The Afterlife of NewsRadio & Just Shoot Me!

[Adamantium]

During the mid to late ‘90s, NBC aired two workplace comedies, each co-starring a former SNL cast member and each show being created and run by a former Larry Sanders writer. Those shows are NewsRadio and Just Shoot Me!. At the time, the latter show got all the attention and the ratings, while the former show was critically acclaimed but low-rated. Just Shoot Me! even spent some quality time on NBC’s biggest night - Thursday. While both shows were ultimately moved around a lot, it was clear to the network that Just Shoot Me! was the more successful of the two. It ran for seven seasons, while NewsRadio ended at five.

Both shows are long gone and I’m now looking at their afterlife. Neither show seems to be big in syndication. They have both come and gone to the likes of TBS and WGN (“NewsRadio”, however, had a decent run on A&E in the early 2000s). Which show has a better afterlife if they both do poorly in reruns (I say this unaware if either show is being shown anywhere right now)? I’m proud to say NewsRadio seems to be winning. All five of its seasons have been released on DVD by Sony (and re-released by Mill Creek) plus all of its episodes can be streamed on Amazon Instant Video (you have to pay either per-episode or per-season, unlike Netflix where once you have a subscription you can watch any show they have). Whereas Just Shoot Me! only has its first three seasons on DVD from Sony (and re-released by Mill Creek) and the same three seasons to stream on Amazon Instant Video.

Now I have no ill will towards Just Shoot Me!. I did back in the ‘90s but no more. In fact, I wish they would release all the seasons on DVD so I could watch the rest of the series (I’ve only watched the DVD seasons). But it is nice to see my all-time favorite show, which lost to JSM in its original run, have a (minor) victory against it now.

[icecream]

I'm not a fan of NewsRadio but would take it over Just Shoot Me any day, that show was terrible.

[factsoflife]

Newsradio's chances at success were somewhat hurt by its creator Paul Simms having a somewhat contentious relationship with NBC. Often refusing to participate in requests NBC made to do promotional things they wanted or mocking NBC in the shows scripts.

I think Just Shoot Me benefitted from being placed on Thursday nights for a few seasons and it had the benefit of having some success in garnering Emmy nominations for Wendie Mallick. Unfortunately, despite being more critically acclaimed, Newsradio never broke through at the Emmy's.

I think ultimately Newsradio is best remembered as being Phil Hartman's last project and the series he was working on when he was killed.

[Adamantium]

Originally Posted by factsoflife

Newsradio's chances at success were somewhat hurt by its creator Paul Simms having a somewhat contentious relationship with NBC. Often refusing to participate in requests NBC made to do promotional things they wanted or mocking NBC in the shows scripts.

I think Just Shoot Me benefitted from being placed on Thursday nights for a few seasons and it had the benefit of having some success in garnering Emmy nominations for Wendie Mallick. Unfortunately, despite being more critically acclaimed, Newsradio never broke through at the Emmy's.

I think ultimately Newsradio is best remembered as being Phil Hartman's last project and the series he was working on when he was killed.

Yes, for example NBC was having a “Three Funerals and a Wedding” night. Wings, NewsRadio and Frasier were to have episodes about funerals while the fourth show The Pursuit of Happiness had a wedding. Paul Simms didn’t want to make a funeral episode, so he made the episode “Rat Funeral”, where a rat in the office dies and the staff, except for Dave, is upset about it. They have a little funeral for it but the rest of the episode is about Dave and how Bill thinks he’s heartless and then there turns out to be a lot more rats, so they have some more funerals.

There was also the time NBC wanted Paul to have two characters get married. Instead of doing that, Paul had station owner Jimmy James have Joe propose to Lisa on-air, in a sense mocking NBC’s request. Unfortunately, during the fifth season, when Paul was more focused on a pilot he was working on and given his show runner duties to one of the writers (Josh Lieb), they finally did a wedding episode and NBC made it the Spotlight Show of the Week. I say “unfortunately” because a lot of fans didn’t like that the wedding between Lisa and recurring guest star Johnny Johnson (played by Patrick Warburton) took place, thus ending the Dave/Lisa relationship. Even Maura Tierney has listed that as her least favorite episode.

I guess another example could be in the beginning. NBC (as well as director James Burrows) wanted Dave and Lisa to have a will they/won’t they relationship and take seasons before finally getting together. Paul Simms didn’t want that. So he got Dave and Lisa together in episode two.

It appears in that sense maybe NewsRadio wasn’t Thursday night material. But it had done well on Tuesdays before they moved it, so they should have just left it there to be its permanent timeslot.

The only EMMY NewsRadio ever won was for costuming (I believe for the Titanic episode). And for that, the back of the box on DVD calls NewsRadio an EMMY Award-winning show. Which seems silly to do that. Phil Hartman was nominated posthumously and everyone assumed he was going to win but David Hyde Pierce ended up getting it. Even *he* was surprised to have won over the late Phil Hartman. You could see how shocked and almost embarrassed he was to have won it that year. Dave Foley turned to Joe Rogan at the awards ceremony and jokingly said “What does a guy have to do to win an EMMY around here?”

I don’t know a lot about Just Shoot Me!, so I can’t really go into that show much except to agree with you on your reasons of why you felt it was successful during its run. I am surprised that it was popular then but not anymore. Maybe David Spade doesn’t rerun well or something, lol.

[factsoflife]

Originally Posted by Adamantium

Yes, for example NBC was having a “Three Funerals and a Wedding” night. Wings, NewsRadio and Frasier were to have episodes about funerals while the fourth show The Pursuit of Happiness had a wedding. Paul Simms didn’t want to make a funeral episode, so he made the episode “Rat Funeral”, where a rat in the office dies and the staff, except for Dave, is upset about it. They have a little funeral for it but the rest of the episode is about Dave and how Bill thinks he’s heartless and then there turns out to be a lot more rats, so they have some more funerals.

There was also the time NBC wanted Paul to have two characters get married. Instead of doing that, Paul had station owner Jimmy James have Joe propose to Lisa on-air, in a sense mocking NBC’s request. Unfortunately, during the fifth season, when Paul was more focused on a pilot he was working on and given his show runner duties to one of the writers (Josh Lieb), they finally did a wedding episode and NBC made it the Spotlight Show of the Week. I say “unfortunately” because a lot of fans didn’t like that the wedding between Lisa and recurring guest star Johnny Johnson (played by Patrick Warburton) took place, thus ending the Dave/Lisa relationship. Even Maura Tierney has listed that as her least favorite episode.

I guess another example could be in the beginning. NBC (as well as director James Burrows) wanted Dave and Lisa to have a will they/won’t they relationship and take seasons before finally getting together. Paul Simms didn’t want that. So he got Dave and Lisa together in episode two.

It appears in that sense maybe NewsRadio wasn’t Thursday night material. But it had done well on Tuesdays before they moved it, so they should have just left it there to be its permanent timeslot.

The only EMMY NewsRadio ever won was for costuming (I believe for the Titanic episode). And for that, the back of the box on DVD calls NewsRadio an EMMY Award-winning show. Which seems silly to do that. Phil Hartman was nominated posthumously and everyone assumed he was going to win but David Hyde Pierce ended up getting it. Even *he* was surprised to have won over the late Phil Hartman. You could see how shocked and almost embarrassed he was to have won it that year. Dave Foley turned to Joe Rogan at the awards ceremony and jokingly said “What does a guy have to do to win an EMMY around here?”

I don’t know a lot about Just Shoot Me!, so I can’t really go into that show much except to agree with you on your reasons of why you felt it was successful during its run. I am surprised that it was popular then but not anymore. Maybe David Spade doesn’t rerun well or something, lol.

I totally forgot about Hartman's nomination. And I didn't realize they had won for Costume. Unfortunately, Hartman lost his nomination and nobody else in the cast was ever nominated. Whereas on Just Shoot Me, Malick and Spade were both nominated and it got other noms for Guest Stars (Cheri Oteri) and for writing, so it was on the Emmy radar to a degree.

NewsRadio was one one time considered the show with the most timeslots on NBC. It was constantly being moved around the schedule.


I think JSM also benefitted from having a few more "name" talents in their cast. George Segal had been a film star, David Spade was popular on SNL and Lara SanGiacomo had some film success with "Sex, Lies & Videotape" and in the movie "Pretty Woman". It also didn't hurt that very quickly Wendie Mallick's Nina became a breakout character and was hysterically funny.

With Newsradio, while everybody was funny in their roles, Hartman was really the only big name at the time. Foley was somewhat known for "Kids in The Hall", but not on the level of being a household name.

I do think that not having a protracted Dave/Lisa will they or won't they thing was actually better for the show. Otherwise it would have looked too much like every other NBC sitcom at the time. and for the record, my favorite character on NR was Katherine and my favorite on JSM was Nina.

[Adamantium]

Originally Posted by factsoflife

I totally forgot about Hartman's nomination. And I didn't realize they had won for Costume. Unfortunately, Hartman lost his nomination and nobody else in the cast was ever nominated. Whereas on Just Shoot Me, Malick and Spade were both nominated and it got other noms for Guest Stars (Cheri Oteri) and for writing, so it was on the Emmy radar to a degree.

NewsRadio was one one time considered the show with the most timeslots on NBC. It was constantly being moved around the schedule.


I think JSM also benefitted from having a few more "name" talents in their cast. George Segal had been a film star, David Spade was popular on SNL and Lara SanGiacomo had some film success with "Sex, Lies & Videotape" and in the movie "Pretty Woman". It also didn't hurt that very quickly Wendie Mallick's Nina became a breakout character and was hysterically funny.

With Newsradio, while everybody was funny in their roles, Hartman was really the only big name at the time. Foley was somewhat known for "Kids in The Hall", but not on the level of being a household name.

I do think that not having a protracted Dave/Lisa will they or won't they thing was actually better for the show. Otherwise it would have looked too much like every other NBC sitcom at the time. and for the record, my favorite character on NR was Katherine and my favorite on JSM was Nina.

It is NewsRadio’s lack of EMMY presence that got me to realize the EMMYS aren’t all that special. I’m not saying they had to win but more nominations would have been great. Phil Hartman only got nominated because he had died. Don’t get me wrong, he totally deserved one but that’s not why they nominated him. I also think Wings should have won a few EMMYS. Tim Daly was both funny and dramatic on that show. He was great. Yet the only EMMY wins that show had was for two of its guest stars: Tyne Daly and Kelsey Grammer.

All those timeslots is why I figured it wasn’t a ratings hit during its original run. That’s also why I thought it would become more popular in reruns, where it would have the same timeslot for at least a whole season. But it just didn’t do well enough or well enough early on and whichever channel showed it felt the need to take it off the air rather than give it some more time to attract attention. Then again, it was on A&E for, I believe, two years. So they clearly gave it a chance.

Yes, Just Shoot Me! had more big names and I’m sure that had a hand in it being more popular. I imagine it had big name guest stars too, which helped. NewsRadio had some big name stars but most of them weren’t big at the time. They’re big now and it’s fun to go back and see them on this little show before they were big stars.

Again, I’m not bashing Just Shoot Me!. I really haven’t seen much of it. I was upset with it during its original run but I’m over that now. I guess even back then I saw these two shows as competing (even though they were on the same network). There was an article in Entertainment Weekly during Just Shoot Me!’s second season maybe. It was comparing both shows. Maybe I read that article and took it to heart and had to always be Team NewsRadio… I don’t know, lol. But like I say, I’m fine with the show now and wish they would release all of it on DVD.

[Adamantium]

Originally Posted by Alan Brady's Hair

I'm watching/listening for the humor, so none of this stuff is critical to me, but I can see how people looking for something to watch could check out on this quickly - there's nothing much that grabs you.

That’s something I hadn’t thought about before. On first glance, Just Shoot Me! looks like the more attractive show due to it being more brightly lit. For example, I like the *look* of Two and a Half Men but I don’t think it’s a funny show at all, therefore I am not a fan of it because I watch for quality of writing and acting, not design of the set and lighting.

[Heenan Fan]

I liked both shows pretty much the same overall. Jack on JSM and Bill on NR were my two favorite characters. I haven't seen either show in syndication in several years on my cable provider and, along with Spin City, miss them dearly.