TVSquad

It looks like The Goode Family and Surviving Suburbia won't be surviving. ABC confirmed that Friday night's airings of both episodes season finales are in fact their respective series finales. I've sampled both series at one point or another in their runs, and this fate was inevitable.

It was great seeing the "other" Bob Saget get some TV time, but Surviving Suburbia just wasn't good television. Maybe if you're a television fan who's never seen a family sitcom, then the formulaic plotlines and dialogue won't bother you. In a way, I had the same problem with The Goode Family.

However, with the latter, it seemed like they had the potential to grow into something better. I think in the beginning they were too bogged down by their schtick: a family of do-gooders, recycling and living green and all of that crap.

Surviving Suburbia just can't catch a break. It starts as a high profile return vehicle for Bob Saget over on The CW. Hell, the guy even hosts their fall preview. But it never shows up. So production company ABC snags it and puts it on their air this past winter. But only for a bit before yanking it. Don't worry, they said, it'll be back this summer; which translates as we're burning off the rest of the episodes. And now they're not even doing that!

So I hope you like The Goode Family, because effective immediately Surviving Suburbia is being yanked in favor of back-to-back Goode. I'm thinking online or DVD may be the only chances left to see the last of Suburbia, if anyone even cares. It's not all bad news, though. Apparently to make us feel better about losing Bob (he's still narrating HIMYM so he's still got a job for awhile), they're bringing back the already renewed Better Off Ted with new episodes starting June 23 at 9 Eastern. Maybe with less competition, the goofy workplace comedy can find the audience it deserves.

It looks like Bob Saget might be going back to the world of ABC sitcoms. His previously-abandoned-by-The-CW vehicle Surviving Suburbia is looking to find a home on the network that brought us Saget in the 90's via Full House and America's Funniest Home Videos.

I don't know much about Surviving Suburbia outside of its premise (a couple living in the suburbs get new wacky next-door neighbors). It sounds too much like those formulaic sitcoms that I loathe. Their best bet for promoting something interesting is having Saget act like the pervert he acts like in his stand-up routine (as seen in the movie The Aristocrats). Make the show more for adults and make Saget a dislikable main character similar in execution to Archie Bunker.

Still, with a title like Surviving Suburbia, it's more than likely that the show is going to be formulaic and bland (think According to Jim). There's likely a reason The CW abandoned it (other than Saget) . Sadly, as a result of his television work in the 90's, "bland" is what Saget is mostly known for.

When you're a ratings-challenged fledgling network like the CW, you're going to do anything you can to get a leg up on the competition. Releasing sex-filled advertisements for your most high-profile show is a good start, but that alone won't get the job done. To that end, the CW has just announced that it's moving its fall premiere dates up to September 1st, well ahead of the beginning of the traditional broadcast season.

The idea behind the move is that you're already going to be hooked on Gossip Girl and Top Model by the time the other networks get around to premiering their fall shows, sometime around mid-to-late September. The season isn't the only thing the CW is starting early, however. Starting in November, they're also extending prime time, with original programming beginning at 6:30 on Sunday nights.

Check out CW's full premiere schedule after the jump.