Is it a wonder that television as it once was is a lost art? Innovative and provocative programing is lost on the airwaves anymore save for the CSIs and other crime docudramas that vain its comparison... With few exceptions on quality casting, such as that of Mark Harmon in NCIS, most of these are simply carbon copies of each other...

Then we get reality Television which has been the BANE of television for several years now... We just can not get way from this stuff it seems. And naturally the studios love it cause there is no Talent to pay off for this programing, just a 1 shot prize and a few teaser prizes along the way... (most of which are free perks for any other production.)

Now we come to 2007. Several new programs hit the air in September, and still more in October. But yet even though only a hand full of ephs have made it to air several are already being primed for cancellation... NBC with Bionic Women andJourneyman, and the somewhat dull Chuck (Greg Brady whimp with a chip in his head kinda, with a Marsha Brady super spy, Common man, give me a break, this was not even imaginative it was a waste) ... All of which are early chopping block contenders...

Where is the studios giving a show a chance to blossom and gain an audience share? If memory serves if the studio was to use this criteria just a few years ago, shows like Friends or Seinfeld would have never made it past season 1... Law and Order would have never even got past 5 ephs...

The point is that MOST shows will not be the nieson hits overnight that the studios seem to want them to be. For the most part the public does not watch TV in the same way we did a decade ago. Tivo and PDVR in cable boxes pretty much changed the face of must see television to match our hectic lives. this is something Nielson has no way of tracking to date, and as such is representative of the poor system that exists for show ratings.

While many of these shows are popular, still more people have yet to see some of them as they have not taken the time to view them yet. They have only aired a few times. the Buzz has not happened yet. they are all still in story building phases and have yet to have 1 great adventure in any of them... Indeed beloved shows like Quantum Leap, CSI took a few ephs to get the ball rolling before they were considered a hit. Even Heroes last year took at least 5 ephs before people started watching and saying Hey this is good stuff...

Anymore the public does not want to invest into a new show unless they know it is going to be around for a while. because it is so heart breaking to get into a program only to have it pulled out from under you with no closure whatsoever... Prime example the POOR decision of pulling Jericho from the air prematurely before it have the opportunity to finish the story they begun and got people interested in. In turn the public sent a massive message in the form of TONs of NUTS (a ref to the last line of the series) to the studio to let them know how disappointed they were in their decision.

If a studio can not be bothered to allow a series to develop and mature for at least a season, I personally would prefer to to have them pass on the production completely and leave it to a studio that is willing to give a new series a chance before pulling the plug on it.

Here is to hoping we someday in our lives find another gem of a series like MASH or St Elsewhere, or Friends, that will return the networks to the normal process of PRODUCING something that we can invest our time and loyalty into once again.