Poll Results - Which Of The New FOX Shows Sounds Most Promising?

I admit that posting around here has been in a bigger slump for a while than the Washington Nationals (my former beloved Montreal Expos *sniffle*) but it almost completely slipped my mind just how long ago I started this poll until I put up yesterday's post.

I'm going to put part of the blame on my new toy. Yeah I broke down and bought my first MP3 player, a 2 Gig iPod Shuffle. Yeah, it's not much and I can't watch movies or TV on it (but then again here in Canada there isn't the choice in that area that you find south of the 49^th) but it serves my purposes. All of the used space is occupied by podcasts, including three of Leo Laporte's (TWiT, Window's Weekly, and The Tech Guy), a couple of TV podcasts (TV Addict, and the Hypa-Space podcast from the Canadian science fiction network Space), and old radio shows from something that calls itself the Old Time Radio Network. I download a lot of those. (This gives me a chance to ask a question of Ivan; the other night I was listening to an episode from a show called Frontier Town. The lead actor was unmistakably Jeff Chandler, a voice I recognise from years of hearing episodes of Our Miss Brooks; however in this he was billed as "Tex Chandler" a name that doesn't appear in his IMDB entry, which means he never used it in a movie. How long did Tex stick around before Jeff took over?) One of these days I'm going to have to put some music on this gadget.

Oh and did I happen to mention that five and a half year old nephew rode Space Mountain at Disneyland five times – in two days? The only thing that kept him off the Indiana Jones Adventure ride was the height restriction. This is an example of parental guidance over some arbitrary, non-safety related, restriction based solely on age – his father knows what Brian can take and went with him on those rides. The Disney restrictions aren't based on "this is too intense for a five year-old" they're based on "we can't make the safety equipment on this ride work for someone shorter than 48 inches regardless of age." Parents know their children because for them children are individuals rather than an arbitrarily defined, identical, mass.

Okay, right, the poll results. There were nine respondents this time through. Tied for last place, with no votes, were Do Not Disturb, Secret Millionaire, and what is rapidly becoming the troubled Sit Down, Shut Up. Tied for second place with one vote each (11%) were Fringe, The Cleveland Show, and "They all sound like a big steaming pile of poo." But the big winner, with six votes (67%) is Dollhouse.

This one is clearly a triumph for my fellow Whedonistas. But let's not get complacent folks. After all, this is FOX, the network that killed Firefly, shut off Wonderfalls, sounded last call for Tru Calling and said over on Drive. In other words they haven't exactly been friendly to Joss and his crew. I am looking forward to this show but then I'm also looking forward to Fringe, a show which has a distinct X-Files feel to it. These two shows look fantastic and if they can live up to the previews they could be the big successes for FOX this year. Certainly they're about the only shows that set the FOX line-up apart from a big steaming pile of poo. Do Not Disturb looks like a poor replacement from even the lacklustre Back To You. The Cleveland Show seems innocuous enough, although it's likely to be a lightning rod for the PTC thanks to the fact that it is being produced by Seth McFarlane. As opposed to Secret Millionaire which is almost certain to be beloved by the PTC for being "touching" and "heartwarming." So far as Sit Down, Shut Up goes, I wonder if it will even be broadcast. There's a dispute between the writers, who were assured that the show would be covered by the Writer's Guild contract, and the production companies, who insist that the writers will be covered by IATSE's Cartoonist Guild contract. At this writing the dispute has yet to be settled, and the writers have yet to go to work.

New poll dealing with the CW's new shows will be up shortly. It is going to be complicated because of The CW's deal with Media Rights Capital (MRC). No previews, and very few details, are available for the four MRC shows, so I'll have to provide brief summaries for the shows with the poll.