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The network's lost its edge and its way
By TIM GOODMAN
San Francisco Chronicle
The season comes to an end for two Fox sitcoms tonight — Til Death and Back to You — except in the case of the latter, the end means forever. (At least on Fox.) The network has apparently decided to cancel the Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton comedy, and word is those involved with the show will try to find a home for it at CBS, which is where it probably belonged in the first place.
As for Til Death, against all odds and taste, it will likely be renewed. So you have one comedy that's not funny, patently predictable and groan-inducing, and another that looked like it was made for CBS. What has happened to Fox?
Back in October, I made suggestions on how to fix the content problems at Fox, and one of those was to make better sitcoms.
Fox could always be counted on to make something genuinely funny, a sitcom that was fearless in execution, wicked and original. But those days appear long gone, as Fox also offered up The Return of Jezebel James this season (it lasted, minus commercials, about 33 minutes).
To its credit, the network also put stock in slightly more jagged fare called Unhitched, which was billed as a Farrelly brothers sitcom but was merely shepherded, not written, by them.
A couple of the episodes were genuinely funny, trafficking in broad laughs and some smart character play. What Unhitched could have benefited from was better script management to weed out the wince-inducing moments — in a season in which viewers seemed to give up on new shows more quickly, they didn't need much of a push. New series had to really nail it, and Unhitched didn't always do that.
There's no word on whether Fox will put some faith in Unhitched and renew it for next season, but given the lackluster promotion of it and the fact that almost all of this past season was a wash for scripted fare, the series deserves a second look.
More important, at least Unhitched seemed like a Fox series — warts and all. In my October Fox failure-analysis column, one of the biggest complaints was that the daring fourth network had grown up and become staid. With success, Fox lost its edge. It forgot — or tried to move away from — its brand. No other part of the schedule proved that more than the comedies, which were sinfully boring and pedantic.
On the verge of Fox announcing its new fall schedule this week, here are a few ways the network can fix its comedy development:
• Stop trying to be CBS Lite. If you want to do that with House, fine. Nobody is going to begrudge you a little serious drama (though you were a lot more fun to watch in the days of The X-Files). But come on, Back to You? Yes, it's been canceled, but it should've never aired. Grammer and Heaton are Oldsmobiles. Worse? It was never funny. Familiar, yes — full of that annoyingly safe, multi-camera sitcom patois.
Whatever happened to truly original, searingly funny Fox comedies? Malcolm in the Middle, The Tick, Andy Richter Controls the Universe, Arrested Development? Admittedly they didn't draw 10 million or 12 million viewers per episode. NBC, on the other hand, has showed patience with sitcoms that set the standard on broadcast networks, including 30 Rock and The Office and My Name Is Earl. For years, it even stuck by Scrubs. But is the solution, in the face of your impatience, to cater to multi-camera vanilla lameness? You can't honestly watch Til Death and say, "We're proud to have this on our network." Come on.
• If you must, then by all means, embrace more animation. Look, it's not ideal. A funny comedy outside of The Simpsons, King of the Hill and Family Guy would be nice (American Dad doesn't count because, well, because it's just less of the same). Word is that Fox is going to pick up an animated series from Arrested Development creator Mitchell Hurwitz called Sit Down, Shut Up. Sight unseen, that seems like a move in the right direction (it features the voice work of AD alums Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and Henry Winkler). Fox is also said to have picked up yet another Seth McFarlane series, Cleveland, which spins off of Family Guy and is considering an animated version of The Pitts, a truly awful sitcom that aired five years ago but seemed like it would have been funnier as a cartoon. Again, why not? In this arena, you barely fail.
• Rally — and restore the audience's faith. Nobody says you're going to have the Midas touch by the fall. The Inn, a series you picked up for the fall, is yet another multi-camera sitcom. Really? You're not inspiring confidence after the most recent bombs.
And until your track record improves, you'll find us over at the other networks.
By TIM GOODMAN
San Francisco Chronicle
The season comes to an end for two Fox sitcoms tonight — Til Death and Back to You — except in the case of the latter, the end means forever. (At least on Fox.) The network has apparently decided to cancel the Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton comedy, and word is those involved with the show will try to find a home for it at CBS, which is where it probably belonged in the first place.
As for Til Death, against all odds and taste, it will likely be renewed. So you have one comedy that's not funny, patently predictable and groan-inducing, and another that looked like it was made for CBS. What has happened to Fox?
Back in October, I made suggestions on how to fix the content problems at Fox, and one of those was to make better sitcoms.
Fox could always be counted on to make something genuinely funny, a sitcom that was fearless in execution, wicked and original. But those days appear long gone, as Fox also offered up The Return of Jezebel James this season (it lasted, minus commercials, about 33 minutes).
To its credit, the network also put stock in slightly more jagged fare called Unhitched, which was billed as a Farrelly brothers sitcom but was merely shepherded, not written, by them.
A couple of the episodes were genuinely funny, trafficking in broad laughs and some smart character play. What Unhitched could have benefited from was better script management to weed out the wince-inducing moments — in a season in which viewers seemed to give up on new shows more quickly, they didn't need much of a push. New series had to really nail it, and Unhitched didn't always do that.
There's no word on whether Fox will put some faith in Unhitched and renew it for next season, but given the lackluster promotion of it and the fact that almost all of this past season was a wash for scripted fare, the series deserves a second look.
More important, at least Unhitched seemed like a Fox series — warts and all. In my October Fox failure-analysis column, one of the biggest complaints was that the daring fourth network had grown up and become staid. With success, Fox lost its edge. It forgot — or tried to move away from — its brand. No other part of the schedule proved that more than the comedies, which were sinfully boring and pedantic.
On the verge of Fox announcing its new fall schedule this week, here are a few ways the network can fix its comedy development:
• Stop trying to be CBS Lite. If you want to do that with House, fine. Nobody is going to begrudge you a little serious drama (though you were a lot more fun to watch in the days of The X-Files). But come on, Back to You? Yes, it's been canceled, but it should've never aired. Grammer and Heaton are Oldsmobiles. Worse? It was never funny. Familiar, yes — full of that annoyingly safe, multi-camera sitcom patois.
Whatever happened to truly original, searingly funny Fox comedies? Malcolm in the Middle, The Tick, Andy Richter Controls the Universe, Arrested Development? Admittedly they didn't draw 10 million or 12 million viewers per episode. NBC, on the other hand, has showed patience with sitcoms that set the standard on broadcast networks, including 30 Rock and The Office and My Name Is Earl. For years, it even stuck by Scrubs. But is the solution, in the face of your impatience, to cater to multi-camera vanilla lameness? You can't honestly watch Til Death and say, "We're proud to have this on our network." Come on.
• If you must, then by all means, embrace more animation. Look, it's not ideal. A funny comedy outside of The Simpsons, King of the Hill and Family Guy would be nice (American Dad doesn't count because, well, because it's just less of the same). Word is that Fox is going to pick up an animated series from Arrested Development creator Mitchell Hurwitz called Sit Down, Shut Up. Sight unseen, that seems like a move in the right direction (it features the voice work of AD alums Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and Henry Winkler). Fox is also said to have picked up yet another Seth McFarlane series, Cleveland, which spins off of Family Guy and is considering an animated version of The Pitts, a truly awful sitcom that aired five years ago but seemed like it would have been funnier as a cartoon. Again, why not? In this arena, you barely fail.
• Rally — and restore the audience's faith. Nobody says you're going to have the Midas touch by the fall. The Inn, a series you picked up for the fall, is yet another multi-camera sitcom. Really? You're not inspiring confidence after the most recent bombs.
And until your track record improves, you'll find us over at the other networks.
