Being up against "Must See TV"'s first power hour sure didn't help, though. Thrusday was slaughter for that series. And if anything I've learned in the past, Catholic boycotts make things more popular, in general.

*obvious rant*When is one of these networks going to say "Fuck the other business models. We're going to air a guaranteed minimum of 13 episodes at the same time on the same day every week for 13 weeks, and then the show is going on a known hiatus. We'll evaluate the performance over those 13 episodes and decide if we will renew it for more episodes." I think they don't give shows a chance to get settled in any more, so a show like Cheers that placed dead last in the ratings its first season would have been canned by episode 3 in today's market, but it ran for 11 seasons once it got into a rhythm.*obvious rant*

I was in LA for Christmas and there was literally a billboard for this show on every single block. ABC must had high hopes for this show.

Wow, first time I watched a show that was gone after one episode. I tuned into Brian Bosworth's "Lawless" a few years back, but it was so bad I had to turn it off. I also remember watching Glenn Frey's "South of Sunset" once, but I think that lasted two or three episodes.

And once again, just as they did with Arrested Development, the mainstream media publishes a misleading story that implies a show is cancelled when it really hasn't been (yet). If you read the article, you should see that the order has been cut and production halted, but it hasn't been cancelled for good yet (but probably will be). It even says, "Depending on how the Parisian exploits of this season's Bachelor fare with viewers, there's a good chance ABC may decide to pull the plug on Emily for good." Yet, the headline clearly indicates it has been cancelled outright ("axed"). Ridiculous.

The Futon Critic, which is a MUCH more accurate source for these types of things reports:
http://www.thefutoncritic.com/cgi/newswire.cgi?id=7062

I remember reading in "The Book Of Lists" that a show was pulled while it was being showed. I will see if I can find it.

"South of Sunset" was cancelled after one episode, but the rest of the produced episodes were later shown on cable.

I didn't see the show, but given the typical quality of the sitcoms ABC airs, I can only assume that it was pretty dreadful.

I think ABC must actually beam their signal through some kind of rip in the time-space continuum back to 1982. That's the only way I can explain stuff like "According to Jim", "Hope and Faith", "Freddy", "George Lopez", "Rodney"... and well pretty much every sitcom ABC has put on the air for the last two decades for that matter. Whoever is in charge of greenlighting their sitcoms either A) really has bad taste, or B) thinks most Americans are drooling imbeciles.

Good, maybe Bill Lawrence will bring her back to Scrubs now. She was great on that show.

The success of shows like "American Idol" and "Dancing with the Stars" proves that this is the case. I'd say ABC is playing right to the demographic.

Rollergirl >>>> David Hogan






but, yeah, Emily's "blah blah blah" was painful to watch. I didn't even make to the first commercial break. the promos for the show were even horrible.

You're probably thinking of this:

Like Kitchen Confidential?

There was: You're in the Picture
1961 game show starring Jackie Gleason; notable in part for Gleason going on the air the next week and saying of the show: "Honesty is the best policy. We had a show last week that laid the biggest bomb! I've seen bombs in my day, but this one made the H-bomb look like a two-inch salute."

Yeah isn't that how it happens for most TV series? The lead actors go in thinking it won't last. If it does then fine, if not then it's no big deal.

Actually that happens a lot. Big time actors have some downtime, a producer waves a big check in front of them. They go in figuring it's a quick way to pick up a few house payments and the show will never make it through pilot season. It's backfired more than a few times and the crapshow will get picked up, sticking the actor with a show they'd rather not do but with a decent payday.
There are dozens of pilots made each year that never see the light of day, but those checks still get cashed.
D

I'm curious about which stars this has backfired on. Can you list some?

Daniel Stern was surprised that his show Danny made it to air a few years ago. Micheal Rappaport did a double take when the War at Home was listed on the fall schedule. Alyson Hannigon bailed quick when the trainwreck that was Jennifer Love Hewitt's sitcom came close to making it. Somehow I doubt Heather Graham is mourning her recent loss.

D

Why did ABC cancel 'Emily' after 1 show?

http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/TV/0....ap/index.html

So they spent all that money to promote a show they never believed in?

That was smart.

in that article this statement is made:

"ABC committed to the big promotional campaign before even seeing a script for the show, said ABC entertainment president Stephen McPherson..."

Why would you ever do that??? Either that is a lie, or the ad people at ABC are insane.

Either way, I don't want AD going to ABC.

cfg

Hell, I think it's crazy they commit to big expensive marketing campaigns without seeing a finished episode, let alone a script.

Q: I just heard they cancelled "Emily's Reasons Why Not" after ONE episode! Please tell me this is Heather Graham's final step toward Cinemax soft-core stardom. This needs to happen!
-- Dave Sund, Portland, Ore.



SG: I think it's inevitable at this point -- she's a terrible actress and it's only a matter of time. She's one bad business investment away from accepting a role in one of those two-word Cinemax movies where the two words don't really make sense like "Indecent Seduction" or "Sensual Restriction."

But I'm glad you brought this up, because I think the Shannon Elizabeth Corollary applies here: Any time a smoking-hot actress gets naked early in her career, and that nakedness was pretty much the only reason they became famous (like Graham as Rollergirl), then it's only a matter of time before their career goes in the tank. It's almost like there's an expiration date, like with a carton of milk. Look at Shannon Elizabeth after "American Pie" -- where could she possibly go from there? We've already seen her naked and she's a mediocre actress. What's left? Same with Denise Richards in "Wild Things," or even Rebecca DeMornay in "Risky Business." Someone like Charlize Theron can avoid this fate because she can actually act. But if you can't act? You're done. That's why Jessica Alba was so smart not to get naked in "Into the Blue" -- now she can appear in three or four more movies before everyone realizes that she's a terrible actress. And then she'll get naked and that will be that.

(Note: This isn't related to the Sharon Stone Corollary, where a decent, sexy actress whom everyone always liked jump-starts her career with a famous nude scene or graphic sex scene, and then milks another five years and some paychecks out of the subsequent hullabaloo. Just look at what happened to Halle Berry after "Swordfish" and "Monster's Ball." Let's hope this becomes a trend.)