‘Sarah Connor Chronicles’ ’ Josh Friedman bares all
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
Fox canceled ‘Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles’ a couple of weeks ago, citing the usual excuse -- lousy ratings. Now that he’s had a little time to ponder the finality of the situation, Josh Friedman, the Warner Bros.-produced show’s executive producer, has discarded his initial response -- advising angry fans to ‘do yourself a favor and find a way to get past it’ -- and let it all hang out.
Having clearly built up a nice head of steam brooding in his tent for the past two weeks, Friedman has put up a post on his wonderful blog (called ‘I Find Your Lack of Faith Disturbing’) that is a model for all writers and producers in search of discovering the appropriate nuclear reaction to failure.
In other words, he’s decided to let it rip, to get in touch with his inner gonzo self and blow a few gaskets. It’s hard to remember a more impassioned, profane and emotionally raw response to the brutish plight of TV cancellation. Or as Friedman puts it: ‘Everyone says having your show canceled is like a death, but I’ve been dead before and at least when you’re dead you don’t get thrown off the Warner Bros. lot for haunting your old parking space.’
And hey, if there were ever any doubt, he knows how to write killer dialogue, spiced with a savory blend of droll irony and self-loathing. Here’s an imaginary conversation he has with his wife after getting the bad news, which unfolds only after he reminds people who say the good side of losing a show is that you get to spend more time with your family that ‘I’m pretty sure that waking up next to your ex-showrunner spouse whom you haven’t seen for two and a half years is pretty close to waking up next to that special someone you met the night before at Carlos ‘n Charlie’s in Cancun on Spring Break’:
WIFE: Oh...it’s you.
EX-SHOWRUNNER: Hey baby.
WIFE: You look...different than I remember.
EX-SHOWRUNNER: I’ve gone a bit grey.
WIFE: Or a little fat.
EX-SHOWRUNNER: Pretty sure its grey.
WIFE: Pretty sure...fat. Was I...drunk?
EX-SHOWRUNNER: Drunk? When?
WIFE: I don’t know. The whole time?
There’s oh-so-many-more wonderful observations about the small, subtle humiliations of transitory TV life, especially the painful experience of spending weeks in ‘on the bubble’ purgatory, waiting for the network to finally lower the boom everyone knows is coming. Of all the signals of impending doom, here’s what surely must’ve been the worst: ‘I guess there were signs that the show was in trouble (other than the 1.3 rating and the four share). First there was the day I was in my office and looked up to see Chuck Lorre and a Warner Bros. facility manager standing in my doorway pointing to various features and using their hands to take ‘air measurements.’ Chuck tried to play it off like waving to me God Bless him, but I know an air measurement when I see it.’
Josh, I feel your pain and I promise to buy the DVD for the final season when it arrives. You’ve joined the honored company of show runners whose blood and sweat was rewarded by an abrupt, all too premature burial. Just remember what they say in ‘The Godfather’: Revenge is a dish best served cold.