Short-Lived Shows

The Critic, while it was on television, aired on ABC, FOX, and Comedy Central, though not at the same time. The show, created by Simpsons vets Mike Reiss and Al Jean, started off on ABC where it wallowed in obscurity, and then moved to FOX for its second season. Actually, it didn't fare much better on FOX, either, and after two seasons the plug was pulled. It did, however, manage to find an audience when Comedy Central began airing reruns. Also, a "third" season of shorts was created for Shockwave.com. Not counting the Shockwave mini-episodes, the series only ran for a total of 23 episodes.

The titular character, voiced by Jon Lovitz, was a critic living in New York City who essentially hated every movie he saw. Of course, every movie he saw was incredibly bad, so you couldn't really blame him. The series premiered in 1994, and as anyone who has tried to get an animated show on primetime in the wake of The Simpsons knows, it can be an uphill battle, even if you happened to work on The Simpsons yourself. In fact, a crossover episode of The Simpsons featuring Jay Sherman (the Critic) was made ("A Star is Burns"). That episode, however, perhaps inadvertently zeroed in on why The Critic didn't last. While it was a great show, it seemed to wither under the shadow of a much bigger and much more popular series. Even I never gave it much of a chance when it first aired, seeing it as a lesser version of what The Simpsons was offering. It wasn't until I watched it on its own merit that I realized it was actually very unique, very well-written, and had carved out its own little universe separate from The Simpsons. The lesson, I suppose, is never jump to conclusions.

If you coated a Care Bear in honey and sugar you might end up with something as sickeningly sweet as Kissyfur, a cartoon which aired Saturday mornings on NBC during the 1986-87 season. Somewhat (but not really) like Walt Kelly's Pogo comic strip, the show focused on a group of animals living in a swamp and having crazy adventures while trying to protect themselves from danger, including a group of crocodiles who were always trying to eat the young cubs. "Kissyfur" was a young bear cub who escaped from the circus to live in the swamp. This is all explained in the opening credit sequence, which you can view here.

Despite my somewhat sarcastic first sentence, I actually loved this show as a kid, even if it did sometimes pile on the sentimentality a little thick. I suppose that's unavoidable when your main character is named "Kissyfur" for crying out loud. Still, it's probably that name which caused this cartoon to stick in so many people's heads. Also, save for early morning preschool programming, I don't know if cartoons like this still exist that so openly embrace concepts like love, trust, and family. I guess being cheesy isn't always so bad.

Tom Snyder Productions, the company best known for its use of the Squigglevision animation technique which resulted in such cult faves as Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist and Home Movies, also tried its hand at Saturday morning children's entertainment with Science Court, a show which dipped from the same well of humor as his other productions but with more of a kiddy slant. You know, dry and witty science humor for little kids.

Actually, it was probably the "dry and witty" part that pretty much guaranteed the show wouldn't last more than a year, since it was clearly aimed at little kids who weren't necessarily interested in the kind of cerebral humor the show would occasionally delve into. Those of us who knew Snyder's other productions, though, could at least enjoy hearing many of the same voice talents, including H. Jon Benjamin. Still, the show, which would pit lawyers against one another in a trial over scientific principles (thus, the "learning" part) managed to stick out from whatever else was on ABC Saturday morning in 1997. Unfortunately, it was one of many Saturday morning gems, like Freakazoid and The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley, that never quite gained the audience it deserved.

Three years after Space Ghost: Coast to Coast debuted, the creators filtered out the adult themes from the show but kept the goofy insanity intact in order to create an all-ages Saturday morning series featuring Space Ghost, Zorak, and Brak. The result was a minimalist cartoon variety show which could be enjoyed by both college stoners and mentally-unbalanced five year olds. You know, like The McLaughlin Group.

Perhaps "Short-Lived Segment on A Longer-Running Program" would have been a more appropriate title, but I'll take any excuse to talk about one of my favorite cartoons of all time.

The Ant and the Aardvark was created by Friz Freling and aired as a segment on The New Pink Panther Show and The Pink Panther Laff And A Half Hour, two shows which followed the original Pink Panther cartoon and consisted of made-for-TV shorts rather than the theatrical shorts which made up the original Saturday morning cartoon. The Ant and the Aardvark segments aired from 1969 to 1971, totaling seventeen cartoons in all. Each episode would pit a dimwitted aardvark (almost always referred to as an "anteater") who sounded like Jackie Mason against a clever and resourceful ant who sounded like Dean Martin. Both characters were actually voiced by actor John Byner.

While the set up was similar to Chuck Jones' Coyote and Road Runner shorts, The Ant and the Aardvark had the benefit of being a "talkie," which made it a lot more hip and clever than the slapstick of Jones' tribute to the animal kingdom. And I say that as a huge Looney Tunes fan, myself. Also, the Aardvark's mumbling cadence was hilarious, even if you didn't know who Jackie Mason was. When I was young the Pink Panther never really impressed me much, but I always looked forward to the Ant and the Aardvark. If you want to check out some episodes, YouTube has a few. Unlike a lot of the animation found on that site, these are actually pretty decent quality.

There's a whole sub-genre of sitcoms which I suppose could be called the "fish out of water" sub-genre. These were sitcoms whose whole comedic premise was based on taking the main characters out of their element and putting them into an entirely new one with the hope that comedy would ensue. The 1980s were rife with these types of shows. Some found an audience, such as ALF, and others, like The Charmings, well, didn't.

All right, kiddies, let's continue our review of Andre Braugher's television shows in preparation for his new show, Thief, which premieres on FX laster this week. As we mentioned, after Braugher left NBC's Homicide: Life on the Street, he headed for New England and donned the role of Dr. Ben Gideon on ABC's Gideon's Crossing. While that show was a critical success it only lasted one season.

He returned to series television again in 2002, this time co-starring with David Morse (St. Elsewhere) on the CBS drama Hack. In the series Morse played Mike Olshansky, a disgraced former Philadelphia police officer who now drove a taxi while attempting to rebuild his life. Braugher played his friend and former partner, Marcellus Washington, who was still on the force.

As we await next week's series premiere of Thief on FX we take a look back at some shows that Andre Braugher starred in between his award-winning stint on Homicide: Life on the Street and now.

The first show we will look at is Gideon's Crossing, which premiered on ABC in the fall of 2000 and lasted all of one season. In this medical drama, Braugher was Ben Gideon, a very skilled doctor who wielded his unorthodox skills in the experimental oncology department of a fictional New England hospital. In actuality, Braugher's role was inspired by real-life doctor Jerome Groupman.

Gideon entrusted himself to save the lives of critically ill patients who had reached a dead end with their treatments. While searching for answers and cures he tried to inspire the next generation of doctors who came to the teaching hospital.

In search of information about the absolute, total, non-return of Love Monkey, I came across an interesting article in, of all places, The Calgary Sun. The article, written by Kevin Williamson, counts down the top 25 best series that were canceled before their time.

Some of the entries on the list are those that many others (including those fabulous writers who post on this fantastic site) have mentioned as dying premature deaths. For example, the recently departed Arrested Development falls in at number two on the list. Aaron Sorkin's Sports Night appears at the number 12 spot.

They say you should never meet your idols, that it will always, inevitably, be a disappointment. Or, in the case of comedy writer Adam De La Pena, a danger to your emotional, psychological, and physical well-being.

Let's Bowl! was the creation of Tim Scott, a Minneapolis native who earlier worked as a sound mixer on Mystery Science Theater 3000. Michael J. Nelson, who played "Mike" on MST3K, also worked on the show as a writer for one season.

The basic premise of the show, which began airing in Minneapolis and other local markets in 1998 before being brought to Comedy Central in 2001, was to invite real people with trivial grievances onto the show to settle their dispute on the lanes. The show was a mix of bowling footage, hilarious interviews, and bizarre skits. It featured two commentators, a husky all-American type named Steve "Chopper" Sedahl (Steve Sedahl), and a whiny manchild named Wally Hotvedt (Rich Kronfeld) who would often lament his place in this cruel world and reveal embarrassing things about himself when he was supposed to be providing color commentary. It was an odd mix of irreverent comedy and bowling, and it really shouldn't have worked, but somehow it did.