johnnysd

Would he be believable as Jack Bauer's dad? I don't see the casting.

Bill Needle

And Carroll O'Conner portrayed and promoted a true blue conservativism on "All in the Family."

I would find shows like this a little more credible if the conservatives in them weren't written and played by some of Hollywood's biggest leftie advocates.

Bandoman

I enjoyed the show, even after the retooling and new Thursday timeslot. I would have liked to have seen the season play out.




Project much?

resinrats

I know it seems obvious but is he Kiefer Sutherland's real dad? I know the last names are the same but non-related actors could have the same last name.

Bandoman

Yes, Keifer is Donald's son IRL.

Doughboy

Anyone remember The Jackie Thomas Show starring Tom Arnold back in the early 90's? That was an initial hit that crashed and burned even faster than Commander-In-Chief. Especially when you consider how that show had Roseanne as a lead-in. It lasted half a season and wasn't brought back in the fall by ABC.

Red Dog

NBC had a number of these type of burnouts in 8:30 Thursday slot over the years. "Inside Schwartz" for example.

Groucho

I don't think those shows are the same thing. They had high ratings because of the lead-in, which quickly tapered because the show was not liked. Whereas Commander-in-Chief was genuinely popular.

Red Dog

I agree. Plus C-in-C didn't have much of a lead-in as I recall.

Chew

I was just reading in the paper yesterday that the news magazine (was it Primetime?) drew in 5.2 million viewers in the slot it took over for CiC. The previous week Commander drew 7.5 million.

Charlie Goose

How about Joanie Loves Chachi? I think that show was a big hit when it first aired, then it died quickly. It's still probably not the same because that show had known characters and was cashing in on the Happy Days audience.

So, yeah I don't know of another stand-alone show like C-i-C that rose and fell in one season.

ryuryu2949

Joanie Loves Chachi was a big hit in Japan. Probably because "chachi" means "penis" in japanese. So, many people enjoyed a show called "Joanie loves penis." I mean, who wouldn't!?!

dhmac

And anyone in America who watched the show quickly figured that Chachi was a dick without learning any words in Japanese.

riley_dude

You do know that this is the year 2006 right?

I can think of only one other instant where a show was retooled after the first season (even though it didn't need to be) and never was the same after that. The show was Mork and Mindy.

MrX

ABC announced they will burn off the rest of the episodes on Wednesdays after Lost starting May 31st

Quatermass

Neither of these diminished as rapidly as CiC, but I remember the Sammo Hung series Martial Law winning a bunch of awards and being popular when it first started. I actually liked it better when they added Arsenio Hall and Kelly Hu in the second season, but alas, it didn't make it. It was a fun show.

Also Joan of Arcadia seemed to be all the rage and a runaway hit for a while. I never watched an entire episode, but it seemed to lose popularity really fast.

DJariya

CIC is not entirely dead. ABC is thinking about a 2-hour TV movie that Rod Lurie will write, produce and direct.

http://www.thefutoncritic.com/newswire.aspx?id=7160

cornflakeguy

Thank God, I hope that happens.

I watched CiC from the beginning and while I had nitpicks here and there I really liked the show. It's a shame what happened to it, and I'm not entirely sure I do know what happened.

But the last few episodes had exactly the changes I wanted in it.

1. Less Rod, or at least, less whiney Rod.
2. Less of the youngest daughter asking dumb questions to the President (Why do we kill people who kill, mommy? You said killing was wrong)
3. The twins are less stupid. We don't watch the show to see them try to get dates or how they are treated at school.
4. More politics. More Templeton. More tension.

The next season where the Presidential campaign would have taken place would have been great television, I'm sure of it.

Alas, hopefully we'll have the 2 hour movie to wrap things up.

riley_dude

The one thing that I didnt like was Templeton and his one note character. That got old really quick.
Hope they do bring it back as a movie.

Red Dog

I thought Templeton was the best part of the show.

cornflakeguy

Well, in the beginning Templeton WAS a little bit too "black hat", just wanting to undermine Mac at every opportunity, and THAT would have gotten old.

With the retooling, Templeton was calmed down a bit, and really wants the best for the country...according to him. His ends are noble but his means sometimes aren't. So his dastardly deeds, in the end, at least were counting for something.

I did like how they worked in archery in the birthday segment.

Red Dog

The last episode was rather disappointing. The E.R.A. is such a needless piece of legislation. I can't imagine a major debate taking place today should the amendment be revived.

Legolas

Didn't Dan Ackroyd's sitcom Soul Man debut to really high ratings? It was a midseason replacement that didn't make it to the next year.

mike7162

My problem with the show (and viewing the summer eps has confirmed it) was that the show had a "done before" vibe and never offered a fresh perspective on it's premise. I don't think there was one crisis on the show that hadn't already been done on The West Wing. The show never seemed to rise above being The West Wing...but with a woman.

mikehunt

I didn't even know there were 2 episodes on after the appendix one, and I didn't realize that one was on until about 5 minutes before it started