Comedy Central will begin airing all 13 episodes of ABC’s canceled animated series from Mike Judge, The Goode Family, in January, we learned today. The network is also in talks to pick up Fox’s animated high school series from Mitch Hurwitz, Sit Down, Shut Up, which flopped this spring. Insiders deny that Comedy Central plans to revive these series like it did by agreeing to air new episodes of Futurama, but both shows could benefit from airtime on a cable net that more of their target audience is probably already watching — even if the only benefit is increased awareness. Is this really a win for viewers, though? I gave The Goode Family (embedded below) a chance this summer, and I don’t think I’d seek it out again on any channel. With so many new comedy projects never seeing the light of a cathode ray (lame!), is it better to let failed freshman series rest in peace, or do they deserve a second shot?
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Should stay dead. Mike Judge should revisit Beavis & Butthead.
The problem is he HAS been revisiting Beavis and Butt-Head by giving all of the show’s supporting players (their voices and character, anyway) their own TV shows. Granted, it worked very well for King of the Hill (for some reason), but The Goode Family’s cancellation should have been an indication that it’s time for Judge to get original again before he considers a new cartoon for a thinly disguised Buzz the gym teacher or a sitcom based at Burger World.
I think a lot of it depends on the show. If someone thinks that by revisiting this kind of thing, you could SAVE it (read: if it’s good enough that people should have paid attention the first time), it’s probably better to do this sooner rather than later, before the cast and crew scatter. But just to fill airtime? Jeez, just take a chance on something new.
Huh?
This show actually got better as it went along. Nothing brilliant or anything, but that’s a lot more than I can say for Sit Down Shut Up or The Cleveland Show.
I would assume that a canceled show would be much cheaper than one that is “from scratch”, not to mention that it is something that you don’t have to wait for. You know exactly what you are getting when you buy it, while anything “new” is something up in the air. For cable television, getting lower ratings than the networks means less money, so a good chunk of their program is going to be on a budget.