By Michelle Hart

I will never forgive HBO for not picking up “Arrested Development.”

Demonstrating its sheer brilliance, the show won six Emmy awards including “Outstanding Comedy Series,” one Golden Globe and a spot in Time Magazine’s “100 Greatest Shows of All Time.” Moreover, the show seems tailor-made for a non-network television channel like HBO.

This article, however, is not about missed opportunities. Though “Arrested” would have made a great addition to HBO’s lineup, the network is still responsible for more quality programming than all three broadcast cable companies put together. The channel has boasted the slogan, “It’s not just TV, it’s HBO.”

And it’s true, too. Shows like “Six Feet Under,” “The Sopranos,” “Rome,” “Deadwood” and “Sex and the City” were and continue to be coveted by fans and critics alike. However, there is one problem with the list above. None of these shows is on anymore.

Sure, “Sex and the City” appears in syndicated form on channels that edit the hell out of most episodes.

But (in true Carrie fashion) one can’t help but wonder why ever since “The Sopranos” left the airwaves, HBO has been on a slippery slope much in the vein of NBC when “Seinfeld” and “Friends” left the network. Worth noting: NBC has never fully recovered from the loss of those two shows either. In the past few years, even though NBC has arguably produced quality programming (“The Office,” “Scrubs,” “30 Rock”), the Peacock cannot seem to produce strong enough ratings to hold their own against the likes of ABC and CBS.

“The Sopranos,” HBO’s most famous show, has won more Emmy awards (21) than any other show on cable television. The show also found success in the ratings, becoming one of the most highly rated shows on television. For a pay cable channel, that’s a pretty impressive feat.

Last June, however, after one of the most talked-about series finales of all time, “The Sopranos” ended its eight-year, six-season run, thus beginning the downfall of HBO. With “The Sopranos” over and the critically acclaimed “The Wire” ending shortly thereafter, the stellar original programming HBO has been boasting since its inception has come to a very abrupt halt.

As a subscriber and as a fan following HBO’s movements and show developments for months now, there is much to look forward to. The network is still producing episodes of “Entourage,” but, seriously, who cares anymore? The once-great show has become incredibly stale and uneventful.

Then there was the disaster that was “John from Cincinnati,” an unnecessarily complex and convoluted drama about surfing and psychology which did not fare well among critics or fans.

There was promise when HBO announced that it picked up a pilot of Linda Bloodworth-Thomason’s (“Designing Women”) “12 Miles of Bad Road,” a drama centered around Lily Tomlin (“The West Wing,” “I Heart Huckabees”) as the matriarch of a wealthy family in Texas. The show garnered early critical acclaim, but HBO ultimately decided to pull the plug on the series altogether.

Is this lack of quality programming HBO’s patch of “bad road” or has the once-great channel finally run its course?

Since the series finale of HBO’s megahit ‘The Sopranos,’ (above) and other popular shows like ‘Six Feet Under’ and ‘Sex and the City’ ending, the network has been in a slump, unable to produce the hits that they have been known for. (weblogs.newsday.com)