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November 19, 2005
you're ruining our fort
dear fox executives
i am writing this letter to you requesting once for all that you put our minds at ease regarding the fate of our beloved show arrested development. by now we have all heard the rumours swirling around - how the original 22 episode order has been reduced to 13 and the show has been pulled for the critical november sweeps period...and yet, there has not been a definitive announcement from the network confirming or denying the status of our aforementioned beloved show.
certainly, the prognosis does not look promising what with the order reduction and the pulling. and to what end, so that yet another episode of prison break can be aired? and yes, i get it. i understand fully that this is fox's hot new show and there certainly does appear to be a great deal of buzz around it but as near as i can figure (admittedly i've not watched an episode) this is a show about a guy with prison schematics tattooed on his body(?) who breaks into prison in an effort to save his brother who has been so wrongly accused of whatever crime...and so this dude , breaks into prison to save his brother replete with his moxy and the aforementioned tatoos and a set of piercing blue eyes through which stares intently. a lot.
and correct me if i'm wrong but there dosn't appear to be much humour in this premise...so why not in season two have this blue eyed dude break into prison to save the not so wrongly accused george sr...that could really be a nice cross-promotional type tool...and really, why give up so easily on a show like arrested development that is so loved and revered by the critics and the few...oh that's right because you are the fox network and you have a history of cancelling the few brilliant shows that land in your collective laps...and now, in case you have forgotten allow me to divulge to you shows that i have loved. shows that i have looked forward to watching. shows that you the fox network have cancelled.
1: the ben stiller show because once upon a time ben stiller really was very funny (ben, i'll never forgive you for the disappointment that was dodgeball) and when he was he had a show that ran on your esteemed network from 1992-1993 (after it had been dropped by mtv & hbo) and was so much funnier than the overwraught often bloated in living colour which you ran for 50 years - a show that featured a young jennifer lopez (who is bloated and overwraught in her own right) as a fly girl. not coincidentally stiller's show won an emmy for best variety series. but only after you had cancelled it. also. one of the writers on the ben stiller show? none other than the beloved dr. tobias funke - david cross. i smell a conspiracy.
2: get a life starring that madman chris elliot. this show ran for one season in 1990 and wow. i don't think i've ever laughed out loud at a television show the way i did at that one. i mean the premise of a thirty year old paperboy still living with his parents and the crazy hi jinks that ensued. it was simply brilliant. much like elliot's maligned yet oddly hysterical film cabin boy.
3: andy richter controls the universe - now this one i can see how maybe it got cancelled because the show was odd and intentionally bizarre but it was funny to me. and i think it really solidified in my mind that andy richter was more than just conan o'brien's chubby sidekick. also, andy appeared in the film cabin boy which starred chris elliot from get a life - number two on my list of shows that never should have been cancelled.
4. herman's head - okay, maybe not herman's head. this show was terrible in so many ways - yet it ran for three seasons. and so i use it as reference point...a show about a guy & a girl who argue inside of a another guy's head. the guys name? herman. it was all very meta & silly & this show won no awards and yet you ran 72 episodes. 72 episodes of inanity about a guy named herman. and his head.
and so here we are fox, at a crossroads - you could make the eleventh hour decision to save arrested development or let it drift quietly into the night. and maybe it makes financial sense - i understand you have stockholders and advertisers to keep happy, but seriously so much of television is crap these days. and i'm not just talking about your network here. you've given us so much in the way of groundbreaking television over the years - of course you've had a nasty habit of killing most of it off - but still.
and seriously, just because lots of people are watching something - this does not mean it's good television (ahem) desperate housewives; lost (ahem). so why not take one for the team? do the right thing here. i realize you don't know me but i am really very hard to please. i'm one of those people who finds himself incredibly humorous and don't kid yourselves - if you knew me you'd probably want to give me a television show...and i do have scads of great ideas - not that i would share them with you because you'd cancel my show as well because it too would be brilliant - winning scads of emmies (and marie claire's)
but now i'm getting off point arrested development makes me laugh out loud. and that is not an easy thing to do. and this cast together is just magical (especially gob) and there are so many things still left unresolved...and suddenly i feel as though i am begging and really, i didn't want it to come to that. i simply wanted to say that i think this is a poor decision on your part and i wish you would reconsider. but if you insist on cancelling this show i can only leave you with these words from george sr's secretary kitty. this is the last time you'll ever see these michael!
| By young_christopher | 10:16 AM