My TV Enemy Strikes Again

Okay, it’s official. ABC President Steve McPherson really does live to infuriate me…

My second favorite Canadian, RT, just passed on some distressing info to me. ABC has once again pulled “The Knights of Prosperity” from the schedule.

It only had THREE episodes to go! What would have been the harm in letting them run? No, the ratings weren’t great, but it’s summer. What do you expect? And it was running against “So You Think You Can Dance.” Of course the ratings weren’t going to be good!

That leaves only one explanation. My TV enemy decided to hit me where it hurt.

And it really does hurt, considering how funny last week’s two episodes were. In the first one, the gang decided to kidnap their intern, Louis, to try and get ransom money from his rich father in order to rent the apartment next to Ray Romano. When Louis finally realizes that the guys are serious, he makes a simple request. “Could I at least be kidnapped next to a TV? ‘Project Runway’ is on.”

The second episode belonged to Ray Romano, who played a darker version of himself. First, he did a hilarious turn in a play as a heroin addict (He was trying for more serious roles.). Then, we saw him as a depressed guy who just sat in his apartment watching TV and drinking beer because he had nothing else to do. When Eugene lures him away from his apartment so the gang can steal his safe, we see Ray as a bit of a freak who hates fans and can’t deal with his own fame. If this show hadn’t failed, he would no doubt have an Emmy nomination right now.

When the episode ended, the gang did manage to steal Ray’s safe, but they had no idea how to open it, leading to a whole new story arc…

I’ve said it before and I will say it again. This failure is completely on ABC’s head. The show was on almost all of the critics’ preseason favorites lists, but instead of capitalizing on that, ABC postponed its premiere until January. Then, when it finally did premiere, it was against a BCS bowl game and then it had to take on “American Idol.” It never had a chance.

It’s things like this that make me never want to watch ABC again. I’m definitely hesitant to watch any of their new shows because just as I get into it they will either pull it; show the episodes out of order and then pull it; order 13 episodes but then cut the order to 8 while the show is working on the 9th, forcing the show to redo parts of the episodes which causes them to not make sense; or fire the executive producer of the show and replace him with someone whose style is completely the opposite, but insist the new producer do the show like the one they fired causing a big mess, but then eventually replace him with an original producer who straightens everything out and then pull it…

There is no word yet on whether ABC will show the remainder of the “Knights” episodes online. I certainly hope so, because online is better than not at all…

By the way, ABC also pulled the remaining episodes of “The Nine.” It’s true that we weren’t going to find out what happened in the bank anyway, but the 15 minutes I watched last week were some of the best 15 minutes I saw on anything all season. What would have been the harm in letting it run as well?