Tuesday, October 4, 2011

And the annual chopping block has commenced...

Less than a month into the new television season and we already have our first victim - MSNBC.com announced today that after only three episodes, NBC's "The Playboy Club" has been cancelled. I never saw an episode so I can't say from experience, but I had no interest in watching that show. It, like "Pan Am," were obviously jumping onto the "Mad Men" bandwagon and trying to recreate the magic of that amazing show, but I would guess both will fail - first, because you don't have as much freedom with storylines on the major networks as you do on the cable networks; second, because there is an air of authenticity that surrounds the stories and characters of "Mad Men" that is missing in "Pan Am" at least (like I said, never saw "The Playboy Club") and third, because nothing that ever tries to mimic the magic of having the write actors, writers, network, producers, et al at the right time (and this goes for books and movies as well) always fails. The point is, I'm not surprised by "Playboy Club"'s demise, and even though I watch "Pan Am," it's really just too idealistic and glossy...it has potential but just doesn't deliver.

At least in this case, it seems NBC has axed a show that deserves it - sometimes, in the interest of ratings and money over allowing an excellent, quality show that gets off to a slow start the room and time to grow and build an audience, you lose a Great Show that Coulda Been - see Firefly or Wonderfalls, just to name two off the top of my head. So let's hope that the next few weeks, which will surely see more shows fall, sees the right shows fall.

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