You Gotta Live By the Code
It's the new 90210 promo. Check it out:
It's the new 90210 promo. Check it out:
Meh news all around:
First, according to OK!, there's talk of a Project Runway All-Stars season or special. Because those always work out so well.
Second, Tori Spelling seems to be bullying her way into 90210. I feel bad about this: I like Tori, but I feel like she's become kind of a freak since hooking up with Dean McDermott, and I never cared one way or another about Donna. Plus, most importantly, we know from Degrassi: The Next Generation, that it's boring and sucky when the original cast members return.
Huh. It makes a certain amount of sense. Actually, wait. I think it makes a little too much sense: Estes was on Melrose Place (after we all stopped watching, but still . . .), which was originally a spin-off of the original Beverly Hills, 90210. I guess Grant Show was busy?
The latest Beverly Hills, 90210 Extreme casting news is a bit of an anti-climax: Jennie Garth has signed on to play Kelly Taylor, now a guidance counselor at West Beverly. Nothing against Garth, but I feel like we already knew about this.
This is even more exciting casting news. Reuters reports that Tristan Wilds, aka Michael on The Wire, has joined the cast of the 90210, as "Dixon Mills," the adopted son of the family that already includes Jessica Walter, Shenae Grimes and Lori Loughlin.
I want to vomit with excitement. According to TV Guide, Jessica Walter, aka Lucille Bluth on Arrested Development, has agreed to play what sounds like the same role on the CW's 90210 re-whatever.
Lori Loughlin has signed on as "Celia Mills," the new show's version of Cindy Walsh, according to this report. I don't know how I feel about this -- I sort of loved Lori Loughlin, circa Edge of Night, but her performance on Summerland freaked me out.
Meanwhile, according to TV Guide, Lizzie Maguire has turned down the role of "Annie," Lori's on-screen daughter, and the role has gone to Shenae Grimes of . . . wait for it . . . Degrassi: The Next Generation. Yay? I don't feel strongly one way or another about Grimes, who played Christian-ish cheerleader Darcy on DNG, but there's a certain weird, Canadian logic to the casting, isn't there?
I couldn't look at the contents of this page, because I try to avoid spoilers. I think it's about the Battlestar Galactica prequel/spin-off/whatever. Do with it what you will.
According to EOnline, Hilary Duff is being considered for a lead role in the CW's 90210 remake/relaunch/sequel.
Thank God! Someone listened to me bemoaning the conflict between Ugly Betty and 30 Rock, and moved the latter, to 9:30 on Thursdays, effective this week. (Also, I think that the MILF Island running gag blew NBC's "8:00 is the family hour" premise.)
Dear Jenny,
How excited are you about the Beverly Hills, 90210 remake/sequel/adaptation/reimaginationation? A little? Moderately? A lot? As much as I am? I feel like I need to start documenting every new development, because all the news we've gotten so far has been really encouraging. 1. You know that Rob Thomas developed it for the CW, right? Good. 2. You read where Defamer got ahold of that memo listing the proposed central characters, right? And you ignored that one of the characters is going to be a video blogger named "Silver"? 3. Did you know that although Rob Thomas is going to be too busy with Cupid and Good Behavior to move beyond an initial treatment, the CW has hired Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah to write the pilot? This is, I think, very good news. We know Sachs and Judah from Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared. I watched and mostly entirely liked life as we know it, the high school show they did for ABC a while ago. I can't speak to What About Brian. I watched maybe an episode and a half and I remember almost nothing about it, except that ABC kept it around a lot longer than you would think.
Love,
-- Pete
Amanda Righetti (Kirsten's sister Hailey on The O.C., a bunch of other shows I never watched) has joined the cast of K-Ville, Fox's New Orleans cop show, starring Anthony Anderson and Cole Hauser. I'm looking forward to this pilot; I've heard good things, particularly about Anderson. Righetti was really good on The O.C. -- and got better all the time. I couldn't bring myself to watch either the Hawaii show she was on, with either Brooke Burke or Brooke Burns, or the one about the high school reunion, with Chyler Leigh and the drug addict-y youngest brother from Brothers & Sisters.
Charisma Carpenter (Kendall Casablancas on Veronica Mars, Cordelia Chase on something called Buffy the Vampire-Slayer) will be appearing on the season finale of ABC Family's Greek. I've been watching Greek and meaning to post about it. Short version: it's oddly winning. No, it's not anything like my college experience, but it's not quite science fiction, either, and the cast is appealing.
Here's the Fox press release about the fall schedule -- not a lot new here. K-ville might be good. I'm really interested in The Return of Jezebel James, Amy Sherman-Palladino's anti-Gilmore Girls, with Parker Posey and Lauren Ambrose.
Here's the fall schedule press release for Dawn Ostroff's crappy network. Read it if you feel like it. I can't be bothered.
Oh, OK. Fine. I'm not entirely uninterested in Gossip Girl, from O.C. creator Josh Schwartz. I am entirely uninterested in Reaper, although I'm intrigued by the stunt-casting of Laura Palmer's father (Ray Wise) as Satan. Apparently the CW has a comedy night and some of those comedies are coming back. The only one I've heard of is called Everybody Hates Chris. I'm sure the fans of something called The Game are as happy today as I am depressed about Veronica Mars. Dear fans of The Game, best wishes!
Grace a NBC's on-going relationship with the youtubes, we have access to one-minute clips of NBC's new shows for next fall. I've watched them and I'm not sure what I think. This is my favorite:
I probably won't watch Life, but it's a good clip, don't you think? Damian Lewis has always been an exciting actor and I forgot how good Sarah Shahi was on Alias.
I just sort of skimmed Variety's report on CBS's new shows, but it reads kind of gay to me: musicals, vampires, viva something, Hugh Jackman? Am I wrong?
Our man Greg Berlanti (though I'm still on the fence about Brothers & Sisters) gets two new shows picked up at ABC: Eli Stone, starring Jonny Lee Miller and Dirty Sexy Money, with Peter Krause, Jill Clayburgh and Glenn Fitzgerald.
I'm curious about Pushing Daisies, the new show from Bryan Fuller (Dead Like Me, Wonderfalls, Heroes).
Here's the whole new slate.
I can't believe it's already upfronts week. (Is that right?) Here's a link to NBC's press release, announcing its fall schedule. I didn't have that much invested in NBC this year, so I don't care that much, but it looks like all good news: Friday Night Lights is back (albeit in a crap timeslot), 30 Rock is back, plus a huge order for The Office.
P.S. Holy crap! Josh Schwartz is one of the producers of Chuck, which sounds like Jake 3.0. I think the WC is likely to pick up his other show, Gossip Girl, but this is the first I knew he had something for NBC, too.
I feel like Nikki Finke didn't do that great a job last year of predicting which pilots would get picked up, so I wouldn't put too much stock in this page, but it's still kind of interesting. It's hard to believe it's almost time for upfronts again.
More thoughts on the fall chunk of the television season:
Wednesdays. I think I've watched every episode of Jericho, and I'm done with it. Looking back, I can't figure out why it took me so long to quit it. It's like the writers of Judging Amy took Lost apart, put it back together to their own taste, then handed it to a bunch of junior high kids. Lost, meanwhile -- how many episodes did we get this fall? It feels like about three. And seriously, nothing happened. The stuff with the Others is pretty good and Elizabeth Mitchell and her breasts are good additions to the show. Aside from them, Jack, Kate and Sawyer, no one has had much to do so far. I'm not sure what to expect when it returns from hiatus (in February?), except that it's going to be bumped back to 10:00.
Thursdays. The big story this fall was the 9:00 timeslot battle between CSI and Grey's Anatomy. I forget who won -- I'm watching The O.C., about which I've already written a lot. At 8:00, I missed most of what was apparently one of the best seasons of Survivor, choosing instead to watch Ugly Betty and record The Office. Ugly Betty gets better, week by week. America Ferrera is one of the best things on television -- that was apparent in the premiere -- and as we move along, the rest of the cast has proven itself nearly up to her level. The current unsung hero is Becki Newton, who plays the bitchy, drunken, binge-eating receptionist, Amanda. Newton came almost out of nowhere. I hope she gets a lot more work from this. She deserves to be a big, big star. The Office seems to be doing really well -- merging the Stamford branch in was a good move and has introduced a lot of funny bits. It still feels a lot broader than last season, but it's hard to complain when it's as funny as the Christmas episode.
Friday was a really good night this fall. The first half of the third season of Battlestar Galactica was really strong. The New Caprica stuff was so great it's overshadowed the stuff that's gone on since they all got back on their ships, that stuff has mostly worked as well. The creepy rock opera bits on the Cylon basestar are a real highlight. When it returns next month, the show will be on Sundays -- not sure how I feel about that. Friday's only other show worth watching was Doctor Who, which ended last week. I only half-watched this season, but I liked what I saw and I really liked the finale, like a lot. Probably worth renting on DVD when it becomes available next month, if you missed the Sci Fi broadcasts. -- Peter
No posts since before November Sweeps -- partly, I've been busy, and partly there wasn't much to post about. Now that the fall season is over, though, I thought it would be a good time to recap the season:
Sundays. Desperate Housewives is still on and I'm still not watching. Everyone says it's just as good as the first season, which . . . not quite good enough. I did see the sweeps stunt in which Laurie Metcalf shoots up a supermarket. Although Metcalf was great, the whole thing was disorienting, because one of the hostages was the younger guy (Matt Roth, Metcalf's real-life husband, which . . . even weirder) Jackie dated that time who beat her up and then Dan went to jail for beating him up. Anyway, apparently enough people are watching that show again to float Brothers & Sisters, which I am watching, although I still don't know why. Oh, right. Almost everyone in the cast is really, really attractive. The show still hasn't quite gelled -- one week it's a screwball farce, the next it's an emo-fueled cry-fest. My Mom likes it a lot . . .
Mondays. Prison Break got really good this season. I don't think I've posted about it before, but it's really good. As soon as they got out of prison, it got really, really fun. Basically, from week to week, it's about three or four geniuses (Wentworth Miller, Paul Adelstein, Robert Knepper, William Fichter) alternately teaming up and betraying one another. The central love story (between Miller and Sarah Wayne Callies's dope addict/prison doctor) works for me. Add in a multi-episode arc for Diana Scarwid* as a sexed-up housewife and Knepper walking around with an inexpertly-reattached hand -- as if he's wandered in out of a Coen brothers movie -- and you've got classic, classic television. Heroes ended on a high note. I think I'll keep watching when it returns next year. But. There are serious problems, chief of which is that the episodes seem to be structured around a big cliffhanger about 48 minutes into the episode, followed by a handful of filler scenes. I don't get it. When I remember to watch How I Met Your Mother, I enjoy it.
Tuesdays. I've written a lot about Gilmore Girls -- I still think that it's a lot better than most people seem to think it is -- at least as good as last season, a solid B+ overall. I think Veronica Mars is handling the transition to college relatively gracefully, but I'd like to see a lot more of Mac and Wallace, and I didn't love the rape mystery, overall. Laura San Giacomo is going to go full Double Indemnity on Keith, right? Am I the only one seeing that? -- Peter
*Let's develop a pilot for USA Network, starring Scarwid and Donna Murphy as Upper East Side matrons who solve mysteries between museum board meetings. What do you say?
Is ABC developing a new genre? Slate's Troy Patterson argues it is here. There's more support from this interview with Ken Olin, who says that ABC wanted a "classy" drama from Brothers & Sisters.
According to Zap2It, Brothers & Sisters has, improbably, received a season order. This is quite a reversal of fortune for the show, which, I'm pretty sure, required three pilots and is already on its second show runner. Apparently it's managing to hold onto some of Desperate Housewives' audience.
I did not make it through the most recent episode and I'm thinking of dropping the show entirely. Rachel Griffiths's character is a real problem. Griffiths was never anything less than completely sympathetic and believable as snotty, philandering, entitled, self-obsessed Brenda on Six Feet Under, but can't seem to make me care about, let alone like, her character on this show, whose name escapes me right now . . . Susan? Sarah! Sarah Whedon. (Why Whedon? Because Marti Noxon was the first show runner?) Sally Field, Calista Flockhart and Ron Rifkin are problems, not so much because they're bad, but because they're too famous now to escape into their characters or at least these characters, all of which are pretty sketchily-defined. (Oh, and we're supposed to buy Field and Rifkin as siblings?) There are too many characters: five siblings plus Field's Nora, plus Rifkin's "Uncle Sauly," plus various hangers-on, including Patricia Wettig and allegedly, Sarah-Jane Morris. Consequently, Balthazar Getty has nothing to do except stand around looking vaguely pissed-off. The promotional material for this show prominently featured a sweaty, shirtless Getty. We've been ripped off.
Maybe, with a whole season to work it out, the show will find some sort of rhythm. It's encouraging that Noxon has already left and it's even more encouraging that her replacement is Greg Berlanti -- Peter
More premieres . . .
Battlestar Galactica returns tonight. I haven't been reading spoilers. (What did Veronica call spoiler-reading? "Douchebaggy"?) I guess there's a chance that this is the season in which the show completely falls apart, but I don't think so. I can't wait. New time: 9:00 PM EDT, which is better, I think.
The Nine. I really didn't care for this and I'm trying to figure out why. I think the premise is corny and false: the survivors of a hostage situation are so drawn together by their experience that they become friends. I'm mildly interested in finding out what happened during the actual hostage situation, but based on the crappy dialogue and afore-mentioned corny premise, only mildly interested. On the plus side: Kim Raver has a lot more to do on this show. She and Tim Daly have actual, solid chemistry.
Kidnapped. I'm a week behind and, it turns out, it's already been cancelled. Are the writers going to resolve the story in the ten remaining episodes? Will NBC actually air them? I don't know. I feel a little sad, though: the pilot was actually pretty good; the second episode was a little gimmicky, but still exhibited some potential.
Ugly Betty. Still my favorite. This week I had a chance to pay attention to how fun the set design is. America Ferrera just gets better and better; Vanessa Williams is great, too. I'm worried that the show will get bogged down in self-regard like Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy. For now, though, I'm enjoying it immensely.
. . . and one finale:
Eureka ended its first season this week and promptly got picked up for a second season on Sci Fi. The finale was an unusually strong episode. I feel like most of this season has been semi-disposable fluff, albeit well-acted, -written and -shot fluff. The finale worked a nice twist on time travel and left us with a few excellent revelations.
-- Peter
Ugly Betty is my favorite new show, by far. It's colorful and maybe not exactly funny, but light, particularly compared to all of the other post-Lost dramas on the air. I can't handle how good America Ferrera is. The premiere is available, as of this morning, on ABC's website. Check it out. As I think I reported before, ABC's streaming set-up is a huge deal: decent quality, minimal ads, no hassles. While you're at it, watch Six Degrees and tell me what you think. I haven't made it through more than about half an episode. -- Peter
More new shows have premiered. I'm barely keeping up:
Six Degrees. Haven't watched yet, heard good things. Weighing whether or not I can handle the Erika Christensen factor.
Brothers & Sisters. This one left me a little cold. Generic, no real hook so far. I love Rachel Griffiths, though, always and forever, so I might give it another try. Better title: We Are Family.
Heroes. Liked it, almost definitely totally on board. A lot of the individual pieces of the pilot didn't work -- especially the junkie artist with the overwrought girlfriend and most of all Milo Ventimiglia's hair. Still, it seems like everything's headed somewhere, which is encouraging.
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. . . and we're out. I liked the second episode just fine, but I'm not sure that I see where we're going for the remainder of the season. Where is the suspense, now that Danny and Matt have proven they can take over the show (within a show)? Oh, and I just remembered: Saturday Night Live is completely irrelevant, so who cares?
Gilmore Girls. I read a lot of reviews of the pilot and they all seemed to hang on the same hook: Gilmore Girls is not Gilmore Girls without the Palladinos. I think I said as much, back when they quit. Now I don't buy it. Last night's episode was decent, with a few laugh-out-loud moments, good plot progression and -- very encouraging -- effective use of Liza Weil (Paris). It's still the same damned show. But. The real test will be when we have an Emily episode: those are the ones in which Amy Sherman Palladino really shone and may be the hardest ones to duplicate.
Runaway. I keep hoping that this is going to turn out to be a small-screen adaptation of Brian K. Vaughan's comic book series. Didn't hate it, though: appealing young people, some interesting work from Leslie Hope. Not getting attached, however: it lost something like half of 7th Heaven's (miniscule) audience Monday night. --Peter
Here's a good summary of where things stand, in terms of ratings, with the new fall television:
http://www.nj.com/columns/ledger/sepinwall/index.ssf?/base/columns-0/1159336230130800.xml&coll=1
I can't help but gloat a little bit about the poor showing the CW is making on Monday nights. Turns out, I'm still bitter about the cancellation of Everwood. I realized this the other day when I passed a bus carrying a Chad Michael Murray "Free to Be Cool" ad for One Tree Hill and actually said, out loud, without thinking about it, "No one's watching your show, Tristan!" --Peter
No Project Runway last night, for whatever reason -- kind of a relief, though, because there was too much else on:
Smith (actually airs Tuesdays, but I watched last night). When did watching television become harder than reading a book? Can someone pinpoint for me when we made that switch? I almost immediately felt completely lost, watching this: not a good sign for a pilot. I think I was supposed to find the episode thrilling and risky, but for me, not so much. It seems like this is CBS trying to stretch its range, interesting in theory, but unappealing in practice: too many characters, nearly all of them either unlikeable or inaccessible, no prospect of comic relief.
Jericho. Another "daring" pilot for CBS, this one feels like more of a fit. It helps that the cast is full of familiar TV faces (in contrast to the film stars in Smith). The subject, also, is one closer to the "Welcome Home" standard: a small town trying to defend itself from the end of the world. I'm not sure if I'll stick it out with this one, but I found the pilot entertaining. As with Smith, I'm worried that there's never going to be a single laugh. Most exciting aspect: the return of Pamela Reed. She's wasted here, though, in a one-dimensional wife/mother role.
Kidnapped. Another Debbie Downer. This one certainly benefits from comparison to Fox's similar, only shitty Vanished. Some annoying, showy editing -- quick cuts, weird color processing -- that I could do without. Of the three, though, probably the one I'm most likely to keep watching -- it's tight, and with a great cast. As with the other premieres this season, I felt like I needed a pad and pen and the Internet Movie Database to take full advantage of the opening credits: even the one-off characters are played by recognizable names.
More than I can keep up with tonight: Shark and Six Degrees series premieres, plus the returns of The Office, My Name Is Earl, Grey's Anatomy, CSI and ER. So, at least the overnights will be interesting. -- Peter
I did not hate Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. In fact, I kind of liked it. This is shocking news. I do not generally appreciate Aaron Sorkin's writing. I think it's self-satisfied, pompous and showy. I did not like Sports Night and I never watched The West Wing. Somehow, Studio 60 works, though. There's an irony built into the premise: as wealthy, witty and (self-)important as these people are, they're working on something that's clearly Saturday Night Live, possibly the least essential thing you can do. I think it's this irony that makes the whole enterprise palatable. You almost feel like Sorkin is laughing at the same things you are.
One thing that makes watching the show difficult or confusing is just how meta it is. Everything seems to be a stand-in for something else: Matthew Perry is playing some guy whose name I've already forgotten, who's maybe really Sorkin. Likewise, Bradley Whitford is Thomas Schlamme; Amanda Peet Jamie Tarses, Judd Hirsch Lorne Michaels . . . I almost wish someone had written a book about this already, something like Julie Salomon's The Devil's Candy, because I feel hopelessly unqualified to watch this show. I can't tell what is pure fiction and what is meta-fiction: Do deals really get made in the middle of the night? Is it really bad etiquette to praise the caterer? Does Kristin Chenoweth really drink martinis on the rocks?
I didn't make it through Tuesday night's premiere/sneak preview of Men in Trees. Worse, it wasn't even that awful, so I don't really have anything to write about it. It was predictable, but then, duh, it's a pilot, so that's to be expected. Anne Heche is good but kind of annoying, no surprise there, either. I don't know. Maybe I'll give it another try Friday . . . but probably not.
Alan Sepinwall, a smart guy with good taste, lists his favorites of the new pilots here. I'm encouraged that most of the shows on his list are ones that I've been interested in since the up-fronts -- and in some cases even before then. I still don't care about The Knights of Prosperity, though, and I think it's doomed anyway.
He doesn't mention Brothers & Sisters, which, in addition to all the problems with showrunners and cast changes, make me think that it's not worth investing in -- most recent sign is that it didn't get picked up by Television without Pity.
Sepinwall does not like Men in Trees, which premieres tonight at 10:02 (huh?). I am going to watch as much as I can tolerate. I sort of like Anne Heche, because she was so good on Everwood (not going to cry . . .) last year and because I liked her on Another World all those years ago, but this looks really bad. -- Peter
Dear Jenny,
Did you watch the MyNetworkTV premieres last night? I have to admit -- I didn't make it all the way through. I watched most of Desire but decided I didn't have the energy to give Fashion House the attention it deserved. I recorded it, though, and will try to catch up tonight -- except I'm not sure how -- whether -- I'm going to fit in tonight's new episode.
I certainly won't follow through with Desire, because it is boring. I can see what they're trying to do -- soft porn Shakespeare and, actually, I think that's what everyone should be doing. "Trying" is the key word here, though. The premiere of Desire is only intermittently entertaining, and then probably despite itself. Sometimes the computer-translated dialogue is hilarious. A few of the actors, while not particularly convincing or talented per se, have a real flair for this stuff -- particularly Tomy Dunster and Sofia Milos.
What did you think? Am I selling Desire short? Did you manage to watch Fashion House? Should I bother?
Love,
-- Pete
More Fox and Fox-related premieres tonight:
Standoff (9:00 PM, Fox). This is the one with the hostage negotiators, and they're dating. Does this seem kind of like it's not really a great premise for a series? How many hostage negotiations can we watch before it gets really boring and repetitive? Does that "and they're dating" bit of high concept add-on seem kind of desperate? Still, it's that delightful Ron Livingston . . .
Desire (8:00 PM) and Fashion House (9:00 PM), both MyNetworkTV. I'm trying to get excited about the premiere of MyNetworkTV. It's a brand-new broadcast network with a brand-new programming model! Somehow I can't, though, possibly because the actual shows look so crappy. Of the two inaugural offerings, Fashion House is the one that's gotten some press, thanks to down-market stunt casting: Bo Derek and Morgan Fairchild will be playing slap fight competitors. However, after watching about 20 minutes of the two-hour-long promo MyNetworkTV ran last night, I have to say that I'm sort of looking forward to Desire, more than I'm sort of looking forward to Fashion House. I mean, they both look bad, but Desire looks Bella Mafia bad; Fashion House looks Desperate Housewives bad.
Nip/Tuck (10:00 PM, FX). Last season was so vile, I don't think I can watch.
Fox snuck another series premiere in this week. It was strange, though, because all the promos for Justice, starring Victor Garber and the gay kid from Dawson's Creek, were "series premiere . . . this week." Um, guys? When this week? Wednesday at 9:00, it turns out. I watched the show, but since it was right before Project Runway, I promptly forgot it. I do remember that Garber is, not surprisingly, terribly good. He seems to be having fun, as well, which is nice. (I get the feeling that for the last few seasons, no one was having fun on Alias.) And there's my review. It's all kind of Bruckheimer-y crap: high quality, glossy and unsubtle.
Alan Sepinwall has more interesting things to say here.
The fall season snuck up on us last night. I skipped the season premiere of Prison Break (in favor of Kyle XY, really good lately) and only half-watched Vanished, the new kidnapping thriller that follows it.
I was going to do a full review of Vanished, but I don't really have that much to say about it. I feel about it about the same way I felt about Prison Break when it premiered: mildly engaged, but mostly concerned that the star is being wasted in schlocky material. I feel even worse, maybe, for Gale Harold than I did for Wentworth Miller, because his role, rule-breaking FBI Agent Graham Kelton, unlike Miller's OCD-tinged master criminal Michael Scofield, is not going to garner him any of the attention he deserves.
Also similar to Prison Break, there's evidence of desperation, in the form of a bet-hedging B-plot conspiracy theory, this one promising Opus Dei-style self-flagellating monks. How current! -- Peter
GLAAD gets a lot of press this morning for its annual report on gay representation on TV. My favorite response is Lisa de Moraes's (free registration required). GLAAD is maybe overly pessimistic in its analysis of network television: yes, there is one fewer gay character in primetime this fall, but, look at the bright side, people, there's also one fewer Eric McCormack role.
According to Reuters, there's a replacement for Betty Buckley as the matriarch on Brothers & Sisters: Sally Field. Wow! I like Sally (I really like her), in part because her horrific scenery-chewing finally drove me to kick the ER habit. Also, I never watched her ABC "Here Comes the Judge" show.
If the article is correct, it looks like we have a replacement for Jonathan LaPaglia, as well, as the token gay brother: Welsh actor Matthew Rhys, who played Demetrius in the Julie Taymor film adaptation of Titus Andronicus. Yeah, me, neither. -- Peter
Aaron Barnhart reviews a few network pilots here and finds them high in quality but low in sympathetic characters. Huh.
ABC is streaming promos for its fall shows here:
http://abc.go.com/fsp/index.html?lid=ABCCOMMenu&lpos=Video
You have to scroll pretty far down to get the link for the fall preview, and you may have to watch a few commercials for hygiene products and a promo for Desperate Housewives. Sorry. Some of these shows look like they could be good, though. The Notes from the Underbelly clip is funny. Traveler looks kind of good. It features the second actor to play Trey on The O.C., and poor Matthew Bomer, who was at some point supposed to be the current Superman. (I thought Traveler was being held for midseason, though.) I don't know what to say about Brothers & Sisters and Men in Trees. I'm not sure how Betty the Ugly is supposed to work as a long-term series. -- Peter
NBC has posted some promos for its new shows here:
http://www.nbc.com/NBC_First_Look/index.shtml
I watched all the promos*, found them mostly worth suffering through the copious ads. (Aren't the promos themselves ads? Should I really have to earn the right to watch further ads?) My snap judgment? 30 Rock actually looks pretty funny; Studio 60 looks as self-serious as The West Wing. Matthew Perry looks . . . rough. The Singles Table didn't have a single laugh line. Friday Night Lights looks good. -- Peter
*Except 20 Good Years, because of John-Lithgow-banana-hammock fear.
Alan Sepinwall reviews a bunch of this fall's pilots:
The Class, Smith, Shark and Jericho
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and 30 Rock
20 Good Years, The Black Donnellys and 'Til Death
No surprises, except that he likes Jericho, about which I've read some pretty horrible things.
Hi Jenny --
I've just returned from my post-Sweeps retreat. Yes, I believe Salma Hayek is the executive producer for Betty the Ugly. I thought I had the upfronts presentation for that show lying around somewhere, but ABC must have slapped a cease-and-desist on YouTube. Oh well. This is just as good:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45mDSFVwD7c&search=upfronts
Love,
-- Pete
PS Now that TV is over for a while, I'm actually reading a book. I know! More later.
According to this press release posted by Aaron Barnhart, NBC has already adjusted their schedule in response to the other networks' (read: ABC's). I can't really track all the changes. The big thing is that Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip is moving from Thursdays at 9:00 to Mondays at 10:00. Deal or No Deal is taking its slot. Interesting. Doesn't 9:00 seem kind of late in the evening for a game show?
In related news, Crossing Jordan is still on the air and will return in the fall. Yeah, I'm not sure, either.
Michael Ausiello has a ton of information about cast changes for the fall:
http://www.zap2it.com/tv/news/zap-photogallery-abcupfronts-2006,0,6952912.photogallery?index=3
The big, bad news is that Brothers & Sisters is already re-casting. Didn't they already re-shoot the pilot after test audiences failed to respond to Calista Flockhart? If so, then this will be their third. Can that be right? In any case, Betty Buckley is out as the matriarch. This reminds me of Eight Is Enough, since Buckley joined that show to sort of replace Diana Hyland, who appeared in only the pilot of that show, before dying. (Mark Hamill played the Grant Goodeve role in that episode and I think one of the other kids was different, too, for what it's worth.) Also out is Jonathan LaPaglia, who looks strangely hot in this strangely photoshopped promotional photo:
http://www.zap2it.com/tv/news/zap-photogallery-abcupfronts-2006,0,6952912.photogallery?index=3
Doesn't it look like he and Dave Annable are sharing a dirty secret?
Also according to Ausiello, Lost's producers are looking to replace the hot chicks they keep killing off. Funny, because Lost is one of the places I thought would be a good fit for Amy Acker. My other idea is for her to show on Veronica Mars as a member of the Fitzpatrick gang. (My idea for David Anders: a love interest for John Barrowman on the upcoming Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood.)
-- Pete
We now have all the networks' schedules. The end of upfronts week always feels pretty anti-climactic. After all, we have to wait until at least the end of the summer to see any of these shows. This year, because of the WB-UPN merger and CBS's unusually strong 2005 crop, we're seeing fewer pilots than we've seen in recent years, so there's even less than usual reason to be excited. Meanwhile, this season is ending, gradually, contributing to that feeling of "Oh, crap. What do I do for the next three months?"
The CW upfront was this morning. I haven't seen any accounts of it yet, but I'm curious about the presentation. Are they really just going for the 18-34-year-olds? Is that why they cancelled Everwood and kept One Tree Hill?
The schedule looks decent. Yes, 7th Heaven is back. Whatever. It's paired with Runaway, starring Donnie Wahlberg as a fugitive on the run with his entire family. Tuesday is the dream night for a lot of viewers: Gilmore Girls followed by Veronica Mars. Wednesdays . . . the One Tree Hill pick-up actually makes a little sense: I can see how it might look like a good match for Beauty and the Geek and Top Model. Thursday is intact: Smallville followed by Supernatural. The Winchester brothers may have a tough time against Grey's Anatomy and that's probably good news for the rest of us: if they're desperate, maybe they will take their shirts off occasionally. Friday is wrestling. Sunday is Everybody Hates Chris and a bunch of sitcoms that sound vaguely familiar. It's not clear where they're going to stick Reba.
Fox is this afternoon, but their press release is available now. None of their new shows look that interesting. I bet The O.C. doesn't make it through the season. The Kevin Williamson drama isn't due until mid-season and keeps on changing titles. -- Pete
No surprises on day 3: CBS has picked up four new shows, all of which look dreadful, even without taking into consideration that CBS "Welcome Home, Grandma!" patina. The one kind of interesting story is CBS moving The Amazing Race and Without a Trace to Sundays. I don't know if this will work out the way Les Moonves hopes it will.
Ausiello is now calling it official: Veronica Mars is saved:
http://community.tvguide.com/thread.jspa?threadID=700002002
Sad news, too, though: it looks like Everwood is well and truly dead. I can live with that. Berlanti and co. had been planning this season as the last. Reportedly, the series finale, which will air at the beginning of next month, will tie up loose story threads.
Zap2It's Upfronts page is here. I think other sites have more timely information, but Zap2It has pictures, so . . .
Shockingly, it looks like NBC has the drop on ABC. Let's take a look:
NBC had nothing to lose by turning Sunday night over to football. Unless Marc Cherry has something really good up his sleeve, Desperate Housewives is likely to face another ratings drop, especially without Grey's Anatomy to prop it up. Rumor has it Brothers & Sisters had to be re-shot because test audiences hated Calista Flockhart. (Still sort of interested in that, though -- good cast and crew -- Ken Olin shot the pilot.)
ABC's Monday night is intact and not particularly inspiring. I'm still kind of shocked they renewed What About Brian. Assuming Deal or No Deal doesn't go the way of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire immediately, NBC has a promising night. Early buzz on Heroes is really good.
Tuesday -- despite myself, I'm really interested in Kidnapped (NBC). I've read that the preview screened really well yesterday. Good writers and producers as well, including David Greenwalt.
It's hard to tell what will be good or successful on Wednesday. Both the NBC comedies will probably suck. 30 Rock might be intermittently funny, because Tina Fey is funny and the cast is good. If NBC really believed in it, though, they would have shoe-horned it into Thursday night. It doesn't matter if The Nine is good or not -- it has the stink of death on it. Still not understanding why ABC cancelled Invasion.
It almost looks like NBC has something approaching a Must-See Thursday lineup again: My Name Is Earl, The Office, followed by possibly really good/possibly Sorkin-flavored bullshit Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. (Is Tom Shales getting royalties for either this or 30 Rock?) 9:00 looks like another interesting ratings race: Studio 60 vs Grey's Anatomy vs CSI vs Smallville (probably) vs The O.C. (maybe). I'll probably watch Six Degrees on ABC at 10:00, but NBC's plan to run ER without repeats through the end of the year and then swap in The (probably execrable) Black Donnellys seems like a smart one.
Friday is a garbage dump across both networks. Jenny was excited about Betty the Ugly, because she enjoyed the original telenovela, but it looks like ABC effed the translation. (It's nice to see Alan Dale working again, though.) Love Anne Heche, but Men in Trees looks like the suck.
Tomorrow is CBS's turn. I think we already know almost everything about what they've picked up -- they didn't have very many schedule holes to fill. Thursday morning is the CW -- the latest, per TV Guide's Michael Ausiello, is that Veronica Mars is alive, Everwood is dead. Thursday afternoon we hear from Fox.
NBC gives its upfront presentation this afternoon and have already issued a press release. They had leaked most of the fall schedule last week, so there aren't that many surprises. I haven't quite digested the entire thing. Good news, off the top: NBC picked up the extremely promising Andy Barker, P.I., starring Andy Richter and Tony Hale and written by Conan O'Brien. Bad news: It's not clear yet when they'll actually air it.
I'm not sure what day we hear from the CW, but I'm not optimistic. Today they announced the resurrection of 7th Heaven. That's another hour that could have been Veronica Mars's or Everwood's. -- Peter
