The networks announced their fall schedules last month. Which, of course, means we're in the midst of the latest go-round of the Save-Our-Favorite-Show Derby.
The trouble is that, these days, there's a campaign to save just about every show that gets canceled - whether it deserves saving or not. And all this noise makes it harder to draw attention to those programs that are truly worthy of a second chance.Take, for example, the current effort under way to revive the UPN series "The Sentinel." Chances are that most Americans are unaware of these efforts because the vast majority of Americans are unaware of the show.
In a news release e-mailed to newspapers across the country, the organizers of this campaign write that "Loyal fans of `The Sentinel' hope that bringing the plight of their show to wider media and public attention will help force the network's hand."
Well, probably not. Particularly because this particular TV critic never thought much of the show in the first place.
The fact is that even the lowest-rated TV shows are still viewed by a few million people every week. And, obviously, even if they're a tiny minority of the general population, there are at least a few passionate fans of just about every series on television.
Since the advent of the Internet, these passionate fans have a way of joining up and at least attempting to create some sort of united front.
Fans of "The Sentinel" are particularly incensed because the final episode was a cliffhanger - one of the major characters appeared to have drowned and the hour ended with the tag line, "To Be Continued." Which is undeniably frustrating and annoying.
(Not that it hasn't happened before, even on UPN. Remember "Nowhere Man"?)
But is this a show that's really worth saving? Not really.
Not that it was any worse or any better than most of what's out there. But whether it comes back or not (and, apparently, there's still some slim hope) is really of little consequence.
Public pressure campaigns sometimes work. CBS has said that viewer feedback is one of the reasons it ordered 13 episodes of "The Magnificent Seven" as a midseason replacement after initially canceling the series.
Not to mention that some excellent shows have been saved by letter-writing campaigns. Everything from the original "Star Trek" to "Cagney & Lacey" to "Designing Women" found new life after cancellation because of public pressure.
At the time, however, those were the exceptions rather than the rule. Those campaigns stood out - and succeeded.
But nowadays, we have groups out there trying to save a show like "Family Matters," an annoying sitcom that is going off after nine seasons on the air.
It's difficult to imagine a show that is less deserving of another year on the air than that one.
The problem with all these Save-Our-Favorite-Show campaigns is that any noise they create becomes just so much buzz in the ears of network programmers. It's like having a house full of screaming kids - it's all but impossible to pay attention to any one of them.
And that can be a bad thing when a truly deserving show - shows like "Homefront" or "Brooklyn Bridge" - can't get noticed above the din.
Much of the blame for this sort of annual anguish has to be laid at the feet of the networks themselves. They go out of their way to try to make you love their show, they encourage you to build up a personal relationship with it, and then when they cancel it, they tell you it's just business.
Which is true. But it was just business from the beginning.
In the case of "The Sentinel," Paramount not only co-owns the network on which it was broadcast but it also owns the show. Thus, it had a vested interest in keeping it on the air.
Obviously, the decision was made with a bottom-line mentality, taking into account budgets and license fees and ratings and demographics.
The same could (and has) been said of CBS's "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman" - another show that was both owned and broadcast by the network. The series' ratings and demographics didn't attract the advertising dollars needed to keep it on the air.
Does this in any way negate the feelings of fans? Absolutely not. But fans should remember - from the beginning - that all television programming is designed to wrap around the commercials.
With that in the back of their minds, potential heartbreak might be minimized.