This TVSquad article and subsequent discussion in the comments lead me to think about some of the shows I miss that have either gotten a weak DVD treatment or none at all. Which brings me to the first edition of my TV on DVD wishlist.
As a fan of Late Night with Conan O'Brien during the early days, I was crushed at the news in 2000 that Conan's lovable sidekick was leaving. When Andy Richter's subsequent sitcom, Andy Richter Controls the Universe premiered in 2002, however, I immediately knew that it was worth it. But after two seasons of extraordinary television, the show was canceled. And almost 4 years after Fox pulled the plug and despite a rabid fan base demanding one, there is still no DVD release scheduled for the show, which is a shame.
The series followed the adventures of five friends in an office working for a giant corporation. Andy writes manuals for military applications, a poor substitute for his dream to be an actual writer. Jessica (Paget Brewster, Huff) is his boss and friend, a capable career woman with a pretty disastrous personal life. Wendy (Irene Molloy, Grosse Pointe) is the hot new secretary who Andy had a crush on. Keith (James Patrick Stuart) is Andy's best friend, who uses his good looks to avoid doing any hard work. And Byron (Jonathan Slavin) was an artist who worked with Andy, who alternated between a sort of angry depression and an innocent child-like optimism.
In many ways, Andy Richter Controls the Universe was a traditional workplace sitcom. Most of the action takes place at the office, and all the regular characters are his coworkers. And the basic feel is nothing out of the ordinary. Some conflict between characters leads to a bunch of laughs, resolves itself within 30 minutes, and we often get a nice lesson in the end.
But there was a lot that made the show different and special. It was stylistically similar to Scrubs, in that it was a single camera show with no laugh track, and Andy narrated the action, frequently relying on his fantasies, flashbacks, and non-sequiturs for gags. It differed from Scrubs in that it never took detours into maudlin territory, nor did it push any romantic subplots. It was at times edgy, sweet, smart, and brilliantly stupid, but always funny.
The six-episode first season aired on Tuesdays in the spring of 2002. There was a good amount of critical buzz, and Fox seemed to really get behind it with the promotions, plugging it frequently during the embarrassing but highly rated Celebrity Boxing special the previous week. Strong ratings ensued for the pilot, which raised hopes high for a successful series. But each of the next two weeks saw the audience shrink. Fox showed enough faith to give the series a 13 episode order for a followup, but at some point between the first and second seasons, really lost confidence in the show.
The second season premiere was pushed back to December, where the schedule is traditionally loaded with reruns. Airing on Sundays and Tuesdays, the network showed eight episodes in six weeks before pulling the plug. That they came in such rapid succession, in an unusual month for television, and around the holidays, meant that many fans missed some or all of the second season. On top of that, Fox left five finished episodes unaired.
Sometime later, the Paramount Comedy Network (whatever that is) and HDNet aired reruns, so the unaired episodes finally saw the light of day, and they've been floating around on the internet ever since. One would think the studio would see the excitement fans had over uncovering the last episodes, but still nothing on the DVD front. Amazon.com has a page set up for if (when?) there ever is a release, but it's been there for quite a while. Until that happens, the best we've got are a few clips floating around on YouTube. Not the moments I'd have picked, but they still provide a window into the crazy world of Andy Richter Controls the Universe.
In the first, from the pilot (I think), Andy introduces us to his imaginary friend, Mr. Pickering. He appeared on occasion throughout the series, and was hilariously offensive every time. Medium and The Ghost Whisperer may have done the talking to dead people thing more successfully, but Andy Richter did it first. Truly a show ahead of its time.
In the second, from the second season episode "Twins," Andy suggests an unusual theory for his boss' boyfriend's mood swings, and is reminded of his theorizing track record:
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