Why’d It Bomb? The Carmichael Show (2015-2017)

http://lebeauleblog.com/2018/03/29/whyd-it-bomb-the-carmichael-show-2015-2017/

Kevthewriter wonders why NBC cancelled The Carmichael Show.

Last year, The Carmichael Show was cancelled to people’s surprise as it was critically acclaimed and the ratings were relatively decent. So why was it cancelled? Some people thought, at first, it might have been a race thing but it seems it was a bit more complicated than that.

First and foremost, the network that aired it (NBC) and 20th Century Television (which produced it) weren’t really getting along and were arguing about contract negotiations when it came to whether or not to renew the show.

Making things worse, NBC tried shelving an episode about mass shootings and gun control called “Shoot-Up-Able”, which Jerrod Carmichael, the star and creator of the show, was not exactly happy with. On the talk show Chelsea, he even said that if NBC pulled the show, it would be a “disservice”.

While NBC did end up showing the episode, it does seem like that controversy was the last straw. Ultimately it ended up being up to Carmichael if the show was going to be renewed and he decided not to renew the show.

And, honestly, I’d say it was for the best. I’ll admit I’m not a fan of multi camera sitcoms in general but, while I appreciate a sitcom trying to talk about difficult political issues, and also looking at it from both sides, from what I saw, the show was kinda bland when it wasn’t talking about those issues.

Outside the issues it was trying to face, it was basically a generic multi-camera sitcom with generic, sitcom-ish plots like “how do we tell my parents that were engaged?”, “how come everyone isn’t celebrating my birthday?”, or “can my parents stop butting into my love life?” The best episode I saw was probably the one where Jerrod befriends a transgendered kid and that’s first and foremost because they did away with having a generic sitcom plot and made the political issue the focus of the episode.

Not only that but the production values were pretty cheap, even for a sitcom. From the episodes I’ve seen, there were only about three sets per episode (Jerrod’s apartment, Jerrod’s parents’ house, and one other set). Plus there was a suspicious lack of guest stars. From the episodes I saw, one episode had only one guest star and the other episode had one guest star and about 3-4 extras. It doesn’t help that in two of the episodes I saw, we saw them TALK about going to protests but we never actually SAW the protests. Would it have been too costly for them to film a scene or two at the protest and hire some extras to pretend to be protesters? Would it?

I dunno, I think sitcoms just aren’t really my thing. I mean, it’s great that a sitcom is trying to touch on hot button issues but, when you get past that, it’s still a generic sitcom.

Give me Atlanta any day.