Did the can "Commander in Chief" because it made people think Hillary

[cantstandbush]

would be a good President? Just asking. I saw no reason for killing that program. The acting was great, the story lines were believable and smart. Either it made too many people think of Hillary as a viable candidate or it made Bush look really stupid and incompetent.

[jackbourassa]

1. They canned it because it got terrible ratings!

Interesting...

[LisaM]

5. How could it even register in the ratings?

It was barely on, and then many weeks they wouldn't show it.

[hyphenate]

14. They moved it so often

and kept pre-empting it, and then messed with the production team three times before they gave up on it.

The truth be told, they should have waited to make it a mid-season replacement, because the initial exec. producer, Rod Lurie, was having a difficult time keeping on schedule. But then they let Stephen Bochco do the exec. producing, and he botched it but good.

I think they wanted it to die. But then again, we're talking about ABC, Another Bureaucratic Company, owned by Disney and sworn to be as mediocre as most of its shows.

[LisaM]

2. I'm sure they did. I loved that show.

It was the only hour-long weeknight drama I actually watched. Good show. Conservatives hated it. I am sure there was pressure to pull it.

[smokey nj]

3. I've never seen the show, so I can't comment on its merits......

but I've found that pretty much every fictional president makes Bush look really stupid and incompetent.

[WI_DEM]

4. No because it got lousy ratings and mediocre reviews

[davepc]

6. It sucked after they "retooled" it.

Once they brought Zach Morris in as a recurring character I was done with it.

[hyphenate]

15. That was one of Bochco's touches

Which sucked. He tried to move the show along too fast. When you love something, you need patience, and the show was never given the chance to grow and find its audience.

[DocSavage]

7. Maybe

it just got cancelled because the ratings were in the tank and the network was loosing money. Alturistic TV programming will never happen on network TV, the show will have to be picked up by a cable network for it ever to be seen again other than re-runs.

[salvorhardin]

10. Depends on what you mean by altruistic

If you mean programming that's not expected to make any money but they run it anyway because it's good for the country... Then yes. I agree with you.

On the other hand if you can truly combine wit and humor with a progressive social message I think it could. It did in the past anyway. All In The Family, MASH, Maude, even WKRP. Those are the ones that come immediately to mind. There were a lot of them. In the 80s not so much, but then there was a return to jingoism and it just didn't sell with the American people. During the Clinton years we had a bit of a resurgence. Shows like Northern Exposure, Pickett Fences (again, that's what I recall) were able to explore social issues, still be entertaining and make money.

So the question is then I think, will it be done again? Probably. Will it succeed? I don't know. Times have changed.

[PinkTiger]

8. I don't know anything about it from the inside, but I smell a rat.

Geena Davis is an excellent actress. She makes the job of president look as though it should always have been a woman's job. I think this may be the problem.
The Bush administration probably called in some more of its cards.
Just as it did in Ohio in 2004, just as it did in Springdale Arkansas in 2003 when J.H. Hatfield was suicided.
If you can stop a book that has been published from being sold, getting all the copies pulled and burned, then you can definitely stop a tv show that makes you look like an idiot in comparison. Not that it takes a tv show to do it, LOL.

[democraticinsurgent]

9. It never had a chance

I watched it from the beginning. It wasn't great, not up to West Wing, but it was better than most shows in their first season.

The show changed directors mid-season, then ABC started monkeying with the schedule. Then they deep-sixed it in time for May sweeps.

Same thing ABC has done to many good shows, like "My So Called Life" many years ago, and "Once and Again" a couple of years ago.

It is said that most of the classic shows of the 60's and early 70's would never have been known had the networks not been willing to nurture them for a year or two. Now, they test, fiddle and dump so fast there's no way audiences can find what they like.

Geena Davis did a good job and Donald Sutherland was fabulous.

This show could have been something. But it wasn't to be.

Finale on at 10pm Wednesday, EST.

[Miss Chybil]

11. I was very excited about that show until I watched it a few times.

The story lines sucked. Everything was too predictable. Mack always saved the day. She was bright, honest. She was full of truth, justice and the American way. Right was always right and she always knew what that was, although she may have stumbled at the 20 minute mark, sometimes. She was the good guy in the white hat. She always foiled the evil speaker and wasn't she just the perfect mother under the circumstances? And her husband, didn't he just come across as Ward Cleaver when it came to "the children." "The children" drove me up the fricken wall. Little miss perfect, youngest child and poor misguided, self-centered teenage girl. The son was the only real kid. In short, the show was BORING!

BORING!

Note to writers: Make the first family out of real people, not paper dolls, then you might have a show.

And, on edit: (To the writers, again.) The thing about Mack being an Independent was bullshit. That was playing the game way too safe. You can't play safe and get anybody to watch your show. Good shows don't play safe. She should have picked a side and she should have had an agenda - outside of her altruistic ideals for this great country of ours. Everybody else on the show had an agenda, except for the hallowed Madame President. Bullshit and

BORING!

[William769]

12. Excuse me, but when did they cancel it?

It's still running and I havent heard that it has been cancelled.

Unless someone forgot to tell me.

[BlooInBloo]

13. Good show, but not NEARLY the travesty that cancelling...

... Arrested Development was....


sigh...