THE TV COLUMN : ABC’s ax chops Men in Trees
Posted on Sunday, May 11, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/Style/225463/
It’s hard to believe, but it’s already time to start saying goodbye for the season to our favorite TV shows.
It was a bizarre, strikemarred year that saw a lot of series truncated and harried substitutes wither after only an episode or two.
The strike also meant some series were bounced around and yanked and returned and yanked again, then shuffled to new time periods and finally canceled with a scratch of the head and wondering why they never found an audience.
The poster boy for such foolishness is ABC’s romantic comedy Men in Trees, which was officially pink-slipped last week. The final episodes will be burned off beginning May 28.
Mistreated ? ABC moved the series six — six ! — times and put it on the shelf for two long time periods. Viewers can’t recall what was on last week, let alone be expected to remember all that. And (pass the hanky ) another, more heartbreaking fallout is that co-stars and forever soul mates Anne Heche and James Tupper dumped their respective spouses for each other. Now that the series is history, will their storybook, made-in-Hollywood romance also hit the skids ? Heche was Ellen DeGeneres’ girlfriend for three years before marrying cameraman Coleman Laffoon in 2007 (they had a child on the way ). She left Laffoon for the rugged and he-manly Tupper last year.
If Anne and James break up, we can blame ABC and send a nasty letter to the suits saying we hope they’re proud of themselves.
Sigh. Take a moment to collect yourselves if you need to.
Meanwhile, here are some of the series leaving us for the season this week.
Today: Survivor: Micronesia, 7 p. m., CBS; Brothers and Sisters, 9: 02 p. m., ABC.
Monday: Samantha Who ?, 8: 32 p. m., ABC; Medium, 9 p. m., NBC; The Hills, 9 p. m., MTV; The Bachelor, 9: 02 p. m., ABC.
Tuesday: Beauty and the Geek, 7 p. m., The CW; Law & Order: SVU, 9 p. m., NBC; Women’s Murder Club, 9: 02 p. m., ABC.
Wednesday: America’s Next Top Model, 7 p. m., The CW; ’Til Death, 7 p. m., Fox; Back to You, 7: 30 p. m., Fox.
Thursday: Smallville, 7 p. m., The CW; Are You Smarter Than a 5 th Grader ? 7 p. m., Fox; My Name Is Earl, 7 p. m., NBC; CSI, 8 p. m., CBS; Supernatural, 8 p. m., The CW; Don’t Forget the Lyrics ! 8 p. m., Fox; The Office, 8 p. m., NBC; Without a Trace, 9: 01 p. m., CBS; ER, Thursday, 9: 01 p. m., NBC.
Friday: America’s Funniest Home Videos, 7 p. m., ABC; Ghost Whisperer, 7 p. m., CBS; Moonlight, 8 p. m., CBS; Numb 3 rs, 9 p. m., CBS.
So long, Lex. Watch Smallville’s finale on Thursday and see the final performance of Michael Rosenbaum as Lex Luthor. Rosenbaum and his shaved head have put in seven seasons on the series and he says it’s time to move on. There’s always the possibility of a guest appearance down the road.
The buzz has two new villains joining the cast to vex Clark Kent. One is Doomsday and the other is a dangerous, dangerous woman. Thanks, Mom. Today is Mother’s Day and in honor of the occasion, TiVo has released its list of Top TV Moms. The survey was conducted by eRewards Market Research. The outfit polled 1, 507 scientifically selected adults. The survey has a 2. 52 percent margin of error.
Most bizarre, the survey found that 15 percent of those questioned admitted to adapting their parenting style from a TV mom. The good news is that 85 percent said they did not.
Of those who did pick up tips, let’s hope they emulated Clair Huxtable or June Cleaver and not Peg Bundy or Carmella Soprano.
Here they are ranked by the percentage of those polled who included them on their list of Top 20.
1. Clair Huxtable: The Cosby Show, 58 percent
2. Marion Cunningham: Happy Days, 37 percent
2. Carol Brady: The Brady Bunch, 37 percent
4. June Cleaver: Leave It to Beaver, 34 percent
5. Marge Simpson: The Simpsons, 33 percent
6. Wilma Flintstone: The Flintstones, 29 percent
7. Vivian Banks: Fresh Prince of Bel Air, 27 percent
8. Caroline Ingalls: Little House on the Prairie, 27 percent
9. Maggie Seaver: Growing Pains, 25 percent
10. Marie Barone: Everybody Loves Raymond, 24 percent
11. Peggy Bundy: Married... With Children, 23 percent
12. Lois Griffin: Family Guy, 21 percent
13. Shirley Partridge: The Partridge Family, 22 percent
14. Lorelai Gilmore: The Gilmore Girls, 20 percent
15. Roseanne: Roseanne, 20 percent
16. Carmella Soprano: The Sopranos, 14 percent
16. Bree Van de Kamp: Desperate Housewives, 14 percent
18. Norma Arnold: The Wonder Years, 13 percent
18. Estelle Costanza: Seinfeld, 13 percent
20. Lucille Bluth: Arrested Development, 6 percent The TV column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. E-mail: mstorey@arkansasonline. com