All through December, the Trio cable channel is celebrating television flops.
During a month of programming dubbed "Brilliant, But Cancelled," Trio revives a seldom-glimpsed species: great series that failed to score the large audience and lengthy run that assure eternal afterlife as repeats.
Here's the Not-Exactly-A-Hit Parade of nine such series hidden from sight since their original airings — with some never-before-seen episodes part of the mix.
"Ernie Kovacs Show" (Originally aired Dec. 1952-April 1953 on CBS; six episodes to be re-aired). TV's most avant-garde comedian to this day, Kovacs recognized no limits to the technical limitations of the young medium as he frolicked in his "hallucinatory world" of visual wit. "East Side/West Side" (Sept. 1963-Sept. 1964 on CBS; 10 episodes). Violating "every sacred tenet for television success" (a critic raved at its premiere), this gritty, filmed-on-location drama starred George C. Scott as a New York social worker, with Cicely Tyson in the first recurring role for a black woman on a dramatic series.
"Kolchak: The Night Stalker" (Sept. 1974-Aug. 1975 on ABC; six episodes). Two decades before "The X-Files," whose creator credits it as an influence, this eerie drama starred Darren McGavin as a crime reporter who keeps tripping over the bizarre and supernatural. "United States" (March-April 1980 on NBC; five episodes). This uncommonly smart comedy about married life starred Beau Bridges and Helen Shaver, and was created by Larry Gelbart ("M-A-S-H"). "The Famous Teddy Z" (Sept. 1989-May 1990 on CBS; 13 episodes). This too-close-to-the-bone comedy starred Jon Cryer as a mailroom worker who becomes a top Hollywood agent overnight. "Profit" (April 1996 on Fox; eight episodes). Adrian Pasdar starred as a ruthless young executive in this chilling yet sometimes chillingly funny drama, which had the misfortune to arrive a few years before companies like Enron would prepare the public for its premise: There are no depths to which big business won't sink.
"Gun" (April-May 1997 on ABC; six episodes). An anthology series created and produced by Robert Altman, it has only one recurring player: a pearl-handled pistol that falls into the possession of each episode's set of characters. "Now and Again" (Sept. 1999-May 2000 on CBS; 10 episodes). This endearingly odd sci-fi-romance-suspense-drama starred Eric Close as a $3 billion genetically engineered man who is being tested by the government — but misses his flesh-and-blood family at home.
"Action" (Sept.-Dec. 1999 on Fox; 13 episodes). A corrosively funny look at Hollywood filmmaking, it starred Jay Mohr as an insufferably ambitious producer and Illeana Douglas as his child-star-turned-hooker-turned-studio-VP.That's the "Brilliant, But Cancelled" honor roll, which was whittled from a list of some 150 candidates, according to Trio President Lauren Zalaznick.
She checks off her general criteria: "Each show got roundly great reviews, distinguished itself as being somehow ahead of its time, and, since then, hasn't been rerun on other channels."
Any viewer who samples Trio in December will get a heightened sense of TV's Darwinian pressures, says Zalaznick: "the creation, the struggle, and the unforgiving environment these shows had to live in, which in some cases made their cancellation inevitable."
Indeed, it's a miracle most of them got on the air. How did anybody sell network bosses on a groundbreaking show like "East Side/West Side" when entrenched TV logic dictates "rather than saying, `This is totally different,' you try to create a sense of being freshly derivative"?
Those words are voiced by a producer on "The Perfect Pitch" (premiering Sunday at 10:30 p.m. EST), a breezy half-hour that shares the gathered wisdom of several TV hitmakers. (Another helpful tip: Simply pitch your show as "Friends" meets "CSI."')
Among other themed programming, a documentary called "Brilliant, But Cancelled" (premiering Dec. 8 at 9 p.m.) provides a 90-minute overview of series that died too young.
Summing up the month ahead, "we're just saying it's really great and you probably missed it the first time," says Zalaznick, pleased to offer a reprieve. "After all, the rest of the country missed it."