"Blue Collar TV" on hiatus

hoosier · #1 10-19-2005, 05:31 PM

"Blue Collar TV" placed on 'hiatus'

By RODNEY HO
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 10/19/2005

The WB Tuesday placed locally produced sketch comedy show "Blue Collar TV" on "hiatus," an industry euphemism for "dead." But Paul McGuire, a WB spokesman, said the network will air the remaining nine already produced episodes sometime this season.

"The show is very good but it was tough" against ABC juggernaut "Desperate Housewives" at 9 p.m. Sunday nights, McGuire said. The network still has an option to order a full season of 22 episodes, but he admitted shows seldom come back from "hiatus."

"Blue Collar TV," which starred Alpharetta comic Jeff Foxworthy, Bill Engvall and Larry the Cable Guy, drew only about 2.5 mlilion viewers a week the past month, about 10 percent of what "Desperate Housewives" drew. Starting this Sunday, the WB will instead air repeats of its popular new sci-fi show "Supernatural."

"It was a nice run," said Gary Anthony Williams, a Fayetteville native who was a sketch player on the show and plays Uncle Ruckus on the upcoming Cartoon Network show "The Boondocks." "We shot 44 shows. I got to come home a lot. It was a fun ride. I made friends, no enemies."

The show was produced over the past 16 months at the Alliance Theatre in Midtown and the Classic Center in Athens. Last year, Foxworthy told the WB he would only do the show if it were shot locally and the WB gave him his wish.

Compared to most WB shows such as "One Tree Hill" and "Gilmore Girls," geared to women 18 to 34, "Blue Collar TV" was a bit of an oddball show, drawing an older, more male audience. (In fact, it repeats well on Comedy Central.) Last season, "Blue Collar TV" did OK on Friday nights after the Reba McEntire-led sitcom "Reba," arguably the most compatible show to the sketch show.

But this season, on Sunday nights, the show was preceded by aging supernatural comedy "Charmed" starring Alyssa Milano.

Taped in front of a live audience, "Blue Collar TV" typically had a short standup segment by Foxworthy followed by three longer sketch comedy bits such as a redneck adaptation of "Amityville Horror" or a spoof on overweight people.

These would be supplmented by smaller segments such as "redneck word of the day" and occasional music acts such as Travis Tritt or Montgomery Gentry.

In the final minutes of each 30-minute show, the three lead comics would riff on stage, similar to the format they used on the live "Blue Comedy Comedy Tour," which also starred local comic Ron White.