'Tis Lousy to Have Loved and Lost... : 2006-2007's TV Casualties Part 1

I think I'm at about the safest distance possible from last week's network television's upfronts, where ABC/NBC/FOX/CBS announce their new schedules. More importantly, however, they are there to destroy the stories that have made up my prime-time life since last September. It happens every year, and it doesn't sting any less. Sure, there's a crop of lousy shows that bit the dust, but as we all know creativity is hard to come by in Hollywood, and the combination of Neilsen ratings and the big-wigs don't make it any easier to say goodbye to some special programs.

I say safest distance because it's enough days after the bad news to not feel extreme anger and resentment toward each and every network for their misdeeds, but not too far away that I feel it's not worth even bothering talking about said shows.

I'll hopefully dedicate one blog a day and briefly dissect a show that is leaving the airwaves, why it worked, why it didn't, why it failed to return and an overall rating for its season.

I'll start with ABC, using Zap2It.com's trusty list.

BIG DAY

Synopsis: Sort of like "24" except a half-hour comedy about the one day surrounding a wedding where absolutely nothing goes right.

What Worked: What could have been gimmicky and cliched ended up being...kind of gimmicky and cliched. But it also had this infectious attitude that was optimistic even in the face of extreme pathetic mayhem. The main couple, Josh Cooke ("Four Kings") and my middle-school TV crush Marla Sokoloff ("The Practice") had a wonderful give-and-take that had a sort of realism in a way that, say, they survived off their inside jokes and mutual respect, despite their wildly different backgrounds.

The ensemble really helped with that overall groovy feeling of the show, from the rich and bickering bride's parents played by Wendie Malick ("Just Shoot Me") and Kurt Fuller ("Wayne's World") to new-age guru father of the groom Stephen Tobolowsky ("Groundhog Day"). Each found a way to overact without going into self-parody, giving the show (along with the mostly house-based setting) a very welcoming theatrical quality.

The standout, however, was the gorgeous maid-of-honor Miriam Shor (Yitzhak in "Hedwig and the Angry Inch"), who proved herself a very talented comedienne who kept her wits about her and acted as a sort of vantage point for the viewer, aghast at the shenanigans thrown around the show. Her rapport with best man and relative newcomer Stephen Rannazzisi was fresh and free from sitcom crap, and their eventual marriage to each other (based on a very extreme game of "dare") seemed a better story arc than the central marriage. I can't wait to see her again in next season's "Swingtown."

What Didn't Work: Yeah, it's those aforementioned shenanigans that ultimately wore down the viewer. It's understandable that in this type of absurd comedy, you need to stack the decks against the character, but sometimes it was just too much. When the main characters began a turf war with a neighboring wedding, the show turned into "Meatballs Part II," and that is not a good thing. The high-strung wedding planner Stephnie Weir ("Mad TV") kept everything amusing for as long as she could, and I'd be glad to watch her in another series, but the lengths Malick's character went to humiliate and dominate Weir ended up a shriek-filled mess.

The two main characters, in the second-to-last episode, decide to hell with the wedding and run off to God knows where, but end up having a change of heart and returning to the ceremony, only to have it rudely interrupted by a hysterical estranged friend of the family. That was the last episode. No actual vows were exchanged, and that bothered me to no end. In the 2006-2007 season, there were plenty of shows that allowed themselves to have a good one-season arc in case they were cancelled (as they were with "Kidnapped," "Vanished" and "Day Break," as well as returning shows "Heroes" and "Friday Night Lights") but this one screamed second season when it didn't have the right. I wouldn't have watched a second season of this anyway, despite my fondness for it. The wedding works on its own. Learn from British TV, and try for short runs.

Why Not Enough People Watched: Please. A serialized comedy about a wedding? Tough sell. They tried to pull off an original trick, but audiences aren't always savvy enough to catch something like this. Poor advertisement on ABC's watch didn't help, as the ads pretty much included all the shrieking and none of the heart the show had, along with a very telling title card that had a wedding cake blowing up.

This also continues the reign of Josh Cooke, who now joins the infamous pantheon of show killers. All three of his most recent shows on which he was a major character never made it past 12 episodes, those being "Committed" and "Four Kings," and now this. (He also appeared as a rabbi on the series finale of "King of Queens," and while that show was always ended its nine-year run that night, I'd like to think he had something to do with it.) Come, join recent additions Eric Balfour and Chyler Leigh in this corner of the TV Hall of Shame (although if Leigh's recent presence on "Grey's Anatomy" as Meredith's half-sister bodes ill for the show, she has more destructive power than the Death Star).

Overall Series: 6.5 (out of 10)

Final 2006-2007 Neilsen Rating: #116 (5.3 million viewers)

Fun Fact: Sokoloff once spoke out slightly against the chance of a second year of this show, as it would probably take place during their honeymoon and she didn't want to wear a swimsuit the entire season.