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Every week day, I let you know what’s happening in the world of television from around the world

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Futurama may get a reprieve

4 January 2006 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Futurama

We’ve talked before about Fox’s nasty habit of cancelling quality shows and how it seems finally to have developed a quality filter. Now, there’s nothing harder for a TV executive to do than to say they were wrong. But it seems Fox has learnt its lesson over Futurama and is contemplating bringing the show back after it scored success on DVD.

I’m not a big fan of Futurama but it was still a good show, killed before its prime. Off the top of my head, I can name quite a few shows that also bit the dust in the US before they should have as I’m sure you can. But the interesting aspect of this is that DVDs are now enabling networks to spot recent shows that were good but low-rated because of poor advertising or scheduling. Anyone want to run a sweepstake on what the next show they’ll bring back from the dead will be?

News

What Charlie did next

29 December 2005 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

Charlie Skelton, astronaut
In case you’re wondering what Charlie Skelton, Space Cadet, has been up to since he returned to Earth, you may be interested to know he’s set up his own company.

It doesn’t actually do anything, this company. But apparently he likes the idea of things such as team-bonding exercises and outwards bounds courses and doesn’t get that kind of experience any more, even though he’s a contracted writer for Endemol. This way he gets to enjoy the perks of company life without having to actually do contracted employee things full-time.

Nice bit of lateral thinking, Charlie. Sign me up for the white-water rafting!

BBC Four’s return to normality was just a blip

22 December 2005 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

My head’s in a whirl again. No sooner do I think that BBC Four has returned to a post-Christmas schedule of unwatchable crud, then they start to unveil things like Jonathan Ross’s Asian Invasion.

Say what you like about Jonathan Ross – I’ve probably said it already – but when it comes to films, he really knows his stuff. His 1980s Channel Four film programme, the Incredibly Strange Film Show, introduced a whole generation of British youth to Jackie Chan movies long before he became ubiquitous in Hollywood, and that was just one of its achievements. So a three-part tour of Asian cinema by Johnny can only be good.

While researching this entry, I came across an article in The Independent, which suggested that BBC4’s ascent into watchability may actually be a strategy by BBC4 controller Janice Hadlow. If it is, my hat’s off to you Ms Hadlow. It turns out you may be the only controller in British television who knows what she’s doing.