In the late 90s I didn't watch much TV shows in English. It was limited to The Simpsons, a little bit of Friends, some Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and Frasier, but only with subtitles. So, of course I missed out a lot on many series that might have been worth watching. I tried watching a bit Frasier's precursor, but apart from the title song, Cheers didn't interest me. Also, for some reason that escapes me, Seinfeld rubs me the wrong way.
I discovered the oddly titled NewsRadio as a passing thing of Crackle because it casted the late Phil Hartman. The series' first two seasons were eventually pulled from Crackle, only for the series to show up in entirety on Netflix. From there, I ended up watching the entire series.
What pulled me into the series? Maybe it's the pacing, that's far less at a breakneck pace that modern TV shows. Maybe it's the excellent casting, with Hartman being only one of the many great actors. Maybe it's because it's not insanely funny, which is sometimes better after a long work day. But I think it's because I felt that this show was the last of an era of sitcoms that wouldn't come back and that I missed out completely: Cheap sitcoms always on the verge of cancellation but that are, come to think about it, pretty good, but just not good enough to survive the ruthless war for ratings. Not all TV shows need to be massive hits, and sadly that means that, at least in the US, "niche" shows like NewsRadio can't exist for long, let alone for 5 seasons.
Speaking of early cancellations, I'll start watching that thing called Firefly...
Published on November 26, 2012 at 21:56 EST
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