TV

TV Shows Facing The Sharp Axe of Cancellation

Image Courtesy State Library of Queensland
Image Courtesy State Library of Queensland

Sorry, folks! These shows have been on the bubble for the last few weeks, and many of them are facing the blade of the programmer’s guillotine.

Unless things change in a dramatic fashion, I fully expect these shows to be cancelled soon. You could always try a mail-in campaign to try to get your network to save your favorite show!him

Appsolutely Critical

This charming sitcom set in the offices of a fast-growing app startup on Mars stars Emma Stone and Justin Timberlake. A quirky, romantic interstellar office comedy, it suffers from low ratings mostly by the fact that it goes up against reruns of Gilmore Girls. Fans can take heart in the fact that network executives are planning on running it on their website should it be canceled on the main network.

Stuffed and Dangerous

This colorful variety show featuring only the puppet characters from the original “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure” TV show was lauded by critics and fans alike for its snappy pace and silly jokes. However, without the presence of its original star, the peripheral characters have nothing to hang on as a centering character. The network plans to bundle the episodes and sell them online on Amazon Prime.

Camera Ready

This New York-based drama set in the offices of a fashion photographer is “50 Shades of Greyy” meets “Law and Order.” Starring Sofia Vergara and Charlie Hunnam as the most appealing characters in prime time TV, the show has suffered from poor scripts and leaked plot points. However, it has a core of fans that continue to support the telegenic stars with dedicated fan sites, online chat boards and lots of stalking arrests.

Light at the End of the Tunnel

This futuristic look at New York City in the year 2075 contemplates what life will be like when robots take over. Starring Bryan Cranston and Erin Paul, the two major stars who rocketed to the top of the nation’s consciousness in “Breaking Bad,” Light at the End of the Tunnel has had surprisingly meager ratings since it debuted after the Super Bowl earlier this year. While it has a strong following of “Breaking Bad” fans, its initial high ratings soon dwindled when viewers couldn’t follow the unfathomable plot, and there were reports in the entertainment press that the stars were considering quitting in favor of starting their own online science education show called “Blue Ice.”

Laundry Bag

Staring the former members of Jersey shore, “Laundry Bag” is the adventures of the Jersey shore gang after they move from the beaches to Los Angeles to further their entertainment careers. The kids are now in their mid-30s and find that the challenges of life on the shore are nothing compared to the slicksters, hucksters and sharks they encounter in Hollywood. This show started out with poor ratings and has continued at that pace. Still, The Situation, J-Wow and the others still have some followers. As a result, the show is expected to be available at drive-in movies in the New Jersey area soon.

Shoemaker

Starring Harrison Ford as a shoemaker in the 1940s, he repairs shoes for women whose husbands have gone off to war. He becomes romantically intertwined with one of the women after she comes to pick up her order for new heels on three pairs of dress shoes. The sappy comedy was laughed at the upfronts, and continued to be ridiculed by viewers and critics alike, although it is in no way shape or form a comedy. One critic said, “Mr. Ford plods through Shoemaker as if he is making scrambled eggs for himself in the morning while watching SportsCenter.”

Fanboy

Fan boy stars Benedict Cumberbatch as the inventor of a new type of room fan which becomes the most important consumer clients in years due to global warming. The ludicrous plot failed to gain traction and the star himself was often heard saying that he would rather dig ditches and de-tassel corn in the summer to make money than have to suffer through trying to make sense of the scripts he was given every day.

Furtive Minds

This coming-of-age story of a young newspaper reporter learning the ropes at a high school newspaper in Fargo North Dakota is the journalistic version of “Friday Night Lights.” With excellent reviews by the New York Times, Hollywood Reporter and other mainstream media, Furtive Minds looked to be the breakout star of the new TV season. However, viewers were said to find it hard to believe that Scott Baio could be reasonably expected to be a high school student, despite his youthful looks.

Clamshell

Clamshell refers to the older style of phones before the evolution of smartphones. The clamshell now represents a technophobe who is locked in the past and refuses to advance their technology and lives. Starring a pot-smoking Seth Rogen, Clamshell follows his adventures as he tries to gain employment during the economic downturn of the early 2000s. Clamshell was destined for cancellation after the episode in which Mr. Rogan used his phone as a roach clip.

Joe Ditzel

Joe Ditzel is a keynote speaker, humor writer, and really bad golfer. You can reach him via email at [email protected] as well as Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn.