Last year we saw some major returns to television, former television and movie superstars finally landed network shows once again after having been gone from the scene for ages. The thought that major star power would be enough to draw people to watch the shows which would help increase the rating each network could garner on Thursday nights. (hitfix) NBC took the chance on Michael J. Fox who had been a big enough draw to make two series top the ratings in the past, Family Ties and Spin City, so it almost seemed like an easy choice that would yield amazing results. (nbc) While there were some people who enjoyed the show and watched it weekly, but for the most part the reviews were rather bad and the ratings numbers just never quite seemed to meet expectations. (cinemablend) The experiment of bringing back an old school television legend proved unsuccessful for NBC, while people never really bashed him or his ability, the show just never did get footing with a solid fan base, and at the end of the day the network had the unenviable task of having to cut loose what should have been such a promising show. (chicagonow)
On the other side of the dial CBS took their shot with a massive star, a legend of not just television but also movies and standup comedy was coming back to the family after having been gone since the days of Mork and Mindy. (cbstvd) CBS landed Robin Williams for one of their new sitcoms, along with Sarah Michelle Gellar, The Crazy Ones with the hopes that his name and reputation would be enough to attract viewers to the network and on night one their gamble appeared to have paid off. (ew) While the opening night success was looked at as a great win for the upstart comedy series, unfortunately it couldn’t hold onto those viewers, (zap2it) The steep dropoff from opening night was massive, to have gone from about 15 and a half million viewers all the day down to right around 8 million in just one week is staggering that the eventual outcome for the series was pretty much written on the walls in spite of the mostly positive reviews. (metacritic) This week amongst all the other shows that were cut by the networks, some that were universally recognized as deserving the cut and others that were beloved by those who watched, we saw the legends finally set free. (ew) It’s unfortunate that shows with such talented stars couldn’t find a footing with television viewers, but in this day and age it seems that a big name alone isn’t enough to save a show, just look at TNT’s Men of a Certain Age. (wikipedia)
