Fourth Season and Cancellation
At the beginning of the fourth season, both Judd Nelson and Andrea Bendewald left the show; series developers and executive producers Steven Peterman and Gary Dontzig also left the series, and the show replaced almost its entire writing staff (with the exception of new co-showrunner Maria Semple, who joined the series the previous season). The show was revamped and The Gate was transformed into a men's magazine by new owner, Ian Maxtone-Graham (Eric Idle) and relocated from its trendy uptown offices overlooking the bay, to a dingy former warehouse in Chinatown. In tow, Ian brought along his own team of workers; executive assistant and Navy veteran Miranda Charles (Sherri Shepherd), sports writer Nate Knaborski (Currie Graham); and freelance photographer Oliver Browne (Rob Estes). Faced with new challenges, Susan suddenly had to prove herself all over again.
Airing between Seinfeld and ER in its first season, Suddenly Susan was a ratings success, attracting approximately 17 million viewers per episode, despite mostly unfavorable critical reviews. When the show was moved to Monday nights at 8:00 p.m. (against the Top 30 hit Cosby) in the second season, the show experienced a large ratings fall, sliding from #3 to #71 in one year, bringing in less than 11 million viewers. The ratings failed to bounce back, and in its final season, the show barely ranked in the top 100, prompting NBC to pull it from the prime-time lineup with four episodes left unaired in June 2000. This final quartet of shows aired in marathon form during the NBC All Night block from 2:00 to 4:00 am (EST) on the morning of December 26, 2000.
Read more about this topic: Suddenly Susan
Famous quotes containing the words fourth and/or season:
“For the Lord thy God is a jealous God among you.”
—Bible: Hebrew Deuteronomy, 6:15.
The words are also found in Exodus 20:5, referring to the second commandment: “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image ... for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.”
“The season developed and matured. Another year’s installment of flowers, leaves, nightingales, thrushes, finches, and such ephemeral creatures, took up their positions where only a year ago others had stood in their place when these were nothing more than germs and inorganic particles. Rays from the sunrise drew forth the buds and stretched them into long stalks, lifted up sap in noiseless streams, opened petals, and sucked out scents in invisible jets and breathings.”
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)