The Trio Trophy - Day One

Welcome to the Trio Trophy, a tournament to determine the best TV show that, through the incompetence of network suits or the pedestrian taste of the masses, deserved a long run but did not get it.

Shows are grouped into four brackets of 18 shows. Each day will present four match-ups, from which you will choose the best show in each match-up (or abstain if you so choose). Voting is open for 48 hours from the time the match-ups are posted. There'll be new match-ups every weekday.

To start, we've got four of what amount to play-in games between the lower-seeded shows.

From the Turn On bracket:

(15) American Gothic v. (18) It's Your Move

American Gothic lived up to its name, if nothing else. Set in Trinity, South Carolina, it followed young Caleb Temple (Lucas Black) in his struggle against his biological father, town sherriff Lucas Buck (Gary Cole), whose bloodthirsty reign was apparently backed up by some level of supernatural power. The pilot episode saw Buck kill Caleb's sister and manipulate his legal father into killing himself, unusual stuff for a CBS drama.

This show was best known at the outset for being created by Shaun Cassidy, who was apparently compensating for all the sunny musical numbers his brother did on The Partridge Family. It lasted for 22 episodes (18 of which aired) during the 1995-96 season.

Watch various clips of American Gothic here.

It's Your Move pitted scheming high schooler Matt Burton (Jason Bateman) against his mom's writer boyfriend Norman Lamb (David Garrison), whose experience as a kid like Matt allows him to foil Matt's various plots.

Low ratings dictated a change, and 14 episodes into the run one of Matt's schemes is busted by his mom, who previously was pretty much clueless. Not surprisingly, this conversion to a conventional family sitcom did nothing to jump start the ratings. The show lasted 18 episodes during NBC's 1984-98 season.

Watch clips from It's Your Move - and its apparently seminal two-part episode "The Dregs of Humanity" - here.

(16) Gideon's Crossing v. (17) Idiot Savants

Gideon's Crossing suffered from being ahead of its time in two respects. First, as it followed Dr. Ben Gideon (played by the always excellent Andre Braugher) in his work running an experimental cancer treatment center and teaching new doctors, it missed being the House of its time. Even if Gideon didn't use a cane or have patients who regularly bled out of orifi better left unbloodied.

(It should be noted that both shows were produced by Paul Attanasio, who also worked on Homicide with Braugher.)

In the other respect it had Eric Dane playing a doctor, but apparently not to the level of McSteaminess that has helped Grey's Anatomy suds its way to longevity.

So even though it had the cast and the critical acclaim, it didn't have enough Vicodin abuse or pretty surgeons. 21 episodes were aired during the 2000-01 season on ABC.

This is the only decent clip of Gideon's Crossing I could find, and it features Eric Dane.

Idiot Savants was MTV's best attempt at an actual game show. Four contestants answered questions over the course of a week, with the leading point-scorer for the week winning a car or some such "major" prize. Interesting features of the show included the Dunce, who had to sit out rounds but could steal points when no other contestant knew the answer, and the Grand Savant round, where contestants had to correctly answer 10 questions on a subject of their own choosing while ensconced in the Cylinder of Shush.

The show was hosted by Greg Fitzsimmons, who managed to cut through some of the usual emcee shmaltz with his particular brand of sarcasm.

Less gimicky than Remote Control, the programming geniuses at MTV decided that what the youth of America really wanted to watch was 100 hours a week of Real Wolrd/Road Rules Challenge (which, sadly, probably wasn't far from the truth), leading to the show's cancellation after five weeks in 1996.

Watch a variety of clips from Idiot Savants here.



From the South of Sunset bracket:

(15) Relativity v. (18) QED

Relativity opens with Isabel Lukens, played by Kimberly Williams, doing the only sensible thing when offered a proposal of marriage from her long-time beau: she runs off to Italy. There she meets and falls for Leo Roth, who just happens to be a fellow Los Angelino. The series then follows them as they return home and try to deal with their new relationship, Isabel's old one, and the various lives and loves of their families.

This is one of the several family-based romantic dramas created by Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz, who also gave us thirtysomething, Once and Again, and a show we'll be hearing from later. Clearly, they really know how to hit one specific audience. Unfortunately for them, it's never quite big enough.

Relativity was also one of the first shows whose dedicated/psychotic fans sent foodstuffs to network brass as a sign of devotion, as they sent cans of Campbell's soup to protest plans to cancel the show. It failed, making Relativity one of the 800 or so shows cancelled during Jamie Tarses' reign at ABC. It did last 17 episodes, which is something, I suppose.

Watch clips of Relativity here.

QED were the initials of Quentin E. Deverill, an early 20th century Harvard professor whose forward-thinking inventions were scoffed at by his peers. This led him to leave the ivory tower for London, where his inventions coupled with his sleuthing abilities to make him a bit of a steampunk Sherlock Holmes.

The show marked Sam Waterston's first foray into TV. It was a brief one, lasting for six episodes on CBS in 1982. We'll hear more from him later.

Watch a clip of QED here.

(16) Skag v. (17) Bakersfield P.D.

Skag was the nickname of Peter Skagska, a foreman at a Pittsburgh steel mill. His life isn't easy; he's on his second wife, neither of his sons seem interested in following in the old man's footsteps to work at the failing mill, and his disabled dad is living with the family. And, in the show's first episode, Skag suffers stroke.

It's probably no wonder that a show as dour as this didn't catch on, even with a strong cast (featuring Karl Malden as Skag and Piper Laurie as his wife) and writing. NBC got five episodes out of the show in 1983. The three hour pilot, though, landed six Emmy nods, so it wasn't a total loss.

Perhaps not surprisingly, I can't find online video for Skag.

Bakersfield PD followed the exploits of some of that California city's police officers, most notably recent transplant Paul Gigante, who had a little trouble fitting in with his redneck partner Wade Preston, given that Gigante is African-American. Gigante was played by Giancarlo Esposito, better known as Michael Giordello, son of Al Giordello on Homicide. Ron Eldard played Preston.

Shot with natural lighting and no laugh track, it didn't quite click with the fart and single-entendre crowd at Fox, lasting 17 episodes during the 1993-94 season.

You can see a clip from Bakersfield PD here.