Here's some surprising news - in the middle of its fourth season on the air, "The John Larroquette Show" has been canceled by NBC.
Now, that news wouldn't have been the least bit shocking if it had come in the middle of the shows first season on the air. But how "Larroquette" managed to hang on this long is a mystery.The show had one great failing it could never overcome - it was a comedy that just wasn't funny.
And any and all attempts to make it funny failed. Lightening the set and the mood, switching to the day shift, cast changes - nothing worked.
NBC obviously had no confidence in the show at all this season. It has aired only four times since the fall season began - most recently on Oct. 30 - and ranks 71st out of 122 series on the four networks and the two network wanna-bes this season.
Looking back to the fall of 1993, it's surprising the show even made it on the air. Larroquette starred as an alcoholic who had barely dried out when he took a job as the night manager of a bus station populated by unpleasant and/or openly hostile people.
Many of those first-season shows wallowed in the characters drinking and personal problems. While the storylines might well have played out just fine as drama, they were hardly the stuff of comedy.
And viewers stayed away by the tens of millions. The biggest surprise that came out of NBC's announcement of its 1994 fall schedule was that "Larroquette" was still on it.
It's been a similar surprise the past couple of season.
Larroquette is a very talented actor. In the right vehicle - like, say, "Night Court" - he's great.
NBC Entertainment President Warren Littlefield was sucking up to him even as he canceled his show - an obvious attempt to placate the star and perhaps get him to work for NBC again some day.
"We applaud John and his colleagues for bringing terrific television to millions of viewers," Lit-tle-field said.
Terrific actor - yes. Terrific television - no.
"The John Larroquette Show" was a mistake from the beginning.
NEW SHOW: As a replacement for "Larroquette," NBC is offering up "Chicago Sons," which is set to debut on Wednesday, Jan. 8, at 7:30 p.m.
It's a comedy about three brothers living in an apartment that overlooks Wrigley Field.
Jason Bateman stars as Harry Kulchak, the middle brother and the only successful one in the bunch. His life is complicated by the arrival of his older brother, Mike (D.W. Moffett), who has been sleeping in his spare bedroom since his wife threw him out.
And Harry's life becomes further complicated when his younger brother, Billy (David Krumholtz), drops out of college and moves in.
This one hasn't been shown to critics yet, so stay tuned for more on "Chicago Sons" . . .
"COAST-TO-COAST": CBS is adding "Coast-to-Coast" - a news magazine of sorts - to its Wednesday lineup. It's set to debut on Jan. 15 at 8 p.m.
The CBS News series will feature a team of correspondents who will "take viewers on a journey across the back roads of the nation in search of the real-life stories that the rest of television has ignored."
The show doesn't exactly come in with a huge vote of confidence from the network, however - only six episodes have been ordered.
WEDNESDAY WARFARE: Before this television season began in September, Wednesday was seen as a potential battle zone for the networks.
And, as it has turned out, that's exactly what it has become. Events of the past week have certainly borne that out.
ABC, which used to dominate the night, isn't anymore. CBS's sitcoms "The Nanny" and "Pearl" are winning the first hour of Wednesday prime time on a regular basis.
As a result (and as previously reported), ABC is shuffling its own sitcom lineup as a countermeasure. As of Dec. 4, "Grace Under Fire" moves from 8 p.m. to 7 p.m.; "Drew Carey" moves from 8:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.; and "Ellen" moves from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
The thinking there is that "Grace" will be stronger competition for "The Nanny," and "Drew" is stronger than "Ellen." (Whether it has anything to do with a later time slot so that the main character on "Ellen" can declare her lesbianism remains to be seen, however.)
CBS, for its part, has plenty of Wednesday problems of its own. The first hour is fine, but from 8-10 p.m. it would have done about as well with test patterns. So "Almost Perfect" and "Public Morals" got the ax - the latter after airing but a single episode - and "EZ Streets" is on hiatus.
In their places, CBS has announced January debuts for both "Coast-to-Coast" and "Orleans," a new drama whose ensemble cast is headed by former "Dallas" star Larry Hagman.
This week, NBC made its first schedule change of the season, dropping "Larroquette" and adding "Chicago Sons." The No. 1 network is struggling on Wednesday - "Wings," in particular, appears to be on its last legs.
And all three networks still have to compete with Fox's waning but still-popular "90210" as well as "Party of Five," not to mention "The Sentinel" and "Star Trek: Voyager" on UPN and all those inane sitcoms on the WB.
In other words, the Wednesday battle continues to rage - and there's no indication yet who's going to emerge victorious.
SAWYER SWITCHING? The hot TV news rumor these days is that Diane Sawyer is about to leave ABC and head back to CBS, where she used to be an anchorwoman and "60 Minutes" correspondent.
There have been reports that CBS wants her as a co-anchor or replacement for Dan Rather on "The CBS Evening News," but both sides have pooh-poohed that idea. It's more likely that she'd front a new CBS news magazine.
Talk of her defection has led to rumors that a Sawyer departure would mark the end of her current show, "PrimeTime Live," but ABC is denying that - at least at the moment.
The question of whether a journalist of Sawyer's sometimes shaky abilities is actually worth all this fuss apparently hasn't entered into any of the negotiations.