Did liberal-bashers cost Garofalo her sitcom?

Chicago sun-Times ^ | 6/5/2003 | Bill Zwecker

[Connservative]

Is the ghost of Sen. Joe McCarthy alive and well in Hollywood? That is certainly on the minds of many outspoken liberals in Tinsel-town these days. The latest conspiracy theory focuses on the just-announced axing by ABC of very vocal anti-Iraq war activist Janeane Garofalo's new sitcom, ''Slice o' Life.''

Though the alphabet network had given Garo-falo and Universal Tele-vision a thumbs up on the show for next season, network execs changed their minds, telling Daily Variety and other industry outlets it was ''the direction of the series story line'' that led to the dumping of ''Slice''--just days before the show's pilot was scheduled to be taped in Vancouver, British Columbia.

A source close to Garofalo tells this column the actress and comedian was furious by the last-minute change and believes it's yet another example ''of a network bowing to the perceived power of the Bush administration. ... Janeane is convinced her politics and all the hate mail the right-wing lobby stirred up during the war is what is behind all this.''

An ABC spokeswoman denies that, saying this was a decision based strictly on the artistic merits (or lack thereof) of the show--with Garofalo's politics ''never coming into the decision-making process whatsoever.''

For the pilot, Garofalo would have played an unwilling segment producer assigned to come up with corny feature pieces to run at the end of a TV newsmagazine show.

This is Garofalo's second recent TV stumble. A potential HBO project was also shelved.

[Maceman]

I agree with your sentiment, however it's not an even trade. Janeane Garofalo is not good enough to be even a fiber in the toilet paper Dr, Laura uses to wipe her butt.

Personally, I cannot stand to listen to Schlessinger. I think she has lousy listening skills and I don't appreciate her lack of courtesy, compassion or sensitivity. But fair is fair. These lefties weren't screaming when the Susan Sarandon and the homosexual lobby drummed her TV show off the air. Turnabout is fair play.

[jlogajan]

Garafalo's show was doomed to failure in any event. No talent there.

She has talent, but her cynical humor appeals to a smaller niche audience. ABC bigwigs just figured it wasn't going to be a wide enough appeal to sell Dentu-Grip.

She'd have a better fit on a smaller cable channel. Clubs and college campuses are her audience.

She does seem to be a conspiracy nut. We have plenty of them here on FR too -- they just see different demons.

[Paradox]

Personally, I cannot stand to listen to Schlessinger. I think she has lousy listening skills and I don't appreciate her lack of courtesy, compassion or sensitivity.

Sometimes she misunderstands what the caller is saying, but that happens alot, I have noticed, on talk radio. As for her lack of courtesy, compassion, or sensitivity, I think you are wrong. She has all three, she just doesn't give her callers the warm-fuzzies that a liberal might. She is "your nagging mother", or at least how mothers are supposed to be. I am a fan of hers, although sometimes even I find myself changing the channel, but then I do that with Rush and Hannity as well sometimes...

[bert]

PINGING bRIAN kILMEADE!!

[Fawnn]

These lefties weren't screaming when the Susan Sarandon and the homosexual lobby drummed her TV show off the air. Turnabout is fair play.

In a way, though, it isn't turnabout.

The liberals got Dr. Laura's show cancelled via threatened boycotts, the support for which they got by misquoting her. (Ironically, the liberal smear campaign against Dr. Laura was something so blatant and hypocritical that it's pointed out in The New Thought Police: Inside the Left's Assault on Free Speech and Free Minds by self-admitted lesbian, pro-choice, former Pres. of LA chapter of NOW author Tammy Bruce.)

At this point we can only accept it on faith and our personal perceptions of her talent (or lack thereof) that the media bosses passed on Garofalo's program because it lacked enough artistic meric to even warrant sitcom status. The only way Garofalo could have found out that her show's failure was a consequence of her other actions would have been if the show had aired and nobody watched.

[sydbas]

For the pilot, Garofalo would have played an unwilling segment producer assigned to come up with corny feature pieces to run at the end of a TV newsmagazine show.

Could the reason the show was canned be that the plot sucked?

[Fawnn]

meric = merit < sigh >

[Thoro]

True, but put yourself in ABC's place - why spend a bunch of money filming a pilot episode when you know from reading the scripts, that the series is going to bomb, and you're never going to recover what money you sink into it?

More to the point, this is all about money and business economics 101. Hollywood/ABC's in the business of making money through marketable personalities by selling advertising space. Garofalo made the conscious choice of making her personality less marketable. This in turn means that advertisers don't want to buy commercial time for a show with a small audience, which in turn means that ABC makes no profit by going ahead with the show.

There's no "chill wind" of anything. It's all about money, plain and simple. Hollywood personalities are so busy claiming censorship and blacklisting, that they forget that half the country and viewing audience didn't vote for Al Gore.

[vikingchick]

McBarfyism: when Hollywood sympathizers invoke the ghost of Joe McCarthy whenever they get criticized.

[I_Love_My_Husband]

Savage is already off the air in San Francisco. Bay Areans are already wondering what happened.

[bray]

She said if Bush was right she would crawl through Broken Glass to appologize. Her knees are a wee bit bloody today, idiot! It just gets harder to lie when the truth is freely exchanged??? The left flourished when PravdABC would "filter" the news!

Pray for GW and America

[rwfromkansas]

Payback for Dr. Laura getting canned. Nice to see a lefty get the boot.

[rwfromkansas]

I saw some show of hers on a cable network one time. A lot of folks comment on how they think this or that actor stinks, but not me. I made an exception in her case, as even I could see she is a piss poor actor.

[Ignatz]

An ABC spokeswoman denies that, saying this was a decision based strictly on the artistic merits (or lack thereof) of the show--with Garofalo's politics ''never coming into the decision-making process whatsoever.''

The spokewoman continued, stating that Barfalolo's appearance had changed in recent weeks. Noting that Barfalolo had gained considerable weight, the spokeswoman said, "We attribute the weight gain to the Supersized crow meals that Ms. Barfalolo has been forced to consume since the war in Iraq ended".

[B-Chan]

It's What's For Dinner®

[Alouette]

Janeane is convinced her politics and all the hate mail the right-wing lobby stirred up during the war is what is behind all this.

Whereas everyone else knows it is because her show sucks like an Oreck.

[freekitty]

Janeane's big mouth cost her her job. It's that simple.

[RippleFire]

bump

[Hugin]

How funny a sitcom is relies more on the quality of the writers than the actors. But Garofalo could certainly be funny given the right lines. I haven't seen anything funnier this year than seeing her on O'Reilly saying "if we go into Iraq WE'RE DOOMED!".

[cgk]

Three words: Dr. Laura Schlessinger

That can't be repeated enough.