The CW’s 2010-11 Schedule

The CW has made some minimal changes in the shows they are airing but like CBS has made significant shifts in the days that shows air.

Cancelled:
The Beautiful Life, Blonde Charity Mafia (announced, never aired), Fly Girls, High Society, Hitched Or Ditched, Melrose Place.

Retained:
America's Next Top Model, Gossip Girl, Vampire Diaries

Moved:
90210, Life Unexpected, One Tree Hill

New:
Hellcats, Nikita

For midseason the network is holding reality series Shedding For The Wedding.

Complete Schedule: (New shows in Capitals)
Monday
8:00-9:00 p.m.: 90210 (new day)
9:00-10:00 p.m.: Gossip Girl

Tuesday
8:00-9:00 p.m.: One Tree Hill (new day)
9:00-10:00 p.m.: Life Unexpected (new day)

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

Thursday
8:00-9:00 p.m.: Vampire Diaries
9:00-10:00 p.m.: NIKITA

Friday
8:00-9:00 p.m.: Smallville
9:00-10:00 p.m.: Supernatural (new day)

Smallville star Tom Welling is one of the executive producers of Hellcats, the CW's new comedy-drama about the cutthroat world of college cheerleading. Aly Michalka plays Marti Perkins, a pre-law student at Lancer University. After her mother (played by Gail O'Grady) forgets to send in her scholarship application the highly intelligent Marti is forced to return to cheerleading as the only way she can stay in school. The decision to join the cheerleading team brings Marti a new roommate in team captain Savannah Moore (Ashley Tisdale) who initially clashes with Marti but warms to her when it becomes apparent that they need her to win the championship. Not everyone does. Also starring are Robbie Jones, Matt Barr, Jeremy Wong, Heather Hemmens, Elena Esovolova, Sharon Leel and Ben Browder.

Nikita, based on the French movie Nikita and several subsequent versions including the syndicated TV series starring Peta Wilson. Maggie Q plays the woman known as Nikita. As a teenager she was rescued from Death Row by a mysterious government agency known as The Division and given a new chance to serve her country. What she didn't know is that she would be serving her country as a spy and assassin. Betrayed by the only people she thought she could trust she has remained in hiding for three years. Now she's back and determined to expose The Division and seek retribution on those who betrayed her. Meanwhile The Division continues to seek out an train young people to become assassins. On of them, a young woman named Alex (Lyndsy Fonseca) is beginning to understand why the legendary Nikita chose to run. Also stars Shane West, Aaron Stanford, Ashton Holmes, Tiffany Hines, Melinda Clark and Xander Berkeley.

Shedding For The Wedding combines two of the most stressful things in life – planning a wedding and losing weight. Over a three month period ten overweight engaged couples will compete for the various elements of their dream wedding. Each week the couples will face a major physical challenge that will allow them to win an element such as invitations. They also have to eat right and exercise, helped by leading nutritionists and trainers. At the end of each episode the couples will step on the scales and the couple which has lost the least weight over the week will be eliminated. The last couple standing will win their dream wedding – on TV.

Comments:

The CW appears to have taken a leaf out of the book of their corporate "half-parent" CBS with a schedule that revitalises itself by moving shows around rather than inserting a raft of new shows. Of course in The CW's case it's probably less a case of having an embarrassment of riches in terms of programming than it is a question of cost. There seems to be a pattern in the way that the network has placed its shows: Monday is schools, Tuesday is family drama, Wednesday is "beautiful people" Thursday adventure, and Friday is boys night. I think both of the new shows have an excellent chance of succeeding and not just because the network can't afford to replace them. Hellcats has elements of the movie Bring It On combined with Glee and if played right has the potential to be a fun romp. Nikita on the other hand should work with both female and male audiences as an adventure tale which just happens to feature an attractive but empowered woman. Certainly it would seem to be as good a fit out of Vampire Diaries as Supernatural, and Supernatural work better with Smallville (officially in its final season) than a rerun of America's Next Top Model ever did. The big misfire in this whole schedule is undoubtedly Shedding For The Wedding. On any other network – including many of the cable networks – I wouldn't expect this to get picked up except as a summer series and if it did I would be amazed if it ran the full three months that The CW has announced that it will run. I honestly can't imagine people watching this... but then again I couldn't have imagined that people would willingly watch Biggest Loser either.

Coming soon – a night by night analysis of the new schedule.

CBS's 2010-11 Schedule

While CBS has probably the most stability in terms of new shows they also have what are probably the most changes of any of the networks.

Cancelled: Cold Case, Ghost Whisperer, Numb3rs, Miami Medical, Accidentally On Purpose, New Adventures Of Old Christine.

Renewed: How I Met Your Mother, Rules Of Engagement, Two And A Half Men, NCIS, NCIS Los Angeles, The Good Wife, Criminal Minds, CSI, The Mentalist, Medium, The Amazing Race, Undercover Boss

Moved: Big Bang Theory, CSI: Miami, CSI: New York, Survivor

New: Mike & Molly, Hawaii Five-O, The Defenders, $#*! My Dad Says, Blue Bloods

For the mid-season CBS has an as yet untitled spin-off from Criminal Minds.

Complete Schedule: (New shows in Capitals, except CSI, and NCIS)

Monday
8:00-8:30 p.m.: How I Met Your Mother
8:30-9:00 p.m.: Rules Of Engagement
9:00-9:30 p.m.: Two And A Half Men
9:30-10:00 p.m.: MIKE & MOLLY
10:00-11:00 p.m.: HAWAII FIVE-0

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
8:00-9:00 p.m.: Survivor (new day and time)
9:00-10:00 p.m.: Criminal Minds
10:00-11:00 p.m.: THE DEFENDERS

Thursday
8:00-8:30 p.m.: Big Bang Theory (new day & time)
8:30-9:00 p.m.: $#!* MY DAD SAYS
9:00-10:00 p.m.: CSI
10:00-11:00 p.m.: The Mentalist

Friday
8:00-9:00 p.m.: Medium
9:00-10:00 p.m.: CSI: New York (new day & time)
10:00-11:00 p.m.: BLUE BLOODS

Saturday
8:00-10:00 p.m.: Crimetime Saturday (reruns)
10:00-11:00 p.m.: 48 Hours Mysteries

Sunday
7:00-8:00 p.m.: 60 Minutes
8:00--9:00 p.m.: The Amazing Race
9:00-10:00 p.m.: Undercover Boss
10:00-11:00 p.m.: CSI: Miami (new day & time)

Mike & Molly, the latest comedy from Chuck Lorre, is a love story about a couple of people who don't exactly fit into society's vision of attactive. Chicago cop Mike Biggs (Billy Gardell) and fourth grade teacher Molly Flynn (Melissa McCarthy) meet at an Overeaters Anonymous meeting. While Mike and Molly want to lose weight they do face obstacles bigger than a mutual fondness for pie and a mutual desire to resist temptation. Reno Wilson co-stars as Mike's partner Carl, while Swoozie Kurtz plays Molly's mother Joyce and Katy Mixon plays Molly's sexy sister Victoria. Rounding out the cast is Nyambi Nyambi as Samuel, the waiter at the diner where Mike and Carl eat, who finds the concept of eating less entire incomprehensible.

Hawaii Five-0 is the revival of the classic series from the 1970s. Starring Alex O'Laughlin as Steve McGarrett, a cop and former naval officer who returned to Hawaii to track down his father's murderer. He decides to stay after the Governor (Jean Smart) asks him to head-up a new state police unit. Making up his team are Danny "Danno" Williams (Scott Caan), a former New Jersey cop who has relocated to Hawaii with his 8 year-old daughter, Chin Ho Kelly (Daniel Dae Kim) an ex-Honolulu detective wrongly accused of corruption who was also McGarrett's father's protégé, and Chin Ho's cousin Kono (Grace Park) who is fresh out of the police academy.

The Defenders is nothing like the classic 1960s series of the same name. This version is a comedy drama about a pair of hotshot Las Vegas attorneys who go all out to represent their clients. Pete Kascmarek (Jerry O'Connell) has a passion for the law as well as for expensive clothes, fast cars and beautiful women. His partner Nick Morelli (James Belushi) is a an earnest hard charging lawyer who is trying to his marriage to his estranged wife (Gillian Vigman) and remain a presence in his son's life. Their new associate Lisa Tyler (Jurnee Smollett) is enthusiastic and determined to put her past as an exotic dancer behind her. Tanya Fischer also appears as their eager to please assistant Sophie.

$#!* (pronounced "Bleep") My Dad Says is undoubtedly the first TV series based on a Twitter feed. The feed in this case is called Shit My Dad Says but we all know how that would fly as a title for a TV series. William Shatner (must resist the desire to pun on this) stars as Ed, the titular Dad. Ed is prone to rants on just about any subject he can think of and political correctness is the last thing on his mind. Ed has two sons, Vince (Will Sasso) the meek half of a husband and wife real estate team dominated by his wife Kathleen (Nicole Sullivan), and Henry, a struggling writer and unpaid blogger (a type I'm eminently familiar with). When Henry (currently uncast) is unable to pay his part of the rent to his roommate Sam (Stephanie Lemelin) Ed suggests that Henry move in with him. The pilot at least was directed by sitcom veteran James Burrows. Oh, and late breaking news (like this is a huge surprise; The Parents Television Council has denounced CBS for the show: "CBS intentionally chose to insert an expletive into the actual name of a show, and, despite its claim that the word will be bleeped, it is just CBS' latest demonstration of its contempt for families and the public. There are an infinite number of alternatives that CBS could have chosen but its desire to shock and offend is crystal clear in this decision." Whatever?!)

Blue Bloods is a police drama following three generations of the Reagan family. Frank Reagan (Tom Selleck) is the family patriarch and New York's Chief of Police, just as his father Henry (Len Cariou) had been. Frank has three children; Danny (Donnie Wahlburg) a veteran detective, family man, and Iraq war veteran whose tactics on the job can be a bit dubious; daughter Erin (Bridget Moynahan), a New York ADA and a new single parent; and Jamie, a Harvard Law graduate who gives up a lucrative career as a lawyer to enter the "family business." After graduating from the Police Academy his life takes an unexpected turn when he's asked to become involved in an undercover investigation that even his father knows nothing about and which could have an impact on the family legacy.

The as yet unnamed Criminal Minds spinoff stars Oscar winner Forrest Whitaker as Sam Cooper, the head of an elite team from the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit. Sam's team is an unusual one, not drawn from the usual run of Quantico trained agents. They include Mick Rawson (Matt Ryan), a former member of Britain's Special Forces who is an ace marksman and "an undiluted eye for rooting out evil"; John "Prophet" Sims (Michael Kelly), an ex-con with a street smart edge and a zen-like calm; and Gina LaSalle (Beau Garrett), a tough and attractive agent with a cunning sense of perception.

Comments:

CBS network boss Les Moonves described this line-up as an example of "aggressive stability." It's an apt description. The moves that Moonves announced were aggressive, attacking moves but also moves that recognised that some CBS shows, while retaining value as properties aren't what they used to be. Moving the two CSI shows not only recognises that their audiences are slipping but also acknowledges that the network has some weak points where established shows can be effective. Over the past few years CBS has had problems with the second hour of Fridays and the third hour of Sundays. The latter time slot in particular has been a show killer for CBS, so moving what was once the most popular show in the world there has to be seen as an effort to take back the hour. As for moving The Big Bang Theory to lead for $#!* My Dad Says, I think this will be a real threat to the NBC sitcoms that it will be going up against. This is actually a comedy bloc that I'm looking forward to, which something I don't often say. As for the other comedy, I'm sure that Mike & Molly will do just fine in its Monday night slot but I confess it just doesn't fire me up.

Turning to the other new shows, the one that I feel least comfortable with is The Defenders. Quirky lawyers can work but given the two lead cast members it just seems like it will be more comedy than drama. Further, I guess I have a tendency to just dislike both O'Connell and Belushi. I have higher hopes for Hawaii Five-0. I think that it is both familiar enough for people to turn in and far enough in the past that people who aren't old farts like me won't be nit picking about it. A lot will depend on the producers, writers and directors on the project making us buy Alex O'Loughlin as Steve McGarrett. Jack Lord had a certain quality that O'Loughlin in his recent series has yet to show me. (And in the spirit of nit-pickery, I would like to mention that not only does the show not have any native Hawaiians/Polynesian actors, but not one of the principal cast members was born in Hawaii.) The CBS show that I think might have the most potential to hold me is Blue Bloods. I'm a fan of Tom Selleck of course, but have been a fan of Donnie Wahlburg's acting since seeing him in Boomtown. I think that the multi-generational and family aspects of this take it beyond the realm of the "ordinary" procedural and have the potential to make it into something special.

Later today, The CW.

ABC's 2010-11 Schedule

Here's what ABC has planned for their coming season.

Cancelled: Better Off Ted, Scrubs, The Deep End, Eastwick, Flash Forward, The Forgotten, Hank, Happy Town, Lost, Romantically Challenged, Ugly Betty.

Renewed: 20/20, America's Funniest Home Videos, The Bachelor, Brothers and Sisters, Castle, Cougar Town, Dancing With The Stars, Desperate Housewives, Extreme Makeover Home Edition, Grey's Anatomy, Modern Family, Private Practice.

Moved: Dancing With The Stars Results,The Middle.

New: Better Together, Body Of Proof, Detroit 1-8-7, My Generation, No Ordinary Family, The Whole Truth, Secret Millionaire (from FOX).

ABC is holding V for the mid-season as are new drama Off The Map, and comedies Mr. Sunshine and Happy Endings. They have also indicated that, although Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, Wife Swap and Shark Tank are not on the schedule it does not necessarily mean that these shows are dead.

Complete Schedule: (New shows in Capitals)
Monday
8:00-10:00 p.m.: Dancing With The Stars
10:00-11:00 p.m.: Castle

Tuesday
8:00-9:00 p.m.: NO ORDINARY FAMILY
9:00-10:00 p.m.: Dancing With The Stars Results (new time)
10:00-11:00 p.m.: DETROIT 1-8-7

Wednesday
8:00-8:30 p.m.: The Middle (new time)
8:30-9:00 p.m.: BETTER TOGETHER
9:00-9:30 p.m.: Modern Family
9:30-10:00 p.m.: Cougar Town
10:00-11:00 p.m.: THE WHOLE TRUTH

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

Friday
8:00-9:00 p.m.: Secret Millionaire
9:00-10:00 p.m.: BODY OF PROOF
10:00-11:00 p.m.: 20/20

Saturday
8:00-11:00 p.m.: 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 and Sisters

Better Together is the only comedy set to start in September. Joanna Garcia stars as Mia, who has been dating Ben (Jake Lacy) for seven weeks when she announces that they are getting married and having a baby. This shocks her sister Maddie (Jennifer Finnigan), who has been dating Ben (Josh Cooke) for nine years. They know each other inside and out and they make a point of the fact that their relationship – as it stands – is a "valid life choice." Surprisingly (to Maddie) the girl's parents are supportive of Mia's choice, having recently adopted a carpe diem attitude.

No Ordinary Family stars Michael Chiklis and Julia Benz as Jim and Stephanie Powell. On a family trip their plane crashes in the Amazon. As a result Jim and Stephanie and their two children Daphne and JJ (Kay Panabaker and Jimmy Bennett) each develop a unique super-power. Also stars Tate Donavon, Romany Malco, Autumn Reeser and Christina Chang.

Detroit 1-8-7 takes the basic concept of The Office – a documentary film crew in the work place – and applies it to a serious subject. In this case the work place is the Detroit Police Department's Homicide unit. There are moments when the cops address the cameras directly, and other times when they forget entirely that they're being filmed. The series looks at the various cops and their relationships to each other. Some of the partnerships are cases of teaming opposites with each other while in other cases the tensions are taut. Stars Michael Imperioli, Jon Michael Hill, James McDaniel, Aisha Hinds, Natalie Martinez, D.J. Cotrona, and Shaun Majumder.

The Whole Truth is Jerry Bruckheimer's latest series. Starring Rob Morrow as leading New York criminal attorney Jimmy Brogan, whose long-time friend Kathryn Peale (currently uncast – Joely Richardson had been cast in the role but pulled out of the project earlier this month ) is the Deputy Bureau Chief of the State District Attorney's office. The series endeavours to show each side – prosecution and defense – equally forcing our allegiances to shift depending on what we are seeing. Both lawyers and their teams are equally matched and both have a fervent belief in their clients and their position. In the end what counts is not guilt or innocence, it is what the jury believes to be the truth. Eamonn Walker, Sean Wing, Anthony Ruivivar, and Christine Adams also star.

My Generation looks at the changes that a decade can hold in store for people. The scripted drama looks at a group of people who, in 2000, were the subject of a documentary about high schools students about to graduate from an Austin Texas high school. They are brought back together again ten years later they discover that while they may not be where they expected to be when they left high school, they may need to be where they need to be, and more importantly that while you may not have got what you thought you wanted out of life it may not be too late to get what you need. Stars Michael Stahl David, Kelli Garner, Jaime King, Keir O'Donnell, Sebastian Sozzi, Mechad Brooks, Anne Son, Daniella Alonzo, and Julian Morris.

In Body Of Proof Dana Delaney stars as Dr. Megan Hunt. A brilliant neurosurgeon until a devastating car crash ended her surgical career she has chosen to resume her career as a medical examiner who is determined to learn who or what killed the victims who come across her table. She quickly develops a reputation for going beyond her duties as a medical examiner and greying the lines between the where her job ends and where the job of the police begins. In addition to all this she finds that she has to re-examine and rebuild her relationship with her family which suffered because of her ambition to build her career. Jerri Ryan, Geoffrey Arand, John Carroll Lynch, Windell Middlebrook, Mick Bishop and Sonja Sohn also star.

Happy Endings asks the most important question when a "perfect couple" breaks up: who gets the friends? The perfect couple in this case are Dave (Zachary Knighton) and Alex (Elisha Cuthbert) who promise to stay friends even though their relationship has ended. But can the group of friends, who are as essentially a blend of each individual's friends, hang together? Who gets to go on the big ski trip for example? More importantly, how long do you have to wait before you can act on your attraction to your friend's now ex-boyfriend. It's some thing they'll have to figure out as they go along.

Mr. Sunshine features Matthew Perry as the self-involved manager of a second rate sports arena in San Diego. Ben Donavon has just turned 40 and is re-evaluating his life as a result. But beyond that he has to deal with the people he works with. These include his powerful and highly erratic boss Crystal (Allison Janney) and her clueless son Roman (Nate Torrance) who is Ben's latest employee, Alice (Andrea Anders) the tomboyish marketing director who is also Ben's "friend with benefits," Alonzo (James Lesure) an impossibly happy ex-basketball player, and Ben's assistant Heather (Portia Doubleday) who looks sweet but is frightening – she once set one of her former boyfriends on fire.

Off The Map is the latest medical drama from Shonda Rhimes, and it is about as far from Grey's Anatomy as you can get, literally and figuratively. The series focuses on three young doctors – Lily Brenner (Caroline Dhavernas), Mina Minard (Mamie Gummer), and Manny Diaz (Enrique Murciano) – who come to work in a small understaffed and undersupplied clinic in the South American jungle. All are running away from their own personal demons and are coming to work with Ben Keeton (Martin Henderson), the brilliant founder of the clinic, who had been the youngest chief of surgery at UCLA, and his assistant Otis Cole (Jason George).

Comments:

I am not terribly impressed with what ABC has done with this line-up. I think that there are a couple of interesting ideas. The concept behind Detroit 1-8-7, a documentary crew following the Detroit Homicide cops is one of those amalgams that could work. If nothing else it would seem to take the shaky cam of NYPD Blue and justifying it, while allowing the actors to break the fourth wall from time to time. Will it work though? I'm not sure, particularly with Michael Imperioli – remember how well he worked on the American version of Life On Mars. On the other hand I think that No Ordinary Family is a good mix of concept and time slot. The idea of these people gaining different superpowers after a crash is straight out of the origins of Marvel's Fantastic Four but done with a family rather than a group of people. If played as a light drama rather than with the sturm und drang that accompanied most episodes of Heroes, I think that this is a show that could attract a larger family audience. I'm not sure about The Whole Truth. It seems to take the basic Law & Order template and replace the cops with the defense side of the trial equation. (Dick Wolf would never approve – he has famously stated that he would never do a show that featured a defense attorney because he seems to believe that anyone who has been arrested and charged is nearly always guilty and by implication defense attorneys are worse in some ways than the criminals they defend.) Is this going to work? I don't know. I think it might be trying to push too much material into a too small period of time to really do justice to either side (in truth I often felt that way about Law & Order when I was watching it). I have a bigger problem with My Generation though. This reminds me of an anthology series from almost 30 years ago called What Really Happened To The Class Of '65? which looked at the post graduation lives of individuals from the stated high school class. While I realise that this is almost certainly not what ABC is trying to do with this show, and the concept seems to be drawn more from the 7 Up series of documentaries done by Michael Apted. I'm really not sure that this will work even – maybe especially – as a lead to Grey's Anatomy. I'm not entirely sure about Body Of Proof. I've always liked Dana Delaney, and enjoy seeing Jerri Ryan (who is a better actress than most people gave her credit for when she was playing 7 of 9 on Star Trek: Voyager). The problem for me is that this seems to be well travelled ground. It will undoubtedly be played more seriously than something like Crossing Jordan or Quincy but still it seems to have been done before. Despite its pedigree I just can't see Off The Map working as a series. It may sound patronizing but I can't see a show about young doctors in a jungle hospital drawing a mass audience.

Turning to the comedies, despite enjoying Joanna Garcia's work in the past Better Together seems to be another comedy treading familiar ground. It may work but it sort of stands out in comparison with shows like The Middle and Modern Family. Happy Endings seems to me to have more promise. While the concept of the group and the dynamics of the group bears some resemblance to How I Met Your Mother? and other series in which groups of friends have to differ with shifting relationships, this would seem to be a more in depth examination. There are a lot more issues for potential humour in the breaking up of a relationship and the impact on blended groups of friends than most producers and writers have really explored. Still if I can say that I am looking forward to any sitcom on the ABC line-up – and maybe any network's proposed line-up, it is Mr. Sunshine. Not only is this a stellar cast with great comedy chops but the people behind the scenes are outstanding as well, including Perry (who wrote the pilot and is one of the executive producers), executive producer Jamie Tarses, and executive producer Thomas Schlamme who also directed the pilot. If any comedy is going to get me this year it is probably this one.

Next up – CBS.

Delays Are Killing Me!!!!

My thoughts on the ABC and CBS upfronts are going to be held up for an indefinite period. My Internet is giving me huge problems. It is crawling like a newborn...and yes I do know that newborns don't crawl. THAT's how slow it is right now!!!!!!

FOX's 2010-11 Schedule

Here's the FOX TV line-up for the 2010-11 season. I'm not sure how much detail I'll be going into for them.

One thing that Fox does that the other networks don't do is to specify not just that they'll have new shows at the mid-season but also when those new shows will debut in specific time-slots. Take this with a colossal grain of salt because let's face it no one, not even Rupert Bloody Murdoch, can proclaim with certainty that his line-up will remain intact until the new shows are supposed to start. I'll include the scheduled day for the mid-season shows, just don't bet on them being valid in five months time.

Cancelled: 24, Dollhouse, Past Life, Brothers, Sons Of Tuscon, 'Til Death.

Renewed: American Dad, Bones, COPS, The Cleveland Show, Family Guy. Fringe, House, , The Simpsons.

Moved: Glee, Human Target, Lie To Me, Hell's Kitchen.

New: Bob's Burgers, Lone Star, Mixed Signals, Raising Hope, Ride Along, Running Wilde, Terra Nova.

Also, FOX has a series called The Good Guys on its schedule which will be "previewed" later this week and be part of the network's summer schedule for a while then transition into the Fall...if it gets good ratings. As well the network has a new drama called Terra Nova that is as yet unscheduled.

Complete Schedule: (New shows in Capitals)
Monday
8:00-9:00 p.m. House
9:00-10:00 p.m. LONESTAR/ RIDE-ALONG

Tuesday
8:00-9:00 p.m. Glee/American Idol (to 9:30 p.m.)
9:00-9:30 p.m. RAISING HOPE
9:30-10:00 p.m. RUNNING WILDE/MIXED SIGNALS

Wednesday
8:00-9:00 p.m. Lie To Me (new day & time)
9:00-10:00 p.m. Hell's Kitchen (new day & season)

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

Friday
8:00-9:00 p.m. Human Target (new day & time)
9:00-10:00 p.m. The Good Guys/Kitchen Nightmares

Saturday
8:00-9:00 p.m. COPS
9:00-10:00 p.m. America's Most Wanted

Sunday
7:00-8:00 p.m. The OT/The Simpsons (repeats) (to 7:30 p.m.) American Dad (7:30-8:00 p.m.)
8:00-8:30 p.m. The Simpsons
8:30-9:00 p.m. The Cleveland Show/BOB'S BURGERS
9:00-9:30 p.m. Family Guy
9:30-10:00 p.m. American Dad/The Cleveland Show

Lonestar stars James Wolk plays a conman living two lives with two very different women. In Houston as Bob Allen he's married to Cat (Adrianne Palicki) whose father Clint (Jon Voigt) is a multi-millionaire oilman. In Midland Texas he's Robert Allen, who has a girlfriend Lindsay (Eloise Mumford) and is secretly bilking the residents of their savings. He's lived both lives for years without suspicion, but with the cons coming close to their fruition, he's becoming increasingly worried that he may be discovered. Also stars Bryce Johnson, Mark Deklin, and David Keith.

Raising Hope is a new comedy from producer Greg Garcia deals with the sudden change facing young Jimmy Chance. Jimmy (Lucas Neff) is going nowhere fast. He works cleaning pools and still lives with his parents and his Maw Maw (played by Cloris Leachman). After a brief encounter with a young woman who turns out to be a wanted felon, Jimmy finds himself charged with raising the result of that encounter, his baby daughter. He isn't going to get much help from his family none of whom seem at all interested in helping him raise a child, given that they had little interest in raising him.

Running Wilde stars Will Arnett as Steve Wilde, a multi-millionaire who just happens to be an immature playboy. He is determined to catch "the one who got away" ultra-liberal activist Emmy Kadubic (Kerri Russell) who was his childhood sweetheart. While Emmy is content living with her 12 year-old daughter Puddle (Stefania Owen) in the Amazon rain forest with an indigenous tribe, Puddle wants to live someplace "normal." She tell her mother about it except that she hasn't spoken to anyone for years. Emmy decides to attend an award ceremony for Steve (thrown by Steve) in hopes of enlisting his help in stopping the family company from destroying the home of her adopted tribe.

Ride-Along takes the audience on what is described as "an unpredictable ride through the streets of Chicago with the most respected – and notorious – cops in the city." Jarek Wysocki (Jason Clarke) is described as a larger-than-life veTerran Chicago cop who "throws away partners the way others throw away tissues." Caleb Evers (Matt Lauria) is his new partner, a young detective who is savvier and more observant than most people give him credit for. Teresa Colvin (Jennifer Beals) has reached the pinnacle of the Chicago Police Department and is intent on making changes before the mud of Chicago politics can clog her progress. Along the way she's made a lot of enemies who are determined to stop her.

Mixed Signals is a comedy about three long time friends who are trying to balance their relationships with their need for freedom. Ethan is a perpetual bachelor whose relationships usually last about three weeks; Adam has recently moved in with his girlfriend and is discovering the difference this level of commitment brings; and Mike is a happily married man who still hasn't quite worked out the male-female dynamic. Stars Alexandra Breckenridge, David Denham, Nelson Franklin, Liza Lapira, and Kris Marshall.

Bob's Burgers is an animated comedy about a man who runs a foundering burger place with his wife and three kids. Bob has plenty of ideas about burgers and condiments but virtually no idea about business management or customer service. Stars the voices of Jon Benjamin, John Roberts, Kristen Schaal, Eugene Mirman and Dan Mintz.

Terra Nova is a science fiction series produced by Steven Spielberg, Peter Chernin, Brannon Braga and David Fury. In 2149, with the Earth doomed by overdevelopment, over-pollution, and overcrowding, but science literally provides an out – time travel. The Shannon family – Jim, Elizabeth, Josh and Maddy – are part of the pilgrimage to the Terra Nova colony in prehistoric Earth. There they face a natural world that includes dinosaurs, and external forces that threaten to destroy the colony, as well as a Shannon Family secret that threatens their residence in Terra Nova. No cast has been announced yet.

Comments:

I am seriously underwhelmed with the Fox line-up. The network hasn't had great success with live action comedies, probably since Married...With Children and the shows that they've announced this time around are seriously underwhelming. I suppose if I had to pick one of the three that have been announced it might be Running Wilde because the concept is different from much of what we've seen, but on the whole I think that we're looking at impending doom for all three shows. As for Bob's Burgers, it sounds almost like an animated Fawlty Towers set at a burger stand. Like most of Fox's animated offerings it appeals to me not at all.

The new dramas are only slightly more promising. I don't think that the public will embrace Lonestar simply because I don't think the mass audience is prepared to regard a con artist and all around cad like Robert/Bob Allen as the protagonist in a drama. Ride-Along seems to me to have a lot more potential. At first it seems familiar enough – a cop show focusing on detectives in a big city – but it has a dark gritty undercurrent. It has something of a Southland vibe and if the network can carry it off it could be a winner. I'm just not fully convinced that the public will buy it. As for Terra Nova, despite (or in the case of Brannon Braga, because) of the people involved I just can't see it doing much more than carving out a niche in the market.

Later today – ABC.

NBC's 2010-11 Schedule

NBC has released its new line-up for the 2010 season. Some surprising cancellations (well not too surprising given the way that the networks have been announcing cancellations, renewals and pilots that have been picked up.

Cancelled: The Jay Leno Show, Heroes, Law & Order, Mercy, Trauma.

Retained: Chuck, Biggest Loser, Parenthood, Community, Who Do You Think You Are?, Dateline NBC, Minute To Win It, Celebrity Apprentice.

Moved: Law & Order: SVU, The Office, 30 Rock,.

New: The Event, Chase, Undercovers, Law & Order: Los Angeles, Outsourced, Love Bites, Outlaw.

In addition NBC has the following series for mid-season replacements: Dramas The Cape, and Harry's Law; Comedies Perfect Couples, The Paul Reiser Show, and Friends With Benefits; Reality series School Pride. Also available are returning shows The Marriage Ref, Parks & Recreation, and Friday Night Lights.

Complete Schedule: (New shows in Capitals)
Monday
8:00-9:00 p.m. Chuck
9:00-10:00 p.m. THE EVENT
10:00-11:00 p.m. CHASE

Tuesday
8:00-10:00 p.m. Biggest Loser
10:00-11:00 p.m. Parenthood

Wednesday
8:00-9:00 p.m. UNDERCOVERS
9:00-10:00 p.m. Law & Order: SVU (New Time)
10:00-11:00 p.m. LAW & ORDER: LOS ANGELES

Thursday
8:00-8:30 p.m. Community
8:30-9:00 p.m. The Office (New Time)
9:00-9:30 p.m. 30 Rock (New Time)
9:30-10:00 p.m. OUTSOURCED
10:00-11:00 p.m. LOVE BITES

Friday
8:00-9:00 p.m. SCHOOL PRIDE/Who Do You Think You Are?
9:00-10:00 p.m. Dateline NBC
10:00-11:00 p.m. OUTLAW

Saturday
8:00-11:00 p.m. Encore Programming

Sunday (beginning March 2010)
7:00-8:00 p.m. Dateline NBC
8:00-9:00 p.m. Minute To Win It
9:00-11:00 p.m. Celebrity Apprentice

The Event stars Jason Ritter as an average guy who becomes involved in the biggest cover-up in the history of the United States when he investigates the disappearance of his fiancée. In the course of events he becomes involved with a diverse group of people and uncovers a global conspiracy that could change the course of human history. Also stars Blair Underwood, Laura Innes, Scott Paterson, Ian Anthony Day, and Zeljko Ivanek.

Chase is a new series from Jerry Bruckheimer starring Kelli Giddish as the leader of a group of US Marshals hunting down America's most wanted fugitives. Also stars Cole Hauser, Amaury Nolasco, Rose Rollins and Jesse Metcalfe as members of her team.

Undercovers from J.J. Abrams is about two former spies who retired after falling in love and started a small catering company. When one of their former colleagues disappears on a mission they are reactivated by their former boss and discover that the excitement and danger is what their marriage has been missing. Stars Boris Kodjoe, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Jessica Parker-Kennedy, Carter McIntyre, Gerald McRaney, and Ben Schwartz.

Law & Order: Los Angeles is the latest in Dick Wolf's L&O franchise, substituting Los Angeles for New York. Casting has yet to be announced.

Outsourced is a comedy based on the 2006 movie of the same name. The series deals with the comedic situations that an American call center manager faces when his company fires all of its American workers and outsources the work to India. Todd Dempsy (played by Ben Rappaport) faces severe culture shock while trying to educate his new Indian team on things American so that they can sell American products that they have no real exposure to. Also stars, Rizwan Manji, Sacha Dhawan, Parvesh Cheena, Anisha Nagarashan, Rebecca Hazelwood, Diedrich Bader, and Jessica Gower.

Love Bites is an hour long comedy anthology. Beckie Newton and Jordana Spiro star as the last of their friends to remain single. Their stories serve as an anchor for the series while other characters have their stories told.

Outlaw is a legal drama starring Jimmy Smits as Supreme Court Justice Cyrus Garza who suddenly quits and returns to private practice to fight for "the little guy," while upsetting a lot of the "big guys." Also stars Jesse Bradford, Carly Pope, Ellen Woglom, and David Ramsay.

School Pride is a reality series in which a team of experts (SWAT commander Tom Stroup, interior designer Susie Castillo, former substitute teacher Kym Whitley and political correspondent Jacob Soboroff) help the students, parents and teachers of "aged and broken down" public schools to renovate their schools and at the same time restore a sense of value and pride in the community.

The Cape is a drama about Vince Faraday, an honest cop on a corrupt police department. Forced into hiding and presumed dead after being framed for a murder he takes on the identity of his son's favourite comic book character The Cape. As The Cape he battles crime including his nemesis Chess, a twisted killer who is also a multi-millionaire. He is trained by the leader of a circus gang of bank robbers, works with an investigative blogger who uncovers crime and corruption in Palm City, and has a former detective and friend as an ally. Stars David Lyons, Jennifer Ferrin, Ryan Wynot, James Frain, Keith David, Summer Glau, and Dorian Missick.

Harry's Law is a David E. Kelly series about three people looking for a fresh start. Harriet Korn (Oscar winner Kathy Bates) is a successful patent lawyer who has been fired from her cushy joband realises that she is disillusioned by her success. She meets Malcom (Aml Ameen), who is trying to figure out life, but right now needs a lawyer to help him in a criminal case, and Matt (as yet uncast – Ben Chaplin has been dropped from the project), who was Malcolm's former teacher but is now out of work. Together they for a new law firm operating out of a former shoe store. Also stars Brittany Snow and Beatrice Rosen.

Perfect Couples is a comedy about three couples who are interlinked by friendships. Dave and Julia (Kyle Howard, Christine Woods) are the "normal relatable" couple while Dave's best friend Vance and Amy (David Walton, Mary Elizabeth Ellis) are the "high-passion high-drama" couple. Rounding out the group are Rex and his wife Leigh (Hayes MacArthur, Olivia Munn) who consider themselves the "perfect couple" and relationship experts since they've attended every class and seminar on relationships and are there to share their "expertise" with their friends.

Friends with Benefits is a comedy about Ben (Ryan Hansen) and Sara (Danneel Harris) a pair of twenty-somethings who offer each other "moral and physical support" as they try to find Mr. and Ms. Right. Each has their own definitions of the right person. Also in the mix are their friends Aaron (Fran Kranz), Hoon (Ian Reed Kessler) and Riley (Jessica Lucas) who all have their own dating issues.

The Paul Reiser Show stars Paul Reiser in a fictionalized version of his day to day life. Since his successful show left the air, Paul has settled into a comfortable life with his wife and kids, but increasingly he's felt the need to do something new and meaningful – he just doesn't know what that is yet. In his search for what that is he is helped and hindered by his "friends" who are mostly the husband's of his wife's friends or the fathers of the kids his children go to school with. Co-stars include Ben Shenkman, Omid Djalili, Duane Martin, Andrew Daly, and Amy Landecker.

Comments:
Bear in mind when I write about these shows here, I am giving instant uninformed analysis based entirely on the descriptions given in the network press release. While clips from the shows are out there on the Internet and quite easily available, I haven't looked at them yet. It's all based on gut instinct and what I think people will like. I like to think that for this sort of stuff at least I've got a pretty good gut.

First I want to look at a couple of time slot choices; one which could make a lot of sense, the other that may make sense in programming terms but which kind of robs me the wrong way. The first of these is the decision to place Outlaw with Jimmy Smits in the third hour of Friday slot. Initially I wondered about the thinking behind this move, given that for the most part the networks have, of late, treated Fridays as a sort of dumping ground. However the more I think of it the more the move makes a certain amount of sense. ABC will almost certainly rely on their long list of reality shows and anchor the third hour with newsmagazine 20/20 which means that the only dramatic competition will come from CBS. It seems pretty clear that CBS won't be bringing Numb3rs back given the reduced order this season and the way that the season finale played out. It seems equally unlikely that they'll keep current time slot incumbent Miami Medical which is a serviceable enough show that lacks the magic spark of an ER... and the ratings that ER got too. It seems likely then that Outlaw will go up against another freshman show, and in that case it's a bit of a crap shoot. I still give the edge – sight unseen – to CBS though.

The other timeslot situation is more of a problem for me. NBC has Parenthood on in the third hour following Biggest Loser while Law & Order: SVU is hammocked between new shows Undercovers and Law & Order: Los Angeles. The problem for me is that it doesn't seem like the appropriate time for SVU to air, given the nature of the cases that the show deals with. Certainly the Parents Television Council, which objects to SVU regardless of what time the show airs, would agree. Meanwhile Parenthood is the sort of show that could easily run in any time slot. Indeed the original plan for the series last season (before Maura Tierney's illness forced her replacement with Lauren Graham and delayed the launch to midseason) had been to run the show in the first hour of Wednesday, while SVU's placement in the second hour was necessitated by the presence of The Jay Leno Show. It would seem more logical to me to put Law & Order: Los Angeles on Tuesday night after Biggest Loser and make the Wednesday line-up Parenthood, Undercovers, Law & Order: SVU. But what do I know?

As for the shows, of the dramas that will debut in September, I think that Undercovers and perhaps Chase are the ones with a chance of success. Undercovers has the benefit of being a J.J. Abrams series and depending on how they play it, it could have something of a Hart To Hart or even the aftermath of True Lies to it. Chase immediately seems like the rather unsuccessful sequel to the movie The Fugitive, which focused on Gerard and his team of Marshals. Against a weakening CSI: Miami it might make some headway. The Event comes across like some of those attempts to recapture the magic of Lost or 24 like Kidnapped and Vanished that popped up a few years ago and disappeared almost as quickly. I'm not sure I'd get too attached to it. And I just can't get excited about Dick Wolf's latest trip to the Law & Order well. What can you do differently in Los Angeles than you could do in New York... beyond saving money with a new cast? I halfway wish they'd have tried to bring the UK version of Law & Order to an American audience.

Turning to the comedies that will be debuting in September, Love Bites really doesn't do anything for me. It reminds me of The Love Boat minus the boat. The real tricky one however is going to be Outsourced. I think that Marc Berman has made a fair point in his Programming Insider podcast that in these economic times Americans aren't really in the mood to embrace a show about American jobs being outsourced to India. I think that the potential is there for funny stuff about conflicting cultures, but I just don't know if people are going to be willing to give it a chance.

As far as the replacement dramas are concerned, Harry's Law interests me not at all. I am rather intrigued by the concept behind The Cape which reminds a lot of the classic 1940s style "mystery men" comic book characters who for whatever reason put on a costume and fought crime armed with nothing more than determination and a good right cross. Characters of this sort included the original Mr. Terrific, the original Atom, Wildcat, and yes even Batman. If they do this right it could pick up a following.

Of the comedies for mid-season, I suppose the one that interests me most is The Paul Reiser Show, which is suspect is also the one least likely to succeed. While Friends With Benefits and Perfect Couples look like shows that we've seen before (with the base model being Friends) The idea behind The Paul Reiser Show seems to be of a slightly higher quality, reminiscent of the way Larry David "plays" a version of himself on Curb Your Enthusiasm. It has probably been tried before, at least as far back as the Dick van Dyke Show but it still seems like a new idea for network TV. So of course it probably won't last.

Next up, FOX (just as soon as I write it).

Weekend Videos – It’s Mother’s Day

I had almost forgotten that this is Mother's Day until my brother reminded me by telling us that he's cooking supper on Sunday (which I dread because I'm better on the barbecue than he is). As usual I was planning on doing a Mother's Day tribute, but with my recent decision to do videos on the weekend I thought I'd do it a little differently this time around – instead of photos, post videos. But videos of what? What would be my inspiration?

Fortunately succour was at hand. My friend Valerie has three kids, one of whom is getting married this month. Val, whose birthday is on May 9^th – Mother's Day this year – is slightly freaking. Actually she posted on her Facebook page, "The word MOTHER IN-LAW is starting to freak me out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" And there it was – inspiration. The supposedly dark side of mothering...The Mother-In-Law.

Mothers-in-law have, on the whole, a negative reputation. For the most part this is courtesy of stand-up comics who usually make their mothers-in law the butt of their jokes. Mothers-in-law in these jokes are inevitably antagonistic to their sons-in law (usually – in more recent shows like Everybody Loves Raymond it's the wife who is targeted by the mother-in-law venom) for not being good enough for their little baby. Mothers-in-law are inevitably seen as interfering with the lives of the next generation on the grounds that "mother knows best."

Our first example comes from this school of mothers-in-law. It's probably inevitable that Ralph Kramden would have an antagonistic relationship with his mother-in-law. Played her by Ethel Owen, Mrs. Gibson doesn't give Ralph any respect at all, not about his weight, his lack of money or his status as the head of the household. This clip, from Mrs. Gibson's second appearance in a Honeymooners piece (her first was in a story that was done on the original Jackie Gleason Show called "The Great Jewel Robbery") contains the great moment when Ralph comes into the apartment and just stares at her with undisguised antagonism. Later in this episode, in a clip that I'm not embedding, we see her entire attitude change when she thinks that Ralph has struck it rich. She not only become respectful she's downright fawning, to the point of telling her daughter to "be quiet" when Alice tries to reign in Ralph's spending. Mrs. Gibson (she's never given a first name) was played by Ethel Owen in five episodes of the original Jackie Gleason Show and The Honeymooners. Years later the character appeared in a colour Honeymooners segment of the 1960s Jackie Gleason Show. In this episode she was played by Pert Kelton in one of her final acting roles. Kelton had originally played Alice Kramden in the first seasons of the Jackie Gleason Show, when the show was seen on the Dumont network.

In a similar style to the relationship between Ralph Kramden and Alice's mother is the relationship between Fred Flintstone and his mother-in-law Mrs. Pearl Slaghoople. Their interactions are almost entirely verbal, since an animated character – particularly a character from the Hanna-Barbera stable of limited animation – can't really sell an attitude based solely on a facial expression in the way that an actor like Jackie Gleason is able to. However, like Mrs. Gibson, Mrs. Slaghoople is entirely disdainful of her son-in-law even though Fred is probably a better provider than Ralph Kramden is (of course they're living in Bedrock not metropolitan New York). Pearl Slaghoople is voiced by Verna Felton, who is probably best known to Old Time Radio fans for playing Dennis Day's mother on the various incarnations of The Jack Benny Program. She even played Dennis's mother on TV, heaping the same sort of abuse on Mr. Benny as she did on her animated son-in-law.

Of course it isn't just men who are the victims of mothers-in-laws. Consider Marie Barone on Everybody Loves Raymond. Marie rules not by insult and intimidation but by making every member of her family feel guilty for even breathing. Her biggest target is her daughter-in-law Debra who at least tries to fight back (but will never win), and her sons Raymond and Robert who just roll over and accept it. In this clip we see that Ray gets along fine with his mother-in-law, but Debra and Marie? Just watch Debra try to call Marie Mom? Marie takes shots from the moment she appears in the scene, and when Debra finally gets the word out Marie turns into the iceberg that sank the Titanic. Beautiful understanding of the character from Doris Robertrs.

Of course when it came to "troublesome" mothers-in-law, no one came close to Darrin Stevens. When he said that his mother-in-law was a witch he wasn't exaggerating. Endora almost never had a good word for her son-in-law, including his real name. In fact, according to the Wikipedia article on Bewitched, Endora only ever called Darrin by his correct name eight times. A favourite was "Dum-Dum." Like many of TV mothers-in-law she didn't think her daughter's husband was good enough for her daughter, but unlike most of them she made a significant and active effort to break up their relationship, whether by bringing in one of Samantha's old boyfriends or by some other complicated scheme. Her antipathy to Darrin ran deeper than just that he wasn't good enough for him. Put into real world terms, it was as like a wealthy woman marrying a man in the middle class, although this wasn't the only dimension to it. Samantha wasn't just a child of privilege, she was someone with a special ability that Darrin refused to allow her to use. It is so typically a 1960s situation that is seen in numerous other shows. If you were to remake Bewitched today and Darrin were to order Samantha not to use her powers, not only would she tell him where to get off, she'd probably take him there, and most of the women viewers would applaud. But in the days when the firm of McMahon & Tate was competing against Sterling Cooper, women like Samantha Stevens and Betty Draper were dutiful wives and suffered in silence.

Most mothers-in-law on TV shows were treated fairly enough. Ricky Ricardo got along well with Lucy's mother, while Lucy's biggest problem with Senora Ricardo was the language barrier. Jed Clampett's mother-in-law moved to California with him (but he was a widower), and even Tim Taylor got along famously with his wife's mother on Home Improvement. I don't think that the "harridan" mother-in-law was ever really as common on TV as we thought it was, and it's probably a thing of the past... unless it's really really funny.

Weekend Videos – TV Themes

I want this weekly segment to be rather special and so I find Inspiration where I can. In this particular case my inspiration was an interview that Media Week's Mark Berman did with Dan Schneider. Now some people might remember Schneider from the Howard Hesseman comedy Head Of The Class (or maybe not – think Welcome Back Kotter with uber-smart kids not Sweathogs). Schneider played the overweight but extremely knowledgeable Dennis Blunden. Since then, Schneider has become a well known producer of kids' shows working for Nickelodeon. Among the series he's created are iCarly, Victorious, Zoey 101 and Drake & Josh, all for Nickelodeon, as well as What I Like About You for The WB (which he did with sometimes producing partner Brian Robbins who also starred on Head Of The Class and was one of the producers of Smallville). In the article Schneider told Berman of his fondness for TV theme songs:

The big networks have virtually abandoned TV theme songs. Granted, there are exceptions like The Big Bang Theory. A theme song is like the soul of a TV show. Imagine Cheers, Friends, All in the Family, M*A*S*H, Mary Tyler Moore or Happy Days without their classic openings. Luckily, Nickelodeon gets it.

As for my favorite TV theme song of all time? Maybe The Brady Bunch, Gilligan's Island or The Beverly Hillbillies…too many great ones to decide. But if I'm forced to choose, I'm gonna go with either iCarly or Victorious.

Schneider is right; the big networks – by which I presume that he means the Broadcast Networks – have largely abandoned the theme song, and the reason seems pretty obvious: commercials. In the 1960s an hour long show had 51 minutes of actual content and 9 minutes of advertising. Today the same hour long show has 42 minutes of content and 18 minutes of advertising – in other words more than a quarter of the show's nominal running time is given over to advertising. Something has to give, particularly since I think that we can all agree that the story telling in the best Broadcast TV shows has become more complex. Something's got to give in order to accommodate the story telling and I think there are a lot of producers, directors and writers who figure that a thirty second or one minute theme song is a waste of time that they could use for plotting.

And yet you do remember shows with themes, even today. It isn't the only selling point but you do remember cues, and sound is something that you automatically associate to a show even when the music is disconnected from the images. Think of the songs that The Who played during the Superbowl halftime show. More than a few people commented that Townshend and Daltrey played "Who Are You?," "Won't Get Fooled Again," and "Baba O'Riley" on the orders of CBS because they're the theme songs of CSI, CSI: Miami, and CSI: New York. Whether or not it is true, the fact that people thought that proves that people immediately thought not of the first time that they heard these songs "in the wild" but as the themes for the shows proves that the link exists. But of course we've known that for years as anyone who, on hearing the last part of the William Tell Overture immediately recites the words "A fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust, and a hearty heigh-ho Silver away! The Lone Ranger rides again!!"

I suppose that you could argue that the culmination of this is that TV theme songs have been in the top 60 on Billboard's Pop Singles chart in every decade except the 2000s, according to The Complete Directory To Prime Time Network And Cable TV Shows. This means of course that they had radio air play and when they had radio airplay, people inevitably thought of the TV show. In fact, TV theme songs have been in the Top Ten on the list in every decade except the 2000s. So as a starting point for looking TV show themes – and this is another of those subjects that can just go on and one and on because there are so many good original theme songs – let's take a look at the highest ranking TV themes of each decade (well, with one exception, which I'll explain when I get to it).

First up, from the 1990s we have the theme from a really obscure FOX series called The Heights. The series was about a group of young middle class adults who form a band, named The Heights.The show ran for 12 episodes in the Fall of 1992 but never gained an audience. The song, How Do You Talk To An Angel? (sung by series star Jamie Walters) on the other hand hit #1 on the Billboard Charts. In one of those amazing bits of serendipity the song hit #1 in the Billboard Charts one week after the show was cancelled

In the 1980s the theme from Miami Vice was the big hit. Jan Hammer's theme for the show hit #1 on November 2, 1985, a year after the series debuted at the end of September 1984. Hammer won two Grammy Awards for the theme in February 1986 for "Best Pop Instrumental Performance," and "Best Instrumental Composition." I have to confess that this is an absolute favourite of mine (and not just for the anonymous woman who jiggles her way across the screen at the 0:15 mark... although that didn't hurt). It just seems like the right theme for that series.

In the 1970s two themes actually reached the top of the Billboard Charts. The first was the theme from S.W.A.T. This is a bit of a cheat however since the recording, which hit the #1 spot at the end of February 1976, performed by the "disco-funk" band Rhythm Heritage is described in the Wikipedia article about the song as being "a noticeably different recording than the actual TV theme version." As it stands the theme song for the Leonard Goldenberg-Aaron Spelling police action series is pretty good.

The other song to hit the top of the Billboard charts in the 1970s was John Sebastian's theme for Welcome Back Kotter. In fact the song was the reason the show was renamed Welcome Back Kotter. Originally intended to be called simply Kotter producer Alan Sachs wanted a "Lovin' Spoonfuls-like" theme song. John Sebastien, who had been the lead vocalist for the group and also wrote many of their songs, didn't know what to do with that title and came back with Welcome Back which like some of the best theme songs told the back story of the whole show. The song reached the top of the Billboard chart for one week in Spring 1976 after five weeks on the charts.

I recently played the highest charting theme song of the 1960s when I looked at "spy shows" of the 1960s. That song was Secret Agent Man performed by Johnny Rivers. The song replaced the British theme for Danger Man (which was used over the opening for each episode). Originally consisting of one verse and a chorus but as the song became increasingly popular two more verses were added. The song eventually hit #3 in the Billboard Charts.

Instead of playing the Secret Agent theme again, I'm going to turn the song that had the second highest finish of any TV theme songs on the Billboard Charts in the 1960s. That would be the Hawaii Five-0 theme, which hit #4 on the Billboard charts in 1969. Personally I think it's a better piece of music, and extremely evocative of the show. The quick cuts of the show's opening montage, combined with the music creates an immediate sense that this is going to be a fast moving and exciting adventure. The credit sequence is a beautiful piece of work in itself, anticipating the whole idea of a music video. (I confess however that I would watch that over and over just to see that girl turn her head toward the camera. Beautiful.)

The first TV theme to make it onto the top 10 of the Billboard Charts is the theme from Dragnet, played by the Ray Anthony Orchestra, which made it to #2 in 1953. This is something of a cheat since Dragnet had begun as a radio show in 1949 two years before it came to TV in 1951. Still it was and remains one of the iconic television themes. The theme actually consists of two parts, with an interesting history. The first part of the theme (the Dum da dumdum Dum da dumdum duh) is known as "Danger Ahead" and was the subject of a suit by the publishers of Miklos Rozsa's theme for the movie The Killers. Walter Schumann, who composed the Dragnet theme had visited the sound stage where Rosza was recording the movie theme and had picked up the brief melody, which is used as a cue in the movie. Schumann composed the second part of the theme, known as "The Dragnet March" which appears at the end of the show over the credits. A deal was finally worked out to give both men a share fo the credit for the whole piece. That's why for this theme I'm showing the end of an episode of Dragnet, which contains both parts of the music.

Finally, because I don't have a representative for the 2000s I thought I'd look in at what became of the theme that Roza and Schumann composed when it was updated by Mike Post for the ill-fated Dragnet series from 2003, created by Dick Wolff and starring Ed O'Neill. It's actually not a bad theme.

This one of those topics that can (and probably will) go on for a long time because there are so many great pieces of TV theme music. I'd like to know some of my reader's favourites.

Weekend Videos – Top Rated Shows 1950-54

I started this the other day and lost my work when Works "ceased to function" when I saved the file... or thought I saved the file.

The inspiration behind this post was something that I saw in Bill Crider's most excellent blog Bill Crider's Pop Culture Magazine. In this particular case the blog entry directed me to an article on TV.com, called The Most Overrated Shows On Television. The article has staff members from the blog, cloaked in the protective veil of anonymity ("to protect them from your hateful comments") these people listed eight shows that they consider overrated: Lost, The Office, Weeds, American Idol, NCIS, Glee, Mad Men, and 30 Rock. I won't go into detail about the article, but the quality of the comments ranged from trivial to downright inane (just check out the comments on NCIS which seems to focus more on Pauly Perrette's wardrobe and whether or not Michael Weatherly and Mark Harmon are "hot" as reasons why the show is "overrated." That sort of "reasoning" together with the anonymous nature of the writers devalued the article in my opinion. Still it did serve as inspiration for this article, a look at the highest rated shows of each year from 1950 to today... or at least as close to today as YouTube and copyright restrictions will let me get.

Here's the way I want to work it. I will list the top three shows of each year together with the percentage of the nation's televisions that were tuned to the show. I'll try to post a comment on the shows as well as one or two clips from the show. If clips from the show are unavailable or the show has already been featured on this list then I'll find clips from the next highest show, and so on. The data is taken from The Complete Directory To Prime Time Network And Cable TV Shows.

1950-51:
Texaco Star Theater 61.6%, Fireside Theater 52.6%, Philco TV Playhouse 45.3%.

Texaco Star Theater was of course the show that made Milton Berle into Mr. TV. The show started as a variety series but became increasingly Berle's show. Eventually Berle would leave sponsor Texaco and would star in his own series, The Milton Berle Show which ran until 1956, and retained much the same format as what the Texaco Star Theater had become by the end of his time with the show. These viewership figures show that everybody watched Berle. Fireside Theater was a half-hour drama anthology. Later it would be renamed The Jane Wyman Show after its most famous host. The show ran from 1949 to 1958. Also debuting in 1948 The Philco TV Playhouse was an hour long dramatic anthology series. By 1950 the show had evolved into a mix of adapted and original plays, musicals featuring actors who either were stars or who would become major stars, including Anthony Quinn, Grace Kelly, Paul Newman, Julie Harris and, in the last episode of the series, Sidney Poitier.

1951-52:
Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts 53.8%, Texaco Star Theater 52.0%, I Love Lucy 50.9%

Arthur Godfrey was a long-time radio host who made the transition from radio to television with not one but two variety shows, Arthur Godfrey And His Friends, and this show Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. In 1951-52 both shows were in the top ten in viewership. This really wasn't an amateur show since most of the acts that appeared on the show had some professional experience but needed that "big break." Among the stars "discovered" by Godfrey's Scouts were Tony Bennett, Rosemary Clooney, Leslie Uggams, Roy Clark and Patsy Cline. Famously the show passed on a couple of acts that really went somewhere – Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly. As for I Love Lucy, well wait for the next clips.

1952-53: I Love Lucy 67.3%, Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts 54.7%, Arthur Godfrey And His Friends 47.1%

What can you say about I Love Lucy? Well how about this; between 1951 when the show debuted and 1957 when the last half-hour episodes were shot it was only out of first place in the ratings twice, once in 1951 and once in 1955 when The $64,000 Question was the hottest show on TV. The show marked the debut of the three camera filming system for comedies (so Desi and Lucy wouldn't have to move to New York to do the show), and while it was not the first series to feature a star having a baby it was the first mainstream series to do so. The spike in viewership in this season is undoubtedly explained by the fact that this season marked the birth of Little Ricky. Arthur Godfrey And His Friends was Godfrey's second series, a music show which featured a variety of acts. This season was the one that featured Julius LaRosa whose firing by Godfrey was a major new story.

I'm also including an in-show performance of Babalu by Desi Arnaz because, well I like it!

1953-54: I Love Lucy 58.8%, Dragnet 53.2%, Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts 54.7%

Dragnet was in its third season and had built its audience significantly from its debut season in 1951-52. While those of us of a "certain age" remember the 1960's incarnation of the series as being unintentionally funny and certainly "square," the 1950s version of the series was the real deal, touching on subjects from gun control, juvenile delinquency and pornography to unwed mothers, child abandonment and pedophilia. The 1950s version of the show really was hard hitting (and I don't just mean the way that Joe Friday dealt with some suspects). Look for Lee Marvin in this one.

1954-55:
I Love Lucy 58.8%, The Jackie Gleason Show 42.4%, Dragnet 53.2%

When most of us think of Jackie Gleason on TV we think of The Honeymooners, but that show only ran for a single season, 1955-56. Before and after that single season of The Honeymooners was The Jackie Gleason Show, a comedy variety series with a heavy emphasis on sketch comedy. Gleason did shorter Honeymooners stories but had a huge number of characters including Reggie van Gleason III, Joe the Bartender, The Poor Soul and a host of others.

I think I'll try to run this format on a monthly basis.

Frustration And Happy Town Swag

Sometimes it... well it doesn't suck to be Canadian but it can be more than a bit frustrating to try to produce this sort of blog when you're a Canadian. Take what happened the other day when I got my Happy Town press package – aka swag – from ABC.

I knew most of the details of what was coming because my good buddy Toby got his a few days before I did. Then again he's in New York and as a result doesn't have to cope with Canada Customs examining packages coming across the border. Still, there's a bit of a thrill in getting something like this, and since this is really the first time that I've received a package like this it was a bit special. The package included a one page newspaper talking about the disappearance of Entertainment Editor and well-known blogger Brent McKee and included a link to the online version of the news story.

Besides the newspaper, the package included this post card featuring scenes from around Haplin Minnesota – known as "Happy Town" to the locals – Miranda Kirby, your full service realtor. There's a certain sinister quality to the picture son the card. Maybe it's the strange colour to the photos, or maybe it's the clouds.

There's also a from Big Dave's Pizza Barn, where the New York style pizzas have an authentic quality: "The best way to do that is to use authentic New York City tap water in the dough – shipped to Haplin direct from New York, twice a week." The list of pizzas is small and rather pedestrian.

But the main feature of the menu is a map of Haplin and the surrounding district.

Next up is a scented candle (with an ABC logo on the top).

Then there's a two sided snow globe. On one side is scene on a lake with the woods behind (it also appears on the post card) and on the other a scene of downtown Haplin, dominated by the Our Daily Bread Factory – "The Bready" to the locals – looming over the town like a somehow sinister industrial-era castle. And there's something else that's a bit sinister on one of the buildings, the sign of the notorious Magic Man.

There's a bag of Our Daily "bread." Apparently it actually contains a T-shirt, but it's packed in there too tightly for me to get it out without damaging the bag.

There's a fridge magnet seemingly advertising a German movie - Die Blaue Tur (The Blue Door) which has the tag line "Betreten auf eigene gefahr" ("Enter at your own risk") - but really advertises the House Of Ushers movie memorabilia store.

Finally there's a coffee mug with the Magic Man's symbol on it.

There was actually one other thing in the package, a sheet of paper with a web address where I could watch the first episode of Happy Town online before the general public. And that's where the frustrations comes in, because when I went to the link I was duly informed that the video was unavailable to me. Because I live in Canada, or at least not in the United States. I mean I know why it happens; someone else owns the rights to Happy Town in Canada and they aren't participating in the ABC promotional campaign. Still would it really have hurt to send out a DVD or even a USB drive with the first episode of the show on it? I promise I won't make illegal copies and sell them on my front lawn

So I won't be able to tell you what I think of Happy Town before the show actually airs. Which I sort of think is unfortunate. Part of the purpose of a media critic is to give potential patrons an informed opinion about a TV show or a movie or a game before the material is released to the general public. The principle, which TV executives are obviously aware of, is that positive comments from critics even if they are bloggers will help to draw viewers to their product. And if critics don't like it, well there is still the chance that it might hit anyway "proving the critics wrong." But that only works if critics are able to see the show before it airs. The problem here is that while I am indeed a Canadian, my blog has an audience that is not exclusively Canadian. In fact according to Google Analytics the majority of the people who visit this blog in the past month came from the United States. The thing about the Internet is that you reach an audience without boundaries, unless of course you are dealing with companies that aren't aware of the fact. I guess what I'm saying is that would it have killed ABC to have included a DVD or a USB drive instead of tantalizing me with a website that I can't use?

As far as the press kit goes, I loved it, maybe because it was my first, or maybe because it seemed like fun. It might even be worth something someday, if Happy Town turns out to be a big hit. It might be worth more if the show has a short run and develops a small but devoted – even rabid – fan following. Will it influence what I write about the show? Well if that was why they sent it out it's a failure because when it comes to reviewing shows, I call them as I see them... when I can see them.