Trio Trophy - Day Five

Quick programming note - no new pairings will be posted over the weekend. Results will be posted, but you'll get your next slate of shows on Monday.

From the Turn On bracket:

(4) Murder One v. (13) The Dana Carvey Show

Murder One took an inventive approach to the courtroom procedural. The plan was to focus on one case over the course of the season, from the perspective of a defense attorney, Ted Hoffman, and the lawyers at his namesake firm as they defended Neil Avedon, a well-known actor charged with killing a 15-year-old girl. There were a few other cases handled by the other lawyers, providing some B-story relief.

The second season strayed from the original concept, as ratings suggested that the serial nature of the series limited new viewers from joining the series in progress, and viewers who missed an episode or two couldn't catch up. Hoffman was out (actor Daniel Benzali left the show) and was replaced by Jimmy Wyler (Anthony LaPaglia), a former district attorney who quit his job to start his own defense practice.

The new focus and change in cast didn't help the ratings, so ABC pulled the plug on the show after 41 episodes from 1995 to 1997.

You can see full episodes of the show here.

The Dana Carvey Show premiered after an episode of Home Improvement, with its first skit featuring Bill Clinton proving his compassion by suckling a baby, kittens and puppies. Tool Time it wasn't. No surprise, then, that ratings for the show never really took off, even as the show earned praise from critics.

Timeslot issues aside, the show did feature a strong cast, including Steve Carrell, Stephen Colbert and Robert Smigel, who would first launch The Ambiguously Gay Duo on this show. All were also writers for the show, joined by the likes of Charlie Kaufman, Spike Feresten, and Louis C.K. Carvey's contributions included new material and a return to some of his SNL work. One notable contribution from this show to SNL was a skit lifted from the unaired final episode, where Carvey plays Tom Browkaw as he rehearses a number of death scenarios for former President Gerald Ford.

Clips here.

(5) Buffalo Bill v. (12) Lateline

Buffalo Bill was Dabney Coleman's first TV foray into playing a boorish lout who, for all of his ego and selfishness, managed to be tolerable if not endearing. He played "Buffalo Bill" Bittinger, a talk show host on a small Buffalo TV station whose insensitivity came out both on and off camera, as he managed to offend viewers and co-workers alike. Bill would find a way to weasel out of many scrapes (such as when he spun the failure to get a job in New York as him not wanting to leave the great people of Buffalo), but more often than not failed because the people closest to him knew him too well.

Besides Coleman, the series was also the first regular series for several actors, including Joanna Cassidy, Geena Davis, Max Wright, Charles Robinson, and Meshach Taylor. But a young and talented cast on a show that breaks the convention of having a nice guy in the lead role doesn't translate into a long run. After 25 episodes in 1983 and 1984, NBC cancelled the show.

Oddly, the only decent clip from the show that I could find features Geena Davis.

Lateline spoofed news and politics by showing the workings of a late night news program in Washington, DC. Al Franken starred as anchor Al Freundlich, whose idealism and self-image belied his lack of actual smarts. Plots revolved around issues at the show and current political topics, with a number of real-life politicians and journalists making guest appearances.

After its first season, NBC decided to bring the show back in mid-season the following year, thinking that new sitcoms like Encore, Encore and Conrad Bloom would catch on. They didn't. Even so, Lateline's return didn't bring in many more viewers, and it was quickly yanked. Only 12 of the show's 19 episodes aired on NBC during 1998 and 1998; the unaired episodes became a third "season" on Showtime.

Oddly, I can't seem to turn up video for the show. It doesn't help that there is an actual Australian news program called Lateline, or that search engines keep thinking I'm looking for Dateline.

From the South of Sunset bracket:

(4) Crime Story v. (13) Nowhere Man

Crime Story pitted the head of 1960s Chicago's Major Crimes Unit, Mike Torello, against a rising star in the mob, Ray Luca. The first half of the first season saw Torello and his unit continually come just short of being able to put Luca away, as he killed his way to the top of the syndicate. His national reach was demonstrated in the second half of the season, when he moved his operation to Las Vegas, where Torello followed after getting his unit transferred to the feds. Still unable to catch him, the show continued into a second season that focused more on the often cozy relationship between the mob and politicians (complete with an arc based on the Kennedys and Marilyn Monroe). By the end of the second season, Luca has taken his operation international, leading to an airborne confrontation in the final episode.

The show was noted for its gritty feel and use of period detail and music, especially with the episodes set in Chicago. Chicago's actual criminal history contributed to the series, with Luca being based on Anthony Spilotro. The cast also had some history, as Dennis Farina (who played Torello) was formerly a Chicago cop, and John Santucci (who played Luca's sidekick Pauli) was once a jewel thief.

Produced by Michael Mann, Crime Story originally aired after Miami Vice and did well in the ratings, enough to get moved up against Moonlighting in its second season. Ratings dipped, the show moved back to its old slot, but it couldn't compete with Falcon Crest. NBC pulled the show after 44 episodes from 1986 to 1988, as the ratings didn't justify the costs of shooting a period show on location.

Some clips of the show here, including its original intro using Del Shannon's "Runaway."

Nowhere Man starred Bruce Greenwood as Thomas Veil, a photojournalist who, after photographing a secret execution in the Nicaraguan jungle, is the subject of a conspiracy that erases his past and sees everyone he knows to forget who he is. Collecting the negatives of the execution picture, Veil spends the series trying to piece together the conspiracy surrounding the execution and his status, getting help along the way by an unnamed member of the conspiracy. As the series continued, Veil discovered that the executions may have taken place in the US, and may have involved a number of sitting Senators. He also learns something about his own past that will lead him to start his quest to find himself all over again.

Not that we got to see that, as UPN only aired a single season of the show, as the unusual for UPN critical acclaim and rabid fanbase wouldn't save it from the mass cancellations after the network's first year. There were 25 episodes, shown during the 1995-96 season.

All the video out there is Beatles-related, so instead enjoy this fan site.

(5) Andy Richter Controls the Universe v. (12) Greg the Bunny

Andy Richter Controls the Universe was a workplace sitcom starring Andy Richter, whose character (also named Andy Richter) was an aspiring writer who paid the bills through technical writing for Pickering Industries. Each episode featured Andy dealing with the usual office hassles, but in a fairly unique way, being driven by narration and imaginary sequences that played out as real, only to be rewound so we could see what really happened.

A funny and inventive sitcom on Fox? Any surprise that it only lasted 19 episodes from 2002-03?

Clips - including broken-up episodes - available here.

Greg the Bunny was also funny, inventive and on Fox. Again, no surprise at its demise. It followed the show Sweetknuckle Junction, a Muppets-style show where the puppets were treated as living both on and off the show, with the off-show treatment being especially shabby. Plots focused on the show's human cast and their interactions with each other and the puppet cast.

The human cast featured a number of known actors, including Seth Green, Eugene Levy and Sarah Silverman.

Growing out of a series of shorts on IFC (which themselves grew out of shorts on local cable), the show couldn't be as edgy on network TV, and the inevitable conflicts that spawned, coupled with ratings, led to it getting pulled after 13 episodes in 2002.

Plenty of clips here from the Fox run. There are also plenty of clips from the shows two runs on IFC, both on YouTube and the IFC website.