The Treatment of Home Movies By UPN
The Landstander

As we all know, Home Movies was originally on UPN (with the set of episodes known as “The UPN 5”). However, after those original 5 episodes, the show was quickly cast aside into the depths of TV Show cancellationism. The question here is: Was Home Movies given a fair chance as a show? I say (as you’ve probably guessed): No.

First off, look at the timeframe where Home Movies aired. It premiered in April 26th, 1999 (April not being the prime month when people are looking for new shows on TV). It aired at 8:30 PM on a Monday (which I believe was an already CBS “King of Queens” type show timeslot), and was aired as a companion show to Dilbert (which is another day and another rant).

The show aired and brought in a 3.0 rating, which is (in UPN terms), not bad (though not ‘good’ either). However, with the near-instant success of “The Simpsons” on FOX back in 1989, as well as a similar near-instant success for “King of the Hill” on the same network, networks have gotten accustomed to the expectation of animated shows either doing good immediately or not doing good at all. Therefore, a 3.0 rating was not good enough for the beliefs of instant success UPN.

To show that UPN did not know what the show was about, you just need to realize how they would advertise the show. One of the more…unfortunate staples of the UPN 5 is how Jason would be there almost purely for the existence of lowbrow “South Park”-style humor. Though South Park-style humor is not necessarily a bad thing, it just does not belong on Home Movies. A lot of Home Movies’ current fans would just like to forget about Jason’s “snot trick” and “cheese problems” in “Get Away From My Mom”, or his case of “cradle tap” in “I Don’t Do Well In Parent-Teacher Conferences”. UPN loved this. This is what they thought was the high point of the show. So, the commercials for the show during the UPN days were of Jason’s snot trick, case of eczema or constipation problems. If you need some proof of this, go to this site and look at the t-shirt being offered for Home Movies reviews.

The show kept around a 3.0 rating during its 5-episode run. While the last episode was touted as the “Season Finale”, it was in fact the last episode (or so they thought). The show, which I’ll admit takes at least a few viewings to totally understand, was only given a 5 episode shot, not enough time to build up any serious word of mouth or develop an audience.

Am I a pissed off fanboy? Of course I am. Why do you think I’m writing this? Yet I still think that UPN’s treatment of Home Movies was, at best, stupid. I believe that Home Movies could’ve become (at least) a mildly successful show with a cult following. However, because of incompetence on UPN’s part, that didn’t happen. Luckily Cartoon Network has (a few) smarter executives than that.

*Note to self: Next time, make rant shorter*