WIOU

I don't know about anybody else, but I really liked "WIOU." I thought it had a great cast, a good story line, and was quite compelling. If you think about this show and "SportsNight," it's amazing that serious shows about the television business can't seem to make it before the mass audience. Meanwhile, fluff like "Murphy Brown" and "Mary Tyler Moore" hit it big time. I'm just happy to see that so many of the cast of WIOU have had long and distinguished careers. I hope to find this program on TV Land sometime soon.

I loved this show and am glad someone remembers it besides me. I will fondly recall it as the show that introduced me to Rosie Perez. She was (and is) a firecracker. I cannot believe there were 18 episodes. I only caught about half, if that. It had an amazing cast, compelling stories and great acting.

All the shows I like are usually canceled quickly. Looking at the cast, I cannot believe the number of them that have had distinguished careers. I think it was closer in tone to the Lou Grant series, but much better. I never warmed to Lou Grant in the drama world.

Along with the only other person to comment on this fine but short-lived series (produced by GTG Entertainment, which makes up for the fact that they also did the first season of "Baywatch"), I've noticed that most TV shows set in television don't last long. To which I'd add "Most TV shows set in the news milieu also don't last long."

If you don't believe me, look at "Capital News," "Making News," "The Andros Targets," "The American Girls" (or "Have Girls, Will Travel" if you're British), "New York News," "Fitz and Bones," "Mobile One," "E.N.G."... of course, there are exceptions, but they're either comedies ("Murphy Brown") or spinoffs of comedies ("Lou Grant"). On the other hand, there's always Superman and Lois Lane...

But anyway, this series was set in a TV station jokingly called "WIOU" because it was about as financially secure as I am. This show had a good cast going for it (John Shea, Harris Yulin, Helen Shaver - herself from yet another short-lived series about the news, "Jessica Novak" - etc) and tried and often succeeded to use a Steven Bochco/MTM-type ensemble feel, but the show's last episode was open-ended - not a cliffhanger fortunately (the news show was taken over by a man with a gun and a grievance; the crisis was resolved with his death), but it did leave you wondering what would have happened next.

Lots of cancelled series deserve it, but for every "Berrenger's" there's a "Domestic Life"; for every "Bette" there's a "Cupid." "WIOU" was ultimately on the "Cupid" side.

The show was great; however, it was not allowed to become firmly established. In 1990, Iraq invade Kuwait and later in the year, USA went to war to liberate Kuwait. I remember watching an episode of the WIOU when it was interrupted by an announcement that Iraq had invaded Kuwait. After that interruption, it seems that the show kept getting interrupt because of what was happening in Kuwait and finally, it was canceled without much fanfare.

My favorite character was the blond reporter played by Katie McNeil. She was hot and could have been one of our best actresses if the show was not interrupted by the events in Kuwait.

This fine series in the same vein as 'L.A. Law' was largely a victim of the events surrounding its debut (and only) season.

Just as CBS began rolling out this project, Operation Desert Shield kicked off with US and ally troupes protecting Saudia Arabia from advancing Iraq. This meant on many a Wednesday night at 10pm, rather then seeing the antics inside WNDY's newsroom, viewers were met by Dan Rather and his support staff preempting the show with actual news.

This was the first US 'war' covered in real time by national news, so it is understandable that it naturally took precedent over entertainment programming.

Still, I kinda wish the network had found a way of giving it a second chance through either a new time slot, or the modern day advent of 'Summer Series.'

This show never found a following and limped its way through most of its produced episodes before being axed.