Night Stalker...got Stalked.

[Angel Tarragon]

I had a feeling that it wouldn't last.

 

[Skrit]

Bah I thought it was ok, sure it wasn't gold but it was very watchable. I'm a big fan of the old Night Stalker and did perfer the bumbling Carl the the straight faced new one. The original one was light hearted and funny for the most part.. I still laugh when I think of some of the quotes from the original such as...

"Kolchak, Major Kolchak, ROTC retired."

Kolchak: "I'm with the Colonel"
Mp: "Colonel who??
Kolochak "Ohh Colonel {Cough}{Gag}"
Mp: "I think you better leave.."

On a side note after watching "Spouse Swap" or whatever on fox last week I think that should be canned.. That was the most Disturbing 5mins of TV ever!!! If you saw it you know what I mean..

 

[Ranger REG]

I do hope somebody puts a bullet in Ghost Whisperer, but unfortunately it's got that annoying sugary sweet Touched by an Angel feel that appeals to many American viewers.

I couldn't resist. After all, the show has Jennifer Love Hewitt and her puppies.

 

[Ranger REG]

I often get annoyed when a show I really likes get cancled. I sometimes wonder why a quality show like say Farscape gets canned yet some truly godawful shows like say The world's next supermodel which is all about selfish backstabbing vain woman stays on the air.

Because we are at the mercy of the mainstream ... who can afford cable. If the antiquated Nielsen system is in the hands of genre audience like me -- along with providing free cable -- Farscape may have stayed on.

 

[farscapesg1]

Farscape killed itself. That web editorial by the ex SCI FI network
exec was pretty spot on. Too many characters, too much turnover, to arcane of a plot. I missed a season, (due to SCI Fi constant shuffling, bad on Sci FI) and was going "who the hell are these people". Mini- series was great, If Farscape had gone that route, momentum would still be there.

The thing that killed Farscape is that Sci-Fi wanted them to "redo" the last season that aired so that more people could get in touch with the show and know what was going on :\ That was one of the biggest appeals to the show for me. If you missed an episode or two you could be lost for awhile. It took dedication to the show to make sure that you either watched the episodes or recorded them. It was sort of like Lost, but even a little more extreme in this area.

I will admit that the number of characters and their turnover was pretty bad. Everything was pretty good up until Xan died. Jul was extremely annoying, as was the old witch lady. My biggest complaint was the way that the bad guys (Crais, Scorpious) flipped over to the good guy's side so easily.

As to the original topic, I can't say that I will miss Night Stalker. I watched a couple episodes and deleted the rest from my HTPC. I just couldn't get into the series, especially with Supernatural on TV also. Sure, Supernatural may not be the cream of the crop quality wise, but there is something there that resembles the original X-files enough that keeps bringing me back

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Now, who is next?

How about Supernatural or The Medium? Don't care for either. Personally I'll be ticked if Surface, Las Vegas or Earl gets cancelled.

 

[Desdichado]

Farscape killed itself.

I've never seen Farscape (although I did check out the first volume of season one on DVD from the library last night, so I am trying to figure out what it's all about) so this should definately be taken with a grain of salt. Very second hand based on what friends of mine (who have seen it) have said.

I haven't heard anyone (yet) in real life (as opposed to online) who really liked Farscape. I wonder sometimes, and maybe Farscape is an example of that, if genre fans are extremely forgiving of genre shows, and like them just because "they are genre" rather than because they are good.

Firefly is a creation of the DVD. I watched Firefly when it was on TV, I liked Firefly, when I saw it, just that liked. On DVD everyone who sees it LOVES IT. Everyone I have leant the DVD to (which is almost everyone I know, hell I would lend them to strangers), experiences the same sleep deprivation because they cant stop watching. Firefly was meant to be watched without commerical interruptions, and with no extraneous interruptions.

I borrowed the DVD from my neighbor, watched about three episodes on the first disc, and then it sat there in my entertainment center untouched for months until finally he asked for it back because he wanted to watch it again before the movie Serenity came out. Not everyone gets it; I liked it well enough, I suppose, but it didn't motivate me to stay up all night watching the entire thing back to back or anything like that. Obviously.

Personally, I don't see what the big deal with Firefly is. I thought it was OK, but nothing that special.

 

[WizarDru]

Personally, I don't see what the big deal with Firefly is. I thought it was OK, but nothing that special.

Well, I'm not trying to convince you, but among all of my friends, the general consense is that the show gets progressively better starting on the second disc and by the third disc becomes uniformly excellent. It's not to everyone's taste, however, but I think it really kicked in around the fifth or sixth episode when everything really 'clicked' writing and actor-wise.

I vote with the "Farscape killed itself" crowd. I lost track of the show and every time I tried to come back, I was completely lost. First season had lots of fun takes on the old SF tropes...but I think they grew too insular. Just because the execs at SciFi said something that wasn't popular doesn't make it wrong, necessarily.

Firefly, by contrast, was killed in a very intentional move by Fox. They pre-empted it very early on, shuffled it around and treated it shabbily. It was very difficult to keep track of when it was on, and that hurt it.

I saw Night Stalker on that continuity; the writers were starting to get their feet on the ground and the cast (and supporting characters) was beginning to gel. I LIKED the fact that, unlike the x-files or other shows, Kolchak was demonstrably wrong. He was still a good reporter, but the TerrorMaker was entirely non-supernatural. This lent creedence to Gabriel Union's character being a doubter.

Supernatural is closer in <i>tone</i> to the original series in that it's got a much more comedic tone to it. I actually consider Supernatural to be the best new series this season. However, you also have to remember that the original Night Stalker was alternately funny and also one of the scariest shows on TV at the time. Supernatural has the comedy down pretty well, but the scary not as much. The new Night Stalker was completely lacking in the comedy, but had the scary part right.

The thing I think that's funny is the claim that if they just remade the series, it'd be a hit! I mean, I LOVE the original series and have for many years...but let's be honest; it was a ratings and critical flop. The original movie was well received, but the series was cancelled due to low ratings and McGavin's dislike for the story direction (which emphasized comedy more than he liked). I mean, the original series was not exactly a runaway hit...expecting the sequel to exactly emulate is a tad unrealistic in itself.

Plus, you have to consider...a lot of the older shows didn't have to deal with many of the story issues we have now. Cell phones are constantly having to be accounted for, to give an example. That's one reason I really liked when the Gabriel Union's character googled Kolchak in the first episode....it's what I would have done.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

I'm still waiting for the show that gets cancelled during the commercial that appears right after the opening credits.

It would be interesting to see a totally new show come back on after the commercial break.

The FoxTrot comic on my desk calendar today has the mom sitting in front of the TV with an announcer telling everyone to be sure to watch the premier of the new hit sitcom while they can since it will be cancelled after tonight...whoops, bad news, it's already cancelled.

 

[Ranger REG]

How about Supernatural or The Medium? Don't care for either. Personally I'll be ticked if Surface, Las Vegas or Earl gets cancelled.

Keep Supernatural. Got some good ideas for use in d20 Modern games.

Medium? Watched the first season. Went back to CSI: Miami.

Surface? We'll see how they complete the first season. I'm hoping the kid hook up with the others.

LV? Meh. At least we'll get one more Uncensored DVD set next year. The only reason I watch is Nikki Cox's puppies. (FINALLY they hired her back ... now as manager).

Earl cracks me up. Who knew that redneck comedy is hip?