Each year Kristin Veitch, who effusively writes about TV over at E! Online, tallies up the 15-or-so shows that are flirting with (or begging for) cancellation. Her readership of rabid super-fans is given the opportunity to vote for the ONE they are most interested in seeing return next season, and then Kristin spends the next month exhausting all of her industry connections to ensure that the chosen program is spared the guillotine. She is almost always successful, with only one show not being renewed in the last six years. So while I’d like to save all of my shows, here are the three I feel to be most deserving of her fervent campaigning:
Friday Night Lights has wavered in the ratings over the course of the season, but the quality has remained on a clearly upward trajectory. Charming and honest in its portrayals of big personalities desperate to rise above mundane small town life, the show’s refusal to go the melodramatic route of so many “teen soaps” makes me fall harder every week. With some of my favorite shows making some annoying missteps this season, I honestly think FNL was the best thing out there this year.
How I Met Your Mother turned out to be so much more than a post-Buffy vehicle for my weekly dose of Alyson Hannigan, it’s the funniest show on network TV. Defying expectations that it would exist solely in the shadow of Friends, HIMYM is more innovative and intelligent in its humor than its similarly themed predecessor ever was. The cast’s organic chemistry is palpable, and it’s nice to watch an ensemble where you know that none of the personalities will ever become bigger than the group.
Oh, Veronica Mars, how is it that we end up in the same place every year? With three seasons worth of chances to make a go of it, no real increase in viewership and some recent creative falters, I’d be lying if I said I was surprised by Veronica’s status as “likely doomed.” But I’m still not ready to say goodbye – especially if the show adopts the suggested flash-forward to Veronica’s career as an FBI agent. Both scary and exciting, a dramatic retool of Veronica Mars might be exactly what the show needs to finally find its footing.
In the end, I have to cast my vote for Veronica. We’ve been together the longest, and I honestly think she’s the only one with a real chance of cancellation. And though I have a great deal of faith in Kristin, I’m skeptical about some of her readers. Last year’s decision to save One Tree Hill was a vomit-inducing punch in the gut. So if any of the aforementioned three don’t find their way to the 2007-08 season because everyone votes for effing What About Brian, you can count on me launching a similarly themed, and severely less effective, Save One Deserving Show campaign next year.
