by Daniel Erenberg
With Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse set to premiere this Friday night, it must finally be said and agreed upon that Friday is currently the best night of the week for TV. After all, NBC and Sci-Fi are airing near-perfect seasons of Friday Night Lights and Battlestar Galactica, respectfully, and FOX is working hard to create a Geek brand on Friday nights by pairing Dollhouse with Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Of course, how long are these shows for the world? Friday night has now been a historically great night for quality TV, but most of the shows I’m thinking of are long-cancelled and forgotten by everyone who doesn’t own one of those depressing “Complete Series” DVD sets that never have endings.
In the lead-up to the Dollhouse premiere, FOX has attempted to assuage fan fear of cancellation by referring to The X-Files, a similarly cult-based show which premiered successfully on Friday nights in 1993 before moving to Sundays and becoming a phenomenon. Unfortunately, 1993 was a different time in TV history, when Friday time slots were still looked upon as perfectly viable. Probably the most successful show on Fridays right now is the Jennifer Love Hewitt vehicle Ghost Whisperer, which hit a season high 9 million viewers recently. This is very big for a Friday night audience and a lot of the networks will have you believe that it is because it is a Friday night Sci-Fi/Fantasy show and geeks stay home on Friday nights because they are all sad bastards who would rather watch Battlestar than get laid. Now, while this is true of me, it’s an untrue stereotype. And the networks have given us this schtick before. Remember Firefly, the last Whedon cancellation? Remember CBS’ Threshold, that promising alien invasion series starring Carla Gugino and Peter Dinklage? Remember those non-Files Chris Carter shows, Harsh Realm, The Lone Gunmen and Millennium, all of which premiered on Fridays and were swiftly cancelled? How about Bruce Campbell’s The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. or James Cameron’s Dark Angel or Mike White’s Pasadena? The list is just endless. So why should Dollhouse be any different?
Last year, NBC placed the struggling-but-brilliant Friday Night Lights on Fridays amidst much fanfare. Remember those commercials? “Friday Night Lights is finally where it belongs. On Fridays!” Typical network spin. Do they really not think they’re dropping that show off on Friday night so it could die quietly? Joss Whedon responds to the Dollhouse appointment thusly:
“You know, I feel fine about it. I know that it has a bad reputation. But so do the executives who built the sort of Terminator/Dollhouse entity, and they’ve been very up-front about a different expectation about audience numbers and slow growth. I think that they get—in a way that they really didn’t back in the days of Firefly—that genre is … something where a small group embraces it, and then it bleeds out.”
Either Joss Whedon is seriously deluding himself or he’s terrific at spinning network bullshit even further. Maybe part of that is true. If Dollhouse gets over a 4 rating, it might be considered a success. But it probably won’t. The appointment seems even harsher after the originally announced timeslot of Mondays at 8, one of the most high-profile slots you can get. But I guess FOX thought 24 and House needed an even bigger boost. I get that it’s business, but why develop interesting shows only to watch them disappear as quickly as they were produced?
You know who has it right, yet again? Cable. AMC, HBO and Showtime throw their new shows at the screen on Sunday nights and it isn’t a coincidence that they rarely have out-and-out failures. Those young, edgy viewers in the 18-49 demographic that the networks so clearly covet are going out on Friday nights. It’s why the Firefly and, indeed, Friday Night Lights DVDs have sold so well. They don’t mind waiting. But they’re home on Sunday nights getting ready for their work week. So they’re gonna watch Mad Men and Breaking Bad and Dexter and Big Love and Flight of the Conchords. And FOX knows it. That’s why The Simpsons and Family Guy are still on Sunday nights, and that’s why The X-Files was moved there ever so long ago. So, as excited as I am about it (and it really is the only thing in my life that has any meaning right now, hence my frustration), Dollhouse will probably not be on the 2009-2010 schedule and I’m gonna have another “Complete Series” DVD on my Joss Whedon shelf to keep Firefly company.
In Memoriam:
Pasadena. Sadly, yet to get a DVD collection.
Sad, sad, sad. Any Friday-Night brilliant-but-cancelled I left out? Post your memories in the comments section. And just remember: Freaks and Geeks got fucked harder than all of these. That show was dropped off on Saturday nights. The ultimate insult.
Tags:
brilliant but cancelled
friday nights
dvd complete series
February 12, 2009 at 2:43pm ∞
