Wonderfalls 1.01 - Wax Lion **Pilot - Friday 3/12/04** (1 Viewer)

[Mikel_Cooperman]

True, FOX does take chances especially with Genre shows but they just dont give them enough time, like say X-files to capture a larger audience.

I do have to say that at least they have been giving their shows multible night try outs with O.C, Arrested Development and now Wonderfalls so if they dont catch on it's more of the audiences fault.

It's really frustrating that when a good show does come on(and that is rare these days) that people ignore it in favor of these mindless family comedies that you were talking abou,t and these Reality shows.

I have yet to find anyone I know who watches these or fesses up to at least so I am at a loss why these things are getting big ratings.

 

[Jason Seaver]

Well, you're probably dealing with a biased sample. Most of us tend to gravitate toward people similar to us, or at least with similar interests. So when something we love dies and something we can't stand continues on forever, we tend to think the system is broken, because it doesn't gibe with our limited view of the whole.

To a certain extent, I use my parents and grandparents as a reality check. Sure enough, they watch Yes Dear and appear to genuinely enjoy it, but I can't get them to watch even stuff I figure should be mainstream and addicting no matter how hard I try (what mom wouldn't love Gilmore Girls?).

And I try to avoid looking down my nose at whole genres, as well. There have been a ton of uninspired family comedies and tacky unscripted series, but that doesn't mean Malcolm In The Middle or The Amazing Race should be tarred with the same brush.

 

[Robert Ringwald]

I think a lot of people honestly don't want to think when they watch TV, which is why a lot of shows aren't quickly grabbed...

A friend of mine, let's call her jamie, was watching smallville with katie and katie's brother and sister.

Jamie was trying to explain to the brother and sister what was happening in the episode (they'd missed many previous episodes). Katie screamed to shut up cause Tom Welling was talking.
Jamie - What!?

Katie - Tom's talking.

Jamie - They're asking about the show.

Katie - Why? All I care about is that Tom Welling's hot.

Jamie - Well, some of us like, the story, and like, the plot.

Katie - Oh yeah, he's hot too.

WTF?

I have a feeling most people love the tired sitcom formula because it's safe and simple. Which is why so many sitcoms are just the exact same thing over and over. And that's also why I think reality shows are so entertaining to many people. It's simple fun to talk about who they think should win, but it's ultimately mindless entertainment, which isn't my kind of entertainment.

So while Wonderfalls may be a great show, with a lot of fun, and some interesting elements... I have a feeling the masses might be scared off by the intelligent writing and situations.

 

[Citizen87645]

Absolutely. That was hilarious!

 

[Derek Miner]

I did manage to get my grandmother to watch (and like!) the Jeremy Piven/Paula Marshall "Cupid" from a few years back... that felt like a triumph, considering I couldn't get anyone to care about that show at all. Same with "SportsNight"... and "Undeclared"... But at least I have "SportsNight" DVDs now!

Grrr... I missed the pilot repeat! And so did my friend at work!

 

[Mikel_Cooperman]

Both times it was shown? It was on again last night.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

If it weren't for HTF, I wouldn't know this show exists.

'Launching' a new show during prime basketball season is ignorant as hell.

 

[Jason Seaver]

Why? It's one of the few shows running new episodes right now, it can probably get more press because it's not competing for space with all the other new shows that launch in September/October, it's still chilly enough that people are staying in more than they would in a couple months, there's no worries about an untested show during sweeps...

The deck is stacked against a new show whenever it launches, but it's not like there aren't some advantages to doing it now.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

If it weren't for the following:

1) Basketball season
2) 24 is on a month-long haitus

...I would at least have know that the show exists. I'm not really watching Fox at all right now, and that is not typical.

I guess Fox doesn't want me to know about the show.

Jason, you are the biggest network apologist I've ever seen. Do you ever think the networks do anything wrong?

My office is pretty empty today, but Monday I'll take a straw poll in the office among frequent TV watchers, and see how many know Wonderfalls exists.

 

[Jason Seaver]

Plenty; I'm not sure why The O.C. was all Fox did last summer, especially with it doing well and Wonderfalls and Still Life specifically made ready to go for an early launch, and don't see what they got out of not showing Keen Eddie. It seems like Fox could have done a good roll-out there with them, using The OC's success to launch Wonderfalls while having little competition from the other networks before October. And I've got no idea why Fox didn't at least try Firefly Mondays at 9pm last year, after girls club crashed and burned.

And that's just Fox. Ask me about ABC or UPN sometime.

The thing is, a lot of the time when people criticize the networks, it comes off as "the people running Fox/NBC/UPN/WB are stupid if not openly hostile toward their audience". I mean, you're saying "I guess Fox doesn't want me to know about the show." Of course they want you to know about the show, but just haven't been able to reach you for whatever reason.

I don't think the people running network TV are stupid, and when I step back from how ticked off I am at some decision they make, I can usually find a reason for what they do. Not always, and even after finding the reason I don't agree with it, but I've noticed that there tends to be a lot of silence when I respond to people bitching about the so-called "Friday Death Slot" with "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit seemed to thrive there" and "where else on Fox's schedule would you put it?"

 

[Robert Ringwald]

I do think they're dumb in certain aspects...

For example, sometimes they just pick on the stupidest things...

I was listening to the audio commentary for the wonderfalls pilot, and it was like..."The network was very concerned because we didn't establish why it was today the animals started talking to her... so we wrote in this scene with the near death experience... there, she had a near death experience, that's why it finally happened today..."

The network was concerned about something so ridiculous? How did that affect the pilot in any way? I would expect them to be worried about a cast member not being attractive, or being able to act, or lighting, but it just seems they usually seem to pick on the weirdest things...

 

[Jason Seaver]

Well, that sounds like something the network would be concerned with at the script stage, before casting and technical stuff were any kind of concern. Making a pilot goes through a bunch of different stages; it can take as long to gestate as a feature.

I'm not saying that the people running TV networks are incapable of stupid decisions or misplaced priorities - anything so completely run by committee is vulnerable to that. I do think, though, that most of the decisions they make are defensible if you reconsider them from the production side, as opposed to what you, specifically, want.

 

[Joshua_W]

You know, I thought that the "choking" scene seemed kind of superfluous, and now I know why.

It did provide a cute visual joke where the guy who lost the quarter thought she was diving for it, though.

 

[MikeFR]

Well if youre not watching fox how is fox supposed to 'let you know' about the show?

Air a commercial on CBS during basketball???

Many people do not watch basketball and other networks are not airing new shows. These people who dont watch basketball are going to be looking for something new to watch.

Debuting a show now is far from ignorant.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

It was up against tons of conference tourneys.

 

[Lew Crippen]

I don’t know what happened in the rest of the country, but this show received very favorable reviews in the Dallas Morning News. And, as I understand some other major newspapers as well. To those reviews, you can add that most TV guides would have this in an upfront description of new shows.

Personally I think that the networks do a lot wrong, but I don’t think that the overall ratings for college basketball (even March madness) would keep many viewers from watching this program. Especially as the pilot was not up against the tournment.

 

[Jason Seaver]

Hardly; Fox could have supported it with other-media advertising and emphasized the madcap comedy of the show more in what they did. Nobody's claiming Fox's handling of the show is perfect (I mean, why have it ready for July/August and then sit on it until March?); just that it's not the utter disaster you're portraying it as, and that there are, in fact, some advantages to premiering it now.

 

[Luis Esp]

I like this show even more the second time around, and if it weren't for the American writers, I'd swear this show was 100% Canadian!

Hopefully it'll be given a chance by both studio and audiences.

 

[Rob Speicher]

Just watched the pilot, but I had to download it since I hadn't even heard of the show until the second episode aired. I really enjoyed it. I think between this and Arrested Development, and to a lesser extent Cracking Up, Fox is on a roll. Now if they can just keep the shows on the air.

 

[Derek Miner]

(Homer) Explain! (/Homer)