Are The Good Guys Gone? Hard to Say.

By Robert Wilonsky Sun., Nov. 21 2010 at 9:55 AM

Categories: From the RTF Dept.

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Courtesy Fox Broadcasting

Is this the end of The Good Guys? It's certainly the end of Dan Stark's trailer, which blows up in the December 3 episode "Cop Killers."

Spent some of yesterday trying to get the answer to that question, following a note from a good Friend of Unfair Park with ties to the show that said it looks like Colin Hanks and Bradley Whitford won't be bustin' punks as Dallas PD detectives for a second season. But the answer's far from definitive at present: The final episode of the original 20 ordered airs December 10, at which point it'll be replaced in the Friday-night line-up by Fringe, per an end-of-week release from Fox.

At the same time Fox issued its mid-season schedule, Fox entertainment president Kevin Reilly said the net wasn't ordering new episodes of the show -- which wasn't really surprising, given the fact it only wrapped its first season of shooting here a few weeks back before putting props in storage for a possible return to its home in the Cedars. As Deadline noted late Friday, The Good Guys has "not been officially canceled."

Janis Burklund, head of the Dallas Film Commission, told Unfair Park yesterday she's spoken when Fox execs in recent days, and they haven't given her any indication that the end is nigh for Dan Stark and Jack Bailey. Then again, on Monday creator Matt Nix directed his followers on Twitter to the save-the-Good Guys online petition, accompanied by the note, "Um... hell yes!" Hanks followed up yesterday with the same request ("lets get this trending").

There's no question: The ratings for the show have been awful -- thanks, in large part, to a Friday-night dumping-ground of a time slot. (Friday night's episode garnered 2.71 million viewers.) But Nix has said before: "Our ratings don't need to rise as much as you might think. The show isn't expensive to make!" And those suggesting the show's "effectively" been axed seem to forget Fox only ordered 20 episodes, every single one of which will air -- something you can't say about, oh, Lone Star.

They also don't take into account the possibility -- which is slim but still very real, say those in the know -- that it may wind up on cable should Fox decide not to go ahead with a second season.

Which reminds me: Tomorrow, close to noon, we'll be auctioning off some very hard-to-come-by Good Guys stuff to raise a little Thanksgiving week bread for the North Texas Food Bank. Bustin' hunger and whatnot. Do join in.

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