February 15

[Zeke]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]

Well, if you followed that link I posted yesterday, you know what I'm pissed about: [i:post_uid0]Angel[/i:post_uid0] has been cancelled. This doesn't come as a great surprise. Like [i:post_uid0]Enterprise[/i:post_uid0], its ratings are low by prime-time TV standards, despite a large and dedicated fan following. So the WB, always keeping the bottom line in mind, won't be renewing it for a sixth season.


Let me just take a minute to put this in context. [i:post_uid0]Survivor[/i:post_uid0] will be renewed. [i:post_uid0]The Bachelor(ette)[/i:post_uid0] will be renewed. [i:post_uid0]Average Joe[/i:post_uid0] will be renewed. [i:post_uid0]Queer Eye For the Straight Guy[/i:post_uid0] will be renewed. [i:post_uid0]American Idol[/i:post_uid0] will be renewed. [i:post_uid0]My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance[/i:post_uid0], [i:post_uid0]WWE Smackdown[/i:post_uid0]... these will all be with us for seasons to come.


In contrast, [i:post_uid0]Angel[/i:post_uid0] is cancelled. [i:post_uid0]Firefly[/i:post_uid0] is cancelled. [i:post_uid0]Enterprise[/i:post_uid0] is dangerously close to cancellation. [i:post_uid0]Farscape[/i:post_uid0] has grudgingly been cleared for a miniseries, four episodes to tie up the brilliant plotlines and character arcs that could easily have yielded another four seasons. Nor is it only sf series that suffer: the most intelligent drama series, like [i:post_uid0]The Guardian[/i:post_uid0], are usually "on the bubble."


What is this? Do we just not care about creativity anymore? How long before the television medium isn't allowed to offer anything but fictional, staged "reality," sickeningly fake human emotion, and commercials?


Anyway, while the chances of saving [i:post_uid0]Angel[/i:post_uid0] are slim, here are what links I can provide. This petition (http://www.petitiononline.com/ai5d0162/petition.html) is growing very fast. RenewAngel.com (http://renewangel.com/) played a role in getting the series picked up for Season 5 and is sure to do all it can now. And keep an eye on Sci-Fivers (../scifivers) here at 5MV, because you can expect to see a reaction to the situation from us. Finally, before I leave this subject, here's a link to The Enterprise Project (http://www.enterpriseproject.org/), a very worthy cause and one that'll get a full writeup from me on another link day.


There's still hope for [i:post_uid0]Angel[/i:post_uid0], and the Mutant Enemy crew are going to try everything they can. But with each piece of news like this I'm more convinced that there isn't still hope for television.[/color:post_uid0]

[Derek]

[quote:post_uid0="Zeke"][color=#000000:post_uid0]

What is this? Do we just not care about creativity anymore? How long before the television medium isn't allowed to offer anything but fictional, staged "reality," sickeningly fake human emotion, and commercials?[/color:post_uid0][/quote:post_uid0]
[color=#000000:post_uid0]Not to mention these reality shows are nothing more than foul voyeurism (in contrast to that clean, wholesome voyeurism).

Actually, if TV goes this way, it'll make it easy for me. I just won't watch, and I can stop paying my cable bill.[/color:post_uid0]

[Nic Corelli]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]It sucks, very much. Still, it could have been worse... the network could have instantly cancelled the series and thrown it off the schedule, not allowing the Angel crew to make a proper series finale... US networks have done this with tons of great shows I really loved. And some shows that were truly great lasted only for about 10, 12 episodes... at least Angel had five full seasons.

[quote:post_uid0]But with each piece of news like this I'm more convinced that there isn't still hope for television.
[/quote:post_uid0]

Thankfully, great television exists outside the US... I don`t know what I would do without some brilliant British dramas and comedies that occasionally appear on TV here. They last a long time, and they don`t get squeezed out by the "reality" junk.

Thanks for the petitions links, Zeke, I`m setting a course immediately![/color:post_uid0]

[Scooter]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]As you mentioned, Zeke, the networks care about only economics. They can grind out an entire episode of [i:post_uid0]Average Joe[/i:post_uid0] for the cost of Andy Hallett's make-up. They have never, ever placed the quality of a science fiction show ahead of its cost.

I'm betting they figure (incorrectly) that any Angel merchandising and marketability is leveling off and they're congratulating themselves for getting out ahead of the curve.

Personally I'm surprised Buffy and Angel lasted as long as they did. (What's more reprehensible is the Sci Fi channel trying to get out of the business of science fiction. And to think I used to work for those Pakleds.)

I wish there were a way of mounting a campaign, not to convince the network to keep the show, but to take it away from them and give it to someone who wants it.[/color:post_uid0]

[Celeste]

[quote:post_uid0="Derek"][color=#000000:post_uid0]Actually, if TV goes this way, it'll make it easy for me. I just won't watch, and I can stop paying my cable bill.[/color:post_uid0][/quote:post_uid0]
[color=#000000:post_uid0]I already don't watch. Enterprise, and Scrubs are the only television shows on tv that I sit down and watch at prime time. I spend the rest of the hours on Discovery, History, Science channels, and food network. My television time has been cut from around 8 hours a day, to more like half an hour. If I want reality i'll go walk outside and make some vitamin D in the sunlight. Or was that A.. I really should know that for my boards o_O Anyway.. the world today disgusts me. One of these days my hails to the aliens will make it and i'll get off this planet. :P[/color:post_uid0]

[Nan]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]There's still the slight hope someone else will pick up the show. It happened with JAG, which is easily surpassed by Angel in sheer cleverness.

Also, Whedon and co. may take advantage of peripheral options like comics and novels to continue the series.

But yeah, I have only basic cable, so I don't even get Space or Discovery. I watch cartoons and news and the occasional episode of West Wing.[/color:post_uid0]

[Standback]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]I'm not a fan.. in fact, I've never had the occasion to watch more than an episode and a half of [i:post_uid0]Buffy[/i:post_uid0] when I was 13... but this still sucks.

[quote:post_uid0](What's more reprehensible is the Sci Fi channel trying to get out of the business of science fiction. And to think I used to work for those Pakleds.)[/quote:post_uid0]

Not that I've been following but... why, what're they doing? And what did you work in for them?[/color:post_uid0]

[evay]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]I would have said to petition the Sci-Fi Channel to pick up both Angel and ENT, but you're saying they're trying to get out of SF TV? That makes no sense.

At any rate, until the masses of America vote with their remotes, expect schadenfreude programming for many years to come. The ENT Project (and those working off the TripHammered Support page (http://www.triphammered.com/support.shtml)) have been drowning the advertisers in thank-you letters in an effort to pre-empt what the WB just did to Angel, but if UPN won't promote the show and B&B won't have their ocular rectilitis treated, we're going to see ENT wrap up after hitting the magical 100-episode syndication mark.

For the record, other than Buffy, if it doesn't have Trek in the title, I generally don't watch it.[/color:post_uid0]

[PointyHairedJedi]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]Yay for British TV and yay for the BBC. We still get reality TV of course (Channel 4 is definetly the worst offender). Still, it really sucks that American networks, who of course are able to have much bigger budgets for shows, are deciding that cost effectiveness should be the ultimetely deciding factor in whether a show lives or dies rather than actual quality.

Damn you, American network executives![/color:post_uid0]