Modified On September 24, 2004
Those watching the Emmy ceremony earlier this week may have noticed Mitchell Hurwitz, one of the executive producers of Arrested Development, when accepting the award for Outstanding Comedy Series, singled out one Jim Vallely for praise. Vallely started out in the early ’80s as one half of the comedy team Schmock & Vallely. He is a writer and supervising producer for the critically acclaimed Fox series. Jonathan Schmock, the other half, has written or directed episodes of My Wife And Kids, Dharma & Greg and Blossom.
In other television news, no one seems to have noticed the demise of one of the better sitcoms on television, The Drew Carey Show. We’ve never understood this nonsense, spewed by the producers of such shows as The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Seinfeld, that it’s time to fold the series and “go out on top.” Well, after witnessing the quiet demise of Drew Carey‘s fine series a couple weeks back, and noticing the decided lack of excitement in the press at its passing, we think they may have a point. Carey’s show was the victim of Timeslot Bingo and a disastrous promotional tie-in scheme that tried to tap Monday Night Football fans to boost Carey’s ratings. It ended with a ratings whimper and the final episode was treated to none of the hoo-ha that usually accompanies such an accomplished series. Carey, from all indications, has handled the whole thing with grace (as far as we can tell from his statements to the press) and already has another series on the air at “another network.” Still, we couldn’t help thinking, as the last episode ended with behind the scenes stills and clips, that the folks who created it and starred in it deserved better.