Re: "ER" to end after next season

On Fri, 4 Apr 2008 21:39:56 -0700 (PDT), eternalsun****ne80@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>The truth is that The Luby Hour drove viewers away in droves. That
>particular plotline brought ER from 20 million viewers to 8 million in
>about two years, and during the latter year ER was given more
>publicity than it had seen in nearly a decade due to its
>"improved" (as in not-yet-declining-from-the-year-before) ratings. The
>Luby wedding was the lowest rated original episode the show had ever
>had.

Corellation is not causation.  So what if Abby and Luka's weddng was
their lowest-rated new episode, the ratings started their freefall
during the Carter-Kem storyline and accelerated during the SAM-Luka
storyline.  That the ratings went into freefall during the Abby-Luka
storyline isn't any indication of anything other than the show had
*already* been going through significant creative and ratings problems
for quite awhile -- ironically, the ratings cancer metastasized right
at the point that the show got back  some of its pre-Green-dying
luster (due to the show regaining its sense of humor with the addition
of Archie Morris, the new Frank Burns).

I also think that the hideously awful state of the Abby-Luka storyline
right now -- with Abby's relapse -- distorts how well the storyline
was doing when they got back together.  The relapse has been the
single most hideously awful storyline since Green's cancer arc took
three times longer than it should have -- albeit with the difference
that that awful storyline ended with a classic episode almost by
accident.

Also, throughout ER's entire history, there's always been *one*
clunker of a continuing storyline going on at any one time.  Doug
Ross's last arc, Marc Green's last arc.  Carter & Kem.  They just
don't get that while they have had some spectacular tearjerker
*episodes,* they *always* screw up when they try to go for tearjerker
*arcs.*

  -- Rob
--
LORELAI: I am so done with plans. I am never, ever making one again.  
It never works.  I spend the day obsessing over why it didn't work 
and what I could've done differently.  I'm analyzing all my shortcomings 
when all I really need to be doing is vowing to never, ever make a plan 
ever again, which I'm doing now, having once again been the innocent 
victim of my own stupid plans.  God, I need some coffee.