The CW’s 2009 Upfronts

Here's what The CW is planning for the coming season.

Cancelled: 4 Real, Easy Money, In Harms Way, Valentine, Privileged, 13: Fear Is Real, Stylista, The Game, Everybody Hates Chris, Reaper.

Renewed: 90210, America's Next Top Model, Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill, Supernatural.

Moved: Smallville

New Shows: Vampire Diaries, Melrose Place, Beautiful Life

Not Yet Scheduled: Parental Discretion Advised.

Complete Schedule

Monday
8:00-9:00 p.m. Gossip Girl
9:00-10:00 p.m. One Tree Hill

Tuesday
8:00-9:00 p.m. 90210
9:00-10:00 p.m. MELROSE PLACE

Wednesday
8:00-9:00 p.m. America's Next Top Model
9:00-10:00 p.m. THE BEAUTIFUL LIFE

Thursday
8:00-9:00 p.m. VAMPIRE DIARIES
9:00-10:00 p.m. Supernatural

Friday
8:00-9:00 p.m. Smallville
9:00-10:00 p.m. America's Next Top Model Encore

Melrose Place is, like the show preceding it, a remake of the classic Aaron Spelling night-time soap of the 1990s, with at least some people from the original series making a comeback. Well at least temporarily because a character from the original series (who was previously thought to be dead) is murdered in a plot thread that will reportedly carry through the entire season. Stars Laura Leighton and Thomas Calabro from the original series, and Shaun Sipos, Katie Cassidy, Colin Egglesfield, Stephanie Jacobsen, Michael Rady, Jessica Lucas, and Ashlee Simpson-Wentz.

The Beautiful Life is a typical CW show with a young cast and a vaguely soap opera-ish plot line. This time around the subject is the modelling industry. Raina Collins (Sara Paxton) and Chris Andrews (Benjamin Hollingsworth) are two young models just breaking into the industry, Raina at the top and Chris at the bottom. The cast includes Mischa Barton as Raina's friend and sometimes rival Sonja, Elle Macpherson as Claudia Foster who owns the agency that represents Chris. Other cast members include Dusan Dukic, Ashley Madekwe, Jordan Woolley, Corbin Bleu, and Nico Tortorella. Ashton Kutcher, Jason Goldberg, Karey Burke, Mike Kelley, and Carol Barbee are executive producers.

Like Gossip Girl, Vampire Diaries is based on a series of young adult novels. Elena (Nona Dobrev) is a popular high school student who has recently suffered a personal tragedy. In the wake of this she becomes infatuated with Stefan (Paul Wesley), a mysterious new guy at school. Very soon she discovers that Stefan is in fact a vampire. Soon she encounters Damon (Ian Somerhalder) – Stefan's charming but evil older brother. The two brothers find themselves competing for Elena's soul and those of her friends.

In Parental Discretion Advised Britt Robertson plays Lux, a teenager who has spent her entire life bouncing from one foster family to another. Trying to become an "emancipated child" she is forced to track down her biological father "Baze" Bazile (Kristoffer Polaha), a guy in his thirties who owns a bar and has a couple of slacker roommates. He in turn leads her to her mother Cate Cassidy (Shiri Appleby), who hosts the local "Morning Madness" radio show with her off-air boyfriend Ryan (Kerr Smith). Cate is saddened that her daughter has been in the foster system since birth. When Lux's effort to be emancipated fails, the judge grants temporary custody to Baze and Cate who have to overcome their discomfort for the sake of their daughter.

Comments:

Despite the fact that The CW is only programming five nights a week as compared to six nights from the other networks, they will have as many hours of scripted programming in the Fall of 2009 as NBC will, thanks to that network's decision to air The Jay Leno Show each week night. While The CW's eight hours of scripted programs are likely to be far less popular in terms of pure viewership than those on NBC, it is likely that the network will be relatively pleased with the results. The CW is pursuing a different sort of programming model than any of the other four networks. In effect they are narrowcasting, focussing most of their programming at a specific audience – 13-34 year-old women. While it is true that there are a couple of shows that attract an audience outside of that group – Supernatural and Smallville – most of the network's focus is on this particular niche.

Perhaps the most interesting move made by The CW isn't a new show but rather the decision to move an established show; Smallville. Probably the most popular scripted show on the network, The CW reportedly spent a great deal of money to sign Tom Welling for a ninth season. So it would seem strange to move the series from its established timeslot on Thursday – a night that has some of the highest advertising revenues in the week thanks to movie advertising – to the supposed ratings ghetto of Fridays. However there is probably an argument to be made for the move. All of the networks are starting to make a tentative effort to program scripted material on Fridays. I suspect that The CW programmers believe that Smallville has a chance to thrive on Fridays, while at the same time establishing a theme for the network's Thursday night line-up other than "guys' night." The real weakness isn't running Smallville on Fridays but rather following it with an encore of America's Next Top Model rather than a scripted show which would make better use of the show's ratings strength. The problem is finding a show that would mesh with Smallville – the mid-season replacement Parental Discretion Advised really doens't work in that
way.

Themes do seem to be a major feature of The CW's programming. Putting Melrose Place on after 90210 seems to be a bit of simple logic – two Aaron Spelling shows which theoretically at least will not only appeal to the network's core audience but also to those with a nostalgic attachment to the original series. Similarly, the placement of The Beautiful Life, a series about the modelling industry, following the reality series America's Next Top Model is a very logical connection, creating a "fashion industry" block. The one area where this might fall down is with the placement of Vampire Diaries preceding Supernatural. While both series have an "otherworldly" theme (to avoid using the word which is also the title of one of the series), from what little I can discover from a synopsis and a few clips the handling of the theme in Vampire Diaries is hardly similar to the approach being taken on the older series. The other reasoning for placing this show in this time slot is obvious when you realise that the alternative was most likely to place the show on Friday nights without adequate support.

All in all, while no one would mistake The CW's fall line-up with that of CBS or even NBC, I'm inclined to think that it shows at least a bit of an understanding of the market they're trying to reach. There's nothing in the shows that's surprising or stands out glaringly, but the shows that The CW is putting on the air at least betrays an understanding of the audience they're hoping to reach, which is way more than can be said for some (well one) networks.

CBS’s 2009 Upfronts

(I'm slowly getting through the upfront stuff, a lot slower than I had anticipated and normally do it, but the past few day's I've been dealing with a series of all-day nasty headaches. I'm not nice when I have this sort of headache – I usually .)just want to sleep.

Here's what CBS is planning for the coming season.

Cancelled: The Ex-List, Without a Trace, The Unit, Harper's Island, Eleventh Hour, Worst Week, Game Show In My Head.

Renewed: The Amazing Race, Survivor, Two and a Half Men, Ghost Whisperer, Criminal Minds, CSI, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, NCIS, Numb3rs, Gary Unmarried, New Adventures of Old Christine.

Moved: The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, The Mentalist, Cold Case.

New Shows: Accidentally On Purpose, The Good Wife, NCIS: Los Angeles, Three Rivers, The Medium (picked up from NBC).

Not Yet Scheduled: Rules of Engagement, Flashpoint, Arranged Marriage, The Bridge, Miami Trauma, Undercover Boss.

Complete Schedule

Monday
8:00-8:30 p.m. How I Met Your Mother
8:30-9:00 p.m. ACCIDENTALLY ON PURPOSE
9:00-9:30 p.m. Two and a Half Men
9:30-10:00 p.m. The Big Bang Theory
10:00-11:00 p.m. CSI: Miami

Tuesday
8:00-9:00 p.m. NCIS
9:00-10:00 p.m. NCIS: LOS ANGELES
10:00-11:00 p.m. THE GOOD WIFE

Wednesday
8:00-8:30 p.m. New Adventures of Old Christine
8:30-9:00 p.m. Gary Unmarried
9:00-10:00 p.m. Criminal Minds
10:00-11:00 p.m. CSI: NY

Thursday
8:00-9:00 p.m. Survivor
9:00-10:00 p.m. CSI
10:00-11:00 p.m. The Mentalist

Friday
8:00-9:00 p.m. Ghost Whisperer
9:00-10:00 p.m. MEDIUM
10:00-11:00 p.m. Numb3rs

Sunday
7:00-8:00 p.m. 60 Minutes
8:00-9:00 p.m. The Amazing Race
9:00-10:00 p.m. THREE RIVERS
10:00-11:00 p.m. Cold Case

Accidentally On Purpose is the story of Billie (Jenna Elrman), a newspaper film critic who finds herself pregnant after a one night stand. She decides to keep the baby and the "boy toy" who is the father (Jon Foster). They decide to live together platonically but Billie isn't sure whether she's got a boyfriend, a roommate or a second child to raise, particularly when his freeloading friends come around. Also stars David Show, Ashley Jensen, Lennon Parham and Nicolas Wright.

The Good Wife stars Julianna Margullies as a woman whose life collapses when her politician husband (Chris Noth) is jailed amidst stories of sexual improprieties and political corruption. She returns to her own career as a lawyer at a prestigious Chicago firm, but its been thirteen years since she's been in a courtroom. She finds herself in competition with people half her age for the one associate position with the firm. She does all of this to provide a stable home for her two teen age children. Also stars Christine Baranski, Josh Charles, Matt Czuchry, and Archie Panjabi. Producers are Tony and Ridley Scott.

NCIS: Los Angeles is a spin-off from the original NCIS focussing on NCIS's Office of Special Projects, a branch of NCIS that is involved in undercover surveillance. Stars Chris O'Donell, LL Cool J, and Louise Lombard.

Three Rivers looks at the organ donation process from the perspective of the three groups concerned – the families of the organ donors, the transplant doctors, and the transplant recipients. The only permanent cast members are of course the members of the transplant team at one of the most prestigious transplant hospitals in the country. Cast includes Alex O'Loughlin, Katherine Moennig, Daniel Henney, Julia Ormond, and Christopher J. Hanke.

Arranged Marriage is a reality show that looks at three adults who decide for a variety of reason to allow friends and family to arrange marriages for them. The show follows them from the first meeting with the partners who have been selected for them and through the marriage to the day to day problems of married life.

The Bridge is a Canadian made show from CTV, which also created Flashpoint. Aaron Douglas (from Battlestar Galactica) stars as Frank Leo, the new head of the police union. His work as a cop forces him to bridge the gap between rich and poor in the area they patrol, while his position as union head forces him to bridge the gap between the cops on the streets and the department brass, many of whom have their own political agendas. Also stars Paul Popowich, Frank Cassini, Michael Murphy and Ona Grauer.

Miami Trauma moves Jerry Bruckheimer away from the world of forensics and police procedurals. In Miami Trauma, Bruckheimer goes into the world of emergency medicine with a team of surgeons of varying degrees of experience and different personalities but who excel at the so-called "golden hour" when a trauma patient's life hangs in the balance. Stars Jeremy Northam, Lana Parrilla, Elisabeth Harnois and Omar Gooding.

Undercover Boss is another reality series, and like Shark Tank is
another series taken from a foreign original, this time British. In this series high level corporate executives take low level positions in their own companies to get a real sense of problems that their companies face and how their workers are actually being treated. There's no indication of how long the American executives will stay as low level employees; in the British version of the show they had to spend ten days in their temporary positions.

Comments:

CBS has made several interesting moves in their schedule that I'm not entirely sure of. Moving The Mentalist to Thursday night following CSI from Tuesday following NCIS is both a testament to the show's break-out performance in the past season and a bit of a puzzle in that they're putting a lot of eggs in one basket. My guess is that with Leno taking over the third hour for NBC, CBS is aiming for a show that can deliver a knockout punch against ABC's Private Practice. Bringing Medium over from NBC is another move that some are finding controversial. I've seen Medium described as dying show based on its NBC ratings, and when CBS described NBC's failure to pick up the show as "indefensible" because it had higher ratings than some NBC shows that were renewed (including Chuck which was – rightly – the subject to so much effort to get it brought back) NBC countered by saying that the series was lower rated than some of the shows that CBS cancelled. One of those shows was Eleventh Hour which was a show that I loved but one where the cancellation wasn't a surprise, just frustrating. I have a suspicion that when the ratings for the full year come out Eleventh Hour – which frequently finished 13^th in overall viewers – will probably be the highest rated show cancelled this season (yes, above Without A Trace). And yet anyone who reads Marc Berman's Programming Insider forums knows that the "numbers heads" (as I call them) there were demanding that the show be cancelled practically from the time it debuted because it didn't do well in the 18-49 demographic – though it was improving – and had poor retention out of CSI. I'll mourn Eleventh Hour but I do see the merits of putting Medium on the network and putting it on Friday night when the 18-49 demographic is arguably less important than it is on other nights.

Looking at the new shows I think there isn't much that really stand out. I'm not entirely sure that moving Big Bang Theory out of the first half hour of prime time and moving How I Met Your Mother will necessarily help Accidentally On Purpose. This show is going to rise and fall on how much people like and accept Jenna Elfman in this role, because the show doesn't seem overly original. The description of the show reminds me a lot of the Katherine Heigl-Seth Rogen movie Knocked Up and the clip that I've seen doesn't disabuse me of that notion.

Turning to the dramas, my one concern with NCIS: Los Angeles is that they've decided to use it to follow the original NCIS. The problem is of course that looking at the CBS schedule I can't think of anywhere else to put the show except maybe following The Amazing Race. Does it really fit to have a show that is going to deal with global terrorism follow a show that deals with global travel? Three Rivers, with its dramatic emphasis on saving lives probably works better. Finally there is The Good Wife. I'm pretty much convinced that if NBC had continued to program the third hour of prime time rather than turn it over to Jay Leno, CBS would have retained Without A Trace. As it stands the new Julianna Margulies series will be facing up against a relatively routine procedural (The Forgotten).

CBS looks set to be the dominant network – at least in terms of total audience numbers if not in the 18-49 demographic (let alone the 18-34 demographic which is becoming more important for some advertisers) – this year. The network has admirable "bench-strength" and could arguably have retained all of their 2008-09 line-up, replacing only The Ex-List and Worst Week. That said, there's nothing particularly bad about the new line-up either. The problem is that while there's nothing particularly bad about it I really can't say that there's anything particularly outstanding about it either. It's a nice safe, unchallenging line-up. It's going to work, and I'm betting that few of these shows are going to be cancelled before the end of the season. I just don't think that it's a line-up that will set the world on fire either.

ABC’s 2009 Upfronts

Here's what ABC is planning for the coming season. ABC has a lot of shows that are not – as yet - scheduled

Cancelled: Dirty Sexy Money, Eli Stone, Pushing Daisies, Boston Legal, Life On Mars, Opportunity Knocks, In the Motherhood, The Unusuals, Cupid, According to Jim, Samantha Who?, Homeland Security USA.

Renewed: Saturday Night College Football, Brothers & Sisters, Dancing with the Stars, Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice, Castle, Supernanny, America's Funniest Home Videos, Extreme Makeover Home Edition, 20/20.

Moved: Ugly Betty.

New Shows: Modern Family, Hank, Cougar Town, Eastwick, Flash Forward, The Forgotten, The Middle, Shark Tank, V, Copper, Happy Town, The Deep End.

Not Yet Scheduled: The Bachelor, Wife Swap, Lost, Better Off Ted, Scrubs, True Beauty.

Complete Schedule (Changes in January as noted) Times are Eastern, adjust accordingly.

Monday
8:00-9:00 p.m. Dancing with the Stars
10:00-11:00 p.m. Castle

Tuesday
8:00-9:00 p.m. SHARK TANK
9:00-10:00 p.m. Dancing with the Stars Results
10:00-11:00 p.m. THE FORGOTTEN

Wednesday
8:00-8:30 p.m. HANK
8:30-9:00 p.m. THE MIDDLE
9:00-9:30 p.m. MODERN FAMILY
9:30-10:00 p.m. COUGAR TOWN
10:00-11:00 p.m. EASTWICK

Thursday
8:00-9:00 p.m. FLASH FORWARD
9:00-10:00 p.m. Grey's Anatomy
10:00-11:00 p.m. Private Practice

Friday
8:00-9:00 p.m. Supernanny
9:00-10:00 p.m. Ugly Betty
10:00-11:00 p.m. 20/20

Saturday
8:00-10:00 p.m. Saturday Night College Football

Sunday
7:00-8:00 p.m. America's Funniest Home Videos
8:00-9:00 p.m. Extreme Makeover Home Edition
9:00-10:00 p.m. Desperate Housewives
10:00-11:00 p.m. Brothers & Sisters

Shark Tank is a reality show in which entrepreneurs bring their ideas to potential investors who critique their presentation and offer to invest in the ones they find most promising. The show is based on a Japanese show called The Dragon's Den which is currently produced in thirteen countries, including Canada, Russia, Nigeria and Afghanistan. The American investors include Robert Herjavec, Kevin O'Leary, Barbara Corcoran, Kevin Harrington, and Daymond John.

The Forgotten is a Jerry Bruckheimer series about a group of dedicated amateur sleuths who attempt to solve cases involving unknown victims. Stars Rupert Penry-Jones, Reiko Aylesworth, Michelle Borth, Bob Stephenson, Anthony Carrigan and Rochelle Aytes.

Hank is a comedy starring Kelsey Grammer as a titan of industry who suddenly finds himself unemployed, almost broke and forced to spend time with his wife (Melinda McGraw) and kids. But he believes that he on the road back to greatness.

The Middle stars Patricia Heaton in a comedy about a middle class family just trying to keep their heads above water.

Modern Family is described by ABC this way: "Today's American families come in all shapes and sizes. Shot from the perspective of an unseen documentary filmmaker, this comedy takes a modern look at the complications that come with being a family in 2009." Stars Ed O'Neil, Sofa Vergara, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Eric Stonestreet, Ty Burrell, Julie Bowen, Sarah Hyland, Rico Rodriguez, Nolan Gould, and Ariel Winter.

Cougar Town marks Courtney Cox's return to network TV. She plays a 40-something recently divorced woman forced to face the truths about dating and aging.

Eastwick is a series adaptation of the 1987 movie. Three women are drawn together by a mysterious man who unleashes unsuspected powers in them. Cast includes Rebecca Romijn, Lindsay Price, Jamie Ray Newman and Canadian Paul Gross.

Flash Forward is a science fiction series in which a mysterious event causes everyone in the world to black out for two minutes and experience a glimpse of their lives in the near future – if they're still alive then. Stars Joseph Fiennes, John Cho, Jack Davenport, Sonya Walger, and Courtney B. Vance, and produced by David S Goyer and Brannon Braga.

V is a remake of the 1980's mini-series about Earth's first encounter with an alien race – a race which wants to have us for dinner. Stars Elizabeth Mitchell, Morris Chestnut, Joel Gretsch, Lourdes Benedicto and Moreno Baccarin as the alien leader named Anna in this version.

The Deep End deals with four young lawyers who are accepted as associates in one of the most prestigious law firms in Los Angeles and find they must work together to survive even as they are forced to compete as they find themselves in the middle of a power struggle between the firm's founder and the senior partner. Stars include Clancy Brown, Billy Zane, Leah Pipes, Tina Marjorino, and Ben Lawson.

Copper is a Canadian made series from Canwest dealing with five rookie cops plunged into the world of big city policing. No cast has yet been announced.

Happy Town is about Haplin, Minnesota. When the first serious crime in seven years takes place it starts to reveal the dark secrets of the town. Cast includes Amy Acker, Dean Winters Jay Paulson, Robert Wisdom and Sam Neill.

Comments:

I'm really getting behind when it comes to getting these upfront articles out. Stuff keeps interfering.

Maybe the biggest move the biggest move that ABC has made for the coming season is the decision to move Ugly Betty to Friday nights. Conventional wisdom suggests that this is a vote of non-confidence from the network, and that may be right, however there seems to be a renewed effort on the part of NBC, ABCm FOX and The CW to program scripted material onto the night. Why should CBS - which has consistently been successful on Fridays - have the night all to itself?

ABC has been in bad shape and I have to say that this line-up doesn't help them out that much. They seem to be making a big push with their Wednesday sitcoms but the question I have to ask is how many of them will stick. There's some great talent there – Grammer, Heaton, Cox, O'Neill –but whether they'll be able to create a niche for themselves is another question. The competition, much of it from established shows, looks to be formidable.

Give my normal antipathy to sitcoms I'm more interested in the hour-long dramas. Mainly I want to focus on the shows that will be starting September. If I were to single out one as being the most interesting for me, I would probably say Flash Forward just because the concept is just so mysterious in a way that reminds me of what Lost has become. That said, I really don't understand the decision to put it into this time slot. True, Thursday is a showcase time slot, but there really doesn't seem to be the proper "fit" between this show and the Grey's Anatomy-Private Practice combo. Something like Eastwick or The Forgotten would seem, on the surface at least, to be a better fit for the night. The Forgotten seems like the most conventional of the three hour-long dramas debuting in September. I hate to say it, but it seems to be a typical Jerry Bruckheimer series. There's nothing wrong with that – I like a lot of Bruckheimer's shows, including the sadly cancelled Eleventh Hour – but it doesn't look like it breaks new ground and frankly I've come to expect "groundbreaking" material from ABC. While I doubt that I fit into the target demographic of Eastwick, I will probably watch at least a few episodes purely because of the presence of Paul Gross.

Looking at the mid-season shows, there is some interesting material there. We've seen V before of course, but the question any time you do a remake is whether you can bring out some element that makes it stand out from the original series. Battlestar Galactica had it; Bionic Woman didn't and Knight Rider was even worse than the original. From the description The Deep End remind me a bit of LA Law. The question for me is how much the conflict and in-fighting between the firm's senior partners will play into the series. Perhaps the most interesting of the mid-season shows is Happy Town in part because the network promotions are linking it to Twin Peaks. While I don't expect it to be a "new" Twin Peaks I wouldn't be surprised if it has some of the mysterious vibe that the older show had. The one show that holds no interest for me is Copper. The description seems very derivative of the old series The Rookies. Of course I am somewhat prejudiced because I have a poor opinion of many of the shows that Canwest-Global has produced in Canada.

Shark Tank as a formula that has had extensive success worldwide. While I think the concept should work in the US market even in this economy (or maybe especially in this economy), I'm not fully convinced the show will work during the main Fall-Winter season particularly when it is up against NCIS, Biggest Loser or even So You Think You Can Dance.

NBC’s 2009 Schedule – Part II

Here's NBC's final schedule for the coming season. The Olympics mean that, like FOX NBC will have an extensive mid-season shake-up, marked with an "O". Since all of NBC's new series were announced previously I won't be giving an overview of those shows. You can find my descriptions in an earlier post. (I'm really late getting this and the ABC announcements done thanks to what turned out to be an ill-advised visit to the casino Tuesday afternoon.)

Cancelled: Lipstick Jungle, America's Toughest Jobs, Chopping Block, Crusoe, ER, Momma's Boys, My Own Worst Enemy, Kath & Kim, Kings, Knight Rider, Deal Or No Deal, Medium, My Name is Earl, Superstars of Dance, Howie Do It.

Renewed: The Biggest Loser, Celebrity Apprentice, Dateline NBC.

Moved:
Chuck, Law & Order: SVU, Law & Order, Parks and Recreation, Southland, 30 Rock, The Office, Heroes,

New Shows:
The Marriage Ref, Breakthrough with Tony Robbins, The Jay Leno Show, Who Do You Think You Are?, Weekend Update, Community, 100 Questions, Parenthood, Trauma, Mercy, Day One

Scheduled for summer: Friday Night Lights,

Complete Schedule (Changes after the Olympics as noted) Times are Eastern, adjust accordingly.

Monday
8:00-9:00 p.m. Heroes, Chuck (O)
9:00-10:00 p.m. TRAUMA, DAY ONE (O)
10:00-11:00 p.m. THE JAY LENO SHOW

Tuesday
8:00-10:00 p.m. The Biggest Loser
8:00-9:30 p.m. The Biggest Loser (O)
9:30-10:00 p.m. 100 QUESTIONS (O)
10:00-11:00 p.m. THE JAY LENO SHOW

Wednesday
8:00-9:00 p.m. PARENTHOOD, MERCY (O)
9:00-10:00 p.m. Law & Order: SVU
10:00-11:00 p.m. THE JAY LENO SHOW

Thursday
8:00-8:30 p.m. Weekend Update (short run), COMMUNITY
8:30-9:00 p.m. Parks and Recreation
9:00-9:30 p.m. The Office
9:30-10:00 p.m. COMMUNITY (short run), 30 Rockv
10:00-11:00 p.m. THE JAY LENO SHOW

Friday
8:00-9:00 p.m. Law & Order
9:00-10:00 p.m. Southland
10:00-11:00 p.m. THE JAY LENO SHOW

Sunday
7:00-8:20 p.m. Football Night In America
8:20-10:00 p.m. Sunday Night Football

After Football
97:00-8:00 p.m. Dateline NBC
8:00-9:00 p.m. THE MARRIAGE REF
9:00-11:00 p.m. Celebrity Apprentice

Comments:

NBC is engaged in a rather risky strategy in more than one area. Obviously the decision to offer the Jay Leno Show on week nights is a big risk. Not only does the network run the risk of not being competitive in the timeslot but they also restrict their programming options. There are shows in the NBC line-up that would probably benefit from being aired in the third hour of primetime, notably Southland.

A second potential trap that the network faces is the decision to start a large number of their shows after the Olympics. While it approximates the European model of broadcasting – limited runs of series – history has shown that American audiences don't react well to shows that debut at mid-season. They also don't like long breaks between new episodes of a show. One proof of this was the ratings of the ABC series that weren't brought back after the 2008 Writers Strike but which were renewed for the 2008-09 season. Pushing Daisies, Eli Stone and Dirty Sexy Money all suffered massive drops in ratings after the strike. It's one thing to put shows on after Sunday Night Football ends its season – although it's worth noting that what they're replacing Football with is cheap to make reality shows – but it's an entirely different thing to use a vaguely artificial break to start new, continuing, scripted shows. One interesting thing though is the choice to scale Biggest Loser back to 90 minutes after the Olympics. Just my opinion but I think it could, and probably should have been done for both cycles of the show.

Medium has been cancelled by NBC, but has been picked up by CBS, the company that produces it. There appears to be a war of words developing over the issue, but the key point is that NBC only wanted 13 episodes, CBS wanted to do 16, and star Patricia Arquette's contract calls for 22 episodes.

Just for the record, after the debacle that was this past season of Celebrity Apprentice in which the person who raised the most money, was the more successful project manager and was the most efficient player, lost to as nasty creature who quit the show at one point, accused all "pokah playahs" of being in the mob and whose great contribution to one of her challenges was "cluck cluck cluck SPLASH" I won't be watching Donald Trump's show again.

FOX’s 2009 Upfronts

Here's what FOX is planning for the coming season. As usual with FOX there are some planned changes coming in January, although it should be noted that this year's schedule seems to be more stable for the full year than in previous years. The planned changes are marked with a (J).

Cancelled: Prison Break, King of the Hill, Do Not Disturb, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Hole In The Wall, Osbornes Reloaded, Secret Millionaire, Sit Down, Shut Up

Renewed: 24, American Dad, American Idol, Family Guy, The Simpsons, Fringe, Dollhouse, So You Think You Can Dance, Bones, House

Moved:
Lie to Me, Fringe, 'Til Death

New Shows:
Brothers, The Cleveland Show, Human Target, Past Life, Sons Of Tuscon, Glee

Not Yet Scheduled: Kitchen Nightmares, Hell's Kitchen, Someone's Gotta Go

Complete Schedule (Changes in January as noted) Times are Eastern, adjust accordingly.

Monday
8:00-9:00 p.m. House
9:00-10:00 p.m. Lie To Me, 24 (J)

Tuesday
8:00-10:00 p.m. So You Think You Can Dance
8:00-9:00 p.m. American Idol (J)
9:00-10:00 p.m. PAST LIFE (J)

Wednesday
8:00-9:00 p.m. So You Think You Can Dance Results, American Idol Results (J)
9:00-10:00 p.m. GLEE, HUMAN TARGET (J), GLEE (in the spring)

Thursday
8:00-9:00 p.m. Bones
9:00-10:00 p.m. Fringe

Friday
8:00-8:30 p.m. BROTHERS
8:30-9:00 p.m. 'Til Death
9:00-10:00 p.m. Dollhouse

Saturday
8:00-8:30 p.m. Cops
8:30-9:00 p.m. Cops
9:00-10:00 p.m. America's Most Wanted: America Fights Back
11:00-12:00 p.m. THE WANDA SYKES SHOW

Sunday
7:00-8:00 p.m. The OT (NFL post-game)
7:00-7:30 p.m. Animation Domination Encores (J)
7:30-8:00 p.m. American Dad (J)
8:00-8:30 p.m. The Simpsons
8:30-9:00 p.m. THE CLEVELAND SHOW, SONS OF TUSCON (J)
9:00-9:30 p.m. Family Guy
9:30-10:00 p.m. American Dad, THE CLEVELAND SHOW (J)

Glee is described as "an uplifting comedy musical series with biting humor that features a soundtrack of hit music from past to present." The McKinley High School Glee club used to be at the top of the world of school choirs, but over the years it has become a haven for geeks and outcasts. New teacher Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison) actually volunteers to take on the task of restoring the Glee Club to the top ranks but to do it he has to recruit the only two real talents in the school, the perfectionist Rachel, and the high school quarterback Finn, Will is going to face opposition from his tough as nails wife, and the schools cheerleading coach, but he has a secret past that drives him to succeed. Stars Dianna Agron, Chris Colfert, Jessalyn Gilsig, Jane Lynch, Jayma Mays, Kevin McHale, Lea Michele, Cory Monteith, Matthew Morrison, Amber Riley, Mark Salling and Jenna Ushkowitz. Please note: The show will have a special preview on Tuesday March 18^th following American Idol.

Brothers is a comedy about Mike, a former NFL player (Michael Strahan in a true acting stretch) who is forced to move back home to help run his brother's restaurant because his mother (CCH Pounder) orders him to – she knows that his manager his business manager has taken off with all of his money. Mike's brother "Chill" (Darryl "Chill" Mitchell – they're really reaching for these names aren't they) was an NFL prospect until a car accident left him a paraplegic. That hasn't changed the brother's relationship – they've always bickered. Rounding out the family is the father "Coach" (Carl Weathers) the conservative local football coach who runs the family – he thinks.

The Cleveland Show takes the character of Cleveland Brown from The Family Guy and has him move back to his old home town of Stoolbend, Virginia with his teenage son to start a new life with his high school sweetheart and her family. This series was announced last year to debut in January, but then was held back to this year (and has already been renewed for a second season). Produced by Seth MacFarland, so you know the Parents Television Council will love it (note: the needle on the sarcasm meter has bent after that statement).

Past Life is about a pair of investigators with an unusual specialty; they look at how past life (as in reincarnation) issues influence current life problems. Kelli Gadish plays Dr. Kate McGuinn, a psychologist who – after undergoing past-life regression in her 20s – is a firm believer in reincarnation who uses regression therapy to help solve the mysteries that her clients face in their current lives. She is partnered with Price Whatley (Nicholas Bishop) a former NYPD homicide detective who (naturally) thinks she's at the very least on the fringes of science. He's a "damaged soul" who battles grief and guilt over the death of his wife. Rounding out the regular cast are Ravi Patel as Dr. Rishi Karna, "a baby-faced therapist from Calcutta who loves bad American TV, Cuban jazz and driving everyone crazy," and Richard Schiff as Kate's boss and mentor Dr. Malachi Talmage, a recognised figure in the field of cognitive research. Written by David Hudgins who was co-executive producer on Friday Night Lights – both the movie and the TV series.

Human Target is based on the DC Comics character of the same name. Mark Valley (Fringe) plays Christopher Chance, a security expert who specializes in imminent and deadly threats that can't be handled with "normal" means. He integrates himself into his client's lives and "become" the target. Each mission also helps to unravel Chance's own dark history. Working with Chance are his business partner Winston (Chi McBride) and hired gun Guerrero (Oscar nominee Jackie Earle Haley).

Sons Of Tuscon when their father goes to prison what are three kids – ranging in age from 13 to 8 – to do to stay together? Why hire a "charming wayward schemer" as a stand in of course. The Gunderson brothers are 8 year-old Robbie (Davis Cleveland), who doesn't respond well to authority, 13 year-old Brandon (Troy Gentile) a gentle free-spirit who goes along for the ride, and 11 year-old Gary (Frank Dolce) the brains of the operation and as big a con-man as their father. Their "replacement" father, Ron Snuffkin (Tyler Labine) is going to have to be on his toes to match wits with these kids.

Comments:
What can I say about this line-up? At first blush I'm not overly impressed. Right now I think that Monday and Thursday are FOX's best nights. The combination of House and Lie To Me seems to have a natural flow to it. I'm just not convinced that they shouldn't spread the wealth around a bit. Thursday's combination of Bones and Fringe also works although I'm not absolutely convinced that Fringe will be strong enough against Gray's Anatomy, and CSI (presumably, though there are some rumours that CBS might move The Mentalist to the 9 p.m. Thursday slot). For Tuesday, I'm not a So You Think You Can Dance fan but it seems reasonably solid placeholder for American Idol. I just wonder if having a summer cycle followed immediately by a fall cycle of the show will really work.

The Sunday shows are where I start having a few problems. I'm sure the PTC will love Seth McFarlane's The Cleveland Show about as much as they're going to love the decision to move his American Dad to the 7:30-8:00 time slot. Love of course being expressed by outraged robo-letters to advertisers, networks and the FCC, not to mention railing against anyone who has even a halfway sympathetic critique of the show. Where I really have a problem is with Sons Of Tuscon. The concept seems just plain stupid – although probably not as bad as a previous Sunday show, The War At Home and they don't seem to be expressing much faith in it by sticking it between The Simpsons and Family Guy as if it needs all the help it can get – though it probably does.

Things start getting rockier on Wednesday night. Depending on how good it is – we'll see that sooner than with any of the other shows – it should work really well coming out of either the So You Think You Can Dance or American Idol results shows. So why interrupt the show's run to insert The Human Target? At the same time, why treat The Human Target like this given that it seems like the one new show on the FOX line-up that is close to being conventional (or is that just me being a DC fanboy). Even Past Life – which sounds like Booth and Bones crossed with Medium looks to be getting better treatment from the network.

Ah, but its Friday night where FOX seems determined to create a disaster. Dollhouse (which I have on my PVR, as yet unwatched) get's renewed but has as its lead-in a series that the network knows doesn't work ('Til Death) and a second one built around an ex-football player with no known acting experience. While I can't say that Dollhouse appeals
to everyone this seems like far worse programming than just about anything they else could have done.

In summation, on the whole nothing here – at least based on the descriptions – excites me as much as Fringe did last year. Human Target interests my inner fanboy (I remember The Human Target from when it was the back-up strip in The Brave And The Bold) but I have a bad memory of the dismal Rick Springfield version. Past Life doesn't do anything for me; I'm a very science-oriented reincarnation doubting sort of guy for whom this sort of show holds absolutely no attraction. They're going ot have to make this really involving to get me to watch, and I'm speaking as someone who really likes most of what Richard Schiff does. Inevitably the two new comedies do nothing for me but then most comedies don't. Glee just doesn't sound like something that would hold any attraction for me. In other words FOX has put together a season that doesn't do too much for me.

The 2009 Upfronts

And so it begins.

The past couple of weeks of observing network moves is difficult to explain in a way that can be understood by the mass of people who just see what has been renewed and cancelled on the computer or in their local newspaper (support your local newspaper even if it is a crappy one!). For people, especially amateurs like me who try to get dialled in to what the networks are doing, who follow such things the period leading up to the network upfronts can best be described by a Canadian who has some knowledge of hockey. There's an even in hockey called the "Trade Deadline." Trades between teams have to be made before the deadline or the players can't play for their new teams in the playoffs. The days leading up to the deadline are filled with rumours of trades, and the sports networks here go to the effort of having special broadcasting teams available to break into programming with "breaking trade news," not to mention recaps at the end of the day, which sometimes run for hours depending on how interesting the trades that are consummated are. That's what the past week or two has been like for the person who follows TV as a hobby. There have been rumours, analysis, semi-official statements, more analysis, official renewals and cancellations, still more analysis, and of course analysis of the analysis. And now the big day – week rather – is here; the trade deadline, Christmas, the last week of the baseball schedule, however you want to describe it. And the funny thing is that, as much as we who watch such things want to inflate the importance of the Upfront announcements, the fact is that what the networks announce this week has the permanence of something written not in stone but in beach sand – and beach sand at low tide at that. We invest these Upfront announcements with an importance, but even before a single show of the schedules announced this week airs the five network schedule that comes out of this week will be massaged, tweaked, modified and mangled so that those of us who invest this process with some sort of importance will be unable to reconcile what actually goes on the air with what the networks have told us would happen. How many times has FOX told us that Bones would move to Fridays at the mid-season point? At least two and possibly three times. How many times has it actually moved there? None. As a wise man once said, "no battle plan survives the first shot." In TV one is probably justified in saying that no schedule survives to fire the first shot.

TV Guide Fall Preview 1973 – The Comments

I've been light as far as posting goes over the past couple of weeks. Chasing the dream I suppose you'd call it; the dream being winning a seat at the World Series of Poker without it costing me anything. Full Tilt has a Sit 'n' Go thing set up where, if you can be successful in three tournaments you can win a seat at the big event. I've come close in the first step but haven't quite made it to the second stage yet. Hope springs eternal, but it does tend to cut down on writing time.

Todd Mason:
I remember most of these, as I'd give most things a try in these days.

Did you get to see much of the PBS programming in those days? I don't know how well the magazine previewed them as early as 1973 (I probably began buying the preview issues a couple of years later), and oddly enough this office of the legatees of the magazine doesn't have the back issues at hand. ((Remarkable, I know.))).

Me: No I didn't. You have to understand, I am one of those "rare" Canadians who doesn't live within a hundred miles of the US border (I'm not absolutely sure but I think that something like 80-90% of Canadians live within a hundred miles of the border, or at least that was the case in the 1970s). Worse, in those days we didn't have cable until later in the 1970s. Even when cable finally did arrive here we didn't get PBS (or ABC for that matter) for a couple of years after that. (Remind me someday to tell you of the days when we got TV out of Williston North Dakota – there were things they did that would make you want to bang your head in frustration, but that's a story for another time.) That said, some of the shows that were shown on PBS – I'm thinking almost entirely of the British series that aired mainly as part of Masterpiece Theatre – did make it to my part of Canada. I vividly recall seeing the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries with Ian Carmichael, and Upstairs Downstairs, both on CBC (of course). But really my exposure to PBS programming was seriously restricted.

Speaking of the CBC, I forgot to mention that in the 1973-74 season the network unveiled one of its greatest miniseries, The National Dream. The saga of the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway the show was one part history, narrated by the authror Pierre Berton, and one part drama, eaturing some of the leading names in Canadian theatre of the day, including John Collicos as William Cornelius Van Horne and William Hutt as Sir John A MacDonald. It was also the season that the private network CTV introduced The Starlost, which was a hugely expensive series at the time and was supposed to make CTV a big player in the international market. They tried, but from what I can recall of the show (which amazingly to me is out on DVD) tended to drag more than a little, with less than exciting plots and less than stellar acting from the leads.

Todd: Amusingly, the Hartford ABC station, one of the two local ABC affiliates for Northeastern Connecticut, chose to pre-empt HAPPY DAYS for the 1975-76 season, so as to gamble on a 7:30-8:30p run on Tuesdays for this new syndie thing, SPACE: 1999. You can imagine how quickly into that season this decision was reversed, as HD managed to climb the charts even w/o the help of Hartford (unless Sunday 6p displacement ratings were added to its total).

Me: In its defence, Space 1999 was supposed to be the "next big thing" and had both an interesting premise and a strong cast (in the first season Martin Landau, Barbara Bain and Barry Morse). The problem with the show was that while the plots were action filled the scripting and continuity, probably less so (reportedly when Barry Morse left after the first season in a salary dispute he also said "I would rather play with grown-ups for a while."). For what it's worth though, the second season of Happy Days hadn't had the success of the first season. The 1974-75 season was the one season between 1973 and 1983 when the show was out of the top 30 in the ratings, thanks to an aggressive counter-programming campaign by Fred Silverman, who moved Good Times opposite Happy Days. So a station's programming director might be excused for thinking that the trend would continue and wanting to get hold of the "latest hot show."

Mike Doran:
Reporting in from Lost TV Central: (a) Missing replacement shows: The ABC show from Thursday was Chopper One, about two cops in a 'copter; it lasted about as long as it took me to type this sentence. NBC Follies gave way to Music Country, Dean Martin's summer replacement from the year before. (b) I've listened to the CBS promo twice now, and I'm about 86% sure that the voice is Ernie Anderson. He doesn't flex it as much as he did later when he became the voice of ABC, but the low tones are pretty distinctive. If I have the timeline right, Anderson made the move to ABC at about the same time that Fred Silverman became that net's programming boss. Coincidence? Probably... still, you never know. More to follow, when (if) I can think of it...

Me: Chopper One was yet another series from Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg. After all they were just coming off The Mod Squad (which ended the year before), and had started The Rookies the year before. In a couple of years they'd have SWAT. Hard to remember that the guy who gave us Dynasty, Fantasy Island and Beverly Hills 90210, not to mention Seventh Heaven also gave us shows like this.

I've listened to samples of Anderson's pre-ABC work and in honesty I'm inclined to believe that it wasn't him in the CBS promo show. Maybe it's my ear but I just don't hear the similarity.

"Toby" O'Brien:
That fall was a big transition for me - first semester in college - so I didn't get to see much TV. Most of these shows I only know from the TVG preview. (And I can still see some of their pages in my mind!)

The one show I did want to see was 'Diana'; I'll have to check the Paley Center to see if they have an episode....

Me: I don't really recall much about Diana itself, although as a typical North American teenager of the period I had the hots for Ms. Rigg thanks to Mrs. Peel. I do recall feeling disappointed and I think the reason is that this was just not a good property for her, I suppose because it was really rather pedestrian. One thing I do recall (my memory is screwy in this way) is that Diana's female co-star on the show (Carol Androsky if I'm not mistaken – okay I had to look it up) being outraged when Diana Rigg got married. Apparently it was some sort of breach with her personal "liberated women's code" or something. Anyway, there are at least three clips from the show available on YouTube, including one featuring Patrick MacNee's appearance on the show ("full time lovers and part time spying partners"). Only this short one appears to be embeddable.

But I did make sure to catch the Mystery Movie wheel; I was a big fan of those.

Me: So was I. Hard to believe that things were going to collapse in a couple of years.

BTW, the ABC affiliate in Ct. is in New Haven; trivial, I know.

Oh - and your mention of 'Toma' inspired me to run David Toma as today's "As Seen On TV" showcase.

Me: Which would have been a lot more immediate if I'd gotten this out when I should have!

So here are a couple of opening sequences. First up we have the intro and theme from a second season episode of Kojak

Next up we have a montage of the two different opening sequences from the Bill Bixby series The Magician. Remember, this series changed its entire premise halfway through its only season. In the first half of the season the character was a globe-trotting magician who lived out of his personal airplane. In the second he was essentially living at The Magic Castle. I think I like the graphics and the use of black and white in the montage sequence in the first version.

This coming week is the Network Upfronts, so I probably won't be posting a new Fall Preview article next weekend.

Mothers Day 2009 – Pregnant On TV And In Real-Life

Actresses are the most inconvenient people, at least as far as writers, directors and producers are concerned. They keep insisting on having sex and making babies, even when the characters they are playing are supposed to be single, uninvolved and yes, even downright virginal. This season we've had Sarah Shahi on Life, Alyson Hannigan and Cobie Smulders on How I Met Your Mother, and Anna Belknap on CSI: New York all being visibly pregnant, and that's probably an abbreviated list. Reportedly Eva Longoria, who is married to Tony Parker is contractually obligated to not get pregnant while the show is on the air

There are lots of reasons for not showing the pregnancy. As I mentioned the character might be single and uninvolved, and their virginity (in the past) might have been key to the show. Barbara Eden was pregnant with her only child during the first season of I Dream Of Jeannie but it was patently obvious that Jeannie was not that sort of girl, even if network standards and practices would have allowed it, which in the 1960swas a non-starter. Alternately the character may be happily married and the husband and wife might even have talked about having a baby, but the writer "knows" that the show just doesn't need another kid. Sometimes the actress doesn't want the publicity of having a kid on the show and in real-life. (Wait, an actress who doesn't want publicity? Isn't that like a soprano with only a slightly inflated ego?) What's a writer (or a director, or a producer) to do? Well, in most cases they hide the pregnancy. The put the actress behind a "conveniently" placed desk, or have them constantly carrying bags. This works to varying degrees, and some producers have a lot of fun with it. My favourite was an episode of The Nanny during Lauren Lane's pregnancy where they did everything to let us know that she was pregnant except have her carry a sign – oh wait, they did that too. (On the other hand Rachel Chagall, who played Val on the show, was pregnant at least once during the run of the series and no one ever noticed.) Close to their delivery dates the characters may disappear from the screen – The Nanny sent Miss Babcock to the funny farm, while Jane Leeves character Daphne was sent off to a fat farm.

But then there are those shows and those actresses who that embrace pregnancy. There aren't as many but they're often quite interesting. And mind you this isn't a comprehensive list by any means, just ones that interest me.

Lucille Ball: She wasn't the first TV star whose real life pregnancy became part of the show – that would be Mary Kay Stearns, the female lead of what is today an obscure series called Mary Kay And Johnny that aired at various times on Dumont, CBS and NBC, who in 1948 had her pregnancy with her first child written into the show – but Lucy was the model that others tried to emulate or the example that they desperately wanted to avoid. Ironically executives from CBS and Philip Morris Tobacco, which sponsored the show, were vocally concerned about a pregnant Lucy appearing on TV. And After consulting extensively with several religious figures, the network and the sponsor agreed to show the pregnancy on the show, with two restrictions. The word pregnant couldn't be used, and Lucy couldn't be shown smoking while she "enceinte" (the word that was used in title of the episode in which she found out about her condition). The rest as they say is history. Lucy Ricardo gave birth to her son Ricky Jr. on the same night that Lucille Ball gave birth to her son Desi Jr. (by caesarean section).

Elizabeth Montgomery: Samantha Stevens had two kids, and her pregnancies coincided with Elizabeth's. While Lucy's pregnancy might as well have been a case of non-sexual conception – Like most TV married couples (even ones who wer married in real life) Desi and Lucy slept in twin beds, apparently as a sop to the Motion Picture Production Code – there should have been no mistaking how Samantha got into her condition. Samantha and Darren (either version) slept in the same bed (presumably often prodigious consumption of alcohol on the show played a part as well). And, no, Darren and Sam weren't the first TV couple for whom one of the essentials of procreation was obvious. That honour goes to Mary Kay and Johnny Stearns as well who, in 1948, slept in a bedroom with just one bed.

Tyne Daly: By the time that Tyne Daly got pregnant with her third daughter at age 39, it was not so much a matter of whether or not you could show a pregnant woman on TV as whether the actress wanted to be seen pregnant. In the case of Tyne Daly, the idea of integrating her pregnancy into the series probably wasn't a difficult one to make since she has been outspoken about "maintaining a natural appearance" in her TV work. What makes Daly's pregnancy interesting is that it was not only an early depiction of an older woman – who had health problems in the past – dealing with pregnancy but also a working woman, and one who was in a high stress and physical job. Early in the pregnancy Mary Beth Lacey puts herself on desk duty not because of problems with the pregnancy but because a case affected her significantly. Later she has to be put onto maternity leave (by her partner Christine Cagney, who is temporarily in charge of the squad), but that doesn't stop her from being involved in the job. And then after she gives birth to her daughter, she doesn't stay at home for an extended period of time. Instead she goes back to work as soon as she can, with her mother-in-law helping with the baby.

Nana Visitor: Here's a neat trick. How do you deal with the pregnancy of one of your two lead actresses when her character is essentially unattached on the show they've made a point of the fact. Well one way is to make the child a product of a one night stand, and indeed that is what was done on Without A Trace when Poppy Montgomery and her husband decided to have a baby – in fact the father of Sam's baby was played by Montgomery's real life husband. If you happen to be a science fiction series though, what you do is to use technobabble to explain the pregnant first officer. When Nana Visitor, who played Major Kira on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine became pregnant with then boyfriend (later husband and still later ex-husband) Alexander Siddig's child the producers decided that it would in fact be Keiko O'Brien who would be pregnant, but only briefly. A convenient accident on board a runabout would force Dr. Bashir to transport the O'Brien fetus into the only available womb – Major Kira's. Unfortunately, Kira's alien physiology meant that the fetus couldn't be transported back, so Kira had to carry the baby to term as a not entirely willing surrorgate.

Lisa Kudrow: Lisa Kudrow's pregnancy was written into Friends as a more conventional form of surrogacy. Because her half-brother Frank and his wife Alice are unable to conceive together they ask Phoebe to carry Alice's fertilized eggs, a procedure to which she agrees. The pregnancy is typically Phoebe, and includes her breaking with her vegetarian beliefs in order to satisfy a craving for meat. The same explanation was used on Law & Order: Criminal Intent when Kathryn Erbe became pregnant – the widowed Detective Eames was serving as a surrogate for her sister. In this case however it was her eggs that were used – and the pregnant Eames was nowhere near as funny as the pregnant Phoebe Buffay.

NBC “In-Front” 2009

NBC has started the process of announcing their new line-up for the 2009-10 season, and they're doing it in the sort of way that will probably make both Jeffrey Zucker and Ben Silverman very proud – in a half-assed manner. Even someone sitting in front of a computer in Saskatoon can see that one. And really, I am serious about this; half of the process was completed today, the part where they tell us what the new shows for 2009-10 are going to be and what some of the shows that will be renewed are. The other half of the process will be completed on May 19^th – the day of the ABC Upfront presentation – when the network announces timeslots for series, and which existing shows are going to be cancelled. Like I said, half-assed.

So here's what we've got so far:

Cancelled: Lipstick Jungle, America's Toughest Jobs, Chopping Block, Crusoe, ER, Momma's Boys, My Own Worst Enemy, Life.

Renewed: 30 Rock, The Biggest Loser, Celebrity Apprentice, Law & Order: SVU, The Office, Heroes, Friday Night Lights, Southland (for 13 episodes at least), Parks and Recreation.

Moved: Who knows? There are going to be show moved though thanks to the 900 lb. gorilla in the room, The Jay Leno Show. Every show that airs in the third hour of primetime that gets renewed is going to have to move to an earlier time slot

Fate As Yet Unannounced: Medium, Law & Order, Chuck, Law & Order: CI, My Name is Earl, Deal Or No Deal, Howie Do It, Dateline NBC, Kath & Kim, Kings, Knight Rider, Superstars of Dance (the last four are pretty obviously dead though).

New:The Marriage Ref, Who Do You Think You Are?, Breakthrough With Tony Robbins,
The Jay Leno Show, Weekend Update, Community, 100 Questions, Parenthood, Trauma, Mercy, Day One.

Daily Schedule:

Who knows? Probably Zucker and Silverman but even that is not absolutely clear. The fact that they are meeting with advertisers before they actually announce times for shows would almost make one think that the advertisers are going to have some input on when the shows will be airing. The only show we really know about is Jay Leno's new primetime series, which airs every week night in the third hour.

New Series Summaries

The Marriage Ref: A noncompetition reality series from producers Jerry Seinfeld and Ellen Rakieten in which celebrities, comedians and sports stars candidly comment on, judge and offer strategies to real-life couples in the midst of marital disputes.

Breakthrough With Tony Robbins: Tony Robbins guides participants in this reality show "through complex challenges and personal obstacles, while changing their lives and redesigning their futures."

Who Do You Think You Are?: A new reality series from Lisa Kudrow and her production company, this show looks at the family trees of various celebrities to reveal "surprising, inspiring and even tragic stories that often are linked to crucial events in American history." Based on an award winning British documentary series.

The Jay Leno Show: It's going to be pretty much what Leno's been doing for the past fifteen or so years, except in the third hour of primetime.

Weekend Update Thursday: NBC will be running a six episode run of Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update again this season.

Community: Joel McHale plays a lawyer whose law degree has been revoked and finds himself becoming the leader of a group of misfits at the local community college when they form a study group. Naturally they learn more about themselves than about their course work. Also stars Chevy Chase, Gillian Jacobs, Alison Brie, Yvette Nicole Brown, and Danny Pudi.

100 Questions: Also known as 100 Questions for Charlotte Payne, this comedy is about a woman who has rejected numerous marriage proposals because she's "looking for Mr. Right." After she signs up at a major online dating site her "relationship counsellor" makes her fill out an exhaustive 100 question compatibility test. Each question forces her to reveal a poignant and humorous time in her life with her friends. Stars Amir Talai, Chris Moynihan, David Walton, Elizabeth Ho, Joy Suprano and Sophie Winkleman as Charlotte Payne.

Parenthood: Maura Tierney plays a single mom who is forced to uproot her two teenage children and move back to the family home in Berkley. There she encounters her opinionated father, strong-willed mother, and three adult siblings, all of whom have relationship issues of their own. Loosely based on the 1989 film and 1990 sitcom of the same name from producers Brian Grazer and Ron Howard (who have Friday Night Lights producer Jason Katims to the mix), this show has a strong cast which includes Tierney, Craig T. Nelson, Bonnie Bedelia, Erika Christensen, Dax Shepherd, and Peter Krause.

Trauma: Produced by Friday Night Lights creator Peter Berg, Trauma is a look at the life of first-responder paramedics, described by NBC as "one of the most dangerous medical professions in the world." Again, according to the network, "these heroes must face the most extreme conditions to save lives -- and give meaning to their own existence in the process." Stars Jamey Sheridan (Captain Deakins from Law & Order: Criminal Intent) and Kevin Rankin (Herc on Friday Night Lights) as well as a bunch of other attractive young actors.

Mercy: Another medical show, this time staying in the hospital but viewed from the perspective of the nurses, and in particular Veronica Callahan, who recently returned from a tour in Iraq knowing more about medicine than most of the doctors. With her colleagues she has to navigate the difficulties of life and love both inside and outside of the hospital. Stars include, Taylor Schilling, Delroy Lindo, James Tupper and Michelle Trachtenberg.

Day One: Following a global catastrophe that devastated the world's infrastructures, a group of survivors – all from the same apartment building in Van Nuys California try to survive and discover the root cause of the global collapse. Stars Adam Campbell, Addison Timlin, April Grace, Carly Pope, Catherine Dent, David Lyons, Derek Mio, Julie Gonzalo, and Thekla Reuten.

Comments

I can't say that I'm overly impressed with this list of new series. There are a couple of dramas that have some potential but on the whole the series that NBC has announced seem to have a lot of retreads. Take Day One for example. Change "global catastrophe" to "nuclear terrorism" and suddenly what you've got is a show called Jericho. Similarly, while 100 Questions sounds original as a comedy, I can't help but being reminded of The Ex-List when reading the network description. One can only hope that it works better as a comedy than as a drama. On the other hand Parenthood's lineage seems clear – the Ron Howard-Brian Grazer movie by way of the 1990 sitcom – but am I the only one who can see a strong resemblance and linkage to ABC's Brothers And Sisters?

Arguably the biggest bit of thievery/homage is from Jack Webb's shows. If you've been watching Southland you might have picked up on the similarities of the episodes that focus on rookie cop Ben Sherman and his training officer John Cooper, and the Webb series Adam-12 that dealt with rookie cop Jim Reed and his training officer Pete Malloy. It's not an entirely unpleasant melding of the Adam-12 concept with an NYPD Blue sensibility. And now we have Trauma, which comes across as being not unlike Webb's other huge hit of the 1970s, Emergency, although presumably it will have the sort of edginess that has been seen in more modern shows. And a lot of explosions. I'm not complaining really – Webb's material has probably been due for a re-examination that would add a considerable amount of edge to it, moreso than what Dick Wolfe did when he tried to revive Dragnet – I'm just saying that NBC really can't claim much in the way of originality here.

Looking at the trailers that NBC provided for the shows (fortunately not on Hulu, so I can see them), 100 Questions seems like a pretty standard comedy from the network which brought out such gems as 30 Rock and the American version of The Office. It's filmed before a live audience and has elements of Friends and, dare I say it, Coupling (but the funny British version). It still seems somewhat pedestrian but maybe you need a full episode to appreciate it. As for Community, Joel McHale seems to work well enough and there's a definite effort at building chemistry between the characters, but I can't help but wonder how long some of the characters can go on without becoming annoying. Then again, I felt the same about Tracy Morgan on 30 Rock.

Of the dramas Mercy looks at first blush to be the weakest of the bunch, and that's saying a mouthful. Taylor Schilling, playing a forceful nurse, who essentially knows more than the doctors because of the time she spent in Iraq, is not an entirely weak concept but it seems to be undermined by most of the characters surrounding her and by the occasionally soap opera style relationships. The whole thing isn't being treated with either the lightness of a Grey's Anatomy or the focus of an ER. On the othe hand Trauma seems to hit all of the main points. There seems to be a focus to the clips that NBC has chosen to show and it's hard to beat the sort of high energy action that the show is promising. If the series can maintain this level it might make something of itself.

On a completely different level, NBC seems to regard the revived Parenthood as the prestige element of their line-up, probably on the basis of the Ron Howard-Brian Grazer connection. They seem to have put a lot of faith – not to mention salaries for the actors – into this show. And the truth is that it may be the right show at the right time, given NBC's retreat from the third hour of prime time, not to mention the success of ABC's Brothers And Sisters. It could come as close as anything to being the "family friendly" show that the Parents Television Council says that the American public wants. As for Day One, the clips supplied by NBC are nowhere near as polished as those for the rest of the shows; not surprising given that it is expected to debut in Spring of 2010 and is being positioned as "an event." Harper's Island was "an event" and so was Kings and we know how well they did.

Clearly there are a bunch of things going on behind the scenes at NBC with regards to some of the shows that have not yet been announced. We'll just have to see what goes where and why when NBC actually announces the 2009-10 schedule in two weeks.