Image Credit: Andrew Eccles/ABC FamilyThanks to the ladies at Jezebel, there’s a petition to save ABC Family’s fat-camp teen drama Huge, which was canceled Monday. I’ve signed it — here’s why you should, too:
1. While larger folks have been showing up more on television lately — see Drop Dead Diva, Mike & Molly — they’re still far outnumbered by model-thin types. We can’t afford to lose any of them when they’re on even a decent show — and this was more than decent. Which brings us to …
2. With Greek on its way out and Ten Things I Hate About You gone, Huge represented the next great hope for the network’s tradition of realistic, witty, sensitive portrayals of teens. I enjoy watching Pretty Little Liars and Melissa and Joey, but they’re guilty pleasures. Huge was the real thing, no surprise since it came from My So-Called Life creator Winnie Holzman and her daughter, Savannah Dooley. Speaking of which …
3. It was ostensibly about kids at fat camp, and it tackled their problems as such with sensitivity but without condescension. It was funny and fun and heartbreaking, sometimes all in one scene. So many of the plots were fresh because it featured so much previously un-mined territory for TV: a black-market junkfood operation, a turf war with the athletic kids at a neighboring camp, the unexpected joy and pressure of being the thinnest girl at fat camp, the struggles of the formerly-overweight head counselor (the lovely Gina Torres) to stay thin.
4. It also tackled bunches of other teen drama stuff that had nothing to do with its weight issues: geeks versus cool kids, unrequited love, problematic parents. We have too many ridiculous teen dramas featuring ridiculously privileged, impossibly beautiful characters played by 30-year-olds and not enough with the quiet conviction to show the real problems of unvarnished young people.
5. The adorable cast. Nikki Blonsky, in particular, was nothing short of fearless (I will never forget her stripping-down-to-her-bathing-suit scene in the pilot) as angry-girl Will; Hayley Hasselhoff was a delight as hottest-camper Amber. I also developed a wicked (and borderline inappropriate) crush on Amber’s fitness-coach crush, George (original 90210 dad James Eckhouse’s son, Zander).
What do you say, PopWatchers? Will you sign the petition to save Huge?
I’m signing it just because it was a good show. That’s reason enough.
I sort of liked it, but it had trouble holding my interest. If it has no competition it will get my DVR approval, but I don’t know that it was worth saving.
I am an overweight woman, and championed this show when I first heard about it. After watching it, I found it to be poorly acted and poorly written. I just couldn’t get on board. I think it got cnacelled because it was just not engaging.
My friend made me watch an episode of ABC Family’s favorite hit show, The Secret Life of the American Teenager, and I am flabbergasted at how a show with such horrible writing, acting, and premise can receive multiple seasons when compelling shows like Huge and 10 Things I Hate About You get canned before one can say “Ethan Peck’s Abs”. So disheartening, I signed and am promoting on my Facebook!
agreed
i agree. i really enjoy huge and 10 things. they should be brought back!!
I tried watching Secret Life once and couldn’t get through 10 mins. Huge on the other hand I really liked. I plan to sign the petition.
You can’t figure it out? Really? It’s called R A T I N G S.
It was on abcfamily and it was one of the highest rated shows on that network….check your facts
I loved this show. It was amazing! I signed and would encourage others to sign it as well!
Oh. I misread and clicked trhogh because I thought they meant “Hung”. Who’d wanna watch this cow? Step away from the Twinkie, baby.
You’re a charmer, Tom. Don’t let anyone tell you any different.
Choke down enough strawberry shakes today to quell the emptiness inside, Sparkles?
“Clicked throgh”? You obviously misread the name of the show because you are illiterate. In case you don’t understand what that big fancy word means, I’ll put it another way: You are dumb. D-U-M-B dumb. No one cares what you think.
At least you’re cool on the internet, Tom.
It’s great that recent shows have been tackling this subject, but it seems to me that there’s an extreme dichotomy between shows like Mike & Molly and Huge versus shows that feature mostly skinny people. Why do characters have to be either skinny or overweight? Why aren’t there medium-sized, average people on television? And why do the premises of shows that feature multiple overweight people usually revolve entirely around weight issues? I guess I’d just like to see a more realistic range of sizes and shapes on television shows, especially on shows that have nothing to do with weight.
Medium-sized/average = fat to the typical network executive and sadly, to many viewers. Sad but true. I also agree that it would be nice if a show just featured a larger character without making weight one of the central plotlines.
This is why I loved the way Lost initially handled Hurley (big guy, people mentioned it realistically, but it wasn’t an issue or defining trait of his)….until they did his backstory and it turns out his mental illness was basically derived in a really bizarre way from his weight. That drove me crazy. Of COURSE the fat guy’s major life story has to do with his size. Because TV writers don’t know how to handle overweight people any other way. Um, overweight people do struggle with their weight and trying to get healthier and feelings of inferiority and all that…but some of us also have interesting careers, great families, other aspects of our personalities that aren’t related to our weight…sigh.
This drives me crazy too. But like TJ said, the “average American” is fat in the eyes of a network exec. Whenever things try to be inclusive or show “all shapes and sizes” it ends up just being the usual rail-thin people and then overweight people. I see a lot of daytime shows that have a show celebrating women who aren’t size 0, but they don’t show avearge, they show ppl who are very overweight and talk about “real women” and it just drives me insane.
There absolutely should be a range of people on tv. Huge really did have kids who were a wide range of sizes–Amber and her friend (don’t remember her name) are probably more “average”-sized. Not only that, but there was a boy, Alistair, who sometimes called himself a female name. They were really exploring weight and gender like no other mainstream show I’ve seen.
I watched the first episode and thought it was awful. No loss for me.
There is also a Facebook page/group called SAVE HUGE which I hope fans of HUGE will join, too. Saving HUGE is about numbers and the more fans we get, the easier it will be to show the network what a big mistake they made. We also know that some cancelled shows have come back on other networks, so again, more fans showing their support = the possibility of another network seeing how devoted HUGE fans are! All you have to do is go to Facebook, search SAVE HUGE and then click the “like” button– it’s that easy. One important thing you can do to help SAVE HUGE is to write the Executive Vice Preseident of Programming and Development and tell her how much HUGE means to you and how much you want the show to come back (mailing info is at the bottom of this post). One simple thing you can do to show support for HUGE: change your profile picture on FB (or your background on Twitter, etc.) to a HUGE pic/ image. We have some images on SAVE HUGE or there are lots on the web, just Google HUGE. Don’t just sit there and morn… DO SOMETHING to try to bring this amazing show back!!
Here’s the mailing info for the Executive Vice Preseident of Programming and Development at ABCFamily
Kate Juergens
EVP Original Programming and Development
ABC Family Worldwide, Inc
500 S. Buena Vista St.
Burbank, CA
91521
I signed and gave the URL to a few friends. I thought it was a great show and am disappointed that it was canceled. An online petition probably won’t make a difference, but like the creator said, it doesn’t hurt to try!
Can you please e-mail me the URL for the petition. I loved this show. Thanks.
i love this show! as a “bigger” person i really enjoy it.
I thought Huge was terrible. A boring show. Now Drop Dead Diva is interesting with great stories that don’t revolve around people being HUGE, but it has a plus size actress staring in the show. Big difference.
the characters, situations, and problems of huge were so relatable. huge was probably one of the few only real shows on tv right now. just because it went into uncharted territory doesnt mean it should be cancelled. it most represents americans more than any other show i have ever seen. please bring it back!
We see overweight people way too often in everyday life. It’s harsh, but true. With that in mind, why fight to show more on tv (when the show in question is sub-par at best.)
Ok this mgith get some people on my case, but here goes. Being overweight, fat, what have you is one of the last prejudices that society seems to not only allow happy but to go “oh yes, they really are lesser human beings”. If there’s anything that we’ve learned in the past month with people in the other socially- acceptable prejudice group, (the LGBT group) committing suicide because of how they are treated and what they see (on the news and in the media) is that what people see and hear is important! If you’re overweight and hear nothing but “you’re not a real person! you’re disgusting” all day and see nothing but thin people that wears down on a person.
And have you ever seen British TV? It’s a great mix of thin, average, overweight (both men and women) people, model-gorgeous and average-looking people. I wish that just one American TV exec would decide that the Brits are smart.
Where do I sign!