Pajiba

I mean really. According to Jim? How was that even a show to begin with?

Is According to Jim still on the air?! Insipid.

I may have teared up a bit last night when I heard the news on Daisies. It's (hmm, it was) such a sweet show. Cancelling it is a bit like kicking a kitten, don't you think?

Belushi did "favours" chad. Lots and lots of favours. Mouth favours, hand favours and butt favours. But the ones that really put him over the top were the ear favours. Belushi gives magnificent ear.

Ugh. I hate television.

Belushi? Has anyone seen him recently? Talk about a walking corpse. Their makeup room must be like a scene out of Death Becomes Her.

Is According to Jim the one with the guy who made those slightly amusing ESPN commercials? He wore the Penguins jersey? Because THAT is the worst show ever. Worse than Small Wonder. But whatever, I hate television. Except for Survivor. Don't judge me.

The facts are these:

ABC programming executive Dick N. Asserton was happily on his way home after a full day of canceling unique and clever television shows to make way for banal family and reality programming, in between his busy schedule of boiling kittens and shooting puppies with a BB gun, when suddenly he was attacked by a swarm of angry bees from the nearby set of one of his recently canceled television shows. Stinging him all the way on his face and protruding parts of his body, the bees chased Mr. Asserton all the way to his home, where a letter from his doctor was waiting to inform him that he had come down with severe cases of herpesyphillaids, cancer of the brain and a terminal case of panderingtothestupidpublicslavetoratingsitis. Mr. Asserton wasted away for the next week, in severe pain, until he died, not to much of anyone's dismay. He awoke in the morgue, finding that Lee Pace touched him once to bring him back to life, only so Chi McBride could sit on his face and fart, then with another touch, he died again.

The End.

I haven't had my coffee yet. I liked Pushing Daisies. Fuck ABC in the ear.

Seth: Very terse. You must be busy.

Those pieces of shit. Pushing Daisies is probably one of the most quirky, intelligent, entertaining and adorable shows in the history of the world and story telling. I'm not hyperbolisingish either. Whoever thought up the name "Darling Mermaid Darlings" needs to be fucking given their goddamn weight in gold. Or at least have the chance to tell the story in its' entirety. I am sick to death of shit moves like this by people with shit for brains. I don't want a Pushing Daises movie. I want the fucking show to run it's fucking course. I'm sick of seeing Friends and MASH reruns (in the off season down here in Oz) getting air time when actual fucking story tellers are finding it hard to make their magic.

Fuck this. I need a drink. And I fucking need whoever TPTB in charge of television like this to fucking pull their heads out of their arses. Dick move, people. Dick move. I'm sick of decisions being made for me by people who are stupider than a flaming sack of shit.

Isn't there any way we can all start our own network and bankroll these shows? I have, like, $228 Aus in my account.

The Pajiba Channel is welcome to my earthly savings. And my signed picture of Harrison Ford if it will help. It's pretty sweet. He's Han. Kissing Leia.

Jesus Christ, what is the world coming to?

What the fuck? I didn't even know DSM was on the block. While it was mostly eye candy, it was nice and fluffy entertainment. And where will I get my Peter Krause fix?

Damn it, this is no way to start a Friday.

In world where the gold standard of sitcoms is Two and a Half Men, should we expect any less?

You see?! People mock me when I tell them that I don't watch TV - THIS IS WHY! Because they will routinely, angrily and without regard for you, FUCK YOU.

I got fucked on the whole Firefly thing. Never again. NEVER!

This morning I step in a puddle of pissy snow, split my jeans up the side on the way to work, and now I discover that my beloved piemaker has been doomed to the hell of sudden cancellation. Seriously, I thought my day couldn't get any worse. Thanks ABC, you fucking cockstains.

FUCK.

[(Pushing Daisies Cancelled) + (Dirty Sexy Money Cancelled)] / [(According to Jim Renewed)^(Grey's Anatomy Spinoff)] = There is no God.

Sad. Not Suprised, but sad. Doesn't help to blame the higher ups for cancelling smart and original programming though. As many have stated above, it's the viewing public. Being in the radio business is kind of the same in a way. We have to generally broadcast to the "LCD" (Lowest Common Denominator). This is why your Nickelback (Radio's 2 1/2 men) continue to succeed while the good indie bands suffer in obscurity. Mass media for mass consumption.

TK, We reveal our similarities again. The last net series I tried to follow was "Invasion" and I bailed on it before the plug got pulled. Haven't made a point of watching much of anything since. Don't even bother trying. I read a lot ...

Anyway, the nets remind me of my own business (newspapers), trying desperately to cling to an ever-shrinking audience by doing everything EXACTLY the same way we always have, only trying it HARDER.

My sympathies to the fans of these shows, but yeah: Smart people will almost ALWAYS be disappointed by television. Vast wasteland, indeed.

I call the Harrison Ford autograph!

OK, Pushing Daisies and Dirty Sexy Money are canceled (I can't believe either one lasted this long). So, that means when Fox moves Bones to Thursday and House to Monday midseason, my TV viewing on Tues and Wed will amount to... maybe Fringe? Better up the max DVDs I can have checked out to five or more.

I emotionally prepared myself for this. I love Pushing Daisies with a cuddly fury, and as such I'd rather have 22 perfect episodes forever than have to watch it deteriorate before my eyes like every other show I love that makes it past a second season (30 Rock notwithstanding, apparently). Still, this is massively depressing.

Can anyone tell me if they're still going to air the rest of the taped episodes this season?

Man. I think I am part of the problem here. Pushing Daisies was not my cup of tea, but I found it charming and inventive enough to understand why it should be on the air. Even though I didn't watch it regular, I think it deserves to be on the air much more than copycat "me too" crime procedurals and insipid sitcoms. And the networks wonder why people are watching cable shows, at least those networks seem more willing to let shows develop than cancel them when they don't do well in the ratings.

when i first heard the news i was disappointed. now i'm pissed. where am i going to get my magical musical moments? not from Dancing with the dumbass Stars--i've tried to watch it, but i can't make it through an episode. i will admit that the second season of Eli Stone needed more song & dance, but it is still something different, and better than Private Practice--i did make it through an entire episode of that, 2 in fact, i just didn't care.

i will buy Pushing Daisies and put it next to Dead Like Me--i'll even get Wonderfalls to finish out my collection because i love all 3 of those shows.

i can't even talk about DSM--somehow i didn't know it was on the bubble, so i wasn't prepared for my top guilty pleasure to end. frak you ABC, i'm still not going to watch The Bachelor, but since you still have Lost, Ugly Betty, DH, Brothers & Sisters and even Grey's (i know) i will still watch your stupid channel, but i won't forgive you. should i just stop watching Life on Mars right now because i kinda dig that show, but if you're just going to cancel it then i would like to know as soon as possible.

Yikes. There are some pretty vitriolic tantrums here reacting to what? A couple of cancelled TV shows? Hey, maybe if you've been good this year Santa will bring you some new shows from the same talented writers that now need jobs.

WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN DIRTY SEXY MONEY HAS BEEN GIVEN THE FOX TREATMENT??????????

I am sorry about that. It appears that I may be a smidge angry about this news.

Dear AsshatBC,

I now watch 1 show on your increasingly insipid network. I will continue to watch Brothers and Sisters and Scrubs whenever the hell you want to air it.

After those two shows, we are done. Finished. Finito.

And you big network executives wonder why the intelligent people leave you behind for cable.

Sincerely,

Me

Sorry about Pushing Daisies & Eli Stone (although I'm not surprised about the latter) but not about Dirty Sexy Money. The show was too shallow even for the subject matter and it only got worse in the second season. I didn't know it was in trouble, but I won't miss it.

Though I'm just as sad/angry as everyone else around these parts concerning Pushing Daisies, I have a theory about quirky, stylized shows like these, something I noticed with the short-lived Arrested Development. Maybe these shows work better with short runs. Arrested Development, in its final episodes, started straining a bit, and I kind of think it ended at a good time.

Maybe this is a blessing in disguise? I hope they're given the chance to end it on a satisfying note, as opposed to just making their final episode the last one they've shot so far and just call it a day. If so, then perhaps we can be glad for a real solid set of twentyish episodes that we can watch on DVD.

And continue to be glad that 30 Rock has survived long enough to garner better ratings. Hopefully that'll be around for a while longer now that people seem to be gradually realizing that everyone's collective awesomeness on that show combines into a perfect storm of AWESOME.

This is exactly why I have tried very hard for the last couple of years not to get into any new shows that are introduced. Because I know that over the last five years or so the standard MO has become this: anything *worth* getting into will be unceremoniously dumped within a season, two max, with no resolution... and replaced with brainless crap.

Eventually, when the few shows left on the air that I do watch are cancelled, I will no longer watch anything on television except for football.

So take that, network execs. This is what your "hook em and then fuck em over" attitude is eventually going to get you if you keep it up.

If viewers knew a show had half a chance of sticking around for a decent amount of time, you might find that you'd have more viewers to begin with. Gah.

Great, just so another "so you think you can act like a douchebag and get 15 mins of fame" show will come on in next spring? I wish they had at least finished the season or given warning so that the writers could wrap up the story. Network execs have absolutely no clue about their audiences. Maybe the people who watch PD are in a better mood and are at a higher tax bracket than reality show watchers, and thus can actually buy the stuff being advertised? Pushing Daisies was my favorite show of perhaps the last 10 years.

*sigh* I should have seen this coming. Stupid ABC. Thank god Pushing Daisies is on DVD.

Is Life on Mars, going to hang on? It is the only show I watch on ABC,or for that matter TV, I know it is being moved to Wed night behind Lost.

This is why I don't watch shows until I can have at least a couple of season to Netflix.

I tend to "indulge" in my tv viewing. Hence, my current obsession with Dr Who. Yes, the first season aired in 2005, so what? Now I can enjoy DAYS upon DAYS of Dr Who w/o 1. commercials and 2. the dreaded fear that if I fall in love (which I did, oh yes, Doctor, I did), my heart won't be slammed by a too-early cancellation.

This is also why I was such a late comer to Buffy, Firefly, BSG, etc. I couldn't have taken it otherwise.

Firefly still makes me weep, but at least I have them forever on dvd! I'll be in my bunk, indeed.

part of my soul died today, I guess quirky and well written dramas have no place at ABC (or tv in general) for that matter.

Can't say I'm surprised. Dismayed, esp. in the case of Pushing Daisies, a little less so for Eli Stone, I never got into Dirty Sexy Money.

It just costs so much to make a TV show, esp. an hour-long TV show that has special effects (like animation), that if a network can get even slightly higher ratings with a cheap-ass sitcom or "reality" show, most of them will kick the good show to the curb without regret and replace it with utter shit. I'm kind of surprised there's ever anything good on TV.

Agree with DarthCorleone, at least I hope he's right. TiVo and similar systems have made schedules kind of irrelevant, but the networks don't want to admit this, because advertisers pay to have their spots run during certain dayparts. And they really don't like the ad skip parts of TiVo. They pay top dollar (unbelievable amounts, really) for people to see a :30 spot during "Private Practice" when it runs, they don't care so much about the people who watch it 2 days later or even the ones watching it on the Web. I don't know as much about the numbers on Web viewers or what kind of money is made from those viewings. A media person would have to weigh in on that. Primetime viewing is still the majority of viewership by far. The only other TV shows that rival Top 10 network shows in number of viewers are sports (the major sports) and special events like the Oscars. Everything else is a pretty distant second.

The economics of TV make it difficult for a good show to last really long. The ratings are what pay the bills. We can blame the networks if we want, but they're running a business. They can't really justify keeping low-rated programs on in primetime if there are higher-rated alternatives, however suck-ass those alternatives might be.

RE a la carte cable: not gona happen anytime soon. The big companies (Disney, mostly) are against it, and the cable companies aren't really in love with the idea either. I'd like it if I didn't have to pay for the religious, shopping, Spanish and sports channels I never watch.

Lee Pace, I hardly knew ye.....

As I was territorially staking out the living room this past Wednesday at 8 pm, I noticed the dress Chuck-Anna was wearing had a golden-black sort of bee-ness about it and how do ya like that it was sort of a reference to the honey and beekeeping motif, and....oh, oh dear. That's the kind of thing I think when I watch something, while 90% of the rest of the world just wants to know if the Million Dollars is hidden inside Howie Mandel's Sorryass Soul Patch.

It was an omen of omens, the crux of the problem. It's not that I'm better than the hordes who scavenge for dollas in Meredith Viera's Granny Panties, it's that same demographic who buys the Velveeta buys the world.

There was a King of the Hill episode about this very thing.

Canceled.

I never watched any of these, which is surprising because I have a knack for LOVING shows that get canceled once I start watching.

My family actually calls me and asks, "Do you love [insert tv show here]?" And if I say I do, they will stop watching because they know that anything I like on tv will be killed off soon after I start to love it. Seriously, it's doomsday if I watch a show. If I have never watched a show (such as Two and a Half Men, According to Jim...) it will last forever.

I seem to be breaking the streak though with The Mentalist. I can't believe a show I watch is in the Top 10. Although I don't have undying love for it. It is my adoration of a show that assures its demise.

I now hate ABC with the fire of a thousand suns! Pushing Daisies is the only network show I make a point to watch. So, the bastards fuckin cancel it!
Can't have a show with a story can we? Can't have a show that is witty, charming and quirky either apparently.
It's no wonder I spend most of my tv watching time on cable channels. At least they're willing to give a show a chance to grow.
GRRRRR!!!
I want my Lee Pace and I want him now damn it!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Thanks a lot, morons at ABC. If you at least have the decency to air the rest of the taped episodes of Pushing Dasies, I might not come kill you in some creative, whimsical PD-esque wya. Maybe a pie server up the ass? Oh wait, your heads are already there.

At least there were some rumblings of this earlier so I could emotionally prepare myself. We can at at least cherish the fact that we'll never have to watch PD jump the shark and become a shadow of its former self.

Now my mission is to watch 30 Rock in primetime as much as possible so it doesn't suffer the same fate.

delurking to say, "Fuck you ABC!"

I was reading all this to my husband, and someone said there must not be a God. My husband just looked at me an remarked "either that, or He is punishing His enemies."

I think he may be on to something, because who else is kneeling by their bed in their trailers and asking God for another season on 2 and a half men? I can just see some poor fool begging God to move According to Jim from Wednesdays so as not to conflict with night church.

God muses on his cloud, "you pagans who worship the false idol of the Godtopus will be punished! What is this show about a pie maker bringing people back from the dead? Only Jesus can do that, and Lee Pace is not Jesus, sexy as he may be." (Even God thinks Lee Pace is sexy, but that should come as no surprise, since he is merely patting himself on the back for his own handy work.)

But God has to give Lee Pace some credit. It is a lot easier to buy wine from the store than it is to buy a decent pie.

Pie maker wins, we all lose.

RIP Pushing Daisies.