Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Who Does The PTC Hate This Week – May 27, 2008

Before I get around to ridiculing the PTC, some of you who read my post on the new HD-PVR might be wondering how I can be so sure that my brother won't know that I opted for the PVR box rather than the ordinary HDTV box. The answer is amazingly simple – in the three years and now 805 posts that I've put up on this Blog, my brother (who is currently living in my home while he waits for his place in BC to sell) has never read one. Zero. Nada. Nothing. If I want to keep something secret from him, all I have to do is write it here and otherwise keep my mouth shut. And my mother's too (she let out some rather broad hints that she might consider buying an HD box but well after we actually had). Now, let's get back to business.

How many of you know the story of a guy who accidentally wandered into a private party in a hotel ballroom. Inside he found a group of guys standing around saying numbers to each other and then laughing uproariously. Our hero couldn't figure out what was going on so eventually he asked one of the waiters in the room. "Well sir, this is a gathering of the Comedians Club. These guys know every joke ever told. For simplicity they have a master list and all of the jokes are numbered. So instead of actually telling the joke they just say the number."

"They've got every joke numbered and memorized?"

"Yes sir they do."

Well our hero can't believe that one but he decides to give it a try. He walks up to a group of the people who are standing around saying numbers and laughing and finally says, "Fourteen." The group falls silent and the silence spreads to the entire room as all eyes fall on our hero. Finally the waiter breaks the silence: "No wonder. You told it wrong."

Annual shareholders meeting are taking place and of course the PTC is using the opportunity to castigate companies for their advertising policies and providing the rest of us with press releases. And it's at this time that I feel like those comedians in the ballroom. Well not quite, but over the years I've discovered that summarizing PTC statements to shareholders meetings are so similar that you can set up a form version and simply insert appropriate names or statements at appropriate points. So, instead of giving an explanation of each individual presentation to the shareholders I can simply do it by the numbers, following the number with the appropriate names. Check it out:

"This is the PTC's presentation to the shareholders of (1 – insert name of company). The PTC began their statement by praising (2 – company and/or company CEO or Chairman of the Board) for (3 – family-friendly reputation or philanthropy). Thus the PTC can't understand why (2) is unaware of the damage that (4 – advertising on unsuitable programs/ads that aren't family friendly) can affect their reputation for (3). The PTC then goes on to explain that (5 – company or subsidiary of company) is advertising on (6 – programs) that the PTC finds to be (7 – evil/bad/not suitable for family viewing regardless of what time it is on OR is on at a time that the PTC feels is inappropriate for that ad). They give proof in the form of examples (8 –of why shows are bad, or why ad are unsuitable for the time). Then they call on (5) to be a responsible corporate citizen and stop the action the PTC finds to be unsuitable. Inevitably the PTC brings up its 1.2 million members as a power block that might be mobilized to boycott (though they never say the word 'boycott') and offers to 'help' the company choose what the good shows are as opposed to the bad shows. There may even be a time limit for an 'answer' the PTC's complaint."

So how would this work? Well, there were three shareholders meetings since the last time that I did one of these pieces. One of them had a bit of a surprise but I'll get to that in a moment. We'll use "The Form" for these:

(A) 1 – Berkshire-Hathaway; 2 – Warren Buffet; 3 – philanthropy; 4 – advertising on unsuitable programming; 5 – GEICO; 6 – Dirt, The Sopranos (on A&E); 7 – evil/bad/unsuitable for family viewing regardless of what time it is on; 8 – (no show specifically named, possibly both) scenes of masturbation, self-mutilation, racism, extreme violence and drug use.

(B) 1 – IHOP; 2 – IHOP Corporation; 3 – social responsibility and charity support; 4 – advertising on unsuitable programming; 5 – IHOP, Applebees; 6 – Two and a Half Men, NCIS 7 – evil/bad/unsuitable for family viewing regardless of what time it is on; 8 – both shows: "consistently contain coarse and inappropriate language, along with gratuitous sex and violence and are in direct opposition to IHOP's family image"; NCIS: "a pimp and a drug dealer fight over a corpse in a morgue while looking for a deceased person who had transported drugs. One character is held at gunpoint while another is forced to search the intestines of a dead body for drugs."

(C) 1 – Limited Brands; 2 – Limited Brands, founder Les Wexner; 3 – support community programs that focus on empowering women, nurturing and mentoring children and improving education; 4 – ads that aren't family friendly; 5 – Victoria's Secret; 6 – "your commercial advertising offers no indication as to where these spots will suddenly appear" 7 – "These ads are creeping into family viewing hours and programs"; 8 – "Parents are feeling powerless and find themselves addressing personal parenting issues at a time and place that seem to be dictated by these revealing ads. Your spots when viewed by children are at least confusing if not upsetting and embarrassing to all family members trying to watch TV together."

Now what made the Limited Brands shareholder meeting a bit of a surprise is that according to the PTC their representative was "sequestered from the other shareholders in a separate room and was not permitted to speak during the meeting." According to their press release, "The PTC is now investigating its options given this blatant – and what appears to be intentional – disregard for shareholder rights." I find this one to be a rather interesting example of restricting speech, and there are a lot of things that don't seem to be answered by the PTC's statement. For example, was the PTC representative the only person "sequestered from the other shareholders" or were there other people there. If there were other people there, were they considered "troublemakers" – the sort of people who ask inane questions some aspect of the company's operations – or was this a general overflow room for the meeting. And in a more general way, how did corporate officials of Limited Brands know that the PTC representative, Director of Corporate Relations Glen Erickson, was in fact a PTC representative who was aiming to take the company to task. As far as the PTC's determination to "investigate its options" related to the "blatant" disregard of shareholder rights, well, I don't know what the legal obligations of a company are in this sort of situation, but I have a suspicion that a company can pretty much do whatever they wish in this sort of situation. I know of a number of examples where a company has cut off the microphone during a shareholder's meeting – indeed it has happened to PTC representatives in the past – and while I know that shareholders have to vote on boards of directors, I am unaware of any legal obligation that a company has to allow any and all shareholders an opportunity to speak during a meeting.

There was one other shareholders meeting report that "The Form" doesn't fit. This was the American Airlines meeting. A PTC representative attended the meeting to talk about the programming offered on the company's in-flight entertainment system – the general monitor variety rather than the seatback monitor type: "Depending on the aircraft, access to adult programming is available to all travelers regardless of age. The 777 has personal entertainment monitors permitting children to watch whatever they wish. On other American Airlines aircraft, the entertainment is offered on a common monitor so even the most vigilant parent is powerless to stop the screening of inappropriate programming." It's an interesting problem although not one that directly relates to TV. The problem for me is the usual one that I run into with the PTC – what constitutes "adult" programming. Obviously American isn't showing porn, even on their individual seatback monitors. And I doubt that they're showing much if any nudity of any sort. So presumably "adult" means language and violence. Now there's this wonderful thing called "the Internet" where you can check to find out all sorts of things, and the thing that I did was to check what movies were on American Airlines flights. This is the list on all their routes for the month of June, together with the MPAA rating (IMDB also provides a parents' guide with explanations for some of the things found in the films):

Sorry guys, but I don't see where this constitutes "adult programming." Old, and somewhat boring programming, yes, but to refer to any of this as adult is pushing the line of credulity even for the PTC unless "adult" for them is anything rated higher than PG or maybe G. (and some of those MPAA descriptions sound worse than they undoubtedly are. Just as an example the language in Astronaut Farmer consists of "At least 3 's' words (1 written), 1 slang term for sex ('laid'), 6 asses, 5 hells, 2 damns, 2 S.O.B.s and 1 use each of 'My God' and 'Oh my God' (with a possible use of 'G-damn')." And yes I found it amazing that someone counted.

The Worst of the Week this time around (the PTC seems to have totally given up on the Cable Worst – it literally hasn't changed in months) is FOX's American Dad but the PTC's page for that condemnation of all things Seth MacFarlane came back with an error message and I don't feel like waiting for them to figure out what bit of code they screwed up, so let's move on to the Misrated Show – the late and somewhat lamented Women's Murder Club, specifically the May 6th episode which was rated TV-PG SDL – Sex, Dialog, and Language. The PTC thinks that the episode should get a V descriptor as well. The episode concerned a young man who was murdered. It turns out that he was accused of raping a fellow college student but the DA's office decided not to pursue the complaint. The PTC cites two scenes as "proof" that the episode deserves the descriptor. First: "The opening scene of the episode featured Collin's dead body, with blood oozing through his shirt and coming out of his mouth. At the medical examiner's office, Collin's dead body was shown on an examination table as coroners discussed his injuries." In the other scene, as the PTC explains it, "Kate's boyfriend, Charlie, shows up at a press conference with a gun and shoots at Jay, but he misses and the bullet hits Cindy Thomas, a reporter. Again, a large blood stain soaks through her shirt." The PTC sees at least three violent acts in the described scenes: "with the depiction of a blood-spattered dead body, a shooting scene, and a seriously injured reporter, a violence descriptor seems an obvious necessity." I don't see that, I see one, the shooting of the reporter complete with the blood stain. I have said it before and I will continue to stress it: the depiction of the aftermath of a violent act is not the equivalent of the depiction of the act itself, and nothing the PTC can say will convince me otherwise.

I've got some more material based on the PTC's current TV Trends article, but the article is just the first of a two-parter. And since the way my response was going it was turning into a two-parter (and that was just my response to the first article) I have decided to try to address the PTC writer's piece in an article of its own that will probably be posted next week.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Going HD

You'll excuse me for this post but I confess I'm as excited as a kid on Christmas Eve trying too hard to get to sleep.

I just got off the phone with Shaw Cable and I am the proud new owner of an HD receiver with built in PVR. It's the Pace Tahoe (TCD770D) which was on for an introductory price of $448 (plus taxes) until the end of the month. They're installing on Monday afternoon (and one good thing about Shaw, at least locally is that when they say Monday afternoon between 12:30 and 2:30 they mean Monday afternoon between 12:30 and 2:30). It includes a 160 GB hard drive and has SATA for a connection to an external hard drive.

My brother will probably go ballistic when he hears that I got the HDPVR – he recommended the ordinary box which is what he had in BC – but my reasoning on this was that when the sale price ends the Pace units will be much more expensive; I've seen ads that say $200 more and some people have said as much as $250 more. Plus I currently have the money to pay the difference between the normal HD unit and the HDPVR. But the big this is recording. My brother doesn't believe in recording TV shows; with him, if you miss it you miss it. I'm avid – maybe even rabid – about recording so as not to miss a show. This past Tuesday I watched Dancing With The Stars, taped NCIS and Shark on one machine and Hell's Kitchen on the other. The problem – one of them anyway – is that tapes are getting harder to find. Another is forgetfulness. You don't know what I've missed from forgetting to set the VCRs or setting them wrong. The new Pace Tahoe promises me that I can:

  • Record, rewind and play your favourite television programs
  • Pause live TV
  • Record two programs at the same time
  • Record one program while watching another
  • Watch a recorded program while recording two other programs
  • Create a personal library of recorded programming
  • Output 1080i and 720p HD formats on HDMI or Component outputs

The 160 GB hard drive is supposed to let me record up to 50 hours of analog programming, 120 hours of digital programming, and 25 hours of HD programming. Best of all it will let me schedule whether to record a single episode or a whole series. Which, if nothing else means that I'll actually be able to watch – and review – a greater number of those new shows come the Fall. I just have to be careful of those pesky sports overruns.

I know this all seems pretty familiar to those of you who have TiVos, but TiVo only became available in stores in Canada less than a year ago, and only the non-HD capable Series 2 unit is available here – Canadian cable companies don't use the CARD system that makes the Series 3 TiVo HD ready. So if I want HD and I want to record it – and I do – a box from the satellite or cable provider (like Shaw) is what you have to use.

Can't wait, can't wait, CAN'T WAIT!!!! But since I have to, how about voting in the poll and maybe giving me a bit of feedback about what to expect from the new purchase?

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

New Poll – Which of the new CBS shows sounds most promising?

Earlier this year I offered a poll that asked "Which of the new NBC shows sounds most promising?" The poll was conducted to less than overwhelming – indeed downright underwhelming – response; I got six votes. I confessed when I released the results that it should have included "they all sound like a big steaming pile of poo," which undoubtedly would have gotten a better response than just the list of shows. Well for this poll I am rectifying the omission. And you guys get an added advantage this time around; you've seen (or can see) clips of the CBS shows (well except for Harper's Island, which actually is – or was last time I checked – out there). So vote as you will but vote. Please?

Monday, May 19, 2008

The New Season – Night By Night

To wind up our examination of the Upfronts, I thought I'd look at the final Fall Schedule on a night by night basis, giving my own thoughts on what's going to work and what's not. Bear in mind that these are only my personal opinions. (Times are Eastern)

Sunday


ABC

CBS

FOX

NBC

The CW

7:00-8:00

America`s Funniest Home Videos

60 Minutes

The OT (NFL Post-Game)

Football Night in America

TBD

8:00-8:30

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

Amazing Race

The Simpsons

Sunday Night Football

TBD

8:30-9:00

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

Amazing Race

King Of The Hill

Sunday Night Football

TBD

9:00-9:30

Desperate Housewives

Cold Case

Family Guy

Sunday Night Football

TBD

9:30-10:00

Desperate Housewives

Cold Case

American Dad

Sunday Night Football

TBD

10:00-11:00

Brothers & Sisters

The Unit


Sunday Night Football

TBD


It's pretty much the status quo here before the end of the Football season. The only real changes are that CBS has moved The Unit into the Sunday 10-11 slot, and of course the as yet undisclosed plans of The CW's partner on Sundays MRC. Things will change a lot after the end of the Football season when NBC reveals its Sunday line-up. If last year's ratings for Shark are any indication I do not expect smooth sailing for The Unit. I would expect the male demographic to move towards Football. ABC should remain dominant on the night once Football ends and most of their shows will be in second place during the season. (Worth noting is that The Amazing Race tends on the whole to perform extremely well in terms of ratings when CBS has a late Football game that runs long; not sure why this is the case, but it certainly doesn't extend beyond The Amazing Race to CBS shows later in the night.)

Monday


ABC

CBS

FOX

NBC

The CW

8:00-8:30

Dancing With The Stars

How I Met Your Mother

Terminator: The Sarah Connor...

Chuck

Gossip Girl

8:30-9:00

Dancing With The Stars

The Big Bang Theory

Terminator: The Sarah Connor...

Chuck

Gossip Girl

9:00-9:30

Dancing With The Stars

Two And A Half Men

Prison Break

Heroes

One Tree Hill

9:30-10:00

Samantha Who?

THE WORST WEEK

Prison Break

Heroes

One Tree Hill

10:00-11:00

Boston
Legal

CSI Miami


MY OWN WORST ENEMY



The big changes on the night comes in the third hour, with ABC and NBC yet again trying to challenge the CBS hold on the hour – or at the very least score a viable second place. I'll give an edge in that area to ABC and Boston Legal which is a show with an existing cult following. That makes it different from October Road or What About Brian? NBC has to hope that the fans of Heroes will stick around for My Own Worst Enemy in numbers that look better to NBC; it could be a big – and quick – loser. Looking earlier in the night, the monster in the room is Dancing With The Stars which why it is more than a little surprising that ABC is planning only one series of the show in the 2008-09 season and being replaced with an untested Ashton Kutcher/Tyra Banks property. The CBS comedy block is a powerful one that is most likely to take second place against "Dancing" and beating the Kutcher property. CBS has the enviable luxury of "hammocking" a freshman comedy between the highest rated sitcom on TV (Two And A Half Men) and "the most popular show in the world" (CSI: Miami). The final big question is whether Chuck and Heroes will be competitive after the long, strike induced, hiatus. If there's some rejection of that FOX might be competitive for third place. The CW is doomed to fifth, but fifth with a very nice niche market for the night.

Tuesday


ABC

CBS

FOX

NBC

The CW

8:00-8:30

OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS

NCIS

House

Biggest Loser

90210

8:30-9:00

OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS

NCIS

House

Biggest Loser

90210

9:00-9:30

Dancing With The Stars

THE MENTALIST

FRINGE

Biggest Loser

SURVIVING THE FILTHY RICH

9:30-10:00

Dancing With The Stars

THE MENTALIST

FRINGE

KATH & KIM

SURVIVING THE FILTHY RICH

10:00-11:00

Eli Stone

Without A Trace


Law & Order: SVU



A night of newbies. Six new shows, four of which are up against each other. I'm convinced that the big loser on the night, besides the winner Biggest Loser will be Opportunity Knocks. This show sounds awful and based on the clips shown that I've seen from YouTube it looks awful too. The other show that doesn't really fit is Kath & Kim. I really don't see the flow from Biggest Loser to Kath & Kim to Law & Order: SVU even if it is a good show. The battle for survival on the night will be between Fringe and The Mentalist. FOX seems very certain about Fringe to the point where they're reducing the number of minutes of network commercials in each episode and will be charging a premium to advertisers. The show looks good and initially at least it follows one of FOX's top shows. On the other hand there's a rather nice flow between NCIS, through The Mentalist, to Without A Trace. And speaking of Without A Trace, CBS may have finally gotten wise about how to deal with the 10-11 timeslot; an established show rather than a new series. That may give them an advantage over ABC Eli Stone.

Wednesday


ABC

CBS

FOX

NBC

The CW

8:00-8:30

Pushing Daisies

New Adventures of Old Christine

Bones

KNIGHT RIDER

America's Next Top Model

8:30-9:00

Pushing Daisies

PROJECT GARY

Bones

KNIGHT RIDER

America's Next Top Model

9:00-9:30

Private Practice

Criminal Minds

`Til Death

Deal Or No Deal

STYLISTA

9:30-10:00

Private Practice

Criminal Minds

DO NOT DISTURB

Deal Or No Deal

STYLISTA

10:00-11:00

Dirty Sexy Money

CSI New York


Lipstick Jungle



The big experiment here comes from CBS in trying to start a second comedy night...again. New Adventures Of Old Christine might be the right anchor for this, but Project Gary sounds like a poor property for the second half of the hour. Actually it looks like the weaker of the two new CBS comedies this season. But I have to confess that I hope it – or something – will take Knight Rider out to the wood shed and beat it. I wouldn't mind if they were bringing some new perspective to the concept but it's quite clear that "only the names have changed" and that just doesn't cut it with me. As for the other new shows on the night, the only thing that looks worse than Do Not Disturb, a concept that had the potential to be so much more, is the Apprentice clone Stylista. Hopefully both will die a swift and well deserved death, but that's just my opinion.

Thursday


ABC

CBS

FOX

NBC

The CW

8:00-8:30

Ugly Betty

Survivor

Moment Of Truth

My Name Is Earl

Smallville

8:30-9:00

Ugly Betty

Survivor

Moment Of Truth

30 Rock

Smallville

9:00-9:30

Grey`s Anatomy

CSI

Kitchen Nightmares

The Office

Supernatural

9:30-10:00

Grey`s Anatomy

CSI

Kitchen Nightmares

SNL THURSDAY NIGHT LIVE

Supernatural

10:00-11:00

LIFE ON MARS

ELEVENTH HOUR


ER



Thursday is the most competitive night of the week, with all five networks throwing up what they consider to be their big guns. At the same time it is also one of the most stable nights this year with the only major changes in the first two hours – besides the SNL Thursday Night Live show (which is actually a series of three pre-election comedy specials; the normal placeholder for this time will be Office repeats until the debut of the spinoff of The Office) is FOX's decision to move Moment Of Truth and Kitchen Nightmares to the night to replace Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader? and Don't Forget The Lyrics. Apparently a FOX executive has stated "Look, it's eroding. It's an older show. It's eventually going to give up and were trying to accelerate that." He may in fact be right in so far as Survivor isn't the ratings juggernaut that it once was. However it does still win the time slot rather handily, and I for one can't believe that the excremental (which means exactly what you think it means) Moment Of Truth will take ratings points from Survivor. In fact – and I'm going to be bold in this prediction – I don't think the show will perform as well as Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader. If any of these two show is going to drop in the ratings it will be Moment Of Truth. The big battle on Thursday night will be in the 10-11 slot. ER won't lose audience) although that is a show that really has eroded over the years) but it will be ending its run at the end of February. At that point it will be replaced by a new season of Celebrity Apprentice, and with due respect to Donald Trump (and in my opinion not much respect is due) his show is no ER. As a result the real battle in the time slot will begin when ER ends. I have no real idea who will win, but if I were to pick right now, based on the clips that I've seen and the way that the shows "flow" into each other, I'd have to give an edge to CBS's Eleventh Hour which matches with CSI in a way that Life On Mars really doesn't match with Grey's Anatomy. But I'm also going to make this prediction – barring an absolute ratings melt down, both shows are going to be around to take on Celebrity Apprentice.

Friday


ABC

CBS

FOX

NBC

The CW

8:00-8:30

Wife Swap

Ghost Whisperer

Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?

CRUSOE

Everybody Hates Chris

8:30-9:00

Wife Swap

Ghost Whisperer

Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?

CRUSOE

The Game

9:00-10:00

Supernanny

THE EX-LIST

Don't Forget The Lyrics

Deal Or No Deal

America's Next Top Model (Encore)

10:00-11:00

20/20

Numb3rs


Life



Friday night is now TV's new wasteland – Saturday having been pretty much abandoned by the networks – and it shows in the programs their offering. BAC has reality shows and a news magazine while FOX has two game shows. I actually like The CW's decision to move its comedies to Friday night – it recalls The WB's Friday night comedy line-up which was one of its stronger programming periods (even if the critics and supposedly sophisticated people hated the lynchpin of that line-up Reba – that show was still the highest rated CW comedy when it was cancelled). What I'm less than pleased with is that the network has given its second hour over to a repeat of America's Next Top Model. If you're going to build a night of comedy, build a night of comedy. The big news on the night has to be CBS's decision to replace Midnight with The Ex-List, a decision that apparently had more to do with business decisions on the part of CBS and a rivalry with Warner Brothers than it did with the actual show. Even on a night as weak as this I can't see this decision turning out well. The Ex-List clip that was released looks as bad as the concept sounds. As for the other new show on the night, Crusoe, no one knows much about it except that it's an adaptation of Robinson Crusoe. Whether it's a modernized version or done in period, I can't imagine anything like good ratings coming from this.

So there is the Fall 2008 schedule. There will be changes in the winter, particularly from FOX and NBC, and inevitably there will be changes happening a lot sooner than January. For the most part – as in just about every case – the new series fall into the "nothing at all" category – as in "if you can't say anything nice, say nothing at all." Can it really be two years ago that we had shows debuting like Studio 60, 30 Rock, Kidnapped, Vanished, Friday Night Lights, Brothers & Sisters, and Men In Trees. Even the failures from that list of shows were better, in my opinion, than most of what the networks will offering us as new shows in this coming season. This is not going to be one of TV's great seasons.

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Video Links For The New Shows

Last year was a great time to blog about the new TV season and include clips from the new shows. NBC had its own YouTube Channel and CBS even provided a "bloggers kit" that provided links from their InnerTube video service. The other networks at least had clips on a page even if you couldn't embed them. This year it's not so easy to provide links. This season it's not so easy. NBC gave up on YouTube and put all their eggs in their Hulu basket, not that it matters much since they didn't do pilots this season. Similarly InnerTube seems to be gone, but CBS does have its own YouTube channel (with the series previews on their own playlist), as do The CW and FOX. But ABC provide you with...a PDF file. At least that's what they do officially. If you hunt around you can find clips at YouTube and other video sites such as Brightcove and DailyMotion...if they haven't been taken down yet. Under these circumstances, rather than provide hints on where to find clips it might be better just to show some. To help things along I've set up some playlists of my own with clips from the various networks.

We start off with CBS, and the first video in this group of five generated the most comment from the people who watched it on YouTube...mostly negative. It's for The Ex List, and the negative comments were because it is the show replacing Moonlight on Friday nights. And two more different show you're unlikely to see. Based on this clip I'm not likely to be watching. Following that are clips for The Mentalist and Eleventh Hour. Both show's look more than a little intriguing. Finally come clips for the two new sitcoms on the CBS line-up, Project Gary and The Worst Week. Neither one looks like something I'd be interested in watching, but bear in mind that it takes a lot to get me interested in sitcoms.


Next up we have clips from two of the three new CW shows. First are two clips from Surviving The Filthy Rich featuring Joanna Garcia with Lucy Kate Hale in the first, and with Micheal Cassidy in the second. Then there's a clip from the reality show Stylista that basically introduces Anne Slowey as she clumps (about the best way I can describe her walk in those heels). Nothing from 90210 yet, but a lot of the parts in that series have yet to be cast, and I don't think they've done a pilot.


Next up we have ABC's two new shows, neither from "official" sources. First up is a trailer for Life On Mars clearly taken from an Entertainment Tonight broadcast. It was another clip that got a lot of reaction most of it extremely negative. Of course, to be fair, a lot of those comments were coming either from people in Britain or from Americans who are fans of the original BBC series. The other clip is from the new Ashton Kutcher game/reality show Opportunity Knocks. Based on this, it looks awesomely awful and I would hope that it dies a quick and well deserved death.


Finally we have some clips from the new FOX shows, starting with Fringe. You can certainly pick up the X-Files vibe in this clip. Next we have the new comedy Do Not Disturb, which I fear is going to fall right into the trap of being a workplace comedy rather than something like the British Hotel Babylon. It looks pretty bad. Next we have two clips from Secret Millionaire, including the start and the reveal of one episode. I'm afraid it looks worse than I originally expected, but I still have no doubt that it will find an audience. Then there are a couple of clips from the two animated series, The Cleveland Show and Sit Down, Shut Up. I can't tell much about The Cleveland Show from this, but the clip from Sit Down, Shut Up features that very interesting cast of voice actors. Finally there's a clip from Dollhouse (which oddly enough is subtitled in Spanish) which gives a better sense of what the series is about than the other – non-subtitled – clip I've been able to find on YouTube.


Based on these clips I have a suspicion that I'm going to be watching a lot of shows on CBS with FOX coming in a close second. Mentalist and Eleventh Hour look very intriguing to me, as do Fringe and Dollhouse. Since I haven't seen the BBC original I don't know whether the criticisms of the American Life On Mars are justified but I'm not sure it will work. Surviving The Filthy Rich might work in a Gilmore Girls sort of way but it's probably not for me. The reality and game show clips are singularly unappealing to me – I'll stick to Survivor, Dancing With The Stars, and The Amazing Race thank you very much. As for the sitcoms, the two on CBS might work but the one on FOX looks far worse than the show it's replacing (Back To You). The bottom line on the new shows is this: they look to be adequate but hardly earth shaking or groundbreaking. And maybe that's the way that broadcast TV has to be. Sadly.