NBC wacks Dane Cook's 'Next Caller' before it was even scheduled

I know there are Dane Cook fans out in the world. Mostly his demographic consist of male college students who are in fraternities, though. You know the ones, where casual rape, horrifying hazing rituals and “bros before ho’s” mantra are part of their Mission Statement. Many say he is a “comedian” and thus is allowed to be an asshole, but there is a difference between being a funny asshole and just a douchenozzle who latches onto frat boy’s with low intelligence and exploit their fear (and his) of growing up and accepting other people –especially women- can be equal or better than them. 

Back in May, NBC announced that they had given a 6 episode order for a midseason sitcom (I’ll use that term loosely for now on) called Next Caller, starring Cook as a misogynistic satellite radio DJ, with Collette Wolfe playing his co-host, a feminist NPR commentator. The always brilliant Jeffrey Tambor was cast as their boss, and I’m happy, because that means he’s free to focus on better things, such as the Arrested Development revival at NetFlix and its potential movie spin-off.

So apparently NBC thought Cook was perfectly suited for it. So after 4 episodes were made and bought for, NBC saw the end product and (very diplomatically) decided the show was “creatively” not going in the direction they had hoped for. They officially pulled the plug on the show and announced that the four episodes produced will not air (though I’m assuming somewhere down the line, those episodes may end up online, like at Hulu. While it’s perfectly possible NBC can write-off this show on their books and bury them forever, I still think they’ll try to recoup some of their expenses).

While the network has worked hard and mostly failed to deliver anything that can be called funny and creative on the sitcom side, I’m curious as who thought Cook was right for any project on the broadcast network. It seems possible a cable network, like FX, is more suited for him, but even they are not knocking on his door (though, Cook did have a development deal with NBC, which maybe the reason he’s not anywhere else).

Still, with Go On and The New Normal considered hits on NBC –and given full season pick-ups- I guess I can see how someone thought the concept could have been funny. And Cook is widely known as douchenozzle, so, you know, simpatico. I mean, we all know how NBC passed on Animal Practice or Men with Kids, because they were not funny or clever or good, right?

What?

Oh yeah, they’re (still) on. That must burn in the center of Dane Cook’s heart.