IR Greatest TV Show Tournament: Round 1, Bloc 4

[Izulde]

The third block of games proved mind-numbing in their tedium as all the winners raced to easy blowouts in the end. Here's hoping that the fourth set of matchups will be more exciting.

In the Eaglesfan27, we've got #6 seed Firefly fighting #11 seed Alias in what should be an interesting test of a single season show's ability to fend off a multi-season contender. Then again, Band of Brothers had no problem blowing the doors off of Burn Notice.

Firefly
The very epitome of a cult classic, as, despite just a 14 episode run on FOX in 2002 with only 11 episodes actually airing in 2002, it sold so well on DVD it led to the creation of Serenity, a film based on it. Won the 2003 Emmy for Outstanding Special Visual Effects in a Series.

Alias
Ran 5 seasons from 2001-2006 on ABC. Nominated for a handful of Emmys, but won none. Did, however, win the 2002 Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series, one of three Best Actress-type awards Garner won, 2003 Saturn Award and 2005 Screen Actors Guild Award the others. The show also won the 2003 Saturn Award for Best Network Television Series and Best Supporting Actor in a Network Television Series.

The Izulde region hosts the #7 seed Curb Your Enthusiasm against the #10 seed ER, in what many have called the tournament's trendiest upset potential pick.

Curb Your Enthusiasm
HBO comedy series that completed its 7th season last September. Nominated for 30 Emmys, but has only won once, the 2003 Outstanding Directing For a Comedy Series Emmy. Also won the 2002 Golden Globe for Best Series - Musical or Comedy.

ER
Impressive 15 season NBC run from 1994-2009. Nominated for 375 industry awards with 116 wins, including the 1996 Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series. Also won an astounding 11 consecutive BMI TV Music Awards (1995-2005).

The Solecismic features #3 seed Arrested Development fencing against #14 seed 24.

Arrested Development
Ran from 2003-2006 on FOX and has a movie under development, currently scheduled to be released in 2011. Won 6 Emmys in its short lifespan, 5 in its first season, Outstanding Comedy Series the most notable. Also won the 2005 Golden Globe for Best Performance by An Actor in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy.

24
Espionage FOX series most noted for each episode representing a single hour in the protagonist's life, as a real-time mechanism. It's run for 8 seasons and and will run for at least a 9th. Has won 5 Emmys and 2 Golden Globes to date, including the 2003 Golden Globe for Best Drama Series and the 2006 Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series.

And finally, the Pumpy Tudors region, with surprise #2 seed The West Wing facing #15 seed Mystery Science Theatre 3000.

The West Wing
NBC political drama that ran 7 seasons from 1999-2006. Won 3 Golden Globes and 27 Emmys, including four consecutive Outstanding Drama Series Emmys (2000-2003), a feat whose impressive run is only exceeded by Frasier thus far in the tournament in terms of consecutive genre Emmy wins.

Mystery Science Theatre 3000
Ran from 1988-1999 for 11 seasons and although it changed networks three times, the bulk of its airing occurred on Comedy Central. Won a 1993 Peabody and is perhaps one of the most unusual premises in the tournament, based on mocking bad movies. Also introduced, popularized and mainstreamed the cultural concept of MST3K'ing bad movies.

[Abe Sargent]

The West Wing was awesome.

[Lathum]

could 24 pull the upset?

[CrimsonFox]

I'm wondering now how Arrested and Curb got such high seeds. I do prefer them both to their counterparts mainly because I prefer comedies. 24 got really old really fast for me after season two's silliness with COugars and creepy people in bomb shelters :) Liked season 1 a lot. By midway season 3 I was done. Curb is just fun to watch, then again I was a big seinfeld fan.

[BreizhManu]

I just hope Arrested Development makes it

[Big Fo]

Four obvious choices in this bloc for me (Firefly, AD, Curb, West Wing). I'd be quite sad to see AD get upset, it's one of my all-time favorites, just hilarious scene after hilarious scene for all three seasons. It and Curb are losing right now, we'll see what happens when the midmorning/afternoon votes come in.

[Karlifornia]

MST3K staying neck and neck. Come on, Joel (Mike) and the bots! I don't expect that to last, but who knows with the amount of nerds we have on this board.

[Sun Tzu]

Tom Servo FTW

[Qrusher14242]

lol i got a tom servo figure on my pc case(from the latest DVD release). Gotta vote for mst3k even though west wing was great. Why did they have to be against each other??

I voted for ER, Arrested Development and Firefly. 24 got old after a while.

[PackerFanatic]

Toughest bloc yet. Arrested Development v. 24 is just cruel.

[Ronnie Dobbs2]

24 over Arrested Development is a crime.

[Kodos]

Toughest bloc yet. Arrested Development v. 24 is just cruel.

That was the toughest choice so far.

[chesapeake]

Although I voted for Arrested Development, had 24 only lasted 3 seasons like AD did, it may have been a different story. I thought ER might struggle more for the same reason -- it became such dreck because of its long run it can be easy to forget that it was a good show for the first several seasons.

[Kodos]

Yeah, when it turned into a different tragedy befalling a cast member every week on ER, I gave the show up.

[Ronnie Dobbs2]

I thought the second season of 24 was pretty weak. I have seen every season of 24, some are really quite good, some are atrocious.

[Logan]

Love AD, but 24 at it's best was better.

[CrimsonFox]

I think ER and Chicago Hope both suffered from the same dilemna. What do you do when your major star leaves? You try and "make" other stars and try and pretend you're still as good. Sometimes it works and sometimes others do emerge as stars in a lesser sense. But it's never as it once was.

[Ronnie Dobbs2]

Love AD, but 24 at it's best was better.

http://www3.timeoutny.com/chicago/blog/out-and-about/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/kim_bauer_24_cougar.jpg

[ISiddiqui]

I just hope Arrested Development makes it

Word. My 2nd favorite show ever.

[Honolulu_Blue]

http://www3.timeoutny.com/chicago/blog/out-and-about/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/kim_bauer_24_cougar.jpg

Classic!

The first season of "24" was classic. It still had some decent moments in the following few seasons, but there was always too much non-sense thrown in (like the above and the subsequent "Kim trapped with the crazy survivalist" plotline) for it to truly be great. Even in the fantastic first season, they had that stupid 2 hour amensia plotline for Jack's wife. The subsequent seasons just kept recycling all the same old stuff (traitor in CTU, someone takesover CTU, these people don't trust Jack, etc, etc.)

[Ronnie Dobbs2]

DAMMIT CHLOE THERE'S NO TIME

[molson]

I've never been able to get through a few minutes of either the West Wing or SportsNight. Sorkin's diolougue writing style is just - douchey. Everybody kind of sounds the same, it's pretentious, it's meandering dribble.

So ya, MST:3000 all the way.

[Kodos]

DO YOUR JOB!

[Honolulu_Blue]

WHERE'S THE BOMB

[Greyroofoo]

MST3k can still pull the upset!

[DataKing]

MST3K vote here...while I certainly appreciate West Wing, MST was just good, silly fun that you don't find much any more.

[Greyroofoo]

MST3k only behind by 1!

[sterlingice]

Man, why did MST3K and West Wing have to go up against each other. I really like both, but they're two very different types of show.

SI

[Ronnie Dobbs2]

Personally I couldn't really stand the West Wing. Smart, but annoying.

[Celeval]

Big fan of West Wing, particularly after it hit it's stride.

[DataKing]

Just curious...what happens if there's a tie? Overtime poll?

[DanGarion]

I love Firefly, but Alias is getting the Shaft. Firefly isn't even Joss Whedon's best show.

[Honolulu_Blue]

I love Firefly, but Alias is getting the Shaft. Firefly isn't even Joss Whedon's best show.

Mayhaps not, but it's still better than Alias.

[DanGarion]

Oh yeah and...
TELL ME WHERE YOU PUT THE BOMB! TELL ME!

[Big Fo]

Yay, Arrested Development has taken the lead. It being this close in the first round doesn't bode well for the rest of the tourney though, imo it should be a Final Four type show at least but the voters don't see it that way.

And Curb Your Enthusiasm going down this early is disappointing.

[Carman Bulldog]

Disappointing to see two of my ten nominees struggling in the opening round. Curb and AD are two shows that have very loyal followings but maybe not the mass appeal that is required for a tournament such as this. Hopefully this is not an indication of things to come for The Wire, another show with a very loyal following.

With Seinfeld raking in 128 votes, I am also quite surprised that Curb only has 37 votes as of me writing this.

[molson]

I think we need a thread that keeps track of all the results that one could easily refer to....I mean, there's a lot at stake here.

[Ronnie Dobbs2]

With Seinfeld raking in 128 votes, I am also quite surprised that Curb only has 37 votes as of me writing this.

Seriously. I can see not liking Curb. It's pretty fucking vicious at times. But if you really like Seinfeld, you should be right at home with Curb.

[molson]

I love Curb, but if I watch too many episodes in a row, I get annoyed by Larry David's whining. (That also happened when I saw Whatever Works last year) The fact that it even reaches the possibility of "too many episodes in a row" makes it a clear win for me in this matchup, but maybe others feel that way viewing the show once.

[Logan]

http://www3.timeoutny.com/chicago/blog/out-and-about/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/kim_bauer_24_cougar.jpg

Cougar view:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_o4Fp0Lvbs4o/RvBBsGtxTUI/AAAAAAAAAEI/K4eWxey7ks8/s1600/Elisha+Cuthbert.bmp

[Carman Bulldog]

Another interesting note is the poor voter turnout for the Firefly/Alias matchup. CBS is not going to be happy with those ratings.

While the other three matchups have all pulled in approximately 90 votes thus far, the Firefly/Alias matchup is only at 70 votes.

Most matchups have pulled in just over 100 votes on average. The Band of Brothers matchup has been the lowest thus far with only 86 votes cast and it appears a number of people abstained in that instance out of protest. However, they still pulled out a very respectable 64 votes in the victory.

In fact, Firefly may possibly pull off less votes in a winning effort than two other losers in the same Bloc.

[Izulde]

24 can still very much pull off the upset over Arrested Development.

MST3K has a tougher chance, but could still do it.

ER over CYE is an upset by the seeding, but I don't know how many people figured it. To me it looked like a gimme upset.

[Izulde]

Another interesting note is the poor voter turnout for the Firefly/Alias matchup. CBS is not going to be happy with those ratings.

While the other three matchups have all pulled in approximately 90 votes thus far, the Firefly/Alias matchup is only at 70 votes.

Most matchups have pulled in just over 100 votes on average. The Band of Brothers matchup has been the lowest thus far with only 86 votes cast and it appears a number of people abstained in that instance out of protest. However, they still pulled out a very respectable 64 votes in the victory.

In fact, Firefly may possibly pull off less votes in a winning effort than two other losers in the same Bloc.

It's just not that sexy a matchup. Firefly's a one season thing that you either love or are whatever towards and I'm surprised Alias even made the tournament to be honest. Jennifer Garner is awful in any film I've seen her in and she was the lone drawback to what was otherwise a brilliantly done Daredevil

[Carman Bulldog]

24 can still very much pull off the upset over Arrested Development.

MST3K has a tougher chance, but could still do it.

ER over CYE is an upset by the seeding, but I don't know how many people figured it. To me it looked like a gimme upset.

Bloc 2 drew 109 total voters while Bloc 3 drew 107 total voters. Thus far, this Bloc is sitting at 105 total voters with AD holding a three vote lead and West Wing up by six.

It will be interesting to see if the two tight matchups draw increased voter turnout throughout the remainder of the evening.

[Sun Tzu]

http://www.hands-of-fate.net/mtg_mst3k2/__Not%20Completed%20Yet__/Tom_Servo~2.jpg

[CrimsonFox]

LOL

[OldGiants]

http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/8052/brainguy.jpg

[Maple Leafs]

Can someone let me know when Married With Children's bracket comes up so I can lobby furiously for them?

Thanks in advance.

[Izulde]

And in the end, it was all much ado about nothing for the two real upset hopefuls.

No new poll tonight, guys. I feel like complete shit.

[Izulde]

Firefly - 50
Alias 33

Curb Your Enthusiasm - 43
ER - 64
***First official upset of the tournament***

Arrested Development - 55
24 - 47

The West Wing - 55
Mystery Science Theatre 3000 - 48

Writing up next bloc shortly.

[vex]

ER winning is really no upset.

[Eaglesfan27]

ER winning is really no upset.

Yep, in its prime it was the best show on TV.

[Izulde]

ER winning is really no upset.

FWIW, I agree. I had ER pegged to win it myself.