Spin City and Cougar Town Scrubs are Undateable

I love and hate paradoxes.

Some recent Tweets from one of the most successful sitcom creators of the last 20 years have me feeling good and bad. Happy and sad. Hungry and satiated.

The good: Even the successful ones with a proven track record  have a mountain to overcome in launching a new show.

The bad: Even the successful ones with a proven track record have a mountain to overcome in launching a new show.

Bill Lawrence created Scrubs and co-created Spin City and Cougar Town. Maybe you've heard of them. His new show, Undateable, premiered May 29, 2014. Mr. Lawrence was either jittery about the premiere or one of his kids hijacked his Twitter account on a Mountain Dew buzz.

Either way, it was a breath of fresh air reading his Tweets. Followed by a breath of mercaptan air. Then a breath that was both fresh and mercaptan-laced. I breathed all the breaths from a pair o' docks.

Success is anything but guaranteed, no matter who you are. This is encouraging in the sense that I, in my malnourished embryonic stage, am not that far removed from the heavyweight butterflies already fluttering about in the pristine primetime pastures.

But if the vets are struggling, how in the world is a rookie going to get a crack at some nectar?

Well, rookies don't sell TV shows, so it's not as if I'm suddenly crushed that my TV pilots are not going to get produced. They aren't. At least not until I've been staffed a few years.

Still, the changing landscape of television is both exciting and disappointing. Never before have more programming options been available. Granted, too many shows are reality trash, but with Amazon and Netflix entering the serialized scripted ring, joining the likes of FX, TBS, USA, and other former syndication hubs, there are more outlets for new shows than ever before.

And that's the problem.

How do you stand out these days? What's going to make people -- and by people I mean 18-49 year-old consumers -- choose your show over The Bachelor, Season 37?

When somebody figures out that answer, he/she will get his/her own star on the Walk of Fame and it will be bigger than all the other stars combined. It will have to be that big to fit all the sponsors' logos, because that's who really cares about television.

In the meantime, I appreciate the humility of Bill Lawrence, and I wish him great success with Undateable. If you have the time, check out this fun little video he put together to promote the show.

Even the big dogs explore unconventional means of promotion. What's next? Blogging?

I'll close this blog entry with a couple more Tweets that make me smile and frown, laugh and cry, pee and poop.

No matter what level we're at, if we really want to be the best we can be, we need to be aware of our mistakes, we need to constantly strive to improve, and we have to admit we don't know all the answers.

And online stalking is fun.

The coolest thing about Twitter is that I now consider Bill Lawrence a BFF because of all I learned about him by clicking that little blue bird on my screen. Love you, Bill. See you at the park next week. You won't see me.