Not all the shows I wind up enjoying end up flopping.
“West Wing” and “Buffy” both lasted seven seasons and “Madam Secretary” six. “Smallville” gave me 10 full seasons of enjoyment.
Then again, “Bay City Blues” broke my heart in 1983 when it was cancelled after just four episodes. “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” only made it through one season and “Tru Calling” made one season plus six episodes.
I was living in South Carolina in the fall of 1983 and had been covering minor league baseball for two seasons. I was excited to see Steven Bochco building on the success of “Hill Street Blues” with a baseball show. The cast was mostly unknown with the exception of Michael Nouri, hot off “Flashdance,” although a number of people in the cast went on to big TV careers and Sharon Stone became a major movie star.
I was working nights then, but I also had a VCR for the first time and I was taping shows I would otherwise have missed. I saw the first three episodes of “Bay City Blues,” but there was a thunderstorm and a power failure the night of the fourth and I didn’t get to see it.
After that fourth episode, the show was cancelled for low ratings.
It wasn’t as if it was new to me. When I was 13 years old, I had a favorite show that was cancelled after 13 episodes, less than halfway into its first season. “Glynis” starred British actress Glynis Johns as a mystery writer who also solved crimes, an idea that worked pretty well for Angela Lansbury 21 years later.
“Tru Calling” and “Studio 60” came along later, and I never saw either one of them when they were on the air.
It was Eliza Dushku that attracted me to “Tru.” She had played the rogue slayer Faith on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” and in the newer show she had the opportunity to play a heroine. In fact, she turned down the chance to do a spinoff show as Faith to play Tru Davies.
It was a unique idea. Tru worked in a morgue and dead people came briefly to life and asked for her help. She was then returned 24 hours into the past and given the chance to save them.
Maybe the biggest disappointment of all for me was “Studio 60,” which was Aaron Sorkin’s big effort after “West Wing.” in the 2006-07 season. It was an hour-long drama with comedic undertones about producing a Saturday Night Live-type show, and it was wonderful.
There was just one problem. The very same season saw the debut of a sitcom about the same subject.
“30 Rock.”
It was pretty obvious from the outset that only one would succeed, and we all know it wasn’t the one I liked.
It rarely is.
It’s not as if every show I really like fails. It has been more than 10 years since I turned on a TV at a given time and sat through a show, commercials and all. I think it was the last season of “24” with Kiefer Sutherland.
I do watch a few shows, but I do it on my time. I watched the first four seasons of “Yellowstone” basically one right after the other, and now that season five is moving along, I’ll probably watch it as a binge.
Of course, this is the last season.
Just my luck.