Studio 60 actually came out in the same season as
30 Rock. The better show survived.
Anyway, offhand, just in the past few years, I can think of a show that's half-centered on an electronics store, one about a paranormal temp agency, and one about a guy who runs a pie shop. Of course, two of those three got cancelled because I'm a show-killer. :) But hey, they happened. And even something as tired as the cop show or the hospital show can have fresh ideas - it's not the what that matters; it's the how. And the setting isn't half the "what" in the first place.
That said, of
course most of the new pilots in any given season are going to be clichéd pap. Welcome to Hollywood! But at least most of them will get culled by the next year - not necessarily the right ones, but room will be cleared for the next cycle of possibilities. I really do think that television as a medium is full of great storytelling, originality, and risk-taking right now. Not everywhere, certainly, but it feels like even the main networks are willing to try out new things and value the artistically lauded a whole lot more than the main movie studios are.
(The subject matter/settings of other shows I've been watching recently: A space alien who travels in time and space in a British police box, an ad agency in the 60s, a fantastical Asian-amalgam universe, two underemployed musicians slacking in NYC, a middle-aged journalist fighting aliens in the suburbs of London, a paper company in Scranton...need I go on?)
Updated On: 8/13/09 at 01:55 AM
