The Lamented Death of Reilly

As you can see from the above picture, no, I'm not talking about the recent death of TV personality Charles Nelson Reilly, although I hold a very small place in my heart for the reruns of "Match Game" I happen to catch every now and then after midnight on GSN.

No, I'm talking about the recent ousting of Kevin Reilly as president of NBC entertainment. While I am not prone to discussing the revolving door that is network television chief status as much as I am about the shows and ratings themselves, I felt that upon reading this news today from zap2it.com that I had to address the situation. See, I really liked Reilly. I liked what he stood for and how he handled some truly dire matters about the network. When he came on board to the network, they were already in fourth place among the Big Four, and it was his job to solve this calamity. Unlike what you'd expect anyone in his position to do (more low-end reality shows and cop dramas) he took a different route.

One of the great quotes from him came from the beginning of the 2006-2007 season upon choosing some very high-risk, expensive and esoteric shows to fill out the new schedule. He proclaimed that NBC's new policy was to create great shows first, as opposed to predestined hits. He was, in a great deal of ways, about bringing quality television to the masses, having come from helping greatly in establishing FX as a network that took chances with complex and controversial shows, and seemed a good fit with the new network. Did it succeed? Not exactly. NBC is still fourth place, and some of his shows bit the dust real hard, but he has a wonderful quality about him: tenacity.

Sure, Steve MacPherson over at ABC has also championed some truly wonderful and underrated shows, but he never had the guts to stick with them, allowing such gems as "Sons & Daughters," "Invasion" and "What About Brian?" to go the way of the dinosaurs instead of allowing them to find their audience. Reilly was different. He brought us "My Name Is Earl" and "The Office," and lauded them through some so-so ratings which still hold up to this day. He treats them like comedy royalty, and the people are slowly starting to catch on. These aren't dumb comedies, and in a lot of ways they are truly special. Same goes for "30 Rock" and the continuing support for "Scrubs," which will now enter its seventh year of very low ratings.

I appreciate him most for the "30 Rock" save, allowing it to blossom into a great and uproarious show, and believing in its potential early on. Same goes for the renewal of "Friday Night Lights," the best new show of the season and perhaps one of the greatest TV shows I've ever seen that just happened to hemmhorage ratings each week. Great shows first, ratings later.

I will always rue the day that he decided to not renew "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," but I'm slowly understanding why it just couldn't exist in this modern television climate.

The world of television grew a little bit darker today. Quality will always peek through every once in a while at the Big Four, but it's going to be a hell of a lot harder.

Fall TV Wrap-Up (just in time for Chanukkah!)

As the new title of this site suggests, I am indeed a media whore. Since I started using Comcast's DVR near the end of last summer, I have, of course, been able to watch basically a shit-ton of television. I started off with my regular shows (which completely unintentionally had a FOX bias after I counted the number of shows I truly truly watch on the Big Four), but I didn't feel satisfied. I started building an interest in more and more shows, and that took on the form of mostly new shows to the 2005-2006 season. This way, I deduced, I could get the most out of each show since I was with each and every one for the very beginning and didn't have to join in a show already in progress, which would defeat the purpose of my personal TV-watching habits. When February 2006 rolled around, I found that I had literally watched every single new damn show on the major networks (yes, even Courting Alex) and had suddenly become a connoisseur and student of what worked with the general American public and what failed to last from one season to another (or less!).

There are, of course, certain exceptions. I found myself perturbed by what was making it and, more importantly, what was not. (Sons and Daughters, I will rue your demise for years.) On the flip side, there were shows introduced last season that I decided to discontinue on my Season Pass Manager, the most notable of which would be CBS' genuine hit military show The Unit (although I did record the most recent episode as the teaser tickled my fancy).

When I moved back up to the Bay Area, and now using DirecTV's precious TiVo machine, I took it upon myself to do the very same thing with the 2006-2007 television season, this time starting with every single new show right from the get-go. This excludes the two new CW shows (Runaway, which is already cancelled, and The Game) and one FOX game show that lasted all of one episode (The Rich List).

Now that it's nearly Christmas, I thought I'd weigh in very briefly on the shows and what I think of them. This does not involve talking about which are "On the Bubble" and which are in trouble or even cancelled, but merely a ranking of each of the 26 new shows I watched this season. With the exception of allegedly four episodes of 'Til Death that I missed, I have literally watched every episode of these shows that were available on network television. (This excludes the burn-off online episodes of such shows as Kidnapped and Vanished, two shows that just happened to be about the exact same damn thing. It also excludes two very very good cable shows, the fresh TBS sitcom My Boys and the terrifying Showtime serial killer show Dexter, both of which I highly recommend.)

I will say this about the new season: there is only one show that I consider absolutely unwatchable. Luckily, it's on "ABC Hiatus." (For those not in the know, an "ABC Hiatus" almost never ever ever ends.) There are few true stand-outs, but I'm still greatly impressed.

Without any further ado. (Note the tie for first place.)

Rankings for New Shows 2006-2007

1. Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
1. Heroes
3. Day Break *
4. 30 Rock
5. Help Me Help You *
6. Friday Night Lights
7. Show Me The Money *
8. Justice *
9. Six Degrees *
10. Ugly Betty
11. Men in Trees
12. Jericho
13. Shark
14. Happy Hour *
15. Vanished *
16. Big Day
17. The Class
18. Smith *
19. Kidnapped *
20. 1 vs. 100
21. Standoff
22. Brothers and Sisters
23. 'Til Death
24. 3 Lbs. *
25. 20 Good Years *
26. The Nine *

* indicates either a cancelled show or one on "hiatus"