Maximum Bob

It appears this TV series has been taken off the air as I have seen neither an episode nor a promotional spot for the series in the past several weeks. Hopefully it is because they are busy filming several more episodes and intend to bring it back in a big way.

It's one of the first series since Northern Exposure that has some intellectual qualities to it and is not just a bunch of buffoons reading dog tired lines that should have been put out to pasture long ago along with their writers. It seems all and any of the television being offered to us is exactly the same and only the faces and the locations have been changed to protect the writers and the producers and maybe even the Networks.

People say that education is lagging in this country. Well I agree; and if we are now clearly the Television Generation then the programs we offer should have some content that at least makes a person think a little bit and/or generates some sort of mental stimulation.

Maximum Bob definitely does that; let's get it back on the air.

I loved this show. I knew with every bone in my body that it would be cancelled before the end of its first season, but I loved it. Elmore Leonard is a closet vice of mine (as a grad student, we are not encouraged to read these types of things, but hey Leonard writes about my people ;).

As white trash from both rural and urban roots I can honestly say the Leonard has a certain understanding of that element of the population and really knows how to tell an interesting story (even if he is not a particularly great writer, he grammar is really atrocious... ;).

Anyway, I saw Maximum Bob before reading the book and find that the show really filled out the much of what was interesting about the story. I thought that it was funny, intelligent, witty and charming. Though not as good as Twin Peaks, it occupies a similar place in my heart. Hopefully, someday the re-runs of this show will turn up somewhere, or I will meet someone who taped them all, but until then it will live on in my dreams...

Good television is soooo hard to find.

This show was great, it was beautifully witty and it had a lot of heart. It's a comedy that treads the edge of convention. Each character had an individual and unique impact on the individual stories as well as on each other's way of seeing and doing things. There was a common progression of character development from episode to episode and I was looking forward to seeing how each character would change and adapt, which is why I was so very sad when it was canceled. It didn't run long enough to make it to syndication but hopefully ABC will run the episodes again one summer or something. It was truly an excellent show and one that's worth seeing if you ever get the chance.

Call it a high-budget cult-classic. One viewing will get you hooked. To me - - the most original and creative show on TV.

Sadly only a six-episode series which to date has only had one run on British TV, but which gave Beau Bridges perhaps his best (and certainly the funniest) screen role ever as the southern judge who was more than a bit odd... there was a mermaid in there somewhere, and a creepy collection of people with identical glasses, and a dancing sheriff (Sam Robards, again little seen on TV and served well with his role in this).

I'm laughing while I'm typing this just thinking about this. There was just something so addictive about the series and I'd love to see it again. I was kicking myself at the time for not taping the episodes when they aired - if this series gets shown near you, give it a go. Small, mad and hugely enjoyable.