A couple years ago, I finally saw Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle. Being obsessed with fast food places, I'm not sure how I never managed to see this until then. It was a rare thing - a really good movie start to finish. But something even rarer has now happened.
When I saw the movie I was surprised to recognize John Cho from a TV comedy I loved. Selfie aired on ABC for 7 episodes in 2014 (6 additional episodes eventually ended up on Hulu). John Cho played Henry Higgs who helped Eliza Dooley (Karen Gillan) stop being completely obsessed with social media and start living her life.
The show recently disappeared from Hulu - I'm hoping it shows up again somewhere else soon. All the episodes are absolutely worth a rewatch if you can find them. Aside from a bad title, the show was near perfect. And even though it was cut short, the 13th episode was a good way for it to end.
Now today, I read about another show that's had an extremely early demise. NBC debuted Sunnyside 4 weeks ago. And it's become the first TV show of the 2019 season to be cancelled.
I had no interest in watching it until I read about it's cancellation. That's when I learned Michael Schur was the executive producer. That's the same guy who created The Good Place, which I now consider to be the best TV show of all time. (Although, and I hate to admit this, this season of The Good Place isn't the best. The first 3 episodes of the final season have been so boring. I'm hoping that's just because they saved all the truly great stuff for the remaining episodes.)
But with Michael Schur behind Sunnyside, I now had to at least see what it was about. I ended up watching the 3 episodes back to back. What a weird show and the characters are all pretty much nuts. I loved it! It's about a disgraced politician who helps a wacky group of immigrants become Americans. Yes, I said wacky - there's no other word that better describes most of the characters.
Some good news about Sunnyside's cancellation is NBC ordered an additional episode (there'll be 11 altogether), they're still filming, and NBC plans to make all the episodes available online. So hopefully with the advance cancellation notice and an extra episode, the show will have a solid ending - a perfect little limited series.
And the star of this show now doomed to failure - Kal Penn. Which means both Harold & Kumar have now each had a brilliant yet failed TV comedy. The chances of that so slim as most failed TV shows deserve to go away - it's the rare few that slip away by accident of scheduling, timing, or wrong network.
I'm going to give the edge to Selfie as the better show for now. But who knows - maybe the next 8 episodes of Sunnyside will change that. The 4th and final NBC episode airs tonight (October 17) - the rest will end up online eventually.
For the record, Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle also had a few other stars that were involved with other failed TV comedies. The first two shows I recently rewatched - both still favorites that were cancelled way too soon...
David Krumholtz: The Trouble With Normal (ABC, 2000, 13 episodes)
Fred Willard: A Minute With Stan Hooper (FOX, 2003, 13 episodes)
Anthony Anderson: Guys With Kids (NBC, 2012, 17 episodes)
Shaun Majumder: Unhitched (FOX, 2008, 6 episodes)
Neil Patrick Harris: Stark Raving Mad (NBC, 1999, 22 episodes)
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