by Amy K. Bredemeyer
When I was a kid, I didn't understand much of why a show was canceled or renewed. I generally thought that the writers had no more stories for a specific set of characters, and that's why so many series finales were big, all-out episodes. The randomness of Michelle's amnesia on Full House comes to mind. Later, I thought that they ended shows when the characters got past the age that the show was designed to portray - like when the Saved by the Bell gang graduated from high school. That made perfect sense to me, especially because Saved by the Bell: The College Years was a completely separate show, as was Good Morning, Miss Bliss, when Zack, Screech, and Lisa were in middle school. When I got to high school, however, I started to learn (the hard way, of course), that it wasn't so much to do with the writers or the characters - it was the ratings. Somewhere around 1998 I began to "try out" new shows, as opposed to catching ones that were already established and joining the crowd. I loved a show I've written about before, which was so forgettable that nobody has ever been able to tell me what it was called... I suspect it lasted about five episodes, and was about teenagers going to high school while pursuing Olympic dreams. In 1999 I thought that Get Real was an awesome show, and I became a fan of Anne Hathaway even before The Princess Diaries. It lasted a single season. Just like last year's Better with You. A lot of shows don't last that long, though... 10-13 episodes are all they get, like Miami Medical, Sons of Tucson, and The Goode Family.
But, the time has come and the hammer is down... the majority of the 2011-2012 shows on the broadcast networks have now been renewed. We knew that the time was coming, what with the network up-fronts this coming week, but the vast majority of renewals and cancellations have already been announced, so here ya go. Hope you're not too upset! After the announcements I'll post a few thoughts.
NBC really has the boatload of cancellations. Chuck is the only show that "just ended" while they have also pulled The Playboy Club, Free Agents, Awake, Bent, Best Friends Forever, The Firm, Harry's Law, Prime Suspect, and Are You There, Chelsea?. If you haven't heard of some of them, you're not alone. Many are blaming poor marketing and bad timeslot placement for several of these shows failing, particularly Bent.
From ABC, many of these were already known, but they've canceled Charlie's Angels, Man Up, Pan Am, Work It, Missing, GCB, and The River. Desperate Housewives has ended as well.
FOX has canceled Allen Gregory, Terra Nova, Breaking In, Alcatraz, I Hate My Teenage Daughter, and The Finder. They've also pulled the plug on House. They have not yet announced the futures for Napoleon Dynamite or Bob's Burgers.
CBS is holding onto the announcements for seven of their shows (including both CSI spin-offs and Two and a Half Men), so stay tuned for more on those, but they've actually canceled A Gifted Man and How to be a Gentleman.
If you care about the CW, they've canceled The Secret Circle and Ringer, and One Tree Hill is also finally ending. An announcement is pending for The LA Complex.
Now, onto the renewals!
On NBC, you'll see more of 30 Rock, Whitney, Up All Night, Smash, The Office, Grimm, Community, Parenthood, Parks & Recreation, and Law and Order: SVU.
ABC will bring you more Modern Family, The Middle, Suburgatory, Once Upon a Time, Last Man Standing, Grey's Anatomy, Castle, Body of Proof, Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23, Happy Endings, Private Practice, Revenge, and Scandal. Cougar Town has not been canceled, but you'll have to have TBS to watch new episodes next season.
FOX has decided to renew Bones, Glee, Fringe, New Girl, Raising Hope, Touch, American Dad, The Cleveland Show, Family Guy, and The Simpsons.
Over on CBS, look forward to more NCIS, NCIS: LA, CSI, How I Met Your Mother, 2 Broke Girls, Mike & Molly, The Big Bang Theory, Criminal Minds, Person of Interest, Hawaii Five-0, Blue Bloods, The Good Wife, and The Mentalist.
And, if you're a CW person, have fun with additonal 90210, Gossip Girl, Hart of Dixie, Nikita, Supernatural, and The Vampire Diaries.
Now, some thoughts...
None of the announced cancellations truly upset me this year. Perhaps if ABC would have officially canceled Pan Am a few months ago I would have cared more, but I've made my peace with it by this point. I'm a tad bummed that Terra Nova won't see the light of day again, but I didn't think it would get renewed so I wasn't crossing my fingers there. Alcatraz's cancellation does bum me out a bit, and I was hoping for an eleventh-hour renewal, but I can handle it going away, too. I'm downright thrilled that GCB is off the air and I'll wave goodbye as House finishes up in a few weeks. I do think that Bent deserved more of a chance, but it's too late now, anyway. I hope you're able to make your peace with the future of your favorite show (and hang in there, folks banking on one of the remaining few to be saved!), but we're going to have a lot to look forward to with the rest of the new pick-ups coming this week!
