PASADENA, Calif. — Fox greatly annoyed several million viewers by canceling "Reunion" in the middle of its season-long murder mystery that covered 20 years. Only 13 episodes were produced (and aired) out of the planned 22 — we found out who was murdered but not who did the murdering.

Fox still deserves brickbats for that. And, again, viewers are understandably reluctant to commit to a show like that because this sort of thing has happened far too often.

Fox Entertainment president Peter Ligouri sounded apologetic, sort of, when he wasn't casting blame. "It is regrettable when stories end before (their) time. . . . I do wish that in every one of these situations there was a way to wrap up that story," he said. " 'Reunion' was particularly cumbersome in terms of trying to provide an ending for the audience" because executive producer/writer Jon Harmon Feldman was considering "a number of options" and "he didn't make a definitive decision . . . as to who the killer was. And there was just no way to accelerate that time."

In other words Feldman couldn't make up his mind fast enough about whodunit, so it's his fault.

So, the answer to whodunit is: "We discussed a number of options on that show, and the best guess was at that particular time that it was going to be Sam's daughter that was actually the killer," Ligouri said.

That would be the illegitimate daughter of Sam (the victim) and Will (the priest) who, when last we saw her, was a young child being whisked away to safety by her adoptive mother in order to get her out of the clutches of her crazed, abusive, adoptive father.

Got all that?

Ligouri said that the failure of "Reunion" wouldn't prevent him from scheduling more serialized shows that take an entire season to play out — and he won't hesitate to yank them off in mid-narrative if necessary.

"I don't think that should stop us from being ambitious with serialized storytelling. . . . We put these shows on and we're going to continue to put these shows on every year with every good intention to end them, but eventually the audience votes," Ligouri said.

What he couldn't or wouldn't acknowledge is that one reason "Reunion" couldn't find an audience (besides bad scheduling) is that viewers have grown wary of investing their time and attention in a show that they know networks like Fox may never play out to a conclusion.

And trying to get an audience for the next one will be even harder because of what happened to "Reunion."

"FUTURAMA" HAS BEEN out of production for years, but that doesn't rule out a return. Ligouri likened it to "Family Guy," which was canceled, sold well in DVD, and then went back into production and returned to Fox's schedule.

"There's no doubt that the 'Family Guy' model worked outstandingly. It's great to be a network exec and have a decision made for you by an audience," Ligouri said. "In terms of 'Futurama,' there haven't really been any active negotiations at this point. But I'd be an ostrich to just stick my head in the dirt and not realize what's going on with 'Futurama' (DVD sales)."

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E-mail: pierce@desnews.com