Why, Fox, Why??

Arrested Development via Chris Pirillo

#1, if you're not watching Arrested Development. START NOW.

#2, see #1.

#3, if you have, in any way, the power to convince Fox, Showtime or ABC to pick it up, please do so. I'll be glad to pay, and I know there are many many other people who would like to as well.

#4, if you work at Fox, please re-evaluate your bar for what gets renewed/funded, and what doesn't. As a guideline, please use this list:

  • Dark Angel - Yes
  • Titus - No
  • Undeclared - YES
  • Action - No
  • That 80's show - No
  • Wonderfalls - No
  • Fastlane - No
  • Andy Richter Controls the Universe - No
  • Skin - No
  • Girls Club - No
  • Cracking Up - No
  • The Pitts - No
  • Firefly - YES
  • Get Real - No
  • Freakylinks - No
  • Wanda at Large - No
  • Costello - No
  • The Lone Gunmen - No
  • A Minute with Stan Hooper - No
  • Normal, Ohio - No
  • Pasadena - No
  • Harsh Realm - No
  • Keen Eddie - Yes (kind of... I liked it anyway)
  • The Street - No
  • The Embassy - No
  • Cedric the Entertainer - No
  • The Tick - YES
  • Luis - No
  • Greg the Bunny - YES

Man, look at that hit and miss list. That is so bad I can't even fathom it. Not to mention the endless littany of reality TV that they put on that is beyond unwatchable... Going back to that post earlier in the day, what do you think they're solving for? Because it's clearly not quality television or ratings.

Upvote Upvoted 0
1 response
I'm sure that there are plenty of people my age, if not older, with my IQ, if not higher, that enjoy the programming on Fox. However, I'm fairly certain that Fox doesn't care.

My theory is that Fox looked at the 2000 election, saw that people were identifying with a plain-spoken guy who hides his intellectuality (if he actually has any). They said, alright, we can identify the sweet spot. Let's program towards that. At that point, Fox decided that we were no longer an important part of their viewing audience.

I don't believe that Fox actively says, "No, that's too smart", and cuts the show, but I do believe that they give those shows (e.g. Arrested) a much shorter leash than shows with no intellectual challenge at all (The Quintuplets or That 70's Show). The fact is, the latter shows can be funny to anyone who turns them on at any point. They require no concentration and they use the same jokes and timing of a million other shows prior to them.

There was a King of the Hill where Peggy said something to Luanne with no reaction. Then she said the same thing and then rang a cowbell, and Luanne laughed. "The cowbell tells the listener that the joke is over and yes, it was funny." That's the premise behind these showes.

Arrested, on the other hand, required you to concentrate and follow the show from pretty much the beginning. There were jokes where, if you were paying attention, were hysterical. If you weren't you felt left out and stupid for not getting it. I didn't get it at the time, but there may have been a veiled reference to the people who didn't like Arrested. In the Ocean Walker episode, Rita suggests that the two characters in Maeby's movie walk across the ocean to meet each other, if it's not too deep. Maeby says, "No, that's perfect. People will wonder what just happened, but they won't want to look stupid, so they'll just say that they liked it."

Anyway, we clearly just have to say goodbye to the Fox network because they've already said goodbye to us.
— Chupathingy
Add Website URL »