Guy-I-Vaguely-Knew-In-College Nathan Alderman wrote an article for TeeVee.com about how the television grind can take the most compelling writer and have them churning out shit like The Bedford Diaries in no time flat.
Interesting theory, but he makes one statement I have to take issue with, and since TeeVee doesn’t do comments, figured I’d do it here, since people he knows read this blog and might point it out to him so we can fight about it (emphasis mine):
In the mid-90s, [Paul Haggis] created two of my all-time favorite TV shows back to back: Due South, a surprisingly funny and poignant spin on the buddy-cop series, and EZ Streets, which I’ve written about below. Due South struggled — name me one other show that’s managed to get cancelled twice — while EZ Streets outright bombed.
JAG. NBC cancelled it after its first season ended in the spring of 1996, and then CBS resurrected it and it ran until they finally put it out of its misery in spring 2005. Had CBS not killed it, the producers would have tried to keep it going until they were solving cases of who stole the Fixodent in the VA hospital.
Granted, not twice by the same network, and over a much, much longer period of time, but there you have it: JAG was cancelled twice.
Is he (inelegantly) saying it was resurrected twice — so that in effect, it was ultimately canceled three times?
If not, you’re completely right, and can add Buffy and Family Matters (resurrected by CBS) to the list. Hopefully soon we can add Arrested Development as well!
No, you’re right. DS was resurrected once. All valid counterexamples. Actually, as far as I know, DS wasn’t *cancelled*. CBS dropped out of the partnership, but it continued in Canada.
Also, Silk Stalkings and La Femme Nikita.
Hi, Ellen! Due South was cancelled after its first season on CBS, brought back for a second season after CBS realized it had gotten better ratings than most of their new stuff, then cancelled again, only to be resurrected a few years later in an all-Canadian effort to finish the series with two 13-episode mini-seasons. In short, none of this really matters, because it’s all just silly statements about television (my writing for TeeVee included.) (=