Is ABC having a renaissance?
If you were to ask The Most Interesting Man in the World what he watches on TV (if ever), he’d probably say, “I don’t always watch network television, but when I do, I prefer ABC.” I figure this is true because instead of rehashing the same hourlong drama five times a week like other networks, ABC a well-rounded schedule. I only watch four first run shows on ABC right now (Lost, Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, The Middle, and Modern Family), but that tally makes it the major network that I watch more than any other. Looks like it’s their turn to be on top, as this sort of merry-go-round between ABC, NBC, and CBS (sorry, Fox) always seems to stop in favor of one network for a couple of years until things get stale. Then you take another spin and repeat the process.
I’ve talked about Lost before, and with the show winding down, I’ll be talking about it plenty in the weeks to come. It’s the comedies that I’m concerned with tonight, especially seeing as how they’ll be coming on in a couple of hours. Modern Family is this year’s breakout comedy, being similar in presentation to The Office, but funny. The cast is stellar and the writing is very sharp. This is to be expected of the production duo of Steve Levitan and Christopher Lloyd, who have the likes of Frasier, The Larry Sanders Show, and Just Shoot Me to their combined credit. In all likelihood, Modern Family will be at least nominated for every comedy Emmy they can. Winning may be harder to do, simply because The Office has been on TV for about 17 years now and is still a critical darling.
Phil Dunphy, yo!
The Middle is different, but just as funny (sometimes, arguably funnier) than Modern Family. It’s a star vehicle for Patricia Heaton, but is also a deserved showcase for Neil Flynn, who was on Scrubs or something, but don’t let that fool you. It’s warm and quirky, but given a chance, it could be a big hit in its own right. The problem is ABC themselves. Again and again, I find myself being driven away from watching more ABC programming because of the poor quality of their promos.
Here’s an example. ABC is currently showing the remake of the classic sci-fi series V, which originally aired on NBC, a plot to confuse the hell out of me. Anyway, for all I know, V is a kickass show. The original was insanely popular from what I gather; I can’t be sure because it’s as old as I am. I can only imagine that if the remake is handled by some competent people, it should be rather entertaining. Only problem is, the ads are so badly edited and hokey that I can only assume that it sucks. Elizabeth Mitchell left Lost for this! It better be worth her time because I could really use me some Juliet Burke on The Island right about now.
Editing isn’t the only thing, I can’t stand the guy who does their voiceovers, either. Every network has a designated voiceover guy. I think that Fox has the best one, followed by CBS, and then NBC. ABC’s guy essentially has two modes: Comedy Mode and Serious Drama Mode. Comedy Mode is used for everything but ads for Lost or Grey’s Anatomy. I’ve seen Grey’s and it doesn’t deserve any promotion at all. But this guy does very goofy promotion for Cougartown and then turns around and does the same thing with this new Twin Peaks-looking program called Happy Town. Meanwhile, he’ll get ominous for Lost and outright lie about what’s going to happen. Example: a few weeks back, Lost gave us a spectacular episode focusing on Ben Linus. It was a great hour of TV, but the preview essentially said “Next week on Lost: BEN DIES.” This didn’t happen. Far from it; Ben finally became genuinely likable in this episode and you were incredibly happy that he didn’t get his.
So does ABC deserve to be doing so well? I’d say so, they have good programming on and they’ve put serious production value into the shows, just not the promotion. It’s a wonder anyone is watching in the first place.
Oh. I almost forgot Dancing with the Stars. Now that I think about it, that tips the scales the wrong way, now doesn’t it?
