Finally, the show I’ve been waiting for!  Canwest took a long time to get to this episode of Make or Break TV.  Unlike every other show MoBTV has covered this season, Supertrain is unmitigated crap.  MoBTV knows it’s unmitigated crap.  The person who runs the Supertrain fan site knows it’s unmitigated crap.  I have no idea how this ties in with CanCon regulations, but who cares?

Fred Silverman was a huge part of CBS’ early-1970s “relevant programming” push.  At ABC he destroyed CBS’ claim to network supremacy with escapist fare.  As an independent producer, he appealed to seniors with Matlock, the Perry Mason films and Diagnosis Murder.  NBC is his only tangible career low, Supertrain being the white whale that almost ate the peacock network*.

Supertrain was based on the notion that cloning The Love Boat – a show Silverman helped champion at ABC – would be enough of a concept to hang a series on.  His career highs were the result of exploiting niches, yet he didn’t do that while at NBC.

In fact, NBC seemed to be throwing anything on the air that would attract an audience.  In 1978-79, NBC was banking on Grandpa Goes to Washington, Dick Clark’s Live Wednesday and two nights of The Big Event.  The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, The Rockford Files, Saturday Night Live and a few other programs held the network together with glue and toilet paper.  NBC is not that badly run today.

Make or Break TV goes through the obvious Supertrain talking points in entertaining fashion.  The interviewees don’t sound exciting on paper – writer Brad Radnitz, actor Joey Aresco, producer Curtis Spinner, plus executives Robert Singer and Joseph Stern.  They all give entertaining behind-the-scenes stories, which stuns the hell out of me.

The interviewees paint Dan Curtis as a bit of an asshole here.  He was a control freak, which allowed him to make a small fortune off Dark Shadows and contributed to his success.  He was a big reason why Supertrain failed – his mystery plots didn’t mesh with Fred Silverman’s ideal of a Love Boat clone, and it’s not like he was paying attention to Supertrain‘s runaway budget.

All the same, it’s hard to install Curtis as the reason for the show’s failure.  Supertrain was the very definition of “polished turd.”  The show was rushed onto the production schedule before anyone knew the form the show was going to take.  In addition, the show was placed in the unfathomable position of “saving” NBC.  Since when does one show negate hours upon hours of crap?

Make or Break TV implies that Supertrain was the reason Fred Silverman resigned from NBC in 1981, which is simplistic at best.  Supertrain was just one of the many high-profile bombs NBC dropped during Silverman’s tenure, including Hello, Larry, Pink Lady and Jeff, The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo/Lobo, Mrs. Columbo/Kate Columbo/Kate Loves a Mystery and The Big Show.  Even when Grant Tinker and Brandon Tartikoff began to rebuild the network in 1981, NBC still greenlighted bombs like Manimal and Mr. Smith.

This is the best episode of Make or Break TV, which is bittersweet as the show likely won’t receive a second season.  Make Believe Media’s Lynn Booth admitted as much in an e-mail she sent me.  Hopefully Make or Break TV will receive a DVD set, but I’m not expecting it.  At least the show finished its run, which is more than I can say for My Own Worst Enemy and the new Knight Rider.

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As a special bonus, here’s ten minutes of Express to Terror, the “film version” of Supertrain.  Prism Entertainment put this video out in the late 1980s.  It looks great on one’s shelf next to Desert Warrior, Almost Human and Curse of the Living Corpse.

^{*Bizarrely, the official NBC logo didn’t feature a peacock until the fall of 1979, when Fred Silverman slapped a peacock onto the Big N logo of 1975.  Incidentally, the Big N reportedly cost $600,000 to develop.}

Silverman based NBC’s 1979-80 fall campaign around the peacock.  Thanks to campaigns like “Proud as a Peacock,” the American boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics and shows like Pink Lady and Jeff, NBC almost went bankrupt.  Go figure.

Canadian content: Unsub is one of Stephen J. Cannell’s Vancouver-produced series.  I’m glad to see Make or Break TV find ways to meet CanCon regulations while still talking about American shows.  A show like Make or Break TV would work better in the United States, where there isn’t the need to limit the subject matter just for a cultural mandate.  I love Canadian regulatory laws.

Unsub has a good reputation among Cannell fans.  The Thrilling Detective Web Site considers Unsub one of the best things Cannell ever did, while SFF Net calls it underappreciated by all but a few people.  Renegade does not stir the same emotions in people.

Former NBC president Warren Littlefield is given intense face time on Make or Break TV.  The man made NBC a ratings powerhouse in the mid-1990s, but no wonder he was fired in 1998.  He’s such a smug, unlikable bastard.

Littlefield has a laundry list of excuses why NBC was skittish about Unsub, his excuses being variations on “I was expecting The A-Team/Hunter/Stingray” or “it made advertisers uneasy.”  It almost sounds like he wanted the show to fail.

Littlefield even complains about Unsub‘s name – “is it a submarine? is it underwater?”  Hey Littlefield, what’s a seaQuest DSV?  Is it a quest?  Is it a sea?  Is DSV some guy’s initials?  Network executives must think people are mentally five.

I like how Littlefield says Unsub was not Miami Vice, the show Unsub displaced in February 1989.  Unsub‘s debut episode, a lovely little number called “White Bone Demon,” made former NBC Entertainment president Brandon Tartikoff blanch when it was first screened for him, yet Unsub was green-lit and fast-tracked because Stephen J. Cannell.  Creative control is wacky!

Cannell is interesting to listen to.  The man knows what he’s talking about and obviously knows how to make a critically-acclaimed, successful show.  Even some of his critic-proof shows, like The A-Team, have gained a measure of respect years after their cancellation.  He’s as entertaining as Littlefield is stultifying.

There’s one thing Cannell does that surprises me.  He talks about Unsub being the most interesting show of 1988-89.  He says he gave Steven Bochco’s Hill Street Blues a run for its money.  Uh, Cannell, don’t you mean L.A. Law?  Hill Street Blues was cancelled in 1987.  Why does he mention Steven Bochco, of all people?

This episode of Make or Break TV is sloppily edited in places.  The Unsub clip used in the beginning of the show cuts the chosen dialogue off in mid-sentence.  There is a choppy edit from Stephen J. Cannell to MoBTV‘s “where are they now?” wrap-up.  These are minor faults, which makes me wonder how quickly these episodes are produced.  I hope this is not the start of a trend.

I’d lament the lack of Cannell product currently on television, but many of his series – The Commish, Silk Stalkings, The Greatest American Hero, even Profit – are on DVD.  The A-Team and The Greatest American Hero have been turned into film properties.  It’s hard to escape the man.

Cannell will be around for at least ten more years, in one form or another.  He did create one of television history’s most enduring closing logos:

Ahhh, cheesy.

Wow, eight episodes and Make or Break TV has finally figured out how to do a proper transition!  That’s good.  The “would Show X stay on for another year” lead-outs came across as forced.  It’s about time MoBTV improved its transitions.

EZ Streets showed characters in shades of grey, told intricate stories and had great cinematography.  It featured Joey Pants, d/b/a Joe Pantoliano.  It had the full backing of Anita W. Addison and Leslie Moonves, two powerful CBS executives.  Les Moonves was the president of CBS Entertainment in 1996, so he obviously felt EZ Streets was going to hit big.

CBS didn’t know what it was doing with EZ Streets.  EZ Streets‘ two-hour pilot, sensibly aired after an episode of Touched by an Angel on October 27, 1996, earned limbo-low ratings.  The second episode, aired three days later, fared just as well.  CBS overreacted, killed the show and relaunched it in the spring of 1997.

More great scheduling followed, as EZ Streets – a show where every episode is crucial to its overall plot – picked up where it left off.  The ratings improved, but not enough to justify the effort spent on EZ Streets.  Paul Haggis’ brainchild died its second death after six more episodes.

This episode of Make or Break TV is not as good as last week’s, as Haggis and Gene Stein are not nearly as fun to listen to as Savage Steve Holland.  Luckily, MoBTV doesn’t have to sell EZ Streets like it did The New Adventures of Beans Baxter.  To be honest, the show sells itself.

Haggis has had a spotty career as a showrunner – he created Due South, a Canadian/American co-production.  It lasted two inglorious years on CBS but fared better on Canadian network CTV.  Family Law eked out three seasons on CBS from 1999 to 2002.  Michael Hayes lived out the 1997-98 season, but didn’t salvage David Caruso’s career as CSI: Miami would years later.

Haggis returned to television after winning the 2006 Best Picture Oscar for Crash.  The Black Donnellys would last six episodes on NBC before being relegated to NBC.com.  Haggis’ newest show, Crash, is the first original scripted drama for pay TV service Starz.  Time will tell how that series fares.

Perhaps Haggis can’t run a show to save his life.  He’s been at the helm of many niche shows, but his main claims to fame are EZ Streets and co-creating Walker, Texas Ranger.  He plays down that part of his career, but creating a well-liked Chuck Norris vehicle is nothing to sneer at.  If anything, he should be playing down his scripts for Heathcliff and The Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Puppy Hour.

The New Adventures of Beans Baxter was a spy spoof/domestic sitcom parody/teen comedy.  It was a hyphenate before such things became trendy and popular.  Watching this episode, I realized that films like Agent Cody Banks and Spy Kids have been mining the same comedic territory as Beans Baxter with far greater financial success.  Cartoon behemoth Kim Possible is just a post-modern Beans Baxter with emphasis placed on a cool cheerleader.  Beans Baxter was ahead of its time.

Sometimes I find Make or Break TV‘s research lacking.  The show makes out like Savage Steve Holland made his name with One Crazy Summer and Better Off Dead.  His and Bill Kopp’s work was an integral part of Press Your Luck, and that came before Better Off Dead.  Also, why wasn’t Eek! the Cat mentioned?  That is by far Savage Steve Holland’s greatest success.

Another point of contention: the Canadian dollar wasn’t worth US$0.65 back in 1987.  It hovered around US$0.75 for most of the year, according to this site.  Make or Break TV has never been as bad with its research as Whatever Happened To…?, but enough with the generalizations, please.

The New Adventures of Beans Baxter looks fun.  One can see how low-budget the show is, but Beans Baxter‘s weirdness transcends its budget.  Kurtwood Smith and Elinor Donahue are inspired cast choices.  Smith in particular is great at comic menace, as eight seasons of That ’70s Show make perfectly clear.

I actually laughed when Savage Steve Holland talked about Beans Baxter‘s guest stars.  Kitten Natividad!  G. Gordon Liddy!  Dee Snider!  Who wouldn’t want to watch a show with guest stars like that?

A lot of people, as it turns out.  Fox was a new network in 1987, and Beans Baxter was only on the network due to Fox not having a lot of product.  Werewolf, Women in Prison and Duet briefly shared a Saturday with Beans Baxter, while Sunday had The Tracey Ullman Show, Married…With Children and 21 Jump Street.  Saturday was an afterthought to Fox.

The Make or Break TV announcer dismissively calls Werewolf, Women in Prison and Duet forgettable, although Werewolf had its fans and Women in Prison had a unique premise.  Sure, they weren’t Married…With Children or 21 Jump Street, but those shows were part of the Fox I miss.  I’ll give Duet to MoBTV, but at least Duet lasted more than the one season.

As an aside, there aren’t any shows I know of featuring women werewolves in prison.  Don’t tell me that show wouldn’t be exciting.  Hell, it would be more realistic and less outlandish than Prison Break.

If anything hindered Beans Baxter‘s success, it was Savage Steve Holland.  He was the executive producer, director and head writer.  The show was made for a family audience, yet had Wendy O. Williams in a recurring role.  It’s hard for any show to be both edgy and family-friendly.  Of course, Eek! the Cat had dyslexia jokes and featured the voice talents of Tawny Kitaen, so I’m just going to give the point to Holland.

In one of the odder permutations of his career, Savage Steve Holland has become a Disney Channel stalwart.  He’s directed the Disney TV-movies Shredderman Rules and Stuck in the Suburbs, as well as episodes of Even Stevens and Lizzie McGuire.  Holland has also directed episodes of V.I.P. and Shasta McNasty.

Holland has dabbled in proper films lately, directing National Lampoon’s Ratko: The Dictator’s Son and Legally Blondes.  It would be nice to see Holland make a comeback, as he’s been doing straight-to-video fare for far too long.  In lieu of a proper ending, here are some Whammies from Press Your Luck.

Six shows in, there is only one show (Lonesome Dove: The Series) that Make or Break TV hasn’t convinced me to check out.  The show’s strength is to take a marginal show like Grapevine and sell it effectively to the audience.  The MoBTV formula is solid.  I can’t see a sudden drop in quality affect the rest of Make or Break TV‘s season, since such a drop should have happened by now.

Grapevine is unique in that CBS placed the show on its schedules twice, programming both iterations of the show between two of CBS’ biggest hits.  In 1992, Grapevine was between Murphy Brown and Northern Exposure.  2000 saw the show connect Everybody Loves Raymond and King of Queens.

The show failed both times due to Grapevine being different from what was on CBS at the time – at least, that’s the accepted wisdom trumpeted by Make or Break TV.  I don’t buy it, at least for the 1992 version – Murphy Brown was a lead-in, and the Murphy Brown audience should have been smart enough to appreciate adult comedy.

Grapevine‘s “edgy” nature is probably what did the show in the first time.  A few CBS affiliates wouldn’t air Grapevine and advertisers avoided it.  Those shows don’t last long without enormously high ratings to justify the controversy.  Grapevine was burned off in the summer, a sign CBS had no faith that the show would attract an audience.

The 2000 version of Grapevine looks to have been poorly scheduled.  Airing an urban relationship comedy between two blue-collar domestic sitcoms?  Even with the show’s tone being lightened, it doesn’t make sense to air Grapevine there.  That’s like airing Aqua Teen Hunger Force between Johnny Bravo and The Powerpuff Girls.  Grapevine would have done better on Showtime, where it could afford to be more explicit than on network television.

Even with shows I don’t personally think should be on Make or Break TV, the show gives good reasons why its subjects have merit.  TV.com does not rate either version of Grapevine higher than “fair,” despite the critical acclaim Grapevine received back in 1992 and 2000.  Nevertheless, Make or Break TV has convinced me to catch Grapevine for myself.

The one thing I don’t like about this episode is Make or Break TV relying on another show that, technically, ran for two seasons.  The seasons were almost eight years apart, but this is stretching MoBTV‘s conceit of covering one-season wonders.  The list of cult one-season wonders is enormous, so why Grapevine?

At least this is the last questionable choice on Make or Break TV‘s itinerary.  I hope the show gets to Supertrain soon, but TVTropolis will doubtless air Profit or Unsub.  Canwest hates me.

Blade: The Series is a nice change-up for Make or Break TV.  This time, lack of viewer and/or network/syndicator interest isn’t the reason the show died.  Here, Blade: The Series was earning credible ratings for Spike.  Crucially, they weren’t nip/tuck, The Closer or Monk-level ratings, so better in Spike’s eyes to focus on the increasingly trendy UFC and launch new drama shows sometime down the road.

After three episodes, Spike TV felt Blade: The Series wasn’t edgy enough for the network. Blade: The Series initially didn’t have a second unit for more action sequences, which is a curious omission in a series based on a blockbuster action film franchise.  Former Spike TV executive vice-president Pancho Mansfield is given a bit of face time, trying to justify not renewing the show.  He comes across as a face in the crowd, and executives tend to have that quality.

Spike’s horrible scheduling ruined Blade: The Series‘ chance for renewal, as Make or Break TV states.  Why would Spike executives air an episode, then air the same episode immediately afterwards?  TVTropolis’ scheduling of Make or Break TV is almost as bad, but TVTropolis didn’t hype the show’s premiere one-hundredth as much as Spike did the two-hour Blade: The Series pilot.

Kirk ‘Sticky Fingaz’ Jones, Blade: The Series‘ title character and former member of rap group Onyx, comes across as intermittently insightful and stupid.  He’ll point out that Buffy the Vampire Slayer took a few seasons to catch on, then complain about how Blade ‘never got none.’  He seems to be having the most fun with his interview, so that’s a plus.

The other interviewees aren’t as notable, although former New Line Television vice president Jon Kroll has a good anecdote about how David S. Goyer’s pitch for Blade: The Series was enhanced by laryngitis.  Apparently whispering made Blade: The Series seem more mysterious to Spike TV.

I can’t vouch for the veracity of Kroll’s anecdote – Goyer admits he had laryngitis while pitching Blade: The Series, but Spike TV was probably more impressed by the Blade film series’ habit of making money.  The promise of making money hand-over-fist helps sell any pitch.

Make or Break TV seems to be improving week by week.  The third act lead-outs of each four-act episode are still predictable.  MoBTV deals with shows that were cancelled after a season or two, so the “will X be saved from cancellation” cliffhanger is pointless.  The show isn’t forcing drama like it was previously, so the writing’s getting better.

Make or Break TV could benefit from TVTropolis’ website identifying which episode will air next week.  Wikipedia has proven a useless guide.  It would be nice for TVTropolis to have a more informative schedule overall, that and fix spelling mistakes on its site.  One sometimes has to wonder what the point of TVTropolis is beyond housing Family Guy reruns seven hundred times a week.  There’s only so much to see of Peter Griffin’s sideboob.