January 29, 2002

9:03 AM

Save "The Tick" PetitionA true travesty of justice was the cancelling of the Fox series "The Tick." In a world where naked statues are veiled at public expense, can we afford to miss out on original programming?
posted by Samizdata (31 comments total)

I don't mean to incite a riot here, but did The Tick really have a big following? Nobody I know could stand the show. Maybe it was quirky and original, but I really think it paled in comparison to Family Guy.
posted by padjet1 at 9:12 AM on January 29, 2002

*picks up chair, breaks it over padjet1's head*

jpoulos, get some throwing rocks! Let the looting begin!

MeFi riot!
I wanna riot!
Mefi riot
Of my own!
posted by Kafkaesque at 9:16 AM on January 29, 2002

*hides under table sobbing*
I love the Tick.......
posted by thekorruptor at 9:18 AM on January 29, 2002

I'm with you, padjet1. I'm a big fan of the cartoon, but the Fox Tick was just not that good. And like owillis said in the Family Guy thread, these petitions are dumb. It's a business. If the show doesn't do well, you yank it. It sucks for the people who like the show, but that's business.

I do blame Fox for screwing up both of these shows, however. Family Guy is a great show with hilarious writing, and Fox didn't really give it a chance. The Tick, however, suffered from bad writing as well as weak promotion. The actors were good, but the implementation was not.
posted by starvingartist at 9:19 AM on January 29, 2002

Well, I liked it, but I do think the petition is a waste of time.
posted by briank at 9:22 AM on January 29, 2002

I thought the last few episodes of The Tick were a lot better than the first few. This is another case of the network canning a show before it was given a chance to reach its potential (which was pretty high, I think).
posted by billybunny at 9:24 AM on January 29, 2002

Not to encourage the daily posting of a petition to ressurect a cancelled Fox show ("Bring back Herman's Head! Bring back Whoops!"), but I ran over and signed that petition lickety-split. After all, the cream rises to the top-- and that cream is white! Unlike the Family Guy, though, I don't ever see it really getting the kind of audience that Fox requires. Perhaps UPN or WB or Comedy Central can pick it up? I do hope so.
posted by thebigpoop at 9:25 AM on January 29, 2002

I miss the show "open all night".

Hey, was that David Sedaris who played the graduate psychology student in the last episode? It sounded like him.
posted by mecran01 at 9:27 AM on January 29, 2002

Tick comic book: really good.
Tick cartoon: also really good.
Tick live-action series: really good... theme song.

The show had moments, but a lot of it just didn't work for me. Bat-Manuel? Yeah, that doesn't work.
posted by dogwelder at 9:28 AM on January 29, 2002

Less black people in New Hampshire! Free the penguins! Fuck Aaron Brown! Burn pandas! Give Stephen King the Dalai Lama's eyes! More ground-up teamster upstart in school lunch meat! Porn for kids! Cigarettes for infants! Paint a tree! Now! Now! Now!

I like a good riot! Revolution for the hell of it! YAAAAGGHH!
posted by dong_resin at 9:33 AM on January 29, 2002

You all realize that all the live-action Tick episodes had been in the can for a year? Because the 'reality TV' thing exploded, and Fox quickly added 'Temptation Island' and their ilk? And so the network already knew the show would bomb.... if they had faith in it, they would've released it when they finished it. Sigh.

IMO, the show was good but not great. The comic book jokes certainly wouldn't appeal to everyone. I'd vote for Comedy Central to pick it up, but they're focusing on hilarity like BattleBots...
posted by krewson at 9:38 AM on January 29, 2002

we will be boycotting every product shown on those stations

That's a stupid way to go about it. They probably aren't buying anyway and if they think sponsors control programming they are in a different world than me.

"Hello, I'm the CEO at Gold Bond, put that damn show back on the air I just read an internet petition!"

I find it hard to believe that people who really dig shows like the Tick and Family guy are not going to watch the Simpsons or Futurama ever again.
posted by skallas at 9:46 AM on January 29, 2002

I just look at this way. Canceling "The Tick" in its infancy was yet another vote for complete dung like "World's Wildest Police Chase Animals Who Attack People On Temptation Island 90210 - Parental Caution Advised." Sure, the writing wasn't the best, but, with only eight episodes, they didn't exactly give it the chance to experiment or grow. And, at least by posting the petition, some one, somewhere, might notice, and do something about it. Look at the rebirth of "The Critic."

Fox baffles me sometimes, in that they turn out some really original stuff, then depth charge it in favor of something that depresses my already bleak outlook of human nature.

Oh, yeah... Riot...

(Tosses a nearby bystander through a window, then grabs lots of meaningless, yet irresistibly attractive, shiny bits)
posted by Samizdata at 9:49 AM on January 29, 2002

Skallas -

Ummmm, The Family Guy has been cancelled.

And, sure, maybe The Tick won't come back on the air, but, at least I made some sort of effort, instead of sitting around sniping, a course of action that I'm sure will be more effective than the petition.

I always prefer a sin of comission rather than a sin of omission.

(Puts on asbestos suit)
posted by Samizdata at 9:54 AM on January 29, 2002

(Dodges the shards) It was a good show. May it rest in peace. Please, let it rest in peace.
posted by jaustinspace at 9:57 AM on January 29, 2002

Ummmm, The Family Guy has been cancelled.

Yes I know. I was lumping both groups together because their petitions are identical and I'm sure there's lots of overlay.
posted by skallas at 9:59 AM on January 29, 2002

Never saw it advertised, never knew what night it was on.

Get over it, it's television...
posted by Ben Grimm at 10:03 AM on January 29, 2002

Really, Tick TV was just terrible. Not just by comparison with all other Tick incarnations, but by comparison with itself. The pilot was full of dead, awkward space; the writing was dislocated; the live action characters looked clumsy and slow, exactly like actors in costumes rather than works of imagination. It took my wife and I, both fans of the original Tick, a week to get the smell of that show out of our house.

And who would care in non-Nielsen viewers boycotted the channel?
posted by argybarg at 10:08 AM on January 29, 2002

As a fan of the comic and cartoon, I thought the show was good. One of the flaws was that they focused on heros whereas in the comic and cartoon, the villians were a fair part of the fun.

I'll sign the petion only if they offer to feature Tongue-Tongue. Or El Seed. Or The Evil Midnight Bomber. Or Josef Stalin.

Warbutton was a great Tick and I simply cannot get enough of Captain Liberty.

Oh and all that thought BatManuel was subpar......SPOOOOOOON! I thought he was one of the highlights.
posted by Dagobert at 10:41 AM on January 29, 2002

yep, more mad bomber, more chair head, and at leat one shot of the moon with 'cha' on it - THEN it would have been a winner. rip, i loved it.
posted by tomplus2 at 10:52 AM on January 29, 2002

The psych grad student was Dave Foley, of Kids in the Hall and News Radio fame.
posted by meep at 11:04 AM on January 29, 2002

I'm curious-- has any "save our show" petition, online or otherwise, actually been successful in convincing a network to revive a show? I enjoyed both Family Guy and The Tick and it bums me out that they'll be cancelling both in favor of running That 70's Show three times a week as well as greenlighting That 80's Show (anyone see the pilot last week? Good lord, what a bad, bad show), but I doubt that submitting a long list of e-signatures to the network will change their mind.
posted by monosyllabic at 11:44 AM on January 29, 2002

It all stems from Star Trek, of course. A fan petition did in fact convince NBC to bring back Trek for its third and final (and worst) season in 1968-69
posted by briank at 11:53 AM on January 29, 2002

Kind of late to start petitioning for the return of a cartoon that was canceled years ago. (There was no live-action "Tick." It was all just a bad dream.)
posted by kindall at 11:56 AM on January 29, 2002

if it helps ease the pain, the cancelled The Chamber (*shudder*) too.
posted by hotdoughnutsnow at 12:37 PM on January 29, 2002

if it helps ease the pain, the cancelled The Chamber (*shudder*) too.

They'll have to cancel off two or three reality shows to make up for axing family guy and the tick.
posted by fuq at 1:31 PM on January 29, 2002

word.
posted by hotdoughnutsnow at 3:12 PM on January 29, 2002

What if fans of a threatened show pooled their money and offered it to a network only if they kept the show on the air? Signatures aren't worth so much, and it seems that niche audiences could put their money where their mouths were and fund creative efforts when advertising wasn't sufficient.
posted by hitsman at 9:01 PM on January 29, 2002

OK, the show had issues going in that were against it:

1: Has a relatively wierd/rabid fan base taht would love to hate the changes made to the characters.

B: It was a superhero show that showed little to no acts of actual heroism

iii: It was up against Survivor and Will & Grace in it's timeslot


(and as far as BatManuel... goes)

BM: "I saved them three times if you know what I mean"
Tick: "Nope!"
posted by tj at 9:41 PM on January 29, 2002

World's Wildest Police Chase Animals Who Attack People On Temptation Island 90210 - Parental Caution Advised

I would so watch that.
posted by Neale at 10:00 PM on January 29, 2002

Can I just say I liked "Whoops!" far more than "The Tick"?
posted by mmoncur at 3:26 AM on January 30, 2002