Matt Roush, in his convenient-but-generally-too-Alias-obsessed Q&A column, notes that the current season for Ed is being trimmed to 17 episodes. That suggests that the Stuckyville crew may not be back next year. Which is fine, I suppose, since I think they did what they needed to do creatively with this series. Still, with Frasier and Friends going, the National Biscut Company (no, wait, that’s Nabisco), ummm, the National Broadcasting Company is going to have some serious holes to fill on their schedule, with a real lack of powerhouse shows to build evenings around, and even losing a slow-but-steady show may be a bit of a gamble.
The Thursday night 8-to-10 block on NBC has been a powerful sitcom period in terms of ratings and/or quality for decades now. It was my favorite night of TV watching (my weekly pizza night, in fact) back when it had shows like Cheers, Night Court, and Taxi leading in to Hill Street Blues at 10.
