ONE SEASON WONDERS: In Case of Emergency

On Wednesdays, I look at shows that lasted one season or less. Today I am looking at 2000s flop In Case of Emergency!

IN CASE OF EMERGENCY

Programming Details:

January 3, 2007 - April 11, 2007

12 episodes

ABC

Starring: David Arquette, Jonathan Silverman, Greg Germann, Kelly Hu, Nicholas Roget-King and Lori Loughlin

Created by: Howard J. Morris

Plot: A group of high school acquaintances re-connect in strange ways after nearly 20 years and with their lives not what they thought they would be. The former classmates include greeting card writer Harry (Silverman), diet guru Sherman (Germann), Korean masseuse Kelly (Hu), and Jason (Arquette), who is under investigation for a corporate scandal. Rounding out the main cast is a doctor, Joanna (Loughlin), who Jason takes a liking to.

Brief Pilot Review:

This type of plot is one you often see in a drama or dramedy but this is definitely more of a straight comedy. The pilot has a ton of exposition but it's done at a frenetic pace and there's a decent amount of plot involved too so it didn't feel like it was wasting time with exposition. I was not expecting to like this pilot since I'm not a big fan of a lot of the actors involved, but it actually was pretty good aside from some pretty dumb scenes involving Kelly's raging cop boyfriend. Arquette and Silverman were both better than I thought they were going to be and Silverman had a pretty easy chemistry with Kelly Hu. 

Greg Germann was in more of an obnoxious part and he played it obnoxiously. I think the show made the mistake of keeping his story separate from the main story for so long because it felt like he had no real connection to the rest of the characters. Lori Loughlin also wasn't given much to do in the pilot but I'm sure she became a more prominent character as the series continued. Although the pilot was entertaining, it didn't really give me a great sense of what the series was going to be like so that left me skeptical that I would have enjoyed future episodes.

What Went Wrong:

In Case of Emergency launched on ABC at a time where they were finding a lot of success with one hour shows and pretty much no success with half hour shows. The network was flying high with shows like Lost, Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy among others but they were still a couple years before their comedy renaissance started with Modern Family, The Middle and others. During these dark years, ABC was trying all sorts of different comedies that were mostly single camera and mostly a little bit niche. Some of them had their fans but none of them were able to break through and ABC didn't really have any hit comedies that could launch new ones. That's one reason why they went with the all new show comedy block in Fall 2009.

In Case of Emergency was not one of their more high profile comedy attempts during this time. It had some recognizable names in Loughlin, Silverman and Arquette but the names weren't that big and the premise was a hard one to sell. It premiered on a Wednesday night after a bigger swing of a sitcom - The Knights of Prosperity. Knights didn't work either but it definitely had more attention out of the gate. Despite mixed to negative reviews and poor ratings, ABC ran Emergency for 12 weeks and even flipped its lead-in with the 8:30pm show (and best example of an established comedy on the network) According to Jim. Nothing really helped the show. The series was pulled with one episode remaining and joined Knights, Big Day and Help Me Help You as freshman comedies on the cancellation heap.

Tomorrow: A look at Season 6 of Parks and Recreation!

Next Wednesday: A One Season Wonder look at 1960s flop Accidental Family!