It's Dead, Jim

The quote, of course, is a paraphrase of Bones on the original "Star Trek," a show TV Land acquired, showed late nights for a few weeks, then booted to 6:00 A.M.

At least it's still on. TV Land is increasingly a lost cause, and I think it's time I give up and exile it from my "favorite channels" selection (ooh, that'll show 'em!).

Just look at this article at Sitcoms Online. I'll give you the lowlights: In October, TV Land begins airing "3rd Rock from the Sun," a debatable move, to be sure. Worse, the fading network will air "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" nightly. Twice nightly, in fact! Ugh.

Sitcoms Online also reported that TV Land will air a mini-marathon of "CSI" on September 13. Even if you think that's an appropriate pickup, the show is already on about 50 times a week elsewhere. Supposedly it's a one-time only stunt, but writer Pavan Badal speculates that it could lead to more. I don't think any of us could be surprised anymore if that did join the regular lineup.

Pavan seems like a great guy, and his news blog is a must-see each day for the latest on program acquisitions by various TV outlets. But, man, I feel for the guy when he has to turn some of these press releases into a positive news story. I don't know how he manages to write about the sad decline of TV Land or other items such as ION buying "NCIS" reruns and still keep a sunny outlook, but I admire his optimism.

Optimism is something I no longer have for the future of TV Land. Even pessimism is fading, replaced by apathy. I'm even finding it difficult to muster the outrage needed to bitch about it here. I think somehow I'll manage to rip them one every now and then (lucky you), but really I'm giving up on hoping anything cool is going to happen on that channel until such time as, in the words of Flo Castleberry, "When donkeys fly."