Madigan Men

Hey, surprise! I tuned into this show just because I'm a Gabriel Byrne fan and actually found myself laughing! More than once! And I'm the type of person who usually sits stone faced while watching most sit coms!

Anyone who's ever seen or heard Byrne in interviews won't be surprised how funny & charming he can be, but for those who don't know this side of him, they will find Madigan Men a pleasant surprise!

This show was very funny, and a good effort by Gabriel Byrne, Bringing Phil MacHale at the end of the show was really good, he was hilarious. But not everyone is the same, and Madigan Men just didn't fit in with such shows as, "Two guys and a girl.", "Norm." and "Whose line is it anyway?"

I, too, tune in to watch this show purely because Gabriel Byrne is in it. I have seen his previous works and thought this show would be worth watching as well. As it turns out, it is! The show is funny and has many realistic concepts. The only thing I do not like about the show are Benjamin's (Gabriel Byrne) co-workers. I think they are quite annoying. Overall, I would recommend this show.add it to your TV watching schedule on Friday nights. :0)

Since I am interested in Irish culture, I actually liked this series because it was a very humorous mix of Irish and American cultures. Sadly, as with so many other series that came before and after this, it was not a ratings success and ABC decided to cancel it after only 9 episodes. These very short-sighted network execs seem to forget that some of the best television series were not top-10 or -20 shows in their first season but they later caught on with the viewing public and became major successes. Series like The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Cheers, Hill St. Blues and the Odd Couple started off with very low ratings (in the case of the Odd Couple, it didn't become a success until after it had gone into syndication). If these series were shown today, they probably would not survive the first season. Over the last 10 years, some very good series like Pan Am, Alcatraz, The Firm and Tron Uprising were canceled after just one season because of poor rating. Instead of having faith in their products finding an audience, the networks decided to kill these series too soon. Nowadays, if you aren't in the top-10 in your first month, you won't last very long and that's a shame.

Well, the Disney folks have done it again to ABC and its shrinking pool of eyeballs. They put "Madigan Men" on hiatus, a polite TV term for lethal injection. The show wasn't smutty enough like "Two guys and a pizza girl", a show that set the record for getting two characters in bed (43 seconds).

"Madigan Men" could have found an audience given the time. Irish Americans have not had a decent series since "The Cavanaughs".