linwood boomer

Adam's post about Herman's Head (which was one of my favorite shows during my college years, by the way) got me thinking of the FOX Sunday lineup in those heady days when The Simpsons was still considered subversive and FOX was as small as The CW. Ironically, between Bart and Co., Married... With Children, and Herman's Head, the lineup was probably a lot stronger then than it is now, even though FOX is now a bigger network with more resources to create quality programming.

Part of that early-nineties Sunday lineup was Flying Blind (1992-93), which starred (a very red-headed and very hot) Téa Leoni and Corey Parker as a mismatched couple making their way through the early days of their relationship. Leoni played the firery ingenue Alicia, full of life and adventurous as hell. Parker was nebbishy Neil, who seemed to fumble and stumble over every sentence but was devoted to Alicia. I mean, who wouldn't? She was just about perfect. So perfect, in fact, that I always wondered why she was ever with Neil to begin with.

This Sunday the final episode of Malcolm in the Middle will air on FOX. I fell in love with this show during its first few seasons, but eventually my interested began to wane and I don't think I've seen a single new episode in at least the last three years. Somehow, I think I just got used to the show's shtick and lost interest. Also, as shallow as it may sound, I liked the show better when the kids were younger and their antics seemed more cartoonish. At any rate, the Chicago Sun-Times has a fun interview with Linwood Boomer, the show's creator whose credits also include Night Court and 3rd Rock from the Sun. It seems Boomer didn't have much luck pitching the show to other networks before landing it on FOX, and he makes no bones about the ignorance of studio executives who are unwilling to take chances on anything. The series finale, titled "Graduation," airs on May 14 at 8:30.