Lawyer on a self finding mission, dealing with past issues in a presumably humorous manner having occasional hallucinations of singing celebs (in this case explained through a tumor; Ally: Dancing baby anyone? Random musical hallucinations, sometimes shared by several characters?). Sounds like Ally McBeal to me (minus the lively background cast of other lawyers at least so far). He even got a quirky secretary, an old past love and the hint that they might do "meaningful" cases that are supposed to teach us something about life (compare: Ally fights for a chick's right to marry an inmate, Ally fights for the right to believe in unicorns and so on and so on). Even his father issues reminded me a lot of Ally.
It probably depends on how important they plan to make the family as opposed to his job as a lawyer.
Meanwhile Pushing Daisies: guy with strange superpowers, a girl from the dead and team of cooky side characters solve oddball crimes + impossible romance factor. I don't really see the similarities.
And, off the top of MY head,Six Million Dollar Man and Bionic Woman actually finished in the top 30 lists a couple of seasons each. So have Lost and Heroes, although both have been in a seemingly steady downward Nielsen spiral since their first season.
To the best of my knowledge, none of the other shows you rattled off did manage a top 30 season-long ranking.
Of course, Babylon 5, Xena, ST:TNG and STDS9 weren't network shows at all, they were syndicated. (Babylon 5 did get a brief reprieve on TNT, as I recall.)
Sliders: two seasons on Fox, two on Sci Fi, no top 30 finishes. Buffy, six seasons on the WB/UPN, no top 30 finishes.
X-Files, nine seasons on Fox, no top 30 finishes. But clearly a show that qualifies as a long term success. As does, I guess, Twilight Zone (in its original six-year incarnation) on CBS
Quantum Leap, four seasons, eight time periods on four different nights -- and never in the top 30. Voyage to the Bottom Of The Sea -- never a top 30 show in its four seasons.
BSG - Sci Fi.
So I would reiterate, long term network sci fi hits are very, very rare. While there is clearly an avid sci fi audience, it just doesn't seem to be a wide audience.
Actually, Lost's ratings were higher in season 2 than they were season 1. The main reason for season 3's decline was because of the timeslot change. As for Heroes, yeh its declined, but it had similar season 2 premiere numbers to its series premiere, meaning that people do watch the show, but to be honest, season 2 has sucked, so no wonder the ratings declined.
& talking of Eli Stone, I saw the Pilot and it has NO similarities to Pushing Daisies at all. Its more like Ally Mcbeal/Ugly Betty (with its quirky style). I enjoy both PD & ES.
Posts: 518 | Location: England (UK) | Registered: 11 October 2007
God i hope this review is somewhat wrong, i really have high expectations for ES, but if it's a PD clone then it will be a failure
To me it looks absolutely nothing like PD and much more like Ally McBeal but I haven't seen it yet so I'll reserve judgement. I think it will be great either way.
From the review, I'm now looking forward to it even more. Victor Garber is extremely underrated. His roles on Alias (serious), Justice (arrogant) and his guest stint on It's All Relative as the over-the-top decorator show just what a gifted versatile actor he is.
Although I was not a fan of Ally McBeal so if it truly is like that show (which I don't think), I'll probably bail.
God i hope this review is somewhat wrong, i really have high expectations for ES, but if it's a PD clone then it will be a failure
To me it looks absolutely nothing like PD and much more like Ally McBeal but I haven't seen it yet so I'll reserve judgement. I think it will be great either way.
Well, I'm not remotely interested in Eli Stone, for for Garber's sake I hope it's more like Ally McBeal than Pushing Daisies. That way he's got a shot at staying employed a while.
Well no show on UPN or the WB was going to make it to the top 30. So judging Buffy's success on the fact that it didn't really isn't fair. But, given the size and reach of the network it was on, Buffy was a successful, long-running (7 seasons) genre show on network television.
Yes, and this is an excellent point--many genre shows have not only done well but DOMINATED the venues they ran on. Star Trek Next Generation was a monster in syndication, and nobody thinks of WB without thinking of Buffy. The Six Million Dollar Man was an enormous success by any standard. And the first two Kolchak TV movies with Darren McGavin got phenomenal ratings--the series failed because it wasn't as good as the TV movies.
Most genre shows fail. Most copshows fail. Most lawyer shows fail. Most primetime soaps fail. Most reality shows fail.
They do fewer genre shows, so there are fewer genre hits--and sure, the audience is more specialized, but it's also an audience the networks are very interested in reaching, as long as it doesn't get too small to justify the budgets.
A true classic like Twilight Zone, Star Trek, Star Trek TNG, Doctor Who (the original series) will refuse to fade away, the way most Top 20 hits do after a few seasons. They make their money back many times over, because people never get tired of them.
But for that to happen, there has to be real intelligence and respect for the subject matter.
Neither of which are present on SCC, which is just an attempt to cynically exploit a bigscreen franchise that was itself a cynical exploitation of much better stories told by genuine science fiction writers.
It's not failing because it's genre. It's failing because it's BAD genre.
Yes, and this is an excellent point--many genre shows have not only done well but DOMINATED the venues they ran on.
ERGO it fits better on a smaller or niche network (isn't Smallville the second highest rated show on the CW? Or the highest scripted one) than on a mainstream network (or wanna be mainstream network) like Fox.
On the SciFi channel SCC (or Firefly) might have been a hit. On Fox it might not be. Of course the downside being that those more niche channels often don't have the money to fun the kind of special effects necessarily to create truly great scifi.
ERGO it fits better on a smaller or niche network (isn't Smallville the second highest rated show on the CW? Or the highest scripted one) than on a mainstream network (or wanna be mainstream network) like Fox.
Yeah, but FOX broke into the mainstream, in part, by running good genre shows.
SCC wouldn't work on SciFi either, because the budgets would be too high, and the audiences even smaller. And the resale value is nil. Anyway, it's a 20th Century Fox property, and they weren't going to give it to somebody else.
quote:
On the SciFi channel SCC (or Firefly) might have been a hit.
Firefly would have been canceled less abruptly on SciFi, but it couldn't have been a hit, anywhere, anytime, anyhow. And Whedon would have seen doing a show for SciFi as a humiliating demotion, anyway. In a few more years, maybe he'll be ready. But by that time, SciFi won't be interested.
Originally posted by xwiseguyx: SCC does seem to be following in the footsteps of Bionic Woman ratings wise. Next week is a rerun so I'll really be curious to see what happens in 2 weeks.
True, but not as quickly as BW.
With only the 8 episodes to air, FOX should keep it for next fall and do some minor retooling for the Fall Relaunch (.ie. get rid of the female Terminator)
You can't get rid of the female Terminator! The female Terminator is your heart! Unless you replaced her with a talking pie. . . Since they already traveled forward in time for some reason. . .
Eli Stone isn't remotely interested in you either so it's mutual.
quote:
Originally posted by pisher: Well, I'm not remotely interested in Eli Stone, for for Garber's sake I hope it's more like Ally McBeal than Pushing Daisies. That way he's got a shot at staying employed a while.
Originally posted by xwiseguyx: Eli Stone isn't remotely interested in you either so it's mutual.
quote:
Originally posted by pisher: Well, I'm not remotely interested in Eli Stone, for for Garber's sake I hope it's more like Ally McBeal than Pushing Daisies. That way he's got a shot at staying employed a while.
