Cool News
The Facts Are These: Stephen McPherson Finally Out At ABC!!
I am – Hercules!!
Fans of the shittiest dramedies on network TV are tonight mourning the departure of ABC Studios/ABC Entertainment chief Stephen McPherson, who is leaving his roles after overseeing the creation of endless horrible “Desperate Housewives” and “Lost” homages.
If memory serves, McPherson was promoted about ten minutes after Lloyd Braun, the ABC exec who greenlit “Lost,” was fired.
ABC Family head Paul Lee is in talks about taking over the network’s entertainment efforts, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
As James Hibberd points out, ABC was tied last season for last place with NBC among the Big Four. “Modern Family” proved a big winner, but the horrible and low-rated “V” was the only freshman ABC hourlong last season to garner a second season (if only a midseason order).
ABC dramedy hits “Housewives,” “Brothers & Sisters,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Private Practice” all saw massive drops in audience last season.
McPherson is the fellow who cancelled "Pushing Daisies" and brought "Scrubs" over from NBC.
Shows greenlit uduring McPherson’s tenure as ABC entertainment chief include “Ugly Betty,” “Brothers & Sisters,” "Grey's Anatomy," “Private Practice,” “Big Shots,” “Castle,” “Dirty Sexy Money,” "Eli Stone," “Samantha Who?” “Miss/Guided,” “Cavemen,” “Carpoolers,” “Freddy,” “Big Day,” “Hot Properties,” “Crumbs,” “Hank,” “The Middle,” “Cougar Town,” "Surviving Suburbia," "In The Motherhood," “Help Me Help You,” “In Case of Emergency,” “In Justice,” “Six Degrees,” “The Forgotten,” “Invasion,” “Night Stalker,” “Day Break,” “Eastwick,” “FlashForward,” “Defying Gravity,” “V,” “The Nine,” “Miracle Workers,” “What About Brian,” “The Evidence,” "The Unusuals," "Opportunity Knocks," “The Deep End,” “American Inventor,” "True Beauty," "“How To Get The Guy,” “One Ocean View,” “Men in Trees,” “The Great American Dream Vote,” “The Ex-Wives Club,” “Women’s Murder Club,” “The Next Best Thing,” "True Beauty," “High School Musical: Get In The Picture,” “Wanna Bet?” “Traveller,” “Oprah’s Big Give,” “Dance Machine,” “Here Come The Newlyweds,” “Fat March,” “Shark Tank,” “Dance War,” “True Beauty,” “Just For Laughs,” “Fast Cars & Superstars,” “National Bingo Night,” “Set For Life,” “Shaq’s Big Challenge,” “I Survived A Japanese Game Show,” “I-Caught,” “Scoundrels,” “The Gates,” “October Road,” “Life On Mars” and “Happy Town.”
He also greenlit “Wipeout,” "Sons & Daughters" “Modern Family,” and “Better Off Ted.”
I can’t say I watch at lot of ABC Family, but I'm hopeful Lee moves ABC in ANY OTHER DIRECTION. Like maybe hiring creative, talented people as showrunners and sticking with them.
Find all of Hibberd’s story on the matter here.
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There's not much on this planet funnier than that.
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and the music rights and all that other legal bullshit have been solved, I will be a happy man.
Truly one of the greatest and funniest shows ever made. -
if you're buying them singly at the moment, are a real piss poor showing. Just the episodes, no commentaries or anything. And a 10 minute sort-of-new feature on a single monster.
You might want to save your hard earned cash, and buy the season box set. With 6 disks, they probably have a ton more extras that they held back, for some shitty BBC reason. -
Atmojump FTW!
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About frigging time!
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Whenever they get around the new spin off, more elements like the aforementioned, please.
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I can't seem to find anything, anywhere.
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before the show that spawned it, SixMillion Dollar man. how about both?
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You mention the Venture Bros in the talkback title, I expect at least a cover blurb. WTF? Brock would not be pleased.
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Waiting until the DVD release of season 4.0?
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The complete series is coming, but I heard it's only going to be available from Time/Life Video.
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Jul 27, 2010 11:50:56 PM CDT
Herc's thin pretense of relative neutrality officially ends
by robram89
And I say good riddance! ABC without Lost is a vast wasteland.
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It's like at ABC they think the only people that watch tv are middle age women and gays.
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God I hope so.
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I don't know... I watch Castle and Cougar Town, while others really liked Lost and Modern Family. (And No Ordinary Family looks like decent cheesy fun) 4 watchable shows is not bad for present-day network television.
But I'm all for fewer Grey's Anatomy-style shows on my television.
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I highly doubt it... women are a desired marketing demographic, and apparently all it takes to get a huge number of them to watch a show is some sort of absurd will-they-or-won't-they romantic tension between two of the leads.
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Mr. McPhee developed Lost (and Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy, among others) while he was in charge of Touchstone TV, now ABC Studios. He was brought over to the network side of things BECAUSE of his championing of those shows. He didn't merely inherit someone else's slate: he gave the guy that slate to begin with. (and this is coming from someone who is not a fan of the bi-polar gasbag, but I do believe in giving credit where credit is due.)
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IT'S NEVER TOO LATE!!!
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That's a win in my book.
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why is this guy so bad again? most of those shows suck but it's network tv. most of every show on all big three networks suck.that's just life. some new bozo from abc family aint gonna turn the network into hbo suddenly dude.
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Was vodka involved?
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Disappointed I had to say it first.
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According to the book DisneyWar, he hated the pilot script so much that he had to be removed from meetings involving the show. Then of course it became a massive hit and he looked like a genius. Although I do credit him for the relatively groundbreaking decision to end the show while it was still (sort of) strong. The decision seems obvious now but I'm sure other suits would have kept the show alive until there wasn't a drop of blood left.
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Oh how I miss my Friel and Chenowith with Jim Dale's narration.
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... in fact, it is the best sci-fi series on standard television right now (unless T:SCC comes back)
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when I remember to watch it
Made it through a half episode of The Gates
Was disapointed by Modern Family
Can't stand the V remake and found Invasion boring -
at least quality-wise. Castle, Dirty Sexy Money (first season, anyway), Day Break, Life on Mars, Pushing Daisies, Better off Ted, Eli Stone. All shows I watched, and I'm sure some of those I didn't/don't watch were/are also quite good.
Paul Lee, on the other hand, seems like an asshat. He reportedly renewed 'Lincoln Heights' and then decided that, nope, they wouldn't get a fifth season after all. Dick move. 'Kyle XY' was also cancelled when its ratings were still halfway decent, as I recall. At least McPherson's cancellations were understandable, ratingswise. Oh, and I did not have the same attachment to any of the cancelled-after-one-season ABC shows as I did for 'The Middleman,' so I'm still pissed at whoever was responsible for not renewing it (and not even giving it a proper finale). -
Jul 28, 2010 2:01:48 AM CDT
I've found the solution to the awful state of TV:
by anything but tangerines
Rip your fucking cable box out of the wall and replace it with a PS3. Did you know that your television is merely a monitor with the ability to display myriad forms of video input. Unbelievable that people still watch TV...
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Jul 28, 2010 2:17:25 AM CDT
Well, you can't blame him for cancelling Pushing Daisies.
by redegiraahgnal
It seemed to be a pretty expensive show and wasn't a real ratings smash. Yes, it was a quality show, but a business is a business.
Also everybody who knows good television (= not Herc) should be thankful for getting Scrubs and let the show finish like it was supposed to be, after the writer's strike screwed it over big time. (Don't know who's idea it was to announce the spin-off just as new season.) -
You know, the show that got three Emmy nominations?
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greenlit?
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Really?
It's hard to see how Flashforward would qualify, let alone win, unless they start handing out Emmys for shittiest writing, stupidest plot, and least credible character development.
Also, i don't see how McPherson can take credit for ending Lost. AFAIK, that was Lindelhof and Cuse's decision, not ABC's. -
Just air those final two episodes, please. Come on.
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"His phone wasn't even plugged in."
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Guess I haven't read any rating stories in awhile, or maybe this story just doesn't get reported like it used to in this day and age of hulu and cable.
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Jul 28, 2010 4:04:03 AM CDT
Didn't Pushing Daisies get screwed by the writers strike?
by bass ackwards
I think I remember it actually did decent ratings, but then the writers strike came about and it never quite regained it's footing (ratings wise) after that resolved.
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The Middleman finale is in graphic novel form. Also, you can see the girl who played Lacy this season on True Blood.
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A few years down the road, guessing most people will come around to realize Betty was better than it got credit for. It was a mostly subversive, yet still family-friendy soap opera. We never really saw anything like it before and I doubt we will again for a long time.
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You just made my day. Thank you.
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...the day Lloyd Braun was canned.
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Hey, I liked Daisies, and Ted, too, but the fact is, their ratings sucked.
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Jul 28, 2010 7:33:56 AM CDT
I'll take a wild-ass guess and say "The Defenders" on CBS...
by jaylenotookmyjob
...isn't gonna be Dr. Strange, Namor, the Hulk, and Valkyrie teamed up every week to fight crime and supervillains.
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It's definitely got potential, if our heroes would just stop being total morons.
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Anyone that has not seen it, watch one episode. That is all I gotta say.
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Grey's Anatomy is a ratings powerhouse even if it is melodramatic crap... And he wasn't the one who greenlighted According to Jim. I give him credit for Modern Family, saving Scrubs even if it was substandard to it's NBC version when it moved to ABC, and Better Off Ted.
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McPherson was a tool. He canceled Sons and Daughters and Pushing Daisies, and left October Road on for longer than six episodes. What About Brian? Don't even get me started.
And for anyone that says, "but he greenlit Modern Family..." just know that even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while... -
I never, ever stop watching shows mid-season, I always at least try to make it to the end of a story-arc before deciding if I want more next season, but V was insufferable. How do you screw up such a good concept so thoroughly? I couldn't force myself to finish the first season. It was too awful. I even managed to get through all of Flashforward, as horrible as that show was too, at least it was entertaining in a funny way. And it got considerably better actually after they got new showrunners. If either of those two deserved a second season it was FF. V is just soo lukewarm its torture to watch. It's not even bad enough to be entertaining.
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They changed showrunners what, two times? and it screwed it up, plus they stopped mid-season for what felt like forever, losing them viewers.
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Is it to make a point or just a mistake?
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Nothing else on the network even remotely appeals to me. NOTHING.
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It picked up so much speed and intensity in the second half of the season that it became one of my most-anticipated shows each week. That finale was freaking gangbusters. Unfortunately, it doesn't matter how good your show gets if the audience tunes out after the first four or five slow-ass episodes. You gotta hook 'em from the start or die trying.
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Even though the fifth season was it's last truly great season, it would have been awful for it not to havce a proper ending. And the season 8 (series) finale was a great ending ...it should never have continued. At least not under the guise of a 9th season. ABC should have fully embraced the spin-off concept ...because now Scrubs, being cancelled midway through the ninth season, has no real ending.
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How come Penny didn't sleep with PoTC guy? You know, dressed in the hot nightgown?Was Mark's disappearance a giant Fuck U to fans?
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i've noticed the upcoming complete series collection does contain that last season so i guess they truly do consider it season 9. even though it was completely different and even had its own subtitle pointing out it was different. but i enjoyed those first 8years so i'll gladly buy this. i've been avoiding getting the individual season because it seems for the last 4yrs it was threatened with "its the last season". glad i held back so i dont have to double dip and its quite a neat package too.
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I agree. TSCC was a "true" sequel to the Cameron Terminator films and far superior to T3+T4. Like the Firefly fans mourn it being cancelled, I mourn TSCC. Although Dollhouse is responsible for TSCC being cancelled in a way, since Fox was afraid of the browncoat army (who didn't support the show ratings wise anyways!)
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if they wont bring it back, least give them a tv/DTV movie to give it some sorta proper ending. or maybe even multiple movies so they have more time and story. ending on cliffhangers suck.
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Its totally a chick show, but we are all marks for Nathan Fillion, apparently. This guy obviously needs to be a bigger star.
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In fact, it was one of my favorites in the spring! I am hoping that they keep this show.
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...because this guy should have already become this generation's Harrison Ford!
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They should create a comedy about a comedian trying to come up with a pilot. The show would be about NOTHING. You would simply see the main character and his interaction with his three closest and goofiest friends...engaged in funny "everyday" situations...and each 30-minute show should be conveniently tied together at the end. Oh wait. That was the plot of SEINFELD. The arrangement (a situation comedy with a ensemble cast whose lives are tied together) was also the winning formula for CHEERS, WINGS, NIGHT COURT, MURPHY BROWN, FRASIER, MASH, DREW CAREY and FRIENDS too. You would think that someone would pick up the idea and create something new just like it. People might actually watch something like that.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Pushing_Daisies_episodes#U.S._Nielsen_ratings
Pushing Daises started big but saw a rapid decline almost immediately.
It had lost half it's audience before the first season even ended.
If anything, the writer's strike helped Pushing Daisies get a second season. ABC had so little to offer they figured why not give it another chance. -
all really fun shows i watch. otherwise abc is a wasteland. i still grieve for the Pushing Daisies.
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and BETTER OFF TED!!
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Don't think about it, just do it!
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this guy is not only bad, he is Braga-Bad.I do watch Castle and like it, and I do watch V, out of morbid train-wreck curiosity. Otherwise, ABC has not been on my radar at all. I saw a couple episodes of Modern Family--good, well-done, but not must see for me.
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was brilliant!
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...is deeply, deeply missed.
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for saving scrubs from NBC and giving it one more chance at a proper ending. Watching NBC's finale was devastating since it wasn't a finale at all, it was a mediocre episode after two mediocre seasons. Amazingly Scrubs really got it's wind back during it's final (8th) season pretty much from the Bahamas trip on. But I guess I can hate him for the 9th season tag on which should have been an entirely different show like Frasier was to Cheers rather then just a reshuffling of characters. Lame. Oh, and I don't care if Pushing Daisies wasn't a ratings winner, when faced with the choice of canceling either creatively bankrupt shows failing in the ratings and canceling a show that was creatively brilliant (and really couldn't have been that expensive to make, most of the show was practical effects, like not including the color blue in most shots and was all shot on set), he made the wrong choice.
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Or was the second paragraph: "He also greenlit “Wipeout,” "Sons & Daughters" “Modern Family,” and “Better Off Ted.”" meant to indicate that those are the few shows you liked under this fellow's tenure. I can't see people hating Wipeout, it's just goofy pain to watch. It's a slightly cleaner version of Most Extreme Elimination Challenge. Hell, it's way better than American's Funniest Home Videos when it comes to the getting kicked in the crotch quotient of silly TV game shows.
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the only one I tried to like was Life On Mars hbut it was nothing like the very enjoyable British version.
I can honestly say, I never watched a single one of the other shows, not one! I guess ABC and NBC have a lot in common -
I don't think I've watched ABC in like 8 years now.
Damn every single show listed there is a bag of shit.
Did this fucking idiot even have a dick (other than the one in his mouth)? -
It makes me laugh. I can't help it.
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Jul 28, 2010 3:55:14 PM CDT
Scripted television got screwed by the writers' strike.
by jimbojones123
Dumbasses
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Did it need to be dragged out? No. It was good every other episode.
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I even enjoyed his old Spike show.
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Granted, the material on these so-called "family" oriented networks can seem to lack... creativity. And, of course, I'm sure the ratings numbers speak for themselves and play a large role in this, as they should. On the flip side, though, I think some of you guys have championed a side of the industry that is just as bad in its over-reliance on overt vulgarity and general onscreen debauchery and pretty much ALWAYS labeling it "fresh," "original" and, worst of all, "realistic," even when it repeats itself - i.e., the generally good "Mad Men" occasionally striking tones similar to the otherwise very different "Sopranos," a show in which "Mad Men's" creator had a hand. The same can be said of any one of, say, Quinten Tarantino's movies which, besides often having inordinate amounts of dialogue (with or without vulgarity) that generally would not be tolerated from first-time writers, are at best extremely derivative, redeemed only by what would seem to be original and / or entertaining takes on old material, as well as its themes and genres. There seems to be a general preponderance of critics, official and otherwise, particularly on the Internet, that sling derrogatory remarks at shows and movies without ever bothering to actually explain why, or to reveal upon what standards the observation(s) is / are based. These people will quote the low ratings for shows promoted by executives such as this one as a way of heralding his departure as something good, yet when it comes to something like a Joss Whedon show, for example, some of you guys would cry foul at its cancellation regardless and / or in spite of the ratings.
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The day I got Netflix instant play on the teevee was the day my antenna got an undeserved rest. I only hooked the thing up when House came on. Otherwise, what's a television show? (That's right, I don't even have cable. I'm like living in the Gilded Age, and I don't care.)
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A few watchables in the list, but a damned lot of crabgrass.
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Just wondering.
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All you have to do is Google "writer's strike pushing daisies" to read a myriad of articles from when it happened.
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One of the only comedies I actually watch on Hulu. Along with Parks and Rec, and Community. It's got a wicked, fucked up sense of humor.
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Bring it back. Although, aren't all of the principal cast members presently working?
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Love Castle. Bright show with interesting people. Captain Tightpants. And a very hot female detective. What else do you want?
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if he wants his severence package. That's the best ABC show in 10 years.
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has anyone else noticed that Jill Wagner is not only hilarious, but an insanely hot piece of ass ?
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on NBC's Last Comic Standing is amazing. She should get her own hour every night on primetime--whatever she wants to do.And they should have a pic in pic LeggeroCam during last comic standing, comedian in the small pane, her in the main.
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They look like they're in a closet
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Wow. Yes please ! She's a hot little nugget. Only problem is, would I have to fake laugh at her jokes to get a chance to tongue swab her butthole ?
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I mourned Jericho, until they brought it back with such a weak return, now I don't care. But for The Sarah Connor Chronicles, I still long for it to come back. It was a great show.
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ABC might want us to blame their cancellation of this amazing show on the writer's strike, but that's not what gave the killing blow to this show. What killed the show was the poor marketing and planning by the producers and executives at ABC. Their decisions to not continue the season after the strike ended and then delaying the second season until mid-October was what really killed it.
Almost a year went by in-between seasons and ABC didn't even have the foresight to release the DVD of season 1 early (say in May or June) to keep the show in the audience's mind and to let it gain supporters through word-of-mouth and DVD sales. So stupid. -
If he's been fired, he's got no excuse not to turn up to that duel I challenged him to after he canceled Pushing Daisies. It's two by fours at dawn, motherfucker...
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by not re-airing the first season during the Summer. They could have used the repeats to not only pick up new viewers but also advertise the new season.
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