Whedonesque : Comments on 17579 : (SPOILER) TV Guide's Matt Roush explains missing "Castle".

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September 12 2008

(SPOILER) TV Guide's Matt Roush explains missing "Castle". Matt explains to a worried fan why Nathan Fillion's new show, Castle, was omitted in the midseason replacement section of TV Guide's Fall Preview issue. (Mild spoilers for other shows. Scroll three quarters down the page for the question and response.)

Matt also comments, "Trust me, Nathan Fillion has plenty of fans in this office, even more so after his hilarious appearance as Captain Hammer in Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. We're still grieving over Firefly, too, but at least we'll always have Serenity."

floofypooh | Cast&Crew | 20:50 CET | 18 comments total | tags:

So... no one should bust out that Panic Meter for this either? ;)

BTW, too bad about Middleman. I loved that silly show.

NYPinTA | September 12, 21:51 CET

Aww, poor Middleman, there's a show that truly never did anyone any harm. Sadly it seems like it didn't do enough people any good either. Ride tall big guy and happy trails.

'Castle' is gonna really depend on the chemistry for me, the buzz is apparently pretty good and with the fun cameos too it could end up a slow but steady burn. Sort of what we call "Sunday evening viewing" over here (but I doubt it'll be on Sunday ;).

Saje | September 12, 22:18 CET

What do I do if I want to know what the explanation is but don't want to see all of the other show spoilers in the linked item.

The One True b!X | September 12, 22:19 CET

ABC's mid-season pick-ups were announced after the TV Guide deadline basically. Not much more to it than that.

Saje | September 12, 22:20 CET

Or do a find and go directly to the item. There's plenty of filler at the top of the page that the only thing you see is a question, no spoilery answers.

cabri | September 12, 22:49 CET

Here is the pertinent part:

Question: ..... On another front, I carefully pored over my Fall Preview issue, but in the midseason replacement section, there was no mention of Castle, the series starring Nathan Fillion. Was that just because it was announced too late, or since Nathan's luck as a leading man has been less than stellar, TV Guide figured it was already canceled? His talents were wasted on Desperate Housewives, and I look forward to a show where he can be shiny. Yes, I'm still grieving over Firefly, I admit it. — Linda M.

Matt Roush: ..... As for Castle, it wasn't in our midseason roundup because ABC made its midseason series pickups too late for our deadline. Trust me, Nathan Fillion has plenty of fans in this office, even more so after his hilarious appearance as Captain Hammer in Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. We're still grieving over Firefly, too, but at least we'll always have Serenity.

floofypooh | September 12, 23:27 CET

Yeah, Middleman is a family favorite at my house, too; and we loved it when Mark Sheppard (Badger) showed up for the last couple of episodes!

I also loved that the questioner proclaims ABC Family Channel "Peter Piping Weirdos" if they don't renew Middleman. That's gonna be my new insult for the week!

floofypooh | September 12, 23:39 CET

"we'll always have Serenity" That is a keeper.

Anonymous1 | September 13, 00:25 CET

While I'm looking forward to Castle (usually not my type of show, but if Nathan Fillion is in it, I'll have to check it out, and I got hooked on "Life" despite my aversion to cop shows), I really want my Middleman back. Goofy, smart, sweet, intelligent. All the things that work for Pushing Daisies, but, apparently, a little too much for many viewers. Also, being on ABC Family probably didn't help. Did anyone else watch "Three Moons over Milford?"

And, floofypooh, the letter to Roush asking about Middleman put me in a mood to rewatch my one saved episode on the DVR. I'm tempted to save that letter forever.

darkling | September 14, 00:50 CET

well at least I still have castle to look forward to... although all the looking forward to is getting old... I'd like a must-see show I can watch now please

or am I just being impatient

mariec | September 14, 14:27 CET

mariec_530, could you use correct punctuation (including capital letters) in your comments, per site rules, for ease of reading? Thanks. And welcome. :-)

SoddingNancyTribe | September 14, 17:59 CET

Poor Middleman. Well, at least it's not officially dead, yet.

Succatash | September 14, 18:48 CET

While looking around for more info about the fate of The Middleman, I came across another connection to the Whedonverse. Neil Levin, the script coordinator on Firefly, also worked on The Middleman.

Sadly, Neil passed away earlier this year from injuries following a fall from which he sustained a concussion. Middleman's creator, Javier Grillo-Marxuach, writes about Neil on his Middleman blog. If interested, click here to go to the site.

floofypooh | September 14, 22:00 CET

Can't say I'd ever heard of The Middleman before reading this thread. Mind you, I'd only heard a passing mention of Castle up to now as well, which possibly suggests that I'm paying less attention to what's on telly these days. Wonder why that is?

Serial Rocker | September 15, 13:07 CET

Your plans for world domination have started to take up all your time ?

Saje | September 15, 13:41 CET

May well have something to do with it. There are only so many hours in the day and planning global conquest can be a real time consumer.

Damn Daleks and Cybermen made it look so easy too.

*Edited because it appears that the ability to spell the most simple words is apparently as far out of my reach as the world domination thing.

[ edited by Serial Rocker on 2008-09-15 14:11 ]

Serial Rocker | September 15, 14:09 CET

Yeah, people that trot out the old "small world" cliché clearly haven't tried to completely control both hemispheres. Amateurs.

Saje | September 15, 14:36 CET

"Small world", pffft! No sooner have you got Australia under your control than do you discover Russia have declared themselves "free" again.

Honestly, I'm this close to giving up and going with the 'terraforming and colonising another planet' option. I mean, Earth is all well and good but why settle when you can have a whole new world with natural resources that may last for longer than another century.

Plus, no Jeremy Kyle.

Serial Rocker | September 15, 14:55 CET

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