There goes the neighbourhood? Pity. I was looking forward to ABC's summer reality series Welcome to the Neighborhood.

Of course, I mean looking forward to it the same way one looks forward to all of these slightly smarmy summer reality series -- by denouncing it as trash loudly and repeatedly to all within earshot and then setting the VCR with a small amount shame and no small amount of glee.

Though the show was already in the can, it seems the network discovered, a bit too late, a problem with the idea of a show that lets residents of a WASPy Texas suburb choose their new neighbours from a pool of families with diverse races, religions, sexual preferences, etc.

Now, it's not like Karla Homolka showed up on the cul-de-sac with a U-Haul or anything. It's an ABC series, not Fox. Needless to say though, the prospective newcomers were a drastic departure from the Stepford/Pleasantville mould.

Sounds like a potentially entertaining and enlightening show, no?

It just happened to be a teensy-weensy bit illegal. The U.S. apparently has some sort of rules stating you can't decide where somebody lives based on their race, religion, sexual preferences, etc.

Basically, you can't go around telling folks, "I'm not handing over the keys to this house because I don't like who you pray to/sleep with/call mom and dad." In the U.S., you have to think it secretly to yourself and then make up some other excuse to deny people housing.

By filming people voicing their prejudices publicly, Neighborhood went out of bounds.

Granted, Neighborhood is low-level malfeasance. The entire point of the show is to illustrate how deeply prejudices run in present day society and why legislation for fair and equal housing needs to exist.

But you know what scares me even more than the fact ABC was able to find a street full of happy shiny bigots to be on their show? The fact they pulled the plug on a multimillion-dollar mini-series.

You see, I have a day job with a local TV production company. I only write this column to lend credibility to the "Hey baby, I'm scouting for Sunshine Girls..." scam I run at the bar.

Networks pulling ill-advised, potentially offensive reality shows of debatable merit off the air threatens my livelihood. What will happen to all the bad ideas I had for TV shows?

The series of real-life bank robberies, for instance, I was planning for a documentary about the consequences of crime. Or the live special in which I drive my car into a brick wall to test auto manufacturers' safety systems.

Well, they suddenly don't seem like such good ideas anymore.

Ah, don't worry about me. TV producers can always come up with bad ideas that aren't technically illegal, I suppose.

I worry about you, dear viewer. Without all those ill-advised, potentially offensive reality shows of debatable merit ... what would you watch during the summer?