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Contra Costa Times
December 26, 2005
Networks filled with bad karma
By Chuck Barney
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
"Do good things and good things happen to you. Do bad things and they'll come back to haunt you."
That bit of karmic advice comes straight from the mouth of the affable redneck featured in NBC's side-splitting freshman comedy "My Name Is Earl."
Television programmers would be wise to heed it.
Resolved to do something beneficial for the people he's mistreated in the past, Earl has compiled a list of all the bad things he's ever done and is working hard to make amends. Among his offenses: He sabotaged his father's mayoral campaign and he once faked his death to avoid breaking up with a girlfriend.
That got us thinking about all the ways the broadcast networks have mistreated their viewers. What would their list of sins look like? Of course, we'd need every square inch of this newspaper to cover it all, so let's limit our focus to the current season, which has reached its midway point.
That means the programmers still have several months to make up for these here wrongs. They'd better do like Earl and get busy.
ABC
• Killed off Vaughn on "Alias": OK, so the writers actually did this, but ABC is an accessory because it stood by and let it happen. Vaughn (Michael Vartan) was offed just as he and Sydney (Jennifer Garner) were about to marry and start a family. That's brutal. And unforgivable. His absence -- plus the fact a pregnant Syd no longer can kick bad guys in the head -- diminishes much of the show's appeal. No wonder they're pulling the plug at the end of this season. ("Alias" resumes in March.).
© Knight Ridder 2005
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