Another show bites the dust tonight, which I realize on the surface is as dog-bites-man a story as is capable of being produced nowadays. I wasn’t a regular viewer of THE NEIGHBORHOOD, which sunsets CBS tonight after an impressive eight seasons and 156 episodes. Those are the kind of numbers that old school situation comedies used to rake up in the heyday of the genre, when dozens were on network schedules and readily available to eager domestic and even international markets both in first run and in enough bulk to strip five days a week. If you’re not of a certain generation, those kind of variables are likely drawing blank stares. And even if you are, you might not be quite as emotional about this as I am.
I come from a perspective where I saw comedies through the eyes of others, looking for touchpoints and demographic appeal which could be applied to strategic utility where multiple stations were constructing blocks of these shows in their bread-and-butter dayparts of early and late fringe. The goal was always to find shows that had the ability to draw audience independent of lead-in and use them as your hourly anchors, and then compliment them with “:30” shows–shows that had at least held onto a majority of the adjacent audience and also might provide some competitive appeal for a certain age and/or ethnic component to potentially draw a few stray souls to your station on the half-hour to make up for some of the outward migration from those who simply liked a particular show and were active enough to seek out alternatives once said favorite signed off.
In an earlier time, THE NEIGHBORHOOD would have likely been considered a “:30” show. It’s hardly the most original concept–a thin “fish out of water” plot where a wholesome and extremely white Midwestern family relocates to a gentrifying Los Angeles suburb, which for the show happens to be Pasadena but in reality would be more like Inglewood, Leimert Park or Ladera Heights. As someone who has worked in those areas in recent months, I’m acutely aware of who and what populates those locales, and I can assure you the likelihood of seeing a clan headed by Cedric the Entertainer and Tichina Arnold is much more likely to happen in those tony, hilly environs. But I highly doubt CBS viewers in Kalamazoo, Michigan–where the other central character family headed by Max Greenfield and Beth Berns hails from.
Those are all familiar names from past sitcoms–THE STEVE HARVEY SHOW, MARTIN, NEW GIRL, 2 BROKE GIRLS–that have been ubiquitously rerun on local stations and rerun-centric cable networks like TBS and BET for decades. So, too, are the names of the behind-the-scenes people who make the show happen. The world of four-camera audience shows is insular and familial–before I became an expert in who shops at a big box store, I was immersed in that world when Sony was very much in that business. I also knew the folks who worked on the competitive projects from 20th Century FOX, Warner Brothers and Paramount. Occasionally, there would even be multiple offers for those rank and file producers, directors and production assistants to sift through. These were the people you get to know when you work on studio lots–the kind that actually are living in the real gentrifying neighborhoods of Los Angeles which are much more Midwestern-looking than Pasadena was or is.
It is for those folks that I’m especially emotional for as THE NEIGHBORHOOD wraps up with this all-too-convenient bow which TV LINE’s Ryan Schwartz gushingly provided last Friday, spoiler alerts be damned:
As established in the penultimate episode, Butler brothers Marty (Marcel Spears) and Malcolm (Sheaun McKinney) are marrying their brides, Courtney (Skye Townsend) and Mercedes (Amber Stevens West), in a joint ceremony. As if that weren’t enough, both couples are also expecting — with Marty and Courtney preparing to welcome their second child (after Daphne, born in the Season 6 finale), and Malcolm and Mercedes poised to become first-time parents. As such, Tina (Tichina Arnold) has reason to be doubly superstitious. So when Courtney and Mercedes appear in their wedding dresses before the ceremony, Marty and Malcolm’s mother is quick to shield them from bad luck.
There’s also palpable tension between best friends Calvin (Cedric The Entertainer) and Dave (Max Greenfield). Ever since Calvin learned that Dave, Gemma (Beth Behrs), and Grover (Hank Greenspan) are leaving Pasadena and moving back to Kalamazoo, he’s given Dave the cold shoulder. So when Tina suggests the Butlers and Johnsons pose for a family photo, Calvin scoffs at the idea of including his longtime neighbors in the wedding portraits.
As Johnson’s colleague Brittany Sims noted earlier last week, the dudes in charge of all of this are taking particular pride in being able to provide a true throwback experience:
“Getting to write a whole season knowing we were leading to the series finale is a rare privilege in this business,” executive producers Mike Schiff and Bill Martin told TV Insider. “It gave us the chance to shape our last 20 episodes, building toward a goodbye for every character that we hope fans will love.”
And as Johnson counter-volleyed:
“Finales often go wrong when they get too big,” Schiff explained. “To me, the gold standard is ‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show, ‘which was just a half hour where everybody gets fired, they all sing ‘It’s a Long Way to Tipperary,’ and we cry, and she turns off the lights. That’s the kind of emotional resonance we want.
I kinda doubt this will come close to the tear-jerking that the cast of that classic–taped on the same aging lot that was THE NEIGHBORHOOD’s home–provided. Nor will it match the creative leaps of other one-time CBS Monday night comedy staples like M*A*S*H, NEWHART and EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND. But this will likely be the end of a such an era nonetheless. When CBS announced its 2026-27 schedule last month–getting a head start on an upfronts week they no longer think is worth the investment of time and money–it was revealed that for the first time in many a decade not a single comedy will air on Monday nights. In fact, such was the case for the entire history of MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL, which began in 1970.
When choices were more limited, comedies with female, young adult and ethnic appeal were ideal counterprogramming to pro football. CBS built a cottage industry out of it, complimenting those shows with acceptable and eventually rerun-able titles like HOUSE CALLS, STILL STANDING and YES, DEAR, to name a few. Sony even provided a few of those titles such as THE KING OF QUEENS, THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT and the lamentable KEVIN CAN WAIT. Sony’s apparently no longer interested in producing broadcast network sitcoms–there is definitely no global market any more and with competitors far more focused on pivoting its product to its respective streaming services there’s nowhere near enough product for anyone still interested in doing so to create a block. And because the few shows that have been offered have seen the kind of ratings erosion that has necessitated the concept of multiple daily runs to make it worth an advertiser’s while, the “:30” show is a thing of the past.
So it’s unfortunate but not a surprise that CBS and Paramount are pivoting away from this business themselves. They seem to think there’s a franchise with GHOSTS–although a brief attempt to offer that to stations late last year went over with a yawn. Even the shows that are being ordered elsewhere are being done so with significantly smaller orders. NBC’s sole new multi-camera comedy NEWLYWEDS will likely have a 10 to 13-episode order; ABC’s relative breakout SHIFTING GEARS is only producing 13 new episodes for next season. And there’s currently no plans for it to be syndicated as would typically be the case for a show with two decent years under its belt to be announced as available at this point in its life. Local stations for the most part are content with older comedies like BIG BANG THEORY and SEINFELD if they are in the business at all–and plenty of CW and My Network-affiliated stations owned by behemoths like Nexstar and Sinclair are just as happy to run encores of sister stations’ newscasts or umpteen episodes of FAMILY FEUD in those once-coveted dayparts. A few of them did get talked into running reruns of THE NEIGHBORHOOD when they were released in traditional syndication in 2022. It was anything but a breakout.
That’s perhaps why I won’t be quite as emotional for the happy ending that will be offered tonight as much as I will be for the good hard-working people whose skill sets are increasingly no longer in demand as the very idea of producing multicam comedies in Los Angeles appears to be going in the same direction as the idea of scheduling several of them in blocks to counterprogram news, magazine and game shows. To those as disenfranchised as I–I hear the big box stores in Inglewood and Ladera Heights are accepting applications.
Until next time…