Brilliant But Cancelled

Aidan Quinn was a trailblazer. One need only visit the information in re: An Early Frost. All the more reason to lament the cancellation of The Book of Daniel, of which Quinn was an Executive Producer. Unaired episodes can be viewed on NBC’s website here.


There was a time when NBC championed ratings challenges, may Brandon Tartikoff rest in peace. It is the why and wherefore of Thursday Night “must see TV.” We do live in an era when it seems that people have lost any sense of doing the right the right thing creatively and otherwise. All network executives should be required to view Good Night and Good Luck.

The episode of Daniel that can currently be viewed at www.nbc.com is almost worthy of Robert Altman. If NBC were wont to give in to pressure to eliminate this fine show from their line up, why not transmit on Bravo? The allegedly righteous seem to leave Cable TV to its devices. For now.

In a related topic, the final episodes of Arrested Development aired on Friday night. It might seem that the presence of Jason Bateman would guarantee the success of a situation comedy if that’s what one would call this brilliant show. It does not. Curious that. Logo TV’s recent airings of Some of My Best Friends only confirm Bateman’s timing and subtlety as one of the best comic actors on episodic television. It is an instance where and when a good creative product need only be nurtured and given a chance.

Interesting in that the Diet Pepsi commercial’s airing during Arrested’s finale featured Jay Mohr in his Peter Dragon persona, a character from another FOX-TV’s cancelled episodic comedy, Action, yet another show not given the chance to develop an audience. The good news is that it will be released on DVD come February 21st. The prime episode features Desperate Housewives’ Richard Burgi as gay action hero actor who goes down on Jay Mohr’s character. Rich.

All three of these shows are examples of the kind of television viewing that pushes the envelope and provides real entertainment on many different levels that does not “dumb down” i.e. pander to the lowest common intelligence quotient. Good television makes the viewer laugh, cry and curious.

Trio TV had a series of shows from the past called Brilliant But Cancelled. The list of shows that might have been part of that transmission was longer than their tiny budget would have allowed. It was a well motivated effort, but now Trio itself is gone.

If creative television is presented and nurtured – ‘nurtured’ being the operative term here – viewers will respond. Neither All in the Family nor Seinfeld were ratings giants when first aired. It took foresight and a creative hand in the executive suite to allow them to manifest their destinies as good television.

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