David Cross is Right 

Over at Mike Meiser's blog, he's got a post up commenting on a clip from the Arrested Development Season 2 DVDs (which I've mirrored here) with David Cross just railing on the Fox marketing team for being unable to bring viewers to a show that's won numerous awards. Mike then goes on to discuss the possibility of Arrested Development continuing on as an internet show (with iTunes possibly being one delivery mechanism ... but there are a billion ways to deliver television over the internet).

The point I wanted to make is that David Cross is right. How hard is it to get people to watch a show that has basically been called the greatest show on TV? How difficult is it to market something that is that successful? Just put it after The Simpsons and before Family Guy and let it be the funniest 90 minutes on TV. This isn't a failure of the show, it's a failure of Fox marketing (and a failure of the stupid people in America watching tripe like Nanny 911 and Trading Moms for Goats or whatever that show is.

It reminds me of the absolutely fantastic line that Aaron Sorkin put in the final episode of Sports Night. The storyline as the show ended vaguely mirrored real life, as Sports Night -- the critically acclaimed SportsCenter-type show running in 3rd place amongst sports networks -- was being sold by the network that owned it, much like the critically acclaimed Sports Night on ABC was running behind in the ratings and was in danger of being cancelled. The buyer of Sports Night, commenting on the show, said "Anyone who can't make money off of Sports Night should get out of the money-making business," an obvious shot at ABC for being unable to get the well written, well acted show, any traction.

Anyone who can't make money off of Arrested Development should get out of the money-making business.