By Lisa de Moraes
Friday, March 21, 2008

It's hard to imagine that a network capable of telecasting "Lucky Louie" would cancel a comedy series starring the likes of Lily Tomlin and Mary Kay Place before the show even debuted, claiming it wasn't up to their standards.

And yet, this is just what HBO has done with "12 Miles of Bad Road." The one-hour series, which was in development at HBO for four years, and on which six episodes already had been shot, got the hook almost simultaneously with Carolyn Strauss stepping down as the network's programming chief.

Immediately after the show's cancellation, unusually vitriolic stories about its axing popped up in the news media.

"The plot, pilot showrunners [Linda Bloodworth and Harry Thomason], and leading lady all seemed a little moldy for HBO, especially when the channel is struggling to fill a schedule left by shows like 'The Wire,' " wrote the New York Observer, which apparently has never seen the numbers on "The Wire."

"Just how dreadful was '12 Miles of Bad Road'?" wondered the New York Post. "That's what folks were asking yesterday after HBO canceled the Lily Tomlin comedy series with six episodes in the can."

Creators-executive producers Bloodworth and Thomason are now trying to get HBO to change its mind, or to shop the show to another network. To that end, they've sent all six episodes to TV critics in hopes rave reviews will make it attractive somewhere. The six episodes, out of 10 ordered, were shot before the writers' strike shut production down in November.

They've included quotes from reporters who've seen it, and liked it, in hopes that will counter the spleen of the reports that surfaced this week and make critics more inclined to watch and write their own good reviews.

The praise includes a piece on HBO written last June in Newsweek by Devin Gordon in which he said: "If the channel needs a big hit, it's probably got one in '12 Miles of Bad Road' . . . a ruthlessly funny 'Dallas' for the Bush era. . . . The bad news? It won't air until next year and HBO is hurting now. But salvation can wait."

The project, in which Tomlin plays the matriarch of a filthy rich Dallas family, was ordered by HBO's then-CEO Chris Albrecht, but it outlasted him -- he left abruptly last May after being arrested in Vegas on suspicion of roughing up his girlfriend. The series was among those inherited by HBO execs promoted to key programming positions, including Richard Plepler, co-president of programming, and Michael Lombardo, president of the programming group. They thought it too broad.

"We feel the current regime has been and remains uncomfortable with this new, inherited terrain," Bloodworth and Thomason wrote in a letter to critics that accompanied the package of episodes.

"We are hoping that some critical reassurance might prompt [HBO] to reconsider their decision," they said, "or at least help us move the show to a more receptive environment."

* * *

Julianna Margulies's new Fox drama "Canterbury's Law" is all but dead, after being moved by the network to Friday nights at 9 two weeks after its launch.

And at Fox, if it's on Friday, it's toast. "The Return of Jezebel James," anyone?

Fox has aired two episodes of "Canterbury's Law" on Monday at 8. The show debuted (with no post-"American Idol" preview, which speaks volumes about the network's interest/confidence in the series) March 10 and pulled in nearly 8 million viewers, a smallish audience, but on par with everything else in the time slot. The audience skewed kind of old for a Fox series, but surely Fox knew Margulies wasn't 22 when they hired her.

They did, right?

Anyway, the second week, the debut of ABC's "Dancing With the Stars" in the same Monday time slot siphoned off many of those older viewers, causing "Canterbury's Law" to lose about 2 million viewers week to week. But Fox knew "Dancing With the Stars" was going to debut its latest edition this past Monday.

They did, right?

In the end, Fox decided airing reruns of "House" would be the better choice for Mondays at 8, where it will provide Fox's new 9 o'clock drama, "New Amsterdam," about an immortal cop who after 400 years still hasn't perfected his pickup line, with the lead-in it needs to fully realize its ratings potential.

Hahahahaha.