Tim Minear gets a new deal

I really wish that the TVSquad bloggers would get this part straight as they invariably seem to miss it or mess it up and it invariably leads to frustrated confusion in the comments:

There is a difference between 20th Century Fox (the studio) and Fox (the network). In brief, the studio produces the show and the network airs it. Shows don't always air on the network owned by the same parent company as the studio. For example: "How I Met Your Mother" is produced by 20th Century Fox (studio) and airs on CBS (network); or, more famously this season, "Scrubs" which is produced by ABC (studio), aired on NBC (network) and is now switching to ABC (network).

Tim Minear's deal is with 20th Century Fox (studio), which has been very good to him over the years. This is at least his second 7-figure, 2-year deal and the studio has, in the past 10 years, optioned to pilot 4 shows where he was an executive producer/showrunner.

The problem is that Fox (network) tends to program either stupidly or audaciously (Tim's shows being the latter). Unfortunately, they promote stupidly for either category and Tim's shows tend to be harder sells because the core ideas tend to be more complex.

There is no set rule that Tim's shows will be picked up by Fox (network), they just have been consistently. He actually has no control over which network gets the show unless multiple networks express interest and start bidding.

Fingers crossed that Fox (network) passes on some of his new pitches and that they end up in more capable hands.

This is the battered and beaten wife who keeps coming back to her husband. Hasn't FOX canceled enough of your shows, Tim? Seriously?

Ugh. Don't even get me started. The Inside is a classic case of throwing money down a bottomless writer.

Do you know how The Inside started? It was essentially an attempt to remake 21 Jump Street. Rachel Nichols would have starred as an FBI agent posing undercover in a high school. Now, whatever you may think of 21 Jump Street, it was a tried and tested formula that had brought great success in the past, and could potentially have brought success again.

Since Fox scrapes its writers from the bottom of the barrel, the pilot intitially presented with was awful. So they brought on the admittedly less crappy Minear as showrunner to "fix" it, while keeping the same premise.

So of course, he chucked out every single element that had led to Fox greenlighting it in the first place, and replaced it with a crappy procedural with dark elements randomly added in for seemingly no good reason. The only thing the finished product had in common with the show Fox had wanted was the cast.

I personally disagree with the premise that a show that isn't up to standard "deserves" more time because a) it has a lot of competition in the genre and b) another show of the same genre and on the same network has found success. The fact that another, reasonably similar show became a hit where the sub-par show could not is not a point in favor of the sub-par show.

Bones is an example of a procedural that distinguishes itself from it's competition, and of a procedural done right. It's success is not an excuse to prolong another show's failure.

Wonderfalls is one of the best TV shows ever made.

I think the simple reason is no-one else would hire them.

His attempt at a non-Fox show, Miracle Man, evidently didn't get off the ground. So now he's back where he belongs, where they'll throw obscene amounts of money at him to make obvious flops like Drive.

Why, why do they keep signing with FOX?