music_man_fan

This show's 3rd and 4th's season reminds me of when Seinfeld was about to take off. Amazing writing, great story lines that worked, perfect timing in jokes and character development, and a really great cast. It was about solidify Ted Danson as one of the great actors of all time. Shawnee Smith was going to break out to become a super star. Just by quality and laughter, it was going to be found by the general public.

Then network decided to make an example Terry Ferrel, who's chemistry with Danson was going off the charts. And killed the series as we know it.

Every person involved in that contract negotiation from CBS's side should be called out, and attacked by history. They took a show that had the potential to go down as one of the greats and killed it.

Nancy Travis doesn't deserve the hate because it wasn't her fault. But Danson and her had nowhere near the chemistry and timing Ferrel and Danson had down to a T.

But one executive team's total "mess up" became another writer's gold, and the TV character "House" comes directly from this, and it was open, because CBS killed this series from becoming iconic.

The only thing it missed is the simple reason why it happened in Sweden. As someone who lived in Sweden for a while, it's right in their culture and language. Swedish itself is very rhythmic and musical. It's the reason why Swedish-English speakers in the 1950's and 60's sounded like the were singing or yodeling when they spoke in English. Also melodies and singing are a huge part of the culture going back hundreds, if not thousands of years.

But excellent overview on how it happened. One of the things many don't know was that Benny and Bjorn from ABBA had already been record producing management for 5 years, under Stig Anderson, before Waterloo ever became a hit. So one of the main reasons why ABBA became so prolific was that Benny and Bjorn, with the help of Stig and sound engineer Michael B. Tretow, had the expertise to produce and turn any melody into a good song. They didn't need the help of anyone else, as they were one of the few human beings who could take a song all the way through the process. Enjoying the long drown out process of producing a tune into a hit, as it takes a lot to get through the winters in Sweden, is also a big part of Swedish culture, and the asset that became the backbone of why Sweden became such a great record producing country.