Guess I Was the Only One Watching

Even with the potential of 999 channels, there's no room on satellite TV for innovative television.

Trio Sees Its Potential Viewership Take a Hit
The hip cable channel is being dropped by DirecTV, and NBC Universal executives have not commented publicly on its future.

Cable channel Trio's signature show is "Brilliant But Cancelled," which lambastes TV networks for pulling the plug on cutting edge television.

Now the irreverent channel may be getting the hook itself.

On Saturday Trio will be dropped by satellite television giant DirecTV Group Inc., which supplies nearly two-thirds of the 20 million homes where the digital channel is available.

That will leave the NBC Universal-owned channel in only 8 million homes — not nearly enough, experts say, to ensure its survival.
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Launched in Toronto by North America TV, a Canadian Broadcasting Corp.-backed venture, Trio has become a darling of pop culture denizens. The 10-year-old channel has brought back to life "Classic Dave," old David Letterman talk shows from his NBC years, and the hard-luck clay figure Mr. Bill from "Saturday Night Live." (This month it aired "Ho, Ho, No! It's Mr. Bill's Christmas Special.")

Trio set a goal nearly two years ago of becoming the "premier network devoted to popular culture." It launched such original programs as a mock documentary called "Pilot Season" that roasted the TV industry and an election series this year titled "How's Your News?" produced by the team behind the raunchy comedy "South Park."

The show "Brilliant But Cancelled" unearthed skeletons from network graveyards, including the jazz pianist-private eye drama "Johnny Staccato," which aired on NBC in 1959-60, and producer Steven Bochco's 1990 police musical "Cop Rock," which lasted four months on ABC.

Comments

[charlie don't surf]

For every cancelled cult hit on Trio, there's a dozen shows like "Pink Lady & Jeff" and "The Invisible Man" (with David McCallum, not Claude Raines). The "brilliant but cancelled" series is restoring my faith in television programming executives, they are wiser than I believed. These shows deserved to be cancelled, they were crap.

And I'm surprised at how much crappier the old Letterman shows are than I remembered, they just haven't held up over time. I gave up watching them after the 5th show with David Brenner.

[merl]

Pretty ironic, huh?

[John E Thelin]

So, why is it I can't find Johnny Staccato on BitTorrent? Sheesh. The Soundtrack for that show is one of the prize pieces of my agent/detective soundtrack collection, and I'd love to see John Cassavettes as that P.I.anist.

[Merideth Carleton]

Have you seen this before? It's a number guessing game: http://www.amblesideprimary.com/ambleweb/mentalmaths/guessthenumber.html. I guessed 57268, and it got it right! Pretty neat.