Blog : TV Worth Watching

November 22, 2007 - Happy Thanksgiving - Pass the TV Turkey

Happy Thanksgiving.

We who care about quality TV have a lot about which to be thankful on this particular Thanksgiving. And no, I'm not talking about tonight's ABC season premiere of the sappy October Road.

I'm talking about how, at this moment in time, viewers seem to be embracing the really good stuff more and more. It's heartening, for example, to learn that Dexter has just become that network's most popular series in its history, and that FX has ordered not one, but two, additional seasons of Damages.

On broadcast TV, ABC's Pushing Daisies, the best new show of the season, is doing well enough to inspire optimism about its future. Really good stuff isn't just being made - it's being embraced.

The sad part of this, though, is the strike, which is killing momentum just as broadcast TV, especially, needs it most. Monday's episode was the best installment of NBC's Heroes all season - complete with a shocking death and an even more shocking cliffhanger - but now, after two more episodes, it's gone. That Heroes: Origins miniseries? Not going to happen, because of the strike.

I side with the writers in this dispute (big surprise there, huh?), but that doesn't mean the writers aren't due their servings of Thanksgiving sarcasm. After all, what better day than Thanksgiving to survey the TV landscape and carve up the biggest, most bloated turkey of the year?

Caveman In 2007, it's no contest. The worst new show of the season, the most unwatchable series of all of 2077, is - envelope, please? - ABC's Cavemen.

The Geico commercials on which Cavemen is based? Just right. The series version? Just wrong, in every respect. Casting, directing and especially writing, just horrible.

ABC would have been much better off by shooting on location using the Lost crew, and doing a drama series about a caveman detective in Hawaii. Not only would it have been funnier than Cavemen (even a drama would be funnier than Cavemen), but it could have featured a much better title:

Cro-Magnon, P.I.

2 Comments

Norris McDonald said:

I actually liked "Cavemen." Thought it was funny too. It did not live up to the hype and controversy some people wanted so I guess people saw it as bland. But I thought it was hilarious. "Crave the cave." "Sapes." "Keep your penis in the genus." "Shavers." This stuff was great. And they covered many of the isms without offending.

Comment posted on November 24, 2007 12:31 AM

JeffH said:

Actually someone DID try to do "Cro-Magnon P.I."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GM20qAxy7vc

Comment posted on May 5, 2008 11:48 PM

Archer T-shirts & fan gear at the Fox Shop!

Behind David in the picture is the first TV owned by his father, Virgil Bianculli, a 1946 Raytheon. (The TV, not his father. His father was a 1923 Italian.)

David Bianculli has been a TV critic since 1975, including a 14-year stint at the New York Daily News, and sees no reason to stop now. Currently, he's TV critic for NPR's Fresh Air, occasional substitute host for that show's Terry Gross, and teaches TV and film history at New Jersey's Rowan University. His most recent book is 2009's Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of 'The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour,' and he's at work on another.

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