BY MICHAEL GOODPASTER
(FOUR) RENO 911!
(2003-2009/87 Episodes) - I was never really all that into this show. What I watched was funny and I enjoyed the movie. It wasn’t my cup of tea, but I know people who loved the show. It would have made sense for the show to of gotten a proper send off. A strongly advertized series finale or even a made for TV movie would have been fair. Hell, they went theatric with “Miami” they could of went at it again. This is the exact situation that I fear when watching most shows. I’m afraid that I’ll invest time, emotion, and effort into following a story that doesn’t get closure. It happened with Heroes and all too many other shows.
(THREE) HEAD CASE
(2007-2009/28 Episodes) - This show snuck away without getting to season four on us. The show was simple. Alexandra Wentworth played a self indulgent celebrity therapist and barely deals with anything. It was fast pace, kind lame at times and really funny in some parts. It was harmless and I would assume a cheap production. Why they just didn’t ride it out is beyond me. The random celebrity guests, there as themselves, were pretty fun and impressive. Andy Dick, David Alan Grier, Sandra Bernhard, Macy Gray, Tom Sizemore, Jonathan Silverman, and Ralph Macchio were among many not-so-surprising B and C List type of actors. I enjoy most of them most of the time, but more times than not. They were funny here. They did manage to get Jerry Seinfeld, Jeff Goldblum, and Christopher Lloyd on the show. Dr. Goode (Wentworth) was pretty annoying at times and I found myself zoning in and out from caring about her. The guest appearances made the show levelheaded and fun.
(TWO) THE SARAH SILVERMAN PROGRAM
(2007-2010/32 Episodes) - This show would of never been cancelled if she’d of gotten all weirded out by fame and moved to Africa for a few months before shooting Season 3. I’m going to miss this show. I’ve probably only seen about 15 or 20 of the episodes so I’ll have the fun part of catching up in the near future. Sarah’s comedy is a bit rough to enjoy in large doses. It’s vulgar, over the top, and at times over the top vulgar just because. I’m normally down with that kind of stuff so this show was always a fun time. The problem is that I never knew what day or time it was on. I never knew that there was a new episode and I saw just about no promo for this at all. This show would have been great on HBO, and even retrospectively paired with “Conchords”. Why would Comedy Central cancel this when they never even seemed to of given it a full chance to begin with? Sadly, Comedy Central will probably use this time for more really old Blue Collar Comedy and Dane Cook specials.
(ONE) PARTY DOWN
(2009-2010/20 Episodes) - The ratings for this show apparently sucked. Lizzy Caplan was on Kimmel a few weeks ago and was very vocal about how little of an audience they have. Since then, the show has been cancelled. It’s a shame too. I really think this show was too good for Starz. I don’t think the network knew what it had on its hands and didn’t do much to market it. Even if it couldn’t have made an HBO or Showtime line-up (worthy of either) they could of put it on at least FX with “Always Sunny” or “Louie”. The plot was simple. It was an ensemble cast of people who are forced to work for a catering company. Some are there as they chase their dreams and some are just there to die. Adam Scott rocked the lead role and as cool as it is that he’s going to be on “Parks & Recreation” now I’d much rather see him get another shot at lead. His character was a former actor who gave up. Everyone else around him is a bit more optimistic, at various levels, about their goals. Martin Starr wanted to be a writer, Lizzy Caplan a comedienne, Ryan Hansen an actor, Ken Marino a business owner, and more. The writing, or lack thereof in some cases, was really enjoyable. I’m upset that the show is gone, but I’m confident that everyone in the cast will move on to bigger and better things. It’s just people always talk about “Arrested Development” and how it went too soon. This is another one of those situations. Ratings sucked, but in time this show is going to be a cult classic.
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