Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Let me see if I've got this straight...

So there's this series called Arrested Development. It won Emmy awards and has been much beloved by critics and a small group of devoted fans. Trouble is, virtually nobody else wanted to watch it.

I myself tried on at least two or three separate occasions, but I'm sorry, it simply never once made me laugh. Not that Two And A Half Men does or anything, it's just that AD seemed to me to fall into the category of: Ha-ha, very funny, aren't you clever, rather than actually funny-you know, the kind of funny where you actually sit and laugh.

But anyway, my opinions aside, after Fox's decision to remove it from the schedule, the show's fan base has been hoping against hope that it might be picked up by Showtime. Where ratings matter less than awards, critical acclaim and a fanbase.

Although that still doesn't explain why The L Word outrates Huff, which is its superior in every way.

But I digress again. The Showtime deal for AD looked like it actually had a chance of happening, but now the creator of the show, a man named Mitch Hurwitz, says he's leaving it, which is likely to quash the deal.

His stated reasons?
"The fans have been so ardent in their devotion and in return ... I've given everything I can to the show in order to try to live up to their expectations," Hurwitz told Variety in a phone interview from New. York. "I finally reached a point where I felt I couldn't continue to deliver that on a weekly basis. "



Hurwitz said he told executive producer Ron Howard he would be willing to act as a consultant if the producers find a home for the series, but as a showrunner, "I've gone as far as I could go."


So, like I say, let me see if I've got this straight: The man is walking away from a deal because he thinks he's given everything he has, rather than just pocketing the money and delivering a substandard product. He feels he's gone as far as he can go with this idea, so he's not going to go farther.

What Hollywood is he living in, anyway?

(Of course, all this assumes we can take Hurwitz's comments at face value. That it's not all just spin to cover the fact that he wanted more money and Showtime wouldn't cough up. But I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.)

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