Apparently turning this into a television show was not.
Have you ever thought turning a popular 30 second clip into a 30 minute show would be a good idea? Me either. Apparently the people from ABC and GEICO were way ahead of us on that curve. They paired their project up with Carpoolers (classic?) and off they went with the show Cavemen. I mean, I didn’t think it was a good idea, but they made a show about the spokesman from Priceline.com, so maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about.
This little show about that third guy over on the evolution chart was actually okay. Not good by any stretch. I might watch it in a waiting room. Better than the more ill-fated idea of a show about people driving to work. I, like most people, only watched the first one before going on with my life. Based on figures I found on Wikipedia (legit), the first week did a 6.1 with a 10 share. By the end of the long run, which was an amazing almost two months, the ratings dropped down to 3.3 with a 5 share. It is a real shame that they lost half of their audience, they just couldn’t keep all eyes on them like this:
Sadly, even if this show was good (it wasn’t), it was cut short by one of the worst things that has ever happened ever; the 2007 Writers Guild of America strike. It brought such horror to the entertainment industry, most of which I only noticed in late night talk because I finally finished watching Arrested Development all the way through. Everyone realized Carson Daly was awful and then Conan grew a fun beard and got in a fist fight with the Newz Boys from Comedy Central. Despite these two great things, the horrible dispute made television viewers deal with reruns and worst of all, stole from us the last 5 episodes of this great show about cave people talking about Facebook and stuff.
Enough about ratings and politics, what am I the FAN message board’s WWE section on Tuesday morning? No, because it’s Friday and we’ve all known about what happened on Smackdown since Tuesday. The main character Joel dated a HOMOSAPIEN named Kate. How horrible?! She had a bad case of the neander-fever. Joel lives with his brother and Nick Kroll. Mainly these stalwart Cro-Magnons deal with the day to day issues involved with being a caveman in this crazy world we call “world”. You see what problems they have on those darn commercials right? They can’t even play tennis without a hassle. I frankly think the injustices they face should really be thrown at those limey Brits.
Sorry, I meant slimy.
The show was interesting in premise. If it had no tie to the very popular commercials, it still would have gained my attention. I’m sure that wouldn’t be true for most. I think trying to throw Fred Flintstone into the Jetsons is a novel idea. And yes, I know that happened a long time ago, but come on; these guys are snarky and far harrier. By the way, I’m pretty sure I’ve reference Fred in about half of my reviews so far. This is about cavemen, so I feel like it is more warranted.
One of the main reasons this show did not do so well is the same reason it almost got canned before it even happened. The show was almost pulled because the pilot was racist. “What?” you might be exclaiming to your cat, “how is that racist?” Well kids, everything is offensive these days. In fact this comment will probably bring the FAN to the ground. The reason it was racist? Because it was thought that they were just taking black stereotypes and prejudices and applying them to cavemen to make a comedy. Granted, UPN makes shows like that about actual black people, but I digress.
I won’t say that these complaints aren’t at least a little valid though. The first episode, after the unaired and evil pilot I’ve read about, was all focused on Kate and Joel’s relationship and how she might be afraid of telling her friends and family she’s dating someone like Joel (racist?) The cavemen called other people smoothies. I mean, that’s something you digest like a cracker (racist?) These poor guys are called maggers. Do I have to tell you why that is (racist?) Joel’s pal Nick Kroll even said he didn’t work because he was being held down because of his race but in actuality was too lazy to work. That sounds more like a Mexican thing, but still….(racist?) Maybe the people had a legit complaint about the show masking racist jokes and harmless cave etchings, but imagine what they may have said had they seen the pilot. Hell, imagine what they would have said if they actually watched the show!
Can this racist show be too racist?
Cavemen was a small blip on the radar of sitcoms. It’s odd because they’ll go down as one of the most iconic advertising campaigns of all time. It just goes to show you, not everything can last off a small and shaky premise. I mean imagine if they gave shows to any commercial that came around? I know dorks everywhere are just wetting themselves at the thought of an Erin Esurance commercial, but it better not happen. I just hope that the people that made this show got wind of the cancellation in the most appropriate way possible:
ABC Executive: ” I’ve got good news and bad news. The bad news is that your crap show has been axed, and the good you ask?”
I just saved a bunch of money on my car insurance by switching to GEICO!