DAY TIME SERIES
MONDAY: 8:00 p.m. “Wife Swap”
9:00 p.m. “The Bachelor”/”Supernanny”
10:00 p.m. “What About Brian”
TUESDAY: 8:00 p.m. “Dancing with the Stars” (new night)/”Set for the Rest of Your Life” (new alternative series)
9:00 p.m. “Let’s Rob…” (new comedy series)
9:30 p.m. “Help Me Help You” (new comedy series)
10:00 p.m. “Boston Legal”
WEDNESDAY: 8:00 p.m. “Dancing with the Stars” (new night)/”George Lopez”/
“According to Jim” (new night)
9:00 p.m. “Lost”
10:00 p.m. “The Nine” (new drama series)
THURSDAY: 8:00 p.m. “Big Day” (new comedy series)
8:30 p.m. “Notes from the Underbelly” (new comedy series)
9:00 p.m. “Grey’s Anatomy” (new night and time)
10:00 p.m. “Six Degrees” (new drama series)
FRIDAY: 8:00 p.m. “Betty the Ugly” (new comedy series)
9:00 p.m. “Men in Trees” (new drama series)
10:00 p.m. “20/20”
SATURDAY: 8:00 p.m. “ABC Saturday Night College Football”
SUNDAY: 7:00 p.m. “America’s Funniest Home Videos”
8:00 p.m. “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”
9:00 p.m. “Desperate Housewives”
10:00 p.m. “Brothers & Sisters” (new drama series)
Editors please note: Shows picked up but not listed on the schedule will debut later in the 2006-07 season.
Following, in alphabetical order, are descriptions of the new series joining ABC’s primetime schedule next season (all times are Eastern):
DRAMAS
“Brothers & Sisters” (one-hour, Sunday, 10:00 p.m., ET) – The adult children of William Walker, along with their respective families, have gathered to celebrate Kitty’s birthday. Little do they know that, on this day, their lives will take a dramatic turn.
Kitty's radio success has led to a TV pundit job in Los Angeles, but her New York boyfriend just proposed. Down to earth Thomas has joined forces with his sister, Sarah, a high powered executive and mother of three, in an effort to fix the family business. Kevin’s well-ordered life is shaken by the news that his ex-wife is moving his adolescent son to Texas. Justin, a Gulf War vet, has kicked nicotine, but other addictions keep him from moving forward in his career and love life. These siblings are about to find out that underneath the idyllic family façade lie many secrets that threaten to either tear the family apart or bring them closer together.
As told through the insightful eyes of the family's most outspoken and public sibling, Calista Flockhart (“Ally McBeal”) stars alongside Rachel Griffiths (“Six Feet Under”) and Ron Rifkin (“Alias”) in this warm, humorous and relatable drama from producer Ken Olin (“Alias”) and Jon Robin Baitz, one of Broadway's most prominent playwrights (“The Substance of Fire”).
Cast:
Calista Flockhart (“Ally McBeal”): Kitty Walker
Ron Rifkin (“Alias”): Saul Ashman
Balthazar Getty (“Alias”): Thomas Walker
Rachel Griffiths (“Six Feet Under”): Sarah Walker
Dave Annable (“Reunion”): Justin Walker
Patricia Wettig (“Prison Break”): Holly Harper
John Pyper-Ferguson (“Smallville”): Jed Traylor
Sarah Jane Morris (“Felicity”): Jennifer Walker
Jimmy “Jax” Pinchak (“CSI”): Teddy Traylor Credits:
EP/Writer: Jon Robin Baitz (“The Substance of Fire”)
EP/Director: Ken Olin (“Alias”)
EP: Marti Noxon (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer”)
Production Company: Touchstone Television
“Day Break” (one-hour) – We’ve all had bad days… the kind of day where nothing goes our way and we just can’t wait to put it behind us. Detective Brett Hopper is having one of those hellacious days… only he can’t put it behind him because he’s living the same day over and over again.
On this particular day, Hopper will be accused of killing Asst. DA Alberto Garza. He will offer a solid alibi which no one will believe. He will realize he's been framed. And he will run, discovering en route that not only he, but his loved ones, are also in danger. He’ll then wake up and relive the same day over and over again. In order to break the cycle and move on, he will have to figure out who framed him and solve the complex mystery surrounding Garza’s death. He will also be forced to heal the fractured relationships with those he loves. Only when Harper figures out why his life is broken and how to fix it will he awaken to a brand new day.
Taye Diggs (“Kevin Hill”) stars in an action-packed, thrilling re-imagining of the “Groundhog Day” concept from director Rob Bowman (“The X-Files,” “Reign of Fire”) and the writer of “After the Sunset.”
Cast:
Taye Diggs (“Rent”): Det. Brett Hopper
Meta Golding (“JAG”): Jennifer Mathis
Moon Bloodgood (“Eight Below”): Rita Shelton
Victoria Pratt (“Mutant X”): Andrea Battle
Ramon Rodriguez (“Rescue Me”): Damien
Adam Baldwin (“NCIS”): Chad Shelton Credits:
EP: Jeff Bell (“The X-Files”)
EP: Matt Gross (“Don’t Say A Word”)
Co-EP/Writer: Paul Zbyszewski (“After the Sunset”)
EP/Director: Rob Bowman (“The X-Files”)
Production Company: Touchstone Television
“Men in Trees” (one-hour, Friday, 9:00 p.m., ET) – Finding a good man in today's world isn't as difficult as some women think. You just have to watch out for the signs. You wouldn't drive with a blindfold on but, for some reason, women continue to date with one.
Relationship coach Marin Frist knows what to look for, what to avoid and what will make her happy. As the many fans of her two bestselling books could tell you, we're all in charge of our own happiness. Marin's personal happiness includes the upcoming wedding to her "perfect man." But like many people full of advice, she fails to apply it to herself. On her way to a speaking engagement in Alaska, she learns that her fiancé has cheated on her... the wedding plans are instantly over. Slapped in the face with personal failure, a snowstorm then leaves her stuck in a small town full of the one thing she really doesn't need -- available men. Marin's friends and her publisher try to lend long-distance support, but the fact remains she’s been living with her eyes closed for too long. Now that they're finally open, she sees the amazingly beautiful world surrounding her, and for the first time she'll have the chance to stop and breathe. Now if she could just get the raccoon out of her hotel room, this place might be perfect.
From the head writer of “Sex and the City” and the director of the Academy Award®-winning “Walk the Line” comes a fun and sexy drama about finding love in the most unexpected places. Anne Heche (“Nip/Tuck”) stars.
Cast:
Anne Heche (“Nip/Tuck”): Marin Frist
James Tupper (“Gilmore Girls”): Jack
Suleka Mathews (“The West Wing”): Sara
Derek Richardson (“Felicity”): Patrick
Emily Bergl (“Gilmore Girls”): Annie
Abraham Benrubi (“ER): Ben
Sarah Strange (“Life As We Know It”): Theresa
Seana Kofoed (“Law & Order”): Jane
John Amos (“The West Wing”): Buzz Credits:
EP/Writer: Jenny Bicks (“Sex and the City”)
EP: Kathy Conrad (“Walk the Line”)
EP/Director: James Mangold (“Walk the Line”)
Production Company: Tree Line Film, Perkins Street Productions, NS Pictures Inc., Warner Bros. Television
“The Nine” (one-hour, Wednesday, 10:00 p.m., ET) – So much in life is beyond your control. You may go about your day like any other when suddenly a random moment, an accident, a blessing, even a stranger redirects your life forever. And on that day, it's up to you to decide if that moment will stop you in your tracks or lift you up to new heights.
Nine people will face just such an unexpected twist when they are caught in a bank robbery gone wrong and endure a 52-hour hostage standoff that will leave more than one person dead. When all is said and done, these people will never be the same. They will share the common bond of what happens inside the bank and will be forever affected and intertwined because of it.
From the creator of “Without a Trace” and an executive producer of “The West Wing” comes a dramatic character study that will keep audiences hooked with the mystery of what happened during the hostage standoff. Each episode will begin with a flashback to reveal another 10 minutes of the hostage crisis, uncovering why and how these nine strangers are still linked today. Tim Daly (“Wings”), Chi McBride (“Boston Public”) and Scott Wolf (“Party of Five”) star.
Cast:
Chi McBride (“Boston Public”): Malcolm
Jessica Collins (“CSI”): Lizzie
Tim Daly (“Wings”): Nick
Kim Raver (“24”): Kathryn
Scott Wolf (“Party of Five”): Jeremy
John Billingsley (“Star Trek: Enterprise”): Egan
Lourdes Benedicto (“24”): Eva
Camille Guaty (“Prison Break”): Franny
Owain Yeoman (“Troy”): Lucas
Dana Davis (“Veronica Mars”): Felicia Credits:
EP/Writer: Hank Steinberg (“Without a Trace”)
Co-EP/Writer: K.J. Steinberg (“Beautiful People,” “Judging Amy”)
EP/Director: Alex Graves
Production Company: Warner Bros. Television, Sunset Road Productions
“Six Degrees” (one-hour, Thursday, 10:00 p.m., ET) – Who will you touch? Who will touch you? They say that anyone on the planet can be connected to any other person through a chain of six people, which means that no one is a stranger… for long. In this hour-long drama from the producers of “Lost” and “Alias,” six very different New Yorkers go about their lives without realizing the impact they're having on one another – yet. A mysterious web of coincidences will gradually draw these strangers closer, changing the course of their lives forever. Is it happenstance? Fate? Is there a greater force at work in our world, guiding us along and connecting our lives?
This intriguing tale of intertwined destinies reminds us that romance, success, peace or forgiveness might be right around the corner, but they can also be lost in an instant. It’s a story that underlines just
how small the world really is, and how someone just five people away might be shaping our future right now. Jay Hernandez (“Friday Night Lights”), Erika Christensen (“Flightplan”), Bridget Moynahan (“Sex and the City”), Dorian Missick (“Lucky Number Slevin”), Hope Davis (“About Schmidt”) and Campbell Scott (“The Secret Lives of Dentists”) star.
Cast:
Jay Hernandez (“Friday Night Lights”): Carlos
Bridget Moynahan (“I, Robot”): Whitney
Hope Davis (“Proof”): Laura
Campbell Scott (“Loverboy”): Steven Casemen
Dorian Missick (“Lucky Number Slevin”): Damian
Erika Christensen (“Traffic”): Mae Anderson Credits:
EP: J.J. Abrams (“Lost,” “Alias”)
EP: Bryan Burk (“Lost,” “Alias”)
EP/Writer: Stu Zicherman (“Elektra”)
EP/Writer: Raven Metzner (“Elektra”)
Director: Rodrigo Garcia (“Six Feet Under”)
Production Company: Touchstone Television
“Traveler” (one-hour) – Jay, Tyler and Will are friends who have spent the last two years in grad school. They are about to depart on a summer trip when a simple prank to rollerblade through one of New York City's most famous museums makes Jay and Tyler prime suspects in a terrorist bombing that destroys the museum seconds later. Hopeful that Will can help clear up this misunderstanding, they learn he's been missing since the explosion and think he may be dead. They’re unable to turn to authorities when they realize they can't prove Will even exists. In every photo from the past two years, he has managed to block his face.
Who will believe them? Friends, family, lovers? The boys are pawns in a conspiracy that will take years to unravel, and the government may not have their best interests at heart. Their friendship will be tested like never before as they try to uncover the truth, while avoiding detection of not only the FBI, but everyone in America who has seen their faces on TV as suspects in the bombing.
Director David Nutter, who has defined many series including “The X-Files,” “Without a Trace” and “Supernatural,” along with the writer of “Eight Below” and the Oscar®-winning producers of “American Beauty” combine “The Fugitive” with “Enemy of the State” in a taut, tense thriller of innocents on the run. Flashing back to the prior two years to illustrate the formation of this friendship and Will's insidious behavior, this action-packed drama taps into our paranoia with pure adrenaline-fueled entertainment. Matthew Bomer (“Tru Calling”) and Logan Marshall-Green (“The O.C.”) star.
Cast:
Matthew Bomer (“Tru Calling”): Jay Burchell
Logan Marshall-Green (“The O.C.”): Tyler Fog
Aaron Stanford (“X-Men 2”): Will Traveler
Viola Davis (“Law & Order: SVU”): Agent Jan “Naj” Marlow
Steven Culp (“Desperate Housewives”): Agent Fred Chambers Credits:
EP: Dan Jinks (“American Beauty”)
EP: Bruce Cohen (“American Beauty”)
Writer: David Digilio (“Eight Below”)
Production Company: Warner Bros. Television, The Jinks/Cohen Company
COMEDIES
“Betty the Ugly” (one-hour comedy, Friday, 8:00 p.m., ET) – In the superficial world of high fashion, image is everything. Styles come and go, and the only constants are the wafer-thin beauties who wear them. How can an ordinary girl -- a slightly plump plain-Jane from Queens -- possibly fit in?
If you took a moment to get to know Betty Suarez, you'd see how sweet, intelligent and hard-working she is. But few people do because, in the world of fashion, Betty is the oversized square peg in the petite round hole. When publishing mogul Bradford Meade hands the reigns of his fashion magazine, Mode, over to his son, Daniel, he specifically hires Betty as his son's new assistant – mostly because she's the only woman in NYC Daniel won't sleep with. Though this “player” is reluctant to accept her at first, Betty’s indomitable spirit and bright ideas will eventually win him over. Neither of them really knows the ins and outs of the fashion world, but the two of them are a formidable team against the label-wearing sharks who will do anything to see them fail.
Executive producers Salma Hayek and Silvio Horta, the creator of “Urban Legend,” bring the Latino television phenomenon to an English-speaking audience. America Ferrera (“The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants”) and Eric Mabius (“The L Word”) are the “Working Girl” couple who tackle the colorful, cutthroat world of fashion head on.
Cast:
America Ferrera (“The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants”): Betty Suarez
Eric Mabius (“The O.C.”): Daniel Meade
Ana Ortiz (“Boston Legal”): Hilda
Vanessa Williams (“Chicago Hope”): Wilhelmina Slater
Tony Plana (“24”): Ignacio
Ashley Jensen: Christina
Becki Newton (“Charmed”): Amanda
Mark Indelicato: Justin
Alan Dale (“The O.C.”): Bradford Meade Credits:
EP/Writer: Silvio Horta (“Jake 2.0”)
EP: Ben Silverman (“The Office”)
EP: Salma Hayek (“Frida”)
EP: Jose Tamez (“The Maldonado Miracle”)
Director: Richard Shepard (“Criminal Minds”)
Production Company: Touchstone Television
“Big Day” (half-hour, Thursday, 8:00 p.m., ET) – If “24” married “Father of the Bride,” their child would be “Big Day.” Everything matters at a wedding, and the smallest imperfections can reverberate throughout the event as if lives actually hang in the balance. Choice of side salad? A trivial decision you would think, but for the mother of the bride, this might as well be the most critical decision of her life, and if you're the caterer, you’d better get it right. That’s just the beginning -- the maid of honor accidentally drinks the best man’s contacts after sleeping with him, and the father of the bride wants to stop the wedding. Things are about to get even more complicated for Danny and Alice, as their day turns into a season-long roller coaster where nothing goes according to plan. Over the course of an entire season, each episode will focus on one day – Danny and Alice’s wedding day.
The writers of “What Women Want” and “13 Going on 30” take a full season to dissect the biggest day in any family's life. Marla Sokoloff (“Desperate Housewives”), Josh Cooke (“Four Kings”) and Wendie Malick (“Just Shoot Me”) star.
Cast:
Marla Sokoloff (“Desperate Housewives“): Alice
Josh Cooke (“Four Kings”): Danny
Wendie Malick (“Just Shoot Me”): Jane
Kurt Fuller (“Desperate Housewives”): Steve
Miriam Shor (“Hedwig and the Angry Inch”): Becca
Stephen Rannazzisi (“Kitchen Confidential”): Skobo
Stephanie Weir (“Fun with Dick and Jane”): Lorna Credits:
EP/Writer: Josh Goldsmith and Cathy Yuspa (“13 Going on 30”)
Director: Michael Spiller (“Jake in Progress”)
Production Company: Sony Pictures Television
“Help Me Help You” (half-hour, Tuesday, 9:30 p.m., ET) – Whoever came up with the idea of group therapy? Take a bunch of people who are all really messed up in different ways and put them in a room together to try and help each other out. The group leader, Dr. Bill Hoffman, is probably the craziest and most self-obsessed of all, but his patients would never know it because he hides behind his very respectable celebrity image as a bestselling author of phenomenally successful self-help books.
Directed by Brian Dannelly (“Saved,” “Weeds”), the series explores the comical side of group therapy as members of the group apply the good doctor's advice to the real world with enthusiastic effort, until they begin to realize maybe Dr. Bill should be doing the heavy lifting along with them. Ted Danson (“Cheers”) stars.
Cast:
Ted Danson (“Cheers”): Dr. Bill Hoffman
Charlie Finn (“The Dukes of Hazzard”): Dave
Jim Rash (“That ‘70s Show”): Jonathan
Suzy Nakamura (“Dodgeball”): Inger
Darlene Hunt (“I Heart Huckabees”): Darlene
Jere Burns (“Good Morning Miami”): Michael
Jane Kaczmarek (“Malcolm in the Middle”): Guest Star/Anne Credits:
EP/Writer: Jennifer Konner (“Undeclared”)
EP/Writer: Alexandra Rushfield (“Undeclared”)
Director: Brian Dannelly (“Weeds”)
Production Company: Regency Television
“In Case of Emergency” (half-hour) – Who you were in high school is usually not who you end up being. Harry, Jason, Sherman and Kelly all went to the same high school. Several years on since graduation, their lives haven’t exactly turned out the way they planned. Diet guru Sherman will hijack a pastry truck and over-indulge after discovering his wife left him and cleaned him out. In the face of a fraud indictment, financial whiz Jason will dodge the suicide bullet only to shoot himself in the foot… literally. Unhappily divorced, Harry goes for a relaxing "massage," only to discover his scantily clad “masseuse” is Kelly, their high school valedictorian. A series of emergencies will reunite this hapless brood and they’ll find, at the end of the day, that they’ve got each other in case of emergency.
Director Jon Favreau (“Elf,” “Swingers”) directs Jonathan Silverman (“Jekyll”), David Arquette (“Scream”), Greg Germann (“Ally McBeal”) and Kelly Hu (“The Scorpion King”) as a fresh quartet of emotionally and physically injured oddballs, and Lori Laughlin (“Full House”) as the doctor who grounds them all. Together, they're proving that any colossal mistake can be overcome with a lot of help from your friends... and pain killers.
Cast:
Jonathan Silverman (“The Single Guy”): Harry Kennison
David Arquette (“Scream”): Jason Ventress
Greg Germann (“Ally McBeal”): Sherman Yablonsky
Kelly Hu (“CSI:NY”): Kelly Lee
Lori Loughlin (“Full House”): Dr. Joanna Lupone
Nicholas Roget-King (“Yours, Mine and Ours”): Dylan Credits:
EP/Writer: Howard J. Morris (“According to Jim”)
EP: Emile Levisetti (“Hope & Faith”)
EP/Director: Jon Favreau (“Elf,” “Swingers”)
Production Company: Touchstone Television
“Let’s Rob…” (half-hour, Tuesday, 9:00 p.m., ET) – For almost 20 years, Eugene Gurkin has dreamt of opening a bar, but his dead end job on the late, late janitorial shift won't even fund a bottle of premium booze. In the wake of a co-worker's death, he catches an episode of television. Call it divine intervention, call it a dumb idea, but whatever it is takes hold of Eugene and soon he recruits a group of misfits into his "gang" for a heist to finance their dreams. The target: Rock icon Mick Jagger’s super-luxe Central Park West apartment. Working together, this band of affable, new-age Robin Hoods, who have never even shoplifted a candy bar, are soon casing the joint and prepping for their crime. What they don't know is that there's a much richer target for them… the chance to find hope, self-esteem and confidence within themselves.
From Jon Beckerman and Rob Burnett, producers of “Late Show with David Letterman” and creators of “Ed,” comes a hilarious tale of haves and have nots. Donal Logue (“Grounded for Life”) stars. Mick Jagger appears in a cameo (he is not a series regular).
Cast:
Donal Logue (“Grounded for Life”): Eugene Gurkin
Maz Jobrani (“Life on a Stick”): Gary
Sofia Vergara (“Four Brothers”): Esperanza Villalobos
Kevin Michael Richardson (“The Boondocks”): Rockefeller Butts
Lenny Venito (“NYPD Blue”): Francis “Squatch” Scuacieri
Josh Grisetti: Louis Plunk Credits:
EP/Writer/Director: Rob Burnett (“Ed”)
EP/Writer: Jon Beckerman (“Ed”)
EP: Mick Jagger
EP: Victoria Pearman
Production Company: Touchstone Television
“Notes from the Underbelly” (half-hour, Thursday, 8:30 p.m., ET) – Andrew and Lauren have just found out they're going to have a baby, and they’re having a difficult time following rule number one – keeping it secret. Suddenly switching to decaf, becoming a teetotaler at cocktail parties, and going to the OBGYN are all difficult to keep from family and close friends.
Well Andrew and Lauren are about to learn that, when the secret gets out, the politics of parenthood can be just as demanding as raising a child. Sometimes all that "help" from loving but intrusive parents and "advice" from well-meaning but competitive friends who are trying to show you what great parents they are is not exactly what you're looking for. Knowing what's best for the child could be the easiest part... maintaining your relationships with family and friends can be the real challenge.
Director Barry Sonnenfeld and two producers of “Two and a Half Men” create a comic take on life's greatest adventure. As these friends watch their lives change to accommodate the little stranger, their relationships change in ways they never expected before they were expecting. Peter Cambor and Jennifer Westfeldt (“Kissing Jessica Stein”) star.
Cast:
Peter Cambor (“Up to the Roof”): Andrew
Jennifer Westfeldt (“Numbers”): Lauren
Melanie Paxson (“Cupid”): Julie
Rachael Harris (“The West Wing”): Cooper
Michael Weaver (“Monk”): Danny
Sunkrish Bala (“Barbershop”): Eric Credits:
EP/Writer: Stacy Traub (“What I Like About You”)
EP: Eric Tannenbaum (“Two and a Half Men”)
EP: Kim Tannebaum (“Two and a Half Men”)
Director: Barry Sonnenfeld (“Lemony Snicket’s a Series of Unfortunate Events”)
Production Company: Warner Bros. Television, The Tannenbaum Company
ALTERNATIVE SERIES
“Greg Behrendt’s Wake-Up Call” – Greg Behrendt, acclaimed author of He’s Just Not That Into You, will address one couple’s major issues and use his knowledge of relationships to give them the tools to fix theirs. Through his off-the-cuff comedy and bruised-and-battered romantic experience, Greg takes a close look from a different angle to give our couple advice as a close friend, but also that of sage wisdom.
“Just for Laughs” -- ABC has licensed six half-hour episodes of the hidden-camera comedy series. The series cuts across cultural boundaries and has universal appeal, entertaining audiences of all ages and demographics by mixing clever practical jokes, hidden cameras and a few unsuspecting victims.
“Set for the Rest of Your Life” -- Just imagine: You’re leaving the studio financially independent with a monthly payment for as long as you live! Yes, even if you are to live another 100 years. With a big smile on your face, you will be cashing a monthly check for the rest of your life. Now how does that sound? In this high-tension game show, the contestant will first battle for the highest monthly check possible. Does he end up with $50 a month? $500 a month? Or will he receive well over $10,000 a month? The contestant’s next battle is even more important: Time! Does he win that payment just for one month? For a quarter of a year, half a year, one year? For three, ten, twenty years maybe? Or… for the rest of his life? And… did the contestant’s partner, hidden in a sound-proof isolation booth away from where it’s all happening, help to make that dream come true or turn that dream into a nightmare? “Set for the Rest of Your Life” is a game show for strong relationships only, that’s for sure!
ABC Media Relations: Nicole Nichols (818) 460-5267
Hope Hartman (818) 460-6360
Susan Sewell (212) 456-1508
-- ABC --
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Monday, May 15, 2006
NBC lineup
NBC in 2006-07:
Six New Series, Changes on Six Nights of the Week
NBC, the first network to officially unveil its 2006-07 primetime line-up, will introduce six new series this fall (four dramas and two sitcoms), plus the already announced Sunday Night Football, which replaces regularly scheduled programming on Sunday in fourth quarter. Three established series -- My Name Is Earl, The Office and Law & Order: Criminal Intent -- will move to new time periods, The Apprentice will be rested until midseason, Deal or No Deal will air two nights per week (Monday and Friday at 8 p.m.), and benched reality/competition The Biggest Loser will return to the Wednesday 8 p.m. anchor hour. Also slated for midseason is Crossing Jordan, Scrubs and another edition of Dateline, plus new sitcom The Singles Table, new drama Raines, and a reality/competition series from Simon Cowell called America's Got Talent (which kicks off this summer).
NBC, overall, will make changes on six nights of the week (excluding Saturday, which will remain occupied by Dateline and encore telecasts of its drama series). Although ER, which was rumored to be moving to another night, will remain intact Thursday at 10 p.m., new drama The Black Donnellys will temporarily step into the hour in midseason. ER will return later in the season to finish off the remaining 9 episodes of its 22-episode order.
In addition to the demise of veterans The West Wing and Will & Grace, not returning to NBC this fall are sitcoms Joey and Teachers; midseason dramas Conviction, Heist and The Book of Daniel; the non-scripted Most Outrageous Moments, and fall 2005 occupants Surface, E-Ring, Three Wishes and Inconceivable.
Here is NBC's fall 2006 schedule with new shows in caps, followed by the new program descriptions:
Monday
8:00 p.m. Deal or No Deal
9:00 p.m. HEROES
10:00 p.m. Medium
Tuesday
8:00 p.m. FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS
9:00 p.m. KIDNAPPED
10:00 p.m. Law & Order: SVU
Wednesday
8:00 p.m. The Biggest Loser
9:00 p.m. 20 GOOD YEARS
9:30 p.m. 30 ROCK
10:00 p.m. Law & Order
Thursday
8:00 p.m. My Name Is Earl (new time)
8:30 p.m. The Office (new time)
9:00 p.m. STUDIO 60 ON THE SUNSET STRIP
10:00 p.m. ER (THE BLACK DONNELLYS in midseason)
Friday
8:00 p.m. Deal or No Deal
9:00 p.m. Las Vegas
10:00 p.m. Law & order: Criminal Intent (new day and time)
Saturday
8:00 p.m. Dateline
9:00 p.m. Drama series encores.
10:00 p.m. Drama series encores.
Sunday
7:00 p.m. FOOTBALL NIGHT IN AMERICA
8:00 p.m. SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL
Sunday After Football Season
7:00 p.m. Dateline
8:00 p.m. AMERICA'S GOT TALENT
9:00 p.m. The Apprentice 6 (only one edition next season)
10:00 p.m. RAINES
New Program Descriptions
Dramas
THE BLACK DONNELLYS (midseason)
Created by Crash and Million Dollar Baby scribe Paul Haggis, and set in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen, four young Irish brothers involved in organized crime sink deeper into the criminal underworld. The ensemble cast includes Kirk Acevado, Tom Guiry, Keith Nobbs, Jonathan Tucker, and Olivia Wilde.
FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS
Based on the book and the feature film, the lives of a high school football team and their coach (Early Edition's Kyle Chandler) in a small Texas town are the focus. The cast also includes Connie Britton (Spin City), Zach Gilford, Adrianne Palicki, and Jesse Plemons.
HEROES
A group of regular people find out that they have super human powers, including a disillusioned cop in Los Angeles who can hear thoughts of other people. The cast includes Santiago Cabrera, Tawny Cypress, Greg Grunberg, Ali Larter, Masi Oka, Adrian Pasdar, Hayden Panettiere, Sendhil Ramamurthy, Loenard Roberts, and The Bedford Diaries star Milo Ventimiglia.
KIDNAPPED
After the 15-year old son of a wealthy family has been abducted, the subsequent investigation (where everything, of course, is not as perfect as it seems) is followed throughout the course of the season. Dana Delany, Timothy Hutton, Jeremy Sisto, Delroy Lindo, and Mykelti Williamson star.
RAINES
An eccentric, but brilliant Los Angeles police officer (Jeff Goldblum) solves murders in an unusual way: the victim becomes his partner, while his ability to communicate with the dead remains a figment of his imagination until the mystery is solved. Matt Craven, Dov Davidoff, Luis Guzman, Linda Park, and Nicole Sullivan (The King of Queens) also star.
STUDIO 60 ON THE SUNSET STRIP
Friends star Matthew Perry returns to NBC in this one-hour dramatic look at life behind-the-scenes at a long-running sketch comedy series (reminiscent of Saturday Night Live). Also starring are Sex and the City's Evan Handler, comedian D.L. Hughley, Sarah Paulson, Amanda Peet, former Wings star Steven Weber, and The West Wing's Bradley Whitford.
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Comedies
30 ROCK
The head writer (Tina Fey) of a fictional sketch comedy called The Girly Show tries to come to terms with a temperamental star and a difficult executive producer. Alec Baldwin, Rachel Dratch, Jack McBrayer, and Tracy Morgan co-star.
20 GOOD YEARS
After suddenly realizing they only have about 20 good years left, two New York friends in their 50s (3rd Rock From the Sun's John Lithgow and recent Arrested Development star Jeffrey Tambor) try to make the most of it.
THE SINGLES TABLE (midseason)
Five strangers at a wedding bond, and become friends, after they are seated at a table for singles only. The cast includes John Cho, Conor Dubin, Pascale Hutton, Jarrad Paul and Rhea Seehorn.
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Non-Scripted
AMERICA'S GOT TALENT (midseason)
Describe as a variety show competition, and airing from Las Vegas, the best in singing, dancing and comedy, plus novelty acts will complete in front of a panel of celebrity judges who decide which acts advance.
Six New Series, Changes on Six Nights of the Week
NBC, the first network to officially unveil its 2006-07 primetime line-up, will introduce six new series this fall (four dramas and two sitcoms), plus the already announced Sunday Night Football, which replaces regularly scheduled programming on Sunday in fourth quarter. Three established series -- My Name Is Earl, The Office and Law & Order: Criminal Intent -- will move to new time periods, The Apprentice will be rested until midseason, Deal or No Deal will air two nights per week (Monday and Friday at 8 p.m.), and benched reality/competition The Biggest Loser will return to the Wednesday 8 p.m. anchor hour. Also slated for midseason is Crossing Jordan, Scrubs and another edition of Dateline, plus new sitcom The Singles Table, new drama Raines, and a reality/competition series from Simon Cowell called America's Got Talent (which kicks off this summer).
NBC, overall, will make changes on six nights of the week (excluding Saturday, which will remain occupied by Dateline and encore telecasts of its drama series). Although ER, which was rumored to be moving to another night, will remain intact Thursday at 10 p.m., new drama The Black Donnellys will temporarily step into the hour in midseason. ER will return later in the season to finish off the remaining 9 episodes of its 22-episode order.
In addition to the demise of veterans The West Wing and Will & Grace, not returning to NBC this fall are sitcoms Joey and Teachers; midseason dramas Conviction, Heist and The Book of Daniel; the non-scripted Most Outrageous Moments, and fall 2005 occupants Surface, E-Ring, Three Wishes and Inconceivable.
Here is NBC's fall 2006 schedule with new shows in caps, followed by the new program descriptions:
Monday
8:00 p.m. Deal or No Deal
9:00 p.m. HEROES
10:00 p.m. Medium
Tuesday
8:00 p.m. FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS
9:00 p.m. KIDNAPPED
10:00 p.m. Law & Order: SVU
Wednesday
8:00 p.m. The Biggest Loser
9:00 p.m. 20 GOOD YEARS
9:30 p.m. 30 ROCK
10:00 p.m. Law & Order
Thursday
8:00 p.m. My Name Is Earl (new time)
8:30 p.m. The Office (new time)
9:00 p.m. STUDIO 60 ON THE SUNSET STRIP
10:00 p.m. ER (THE BLACK DONNELLYS in midseason)
Friday
8:00 p.m. Deal or No Deal
9:00 p.m. Las Vegas
10:00 p.m. Law & order: Criminal Intent (new day and time)
Saturday
8:00 p.m. Dateline
9:00 p.m. Drama series encores.
10:00 p.m. Drama series encores.
Sunday
7:00 p.m. FOOTBALL NIGHT IN AMERICA
8:00 p.m. SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL
Sunday After Football Season
7:00 p.m. Dateline
8:00 p.m. AMERICA'S GOT TALENT
9:00 p.m. The Apprentice 6 (only one edition next season)
10:00 p.m. RAINES
New Program Descriptions
Dramas
THE BLACK DONNELLYS (midseason)
Created by Crash and Million Dollar Baby scribe Paul Haggis, and set in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen, four young Irish brothers involved in organized crime sink deeper into the criminal underworld. The ensemble cast includes Kirk Acevado, Tom Guiry, Keith Nobbs, Jonathan Tucker, and Olivia Wilde.
FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS
Based on the book and the feature film, the lives of a high school football team and their coach (Early Edition's Kyle Chandler) in a small Texas town are the focus. The cast also includes Connie Britton (Spin City), Zach Gilford, Adrianne Palicki, and Jesse Plemons.
HEROES
A group of regular people find out that they have super human powers, including a disillusioned cop in Los Angeles who can hear thoughts of other people. The cast includes Santiago Cabrera, Tawny Cypress, Greg Grunberg, Ali Larter, Masi Oka, Adrian Pasdar, Hayden Panettiere, Sendhil Ramamurthy, Loenard Roberts, and The Bedford Diaries star Milo Ventimiglia.
KIDNAPPED
After the 15-year old son of a wealthy family has been abducted, the subsequent investigation (where everything, of course, is not as perfect as it seems) is followed throughout the course of the season. Dana Delany, Timothy Hutton, Jeremy Sisto, Delroy Lindo, and Mykelti Williamson star.
RAINES
An eccentric, but brilliant Los Angeles police officer (Jeff Goldblum) solves murders in an unusual way: the victim becomes his partner, while his ability to communicate with the dead remains a figment of his imagination until the mystery is solved. Matt Craven, Dov Davidoff, Luis Guzman, Linda Park, and Nicole Sullivan (The King of Queens) also star.
STUDIO 60 ON THE SUNSET STRIP
Friends star Matthew Perry returns to NBC in this one-hour dramatic look at life behind-the-scenes at a long-running sketch comedy series (reminiscent of Saturday Night Live). Also starring are Sex and the City's Evan Handler, comedian D.L. Hughley, Sarah Paulson, Amanda Peet, former Wings star Steven Weber, and The West Wing's Bradley Whitford.
----------
Comedies
30 ROCK
The head writer (Tina Fey) of a fictional sketch comedy called The Girly Show tries to come to terms with a temperamental star and a difficult executive producer. Alec Baldwin, Rachel Dratch, Jack McBrayer, and Tracy Morgan co-star.
20 GOOD YEARS
After suddenly realizing they only have about 20 good years left, two New York friends in their 50s (3rd Rock From the Sun's John Lithgow and recent Arrested Development star Jeffrey Tambor) try to make the most of it.
THE SINGLES TABLE (midseason)
Five strangers at a wedding bond, and become friends, after they are seated at a table for singles only. The cast includes John Cho, Conor Dubin, Pascale Hutton, Jarrad Paul and Rhea Seehorn.
----------
Non-Scripted
AMERICA'S GOT TALENT (midseason)
Describe as a variety show competition, and airing from Las Vegas, the best in singing, dancing and comedy, plus novelty acts will complete in front of a panel of celebrity judges who decide which acts advance.
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Grades for the freshman class
Tim Goodman, the top notch TV critic of the SF Chronicle, gave grades to each of the past season's new shows. Good stuff:
The freshman crop of broadcast television series typically clocks in at an 80 percent failure rate, so it's not like you have to be hard on the new kids come grading time.
They make it easy for you.
But still, it must be done. And not all of the grades will reflect rating highs or lows. It's a combination of critical merit and whether they are adding value of some kind to their respective networks -- be it holding the audience of a lead-in series, lowering the demographic or establishing a beachhead on a heretofore dead night.
More weight will be given, however, to whether they are lousy or not. The red pencil is sharpened. The smiley (or frowney) stickers have been bought in bulk. Now, as the freshman season nears its end, let's bust out the letters.
-- "The War at Home," Fox, Sundays. Grade: D. The network will no doubt disagree, saying the ratings have been modest or hopeful, but this series is flat-out awful. And it degrades Fox by even being on the schedule.
-- "How I Met Your Mother," CBS, Mondays. Grade: B+. Easily one of the most underrated of the mainstream TV comedies. Who knew Neil Patrick Harris was this funny?
-- "Kitchen Confidential," Fox, canceled. Grade: B-. Don't blame the show -- based on the book and life of its writer, chef Anthony Bourdain. Blame Fox. This was a decently funny series with a lot of upside that went untapped, of course.
-- "Out of Practice," CBS, Mondays. Grade: C-. This is the network being its old self: star-studded pilot, traditional (and boring and trite) execution, with dull swipes at broad, predictable humor.
-- "Prison Break," Fox, Mondays. Grade: C+. It found a decent audience, but not much else. The premise was ludicrous -- successful white-collar professional robs a bank so he can get sent to prison and bust out his brother on death row -- the writing weak, the acting bad and the execution seriously flawed.
-- "Courting Alex," CBS, Mondays. Grade: C-. How any show can ruin the efforts of Jenna Elfman is mystifying, but this one does.
-- "The New Adventures of Old Christine," CBS, Mondays. Grade: B+. Finally a workable vehicle for "Seinfeld" alum Julia Louis-Dreyfus. The series is growing and getting better.
-- "Just Legal," WB, canceled. Grade: B-. Right show, wrong network. If Don Johnson as an aging, drunken lawyer paired with young, idealistic Jay Baruchel had been on CBS, it may have played for eight seasons. These kinds of programming miscues are why the WB is folding.
-- "Commander in Chief," ABC, on hiatus. Grade: C. Don't read much hope into "on hiatus." This series, an out-of-the-box hit that ruined itself with behind-the-scenes wrangling, then awful writing, is dead.
-- "Sex, Lies & Secrets," UPN, canceled. Grade: F. Deserved its fate. Then again, it never deserved to air.
-- "Free Ride," Fox, Wednesdays. Grade: D. This could have been a great series, but it tried too hard and the network allowed an obviously ill-conceived character to drag the whole thing down. A case of not enough notes, no guiding hand.
-- "Freddie," ABC, Wednesdays. Grade: D. Moronic and excessively awful, but enough people actually watched it so it has been renewed. As a reminder -- that doesn't make it good.
-- "Invasion," ABC, Wednesdays. Grade: B. Solidly entertaining, well-written and acted, the series never really caught on behind "Lost" when almost everyone believed that was a successful pairing. Still, you can't fault ABC on this one.
-- "The Loop," Fox, hopefully canceled. Grade: F. One word: Asinine. But the theme song, "Hockey Monkey," was great.
-- "Pepper Dennis," WB, hopefully canceled. Grade: D. Rebecca Romijn couldn't save this because she couldn't hire better writers on her own. She played a TV reporter. Here's the news of the day: The WB may have had one of the worst development seasons in recent memory.
-- "The Unit," CBS, Tuesdays. Grade: B+. David Mamet and Shawn Ryan ("The Shield") have taken their R-rated sensibilities and made a compelling series about Delta Force soldiers, led by Dennis Haysbert. Very entertaining.
-- "Teachers," NBC, hopefully canceled. Grade: D+. Why the plus part? Sarah Shahi from "The L Word" was in this. Still, not enough to merely dislike it.
-- "E-Ring," NBC, canceled. Grade: D. Benjamin Bratt, Dennis Hopper, the military ... no. Leave that to CBS. It just never seemed realistic. Or compelling.
-- "Criminal Minds," CBS, Wednesdays. Grade: B. Who knew CBS could tap into the FBI profiler bucket one more time and pull up a hit? Excessively violent and at times pretentious, it still had enough good performances from a disparate cast to win viewers.
-- "The Apprentice: Martha Stewart," NBC, canceled. Grade: C-. A good idea (Stewart) gone bad (taking the zing out of her). In retrospect, she was held down by the concept and let down by NBC.
-- "The Bedford Diaries," WB, canceled. Grade: F. One of the worst dramas of the year, which caught some headlines about censorship because WB cut content against the producers' wishes. They should have cut it all.
-- "Related," WB, Wednesdays. Grade: C+. It's not going to make the jump to the CW, but it was better than its ratings. A good cast needed better writing and more time.
-- "Bones," Fox, Wednesdays. Grade: B. More forensics, but also more funny. There's witticisms, chemistry and solvable crimes, but there's a fluff factor that prevents it from moving up a notch.
-- "The Night Stalker," ABC, canceled. Grade: D. What a woeful "reimagining" of the cult TV series. It was boring and lifeless and, ultimately, pointless.
-- "What About Brian," ABC, hopefully canceled. Grade: C-. What about him? He's gone missing. Maybe he's looking for love (the premise) because he sure didn't find it here.
-- "My Name Is Earl," NBC, Thursdays. Grade: A+. Finally, a hit sitcom that's actually funny and, not to be too wonkish about it, saved NBC's backside on Thursday night. The series also helped along "The Office" until people could find it, love it and jump on board. So "Earl" is a triple threat. For critics, there's much to love, but on the simplistic end, "Earl" gets belly laughs every week and that's a rarity. And even better, it's a single-camera comedy with no laugh track. Because of the success of "Earl," a record number of similar-styled comedies were made as pilots. Let's hope they get picked up.
-- "Reunion," Fox, canceled. Grade: D. Laughably bad, convoluted and stylistically limiting, this series set out to follow high school seniors as they grew up -- one eventually killing another. It was DOA.
-- "Everybody Hates Chris," UPN, Thursdays. Grade: A. One of the buzz shows of the fall morphed into a funny and touching coming-of-age series based on the childhood of comedian Chris Rock. Easily one of the best network shows that nobody watched, it will get a second chance on the CW.
-- "Sons & Daughters," ABC, canceled. Grade: A. Brilliant, ridiculously funny, improvised and inspired, this was a series that was too smart for the room and you just can't do that on network television.
-- "Supernatural," WB, Thursdays. Grade: B. Entertaining and scary, this urban legend thrill ride was a big surprise (and bright spot) for the WB. Look for it to make the cut at the CW.
-- "The Evidence," ABC, hopefully canceled. Grade: D. The best thing about this cookie-cutter cop show was that it was set in San Francisco. After those two minutes of enjoyment, things became very mediocre.
-- "Heist," NBC, canceled. Grade: D-. A bad series about thieves made worse by trying to make them coy and cool instead of believable or interesting.
-- "Four Kings," NBC, canceled. Grade: D. Faux chemistry, bad boy jokes and unbelievable actors. Seth Green was better than the material, but not enough to overcome it.
-- "Love, Inc.," UPN. Grade: D. There's no love here. It tried too hard and failed easy.
-- "The Book of Daniel," NBC, canceled. Grade: C. Pill-popping priest talks with Jesus. Aidan Quinn was great, but the series tried to hit seven or eight controversial topics at once but never got good at any of them.
-- "Hot Properties," ABC, canceled. Grade: D-. Yet another series that tried to take the magic of "Sex and the City" and transfer it to broadcast television. What they forgot was the writing, acting, premise and overall quality.
-- "Emily's Reasons Why Not," ABC, canceled. Grade: C-. Heather Graham was a welcome addition to the small screen, but not believable as a woman desperate for attention. That's actually funnier than the show.
-- "South Beach," UPN, canceled. Grade: F. Executive produced by J.Lo. Still awful.
-- "Crumbs," NBC, canceled. Grade: D. Fred "Wonder Years" Savage as a gay writer. Cliche filled and humorless, it's a show you probably barely remember. (Well, that could be said about most of these.)
-- "Modern Men," WB, canceled. Grade: F. Yet another example of why the WB is no longer in business at the end of this month. Three guys, modern, who need love help. Vapid and unoriginal and cruel to endure.
-- "Ghost Whisperer," CBS, Fridays. Grade: C. Uncommonly lame, this series should be a C- at best, but a whole lot of people found and liked it on a Friday night. Jennifer Love Hewitt's breasts were prominent stars in most episodes, so maybe there's your real clue. It couldn't have been the writing or the believability -- she talks to dead people. Ah, but the show lived. CBS won.
-- "Love Monkey," CBS, canceled. Grade: A-. Tom Cavanagh played a record company executive who loved music, had cool friends, lived in Manhattan, spoke believable and funny dialogue but just happened to live on a network that doesn't make shows like that. Had he carried an M-16 or worked for the FBI, he'd still be on. One of the bigger shames of the fall.
-- "Close to Home," CBS, Fridays. Grade: B. You have to hand it to CBS. The network knows how to make crime and punishment series that people will watch, even on Fridays. Do they make too many? See: "Love Monkey." But "Close to Home" is a solid show, worth seeking out.
-- "Three Wishes," NBC, Fridays. Grade: B. This should have been a smash hit. People love feel-good, helpful reality shows. Who knows what went wrong.
-- "Threshold," CBS, canceled. Grade: B. Initially a buzz show in a pack of paranormal offerings for the fall, the series lacked the spark that made people want to watch more, and it just faded away.
-- "Inconceivable," NBC, canceled. Grade: F. The title says a lot about why it was even on the air. This fertility series wanted to be a broadcast version of FX's "Nip/Tuck," but was poorly, conceived.
-- "In Justice," ABC, probably canceled. Grade: C-. This show was set in Oakland. But even that's a blur, now. Kyle MacLachlan as a crusader for justice, if memory serves. It didn't really know what it wanted to be and probably won't get a chance to figure that out next season.
-- "Killer Instinct," Fox, canceled. Grade: F. Woeful. Set in San Francisco, so the Bay Area just went 0-3 in the fall.
-- "Twins," WB, canceled. Grade: F. Astonishingly bad. The WB was sold inferior product by producers David Kohan and Max Mutchnick ("Will & Grace"), who were allowed to do pretty much anything, including write bad jokes.
Well, something was probably forgotten in that jumble of mostly forgettable shows. Some of those D grades were generous -- even dubious. Take your pick. Here's hoping that you picked well this season and avoided either the pain of time-sucking lameness (most of what the WB offered) or the pain of finding something great in the dreck (poor "Love Monkey" and "Sons & Daughters") only to watch helplessly as it failed.
Starting next week, most of this class will be dismissed. From then until fall, every network will be looking forward to the new freshman.
The freshman crop of broadcast television series typically clocks in at an 80 percent failure rate, so it's not like you have to be hard on the new kids come grading time.
They make it easy for you.
But still, it must be done. And not all of the grades will reflect rating highs or lows. It's a combination of critical merit and whether they are adding value of some kind to their respective networks -- be it holding the audience of a lead-in series, lowering the demographic or establishing a beachhead on a heretofore dead night.
More weight will be given, however, to whether they are lousy or not. The red pencil is sharpened. The smiley (or frowney) stickers have been bought in bulk. Now, as the freshman season nears its end, let's bust out the letters.
-- "The War at Home," Fox, Sundays. Grade: D. The network will no doubt disagree, saying the ratings have been modest or hopeful, but this series is flat-out awful. And it degrades Fox by even being on the schedule.
-- "How I Met Your Mother," CBS, Mondays. Grade: B+. Easily one of the most underrated of the mainstream TV comedies. Who knew Neil Patrick Harris was this funny?
-- "Kitchen Confidential," Fox, canceled. Grade: B-. Don't blame the show -- based on the book and life of its writer, chef Anthony Bourdain. Blame Fox. This was a decently funny series with a lot of upside that went untapped, of course.
-- "Out of Practice," CBS, Mondays. Grade: C-. This is the network being its old self: star-studded pilot, traditional (and boring and trite) execution, with dull swipes at broad, predictable humor.
-- "Prison Break," Fox, Mondays. Grade: C+. It found a decent audience, but not much else. The premise was ludicrous -- successful white-collar professional robs a bank so he can get sent to prison and bust out his brother on death row -- the writing weak, the acting bad and the execution seriously flawed.
-- "Courting Alex," CBS, Mondays. Grade: C-. How any show can ruin the efforts of Jenna Elfman is mystifying, but this one does.
-- "The New Adventures of Old Christine," CBS, Mondays. Grade: B+. Finally a workable vehicle for "Seinfeld" alum Julia Louis-Dreyfus. The series is growing and getting better.
-- "Just Legal," WB, canceled. Grade: B-. Right show, wrong network. If Don Johnson as an aging, drunken lawyer paired with young, idealistic Jay Baruchel had been on CBS, it may have played for eight seasons. These kinds of programming miscues are why the WB is folding.
-- "Commander in Chief," ABC, on hiatus. Grade: C. Don't read much hope into "on hiatus." This series, an out-of-the-box hit that ruined itself with behind-the-scenes wrangling, then awful writing, is dead.
-- "Sex, Lies & Secrets," UPN, canceled. Grade: F. Deserved its fate. Then again, it never deserved to air.
-- "Free Ride," Fox, Wednesdays. Grade: D. This could have been a great series, but it tried too hard and the network allowed an obviously ill-conceived character to drag the whole thing down. A case of not enough notes, no guiding hand.
-- "Freddie," ABC, Wednesdays. Grade: D. Moronic and excessively awful, but enough people actually watched it so it has been renewed. As a reminder -- that doesn't make it good.
-- "Invasion," ABC, Wednesdays. Grade: B. Solidly entertaining, well-written and acted, the series never really caught on behind "Lost" when almost everyone believed that was a successful pairing. Still, you can't fault ABC on this one.
-- "The Loop," Fox, hopefully canceled. Grade: F. One word: Asinine. But the theme song, "Hockey Monkey," was great.
-- "Pepper Dennis," WB, hopefully canceled. Grade: D. Rebecca Romijn couldn't save this because she couldn't hire better writers on her own. She played a TV reporter. Here's the news of the day: The WB may have had one of the worst development seasons in recent memory.
-- "The Unit," CBS, Tuesdays. Grade: B+. David Mamet and Shawn Ryan ("The Shield") have taken their R-rated sensibilities and made a compelling series about Delta Force soldiers, led by Dennis Haysbert. Very entertaining.
-- "Teachers," NBC, hopefully canceled. Grade: D+. Why the plus part? Sarah Shahi from "The L Word" was in this. Still, not enough to merely dislike it.
-- "E-Ring," NBC, canceled. Grade: D. Benjamin Bratt, Dennis Hopper, the military ... no. Leave that to CBS. It just never seemed realistic. Or compelling.
-- "Criminal Minds," CBS, Wednesdays. Grade: B. Who knew CBS could tap into the FBI profiler bucket one more time and pull up a hit? Excessively violent and at times pretentious, it still had enough good performances from a disparate cast to win viewers.
-- "The Apprentice: Martha Stewart," NBC, canceled. Grade: C-. A good idea (Stewart) gone bad (taking the zing out of her). In retrospect, she was held down by the concept and let down by NBC.
-- "The Bedford Diaries," WB, canceled. Grade: F. One of the worst dramas of the year, which caught some headlines about censorship because WB cut content against the producers' wishes. They should have cut it all.
-- "Related," WB, Wednesdays. Grade: C+. It's not going to make the jump to the CW, but it was better than its ratings. A good cast needed better writing and more time.
-- "Bones," Fox, Wednesdays. Grade: B. More forensics, but also more funny. There's witticisms, chemistry and solvable crimes, but there's a fluff factor that prevents it from moving up a notch.
-- "The Night Stalker," ABC, canceled. Grade: D. What a woeful "reimagining" of the cult TV series. It was boring and lifeless and, ultimately, pointless.
-- "What About Brian," ABC, hopefully canceled. Grade: C-. What about him? He's gone missing. Maybe he's looking for love (the premise) because he sure didn't find it here.
-- "My Name Is Earl," NBC, Thursdays. Grade: A+. Finally, a hit sitcom that's actually funny and, not to be too wonkish about it, saved NBC's backside on Thursday night. The series also helped along "The Office" until people could find it, love it and jump on board. So "Earl" is a triple threat. For critics, there's much to love, but on the simplistic end, "Earl" gets belly laughs every week and that's a rarity. And even better, it's a single-camera comedy with no laugh track. Because of the success of "Earl," a record number of similar-styled comedies were made as pilots. Let's hope they get picked up.
-- "Reunion," Fox, canceled. Grade: D. Laughably bad, convoluted and stylistically limiting, this series set out to follow high school seniors as they grew up -- one eventually killing another. It was DOA.
-- "Everybody Hates Chris," UPN, Thursdays. Grade: A. One of the buzz shows of the fall morphed into a funny and touching coming-of-age series based on the childhood of comedian Chris Rock. Easily one of the best network shows that nobody watched, it will get a second chance on the CW.
-- "Sons & Daughters," ABC, canceled. Grade: A. Brilliant, ridiculously funny, improvised and inspired, this was a series that was too smart for the room and you just can't do that on network television.
-- "Supernatural," WB, Thursdays. Grade: B. Entertaining and scary, this urban legend thrill ride was a big surprise (and bright spot) for the WB. Look for it to make the cut at the CW.
-- "The Evidence," ABC, hopefully canceled. Grade: D. The best thing about this cookie-cutter cop show was that it was set in San Francisco. After those two minutes of enjoyment, things became very mediocre.
-- "Heist," NBC, canceled. Grade: D-. A bad series about thieves made worse by trying to make them coy and cool instead of believable or interesting.
-- "Four Kings," NBC, canceled. Grade: D. Faux chemistry, bad boy jokes and unbelievable actors. Seth Green was better than the material, but not enough to overcome it.
-- "Love, Inc.," UPN. Grade: D. There's no love here. It tried too hard and failed easy.
-- "The Book of Daniel," NBC, canceled. Grade: C. Pill-popping priest talks with Jesus. Aidan Quinn was great, but the series tried to hit seven or eight controversial topics at once but never got good at any of them.
-- "Hot Properties," ABC, canceled. Grade: D-. Yet another series that tried to take the magic of "Sex and the City" and transfer it to broadcast television. What they forgot was the writing, acting, premise and overall quality.
-- "Emily's Reasons Why Not," ABC, canceled. Grade: C-. Heather Graham was a welcome addition to the small screen, but not believable as a woman desperate for attention. That's actually funnier than the show.
-- "South Beach," UPN, canceled. Grade: F. Executive produced by J.Lo. Still awful.
-- "Crumbs," NBC, canceled. Grade: D. Fred "Wonder Years" Savage as a gay writer. Cliche filled and humorless, it's a show you probably barely remember. (Well, that could be said about most of these.)
-- "Modern Men," WB, canceled. Grade: F. Yet another example of why the WB is no longer in business at the end of this month. Three guys, modern, who need love help. Vapid and unoriginal and cruel to endure.
-- "Ghost Whisperer," CBS, Fridays. Grade: C. Uncommonly lame, this series should be a C- at best, but a whole lot of people found and liked it on a Friday night. Jennifer Love Hewitt's breasts were prominent stars in most episodes, so maybe there's your real clue. It couldn't have been the writing or the believability -- she talks to dead people. Ah, but the show lived. CBS won.
-- "Love Monkey," CBS, canceled. Grade: A-. Tom Cavanagh played a record company executive who loved music, had cool friends, lived in Manhattan, spoke believable and funny dialogue but just happened to live on a network that doesn't make shows like that. Had he carried an M-16 or worked for the FBI, he'd still be on. One of the bigger shames of the fall.
-- "Close to Home," CBS, Fridays. Grade: B. You have to hand it to CBS. The network knows how to make crime and punishment series that people will watch, even on Fridays. Do they make too many? See: "Love Monkey." But "Close to Home" is a solid show, worth seeking out.
-- "Three Wishes," NBC, Fridays. Grade: B. This should have been a smash hit. People love feel-good, helpful reality shows. Who knows what went wrong.
-- "Threshold," CBS, canceled. Grade: B. Initially a buzz show in a pack of paranormal offerings for the fall, the series lacked the spark that made people want to watch more, and it just faded away.
-- "Inconceivable," NBC, canceled. Grade: F. The title says a lot about why it was even on the air. This fertility series wanted to be a broadcast version of FX's "Nip/Tuck," but was poorly, conceived.
-- "In Justice," ABC, probably canceled. Grade: C-. This show was set in Oakland. But even that's a blur, now. Kyle MacLachlan as a crusader for justice, if memory serves. It didn't really know what it wanted to be and probably won't get a chance to figure that out next season.
-- "Killer Instinct," Fox, canceled. Grade: F. Woeful. Set in San Francisco, so the Bay Area just went 0-3 in the fall.
-- "Twins," WB, canceled. Grade: F. Astonishingly bad. The WB was sold inferior product by producers David Kohan and Max Mutchnick ("Will & Grace"), who were allowed to do pretty much anything, including write bad jokes.
Well, something was probably forgotten in that jumble of mostly forgettable shows. Some of those D grades were generous -- even dubious. Take your pick. Here's hoping that you picked well this season and avoided either the pain of time-sucking lameness (most of what the WB offered) or the pain of finding something great in the dreck (poor "Love Monkey" and "Sons & Daughters") only to watch helplessly as it failed.
Starting next week, most of this class will be dismissed. From then until fall, every network will be looking forward to the new freshman.
Friday, May 05, 2006
Looking over the 2005-06 season
My friend and colleague Jon Weisman had an online discussion about the almost concluded TV season. Here's the transcript:
Jon: Well, since you're in the thick of this stuff year round, why don't you start us off with what you saw as the overriding story of the '05-'06 season?
Stu: From a programming standpoint, I'd say it was the dominance once again of American Idol. Shows just aren't supposed to find bigger audiences as they get older but Idol defies the odds. Idol just crushes the competition the way the 1977 and 1978 Yankees crushed the Dodgers -- as I'm a big Bombers fan and this is on Jon's Dodger site, I thought you'd enjoy the analogy. Wednesday night's Idol elimination show drew 28.5 million viewers, unheard of in the 500-channel universe.
The other networks are dumbstruck about how to counterprogram against it and the best strategy seems to get away from it as far as possible.
Jon: Or wait three years and reverse the crushing. Perhaps the other networks need to cast Pedro Guerrero and Fernando in something.
As far as dramas go, there were plenty of great shows to fill our Tivos this year. Good watercooler shows, like Lost and The Sopranos, which are compelling at worst and usually brilliant. (I don't buy into the theory that Lost is spinning its wheels - I think it is doing well to take its time.) Big Love - surprisingly unconcerned with soap opera plot twists given its premise - is finding itself. The recent House two-parter was some of the best television I've seen this year. Veronica Mars is clever and entertaining each week, and I can't wait to see if this year's season finale lives up to the awesomity of last years. Those are some of my favorites.
Stu: You're right. There's never been as many great dramas as there are right now. My Tivo is bursting with 'em. Just on Sunday nights you have West Wing, Sopranos, Big Love and Grey's Anatomy. Then there's Lost, which -- to its credit never plays it safe, and House. Those are just the ones on the air right now.
And starting soon is my favorite show of 'em all, Deadwood, with my second choice The Wire to begin in the fall. And what about all the FX stuff: The Shield, Rescue Me and the recently ended Thief, which got killed in the ratings but was intriguing nonetheless.
I'm surprised I still have to time to sleep and eat after catching up on all these.
Jon: Is Thief done already? I've got three of them waiting for me to watch after enjoying the first two. Over There was another worthwhile FX show that died a quiet death. I might add ... as a segue to comedy .. that It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia on FX deserved more attention - any attention, really. It had a great sensibility - twentysomething adults with just the right touch of stupidity.
Stu: Yeah, Thief just tanked in the ratings, even though the reviews were glowing. My feeling is that people got it confused with AMC's Hustle and the far inferior Heist on NBC. You know, Heist ... Thief.... five letters each, cops and robbers series... Yeah, doesn't make sense to me either but it's a theory.
Jon: Actually, that makes a lot of sense. Scary.
Stu: Philadelphia did have some moments but you definitely liked it more than me. I've never been a huge fan of the traditional sitcom, except for Seinfeld and Everybody Loves Raymond, which was great 'til the very end. But I have to give props to the sweet and enduring "How I Met Your Mother" and segueing back to Seinfeld, the Julia Louis-Dreyfus vehicle The New Adventures of Old Christine. Check that one out. In every episode there's 1 or 2 laugh-out loud funny scenes.
Jon: Well, this will get interesting now. I gave up on Mother and Christine pretty quickly - not that they didn't have their moments, but with so many things that were better on, I just couldn't carve out any time for those and have any semblance of a life. I like Neil Patrick Harris okay, but I don't buy him in that role on Mother at all. And the voiceovers by Bob Saget are useless - really, I find them insulting. We disagree about Raymond remaining good until the end, but that's a story from another year.
Talk about laugh-out-loud moments this year, I don't think anything can top The Office. That show has really taken off. It has hilarious premises and executes them almost perfectly. It has the almost effortlessly funny Steve Carrell at the lead and a deep supporting cast. And it has, bar none, the sweetest romance on TV in Jim (John Krasinski) and Pam (Jenna Fischer).
Stu: I definitely need to give another look at The Office. After enjoying the Ricky Gervais series on which it's based, I tuned in last season and was underwhelmed. But you, and everyone else it seems, has told me to give it another try. And I will. I'll make it a priority during the summer when NBC repeats it.
Getting back to dramas for a sec, I have a contrarian viewpoint on House. I like it -- it's getting raves and huge ratings -- but am getting bothered by the same dramatic form every week. Person with near-death malady checks into hospital, everyone misdiagnoses for a half-hour, in final 10 minutes lightbulb goes off in House's head and he astonishingly diagnoses patient by thinking about a completely unrelatable event or case. Problem solved.
Sure that changes sometimes, but it's starting to get a bit old for me. Sorry to digress....
Jon: No, I actually agree with that critique. House (which I assume owes a good portion of its ratings to the Idol lead-in) sometimes falls into that trap. I think that tumors took the prize for like three weeks in a row. I also think that the role of Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) is a cipher - she exists mostly as a foil to Dr. House and can be remarkably slow on the uptake. But I do think that the other House characters are sharply defined. The recent two-parter also gave the show the time to really make House and the staff work to solve the mystery, right until the end.
Years ago, I used to watch ER and Law and Order, but they got old for me, and I never picked up any members of the CSI family. I regret missing out on Maura Tierney, Parminder Nagra and Linda Cardellini, because I've liked them so much in other things, but nothing feels more tired to me than the heavily promoted "very special" ER that seems to come every other week. Am I missing anything?
Stu: Whenever someone mentions Linda Cardellini, I immediately think of the underrated NBC gem Freaks and Geeks of many years ago. It was based on those awkward high school years, circa 1980 Michigan. I grew up on Long Island but that's when I graduated high school and the show hit all the right notes. Check that one out on Netflix now. Now!
Jon: You don't need to tell me about Freaks and Geeks! Its cancellation was perhaps the biggest television crime of the past decade.
Stu: And May 14 marks the final episode of The West Wing, which except for a few episodes here and there, might justly be considered one of the greatest dramas ever. Besides winning four straight Emmys, it perfectly balanced the fine line between intelligent political discussion and broad entertainment - Josh and Donna's romance, Zoe getting kidnapped, the president's creepy son-in-law. I'm really gonna miss it.
Speaking of which, Aaron Sorkin and his consigliere, Tommy Schlamme, have a new show this fall about the behind-the-scenes look at a Saturday Night Live-type variety show. I'm anxiously awaiting to see the pilot and hope it can match my high expectations.
Jon: That seems like a good place to begin wrapping up - by looking ahead. What else should we keep our eyes on? (Or is it too soon to say?)
Stu: A bit tough to say at this point until the fall lineups are announced the week of May 15. Among the nearly hundred pilots shot, the network chieftains will have to decide which shows look best and have the greatest chance to succeed. They often don't make those decisions until the last minute, literally. So I'll get a better sense at that point.
But until September rolls around, do tune in to Deadwood at the beginning of June. I don't mean to sound like an HBO flack but the show is the best written series ever on television. And that's not a fact I throw around lightly.
And speaking of throwing it around lightly, what's up with Eric Gagne? How's that for bringing it back to our regularly scheduled Dodger blogging...
Jon: Um, we're still waiting for the programmers to decide whether Gagne gets canceled or is just on hiatus.
Thanks for doing this, Stu. I can't let you go without asking these final questions:
1) Who should win American Idol, and who will win?
2) Can you pick a single favorite moment from the past TV season?
Stu: 1) I see the final two between Katharine and Chris. Very tough call on who triumphs but by the slightest of margins I say Chris. She's got a better voice but he seems to have more of a following.
2) Almost impossible to pinpoint hundreds of hours of viewing but the final 10 minutes of the last episode of Six Feet Under stands out as a great moment, when we see how and when all the characters will die. And watching Tony Soprano get gunned down by his own Uncle Junior was both shocking and exhilarating.
Jon: Wow - you stole mine. Even though it was last August (I looked up the date and can't believe so much time has passed), when I think of indelible moments from 2005-06, nothing stands out like that closing montage. Six Feet Under had its detractors, but I'm still haunted by that finale.
As for Idol - which I became sucked into against my will during its second season out of loyalty to my wife, but I guess I should take responsibility for my actions - I have also seen Chris and Kat in the final two. I'd like to see Kat win, though Chris is deserving enough that I think he could have lost weeks ago and still done fine with his career. But the wild card is Taylor, who has been something of a high quality novelty act all along, but whose support has never faltered. And wild cards often win the big one, as baseball keeps reminding us ...
Jon: Well, since you're in the thick of this stuff year round, why don't you start us off with what you saw as the overriding story of the '05-'06 season?
Stu: From a programming standpoint, I'd say it was the dominance once again of American Idol. Shows just aren't supposed to find bigger audiences as they get older but Idol defies the odds. Idol just crushes the competition the way the 1977 and 1978 Yankees crushed the Dodgers -- as I'm a big Bombers fan and this is on Jon's Dodger site, I thought you'd enjoy the analogy. Wednesday night's Idol elimination show drew 28.5 million viewers, unheard of in the 500-channel universe.
The other networks are dumbstruck about how to counterprogram against it and the best strategy seems to get away from it as far as possible.
Jon: Or wait three years and reverse the crushing. Perhaps the other networks need to cast Pedro Guerrero and Fernando in something.
As far as dramas go, there were plenty of great shows to fill our Tivos this year. Good watercooler shows, like Lost and The Sopranos, which are compelling at worst and usually brilliant. (I don't buy into the theory that Lost is spinning its wheels - I think it is doing well to take its time.) Big Love - surprisingly unconcerned with soap opera plot twists given its premise - is finding itself. The recent House two-parter was some of the best television I've seen this year. Veronica Mars is clever and entertaining each week, and I can't wait to see if this year's season finale lives up to the awesomity of last years. Those are some of my favorites.
Stu: You're right. There's never been as many great dramas as there are right now. My Tivo is bursting with 'em. Just on Sunday nights you have West Wing, Sopranos, Big Love and Grey's Anatomy. Then there's Lost, which -- to its credit never plays it safe, and House. Those are just the ones on the air right now.
And starting soon is my favorite show of 'em all, Deadwood, with my second choice The Wire to begin in the fall. And what about all the FX stuff: The Shield, Rescue Me and the recently ended Thief, which got killed in the ratings but was intriguing nonetheless.
I'm surprised I still have to time to sleep and eat after catching up on all these.
Jon: Is Thief done already? I've got three of them waiting for me to watch after enjoying the first two. Over There was another worthwhile FX show that died a quiet death. I might add ... as a segue to comedy .. that It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia on FX deserved more attention - any attention, really. It had a great sensibility - twentysomething adults with just the right touch of stupidity.
Stu: Yeah, Thief just tanked in the ratings, even though the reviews were glowing. My feeling is that people got it confused with AMC's Hustle and the far inferior Heist on NBC. You know, Heist ... Thief.... five letters each, cops and robbers series... Yeah, doesn't make sense to me either but it's a theory.
Jon: Actually, that makes a lot of sense. Scary.
Stu: Philadelphia did have some moments but you definitely liked it more than me. I've never been a huge fan of the traditional sitcom, except for Seinfeld and Everybody Loves Raymond, which was great 'til the very end. But I have to give props to the sweet and enduring "How I Met Your Mother" and segueing back to Seinfeld, the Julia Louis-Dreyfus vehicle The New Adventures of Old Christine. Check that one out. In every episode there's 1 or 2 laugh-out loud funny scenes.
Jon: Well, this will get interesting now. I gave up on Mother and Christine pretty quickly - not that they didn't have their moments, but with so many things that were better on, I just couldn't carve out any time for those and have any semblance of a life. I like Neil Patrick Harris okay, but I don't buy him in that role on Mother at all. And the voiceovers by Bob Saget are useless - really, I find them insulting. We disagree about Raymond remaining good until the end, but that's a story from another year.
Talk about laugh-out-loud moments this year, I don't think anything can top The Office. That show has really taken off. It has hilarious premises and executes them almost perfectly. It has the almost effortlessly funny Steve Carrell at the lead and a deep supporting cast. And it has, bar none, the sweetest romance on TV in Jim (John Krasinski) and Pam (Jenna Fischer).
Stu: I definitely need to give another look at The Office. After enjoying the Ricky Gervais series on which it's based, I tuned in last season and was underwhelmed. But you, and everyone else it seems, has told me to give it another try. And I will. I'll make it a priority during the summer when NBC repeats it.
Getting back to dramas for a sec, I have a contrarian viewpoint on House. I like it -- it's getting raves and huge ratings -- but am getting bothered by the same dramatic form every week. Person with near-death malady checks into hospital, everyone misdiagnoses for a half-hour, in final 10 minutes lightbulb goes off in House's head and he astonishingly diagnoses patient by thinking about a completely unrelatable event or case. Problem solved.
Sure that changes sometimes, but it's starting to get a bit old for me. Sorry to digress....
Jon: No, I actually agree with that critique. House (which I assume owes a good portion of its ratings to the Idol lead-in) sometimes falls into that trap. I think that tumors took the prize for like three weeks in a row. I also think that the role of Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) is a cipher - she exists mostly as a foil to Dr. House and can be remarkably slow on the uptake. But I do think that the other House characters are sharply defined. The recent two-parter also gave the show the time to really make House and the staff work to solve the mystery, right until the end.
Years ago, I used to watch ER and Law and Order, but they got old for me, and I never picked up any members of the CSI family. I regret missing out on Maura Tierney, Parminder Nagra and Linda Cardellini, because I've liked them so much in other things, but nothing feels more tired to me than the heavily promoted "very special" ER that seems to come every other week. Am I missing anything?
Stu: Whenever someone mentions Linda Cardellini, I immediately think of the underrated NBC gem Freaks and Geeks of many years ago. It was based on those awkward high school years, circa 1980 Michigan. I grew up on Long Island but that's when I graduated high school and the show hit all the right notes. Check that one out on Netflix now. Now!
Jon: You don't need to tell me about Freaks and Geeks! Its cancellation was perhaps the biggest television crime of the past decade.
Stu: And May 14 marks the final episode of The West Wing, which except for a few episodes here and there, might justly be considered one of the greatest dramas ever. Besides winning four straight Emmys, it perfectly balanced the fine line between intelligent political discussion and broad entertainment - Josh and Donna's romance, Zoe getting kidnapped, the president's creepy son-in-law. I'm really gonna miss it.
Speaking of which, Aaron Sorkin and his consigliere, Tommy Schlamme, have a new show this fall about the behind-the-scenes look at a Saturday Night Live-type variety show. I'm anxiously awaiting to see the pilot and hope it can match my high expectations.
Jon: That seems like a good place to begin wrapping up - by looking ahead. What else should we keep our eyes on? (Or is it too soon to say?)
Stu: A bit tough to say at this point until the fall lineups are announced the week of May 15. Among the nearly hundred pilots shot, the network chieftains will have to decide which shows look best and have the greatest chance to succeed. They often don't make those decisions until the last minute, literally. So I'll get a better sense at that point.
But until September rolls around, do tune in to Deadwood at the beginning of June. I don't mean to sound like an HBO flack but the show is the best written series ever on television. And that's not a fact I throw around lightly.
And speaking of throwing it around lightly, what's up with Eric Gagne? How's that for bringing it back to our regularly scheduled Dodger blogging...
Jon: Um, we're still waiting for the programmers to decide whether Gagne gets canceled or is just on hiatus.
Thanks for doing this, Stu. I can't let you go without asking these final questions:
1) Who should win American Idol, and who will win?
2) Can you pick a single favorite moment from the past TV season?
Stu: 1) I see the final two between Katharine and Chris. Very tough call on who triumphs but by the slightest of margins I say Chris. She's got a better voice but he seems to have more of a following.
2) Almost impossible to pinpoint hundreds of hours of viewing but the final 10 minutes of the last episode of Six Feet Under stands out as a great moment, when we see how and when all the characters will die. And watching Tony Soprano get gunned down by his own Uncle Junior was both shocking and exhilarating.
Jon: Wow - you stole mine. Even though it was last August (I looked up the date and can't believe so much time has passed), when I think of indelible moments from 2005-06, nothing stands out like that closing montage. Six Feet Under had its detractors, but I'm still haunted by that finale.
As for Idol - which I became sucked into against my will during its second season out of loyalty to my wife, but I guess I should take responsibility for my actions - I have also seen Chris and Kat in the final two. I'd like to see Kat win, though Chris is deserving enough that I think he could have lost weeks ago and still done fine with his career. But the wild card is Taylor, who has been something of a high quality novelty act all along, but whose support has never faltered. And wild cards often win the big one, as baseball keeps reminding us ...
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