The Wedding Bells Toll

FOX has done it again.

While Rupert's network may be #1 in prime time, it has a long history of screwy scheduling that it just can't seem to shake.

For some ungodly reason no one has ever attempted to explain, FOX continually schedules episodes of serial shows out of order. They did it regularly to SLIDERS back in the day. They did it to JOHN DOE. They did it to FIREFLY. Recently, they've done it to THE WAR AT HOME.

ATTENTION NETWORK SUITS! You can't expect folks to follow a continuing storyline if you don't show the story IN ORDER!

The freshest example is THE WEDDING BELLS. This silly, yet fun distraction from the mind of David E. Kelly has started off wackier than ALLY MCBEAL finished, but, still there was a lot of potential. Not IMPORTANT TELEVISION by a long shot, but goofy enough for Mrs. Kimosabe and I to commit to a TiVo season pass.

The second episode was just as wacky, although it felt a bit disjointed - and now we understand why. It wasn't the second episode. It was THE THIRD. The second episode aired this past week (the third episode to be aired).

We finally got around to watching it tonight, and immediately realized we've been disrespected. Some high paid idiot in L.A. thinks we wouldn't notice that 50% of the character development we've observed was literally undone at the start of this episode.

This wasn't a matter of shooting episodes out of order for production needs - I completely understand that's something that happens from time to time. This is a case of a network airing episodes 101, 103, 102 and 104 - in that order.

It's a bit jarring when characters who carried on intimate conversations last week meet for the very first time the following week.

In the past, back when I had access to the FOX hotline, the explanation was always that the episode that aired was creatively stronger than the delayed episode.

Well, my answer to that is today's audience is smarter than the suits think.

I don't care if THE WEDDING BELLS is a good show or not. I don't care if it has a legitimate shot at being renewed. I don't care if FOX is burning off episodes on the cemetery row they call Friday night.

Ding, dong, my season pass is gone.