As many of the people who know me know, I hold a pretty large grudge against both Fox and the WB for consistently axing good shows, Firefly, Angel, Buffy, and almost Arrested Development, and keeping old crap or putting up even worse new crap. I like Smallville, but I really have to make myself watch it now. I have a vengeful nature, not nice, but it is there none-the-less. Every time I see Charmed or a commercial for Charmed, I mutter some choice words under my breath, or out loud on a bad day, because the WB cancelled Angel, which was its only show to GAIN viewers last year and kept the offal that Charmed has become (frankly it was before too). Deep Breaths. Ok. On Whedonesque today, there was a link to this article, originally from the San Francisco Chronicle, and hosted at SFGate. In “Hey, Fox boss: Take your network back”, Tim Goodman, critic, takes on the poor decisions that Gail Berman, entertainment president of Fox, has made recently. Here is my favorite bit:
[In relation to the truly awful reality shows (aren’t they all crap?)] You are presiding over a network that spews crap into the culture.
[It ends with] Rise up, Gail. Take it back. Then take another swing at the scripted stuff. Better to do “Arrested Development,” “Wonderfalls,” “Buffy” and so on than to be the person who dreamed up “Who’s Your Daddy.”
I can’t help but feel that the dip Fox (and the WB) have been experiencing are their just deserts. Hey, I already explained that I was vengeful. I know that the vast majority of the American people like to watch insipid reality shows about anything that is crap, but many of us want smarter tv. We want good dialog. We want intelligent characters. We want great camera shots and editing. Dammit I want Joss Whedon back! Hell, I have to wait until September.
–Jane, mourns the loss of watchable tv