author_by_night: (Well Shit by author_by_night)
author_by_night ([personal profile] author_by_night) wrote2012-05-10 07:15 pm
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WTF!

I really hope this isn't true. (ETA: Apparently the site is notorious for bullshit, and it's not true as far as we know. Sorry about that.)

The struggling Peacock network is taking a new direction with its primetime lineup, and that means cleaning house. Until this week, the once-dominant network had been suspiciously mum on its plans for next season. That all changed with a giant info dump from NBC execs which included the fates of veteran sitcoms “30 Rock,” “Community” and “Parks and Recreation.”

All three critical darlings will be given abbreviated “send off” seasons followed by immediate termination. Despite receiving generally favorable reviews, NBC’s long-running Thursday comedy lineup has never garnered stellar ratings. The limited order of 13 episodes for each show must have seen like a good compromise solution for the network that has seen itself slide from first to fourth place over the last decade.

I'd heard that the seasons would be abbreviated, but not canceled.

The thing is, P&R and Community are about the only comedies that don't annoy me. I want to love Happy Endings, but... it's one of those shows that can be sheer brilliance but often just falls flat for me. (Mostly I'm sick of Penny always moping about being single, although that's less the show's fault and more that I'd like one show where a single character is like, "damn straight I'm single, and because of it I can party like it's 1999, bitches!") New Girl... eh. I feel like it wants to be The Big Bang Theory  meets Sex and the City, and even though I have never seen those shows I can assure you it's neither of them. Modern Family... eh. Raising Hope... it was stupid, then it got funny, then it got stupid again. I liked The Office for a lot longer than a lot of people, but now even I've given up on the show. So if this is true, it looks like I won't be watching any comedies this fall.

But I hope the article's wrong about these shows being cancelled. I'll especially miss Parks and Recreation. At least Mad Men has Alison Brie, I can pretend she's Annie in an alternative timeline.

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[identity profile] dotty.livejournal.com 2012-05-11 12:32 am (UTC)(link)
Image (http://s169.photobucket.com/albums/u204/wirehangers/?action=view&current=z5wn5.gif)

I will bet you one thousand billion dollars that it's true.

[identity profile] chocolatepot.livejournal.com 2012-05-11 12:41 am (UTC)(link)
I'm also hoping it's not true. The fact that these shows do exist means that NBC has the capacity to create more unique and awesome comedy programming, but all of the new shows they've tried to put into that bloc over the past few years (Whitney, Outsourced, perfect Couples - Up All Night has a foot in both camps, but is ultimately not out-there enough to break through) have fallen so far short that it really worries me. NBC is never going to be able to fill that timeslot with high-rating sitcoms, they're competing with American Idol - they might as well just keep shows that do well critically and have cult followings.

I do like Modern Family, though, and New Girl is growing on me (though yeah, it is to great extent a genderflipped BBT).
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