Mindy Kaling from the Office

Quote: Mosca

The problem with Mindy Kaling is that she appeals to people who don't watch much TV.

At a panel discussion she was asked, "You guys have a great, diverse set of characters, but was it a conscious decision for Mindy to be the only female doctor, and the only doctor of color on the show?"

Kaling's response was: "I look at shows on TV, and this is going to just seem defensive, but I'm just gonna say it: I'm a f--king Indian woman who has her own f--king network television show, OK?" ... "And I'm like, oh wait, it's not like I'm running a country, I'm not a political figure. I'm someone who's writing a show and I want to use funny people. And it feels like it diminishes the incredibly funny women who do come on my show..I don't know, it's a little frustrating."

I have only seen a few episodes of the show, but frankly I find Mindy Kaling funnier in person than her show.

Incidentally, Mindy Kaling did upgrade Xosha to the 7th series regular.

Quote: Wizard

I've barely heard of a few of those but Juno I've watched many times. One of those few movies I can watch over and over. Rainn plays a similar character to his in the Office. Smug and overly talkative, who seems to secretly take joy in the pain of others.

On a related note, I just finished with Jeff, Who Lives at Home. Ed Helms, who plays Andy on the Office, is a major character who is very much like Andy. I give it a generous 7 on the 0 to 10 scale.

I watched this on a flight - I am not a Jason Segal fan but enjoy Ed Helms ( check out Cedar Rapids as well WIZARD ) and definitely enjoyed Jeff, Who Lives at Home - it was a play on the M. Night Shyamalan films in a real world setting

Quote: Wizard

It was that way with Breaking Bad and the Big Bang Theory.

Look at the five sitcoms that started on ABC/CBS/NBC in 2007. Three of them vanished immediately.

Network	Pilot	Weeks	CBS Sitcom
CBS	24. Sep. 2007	338	The Big Bang Theory
ABC	15 Oct, 2007	93	Samantha Who?
ABC	2 Oct, 2007	23	Carpoolers
ABC	2 Oct, 2007	7	Cavemen
NBC	15. Mar. 2007	5	Andy Barker, P.I.

Of the new sitcoms, the big ratings powerhouse was Samantha Who? which trailed only 2.5 Men among sitcoms in it's first season. TBBT was the fourth highest sitcom it's first year, so it didn't start badly, just not amazing.

Samantha Who?'s ratings took a nosedive the second year and was cancelled.

I think what is different is that "The Mindy Project" is almost at the bottom. But executives are gambling that people will want to watch it in syndication because it's quirky.

Same way with "Jeff Who Lives at Home". It sold half a million tickets in the theater, but because it is clever it can become a big hit on Netflix. People might watch it in five years and say "I never heard of this movie, but it's really inventive".

Then of course, there is always the argument "we don't have many fans, but they have a lot of money".

I think Kaling is a decent writer and I've admittedly watched a few of her episodes and was mildly entertained, which is saying alot given the target audience (which, BTW, is not me).

I suppose that if you look at Fox's sitcoms, the fact that they kept the Mindy Project is not all that shocking. A very small but wealthy audience may be better than all this churn.

#	Pilot	Weeks	Fox Sitcoms	Finale
→ 1	1987-04-05	532	Married With Children	1997-06-09
→ 2	1993-08-29	228	Living Single	1998-01-01
1 →	1997-09-11	78	Between Brothers	1999-03-02
2 )	1998-04-06	29	Getting Personal	1998-10-16
3 )	1998-08-23	17	Holding the baby	1998-12-15
4 )	1998-08-23	405	That 70's show	2006-05-18
5 )	1998-09-11	6	Living in Captivity	1998-10-16
6 )	1998-09-15	5	Costello	1998-10-13
7 )	1999-09-16	12	Action	1999-12-02
8 )	2000-01-09	332	Malcolm in the Middle	2006-05-14
9 )	2000-03-20	126	Titus	2002-08-12
10 )	2000-11-01	7	Normal, Ohio	2000-12-13
11 )	2001-01-10	212	Grounded for Life (picked up by WB)	2005-01-28
12 )	2001-09-25	25	Undeclared	2002-03-12
13 )	2001-11-08	13	The Tick	2002-01-31
14 )	2001-11-14	231	The Bernie Mac Show	2006-04-14
15 )	2002-03-19	44	Andy Richter Controls the Universe	2003-01-12
16 )	2002-09-18	38	Cedric the Entertainer Presents	2003-06-05
17 )	2003-03-09	80	Oliver Beene	2004-09-12
18 )	2003-03-26	33	Wanda at Large	2003-11-07
19 )	2003-03-30	4	The Pitts	2003-04-20
20 )	2003-09-19	6	Luis	2003-10-24
21 )	2003-10-29	7	A Minute with Stan Hooper	2003-12-12
22 )	2003-11-02	120	Arrested Development	2006-02-10
23 )	2004-03-09	5	Cracking Up	2004-04-05
24 )	2004-06-16	31	Quintuplets	2005-01-12
25 )	2004-06-16	14	Method and Red	2004-09-15
26 )	2005-03-24	6	Life on a Stick	2005-04-27
27 )	2005-04-13	40	Stacked	2006-01-11
28 )	2005-09-11	85	The War at Home	2007-04-22
29 )	2005-09-19	12	Kitchen Confidential	2005-12-05
30 )	2006-03-01	7	Free Ride	2006-04-09
31 )	2006-09-07	198	Til Death	2010-06-20
32 )	2006-09-07	9	Happy Hour	2006-11-02
33 )	2007-03-04	3	The Winner	2007-03-18
34 )	2007-09-19	35	Back to You	2008-05-14
35 )	2008-03-02	5	Unhitched	2008-03-30
36 )	2008-09-10	3	Do Not Disturb	2008-09-24
37 )	2010-03-11	21	Sons of Tucson	2010-08-01
38 )	2010-09-21	184	Raising Hope	2014-03-27
39 )	2010-09-21	36	Running Wilde	2011-05-21
40 )	2011-02-08	17	Traffic Light	2011-05-31
41 )	2011-04-06	53	Breaking In	2012-04-03
42 )	2011-09-20	132	New Girl	2014-03-27
43 )	2011-11-30	17	I Hate my Teenage Daughter	2012-03-20
44 )	2012-09-25	79	The Mindy Project	2014-03-27
45 )	2012-09-25	18	Ben and Kate	2013-01-22
46 )	2013-09-17	28	Dads	2014-03-27
47 )	2013-09-17	28	Brooklyn Ninety Nine	2014-03-27
48 )	2014-01-10	12	Enlisted	2014-03-27
49 )	2014-03-27	1	Surviving Jack	2014-03-27

NBC renewed "Parks and Recreation" with only 3.01 million average viewers, slightly more than "The Mindy Project" with 2.67 million viewers. Given these low numbers, the advertising revenue is low, but seems sufficient to cover most production costs.

Since Universal Television produces P&R, and NBCUniversal is also paid for television distribution, it seems that the company is hoping for more money in syndication. NBC has not made a decision on "Community" with only 3.06 million viewers.

Season three of "Duck Dynasty" averaged 8.4 million total viewers making it cable’s #1 non-fiction series last year, and the #2 original series overall (behind only AMC’s “Walking Dead”). The Season #4 finale of "Walking Dead" had 15.4 million viewers.

I watched the first 4 seasons of the Office
and that was it. I just don't think Steve
Carell is that funny, and the show was
getting redundant. How it stayed on for
so many seasons is a mystery to me.

I saw my first episode of Modern Family
last week and have no desire to see
another. Every character on these recent
comedies is a sarcastic smart ass, it gets
very tiring. It's a reflection on the writers,
they're all sarcastic smart asses too, so
it's all they know how to write. Being that
way means you're a massively insecure
person, and those kind of people just aren't
that funny over a long period of time.