At today’s Television Critic’s Association summer press tour, ABC Entertainment President Steve McPherson conceded that two of the network’s freshman sitcoms wouldn’t be coming back for second seasons.
The Goode Family is an animated series from King of the Hill’s Mike Judge, David Krinsky, and John Altschuler. Featuring the voice talents of Judge, Brian Doyle Murray, Dave Herman, Linda Cardellini, and Nancy Carell, the sitcom follows a working-class family who, despite their best efforts, find it difficult to live politically-correct lives.
Surviving Suburbia stars Bob Saget as a father who lives in a typical suburban household but can’t seem to find much that makes him happy. Castmembers of the sitcom also include Cynthia Stevenson, Jared Kusnitz, G. Hannelius, Jere Burns, Dan Cortese, Lorna Scott, and Lyndsey Jolly.
Both series have had disappointing runs on ABC. Goode Family debuted to a disappointing 3.93 million viewers and a 1.6/5 in the 18-49 demo. The network shifted it to Friday nights after three airings and the numbers nosedived to a series low of just 1.09 million and a 0.3/1.
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Meanwhile, Surviving Suburbia brought in solid numbers when it followed popular Dancing with the Stars. The show’s debut attracted 12.16 million viewers and a 3.2/8 rating/share. Once Dancing with the Stars was over however, the sitcom’s audience declined considerably — to a terrible 2.83 million and a 1.0/3. The network shifted Saget and company to Friday nights and the numbers have dipped to 2.23 million and a 0.5/2 in the 18-49 demographic.
Last night marked the season finales of both series. While few expected that ABC would give either a sophomore run, it’s rare for a network executive to actually admit when shows are finished. According to The Futon Critic, McPherson laid the shows to rest today, saying that neither would be back.
What do you think? Are you disappointed that neither will be returning or, should ABC have pulled them long ago?
Image courtesy ABC.
I was really disappointed with the Goode family. It was just an insipid show to me. I really liked the premise – but they just couldn’t pull it off. I especially didn’t like any of the characters except for maybe the Daughter. I thought they were pretty 1 dimensional.
Well, that’s really disappointing. I rarely ever watch any network TV anymore, but I did watch The Goode Family every time it was on. The more recent episodes were really funny, and I even got my non-TV-watching husband to watch a couple of episodes.
I guess it’s back to cable for us.
I really liked The Goode Family. I thought it was funny and poked fun at a lot of current issues. Surviving Suburbia was funny, though I’m a much bigger Cynthia Stevenson fan than one of Bob Saget. She was so great as George’s mom in Dead Like Me, and the character she played on Men In Trees. I first saw her on According To Jim as the cuter half of the pesky Devlin couple.
[…] ABC announced it was cancelling the new Mike Judge series “The Goode Family”. […]
Surviving Suburbia actually made me laugh,one of the few sitcoms to do this.I recently read an article that tv might be on it’s way out.That advertisers may not want to sink money into shows with no quality.This one to me had some qualities I looked for but the problem is the executives never give shows the time they need to grow.Everything is so fast paced what does everyone have ADHD when it comes to tv shows?At the rate that executives cut shows who wants to invest any time into any show,why?Just so they can pull the plug tomorrow.No wonder people… Read more »
I’m a HUGE fan of Mike Judge, but the Goode Family was just plain trying too hard to be funy. King of the Hill was great b/c it placed normal people in abnormal situations and we empathized with Hank trying to keep things together. Plus, I loved the show b/c it was like a free half-hour trip to Texas every week. The Goode Family is a bunch of abnormal people put in to even more bizarre situations. Sometimes I laughed in shock, but I never connected with the characters because none of them seemed genuine. I’ll miss King of the… Read more »
All I can say for both of these pieces of crap is “Goode”riddance.George Goode was more of a pain in the ass than Peggy Hill and a bigger ****** than Barrack Obama and as far as Surviving Suburbia the only thing we saw out of this crappy show was Bob Saget being more of a DORK here than he was on Full House.Thank god these two shows will be joining KOTH in hell good bye and F-you to these shows.
I loved both of these shows. The Goode family really was a breathe of fresh air. It sucks that the only shows that get big numbers are the mind numbing reality shows.
That sucks The Goode Family was pretty good
The goode family was a new and refreshing show that actually had an original plot. Im immensely dissapointed but not suprised, the only thing networks care about anymore is pathetic reality tv. ABC made a mistake by not giving this show the timeslot or promotion it deserves.
Why would you cancel both shows. they had so much potentila
**** you abc
Good. they take a great show, King of the Hill off, and try to put some p.c., lefty show on. The fools in Hollywood don’t get it. Left wing loons are NOT funny, just clueless and angry. Good riddence.
We are verrrrrrrrrrrrrrry disappointed with both The Goode Family and Surviving Suburbia being cancelled! What is wrong with you?!?!? There aren’t enough sitcoms on TV nowadays and if you keep cancelling shows and not giving it a chance then you might as well live in the neanderthal days with no technology! Worst decision ever!!!!!!!!!!!!
Since it is the summer, i’m not surprised the series wasnt pulled, the networks, especially ABC has made this summer the ultimate burnoff season. Theyve burned off almost all of there cancelled series including Pushing Daisies, Eli Stone, Dirty Sexy Money, Samantha Who?, In the Motherhood, and even Better off Ted (which isnt even cancelled yet). The Goode Family and Surviving Suburbia wasn’t officially cancelled but the summer burnoff and move to fridays was basically a kiss of death. I’m surprised it was announced this quickly though but with ratings that low, both series seemed cancelled all along.
I am very disappointed that the Goode Family is not coming back. What a great show that showed the foolishness/naivete of the Whole Foods crowd with some biting caricatures of Wal-Mart crowd. Che, the meat deprived vegan dog, was one of the funniest characters and story lines in recent years. I wouldn’t expect the network execs to not “get” the show, or they were offended by the Liberal commentary that Mike Judge brought to the public. When they put it on Friday night, I know that it was doomed.