Take your best shot to save TV favorite BY MIKE DUFFY
The TV gods have absolutely no heart.
And that perverse digital posse of surly practical jokers is really being unusually cruel this season. How cruel? This cruel.
"Baby Bob" is a hit, "Once and Again" has been killed.
"Fear Factor" is a lowest common denominator magnet for millions of viewers who enjoy watching people stick their mugs in a tub of slimy critters. And "The Job," Denis Leary's sharp, smart police comedy, is lost in Hiatusville.
Jim Belushi's extra-annoying "According to Jim" has already been renewed. And Fox's exceptionally witty college comedy "Undeclared" has already finished its season. It's currently teetering on the edge of the cancellation grave of short-lived quality comedies past from "Frank's Place" to "Sports Night."
Aaaaaaargh! Just not fair.
But that's television life. And at least you can squawk about it.
"I was very sad to read in the Free Press that ABC definitely canceled 'Once and Again,' " said Beth Riseman of Grand Blanc in an e-mail this week. "Please tell me of anything I can possibly do to communicate with ABC about this. It is the only show I have watched on a regular basis in a couple of years."
Glad to be of service, Beth.
It's time for Captain Video's 10th Annual Save These Shows Shout Out.
We've supplied a list of network addresses, viewer feedback phone numbers and e-mail addresses. Just so you can rattle the network cage and share your thoughts with program executives who make the decisions on cancellation or renewal.
Oh sure, there are hundreds of fan-generated Web sites for everything from "JAG" to "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." And the campaigns to save struggling, low-rated TV series have grown like electronic weeds with the rise of the Internet.
But despite the impassioned efforts of these cyberspace communities, each devoted to rescuing this or that beloved series, the failures far outnumber the successes.
The most notable success remains one of the first such campaigns, the old fashioned letter-writing howl of protest that convinced CBS to reverse its decision to cancel "Cagney & Lacey" after a brief run in the spring of 1982.
Restored to the CBS schedule that fall, the Emmy Award-winning female police drama ran for six successful years and made Tyne Daly and Sharon Gless prime-time stars.
But typically the result is less joyful.
All the earnest huffing and puffing by loyal fans couldn't save NBC's exceptional "Freaks and Geeks" two years ago. And more recently, an intelligent, well-organized online campaign encouraging ABC to renew "Once and Again" couldn't overcome that brilliant family drama's persistently low ratings.
Of course, ABC's shuffling of the Sela Ward series to numerous time periods over its 3-year existence didn't help. "Once and Again" bids bittersweet farewell with a sadly premature series finale April 15. Once and again, aaaaaargh!?
There are still slim (very slim) hopes of renewal for "Undeclared," "The Job" and even CBS's underrated family drama "That's Life," also stuck in Hiatusville. And Julia Louis-Dreyfus' offbeat "Watching Ellie" may get the fall season green light just because NBC Entertainment boss Jeff Zucker has so strongly voiced support for the low-key, unconventional sitcom.
And highly praised, lowly rated "24," the groundbreaking Fox suspense thriller, is starting to feel like a pretty decent bet for a second season. The show's so darn cool, the buzz is so darn hot, Fox would be silly not to give it another go. Wouldn't it? Sure hope so.
I'd even like to think that Fox's dark, quirky "Pasadena" -- a wild and imaginative twist on the prime-time soap opera, blessed with an Emmy-worthy demented diva performance by Dana Delany -- might finally return to the airwaves and find happy ratings serendipity. But that's not going to happen.
So for now, as the network executives prepare to announce their fall schedules in May, handing out the pink slips and renewal notices, it's time to take the feel-good pill of sharing your articulate, passionate thoughts.
Talk back to your TV. It may even do some good.__ Detroit Free Press (April 7, 2002)
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