Upfronts 2009 – Video Previews

Still busy trying to chase that dream I mentioned in my last post, with limited success – finished third the other day in the first round tournament but needed to finish second to do anything. Oh well. Between that, an assortment of real world chores, that brand new time waster Twitter (I'm BrentMcKee there and of course can always use followers), and of course the general summer ennui, I haven't been writing much, and haven't really found the urgency to get this posted. Still I have wanted to get the clips for the season's new show posted on the blog.

The US networks haven't made it easy for the Blogger who just wants to publicize their shows. CBS, FOX and The CW all have YouTube sites but in the case of CBS, the clips aren't accessible to Canadians. NBC abandoned YouTube several years ago, and ABC has followed suit over the past year. Still there are sources available if you're willing to look for them. In fact some of these sources (notably the German Serien Network) provide clips that are longer than what the networks themselves posted. Naturally enough these clips are presented for promotional purposes only, and are the property of the networks and the production companies that made them.

First up we have ABC. I have structured the clips on this playlist (and all of the others) with the shows debuting in the Fall first and in some reasonable approximation of the order in which they'll air. These are then followed by the midseason replacement shows. For ABC the order is The Forgotten, Hank, The Middle, Modern Family, Cougar Town, Eastwick, Flash Forward, Happy Town, and finally The Deep End. Complete running time for this group of clips is about a half hour.

Next we have the CBS shows: Three Rivers, NCIS: Los Angeles, The Good Wife, The Bridge, and Miami Trauma. I was unable to find a clip for the Monday comedy Accidentally On Purpose that I was able to view. Running time is just under 15 minutes.

The FOX playlist includes The Cleveland Show, Brothers, Sons of Tuscon, Past Life and The Human Target. Running time is about 16 minutes.

The NBC clips run at a little over 20 minutes. They are Trauma, Parenthood, Community, 100 Questions, and Mercy.

Finally The CW has two clips from Melrose Place, a clip from The Beautiful Life, three clips from The Vampire Diaries and an extended clip from Parental Discretion Advised. Running time is about 15 minutes.

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While it is impossible to determine the quality of a new series from this sort of brief clip – particularly when some of the roles have been recast (Julia Ormand is out at Three Rivers and Louise Lombard is gone from NCIS: Los Angeles), I would really like to comments in the realm of first impressions about the new shows. Do they look better than the shows that were dropped to make way for them? Worse? Which ones do you think you'd watch and which ones do you intend to tell your friends neighbours and perfect stranger to avoid like the plague? Where do you think there's potential and where do think that a show represents the total collapse of western civilization. Just remember, I don't control what networks do and don't put on the air. I wish I did – just like everyone who has ever written a review of a show either for a newspaper or a blog, and maybe things will be different come th eerevolution – but as it stands people who write in the comments section "...you are really considering dropping Without a Trace???" will get no satisfaction from me because I don't have the power to bring Without a Trace back.