Hi readers. Typically, you read my blog to learn about shows long gone from the airwaves, classic television. I publish my blog every Monday, but this week I am publishing a “extra mid week” article. One show that debuted this spring, Whiskey Cavalier, was a show that I thought I would be writing about in a decade or so as a classic television show. However, it seems after thirteen episodes, ABC has pulled its life support.

Unfortunately, there have only been a handful of truly great shows the past few years. Castle in its earlier seasons and Rizzoli and Isles were two shows that fit this category.

Currently we have This is Us and A Million Little Things. They both feature memorable and likable characters, realistic dialogue, and amazing stories. I would put Whiskey Cavalier in the same group.

Will Chase (Scott Foley) (code name Whiskey Cavalier) partners with Frankie Trowbridge (Lauren Cohan) (code name Fiery Tribune) to take on assignments for the government. Their team includes Susan Sampson (Ana Ortiz), FBI profiler; Edgar Standish (Tyler James Williams), computer genius; Jai Datta (Vir Das), technology inventor and problem solver; and Ray Prince (Josh Hopkins), who provides their assignments, tracks the team, and sometimes gets in on the action. In only thirteen episodes, loyal viewers have come to like and care about these characters, flaws and all. We are learning a bit about their background and their personality quirks. They have already become friends.

The opening credits harken back to the James Bond films of the sixties. Writers David Hemingson and Jameel Saleem have nailed the witty and fast-paced dialogue and action that is unpredictable but not over the top. Settings are fun and interesting, and the background music is spot on. The entire show flows.

ABC says that the show did not garner the ratings it expected; however, according to a CenturyLink article by Matt Webb Mitovich, “the DVR playback . . . enjoyed the third-largest boost of any ABC series, rising 117 percent in the demo.”

Karey Burke was quoted as saying that canceling the show was “a very tough decision.” The network is having Warner Brothers shop the show, but no takers have been found yet. The show was not produced in house, and you have to wonder if that has more to do with the cancellation than the ratings.

ABC stands for “A Bad Call” on this one. Very few people I know sit down and watch a show at the time it’s scheduled. Even if viewers watch the same night, they typically watch a DVR version. If networks are making decisions based on this archaic viewing habit, their results are skewed.

When my kids were little, they didn’t enjoy vegetables much. They gravitated toward junk food, and I had to introduce healthy choices. Eventually they realized how important vegetables were for their health, and they began to seek them out.

TV palettes are the same. If you give people ridiculous reality shows and sitcoms where every joke is based on a sexual innuendo, that’s what they will lean toward. The success of This is Us and A Million Little Things, as well as the shows being produced by Netflix and HBO, should give networks pause to look for those quality shows and take some time to develop them. With Modern Family ending on ABC after this year and Grey’s Anatomy in its last stage of life, the network should be trying to replace these shows with new options. Viewers should expect and demand better programming.

Whether its sports, corporate life, or entertainment, everyone expects superior results yesterday. No one takes time to develop talent and invest in quality. The networks have begun to take a back seat to some of the more innovative programming shown on alternative media, and the demise of Whiskey Cavalier is one of the examples of why that it the case. If networks won’t take time to invest in a show, viewers become gun shy. We don’t want to fall in love with a show, only to learn that it’s being cancelled after its rookie season. Shame on you ABC for not giving Whiskey Cavalier, a mid-season debut, a chance to develop its followers. It may have been a “tough” call, but it surely was not a “good” call.