ourchair
Well-Known Member
Ioan Gruffudd is hot.
Cancelled Shows???
- Thread starter Victor Von Doom
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- cancelled shows tv shows
Ice
Teh Sexy Monkey Queen
So while I was at Circuit City buying How I met your Mother DVD season 1, I came across a DVD set from a show that I haven't seen in 13 years.
DINOSAURS!
Holy damn that brings me back. I used to watch this show every day. I would've never remembered this show if I didn't see the box set. Anyone else used to see this? I don't know if it was cancelled, but it only went on for 3 years, so maybe so.
DINOSAURS!
Holy damn that brings me back. I used to watch this show every day. I would've never remembered this show if I didn't see the box set. Anyone else used to see this? I don't know if it was cancelled, but it only went on for 3 years, so maybe so.
Victor Von Doom
Fist of teh Internets.
Lynx
Well-Known Member
Dinosaurs was decent. Reminds me of the good ol' days of TGIF. . .it's nice being home in the afternoon to watch a few of those shows on ABC Family
Ultimate Houde
UC's Resident Genetic Recombinator
The show ended on such a downer though. I mean, it ended with a nuclearwar with the environment, and everyone sheltered in their houses as they wait for the snowfall to end.
Which, of course, is the extinction of the dinosaurs. It depressed me to no end when I was a kid
Hibiki
Really is pretentious, no matter what she says. Do
That's hilarious! Arrested Developement should have neveer been cancelled.
compound
Well-Known Member
Are you serious?!
Somebody mentioned this to me AGES ago, and I didn't believe them. I was like, NO WAY would a network approve of an ending like that for a relatively "family-oriented" show.
EDIT: Just read the Wikipedia entry. I now realize that show didn't pull any punches, with regards to "adult themes", and maybe it was a lot smarter than I remember it to be (or gave it credit for, as a teenager).
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Ultimate Houde
UC's Resident Genetic Recombinator
It was well written, with alot of hidden themes, mainly saving the environment and whatnot.
Yeah, that was the first show I remember ending on such a horrible note.
Yeah, that was the first show I remember ending on such a horrible note.
compound
Well-Known Member
I'm curious about something. Being a perennial city boy all my life, and having gotten used to moving around a lot -- and growing up in either glass-and-steel metropolises like Hong Kong and Singapore, or "Third World" urban centers like Manila -- I have always had a long-standing fascination with the (seeming) permanence and sense of community represented by (the idealized representation of) American small-town life.
Having said that, I suspect that most US viewers don't share my interest...
Consider this:
Surface -- small-town besieged by mysterious sea creature, related to other global attacks; cancelled after one season
Invasion -- small-town prepares for possible attack by Body Snatcher-esque extra-terrestrial nasties; cancelled after one season
Jericho -- small-town deals with drama, in-fighting, petty rivalries, distrust, and mystery, in the wake of a nuclear attack on major US cities; cancelled after one season
All of them entertaining shows, in their own right.
So my question is this -- does the American viewing public hate small towns? Or just small towns where weird **** happens?
Having said that, I suspect that most US viewers don't share my interest...
Consider this:
Surface -- small-town besieged by mysterious sea creature, related to other global attacks; cancelled after one season
Invasion -- small-town prepares for possible attack by Body Snatcher-esque extra-terrestrial nasties; cancelled after one season
Jericho -- small-town deals with drama, in-fighting, petty rivalries, distrust, and mystery, in the wake of a nuclear attack on major US cities; cancelled after one season
All of them entertaining shows, in their own right.
So my question is this -- does the American viewing public hate small towns? Or just small towns where weird **** happens?
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Ultimate Houde
UC's Resident Genetic Recombinator
I come from a small town, so perhaps I can shed some light on this.
Small town people (or Townies) have a strange view of the outside world, it happens out there and doesn't affect them at all. Very rarely will a Townie choose to live elsewhere, as they tend to get stagnant and lazy, seeing as the small town provides everything for them.
Now, I felt the same way as a kid, my small town, Gloucester Mass, is a man made island, so basically, you never have to leave the island unless you want to go "Up the Line."
Don't ask me about a line, I never saw one and no one knows how this expression got started.
Going out of town was always a big deal, where you would pack a lunch, make sure your oil was changed, and you had a full tank of gas because 'We all know how much they charge for gas Up the Line.'. Which is flase, because gas is always cheaper out of town.
Anyways, the rumor mill in small towns is incredible. Within the same year, one person had overdosed on drugs, hit by a drunk driver, died jumping off a cliff into a quarry, and finally, was gay. I might add that this person is now married, with two kids, and living well away from Gloucester.
After college, I came back to GLoucester with the full intent of being one of these Townies, because quite frankly, I was knew everything about the town. This illusion quickly faded though, and I realized how backwater this town is, and how quickly the people will turn on you. Everyone knows everyone, and everyone is in on your buisness.
Now, the fasciantion of small towns in the writing aspect (My own fiction masterpiece, Blairwood, happens in a small town) is because small towns are seperated from the real world. Small towns are extremely paranoid of anything that comes from outside their town, and they tend to keep with their own. But, the people in them have fascinating backstories, and everyone will be up in everyone's buisness. The problem with a small town story though is that it will get stagnant quickly if you don't try to introduce new elements every now and then.
I hope this answered your question.
Small town people (or Townies) have a strange view of the outside world, it happens out there and doesn't affect them at all. Very rarely will a Townie choose to live elsewhere, as they tend to get stagnant and lazy, seeing as the small town provides everything for them.
Now, I felt the same way as a kid, my small town, Gloucester Mass, is a man made island, so basically, you never have to leave the island unless you want to go "Up the Line."
Don't ask me about a line, I never saw one and no one knows how this expression got started.
Going out of town was always a big deal, where you would pack a lunch, make sure your oil was changed, and you had a full tank of gas because 'We all know how much they charge for gas Up the Line.'. Which is flase, because gas is always cheaper out of town.
Anyways, the rumor mill in small towns is incredible. Within the same year, one person had overdosed on drugs, hit by a drunk driver, died jumping off a cliff into a quarry, and finally, was gay. I might add that this person is now married, with two kids, and living well away from Gloucester.
After college, I came back to GLoucester with the full intent of being one of these Townies, because quite frankly, I was knew everything about the town. This illusion quickly faded though, and I realized how backwater this town is, and how quickly the people will turn on you. Everyone knows everyone, and everyone is in on your buisness.
Now, the fasciantion of small towns in the writing aspect (My own fiction masterpiece, Blairwood, happens in a small town) is because small towns are seperated from the real world. Small towns are extremely paranoid of anything that comes from outside their town, and they tend to keep with their own. But, the people in them have fascinating backstories, and everyone will be up in everyone's buisness. The problem with a small town story though is that it will get stagnant quickly if you don't try to introduce new elements every now and then.
I hope this answered your question.
compound
Well-Known Member
It did, to an extent... But it raises two additional points:
(1) I'm a bit confused, because the power dynamics on The O.C. and Veronica Mars -- which are not set in "small towns" in the traditional sense, but are not quite city-based narratives either -- feel remarkably similar to Dawson's Creek and One Tree Hill, two shows that *are* set in small-towns and had remarkably long runs on TV. They had the same insider/outsider dynamic going, although it didn't necessarily manifest in "paranoid levels" of distrust and judgement towards outsiders, and ...
(2) The shows which *were* cancelled quickly were precisely the ones that "introduced new elements" -- an alien invasion, a conspiracy involving sea monsters, and nation-wide nuclear attacks.
So now i'm wondering if maybe they were cancelled because they were considered unsuccessful as small-town shows, or unsuccesful as sci-fi shows.
Planet-man
Well-Known Member
It's true. The episode I remember best was where they find these two furry ape/pig like guys, who are the last of their kind. Some of the dinosaurs want to eat them, but they convince them not to using the example "Imagine those grapes you're eating are the last grapes in the world. What would you do when you finsished them?........I'd just go to the store and by more grapes........No, because the store doesn't have any. Nobody has any. There are no more grapes and there never, ever will be..........That's AWFUL.......Exactly.".
At the end of the episode, the dad leaves them with his boss for a minute and the boss eats them. The dad runs back in and sees these two piles of fur lying on the desk and screams.
That scared me pretty bad.
I'm wonder if it had any lasting effects? I guess we'll never know.
Ultimate Houde
UC's Resident Genetic Recombinator
Those shows were geared towards a teenage audience. In this case, look at the show type, here a new element is some rebel kid coming to town, and what is his backstory and OMG can I sleep with him tonight. Those type of things teenagers drink up like candy, now compare this to what you wrote in your second part.
These sci fi elements were handled in a horrible, horrible way. I don't know if you watched any of these shows, but out of all of them, the only one that had some good qualities to it was Jericho, only because they focused on the people more than the strange things occuring. People can relate to people easier, than relating to sea monster conspiracy or a nuclear holocaust, because its never actually happened.
Which is a fine line in a show to traverse, the supernatural versus relatablilty
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ultimatedjf
Well-Known Member
I have the soundtrack to Dinosaurs. Always enjoyed "I'm the baby, Gotta Love me"
compound
Well-Known Member
I've seen the first six or so episodes of each show, before getting side-tracked. I have (pirated) copies of their entire run, and I do plan to get around to watching them, eventually. I didn't proactively "drop" the shows -- I guess there were just too many other things vying for my attention. But what I *did* see was not horribly executed.
So far, the main flaw for Jericho has been the slow pacing, but the Wikipedia entry suggests that it's all necessary build-up that you need to slog through, before the narrative *really* picks up, mid-way through the season. But I confess I actually found the "what's-happening-in-the-rest-of-the-world?" aspect more interesting, UNTIL they introduced the concept of a
supply war with the neighboring town
I found Invasion's treatment of the alien threat a little too ham-fisted for my liking, but I didn't necessarily think the execution was any worse off than, say, how Supernatural (which is still airing) regards paranormal events -- which is precisely what made me wonder if it was the small-town aspect that killed the show (as well as the real-world external circumstance of the plot involving a deadly hurricane, and the show premiering around the same time as Hurricane Katrina, by chance).
And I actually really, really like how the sea-monster conspiracy unfolds in Surface. You, as a viewer, get the idea that it's a national-level threat. But the show establishes the human response firmly within the scope of a community (if not an actual geographical neighborhood) banding together to protect its own, in spite of characters' inter-personal misgivings.
It's obviously a dilemma that you're familiar with, as the writer of Blairwood. Where do you draw the line, personally?
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Joe Kalicki
Well-Known Member
Smallville takes place in a small towm (duh) and has sci-fi elements. Although it does focus on characters and who they're doing more than super space aliens.
Ultimate Houde
UC's Resident Genetic Recombinator
Never watched the show myself, the concept seemed to silly for me. Sea Monster Conspiracy?
Well, in my case, I try to figure out how would a human deal with things. I realize these people have fantastic powers, but I don't them falling on that first, I want them to act like humans.
In the case of certain mysteries that I haven't fully explained yet, like Arthur's obession with Noah's mother, why Wesley hates Noah, and the reasoning behind Patrick's poor family, all of these are incredibly human reasons not mystical in anyway, but I also have some science thrown in there with some magical aspects to add some flair to the story.
I'm trying to keep it human, while added some other stuff to spice it up. I hope that makes sense.
Gideon Stargrave
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Nov 10, 2006
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- 3,395
Will and Grace.
Are you kidding?
Are you kidding?
Planet-man
Well-Known Member
He has to be, Wade. Otherwise....:sure:
