I think Back To You producer Steven Levitan is echoing the sentiments of many TV viewers when he says about the show's cancellation, "we were surprised, but not shocked...nothing surprises me with [FOX Broadcasting] anymore."
As we told you earlier, FOX decided to dump Back To You but keep 'Til Death. This surprised many fans of the show, as they thought that out of the two of them FOX would probably go with the Kelsey Grammer/Patricia Heaton/Fred Willard show instead of the Brad Garrett/Joely Fisher show. Funny how Garrett played Heaton's brother-in-law on Everybody Loves Raymond and now it's his show being renewed while she is kicked to the curb.
Levitan says that the show was on the wrong network from the beginning, but that he and his team take full responsibility for being talked into the deal. ABC and CBS were interested, but Levitan says that "FOX had the better deal and lots of big promises they didn't keep."
There is one glimmer of hope in all this: Levitan is shopping the show around to other networks, including CBS. Who knows if that will work out, but I can picture the show in the Monday night lineup of comedies (not sure where it would fit but I can imagine it in the mix).
[via TV Tattle]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
5-13-2008 @ 8:15AM
gonnabechef said...
I've never watched "'Til Death," but I watched the first several "Back to You"s and they were uniformly sub-par. I even wanted to like the show, and couldn't find it in me.
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5-13-2008 @ 8:41AM
grol said...
I didn't see enough of Back to You to judge it, but if I was a producer I'd be worried to sell my show to Fox - the danger is that the more well-produced the show was, the bigger danger there would be of cancellation (ahem Arrested Development but also Firefly and Futurama).
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5-13-2008 @ 8:55AM
Thomas said...
I watched a few episodes of back to you and the problem was that the "humour" seemed to be entirely derived from the premise and that some of the characters were supposed to be a bit weird. If Frasier had just been that he and his brother were snobs and their father wasn't then it would have been equally poor.
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5-13-2008 @ 8:59AM
rick cokely said...
Sad to see Kelsey get kicked off the air, but man am I glad that right wing nutjob Heaton is gone.
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5-13-2008 @ 11:28AM
Franklin said...
There's the hypocrite coming out! Thank you!!
Yes, standing with the throngs proclaiming to embrace diversity while being the most unaccepting and prejudiced bunch of useless wastes of skin in the history of skin!!
Please, PLEASE continue to comment. You are doing the world a great service by showing the true colors of liberalism, and more specifically, California liberals, to the world.
5-13-2008 @ 1:10PM
0megapart!cle said...
Do you even know the meaning of the words you type, Franklin? How is anything he said prejudiced? He is expressing his personal opinion, and there is nothing wrong with it. While liberals might want someone off the air, conservatives are the ones manipulating the system and whining to actually get it done.
5-13-2008 @ 2:15PM
Dan said...
First off, the comment I want to respond to is the first response by Franklin and not the comment by Rick. You are doing liberals a service by showing how dumb conservatives really are. Keep in mind that as a Libertarian, I am on neither the side of the Republicans or the Democrats. Why is it that those who study Political Science/Government for a living (Ph.Ds and other academics) all vote against Republicans and either vote Libertarian or Democrat? Why is it that when we had a Democrat leading the nation our economy was the envy of all nations and now it's an international joke. Our dollar was worth 1.3 Euros in 2002 and now it's .65. Anyone who still votes Republican after almost 8 years of disaster (I don't think I need to list the numerous Republican party failures and scandals anymore) really needs to stop voting because they are obviously not up to the task of intelligently analyzing candidates and issues.
As for "Back to You", this show deserved the ax. I really wanted to like it because it had a good cast and had a chance to be another "News Radio", but it was retarded. I stopped watching it because it was so painfully bad. Jokes would be set up by sending someone across the shot once, then they'd come back and bump into something...not exactly intelligent. Honestly, this was probably the WORST TV show I have ever actually tried to watch and wanted to enjoy.
5-13-2008 @ 9:29AM
Chrysee said...
I love Kelsey Grammer and was really excited about this show when it started. I watched an episode, then another, and eventually I forgot and it didn't really bother me that I missed it. I hardly watch TV at all anymore, but I do faithfully watch the few shows I do enjoy. I didn't think it was so "bad" but it didn't make me want to watch it every single week.
I don't really get Til Death, though I've probably watched that show more often than Back to You. I don't think it's a really excellent show either, but just because it's getting renewed doesnt' meant Back to You warrants it as well.
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5-13-2008 @ 9:36AM
Jimmy said...
Here come the sour grapes!
Levitan should be blaming himself for producing a comedy that just wasn't funny.
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5-13-2008 @ 9:49AM
Adrienne said...
My husband and I would always find something else to watch during "Till Death," a horrible, horrible show, then turn the TV to Fox for "Back to You." Personally I really enjoy "Back To You" and hope it finds a new home.
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5-13-2008 @ 10:52AM
MERVE-THE-PERVE said...
They should have left the kid out of it and focused more on the newsroom. And there should have been a lot more Fred Willard in it. He was the best part of this show.
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5-13-2008 @ 11:08AM
Walt said...
I love Kelsey Grammer and trust his comedic instincts, but after this show... eh, not so much. The entire premise was flawed, and I'm quite surprised nobody noticed this until the episodes really got underway.
While I know the original premise of the show was "familiar face has to eat a bit of crow and come back to his old stomping ground", that's not what was delivered. What was delivered was "overbearing twit has to work in a dysfunctional work environment and hide his secret child from everyone"
The "secret child" theme mixed in with "twit returns to dysfunctional group" seems to have been the theme for both Back To You and October Road, and they're both gone now. It's like someone spun the "drama plot wheel" and came up with that idea twice. Didn't work either time.
I'll tell you why I think Back To You didn't work -- the insufferable twit here may have supposed to have been Kelsey's character, but that's not the one I needed to see have their comeuppance. It's Patricia Heaton's character. WHY? Simple. She's the one that was supposed to have it all come together, the more uptight of the two of them, but Kelsey ended up with all the daft situations... until the end, when they gave them both something to do.
Now, I don't know if that has more to do with Kelsey assuming he could bring that off or not, but in the end, the show might **(MIGHT)** have worked with just Heaton handling that issue, and Kelsey's character running interference (making excuses).
You could see how the premise really fell apart when they started fleshing out the bimbo weather girl/nerdy-fat station manager relationship(s). That setup didn't parallel the rest of the show, and was essentially unrelated to the main story, and so was distracting in a 22 minute show.
How to have fixed the show: That's easy, should they try to resell it. A god-like force that threatens everything, and is advised by a do goodnick holier than thou "helper" -- ala Burns and Smithers. It might change the show too much, adding people, but there needs to be a foil somewhere here. Hyping up the pitiful location reporter who wants to be on camera was dumb, but only if he doesn't become the foil, either the Burns or the Smithers character.
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5-13-2008 @ 11:24AM
Linda said...
I didn't watch the show, yet I am not surprised that it was cancelled. I saw countless promo's for the show so I am a bit surprised that they felt Fox wasn't behind the show. Also, they did anchor it with American Idol - a fix that worked for Brad Garrett's show.
Kelsey Grammer is a truly good actor and Frasier will go into tv history as one of its most successful characters. Frasier still holds up - as well as watching Kelsey in reruns of Cheers. The show was miscast and Kelsey deserved better.
Respectfully said, the show might have gotten more response with a better cast and the chemistry with him and Patricia H. - well, it was just not there. The promo's were lackluster and just seeing them repetitively didn't even cause me a stirring of wanting to watch.
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5-13-2008 @ 11:50AM
lucyfan62 said...
It always seemed like an NBC show to me with Grammer and Levitan involved. It just has that FRASIER/JUST SHOOT ME/NEWSRADIO feel that says NBC...to me.
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5-13-2008 @ 1:14PM
0megapart!cle said...
It doesn't fit at all with NBC's current mix of excellent comedies.
While the show may have sucked, Levitan's comments about FOX are spot on. Hopefully his comments will push more producers not to trust FOX in the future, because it almost always leads to disappointment for everyone involved (except FOX of course).
5-13-2008 @ 1:53PM
JimF said...
Of the two, Til Death brings the funny on a regular basis, whereas Back To You is just somewhat funny on a limited basis. Til Death is the better show, and it's great to see Fox realize this.
Just because a show has veteran actors doesn't mean its any good. Remember that show from a year or two ago with John Lithgow and Jeffrey Tambor "Twenty Good Years"? Two brilliant actors, horrendous show.
-JF
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5-13-2008 @ 2:05PM
1iPete said...
It was a show that had a great cast with a solid pedigree but delivered a creatively mediocre result. Factor in the cost of the people involved and it wasn't a completely ridiculous decision by Fox though they still struggle to launch a successful comedy since Malcolm flamed out.
Could we please have a moratorium on the Arrested Development as the show that didn't get a fair shake by Fox. Yes, it's scheduling was inconsistent but it did receive awards, strong promotion and THREE seasons. It was a good show that had 2 great seasons and 1 off one (season 2) but just couldn't connect to a mass audience.
I consider Sports Night an equal tragedy in comedy to Arrested.
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5-13-2008 @ 4:09PM
Oreo said...
I completely agree. Everyone hells at Fox for AD and that show just couldn't get an audience. It had comericals and was after The Simpsons when it first came on. The ratings were lower than 4 million viewers and yet Fox still gave the show 3 seasons.
Same with Sports Night. Season 1 ended perfectly but ABC wanted to give it a try with season 2 and it still didn't work. Well with season 2 it was ABC's fault, but they at least gave the show a second season.
5-13-2008 @ 3:22PM
Oreo said...
Well I'm glad they have only themselves to blame... oh wait they are blaming Fox.
If they knew the network was such an ass why go to it when two other networks wanted it?
CBS however would have killed the show, their standards are too high. However ABC would fit perfectly. They now can have Samantha Who, Shrubs, and Back to You.
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5-13-2008 @ 4:51PM
Riley Freeman said...
back to you was funny. 2 things i didnt like. them replacing the daughter the original was better. and second them firing the fake spanish weather girl. she was eye candy and it was funny how the news manager guy used to always sweat bullets over her. i liked her inolved there. too bad hopefully it gets picked up. and i DONT see it on monday it was fine where it was. monday has wayyyy too much going on at various point of the year theres heroes, 24, wrestling, how i met your mother, 2 and a half men, rules of engagement, big bang theory now those are the shoes i watch. for other people theres prison break and im sure other shows. i dont get why people overload monday its too much crap too watch i dont need anything else to be added cuz if it is i would stop watching back to you cuz all those other shows are more important to me. oh and i forgot to mention football
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