her own free will. So her reintroduction into the Doctor Who mythos in the episode "School Reunion" was not only most welcome but closed off a dangling plot line, albeit in a rather bittersweet manner. Apparently it was so well received that Russell T. Davis and Gareth Roberts have created a new children's drama called The Sarah Jane Adventures. Now if they could only bring back Lethbridge-Stewart and Ian Chesterton.

Bianca Ryan wins America's Got Talent: By all that is holy that little girl can sing. And she's only 11 years old. There was some great talent on the show in among the animal acts poor jugglers and repetitive quick change artists (who fans kept for even though the act they did the first week was the act they did in the finals), but from the moment I heard her sing I knew that she was going to be the winner. Oddly enough I've got a bunch for number ten - I suppose you'd call them runners up. There's the little Filipino-American winner of the big prize on Identity getting more and more excited as he gets answers right culminating with him leaping into Penn Jillette's arms (quite a leap believe me - this guy was half Penn's size in every respect). There was Coach Taylor's reaction to finding his daughter and Matt cuddling - chastely - under a blanket while watching TV and then his wife Tammi's reaction to his reaction: "You're an idiot." There was the shower scene at the end of the episode "...As We Know It" on Grey's Anatomy where the reality of Meredith, Christina and Izzie in the shower together (cleaning the "red mist" that had been the bomb disposal expert) off of her was contrasted with George's fantasy that began the previous part of the two part episode.

Starbuck kills "Leoben" again on Battlestar Galactica: The scene tells us so much about Starbuck and quite a bit about the Cylons. Starbuck stabs Leoben to death and then stays in her chair, calmly eating her dinner until the newly resurrected version of Leoben enters the apartment/cell and steps over his own "body", and sits down at the table. Kara is reacting the only way that she knows how to the Cylon even as she acknowledges the inevitability of her eventual failure. She knows that Leoben will be back. For his part even as Leoben knows that Kara will continue to seek any opportunity to kill him even though she knows what will happen, he is still determined to break her to his will, and eventually introduces a new factor into the relationship by bringing in "Kara's" baby.

On The Ninth Day Of Christmas...

My true love (TV) gave to me - Nine odds and ends.

Okay, I confess, I had nothing for Day Nine. For I while I was thinking of doing "Nine Thinking Man's Sex Symbols" except that I'm not exactly sure what a "thinking man's sex symbol" is except that breast size is not the primary or secondary consideration (but I wouldn't rule out tertiary). And I will include some of my picks, but there's still a lot of other stuff to mention (including one that I forgot entirely and still can't remember).

• How much fun was it to watch the PTC tie itself up in knots over Michelle Lamour's appearances on America's Got Talent? She first appeared as the Snow White stripper on the same episode as Bianca Ryan and the PTC went ballistic about the unfairness of having an 11 year old competing against that hussy. The second time she appeared on the show she was working with a version of KITT from David Hasselhoff's old series Knight Rider. I was expecting the PTC to attack her for contributing to the delinquency of a car, and they came very close to saying just that.
• America's Got Talent in general was a hoot. What a wild ride that show was. There were tears, histrionics, temper tantrums and over the top performances. And that was just from the judges! That doesn't consider acts like Rapping Granny, or the woman who shot a bow and arrow with her feet. And who can forget Leonid The Magnificent. I know I can't. And believe me I've tried.
• Another summer show that I have a fondness for is Hell's Kitchen and not just because the PTC hates it and Gordon Ramsey's swearing. This time at least the show had not only a deserving winner but a deserving loser. Heather won (hurray) because she knew how to run her line chefs with authority and was smart enough to pick the best people. Virginia lost (hurray) because she picked the weakest people to participate on her team -and told them so - then had to pay them out of pocket to motivate them to do anything for her. If you're in Canada by the way, Food Network will be rerunning Hell's Kitchen uncensored starting January 2.
• It is a known fact that people like to watch train wrecks. That may just possibly be why Show Me The Money lasted for five episodes. I watched the first episode in its horrific entirety. It gave me a headache, but I still kept coming back from time to time. But here's the kicker - the show had fans. I know this because I ran into one at my bowling league's Christmas party and I had to break the news to him that the show had been canceled the week before. I tried not to sound too happy, but I don't think I pulled it off.
• Does it strike anyone as being absolutely right that the type of show that the Parents Television Council finds most suitable for "family" viewing is a type of show that a lot of people find to be the worst thing to ever contaminate TV? I'm speaking here of reality shows, and while I watch and defend some of them (Survivor, Beauty and the Geek, Big Brother, Hell's Kitchen and of course The Amazing Race - be sure to watch The Amazing Race All Star Edition coming in February), most of them are a waste of the video tape they're shot on. Maybe it shows how out of touch the PTC really is with the public taste - or maybe not since so many of these shows are still on.
• Why is it that the current crop of prime time game shows aren't designed to give the players a shot at the maximum prize? Think about it; Deal Or No Deal is set up in such a way that it is extremely attractive for players to take the banker's offer unless the only cases left are all big money. In 1 vs. 100 the risk ratchets up as the number of mob members decreases making it extremely attractive to drop out when you reach over $100,000. 1 vs. 100 is about survival of the fittest and as mob members are knocked out the remainder are the fittest mentally. In fact there has only been one show in which I've seen the maximum amount won. It was in the second episode of Identity where through luck pluck and possibly a certain amount of not getting it, a Filipino-American managed to guess the identities of all twelve of the people on the stage. And his reaction as he climbed up the ladder (and Penn) was great. But that was the exception to the rule.
• This thinking man's sex symbol 3: I spent virtually all of the seven years that The West Wing was on the air dealing with a serious crush on C.J. "Flamingo" Cregg. She was intelligent, witty, willing to be "one of the boys" and not take herself too seriously, and she was 6 feet tall (I like women as tall as I am). Her love life was a catastrophic wreck. It may explain my fondness for the character of Annabeth Schott - she was C.J. in a smaller package and a better love life.
• This thinking man's sex symbol 2: I’ve been wracking my brains on this one. I think it might have to go to Lisa Cuddy on House. I mean set aside the fact that Lisa Edelstein, who plays Cuddy, played Sam Seaborn’s “friend” Laurie the hooker on The West Wing (and looked damned fine in a blouse and panties). No the reason that Cuddy fills the role of this thinking man’s #2 sex symbol is because she has to deal with Gregory House and amazingly hasn’t folded into the fetal position. She actually sort of stands up to him. She doesn’t win but she does stand up to him. Plus in the scene where she was holding a child under a shower after a diagnosis gone wrong she reminded me of nothing short of the Madonna in Michaelangelo’s Pieta.
• This thinking man's sex symbol 1: Catherine Willows has been this thinking man's sex symbol practically since she first appeared on CSI. I mean think of it, she's gorgeous and a redhead, she's very intelligent but doesn't rub your face in it, she is (for lack of anything near a better word) sassy, she's secure in her own sexuality - after all she used to be a nude dancer. And now, to top it all off she's probably rich, thanks to the guy who gunned down Sam Braun. I mean what man, when presented with all that, would choose Sarah Sidle over Catherine Willows. I know, I know, Grissom would.

On The Eighth Day Of Christmas...

My true love (TV) gave to me - Eight canceled series.

Cancellation is a fact of life in television. Most shows don't get the luxury of going out at a time and circumstance of their choosing the way that Everybody Loves Raymond did. Even The West Wing was pushed by NBC (canceled at the end of the season) before it could announce that it was jumping (voluntarily ending) at the end of Season Seven. The producers might have wanted to continue, although it is nearly impossible to imagine the show without John Spencer. It is also a fact of life in TV Land (as opposed to TVLand (tm)) that most shows are canceled by the end of their first season. Out of 28 series that debuted in the Fall of 2005 only 8 made it into their second season. That's a pretty amazing figure, but what's even more amazing to me is the sped with which networks decide to dump shows. Of course I grew up in the era when it was expected that if a show debuted in September it would get at least 13 weeks to prove itself. Today 13 weeks is practically the same as being renewed for a full season. Of 22 series that debuted in September 2006 (not counting NBC's Sunday Night Football), only 12 are still on the air at the beginning of January, which is roughly thirteen episodes. Of these, only Standoff hasn't received a full season order, although Fox has come close by ordering a total of 19 scripts (most contemporary series get 22 episode orders - when I was a kid 26 episodes was standard and 39 was not unheard of).

What is amazing to me is the speed at which shows are canceled. Not only were some series cancelled by their respective networks but the shows that replaced them were also canceled, all in the space of three months. Network executives are becoming depressingly fast at pulling the plug on series. The eight series that I mentioned in the first sentence were all canceled (or put on indefinite hiatus, which in truth is the same thing - the networks say they'll air the last episodes but somehow they never get around to it) in five episodes or less.

• Show Me The Money (5 episodes)
• The Happy Hour (4 episodes)
• Kidnapped (4 episodes)
• Twenty Good Years (4 episodes)
• 3 Lbs. (3 episodes)
• Runaway (3 episodes)
• Smith (3 episodes)
• The Rich List (1 episode!)

For the record, Smith was the first show to leave the air this season. My friends at TVSquad.com insist on saying that Kidnapped was the first series canceled - it was canceled a few hours before Smith but NBC promised to move the show to Saturday night and air the remaining 10 episodes that were ordered. It was a promise they reneged on after one airing which had low ratings even for a Saturday night. As for The Rich List its one and only episode aired on November 1, 2006 replacing Justice. Yeah, I didn't notice it either.

On The Seventh Day Of Christmas...

My true love (TV) gave to me - Seven cancelled serials.

You'd think that the serial would be a natural for television, and indeed it is (or was) for morning and afternoon TV in the form of the soap opera. But the nighttime serial - the non-soap opera type - has been a minefield for the networks. They've been tried in a number of ways and for the most part they don't stick. And the way the networks - as a group - handle them shows the respect that they hold for their audiences. Which isn't much.

The current trend towards serials probably started with 24 and picked up momentum with Lost. In 24 you have a true serial in which events from past episodes are tied tightly together and each episode ends with a cliffhanger to build tension. Lost on the other hand maintains a looser, but still highly important, continuity. Events are remembered and have varying degrees of importance, and the series also uses flashbacks to give us some enlightenment about the characters, but there are episodes and events in the characters' lives that at least appear to stand on their own. While the 2005-06 TV season brought us a couple of attempts to do new serials - one successful (Prison Break) and the other a total bomb (Reunion) - the start of the 2006-07 season unleashed a flood of new serials. Twelve shows that can - by most standards including those set by 24 and Lost - be defined as serials debuted in September and October of 2006. Of that number only five - Heroes, Ugly Betty, Brothers Sisters, Jericho, and Friday Night Lights - remain on the air in December. The rest - Kidnapped, Vanished, Smith, Day Break, The Nine, Six Degrees, and Runaway - were all cancelled, and in some cases very quickly despite solemn promises from network executives that the shows would run to their natural conclusion. There's a certain amount of betrayal there, but of course we all know that a network executive's solemn promise and $2.50 will still leave you in the hole for a second cup of coffee (his).

What happened? It's not that the shows were all bad television; far from it. Kidnapped in particular had an outstanding cast and was very well written, while I found Vanished engaging enough - when I could actually find it - with an incredible twist at the end of the eighth episode. Day Break also received a lot of critical support although it did far less well with the actual viewing public. That of course is the usual reason why shows get cancelled but the question isn't so much why they got cancelled but why the public that embraced 24, Lost and Heroes wouldn't watch Kidnapped, Vanished or The Nine.

I think that there are a lot of factors going on here. Six Degrees had a very tenuous premise coupled with less than compelling writing. The Nine started off brilliantly but very quickly tailed off with a weak premise. Opposition also had a lot to do with the success or failure of some of the shows. Six Degrees was on Thursdays opposite ER which led with the cliffhanger about Abby's baby. Kidnapped had a CSI spinoff as competition while Day Break was against Criminal Minds. I suppose there's some of the "new shows up against established hits" syndrome here but I'm not prepared to state that it was the only thing going on. In that situation cost is a factor. Networks aren't prepared to bear the cost of shows that aren't pulling their ratings weight.

To be sure I think that - had the original NBC line-up not been massively altered to "save" Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip from the original CSI and Gray's Anatomy - Kidnapped would have stood a better chance against Boston Legal and Smith. It was a better show and would have benefited from weaker shows on the other networks. Still I think that the five networks made a major miscalculation when they put so many serial type series on the schedule. They created these shows with tightly integrated continuity and continuing story lines but they seemed to have had no clue as to whether the public would accept them. Indeed if current trends are to be believed at least two of the serials that started this season have become less than compelling for viewers. There were irritated complaints about the handful of episodes that Lost aired this Fall before giving over their time slot to Day Break, and there seems to have been more than a little dissatisfaction with the way that Prision Break is developing. Maybe people are losing some of their patience with serials, or perhaps they want serials where the continuity isn't so essential. Or possibly they just want compelling characters.

Television would seem to be made for serialized story telling. The serial, either in literature or in film, was a way to get people to keep coming back, either to buy the magazine or go to the movies every week. The TV audiences are already conditioned to show up every week at the same time to watch their shows, so a serial should work. Maybe one thing working against serials on TV is the idea that you might not get resolution. A stand-alone program can get canceled after a few weeks and while fans might be angry or protest the unfairness of canceling their show. Would it really matter to viewers if CBS were to decide tomorrow to stop showing episodes of CSI effective immediately? For the fan of serials - and we saw this least year with Reunion - there is the extra factor of wanting to know how the story resolves itself. If Lost were cancelled immediately people would not only be protesting the loss of their show but also demanding to find out whether those people left the island and if so how they did it. Under those circumstances why commit to a serial unless it's particularly compelling or there's nothing else you want to see on at the time. It would seem to be a bit of an exercise in circular logic - viewers are less likely to watch a serial for fear of cancellation but the risk of cancellation goes up if viewers won't watch the show. I don't think it's a huge factor, let alone a decisive factor, in the way viewers choose what they'll watch but I do think it's in the back of people's minds.

On The Sixth Day Of Christmas...

My true love (TV) gave to me - Six resolutions

I've been thinking this one over and I have decided to come up with six New Year's Resolutions that every network president and programming chief should make.

1. If I am going to steal an idea from anyone else I resolve to make it as original as possible. I will not, just as an example, take a British show like Coupling and remake it word for word. Rather I shall take the basic idea and turn it into How I Met Your Mother. This goes for British, Canadian, Australian, French, Japanese, and especially American shows that I steal.

2. I resolve that I will not commission a pilot for a new serial unless I am 100% absolutely dead sure that it will work. But if I do I promise on my sainted network owners that I will keep the God forsaken thing on the air until the earliest convenient moment for the writers and producers to wrap the story line up. Particularly if the only other thing I've got to put on instead is a rerun of a procedural.

3. I resolve to put more comedies on my network but first I will make sure that the situation comedies I do program are, you know, actually funny. I admit that a series with Jeffrey Tambor and John Lithgow together sounds like it should be funny but in practice not so much.

4. I resolve not to impose a moratorium on procedurals on my network unless the idea is really innovative and something that hasn't been done before (hmm, how about a show about Arson Investigators?). In fact I will just try to avoid shows that involve cops, lawyers and doctors all together and remember that there are other exciting professions out there. I mean if the British (Capital City) and the Canadians (Traders) can make shows about investment bankers that are exciting and sexy, why can't Americans.

5. I resolve that I if the Parents Television Council or the American Family Association tells me that one of my shows is lewd or obscene I will wear that as a badge of honour, particularly if they threaten to boycott my advertisers. If they get really obnoxious about it I will turn around drop my trousers and show them my fat furry ass. And if I'm taken before the FCC I will fight any decision against me all the way to the Supreme Court.

6. I resolve that if and when my schedule tanks thoroughly I will take the blame myself, and if necessary resign rather than force some other poor schlub to take the blame and be fired - probably by me.

Oh and as for me, well I don't do the whole resolutions thing. I do resolve to get a new computer - probably at the end of February, but that's because I've spent several months on an emergency substitute computer using Windows 98 and the only reason I'm waiting for February is to get a machine with Windows Vista rather than going through the process of buying a new machine and then getting the deal where I have to take it in and get the upgrade installed. I also resolve to get around to updating my Blogroll. Finally as God is my witness I'll never go hungry again - oh wait, that was Gone With The Wind. As God is my witness I will upgrade to the new version of Blogger by December 31st next year!!!!

On The Fifth Day Of Christmas...

On The Fifth Day Of Christmas... My true love (TV) gave to me - Five broadcast nets.

As opposed to six last year. (Of course I'm not including My Network TV here any more than I ever counted PAX. It exists, but it's not thriving and it's not available here. So there.)

Beyond a doubt the merger of UPN and The WB networks was the biggest "industry" story of the year. I'm not sure what anyone expected but I'm pretty sure none of them got it. Let's start out on the business side. Both networks were hemorrhaging money. Now there's only one network but for reasons we'll get into, it doesn't seem to be awash in cash. Then there's the name. The CW? Where does that come from? Actually I know where that comes from - it's the Columbia-Warner Network - but how many other people know that. The name should have been changed but it wasn't. Unfortunately the logo was and it turned into that green on green monstrosity that looks like it came from the '70s or from CN Rail. And don't even get me started about the network web page, which is also that sickly green.

What I will go on about is programming and audiences. The merged networks commissioned a grand total of two new shows, one comedy and one drama. For the rest they went with shows that had been on the two networks previously. Virtually all of the comedies came from UPN and the network said quite openly that they were courting the African American market with them. The other major acquisitions from UPN were Veronica Mars, America's Next Top Model, and Friday Night Smackdown. Most of the dramas came from The WB including that network's most popular show ever Seventh Heaven which had actually declared that it was airing it's series finale the previous May. Other shows were dropped including Everwood, which sparked a considerable amount of anger from fans. They wanted their show to continue and for Seventh Heaven to go as scheduled.

Audiences for most of the CW shows are at or below the levels that they had achieved. This apparently came as a surprise to a lot of people including people at the network. They seem to have believed that merging the two networks would have the effect of merging their audiences. The belief that people who had watched (for example) Everybody Hates Chris and Love Inc. would migrate to Smallville rather than to shows on one of the other networks or to something on cable was obviously a pipe dream. That's not to say that there haven't been successes - on particularly weak nights for Fox, CW shows have actually finished in fourth place for the night. The problem is that such occasions are more the result of extremely bad ratings for Fox shows rather than particular successes for The CW. In short the merger hasn't been as successful as some people had hoped.

There are aspects of this that I can't help wonder about. Would The CW have been better off if they had dropped a higher percentage of their existing shows in favour of new programs? Those people who saw the Aquaman trailer seemed to like it. How about if they hadn't decided to group all of their African-American comedies into a single block? Probably most important is whether there was some way for the merged networks to lower expectations. After all, perception is half the battle, and if The CW didn't live up to the expectations of fans, critics and most importantly advertisers then they are perceived as losers and the downward spiral begins.

New Poll - What network has the fewest shows that you MUST see?

Once again the poll question is the inverse of the previous question - "What network has the fewest shows that you MUST see?"

Based on the previous results the answer might seem obvious but of course just because a network got high number from a small polling sample doesn't mean that it will get the same sort of response from a larger sample - or that a network that got small numbers will be the one with the fewest shows people must see if the sample is the same size but the voters are different. Which is why this isn't a scientific poll.

Feel free to comment on the whole business here.

Poll Results - What network has the most shows that you MUST see?

We interrupt the Twelve Days Of Christmas for the rather more mundane business of posting poll results. The question in this week's poll was "What network has the most shows that you MUST see?" Seven votes were cast. Finishing in fifth place with no votes was The CW. In a tie for third place with one vote each (14%) were ABC and CBS. Coming in in second place with two votes (28%) was NBC, while the first place finisher was Fox with three votes (42%).

I'm not sure what to make of this result. The Nielsen ratings continue to show that CBS draws the largest audiences for its shows, while it'd fairly safe to say that Fox seems rather uneven with its programming - either it's a hit like House, Bones, Prison Break and the Sunday night animation block or it's an unmitigated disaster. Maybe the biggest surprise was that NBC came in second. Then I thought about it. While NBC's line up was a disaster in many ways they do have a number of shows that are catching people's imaginations. Maybe not the great masses of people if the ratings for Friday Night Lights, 30 Rock and Studio 60 are to be believed, but I wonder how many of the great masses of people find their way to this blog?

New poll up later. Feel free to comment on my statements here. And maybe while you're at it you can explain why I can't seem to make the switch to the new version of Blogger. When I try they keep telling me that I've already tried to switch before and to check my email account for a message about the status of that attempt. The only trouble is that the last message I received about it was on November 13, telling me it had failed. The message was repeated five more times within three minutes of the first message.

On The Fourth Day Of Christmas...

My true love (TV) gave to me - Four big career moves

Every so often people in TV make big career moves. Some of them are bigger than others, but for right or wrong they took the big leap when those about them stayed on the safe secure boring path.

Retirement may well be the biggest career move of all. Giving up what you've been doing for more than half of your life - not just your adult life - is a huge career move. That's what Bob Barker did though. Admittedly he's 83 years old but he still seems to be in rare good health. When he retires in June 2007 he will have been doing The New Price Is Right (as it was called when it debuted) for 35 years, and he did Truth Or Consequences from 1956 to 1975, which means that he has been doing game shows for 50 years.

Now here's a confession - I don't like Bob Barker. He has always seemed to me to be, well rather phony to me. For me the straw that broke the camel's back was the firing of my favourite "Barker's Beauty", the somewhat klutzy but adorable red-head Holly Hallstrom. Nominally Hallstrom was fired for the "crime" of gaining 14 pounds as a result of taking prescription medications. She revealed to the press that she had actually been fired because she wouldn't support Barker in his lawsuit against Dian Parkinson. In the subsequent suit, long-time Price Is Right models Janice Pennington and Kathleen Bradley were both subpoenaed to testify on Hallstrom's behalf. Both were fired soon after with the excuse being that the show wanted younger models. It all comes across as the action of someone being vindictive rather than the vaguely suave but fatherly image he projects on the show.

The next career move is more of a lateral shift, but when Katie Couric moved from NBC's Today to CBS as the new anchor of The CBS Evening News it was a big shift. It is true that the morning shows have been the source for news anchors - Tom Brokaw at NBC and Charles Gibson at ABC are the major examples - these tended to be promotions from within and the people involved had a significant background in "hard news." Couric's background before taking on the CBS Evening News was primarily softer news. Needless to say her promotion to the anchor desk at CBS - the first woman to be the sole anchor of any network news broadcast - was greeted with scorn by a lot of people. This increased when the direction that the newscast was going to take was revealed. It was seen as a softer news presentation (even if Walter Cronkite provided the voice at the start of the newscast), and the inclusion of what amounted to a guest editorial didn't help. Hiring Couric for a huge salary was seen as a publicity move for a newcast that has been in third place for a while. If it was, it failed since ratings haven't improved since Couric moved into the anchor chair.

The career changes for Alec Baldwin and Matthew Perry weren't as extreme as those for Barker or Couric, but they were breaks from the way that they had been perceived by the public. In Baldwin's case he had already been developing a persona as a comedic actor - in fact one of his first major roles was in Beetle Juice. If you're like me though the movies you remember him from are things like The Hunt For Red October, The Getaway, and Glengarry, Glen, Ross. In more recent times his comedic side has emerged more. He has done voice work for the animated version of Clerks, appeared on Will And Grace a number of times, and of course done fifteen episodes of Saturday Night Live. The bigger thing is that he has chosen this time, only a couple of years after his Oscar nominated supporting role in The Closer to move into series television. His casting as Jack Donaghy in 30 Rock will most likely earn him a nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy (whether he'll win or not is anybody's guess - he should but who knows when it comes to Emmy voters).

For Matthew Perry the jump is a lot bigger. Virtually his entire career, with the major exception of playing Joe Quincy on three episodes of The West Wing has been spent acting in situation comedies. And while some may debate the exact nature of Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip (well with so many people criticizing it for not being funny there must be at least some who think it's a comedy) there is no doubt that playing Matt Albie is considerably different than playing Chandler Bing on Friends. Matt doesn't get the laughs that Chandler did, although - and maybe I'm alone in this - I do see something of the attitude that Chandler had in the character of Matt Albie. Despite its fine ensemble cast, which includes Steven Weber, Bradley Whitford and Timothy Busfield, Studio 60 is very much Perry's show. He is the dominant figure in the cast which is another major difference from Friends. If the show were more popular I would expect a nomination for Perry as well, but as I said, with Emmy voters one never really knows.

On The Third Day Of Christmas...

My true love (TV) gave to me - Three brave decisions.

Well at least I think they were brave decisions, and they were made by NBC. It's no secret that this hasn't exactly been a shining year for new shows in terms of ratings. This season saw a promising crop of newcomers in terms of quality but going up against known quantities most of the new shows did poorly (to say the least) in the ratings. NBC did their fair share of canceling good shows (Kidnapped anyone) but they made a couple of choices that other networks wouldn't have. Despite ratings that weren't the greatest they not only kept Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip, Friday Night Lights and 30 Rock on the air but they renewed each of them for a full season.

Oh don't get me wrong, there were reasons for doing this that go beyond the altruistic. After all most network executives don't know the meaning of the word "altruism" or a lot of other words for that matter. For example, with Studio 60 they discovered that even though the show was and is getting blasted in the ratings by CSI: Miami, the network is actually making. The reason is that the audience that they are getting is particularly desirable in terms of buying power. In short the show may not be getting quantity but it is getting quality and advertisers are buying that.

30 Rock is a different story. I'm sure that one of the big reasons why the show is still around is that Lorne Michaels is one of the Executive Producers along with Tina Fey. And I'm willing to bet that the network doesn't want to tick off Mr. Michaels. Of course not even that is the major reason. 30 Rock was never a good fit with the show it was teamed with on Wednesday nights, the mercifully cancelled Twenty Good Years, and it was in a time slot along with Jericho (CBS), the Dancing With The Stars Results Show (ABC), Bones (Fox) and one of the few "hits" on the CW, America's Next Top Model. Now moved to Thursday nights opposite CSI and Gray's Anatomy, Supernatural and The O.C. it's still in a ratings hot seat, but it's a much better fit with the NBC Thursday comedy line-up of The Office, My Name Is Earl, and Scrubs. Besides, with this move NBC also reduces the over exposure that Deal Or No Deal was facing. That show is now down to one night a week.

The one show that I think may have been renewed entirely because it is good and has been ignored by most of the potential audience is Friday Night Lights. This is a good show that was being wasted in the first hour of Tuesday nights, up against several powerhouses from the other networks. It's now on in the first hour of Wednesday nights, but because of changes in the line-up of other networks it might have a better time of it than Twenty Good Years and 30 Rock had in the same time slot. Initially at least it won't be facing Jericho but a celeb-reality show called Armed And Famous on CBS and the "dynamic" duo of George Lopez and According To Jim on ABC. I think it has a better chance of surviving and maybe even thriving against those shows than it did on Tuesday nights. It deserves to survive - it is a great series.

On The Second Day Of Christmas...

My true love (TV) gave to me - Two couples doing it.

Ah unresolved sexual tension, that old favourite of series writers. Create that old "urge to merge" in the characters and make sure that the suckers viewers know about it. Then make sure that despite how much we want them to "bump uglies" there are compelling reasons why they don't. For the writers there's a compelling reason - I suspect that few of them have ever actually had a functioning relationship and so they wouldn't know how to write a believable one. Of course the writers will tell you that if characters consumate their relationship bad things will happen. Or to put it another way (and incidentally use a term that I abhor) the show will "jump the shark." I think I like my version better.

So one of the couples who came together in the past TV season wasn't really a surprise. That would be Josh and Donna on The West Wing. The sexual tension had been there for quite a while. Joey Lucas apparently told Josh that Donna was in love with him back in Season 2 but things really started heating up after Aaron Sorkin left the show and John Wells took over as show runner. The tension became palpable when Donna left the White House to join the Russell campaign and she became "forbidden fruit." After she came to work on the Santos campaign things heated up and they consumated their relationship (twice) during the first part of the "Election" episode. But of course that was a show moving to its end so it was following the normal trend for unresolved sexual tension.\\ The coupling that really surprised people happened on CSI. At the end of the Season 6 finale "Way To Go" we see Gil Grissom in his bedroom apparently talking to some unseen person. Grissom is reclining on his bed, wearing a robe and talking about how he'd prefer to die of some slow cause like cancer so that he can do things that he's never done before or wants to do again. As the camera's perspective changes we discover who he's talking to. It's Sara Sidle, also dressed in a robe. Their comfort with each other indicated that we weren't seeing the start of the affair.

There was a big difference between the reaction that the two scenes received. Fans of The West Wing reacted in much the same way as Bradley Whitford's mother when he told her that he'd "spent the day in bed with a beautiful woman." She said "It's about time," and so did a lot of fans of the show. We wanted Josh to come to his senses finally. The reaction to the relationship between Grissom and Sara was far different - it was downright hostile. Even though there had been hints of a romantic attraction between the two going back several seasons the actual revelation of their affair shocked a lot of people who were pulling for other "candidates." Chief among them was the dominatrix Lady Heather (although I confess I was hoping he'd become involved with Catherine Willows, his right hand woman). Part of the reaction is probably because of the characters' comparative ages - Sara was one of Gil's students - and I suspect that part of it is that some people don't think that characters in procedurals shouldn't have their personal lives revealed. Even so, with the relationship being rarely referred to much less shown, the resolution of the sexual tension doesn't seem to have hurt the series much at all.

On The First Day Of Christmas...

On The First Day Of Christmas... My true love (TV) gave to me - The death of a beloved character. John Spencer died on December 16, 2005, but the character he created lived on. The character of course was Leo McGarry on The West Wing. There were reasons for keeping Leo alive after John Spencer died. For one thing Spencer had completed two episodes of the season before his death and one of them, Running Mates had his character as an integral part of the story line, and there were other episodes with completed or near completed scripts. The other consideration was that to kill the character off immediately after those episodes aired would have thoroughly disrupted the flow of the story that Executive Producer John Wells and his team were trying to tell - the election campaign between Matt Santos and Arnie Vinnick. Having the character die before the election would have suddenly stopped the dramatic flow while Santos found a new running mate. It would have made any sense that the election campaign was a "near run thing" utterly unbelievable.

This last aspect played into one of the most important aspects of fiction writing - dramatic impact. Having decided not to simply ignore the fact that John Spencer had passed away by keeping Leo's character alive but off-screen they then had to decide when to "stage" his death so that it would have maximum impact dramatically. As I've mentioned, too soon and it causes problems with the ongoing story arc, but too late and it doesn't have the impact that such a major event in the history of the show deserves. In a very real sense John Spencer's character was the real leading actor in The West Wing, at least as much as Martin Sheen's President Bartlet, so it needs to have an impact. The show's producers decided that the proper time was the two-part election night episode. The first of the two episodes had Kristin Chenoweth's character Annabeth Schott entering Leo's room and (off-screen of course) discovering his body. The second episode showed the impact on the election, and more personally the immediate impact of Leo's death on those who knew him best: Annabeth, Donna Moss, and most critically Josh Lyman, for whom Leo had been a mentor and almost a surrogate father.

There was at the time no small amount of grumbling from fans about the way the episode in which Leo died was structured. Their belief was that the episode should suddenly devolve into some sort of reminiscence about the character as a tribute to him and to John Spencer. They were angered that the episode went from mourning Leo, to the impact of his death on voters instates where the polls hadn't closed, to partying as favourable results came in. I think it was fitting - a recognition that despite the death of a friend life goes on and in the business that these people are in that this involves celebration and anger. Besides, the second part of "Election Day" was really about Josh Lyman's reaction to his mentor's death at the moment of his personal triumph.

The same fans reacted equally badly to the next episode "Requiem" which featured Leo's funeral and wake (yeah I'm talking about you Alan Sepinwall). I don't know what they were expecting - possibly a clip show of Leo's great moments, an evening full of anecdotes and nothing that advanced the story. Maybe they wanted the cast sitting around and talking about John Spencer. What they got, in my mind was more realistic. The episode was in three parts, funneling down in degrees of intimacy. The funeral at the cathedral was the most inclusive - just about everyone who appeared on the show was there (although I didn't see any sign of Roger Rees as Lord John Marbury - maybe he decided to skip "Gerald's" funeral). It was also the most formal. Next on the level of intimacy was the White House memorial. The group of people at that was necessarily restricted. And, as at just about every funeral I've been to discussion at this event wasn't just about the deceased but about the everyday events in people's lives, including work. The fat that this part wasn't all about Leo irked some people. Finally there was the most intimate gathering of all in the residence. This was family, the extended family of the President and those who were closest to Leo, the people who knew him best - although for whatever reason the writers decided to exclude his long suffering (or long time cause of his suffering) secretary Margaret from this group.

The thing that seemed to come through with the death of Leo McGarry is the attachment that the writers of The West Wing felt for the character and the actor who played him. It was necessary to work the situation into the fabric of the show; John Spencer had been too integral a member of the cast of the show, and Leo too important a character to simply have him disappear in the way that some shows have handled the deaths of actors. At the same time they had to integrate it into the story line without disrupting the story they were trying to tell. In my opinion at least they handled it well. Now the thing that they didn't do - because apparently it would have cost too much - was a show before the finale featuring the show's cast, where I think a lot of the talk would have focused on John Spencer. That would have been a fitting tribute, not for the character but for the man who played him.

Merry Christmas To All

I hope you've all been having a Merry Christmas. Mine's been so-so so far. As you know I spent the weekend and part of today at my brother's place looking after his dog while he was out in Vancouver. I just got back home about an hour ago as I write this. But it took me almost an hour for the cab I ordered to arrive at my brother's house. Such is the curse of getting a cab on Christmas Day - anywhere.

Everybody knows the song The Twelve Days of Christmas but not everybody knows what it actually refers to. In fact it refers to the twelve days between Christmas and the beginning of Epiphany or Twelfth Night which is January 6th. In Medieval tradition this was a time feasting and merry making - and gift giving. Although most of these traditions have disappeared (like the idea that all Christmas decorations including Christmas Trees have to be removed on Twelfth Night or the house is cursed with bad luck - unless of course the decorations are left up all year) one tradition that is still observed in navies that follow British traditions is that the highest ranking officer on a naval ship changes duties with the youngest enlisted man aboard. It happens every year in Canadian ships, even those in war zones.

In respect for the tradition of the twelve days of Christmas, I will be presenting my own version of The Twelve Days of Christmas with a series of articles that are also my take on the events of TV in this year. Starting tomorrow.

New Poll - What network has the most shows that you MUST see?

Okay, continuing on with the theme of this midwinter polling festival, our next question is which of the five American networks has the most shows that you must see. I am specifying American broadcast networks because not everyone has access to cable, and even fewer of my readers have access to Canadian networks. In fact, if we were to broaden the definition of networks to include Global's stand-alone CH stations, the CITY-TV station group, and their subsidiary A-Channel, I would be able to say that most Canadians don't have access to all of the Canadian networks. But that's an issue for another day. As usual, feel free to leave comments here.

Also coming up in the next week will be my take on the year and such, which will take up the period between Christmas and Epiphany (which should give the more savvy among you a hint as to how I'm going to set it up).

Also, I'll be off on dog-sitting duty as my brother is going to spent Christmas Day with his fiancee, her son, and his soon to be in-laws. I'll be back Christmas night, but I want to wish all my friends and readers (not always an inclusive group) Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Fine Festivus, Joyous Kwanzaa, a belated Super Solstice and any other seasonal greetings you might be able to come up with. In other words, Happy Holidays!

Poll Results - What night has the fewest shows that you MUST see?

Important stuff first - I have finished my Christmas shopping (Hurray!). For the record I'm right around where I wanted to be cost wise, but I got lucky in a couple of ways. There's a couple of other things I'll tell you about with my next post.

Now to the poll. This time around there were nine respondents. Tied for fifth place were Wednesday and Thursday nights with no votes. In a tie for third place with one vote each (11%) were Sunday and Monday nights. Solidly in second place was Tuesday night with three votes (33%). But the big winner, with four votes (44% of those cast) was Friday night.

Quite an interesting result. In last week's poll about the night with the most shows you must see Thursday got no votes and it got no votes in this poll. In short you don't like it or hate it. The other shocker for me was that the night that was categorized as having the most shows people had to see in last week's poll was also categorized as being second only to Friday as having the fewest shows people had to see. I'm not sure what we're seeing here with this result. I guess I could put it down to a wider polling sample this time around. The big vote getter was Friday, and I sort of half expected it. People keep telling me how Fridays are going the way of Saturdays and the US networks will be abandoning that night next. My contention is and remains that there is an audience for shows on Friday nights, but that it is a different sort of audience - parents who can't afford sitters, older people who want to stay in and rest after a long work week, and teenaged boys who can't get dates (the latter is what explains the popularity of The CW's Friday Night Smackdown).

What are my "Best" and "Worst" nights? Out of necessity the worst night is probably Monday since it has been my bowling night for 20 years. I used to try to tape a lot of stuff but right now I tape very little because I can never seem to find time to watch. I've got a backlog of Heroes episodes from practically the beginning, and there are a couple of Doctor Who episodes around here somewhere. As for best, that's currently Thursday. I watch five hours of major network shows - six if you count This Old House on PBS.

New poll up later today.

Test

This is just a test. I'm trying out a new blog editor and I want to see how it looks. Hopefully it will be easier than using Word and then transferring to the Blogger Desktop.

Meta-Post: A Random Christmas Thought or Two

I was out Christmas shopping today and am preparing for a second strike tomorrow, when I might actually buy something, so chances are that I won't get around to doing a full blown review of Identity with Penn Jillette. Actually it's not as bad as I feared but it's not as good as it could have been. I never know what to buy for my brother, and no one seems to have exactly what I want for my mother except maybe one place. As for my nephew, at almost four he should be easy to buy for since over the course of the year he has essentially said he wants everything as long as it's not for girls. But this whole Christmas shopping thing has left me with a few ideas.

1. Every mall or department store that has a Santa Claus should record what the kids ask them for and have that put on a computer so that parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles with aching backs can access the information. Think of it as a gift registry for kids.
2. People who say that you don't have to get them anything for Christmas should get exactly what they ask for. It would simplify matters greatly for one year and generate suggestions in following years.
   
3. Why is it that I keep promising myself that next year I'll do most of my shopping online but I never do?
4. For that matter, I used to get my christmas shopping done before the Army-Navy Football game. Now, when I'm extremely lucky, I get it done a day or two before Christmas Eve.
   

Joe Barbera - 1911-2006

Here’s another one of those obituaries that I hate doing, but if you are going to do an obit for Aaron Spelling as one of the great figures in television history – which I did – then you’ve got to do one for Joe Barbera who died Monday at age 95. Barbera was one of the great figures of television and one of the great figures of animation. And if his name is regarded with scorn by some fans of animation, it probably should be remembered that it Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera who most successfully made the transition from creating short subjects for movies to creating animated series for television. In a very real way they were the godfathers of The Simpsons in that they were among the creators of the prime time animated series with The Flintsones, The Jetsons and Top Cat.

Joe Barbera started in animation at the old Van Beuren Studio in New York. When Van Beuren’s studio closed in 1936 he briefly went to Paul Terry’s Terrytoon studio before eventually being lured to California to work at MGM for substantially more money that Terry was willing to pay anyone except himself. It was at MGM that he met a writer named Bill Hanna beginning a partnership that would last until Hanna’s death in 2001. Their first cartoon as a team featured a cat named Jasper and an unnamed mouse. The film was called “Puss Gets The Boot” and earned them an Oscar nomination. The cat was renamed Tom, the mouse became Jerry and the team of Hanna & Barbera was launched. They would continue to create the adventures of the house cat and his nemesis, the plucky little mouse for 17 years, until MGM shut down their animation studio in 1957. In the process they won the studio seven Oscars for animated short subject.

With the major studios all closing down their animation shops, Hanna & Barbera launched themselves into a new area – television. There had been cartoons created for TV before – Crusader Rabbit comes to mind – but product from the studios dominated. Television was a good secondary market for them and in the days of Black & White TV they could show all of their shorts. The first show they did for TV, Ruff & Reddy, featured a dog and a cat and ran from 1957 to 1960. This was followed by a veritable host of shows in the 1950s: Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, and Quick Draw McGraw. These three shows adapted the format of the old theatrical shorts. The cartoons ran about six minutes and there were usually three cartoons in a show with two of the cartoons featuring supporting characters.

Then came The Flintstones. The show was sold to ABC (which at the time was quite desperate for content) as a cartoon for adult audiences to run in prime time (the adult nature of the show would have been clear to contemporary viewers – the main sponsor was Winston Cigarettes). In form the series was variation on Jackie Gleason’s classic Honeymooners shows, half hour shows that were essentially sitcoms done in animation rather than shorts for TV. Fred and Barney were always trying to sneak away from their wives to go to lodge meetings or poker games, or becoming involved in “get rich quick schemes” which inevitably backfired on them. The series lasted from 1960 to 1966 in prime time and encouraged ABC to try several more prime time cartoons: Top Cat, The Jetsons, and Johnny Quest. None of these lasted more than a single season but all four shows were constantly repeated.

Hanna-Barbera dominated Saturday morning animation in the 1960s and ‘70s with shows that included Josie & The Pussycats, Wacky Racers, SuperFriends, and of course Scooby Doo. Production quality wasn’t always that great. The only way the Hanna-Barbera studio could churn out the massive amount of material they did was by cutting corners. They would animate fewer frames than a theatrical short would have – sixteen frames and sometimes less. They would repeat walks and actions. They would rely on talking heads, and stage events off screen with the sound track carrying the action rather than the visuals. As a result a half-hour episode of something like Josie & The Pussycats cost the same amount – $48,000 – as an eight minute Tom & Jerry theatrical cartoon from the 1940s. Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera were actually rather pleased with this. When they explained to their former bosses at MGM how they were able to produce this much product for such an affordable price, the executives asked why they hadn’t proposed doing that when they were at the studio. It turns out that they had, but the plan had been rejected in favour of closing the studio.

Over the years the quality of the material that the Hanna-Barbera studio was producing declined. The company was no longer independent, having been sold to Taft Broadcasting in 1967 but the parent company had considerable financial difficulty. Quality of the material produced decline markedly. They would churn out licensed material like cartoons based on The Dukes of Hazard or Laverne & Shirley, or rehashing older material like Scooby Doo. Moreover according to Mark Evanier, who worked at the Hanna-Barbera Studio during this period, Barbera was well aware of the decline in what they were doing, and not particularly happy about it although he was also constantly hopeful that the next show would be the one to turn things around. I come at the work of Joe Barbera and his partner as a fan.

One of the first shows that I have any memory of was Ruff & Reddy, and my old high chair had decals of Augie Doggie and Doggie Daddy and Huckleberry Hound on it. Those old shows were the ones I remember most and with the greatest fondness. And of course there was The Flintstones possibly the best thing that the Hanna-Barbera Studio ever did. I know them all and for a very good reason. One of the stations here in Saskatoon ran The Flintstones every weekday at Noon (except for most summer) for over 25 years – requests from adults that the station get a different series were greeted with the explanation that there were always kids who hadn’t seen the shows before.

Mark Evanier’s blog has an extensive appreciation of Joe Barbera from the point of view of someone who knew him very well. It is a heart-felt appreciation of someone Mark clearly admired. Amid Amidi on the Cartoon Brew blog has some other remembrances of Joe Barbera from people who knew him.