why take away the good shows like this one and i loved "Dead like Me". i just dont get it.. i always thought enough people were watching these shows to keep the ratings up based on the user comments on various boards. i guess it wouldn't be too bad if they were cancelling these shows to make the last episode a conclusion, but they just pull them off the air leaving us dumbfound.
shareThe first big show that got cancelled was dark angel i loved that show and could not believe it when it got the can ,when a show as great as dead like me got cancelled it was an even bigger shock, I thought it was a joke at the time its very sad when i see reruns on tv and remember how good the show was.
shareLet's not forget Firefly.... I was gutted when that was pulled.
At least Family Guy got saved by popular demand :p
Yeah...well the problem is that the majority of people want mindless entertainment....shows that will run for 10 seasons, it's just how it goes. I loved Firefly, and Dead Like Me...Invasion, you guys see that? It was pretty good, now it's gone too.
Let's hope they don't try and take away our BSG...that will send me over the railing ;)
showtime has a huge problem when it comes to their shows.
they DO NOT know when they have a keeper. they let a show run for a season or two and if it doesnt start winning them awards they will pull it. it happened with "Dead Like Me" and many others. it WOULD have happened with "Weeds", which happens to be my other favorite show next to "Dead Like Me", but it started winning the awards and thats what saved it. FORTUNATELY Sci Fi has sense and has decided to pick it up and it plays Tuesday nights at 7:00 pm. perhaps if there are enough people watching it on Sci Fi then they'll decide to help out the protest and MAYBE we can get it started again.
hopefully anyways.
keeping praying to whatever it is that you guys worship..god, buddah...the clouds?..lol.. anyways,
SIGN THE PETITION...HELP SAVE DEAD LIKE ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
http://www.petitiononline.com/dlm1218/petition.html
another website that has much information about the show is:
deadlikemeonline.com
lets not let a good one slip through the cracks eh?
BUT WHYS THE RUM GONE!?!?!?!
The Rums Gone becuase your an alcoholic due to that incomplete feeling of no new Deal Like Me episodes, you feel life isnt worth living. :p
The least they could have done is at least let em' round it up, finish everything nicely in a neat little bow. Instead of ending it on the Halloween Episode which leaves you waiting for the next episode.
Alas, nonemore shall pass.
You really think if enough people sign the petition, showtime will pick it back up ? All i gotta do now is think of about 300 fake names and addresses :)
Why? Because the tv networks have greater competition for your eyes and minds and ...your spending dollars. Just like a newspaper's job is to sell advertising, the same is thought of for television by those who make television. The major networks go with dull formulaic programming, because they know that Joe Sixpack wants to be entertained, not made to think when watching their tv. Law & Order is still on because of the formula and it follows its formula in every show and each L & O flavour. The same can be said for CSI:Wherever. (I hear that Viacom/Paramount/CBS is planning a CSI:Vulcan for the Star Trek Fans and maybe a CSI:Smallville and a CSI:Rugrats to blanket their universe with CSI).
Intelligent shows gain a fan base amongst intelligent people. Right now it's police procedural shows that have everyone's attention. It was Westerns at the beginning of widespread broadcasting in the 1950s. SciFi had a hold and other themes go in and out of fashion. "Wagon Train in Space" "MTV Cops" I remember watching the first episode of Dark Angel and turning to my roommate saying "This is good, she's gonna be a star, but it'll die in less than five years because it appeals to smart people". Why did "Everybody Loves Raymond" last 9 years? and the same for "Will and Grace"? (I admit to finally watching part of an episode of each and realising after 5 minutes, at most, that these were more banal s_itcoms, following the same old formula)
With the explosion of cable and other media outlets the term narrowcasting is more applicable to television today. I don't always like that, but Eureka would probably not make it on NBC, but it is doing fine on the NBC subsidiary, SciFi. And then the show right after Eureka, ECW Wrestling, what's with that? The major networks have invested in, or are buying up the independent cable networks and using them as testing grounds and, if the are smart, targeting their audience with shows they know the target audience will watch. I sit down and watch Dark Angel every Monday with the same zeal I watched at its original showing. Eureka is just great, humourous and intelligent, and pretty darn good for tv. My roommate is a mathteacher and she loves both Numbers and The Closer for different reasons than I, but she has to watch or Tivo those shows. And that Kyra Sedgewick. I Tivo'd Craig Ferguson to see her interview. The shows like Dark Angel and Eureka don't follow as rigid a formula as L & O or CSI or ER. When shows are "edgy" and unpredictable they gain a niche audience. When these shows become predictable they lose audience amongst some viewers. That's why some last and others die after a short time. I wanted Dark Angel to last and still don't get Everybody Loves Raymond or Seinfeld or Cheers. I could go on and on about this but I would rather not bore the readers any more than I have already done so.
What can we, as intelligent television viewers do? Watch your favourite shows and tell your friends how great you think those shows are. Participate in foura like this and write to the newspapers, TV Guide and the networks to spread your word on the greatness of the shows you like. Tell them that you like the show in your intelligent styles. A letter writing campaign brought back Star Trek and Gene Roddenberry shopped ST:NG around until Paramount started UPN for his show. A letter writing campaign kept Seventh Heaven alive when The WB was going to cancel it. And nowadays with the Internet, blogging and all that such entails people have greater opportunities to exercise the power of their opinions and make themselves heard. But always remember what Fred Allen asked about television "Why is television called a medium?" "Because it is neither rare nor well-done" and don't forget Sturgeon "90% of everything is - explicative deleted" It's up to us to find and promote the 10% that we like. And that's the way it is...
jnausicaa nailed it right on the head. It couldn't have been said better.
shareIn the case of DLM, Showtime did VERY LITTLE advertising for the show. I heard about it from my daughter in law half way through the second season. Bought both seasons on DVD when available. Very cool and interesting show with terrific character development. It's a shame Sci-fi had to censor it. But, they did as good a job as possible, I think.
I've heard two reasons for DLM's demise. Low ratings, which is a possibility I can believe, and, secondly, that Mandy Patinkin wanted more money. I don't know about that. A rumor flying around at the time of cancellation was that the new guy in charge at Showtime cancelled it because he had some shows that HE liked better waiting in the wings. I don't know which is correct, but it seems like when a show is available for viewing only by subscription to a channel, if you want it to do well in the ratings, you'd want to advertise it a lot, not just on Showtime, if for no other reason than to get new subscribers for the channel. Something wasn't done correctly, or the show would still be on the air. And Showtime wouldn't have lost some accounts over cancelling DLM. (We cancelled Showtime, too. Will NEVER go back, unless, of course, they put DLM on again.)
I can imagine the show going on for several years, if given a chance. The plot would have allowed for a lot of character changes to keep the story lines fresh, and even Rube could have been written out, if the right replacement was found. (Mandy's real good, and I do like him a whole heck of a lot. But, he's not the only guy who could be "dad". There's lots of fish in the Hollywood pond.)
john doe
freaky links
point pleasent
all pull of the ait to make place for shows like sex and the city or desperate housewives
We Forget, Because We Must. Dr Who
Just an inside FYI......
internet forums (and the internet)have absolutely no bearings on networks, shows being pulled (or saved) or ratings.
The best way one could actively support a show, other than buting the sponsor's products, is to participate in Nieslen ratings.
Honestly, it people could rally a group on the internet to sign up for Nielsen research. Generally Nielsen picks people at random, but often if you call them and request to be a viewer or say that you were offered it in the past and declined, they hook you up.
Of course the internet is being recognized as a force now, and forums are a great way to raise interest in shows, assuming those shows have a target market of 13-18 year olds. The only companies I know of that use the internet as market research are Cartoon Network to some degree and Nickelodian.
Unfortunately, ratings dictate all, and network execs make horrible decisions, like with Family Guy, and my personal favorite, FOx's airing of Firefly in no particular order and then pulling it. Dead like me should have been an ongoing series, and the way DVD sales go, they could have run another season and then not opted for reruns and just gone to DVD.
oh well, just dropping some knowledge... I guess people like us are screwed until people smarten up. News stations wouldn't air so much Paris Hilton if people didn't want to see it, and unfortunately news stations (especially the affiliates) are dependent on ratings and sponsorship, instead of thriving on honest journalism.
GG
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2339870/
If ratings really did dictate all, Murder, She Wrote would still be on. It had an absolute lock on that timeslot for years. Unfortunately, it didn't appeal to 18-25 yo males. So it had to be replaced with something that didn't appeal to either the solid older group or the younger demographic.
shareI always shiver everytime someone calls shows like "Will & Grace" and "Seinfeld" sitcoms. So I've decided to use a new word...
Sh*tcoms
It's perfect, right?
Very perfect.
share:( I thought that there were new episodes being shown on SciFi, turns out I just missed parts of season 2!
I never liked Seinfeld, but i LOVE Curb your enthusiasm. weird huh!
Go away FAT BOY!
The same happenned to me. I really miss this show. One thing though, Unlike one of the posters here , i beg to doiffer. the first time I saw the halloween eppy it did give me a sense of closure when it ended. I did not know the show would be cancelled but i remember when i saw it it gave me a last episode feel. sadly , that feeling was accurate.
shareSo do you think it will be back next week on the Sci Fi channel starting from the first episode again.
My Tuesdays won`t feel the same without my Dead Like Me fix.
I was just wondering....is Callum Blue (Mason) the voice of that cartoon gecko in the Geico ads? The voices are quite similar.
I had no idea that Dead like me was being cancelled (I just found out right now by reading this thread). Thats sad because I just picked it up on dvd on a whim. I pretty much don't watch tv anymore due to the crap that's on these days so I don't always know about the shows that are actually good (I now only rent dvds through netflix and use the internet).
If only they could make some straight to dvd miniseries to at least finish off this great show. Oh well, I guess if people aren't eating disgusting things, or maiking tired predictable jokes then it's not considered marketable to the networks. It would be nice to see great shows like this one as well as John Doe and Firefly return.
I'm so upset, it really was one of the few shows I really loved. I didn't realise it had been cancelled, I've been quietly keeping an eye out for a new season until now.
I'll admit, instead of watching the show when it aired, I would download the episode and watch it at my leisure. I regret this now and I see why people say don't download!
When Dead Like Me was originally on the air, I never watched it. But I caught an episode this year in the re-runs, and really liked it. So I watched every episode from then on. But I wondered about the start of the show. I had questions about the whys about some of what went on.
When they aired the concluding episode, I was sure it was the last episode because it was done so nicely: a good wrap-up. George's last line, I think, was ".... when you're dead like me."
So when the reruns started again a month or so later, and started with the first episode, I was so happy.
The show is quirky and often silly. But it also raises theological questions. I really like that. The show does a great job of dealing with death and life - balancing the sad, the tragic, the surpise.... Well, I just think they do a good job. And it's fun to watch.
Dead Like Me was the highest rated show on Showtime by a long shot when it got the axe. A new president took the reigns and killed most everything that wasn't directly one of his projects. Just an *beep* being an *beep* Showtime has never regained its mojo after that.
share