As Rumors of a "Southland" Save Continue, Some Bloggers Blame Gay Content for Demise

Rumors continue to swirl that Southland is going to be picked up by TNT. And it makes sense – Southland is a Warner Bros. Show, and TNT is a Warner Bros. network, so there are some obvious cost synergies. Plus, TNT has had some success with police shows – The Closer, Dark Blue, and Saving Grace all come to mind.  

It would also be extremely unusual for a broadcast show to be saved by cable. Then again, NBC wiping out their entire 10 p.m. block of scripted television in favor of Jay Leno was unsual, too. And not having a late slot for the gritty drama is what killed Southland.

Most rumors put the show back on the air this year with TNT's plan being to take advantage of what’s left of the fall premiere promotional buzz that NBC got for the show. The network would lump the seven episodes from Season One in with the six new episodes to create a 13 episode cable season – which is a fairly standard length. They’d get that on the air as soon as possible, and see if the ratings are high enough to restart production for more new episodes.

All of this is rumor at this point. NBC is likely looking for a refund on the six episodes they produced and didn’t air before they give up broadcast rights to them. Warner gets them back at some point in 2010, but that’s probably much too late to restart production. These are good actors, and they’ll certainly have moved on to new projects if it comes to that.

The internet has made campaigning to save our favorite shows easier: Jericho was brought back from cancellation by an organized fan outcry. In the case of Southland, Michael Cudlitz, who plays gay cop John Cooper, has actually been leading the charge to save his own show. He’s taken to Twitter to push stories and gain press for the effort. But not everyone writing about Southland at this point seems to think that was a good idea.

In a disjointed hatchet job over on Popdose, critic DW Dunphy seems to split the difference between hating on NBC for how they promoted the show, defending Jay Leno as a good move, and finding gay stuff icky. Whatever his actual point, he manages to come off as just plain nasty.

I never saw an episode of Southland, the most recent NBC cop show to bite the dust. I suspect I wouldn’t have bothered to, either, as the promotions department kept throwing out the tidbit that the show featured “the first primetime gay policeman!” like the whole show would rest on that plot point as some sort of radical departure for broadcast TV. NBC has Must See TV and gay cops! This, friends, is what is known as a stunt. What would have been revolutionary would have been to have that same character in the program and not made such a stink about it. It just is; no need to shout from the 30 Rock rooftops, “It’s here, he’s queer, watch NBC!”

Clearly Dunphy hasn't a clue what he's talking about. NBC did not tout the fact Cooper was gay in any way, shape or form and saying they did is plain stupid. In fact, I seem to remember some rather spirited debates here, where we broke the news that  Officer Cooper was gay, on whether or not you even knew he was 'mo.

Hardly the stuff of a stunt, Mr. Dunphy (who apparently not only didn't watch the show he criticized but also didn't watch the promos either). Frankly, if the show had tried to capitalize on the fact Cooper was gay, maybe it would have had a future on NBC.

I'm not saying ... Big Bird might be, but I'm not.

I’m not going to brand this guy with the “Scarlet H” because I seem to get in trouble when I do that. But you can feel free to if you want.  Be careful, because he seems to enjoy the controversy. And it sounds like he'd enjoy it if we didn't rub our gayness in his face.