I HATE ABC

Leave it to fucking ABC to destroy one of my favourite shows, Whose Line Is It Anyway?, which has now been all but cancelled. First they ruin the British format. Then they make it a pure sitcom with three out of four regular improvisors, including making the infernally bad Wayne Brady a regular. Then they hire Hollywood comedy hacks to write 'gags' and 'games' that effectively destroy the entire concept of improvisation. Then they insist on censoring even the *slightest* thing. Then they insist on mining tapings till the cows come home. Then they move it around -- and remove it from-- the schedule willy-nilly, only to have their 'replacement' material do equally badly and prove fundamentally more embarassing (e.g. Are You Hot?). When it was a UK show, it kept building an audience over its (count 'em) TEN seasons. In half that time ABC drove the show into the ground. I hate ABC, and that corporate mentality that systematically reduces everything to ridiculous formulae of what 'will be a hit.' Yes, I'm pissed. Not that Whose Line had been in top form lately, but the show could have been handled so much better-- if they'd only damned well let the Brits run it as they had. ARRRGH.

Dr J is now very, very cranky.

Colin Mochrie, in memoriam-- "I'll be your lightning rod of hate!"