Several of my favorite TV shows, such as King of the Hill, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Newsradio live as full of a life as a show could expect. A few, such as The West Wing and Futurama still had a few stories left to tell. Others seem to be perpetual, The Simpsons being the best example of this. A select few were cancelled before their time, the most prominent on this list being the deranged sitcom Arrested Development.
Unlike Futurama, which Fox buried in the 6:00 graveyard for a large portion of its run, or Sportsnight, which was not a good fit on ABC, Arrested Development was given a chance. It received a surprise renewal for a third season, and Fox did try to sell the show. Of course, they never really could find a way to sell it to a broader audience. Doing the old Fox schedule shuffle at the end of the series' run didn't help either.
To be fair to Fox, it was a pretty hard show to sell. The show was rather eccentric, and quite likely wouldn't have grown outside of its cult audience in the best of circumstances. It was quite possibly the worst show ever to try to sell by word of mouth. I remember trying to convince a couple of my friends to check to show out, and I failed miserably. If you hadn't ever seen the show, it was hard to convince yourself to check it out.
I didn't see the pilot episode until I watched the first season DVDs, but I remember watching some of the early episodes. By the end of the first episode that I watched I was hooked. I can't exactly describe why I love the show, it was just something that I looked forward to watching every week. All I know is I can't look at magic, Segways, frozen bananas, or McMansions the same way again.
I know this endorsement is skimpy on the why, but as I said this show is hard to sell. It isn't for everyone, but those that will enjoy will enjoy it thoroughly. Borrow, rent, or even buy the DVDs outright.
After all, there's money in the banana stand. (wink)
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