Leno not #1.

List is a failure.

Warming Glow has such a gigantic boner for Community. I used to complain about Fox canceling Arrested Development, but the reality is that while both shows are great, they didn't generate the kind of ratings that keep them on the air.

Blame society for being too dumb to appreciate quality programs, but don't blame businesses for making business decisions. If you can't sell ads, you can't keep a show on the air, and that's that.

Of course, nowadays, if a show starts off badly, it's gone in a couple of weeks.

Compare to 1982. One show kicked off by coming in 77th out of 77 prime time shows. It crept up slowly through the season, and NBC barely renewed it. It ran 11 years, was a top-ten show for eight of those years, and one year it was the #1 ranked show. It won 28 Emmys.

There won't be another "Cheers." At least, if NBC has anything to say about it.

Maybe it's because the market they are trying to capture doesn't actually watch the show on the medium they try to display it on.

Well, I have a DVR so I watch Grimm AND the Selleckstasche.

Grimm is ok, the episodes are all the same though and the graphics for the creatures can be almost as bad as Anaconda. But I like the show.



He looks like the perfect guy to play Superman, just a few inches too short.

The only reason you need: Seinfeld went off the air over a decade ago.

TFA: "it's only become particularly noticeable in the network's awkward post-"Seinfeld"/"Friends"/"E.R"-era"

Fark, its slide has been even more recent than that. As recently as 2007, they had:


-Scrubs
-The first (and only good) season of Heroes
-The aforementioned E.R.
-The Office in its prime
-My Name is Earl
-Late Night with Conan

The TV show isn't there to entertain you, It's there to sell you soap powder and toothpaste,

I also like Grimm, the uneven airings do point to NBC foot shooting, but they are also running out of fables pretty quickly

Cubansaltyballs: Whitney Cummings sucks. She's not a good actress and her stand-up is only funny for the first 10 minutes.

She is not likeable or affable, and they try to use her sexuality in an obvious and insulting way. I can see hotter chicks getting quadruple teamed by midgets and linebackers and not have to sit through 22 minutes of bad TV filled with bad actors doing bad jokes from bad writers.

But someone has decided this show must succeed, so they are throwing everything behind it in the hopes it will help generate some inertia for her abortion of a show.

I don't particularly like her, though i think her acting is pretty decent considering its not her forte.

insertsnarkyusername: Maybe it's because the market they are trying to capture doesn't actually watch the show on the medium they try to display it on.

Who is more at fault - the viewer for not conforming, or the network for not adapting?

The irony for me is that most of the network TV watched in the Toxin home is on NBC. Community, Parks and Rec, Biggest Loser and Grimm are watched every week by my wife and/or me. Jimmy Fallon isn't even that bad. If I'm up that late I'll watch him.

/The Office really needed to end two seasons ago.

Hot like a smoking rod.
Hot like a confused dame in Philip Marlowe's office.
Hot like Marilyn Monroe's G-spot.

myinternetname: Well, I have a DVR so I watch Grimm AND the Selleckstasche.

Grimm is ok, the episodes are all the same though and the graphics for the creatures can be almost as bad as Anaconda. But I like the show.

[images.wikia.com image 382x566]

He looks like the perfect guy to play Superman, just a few inches too short.

Didn't he already? Oh, wait, that was his doppleganger Brandon Routh.

NBC has "Fear Factor," a show that people only talk about when they're discussing "donkey semen"

funny 'cause it's true

whooter: FTFA: The network should just cancel all of their Thursday night series, and replace them a three-hour block of the hot girl from the T-Mobile ad telling us about 4G speedsOrgy Wonderlands.

[media.tumblr.com image 379x214]

FTFY.

dletter: Spoon over Marin: Networks are obsolete.
We should be able to go to a website and get the shows that we want to see, commercial free and forget about all of the other drippage that is out there.
Oh, wait....

Honestly, if I wasn't such a sports fan, I'd probably ditch cable and be fine with Digital Antenna TV, and Netflix and Hulu Plus streaming plans. Rights to live events (especially the ones that are cable-only) is about the only thing I think keeping the network and "TV/cable box channel" format alive and relevant to many people.

Cable was costing me too much for too little ($100/ month with no premium channels) so I dumped it. Yes, I miss sports, but to have $1,200/year back in my pocket, I'll make some concessions. I get all my entertainment thru streaming at the moment.

I think MLB does streaming, but not your local team or some other stupid catch. I can't wait for the day when at least two of the big sports leagues offer a serious streaming package, because cable needs competition.

I thought Community was terrible, just not my humor I suppose.

I pay way too much money for cable 'net access and sports, poker and Jeopardy! Gave up network TV for dead years ago.

About #1:

I prefer product placements to commercials. They are less annoying and easier to ignore.

Madbassist1: four of the greatest shows of the past 20 years - "Seinfeld," "Friday Night Lights," "Community," and "Freaks and Geeks"

Three of his 4 choices in that sentence automatically invalidates the rest of the article.

Good? sure, but best in the last 20 yrs? The Sopranos, Deadwood, hell even Cosby might have somethin to say about that.

4 OF THE greatest shows, not THE 4 greatest shows

as someone who loves tv, i also had to walk away from cable, hulu and netflix are still going strong... but seriously what is there worth watching on tv? i flip through the rotissary of shows that are offered, and by and large they are awful, just awful.

Kanemano: I also like Grimm, the uneven airings do point to NBC foot shooting, but they are also running out of fables pretty quickly

I'm hoping that the show eventually centers around the wolf guy, since he's essentially doing everything already.

I kinda liked "Grimm", but when it disappeared off the lineup I assumed it got the mighty axe. Fortunately, "Justified" is back and I've got some other shows to catch up on.

And the only farking thing I remember about XFL is He Hate Me. So so lame.

Fiancé's ex-wife looks like Whitney, if Whitney was sporting the "in-bred" look, lacking in basic intellect and with interesting dentition. (did I say that out loud?)

Half right.

Yes, NBC has been relying way too much on crappy ideas (My Own Worst Enemy, The Cape) and retreads (Knight Rider, Bionic Woman). It seems to think that it's one hit away from having the glory years of Friends and Seinfeld back, the kind of sad thinking hair metal bands had circa 1994. Even if traditional sitcoms come back, those guys aren't.

But as opposed to what bloggers like to write: ratings still do matter, and people still watch TV. Their Thursday comedy shows are flagging at best and in the toilet at worst. I love Community, but it's very obtuse and was ranked at #115 last year. It's going to have at least three seasons, which is a miracle for a show with such low ratings. The idea that pulling a show that they gave multiple chances to is killing them is silly. Online popularity can prop up a show, but it can't carry the thing.

Their other problem is that they keep choosing stinkers with such gusto that you'd think they want to implode. Who needs good TV when you can get a lead from "My Two Dads" 20 years later? Superheroes are still cool, right? Order me The Cape, and Get that one pretty girl who dooms every show she's on! We can get Christian Slater? Order me a show were he plays two characters! Hey, has anyone plugged a Manimal reboot yet?

FeedTheCollapse: FTFA: NBC would also like me to remind you to WATCH "SMASH," THE MONDAY AFTER THE SUPER BOWL, in case you haven't seen the ads for the show every three seconds for the last two months.

No wonder Fox passed on making a Glee spin-off...NBC beat them to it.

That's another problem with TV - once a show becomes a success, then the other networks start making weak-knock offs. After Friends became a hit, half of the new fall shows were sitcoms about hip, attractive Gen Xers living and/or sleeping together.

sovietski: Fiancé's ex-wife looks like Whitney, if Whitney was sporting the "in-bred" look, lacking in basic intellect and with interesting dentition. (did I say that out loud?)

And just think, you're his second choice.

/I said that out loud.

Wait a minute! Dane Cook is getting a TV show? Who do I have to murder to prevent this travesty from occurring? (Aside from Dumb Cock himself)

dletter: Honestly, if I wasn't such a sports fan, I'd probably ditch cable and be fine with Digital Antenna TV, and Netflix and Hulu Plus streaming plans. Rights to live events (especially the ones that are cable-only) is about the only thing I think keeping the network and "TV/cable box channel" format alive and relevant to many people.

i guess it depends... i'm still living close enough to my original home state that they put most of my favorite teams games on the broadcast networks. if my team happens to be playing on monday night or thursday, i pop into the local bar. a think of nachos and a few beers is still a lot cheaper than paying for a months cable that i don't really watch