November11

Arrested’s Development Halted

Surprise, surprise. It was only a matter of time. We all knew it was going to happen – another great sitcom on Fox being cut back and probably cancelled – and it finally has. Fox announced that it has cut back it’s order of 22 Arrested Development episodes to just 13.

What the hell, Fox? This is so aggravating. Here you have one of the funniest shows on television and you somehow can’t sell it. It’s sad, really. But this isn’t the first time, is it?

You cancelled Futurama because you stuck it on Sunday nights at 6:00 (central). 6:00!?! That didn’t matter so much, it was the fact that it was nearly ALWAYS pre-empted by NFL football games. The show won Emmys, but you never gave it a shot in another time slot. So you cancelled it. Have you seen Adult Swim? People LOVE watching Futurama on Cartoon Network... and, if you haven’t heard, once Cartoon Network’s contract runs out, IN 2008, Comedy Central is going to run the show. Sounds like you made a great decision there.

Hmmm, what else. Oh, The Family Guy, you cancelled that, too. What’s strange is that AFTER you cancelled it and it was running in syndication (and getting quite the large fan base), you brought it BACK. On top of that, you gave the creators another show.

Do you think you have a problem with cancelling good things a bit too early? I do.

So now you’re “cutting back” on the number of episodes you ordered. That doesn’t mean that you’re cancelling the show, does it? Maybe these other facts could clue us in a bit...

• You pre-empted the show for about one month for the MLB Playoffs and World Series. And by World Series, I mean the worst rated one in the history of televised World Series.
• You just pulled Arrested Development from your entire November Sweeps schedule and will run re-runs of Prison Break instead.
• For some reason you decided to run the show at 7:00 (central) on Monday nights vs. Wife Swap, The King of Queens, Surface and 7th Heaven.

To me it sounds like you set this show up to fail, just like Futurama.

This show is great and it DOES have a good fan base...

• Arrested Development is not a guilty pleasure show. It won five Emmys in 2004 (nominated seven times), including Best Comedy Series, Directing for a Comedy Series and Casting for a Comedy Series. In 2005, it won seven Emmys (nominated 11 times).
• As of right now, Arrested Development is #20 on Amazon’s top selling DVD list. Selling more copies than Seinfeld (Season 5, 6), Family Guy (Volume 3), 24 (Season 4), Nip/Tuck, Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy. In fact, the only television series that is currently on TV that’s selling better is Lost.
• There’s many more reasons that you can read at PetitionSpot’s Save Arrested Development (#3).

I sincerely hope that you can keep this show on the air... but I’m not holding my breath.

+ original post date: November 11, 2005 09:49 AM
+ categories: Television, WTF