Remember “The Loop”?
It was a funny little sitcom that premiered on Fox in March 2006, starring Bret Harrison as Sam Sullivan, a young airline executive struggling to find the middle ground between work and play. It wasn’t what you’d call groundbreaking or anything – in fact, plot-wise, each 30-minute episode tended to play out like your average wacky teenage comedy – but the performances by Harrison and his co-stars, Mimi Rogers and the invaluable Philip Baker Hall, caused it to rise way above the average. Less utilized but still funny was Joy Osmanski as Harrison’s assistant, who, when assigned to perform menial tasks (like, say, rifling through a dumpster), never failed to mention how much education she had…and where it had gotten her.
There was a lot to like about “The Loop.” It had a very “Scrubs”-like vibe at times, particularly in the office sequences. In fact, because of this, the producers decided that the show needed to be retooled to focus more on Sam’s work and less on his home life. To be fair, that was mostly wise; watching Sam interact with his superiors – one a gruff taskmaster (Hall), the other a man-eater (Rogers) – was where the fun of the show was. So out the door went Sam’s two sexy female roommates, Lizzy and Piper…but, unfortunately, with the disappearance of Piper, so went the possibility of Sam ever having his longtime unrequited crush on her ever come to anything. And that sucks. Sucking worse, however, was keeping the character of Sully, Sam’s slacker brother; he serves more as a plot device than anything else, invariably doing something stupid that gets Sam in trouble. Better they should have kept the romantic angle with Piper. But at least the process of increasing the amount of time Sam spends at work means that they’ve expanded the role of Darcy somewhat. Dare we suggest a liaison between her and Sam…?
If so, it’s liable to be little more than a one-night stand. Now that the show’s finally back on the air, you can hardly hear the dialogue for the sound of Fox yelling, “Dead show walking!” Not that I’m not glad that it’s back, but, geez, you almost have to wonder if doing a second season of the series resulted in some sort of tax write-off for the network. I mean, look at these facts:
1) After a relatively successful first season, Fox declined to put “The Loop” on the Fall 2006 schedule, instead announcing that they’d be doing a 13-episode second season in the spring.
2) In November 2006, Fox announced that the 13-episode order had been cut to 10.
3) The spring schedule arrived…and “The Loop” wasn’t on it; new reports indicate that the show will be airing in early summer.
4) In February, it was announced that Harrison had signed on as the lead in a pilot for a new drama for The CW entitled “Reaper.” Uh-oh. It’s never a good sign for a show’s future when its star is already planning for his next gig.
5) While still waiting for the Season 2 premiere, Fox announced the Fall 2007 schedule…and – surprise, surprise – “The Loop” wasn’t on it.
So, yeah, “The Loop” is back on the air…but, at the rate Fox is blowing through the new episodes (two every Sunday night), it’ll be gone pretty soon. So enjoy it while it lasts…and if you think about it, drop Fox an E-mail and ask them why they treated it so damned poorly.
