Mind boggling that this show was canceled after one season…
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gppressingon — 14 years ago(April 26, 2011 11:12 AM)
I've been watching the DVDs with my Mom and after each episode we ask ourselves the same question"How could such a great series be canceled after one year?"
Were the ratings so bad as to warrant cancelation? I looked up on Wikipedia the 1975-76 television season and see that ELLERY QUEEN aired on Thursday nights, 9-10pm Eastern. It was up against THE CBS THURSDAY NIGHT MOVIE and THE STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO on ABC (which series was the slot's top-rated show). It's strong competition, but not devastating (like, for example, going up against ALL IN THE FAMILY).
The Wikipedia page for the series notes that Richard Schickel of TIME Magazine panned it. He said it failed to evoke nostalgia. Maybe he was representative of other critics and viewers. The late 1940s setting was only 30 years removed, like our watching a series set in the early 1980s (though 1950's nostalgia was booming in '75-76 with HAPPY DAYS and LAVERNE & SHIRLEY).
I wonder if in 1975 there just wasn't an older, dare I say more sophisticated audience like that which aged in time to make MURDER, SHE WROTE a hit. The writing in ELLERY QUEEN is excellent, the episodes' casts boast some of the best stars of big and small screen, but in '75 it seems like viewers wanted fast-moving, action-oriented stories like STARSKY & HUTCH and BARETTA.
That's just my guessthe old "ahead of it's time" excuse. I'm just grateful for the DVDs, because it would be a shame for a great series like this to disappear down the memory hole because it ran only one year. -
misspaddylee — 14 years ago(September 09, 2011 05:23 PM)
The Wikipedia page for the series notes that Richard Schickel of TIME Magazine panned it. He said it failed to evoke nostalgia. Maybe he was representative of other critics and viewers.
I remember that Cleveland Amory of TV Guide absolutely adored the series. The strong fan base has never forgotten it. Funny thing is, I seem to remember watching it on Sunday evenings, not Thursday. I guess I was transported to another world when the show was on.
"Tell me about the squares, Buzzie." -
heymrbluesman — 13 years ago(June 17, 2012 06:31 PM)
Thank you misspaddylee - I also seem to remember watching it on Sunday nights. As I read through this, I thought, "boy, I'm usually pretty good about remembering when something was on and I remember this being on Sundays." Thursday or Sunday, it was a fantastic show (even for 1 season). That I can still remember so many details, now, almost 40 years later, is a testament to how good this show was.
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Mincom — 14 years ago(September 01, 2011 10:04 PM)
I so agree with the original post. After purchasing and viewing this series on DVD, I can't believe the show would have been cancelled after one season.
It should have lasted for several seasons, it's certainly much better than 'Murder She Wrote'. -
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Jimmy-128 — 12 years ago(November 29, 2013 12:49 PM)
Agreed. David Wayne was one of my favorite character actors.
I tend to lean toward the "ratings/production costs" argument rather than the one citing Jim Hutton's health. "Wonder Woman" had gotten cancelled, too, because of the high production costs of a series set in the 1940s (the series only survived by moving to another network and moving the setting up to the 1970s). -
FlushingCaps — 12 years ago(March 07, 2014 11:30 AM)
I agree with all you wrote (long ago) Flaxy. This show was brilliant and should have been the long-running hit that Murder She Wrote was. I liked the recurring characters of Simon Brimmer and Frank Flannigan and they got some good laughs in particular from Flannigan with his "predictions" for the future that we, years later, knew were totally off the mark.
As for the Thursday/Sunday argument, The Complete Directory of Prime Time TV Shows lists this being on Thursday from September to December 1975 at 9 p.m. EST and then moving to Sunday nights at 8 from January 1976 until it left the air in September 1976.
On a Detective DVD set I got a while ago, there was 1 episode of the old Ellery Queenthe one that was on from 1950-52. That episode had THE cheapest set I ever saw. Queen was supposed to be investigating a killing at a circus. We essentially saw a couple of different curtains (supposed to be the back wall of tents) for virtually every scene. They had a few of the usual circus people but all we saw was the inside of a couple of their tents.
I'd love to see another incarnation of this seriesI know we don't have Jim Hutton, but, well, we don't. But something else set up like this series, put on in a good time slot could easily be a successful show. Maybe on a USA type channel, it could run like Monk did. But it would be good to NOT have it set in present day, with all the DNA and scientific investigating, it would get lost amidst those types of shows. The late 40s was a great time for the settingI would go there again.