Stark Raving Mad

The NBC execs have quite a wierd streak going as they cancel great shows the general public loves and goes wild for in order to try shows that won't stand a chance. We've all seen Working, Unsolved Mysteries, Quantum Leap and the new Dark Shadows go down the pipe. Great shows, loved by whole cults of loyal fans, MURDERED by idiot and blind TV execs working at NBC. Stark Raving Mad was the Odd Couple of the 90s with Tony Shalhoub of Wings (another great show that ended too soon for me) playing a psychotic Stephen King horror writer with Neil Patrick Harris playing a Niles Crane literary agent as his foil and target of abuse. Rounded out with Ed McClintock, Heather Paige Kent and the beautiful Dorie Barton, the show had great scripts, funny jokes and hysterical unpredictable situations. It was Halloween all year round with this show, and Halloween itself was a little more surreal with this show on the air. The only thing that could possibly ruin this show would be an idiot tv exec with a grudge against a happy viewing public. this show will be sorely missed.

It's a shame this show only lasted like one season. I found it to be really funny. I like Tony Shalhoub in almost anything that he does, and he was great as an eccentric, more goofy version of Stephen King. He never fails to haul in the laughs, with his childish little pranks. And then we introduce his roommate: an anal retentive young man with obsessive compulsive disorder. A great combo! Neil Patrick Harris shows off his comic skills, as opposed to playing the serious doc on "Doogie Howser, M.D." I think Harris has a good head on his shoulders, and if he keeps up the good work, he can succeed in the biz. Hopefully, he will, because I don't want him to become another Macaulay Culkin.

"Stark Raving Mad" was very funny, and hopefully they'll show the reruns on USA. As for Shalhoub and Harris, good luck in your future endeavors.

My score: 7 (out of 10)

OK, I wasn't as broken up as when they cancelled Bakersfield PD, the early canning of which was one of the great Media Crimes of the 20th century, but axing this one was a big mistake! As was mentioned by others with taste, the show kept getting better and better and was coming into its own. This they only give one year but Veronica's Closet was allowed to smell up the tube for three years? Yeah, that makes sense. I can only hope that SRM and Sports Night will be picked up by another network and the talents (including the mind-tinglingly pretty Heather Paige Kent) will continue in the series. Loved the theme, too.

They cancelled Star Trek, Quantum Leap, News Radio as well as 'letting go' the talents of Howard Stern, David Lettermen, Norm MacDonald... need I go on? To sum it up, NBC has a history of making the biggest mistakes in television history and they continued that tradition by cancelling this series. Stark Raving Mad was a hysterical and brilliant show and far better than any other new NBC show. It was more classy like The Odd Couple. I said it before and I'll say it again: NBC, cancelling this series makes you the dumbest network in the world without a doubt. And with a network like Fox around, that saying something.

Well, those morons at NBC have done it again! One of the funniest shows on TV these days is about to longer be on TV. Obviously, judging by both the people who have previous written here, and the fact they won a People's Choice Award for Favorite New Comedy, "Stark Raving Mad" was well loved, despite what those stupid Neilson ratings say. But even if it had come back, chances are they'd toy with it and try to "fix" it and end up screwing it up worse anyway, like NBC always does with Thursday night shows (Jesse, The Naked Truth, Veronica's Closet, Suddenly Susan. . .)!

Tonight, they finally aired another good one, the much delayed "The Pidgeon" episode with Wes Craven. I saw absolutely no promotion for this episode, which should have aired during "guest star week" last week. Although there's another new one listed for next week, "He's Gotta Have It," judging by next week's commercials, it probably won't air. What a waste to spend the money to make these shows, when they don't bother to air a lot of them!

Perhaps through cable this series will have an afterlife in the future. But until then, we will miss you, Ian Stark, Henry McNeeley, and associates. And a big THANK YOU to NBC for killing another of their increasingly few, hysterical sitcoms!