ONE SEASON WONDERS: Extreme

On Wednesdays, I take a look at a series that lasted one season or less. This week, I am looking at Extreme!

EXTREME

January 29, 1995 - April 6, 1995
7 episodes
ABC

Starring: James Brolin, Cameron Bancroft, Brooke Langton, Justin Lazard, Julie Bowen, Tom Wright, Micah Dyer, Danny Masterson

Created by: Didier LaFond & Ron Booth and Robert Wolterstorff & Mike Scott

Plot: Extreme is centered on a search and rescue team in the Rocky Mountains of Utah. The leader is Reese Wheeler (Brolin), a former downhill racer. The rest of the team is mostly younger including Kyle (Bancroft) who is mourning the death of his fiancée. Andie (Bowen) is interested in Kyle and Farley (Wright) is the helicopter pilot. 

Brief Pilot Review:

Extreme looked to have a pretty big budget for a 1990s era network drama. It benefited a lot from being filmed on location in Park City, Utah because I definitely felt immersed in the area and the world of extreme winter sports. The rescue mission scenes were pretty impressive for the era with a lot of gorgeous scenery being shown and nothing looking like it was done on the cheap. Considering how drab so many 1990s era dramas look especially now, this looked bright and impressive - maybe the snow helped things not look so drab because some of the interior scenes looked much more like a standard network drama from that time.

Unfortunately I can't say as much about the writing and acting as I can about the visuals. I might have used a little of the money to get some better scripts because everything just felt so meh. It was all boring and the situations in the pilot lowered the stakes that were raised by dramatic rescue missions. I get the need to have interpersonal things along with big moments but even an average show like Chicago Fire blends that so much better. I felt like I wanted to take a nap every time they weren't out on location. The cast, which included veteran James Brolin as well as future stars Julie Bowen and Danny Masterson, made no impression. Brolin in particular was disappointing as I thought he would have had more of a presence.

What Went Wrong:

Extreme was one of the biggest hopes for ABC in the 1994-95 season because it got the coveted post-Super Bowl berth. Super Bowl premieres have a very checkered history in TV history. For every success like The Wonder Years or Undercover Boss, there are major flops like Grand Slam and The World's Best. Extreme definitely falls into the latter category. Back in the early 1990s, it was much more common to launch a new show after the Super Bowl rather than doing a special episode of an existing show. Recent years had including middling performances from shows like Davis Rules, The Good Life and Homicide: Life on the Street. While Homicide went on to have a decent run, none of them were big hits from their Super Bowl launch.

Reviews were not very kind to Extreme. The Baltimore Sun called it "pretty, but empty-headed." The Super Bowl episode got a predictably big audience but then Extreme wasn't seen again for over a month as it was always the plan to do a preview episode. It eventually appeared on Thursdays at 8pm, replacing the critical darling but ratings-challenged My So-Called Life. It had to compete against NBC's Must See TV, which was in one of its peak years in 1994-95. The ratings dropped quickly and it was cancelled with six episodes left unaired. When NBC had the Super Bowl the next year, they chose to do a special one hour episode of Friends instead of a new show thanks in part to the failure of Extreme. The results were a smashing success with the largest audience ever for a post-Super Bowl show (a number that still stands to this day) and networks chose to showcase existing shows much more frequently.

Tomorrow: A look at Season 4 (Part 2) of Happy Days!

Next Wednesday: A One Season Wonder look at The Office - the 1995 comedy!