I come here to praise "Everwood" and bid it a fond farewell, not to express anger and bitterness that it was canceled by those idiots at the CW network.
OK, it's going to be impossible to get through this without anger and bitterness.
I love "Everwood." I've seen every episode. And I'll miss the show greatly after it airs the final two hours (titled "Foreverwood") tonight at 7 on Ch. 30.
And that has nothing to do with the fact that every episode (except the first one) was filmed here in Utah.
"Everwood" was about its characters. I wasn't always happy with them, and I certainly disagreed with some of their actions — just the way I feel about real people I love. The fact that I could believe in these characters is what made "Everwood" so watchable.
This was a show about family and a show you could watch with your family. When it launched in 2002, Dr. Andy Brown (Treat Williams) had just lost his wife in a car accident. He left a high-profile career in New York City for a small Colorado town where he could connect with the children he hardly knew.
Ephram (Gregory Smith) was a hugely resentful teenager; Delia (Vivien Cardone) was a somewhat lost preteen. Over four years of drama, they all grew.
As did their informal, extended family, including the Abbots — Harold (Tom Amandes), Rose (Merrilyn Gann), Amy (Emily VanCamp), Bright (Chris Pratt), Edna (Debra Mooney) and Irv (John Beasley) — next-door-neighbors Nina (Stephanie Niznik) and Hannah (Sarah Drew) and half the town.
When Irv died suddenly a couple of episodes ago, it was like losing a member of our family for "Everwood" fans.
At least Irv had lived a long life. "Everwood" has been killed before its time, when it still had plenty of life in it creatively.
So it's hard not to be bitter and angry. Particularly when Dawn Ostroff, who's transitioning from president of UPN Entertainment to president of CW Entertainment, canceled "Everwood" and kept two lower-rated shows — "Veronica Mars" and "One Tree Hill."
(At least "Veronica" is good. "OTH" is garbage.)
Word is that "Everwood" was penciled in on Mondays at 7 p.m., but then 7 million people tuned in to what was supposed to be the series finale of "7th Heaven." Nothing against that show, but it's been running on fumes for years.
As for Ostroff's comment that she "couldn't ignore" the ratings for the "Heaven" finale — don't you think that audience included a lot of viewers who had stopped watching but checked in to say goodbye?
It's infuriating.
But I'm grateful that we got a show as good as "Everwood" for 89 episodes. I'm grateful to creator/executive producer Greg Berlanti for putting the show together and to the WB for putting it on the air.
I'm especially grateful to executive producer Rina Mimoun for filming alternate endings to tonight's episode and giving us the one she intended if the show didn't make the fall schedule. That's the kind of reward TV fans don't often get in return for their loyalty.
So long, "Everwood." You'll be missed.
E-mail: pierce@desnews.com