From 'Alcatraz' to 'Work It' - Funeral Plans for 2011-2012's Network TV Freshman Casualties
We plan appropriate send-offs for 'Awake,' 'H8r,' 'Playboy Club' and more...
The 2011-12 network TV season officially ended last Wednesday (May 23) night, though due to scheduling we've still been getting a scattering of late finales, like "Awake" and "Cougar Town."
The TV carnage in the 2010-11 season was epic and notorious, with 44 new shows premiering and only 10 earning renewals. In honor of that epic failure rate, we paid tribute to the departed freshman class by arranging appropriate funeral plans.
It turns out that coming to bury Caesar and not praise him is actually a lot of fun, so we returned to do Funeral Plans for 2011-2012's Network TV Freshman Casualties.
We found some time to praise a couple of this season's departed offerings -- RIP, "Awake" -- but when you're looking at beloved chestnuts like "The Playboy Club" and "Work It" and "H8r" and "I Hate My Teenage Daughter," it's also OK to dance on a few graves.
Let us now look back at 2011-2012's fallen first-year heroes and villains, as we remember the laughter and the tears and the awkward cringing.
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Login or create a HitFix account Login SignupMark
May 31, 2012 at 7:45AM EST Reply to CommentOh my god, a gallery article. You guys are Nazis. Hitfix's ad-supported business model is an abomination. This would have been so much easier if it were all one humongous page. I HATE clicking on things (except for scroll bars).
dan Mark - Here's the confusing thing: I *assume* you're joking. Because this reads as a comment parodying the trolls who stopped by Alan's recent gallery. The problem is that the difference between the parody comment and the real comments is virtually nil. If you don't hone the satire a bit, people might actually think you were serious and that would be sad.
May 31, 2012 at 7:52AM EST-Daniel
velocityknown What Dan said.
May 31, 2012 at 8:03AM ESTMike Thought it was hyperbolic enough to get my point across, but if there was confusion allow me to clarify that I in no way share the irrational hatred that some seem to have for gallery articles. Apologies to any who read my post and thought otherwise.
May 31, 2012 at 8:10AM ESTdan Mike - Like I said: I *knew* it was a joke. That's why I didn't get hostile! But if you look at that comment thread on Alan's TV Anticipated gallery [As I assume you have], some folks are being lunatics without any conscious awareness that they sound crazy...
May 31, 2012 at 8:25AM EST-Daniel
Mark/Mike I know you got that it was a joke, but my clarification was addressed not just to you but also to future readers who might be a bit more on the fence as to my meaning. Also, just realized that I called myself MARK in the first post and MIKE in the second. My bad. Both posts were me.
May 31, 2012 at 9:02AM ESTMy 11 cents Dan, I don't think it helps anything to call readers 'trolls' and 'lunatics' without also acknowledging the constructive comments. While some people can come across as whiny or entitled or may overreact, there were some constructive comments as well (e.g visually impaired people have difficulty because you can't zoom on the gallery text, it takes a long time to load on a blackberry, questioning whether the gallery format helps for that particular content, etc).
May 31, 2012 at 10:36AM ESTI have no problem with galleries - some content is better that way.
Hitflix has improved since I have been reading (when Alan joined) but (like most sites) there is still room for improvement. Acknowledging the short comings and soliciting feedback can not only help the site but also gives you a bit of good will(and time) while you are working to make it better.
dan My 11 Cents - I only called the trolls and the lunatics "trolls" and "lunatics." And they were well represented. As I noted in another comment on this page, PLEASE comment specifically when there are glitches and problems and I WILL report them to our tech people. There's a HUGE difference between constructive comments/criticisms and whining about not liking to click through pages and about the unmitigated temerity of HitFix, like every single other advertising-based site on the Internet, liking page views.
May 31, 2012 at 10:46AM ESTI definitely didn't mean to imply that there wasn't a difference between constructive comments and trolls and lunatics. However, the joke comment wasn't a take-off on the constructive comments.
Seriously, bring it on with constructive criticisms. We like to improve. But "Don't do editorial galleries" or "Oh God, not another editorial gallery!" isn't productive.
-Daniel
dan My 11 Cents - And one last note of clarification: Not everybody who dislikes editorial galleries is a "troll" or a "lunatic." I don't love editorial galleries myself. The way I handle that dislike is I only click through editorial galleries if the content amuses or interests or entertains me. For the most part, we try to give value to the clicks, whether it's something like this or something more analytical like the Shows on the Bubble gallery I did earlier this month that even I'm aware was too long.
May 31, 2012 at 10:52AM EST-Daniel
bringing it on... You asked..
May 31, 2012 at 11:36AM ESTCan you add 'Season' tags to the recaps like Alan had on the old site. It's darn near impossible (by which I mean it takes more than a few clicks) to find old recaps. It would be nice to be able to search for 'Justified Season 2'
Does it still make since to have the podcast on two spots? I asked questions on one that were already answered on the other.
Are you working on the speed? This is one of the consistently slow sites.
In the search results, is is possible to just filter out the 'recaps' and not every mention of a show?
I like the poll questions but they often seem out of date. Current question "Which bubble show would you most like to see back next year?"
Can you increase the size of the comment box? it only shows about 4 lines.
Can the site handle live chats (like Bill Simmons and Tim Goodman do)- those are fun.
If so, will you and/or Alan please do a mega-chat?
-
velocityknown Anyone who complains that they have to click a button more than once to get through a photo gallery is a lunatic. You are literally just moving your fingers a little bit more. God forbid.
May 31, 2012 at 11:40AM ESTdan Bringing It On:
May 31, 2012 at 11:58AM ESTCouple responses:
*** We're always looking at the site speed.
*** The poll questions are just sheer laziness on our part.
*** Click on the "Blog Posts" tab after you search and that'll come CLOSE to filtering the recaps, though it'll also give you the occasional interview feature and whatnot. But it definitely filters out the ratings stories and various news pieces.
*** The podcast has to be in my blog -- that's where the feed to iTunes comes from -- and when Alan posts it as well, it gets more exposure. We both watch the comments on both posts, for whatever that's worth.
I can filter the other stuff along!
-Daniel
Hwat @Dan
June 2, 2012 at 10:12AM ESTYou may assume he is joinkg (and he might) but he is still right in what he rights - it is an inept webdesign, and there can only be two reasons for this: Money (more clicks and delaying the user) or incompetence. You choose.
I choose not to spend time on that (as I'm sure many others do) if that is what hitfx wants well hurray, they've succeded.
Sue_T
May 31, 2012 at 8:55AM EST Reply to CommentTo comment on the topic at hand, my only cancellation disappointment is with "Missing". This series had a decent plot that moved along with just enough action to keep me interested. I sincerely hope Ashley Judd comes back with a new TV series; I love her work. As for the rest, laters baby.........
War Chief Shake Zula
May 31, 2012 at 9:25AM EST Reply to CommentYour gallery is glitching on me. Get better software.
Bgklein I'm having the same problem. And I read that comment thread the other day thinking "who cares if it is a gallery or not". Irony....
May 31, 2012 at 9:32AM ESTdan If y'all give more details on the glitching, I can report back to our Tech Gods.
May 31, 2012 at 10:09AM EST-Daniel
War Chief Shake Zula -Sometimes won't load properly when I click "Launch Gallery"
May 31, 2012 at 10:41AM EST-Frequently fails to load or respond when I click "Next Photo"
-Sometimes vaults back and forth between pictures at random
-And if you could find some way to make it so we can see every individual tab (it'll show up like "1,2...13...13") that would be great, too
dan War Chief Shake Zula - Thank you. For additional tech info, care to tell me what browser you use? And also a major credit card number?
May 31, 2012 at 10:48AM EST-Daniel
War Chief Shake Zula Browser: Internet Explorer
May 31, 2012 at 11:00AM ESTMajor credit card: 446669 3277733 99966688 2777755 333666777 84428. For bonus points, translate it to letters using a basic "phone pad" cipher.
Bgklein
May 31, 2012 at 9:27AM EST Reply to CommentI have nothing against the galleries but ironically this one is coming with a lot of technical difficulties this morning. Which is annoying because I've waited all year for this one after last year's "The Cape" funeral made me crack up.
War Chief Shake Zula
May 31, 2012 at 9:35AM EST Reply to CommentMan Up! was number two of the mancession/men-in-trouble "comedies" to premiere on ABC. Number one was the (sadly-renewed) Last Man Standing.
dan Drat. Right you are... Off to tweak...
May 31, 2012 at 10:07AM EST-Daniel
War Chief Shake Zula
May 31, 2012 at 10:08AM EST Reply to CommentIronic that NYC 22 actually used "Back in the New York Groove" at the start of the pilot..if I recall correctly.
War Chief Shake Zula
May 31, 2012 at 10:52AM EST Reply to CommentI actually remember Unforgettable for Poppy's luscious backside in a cocktail dress.
youngjt80
May 31, 2012 at 11:42AM EST Reply to CommentGCB is not an acronym, it's an initialism. An initialism is any set of letters commonly used together, where each letter stands for a word and you pronounce each letter. For example SUV, CIA, FBI, and GCB in this case. An acronym is a set of commonly used letters that are pronounced as a word, such as LASER, NAFTA, AIDS, NATO and SCUBA.
John
May 31, 2012 at 12:11PM EST Reply to CommentKudos for the Springsteen reference. That may be my favorite song of his, and the version you reference is phenomenal.
Brubarian
May 31, 2012 at 12:31PM EST Reply to CommentAt least Cutty also played Frank's psychotic friend on "Sunny."
Dave I
May 31, 2012 at 3:28PM EST Reply to CommentI really only care about Awake in terms of this year's cancelled shows. Are you SURE it's really cancelled? Or are Awake and Terriers going to wind up on some cable channel as a double-feature? Anyway
That said, yes, last year's epitaph to The Cape was pretty poignant. Well played and thanks to BGKlein for the heads up on that one! The one for Terra was pretty funny too.
-Cheers
Dave I
May 31, 2012 at 3:34PM EST Reply to CommentDan, article idea/question . . .
Would you guys ever do a gallery for series/movies/mini-series recommendations for other series that ended too soon or ended on cliff hangers? I'd love to see a gallery including, or dedicated to, Terriers, Awake, Firefly, or even shows like Twin Peaks, or even LOST (which was not a cliff-hanger or anything, just ended with certain unresolved a/o unsatisfactorily resolved elements). It would be nice to have suggestions for similar vibe/quality shows that we might have missed to fill that same niche. You mentioned The Singing Detective in the Awake portion of your last Podcast. I'd love more suggestions for that type of show, or that might be a good match for cult classics cut short. Preferably miniseries, movies, or series that did not end on cliff-hangers or die too soon, but beggars can't be choosers.
-Cheers