Canceled shows are coming back and on DVD

There’s a lot of television out there. Tons, in fact. There are lots of 24-hour channels that… There’s a lot of television out there. Tons, in fact. There are lots of 24-hour channels that want programming and take as much, if not more, than they need.

Needless to say, some of these programs aren’t exactly “high quality,” and no program has ever lasted longer than 20 years. Although some believe “The Simpsons” could pass the tenure of “Gunsmoke” in five years, the producers of “The Simpsons” think they won’t last more than another two years.

With the advent of shows on DVD, a program’s years, and success, is of marginal importance. All that matters is how long it will take to get on DVD. Take, for example, the show “Firefly.”

“Firefly” was a show that lasted less than a year. Only 11 shows aired during primetime, and three didn’t make it to the screen. But, lo and behold, when it was released on DVD, the 14 episodes actually sold.

The reason why? No matter what a program is about, there’s almost always going to be a following. It’s pretty logical. Different people like different things, so if a program gets a million or so viewers during primetime, it’ll probably get cancelled, but it will be lucrative enough for the broadcasting company to release 50,000 DVDs. People who liked the show will get to see every episode whenever they want, broadcasting companies make some money, and everyone’s happy.

The same has been happening to “Futurama.” The first and second seasons have been selling really well, especially for an underachieving, poorly advertised Fox program. The past five years for “Futurama” haven’t been the easiest, especially with constant time slot changes and the show’s not holding up to Fox’s high standards of Sunday night programming – despite the fact that Fox never liked to advertise for the program.

Of course, they cancelled “Futurama” last year, rearranged the order, and filled the spot with that God-awful “Oliver Beene.”

Either way, “Futurama” has enjoyed the fruits of the DVD afterlife. Syndication on Cartoon Network, a few hundred thousand DVD sales – no one can really say this isn’t success.

And yet, there are shows like “Upright Citizen’s Brigade.” This show was before its time and didn’t receive nearly as much credit as it deserved. The show was cancelled after three seasons, but wasn’t released on DVD until about four months ago. Meanwhile, fellow Comedy Central program “Strangers With Candy,” a program inferior to the aforementioned UCB, was on DVD for at least eight months before that.

UCB was able to get onto DVD because of a lot of support through their following. Not to say that “Strangers with Candy” didn’t have support from a fan base, but a lot more people watched UCB.

But none have benefited more from television-to-DVD moves than “Family Guy.”

“Family Guy,” the controversial show about a lower-middle class Irish family living in Quahog, R.I., was cancelled two years ago. For the most part, the controversial aspects of the show outweighed its popularity. The show was considered dead, and no new episodes were scheduled to be made.

This was until, of course, the sales of the first DVD volume reached more than 1 million.

Pretty soon, a “Family Guy” movie was in the works (it still is, but it’ll be going straight to video).

Seth MacFarlane, the creator of the show, was rumored to be back in bed with Fox on a brand new show about a CIA agent with a liberal daughter (this show may actually still be in the works).

Then, something really weird happened.

Fox not only picked “Family Guy” back up, but they promised a new 35-episode season by the end of 2005.

While this may be the first – and possibly only – case of a show resurrected through the television-show-DVD phenomena, it’s certainly a revolution, compared to the old one-strike-and-you’re-out policy of programming.

In short, let’s just say if “Gilligan’s Island” came out on DVD 30 years ago, there would’ve been more than three seasons.