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Who remembers God, the Devil and Bob?
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"I work in IT so I'd be buggered without a computer" - Words of wisdom from Provost Harrison
"You can be wrong AND jewish" - Wiglaf :love: -
I remember the Mr. Hell Show. Is that good enough?
Blog | Civ2 Scenario League | leo.petr at gmail.comComment
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I try to forget bad shows.Comment
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What network cancelled Babylon5?Que l’Univers n’est qu’un défaut dans la pureté de Non-être.
- Paul ValeryComment
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Bring back Brimestone dammit! I want to see him kill the other 100 demons!Exult in your existence, because that very process has blundered unwittingly on its own negation. Only a small, local negation, to be sure: only one species, and only a minority of that species; but there lies hope. [...] Stand tall, Bipedal Ape. The shark may outswim you, the cheetah outrun you, the swift outfly you, the capuchin outclimb you, the elephant outpower you, the redwood outlast you. But you have the biggest gifts of all: the gift of understanding the ruthlessly cruel process that gave us all existence [and the] gift of revulsion against its implications.
-Richard DawkinsComment
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I thought Babylon5 was a syndicated show. It came on an independant station here in Birmingham.Comment
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Originally posted by Starchild
Bring back Brimestone dammit! I want to see him kill the other 100 demons!
I make no bones about my moral support for [terrorist] organizations. - chegitz guevara
For those who aspire to live in a high cost, high tax, big government place, our nation and the world offers plenty of options. Vermont, Canada and Venezuela all offer you the opportunity to live in the socialist, big government paradise you long for. –Senator RubioComment
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I remember Brimstone coming out but it didn't look very good. Some of my friends really liked it. Anyone ever watch Nowhere Man?Comment
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True, but I think the difference between a show that breaks out and one that dies out is in how it deals with the extended cast.Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Yes, but they weren't essentially one note shows like Futurama or the Family Guy.
Many people would disagree with your entirely. On Seinfeld, I have heard many say it is simply a one note show about annoying Jewish people. On the X-Files, one note show where the characters really didn't matter too much at all (the show didn't die because Duchovney left, it died because the plots became dumber).
Hell, I've even heard plenty say the Simpsons is a one note show... Homer is the moron father, Bart the mishaving son, Lisa the overachiever, etc... and once you figure that you have everything.
You can say anything is a 'one-note' show if you really wanted to.
For example, on the Simpsons there were highly developed running characters besides the main family from the very begining, who were as interesting in their own way as the main "stars". They could do stories with Moe babysitting Maggie, Maggie shooting Mr. Burns, etc, etc.
On the Family Guy, every episode involved Stewie building a weapon, trying to kill the mom, and carrying out his "master plan". Sure it was funny, but it gets old after a while. And eventually you've done all you can do with the Stewie character.
Futurama had the same problem. The characters were funny but all the shows seemed to be variations on the same theme. I mean how many shows involved Bender leaving in a huff, getting lost, getting drunk then lost, etc. All the secondary characters were just disposable foils for the main players.
On FG, Peter's funny gay boss never became more than Peter's funny gay boss, while the Simpsons' Smithers became a very complex character in his own right.
The Simpsons was able to maintain an illusion of change by effectively managing the secondary characters. Maude Flanders can get killed, Apu can get married and have children, the Millhouse family can go through a divorce, etc.
Even though Bart never gets out of the 4th grade, the environment does go through change around him. On the Family Guy and Futurama, they never effectively built extended families and the shows never broke despite good word of mouth and PR.
There was nothing beyond the fact that they were both funny to keep people coming back, but the problem was they were always funny in exactly the same way.
X-Files and Sienfeld also had well developed secondary casts, and the more they played into that strength the more people tuned into the shows.
John Doe is another show that I think is good, but lacks the character interaction that The Pretender had. Both are about equal in terms of plot and acting, but John Doe lacks that something extra that kept the Pretender on for 4-5 seasons."We are living in the future, I'll tell you how I know, I read it in the paper, Fifteen years ago" - John PrineComment
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Futurama had some good secondary characters, devil bot, kif, and that commander guy, but not enough that repeated, I'll give you that."mono has crazy flow and can rhyme words that shouldn't, like Eminem"
Drake Tungsten
"get contacts, get a haircut, get better clothes, and lose some weight"
Albert SpeerComment
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On the Family Guy and Futurama, they never effectively built extended families and the shows never broke despite good word of mouth and PR.
The problem with this analysis is that the Simpsons had FOURTEEN Seasons to develop these secondary characters. I think after Season 3 you don't have any secondary 'character development'. That is exactly when Futurama and Family Guy got canned.
They were jerked around the schedule and pre-empted often leading to their cancelation. I'm sure that if they got the same chance as the Simpsons did, you'd see this rich backstory. One can easily see their popularity by the amount of ratings that Cartoon Network is getting (more people from 18-32 key demographic watch Futurama and Family Guy, which are finally on a consistant night, than they do Leno OR Letterman!!).“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
- John 13:34-35 (NRSV)Comment
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