fox sunday lineup turning to crap

Oh well, I had to study last night anyway.

Futurama came along just as Simpsons when to shit. X-files I completely lost track off. Malcom in the Middle is unwatchable, as is Oliver Been. King of the Hill hasn't really declined, its just that its been on for far too and repeats the same predictable plots. So they now have one good show, Futurama, which comes on maybe once a month.

Fox Sundays were the only time I made it a point to watch TV. No more.

king of the hill is OK. it might make me smile every so often, but it's a bit too...sleepy, y'know. i like gags to come thick and fast.

I love King of the Hill too, it's insanely pointedly ridiculous very often, but it falls into that sit-com part-with-the-weepy-sentimental-piano-music-whilst-main-characters-learn-a-lesson shtick a great deal, which usually = at least 5 minutes of the show I'm not interested whatsoever.

The Simpsons...well, all I'm gonna say is "If I can tranq out just one freak on stilts, I know I've done my job." Even at it's supposed worst, it's funnier and more appealing than 9,999,999% of everything else on the idiot box. I swear I'm gonna end up drunk one night getting a tattoo of something Simpsonsian one of these days.

why is it everyone always says something like that about the Simpsons to justify it? there are lots of other TV shows that are funnier than the Simpsons lately - they include South Park, Futurama, King Of The Hill, a lot of the stuff on Adult Swim, Scrubs...

King Of The Hill is perpetually under-rated - i never make much effort to watch it but when i do i am always pleasantly surprised and laugh out loud a lot more naturally than if watching any new Simpsons. Futurama also very good but a few things about it bug me - too many references to 20th centuryness perhaps.

Malcolm In The Middle does seem to have lost it a bit - rather like the Simpsons they just seem to focus more and more on cynically exposing the character flaws and basing the humour around that.

the simpsons has declined in the last few years, but every so often an episode will be absolutely great...like the one last season where homer started smoking pot

i didn't care for futurama intitally, but the last couple seasons have had a high level of yuk-density...some very good scripts lately

malcolm is pointless, overdone, unfunny, painful to watch
oliver beene-done-already is pointless, unfunny
the promos for the pitts claimed the series was created by simpsons writers...must have been the ones whose jokes never made it onto the final scripts

i've noticed the shows seem to rip off gag premises from each other...like KOTH and simpsons each did shows about rodeo clowns...the pitts did an episode about ventriloquists' dummies, which was territory already mined (in a much subtler and funnier way) by KOTH

i guess doing jokes about ventriloquists is the equivalent of what mime jokes were in the eighties

Yeah, ouch, I think that got canned. No fair. 'Twas solid, if a bit over-Fox-ified.

Malcolm in the Middle occasionally hits the mark, even though the three main boys are poor actors.

cross-post with horace shockah

Yes, but networks are not exactly known for planning ahead and thinking in the long term. They want programs that will win sweeps NOW and then worry about things the longevity and syndication possibilities later.

Bernie Mac totally sucks ass btw, i say bring back the PJ's tho

(re fox's programming decisions), yes, excellent point.

"But you can tell that Judge and his writers really really love the world they've created/mirror."

yeah, they definitely have great affection for the small town texas world and its idiosycratic denizens...but it's also filled with brilliantly scathing indictments of american life...like in the one where hank's father was forced to work at the theme restaurant...or dale gribble's experience in a corporate america cubicle

it's amazing how they do the balancing act with hank...his character is totally uptight and reactionary, but he is the most (with the exception of bobby and khan jr., i guess) admirable character on the show. you can't help but have affection for him, and in spite of his political backwardness, he almost always seems to do the most admirable, virtuous thing...it's just cool how they've made him such a complex character; yeah, he doesn't encourage bobby in his interests and so forth, but his heart is always in the right place. and we know that his shortcomings as a dad result from his own twisted upbringing. at least there has been an improvement from one generation to the next.

I see "Family Guy" hasn't been mentioned yet. Good.

But you gotta take work where you can get it. I mean, how many of the writers (esp. the freelancers) have written for mags that they'd be embarrassed to be seen reading on the subway?

Goodnight.