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Before reality TV and scripted shows on cable it used to be that the turn over of scripted TV shows was high and a really good show might run five seasons. Now if the actors don't all desert at once, it isn't unusual for them to run seven years, ten years, even more if they can keep finding replacement actors. So when you get out of the habit of watching it's pretty hard to get back into it when you see the same shows that didn't appeal to your personal tastes back in the schedule year after year.
When I was in high school I watched TV every night as if I would miss something important otherwise. When I got to college I quit cold turkey, didn't watch any TV in the evenings period. Found out I didn't miss it. I bought a TV set when I was deep into grad school, but by that time I was a lot more selective about what I'd turn the TV on for and what I'd watch regularly. Even now I don't really like turning the set on and off or messing up the middle of an evening of doing something else to watch something. I'd really rather watch an extra so-so show at 7:00 p.m. than wait till 7:55 to turn on the TV for a better show at 8:00. So when I was young I'd watch whole evenings of half-hour comedies to watch a couple of good ones scattered through the evening. I just can't do that anymore. I've only recorded the absolute best shows like Buffy, because I know it would be pointless for me to have a copy of anything I wouldn't take time out specifically to watch.
I know full well that Modern Family is a great show. Every time I've seen it I've enjoyed it. But the darn thing comes on in the middle of the evening and it's only a half hour. I can't get up the desire to stop everything I'm doing to go watch it.
Last night I decided to watch a couple of hours of half hour comedies to see how it went. The first, Animal Practice, seems like a combination of your average office comedy and a bunch of cute animal vids. I sort of wish it was one way or the other and not both. As is, it's a bit weak. The second, Guys with Kids (I think the name is), is your average run-of-the-mill filler sit-com. Not horrible, but not worth planning your day around. The third, Modern Family, was pretty silly last night, but so far above the first two in overall quality that it isn't hard to understand why the show wins Emmys. The fourth, The Neighbors, was the show I actually wanted to see. I was kind of hoping it would be really bad or really good. After Mork, Alf, and Third Rock from the Sun, you'd think all possible aliens-move-into-neighborhood jokes would have been told by now. And maybe they have. Actually this show seems to have more affinity with the Beverly Hillibillies which was on so long ago that all those oddballs-in-a-strange-land jokes may have faded from memory. I think the show belongs on earlier in the evening when more young kids could get a kick out of the silly parts and the surprise reveals that those viewers above thirty aren't going rave over. I'm kind of a fan of Jami Gertz, the earth mom on the show. You may remember her as Bill Paxson's tragic-comic fiancee in the movie Twister, who had a couple of the best lines of any supporting actor in the 1990's: (excuse me if I don't look up the precise quotes) "I can't talk right now... We have cows!" and "When you told me you chased tornadoes, I always thought it was a metaphor." Last night, she was uneven as was the whole pilot. She was best when acting with the alien mom (called 'Jackie-Joyner-Kersey') and not so great acting with her TV husband. In Twister, Gertz had a credible Texas/Oklahoma accent. Since the show is set in New Jersey, she used a Jersey accent in the pilot. I think she should drop it. (She's actually originally from Maine I think.) As a pilot it wasn't bad, just uneven. But again I think it would be far better for an audience younger overall than the one that likely will have just watched Modern Family.
When I was in high school I watched TV every night as if I would miss something important otherwise. When I got to college I quit cold turkey, didn't watch any TV in the evenings period. Found out I didn't miss it. I bought a TV set when I was deep into grad school, but by that time I was a lot more selective about what I'd turn the TV on for and what I'd watch regularly. Even now I don't really like turning the set on and off or messing up the middle of an evening of doing something else to watch something. I'd really rather watch an extra so-so show at 7:00 p.m. than wait till 7:55 to turn on the TV for a better show at 8:00. So when I was young I'd watch whole evenings of half-hour comedies to watch a couple of good ones scattered through the evening. I just can't do that anymore. I've only recorded the absolute best shows like Buffy, because I know it would be pointless for me to have a copy of anything I wouldn't take time out specifically to watch.
I know full well that Modern Family is a great show. Every time I've seen it I've enjoyed it. But the darn thing comes on in the middle of the evening and it's only a half hour. I can't get up the desire to stop everything I'm doing to go watch it.
Last night I decided to watch a couple of hours of half hour comedies to see how it went. The first, Animal Practice, seems like a combination of your average office comedy and a bunch of cute animal vids. I sort of wish it was one way or the other and not both. As is, it's a bit weak. The second, Guys with Kids (I think the name is), is your average run-of-the-mill filler sit-com. Not horrible, but not worth planning your day around. The third, Modern Family, was pretty silly last night, but so far above the first two in overall quality that it isn't hard to understand why the show wins Emmys. The fourth, The Neighbors, was the show I actually wanted to see. I was kind of hoping it would be really bad or really good. After Mork, Alf, and Third Rock from the Sun, you'd think all possible aliens-move-into-neighborhood jokes would have been told by now. And maybe they have. Actually this show seems to have more affinity with the Beverly Hillibillies which was on so long ago that all those oddballs-in-a-strange-land jokes may have faded from memory. I think the show belongs on earlier in the evening when more young kids could get a kick out of the silly parts and the surprise reveals that those viewers above thirty aren't going rave over. I'm kind of a fan of Jami Gertz, the earth mom on the show. You may remember her as Bill Paxson's tragic-comic fiancee in the movie Twister, who had a couple of the best lines of any supporting actor in the 1990's: (excuse me if I don't look up the precise quotes) "I can't talk right now... We have cows!" and "When you told me you chased tornadoes, I always thought it was a metaphor." Last night, she was uneven as was the whole pilot. She was best when acting with the alien mom (called 'Jackie-Joyner-Kersey') and not so great acting with her TV husband. In Twister, Gertz had a credible Texas/Oklahoma accent. Since the show is set in New Jersey, she used a Jersey accent in the pilot. I think she should drop it. (She's actually originally from Maine I think.) As a pilot it wasn't bad, just uneven. But again I think it would be far better for an audience younger overall than the one that likely will have just watched Modern Family.