Wednesday 9:30 (8:30 Central) Explained

Italic Title:no
Alt Name:My Adventures in Television
Genre:Sitcom
Creator:Peter Tolan
Director:Robert Berlinger
Peter Tolan
Ted Wass
Starring:Ivan Sergei
Melinda McGraw
Ed Begley Jr.
James Michael McCauley
John Cleese
Theme Music Composer:Peter Tolan
Christopher Tyng
Composer:Christopher Tyng
Country:United States
Language:English
Num Seasons:1
Num Episodes:6 (1 unaired)
Executive Producer:Lauren Corrao
Peter Tolan
Producer:Mike Martineau
Michael Petok
Shari Tavey
Runtime:22 - 24 minutes
Company:The Cloudland Company
Touchstone Television
Channel:ABC

Wednesday 9:30 (8:30 Central) (later retitled My Adventures in Television) is an American sitcom which aired on ABC in 2002. The series was created by Peter Tolan.

Plot

Idealistic television executive David Weiss joins struggling TV network IBS, only to discover it is a place of backstabbing, constant competition, and a fair bit of bad programming. His colleagues include: Mike McClaren, an exec who will do anything to get ahead in the business, including hiding his own homosexuality; Lindsay Urich, an air-head who gets by on her looks; Joanne Walker, who exists as the token black person at the network; and head of programming Paul Weffler, who has an ability to get things done but is so clueless that often it is by accident. Overseeing them all is the president of the network, Red Lansing, whose orders – no matter how far-fetched – are always right.

The series didn't shy away from surprising storylines. Episode one featured David sleeping with Lori Loughlin which caused a scandal at the network; episode three – "Death Be Not Pre-Empted" – featured the team going after ratings by airing the execution of a serial killer, and episode six revolved around David's attempt to please all sorts of minority groups without displeasing others.

Cast

Production

The series was a mid-season replacement,[1] premiering on Wednesday, March 27, 2002 at (unsurprisingly) 9:30 p.m. Eastern and Pacific times, 8:30 Central Time – with the title being a play on the common U.S. network practice of promoting both airtimes.[2] [3] Series creator Peter Tolan had earlier written The Larry Sanders Show, Ellen and Murphy Brown. The series was able to attract big-name guest stars, such as Lori Loughlin, John Ritter, Garry Shandling and Lisa Rinna, who all appeared as themselves in the first few episodes. However, low ratings caused ABC to put the series on hiatus after just two episodes,[4] and ultimately cancel it.[5]

Three more episodes appeared after the May sweeps were over; on May 29, 2002, the show returned to its Wednesday 9:30/8:30 time slot, under the new title My Adventures in Television. The remaining produced episode never aired.

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: John . Levesque . Midseason sitcoms: From middling to really bad . . March 25, 2002 . April 28, 2015.
  2. News: Steve . Johnson . Comedy centralized . . March 27, 2002 . April 28, 2015.
  3. News: Terrence . Rafferty . Television/Radio; The importance of being silly . . March 24, 2002 . April 28, 2015.
  4. News: US drops Cleese sitcom . . April 9, 2002 . April 28, 2015.
  5. News: Allan . Johnson . Canceled 'Adventures in Television': Was the hook too quick? . . June 22, 2002 . April 28, 2015 . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20150907070036/http://articles.latimes.com/2002/jun/22/entertainment/et-johnson22. September 7, 2015.