Barely Broadcastable

The process of selling American TV series to foreign networks, similar to mechanisms behind cancellations and renewals within US networks, is full of oddities and decisions beyond comprehension of viewers like you and me. Sometimes it looks like failure of some titles to break outside of US might be due to very poor distributor or underwhelming performance from sales team. Lifetime or Starz – for example – have extremely bad luck selling anything in UK, with barely any titles filtering through for years now. Other series seem to attract bids from “mickey mouse” fringe networks without long-term commitment guarantees or any kind of viewership that would warrant handing over broadcast rights. In both cases, it’s the viewers that suffer. We live in digital age, if viewers can not find interesting titles on their screens, they reach for alternative means, and end up watching grey zone downloads, from which there is rarely any point of return. So – distributors – do you freaking job, and UK networks, stop screwing around. Below is a list of last season titles  that are either unknown in Britain or UK viewers can not find them on their silver screens anymore:

“…well, one doesn’t simply get on air in Mordor”

5. “Missing”

When ABC announced action packed TV series with Ashley Judd, pre-emptive acquisitions around the world started almost immediately. 10 episodes of the high budget, big names show about retired CIA operative chasing kidnappers of her only son across several continents and countries aired in US between March and May 2012, and almost immediately the show was syndicated across 24 countries worldwide, from Russia, through Philippines all the way to Brazil. But when in May 2012, after leaving the plot open-ended for season two, ABC heavy handedly chopped “Missing” together with “Pan Am”, “The River” and few other high budget titles from its schedule, taught by the previous expensive lessons, UK networks hit the brakes and the show never found a home on British Isles. “Missing” was not my cup of tea, I felt it was too “nineties” and over the top, but there is no denying that it is well put together, well casted and solid family/teenage entertainment. It is a shame it was not shown in UK. It is even bigger shame season two was cancelled.

Continue reading »Top five US TV shows not airing… «

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“… I don’t understand, it seemed funny during table reading?”

As part of their Olympic previews, on Sunday NBC broadcasted pilot episode of “Animal Practice” – a short form “broad audience” comedy prepared for Wednesday 8pm slot. The premise and setup are simple – bunch of doctors and nurses in veterinarian clinic is joined by new owner, who shares romantic past with main doctor. For added laughs the clinic is visited by patients in need of special care – be it – suicidal cats or dogs with owners that are willing to pay to put them down behind their daughters back. As you can see the bar is not exactly set very high.

“Animal Practice” was picked up to series in May 2012, and in the same time Irish actress Amy Huberman who played female lead role in the original pitch pilot was replaced by Joanna Garcia-Swisher (“Reba”, “Privileged”). Joining Joanna Garcia is “Weeds” regular Justin Kirk as a capable vet and keen women psyche observer Dr George Coleman, sidekicked by a team of most intolerable and lame animal clinic staff in northern hemisphere. You know the show is in trouble when capuchin – Crystal The Monkey (“Night At The Museum”, “The Hangover II”) is the least annoying and, most of the time, best actor out of the lot. Continue reading »NBC’s “Animal Practice” pilot review «