Manhattan, AZ

I always enjoy discovering shows I missed - though there's always the disappointment of knowing that it's already long gone.

Manhattan, AZ is a dark, dark satire - and that's probably why it didn't quite make it. It parodies death, incurable disease, race, the elderly, pedophiles, celebrity... it was clever in ways that very few shows are.

The leading cast are predominantly people you won't be familiar with (the most notable exception being Chad Everett), though it is filled with great and well-known supporting cast. The actors that appeared for an episode or two were always extra enjoyable: Sarah Silverman, Abe Vigoda, Stephen Tobolowsky, Orson Bean, Al Ruscio - and supporting cast like Mindy Sterling (Frau Farbissina in the Austin Powers films) - they all just really brought this great show so much flavor. The leading roles are well-executed as well, in a tongue-in-cheek style: but then, that's also the show's weakness as a mass-market vehicle. Satire rarely does well in prime time, and the first season wasn't even broadcast in its entirety before the network sent it to the can.

Luckily for us, USA has seen fit to release it to Hulu and at least as of early 2011, you can watch it there. I suggest you do, provided you have a taste for silly scenarios and darkly inappropriate humor.

You might disagree with this review, but I know because I work in Television. And we know better than you.

I can't believe USA cancelled this show, or The War Next Door for that matter. The cast was great and the show itself was outrageously funny. The show wasn't even given a fair chance. Not all the episode filmed were aired and USA barely gave it any promotion. I mean, how's a show supposed to succeed if nobody knows it's on the air?

It's a pity this show was cancelled. It was really good.

I wish this show had survived. It was very funny. They shot 9 episodes and only 7 ever aired. I guess that the trouble was that the larger part of the audience took the show too seriously. It was the wayward, out-in-left-field concepts that made the show so entertaining to those of us who didn't mind thinking a little bit.

The town mayor was an ex-actor named Manhatten, who came out to start and run his own town, Manhattan, Arizona

The Sheriff came to town after loosing his wife, to raise their son in a healthy environment (his wife died when her small craft was upset in the ocean during a ecology protest, and she was scooped up into the tuna fishing vessel and ultimately canned along with the fish)

Among the townspeople were some oddities, such as the old couple who lived in an underground bunker with an arsenal of military weapons (just in case!).

The town was adjacent to a secretive military base where the sheriff's girlfriend was serving. Odd things happened at this desert base.

Episodes included "The Killer Bees' and 'The Killer Sagaros', the later actually more plausible than you think.

Each episode would end with an actor off set explaining the episodes 'message' and would end with the phrase "We work in television. We know better than you".

I worked on 6 of these episodes for Stu Segall Prods. and wish that somebody would finally see fit to put them all in a DVD collection. Everyone I mentioned them to started watching them and taping them religiously. They were very creative and funny, a spoof for the intelligent among us.