Fall TV '05

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NBC, trying to rebound from bad year, is first to release fall schedule
By David Bauder
NEW YORK (AP) — Seeking to climb out of the ratings cellar, NBC will have Martha Stewart picking a protege and singer Amy Grant making wishes come true when the new season begins this fall.
NBC said Monday that it will introduce six new series in September, including only one comedy: My Name Is Earl, featuring Jason Lee (Chasing Amy) as a downtrodden lottery winner.
NBC is cancelling the fourth instalment of the Law & Order series, Trial by Jury, which lost star Jerry Orbach shortly after production began. The Mark Burnett/Sylvester Stallone boxing series The Contender, American Dreams and Third Watch are also not returning.
Illustrating how television schedules are constantly in flux, NBC promised two other new comedies would come on the air sometime next season. Two shows not on the September schedule, Scrubs and Fear Factor, will also return at some point, NBC said.
NBC is moving the political drama The West Wing to Sunday nights, with the campaign to replace Martin Sheen as the mythical president continuing.
All the broadcast networks release their fall schedules this week, and NBC was first in line. The network is finishing up a miserable season, slipping to fourth among the 18-to-49-year-old viewers its advertisers want. NBC failed to replace the departed Friends and Frasier with any new hits.
Despite losing ground to CBS on what was once its most popular night, NBC said it is returning its Thursday schedule intact: including the troubled Friends spinoff Joey.
Stewart’s starring role in The Apprentice will give NBC two versions of the boardroom game running this fall. The home improvement queen’s show will air Wednesday night, with Donald Trump keeping his Thursday time slot.
Gospel singer Grant stars in Three Wishes, a reality show where she travels across the U.S. trying to transform lives by paying medical bills, making dreams come true and the like. It’s a nod to the popularity of makeover shows like ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.
NBC will air three new dramas: E-Ring, a Jerry Bruckheimer production with Dennis Hopper and Benjamin Bratt, about life in the Pentagon; Fathom, about a creepy new form of sea life; and Inconceivable, a medical show set in a fertility clinic.*

*Hopefully starring Wallace Shawn--Huk

― Huk-L, Monday, 16 May 2005 16:51 (twenty-one years ago)

My Name Is Earl, featuring Jason Lee (Chasing Amy) as a downtrodden lottery winner.

...

Gospel singer Grant stars in Three Wishes, a reality show where she travels across the U.S. trying to transform lives by paying medical bills, making dreams come true and the like. It’s a nod to the popularity of makeover shows like ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.

...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 16 May 2005 16:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Damn damn DAMN! No more American Dreams?!?

― Raymond Cummings (Raymond Cummings), Monday, 16 May 2005 16:57 (twenty-one years ago)

so West Wing is moving to Sundays, no doubt opposite Desperate Housewives and Family Guy (assuming it doesn't get cancelled again).

― teeny (teeny), Monday, 16 May 2005 16:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Thank God they're dropping the utterly unwatchable Trial By Jury, but awww, I kinda like American Dreams 'cause I respond to its puppy-dog reimagining of sixties radicalism and its godawful pop star impersonations.

Gospel singer Grant stars in Three Wishes

Fuck that, they should just bring back Fantasy!, but in prime time. And with Leslie Uggams!

You know, whenever I hear that NBC is stumbling, I keep hoping they'll return to the glory days of 1978-1979 season awfulness -- I want something to gawk at -- but it seems that the learning curve's been fucked, television on the whole is too much better, and that we'll never reach that sustained pitch of mediocrity ever again.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Monday, 16 May 2005 17:09 (twenty-one years ago)

Please post '78-'79 season roster, thanks.

― Huk-L, Monday, 16 May 2005 17:11 (twenty-one years ago)

the glory days of 1978-1979 season awfulness

There is perhaps a thread in this.

Ha, xpost!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 16 May 2005 17:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Defend the Indefensible: NBC's 78-78 Season

― Huk-L, Monday, 16 May 2005 17:16 (twenty-one years ago)

what about the Office?

― kyle (akmonday), Monday, 16 May 2005 21:51 (twenty-one years ago)

and also how can they possibly delay Scrubs til midseason???

― kyle (akmonday), Monday, 16 May 2005 21:52 (twenty-one years ago)

ABC Strikes Backs!

ABC elects Geena Davis as the first female president in new drama
By David Bauder
NEW YORK (AP) — ABC will cast Geena Davis as a female president in the ultimate juggling act between work and family, part of a change-filled fall schedule that tries to capitalize on this season’s unexpected success.
A remake of the short-lived 1970s occult series Kolchak: The Night Stalker is also among the three new dramas and two comedies ABC said Tuesday it will introduce in the fall.
The network’s comeback this year was fuelled by Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy and Lost, all of which return — although Lost will move back an hour to start at 9 p.m. on Wednesday nights.
Davis stars with Donald Sutherland in Commander-in-Chief on Tuesdays. She assumes the presidency with twin teenagers and a six-year-old at home, and a party that wants her to resign rather than take over for a dying president.
“It’s not a political story,” said Stephen McPherson, ABC entertainment president. “It’s the story of a woman; it’s the story of a wife; it’s the story of a family.”
The network made schedule changes on every night, except for Saturday’s movie and Sunday, which became a powerhouse when Desperate Housewives became a sensation.
ABC cancelled the Damon Wayans comedy My Wife and Kids and 8 Simple Rules, which soldiered on for two years following the death of star John Ritter. Blind Justice and Extreme Makeover were also axed. Less Than Perfect will return in midseason.
But the network surprisingly renewed a handful of comedies that seemed threatened by poor ratings: Hope & Faith, George Lopez and Jake in Progress. All were given new time slots as the network spread sitcoms on three nights — four after Monday Night Football ends its final year on ABC.
Following football, ABC will turn Mondays into a showcase for single people looking for love, with a new comedy starring Heather Graham and a new drama about the last man in a group of friends to get married.
ABC’s other new fall series: Invasion, about an alien invasion that will appeal to Lost fans; Freddie, a comedy with Freddie Prinze Jr. as a bachelor who yearns for family; and Hot Properties, about four women who work in a Manhattan real estate office.
ABC said it had ordered five other new series that will debut sometime during the next season.
The network also renewed both of its ratings-troubled newsmagazines, 20/20 and Primetime Live.

― Huk-L, Tuesday, 17 May 2005 17:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Both ABC and the WB are shifting well-known series to Thursdays, a night networks have essentially conceded to CBS and NBC in the past. Depending on your perspective, the moves of ABC’s Alias and the WB’s Smallville and Everwood can either be seen as a bold attempt to become competitive or a death sentence for old favourites.
The WB’s new schedule casts Johnson in Just Legal as an alcohol-soaked lawyer who teams with an 18-year-old whiz kid. Griffith plays a ditzy mom in the situation comedy Twins. Drescher’s cradle-robbing comedy Living With Fran, a midseason success, returns on Friday nights.
Want more 1980s icons? George Wendt (Norm!!!) plays a dad in the midseason series Modern Men.
The WB, long a network favoured by teenage girls, is trying to broaden its audience, said Garth Ancier, its chairman. “We went about dispelling a notion that if you produce a show on the WB, the lead characters have to be in high school,” he said.
Still, the WB repeatedly flashed the motto Be Young on screens during Tuesday’s presentation to advertisers, and the midseason fare includes a drama about attractive college students in a sexuality class.
Other new fall series are Related, a drama about four sisters created by a former Friends producer and Sex and the City writer, and Supernatural, about two brothers navigating a terror-filled world of the unexplained.
The WB cancelled Steve Harvey’s Big Time, Grounded for Life and the well-regarded series about battling brothers, Jack & Bobby.
Despite a relentless search for the hip and happening, the WB’s most popular show, 7th Heaven, will return for a 10th season — making it the longest-running family drama ever on TV. Since it began airing Mondays a decade ago, it has competed against a staggering 86 different programs on other networks.

― Huk-L, Tuesday, 17 May 2005 18:51 (twenty-one years ago)

CBS adds six new series, aims for younger audience next season
By David Bauder
NEW YORK (AP) — CBS cancelled Judging Amy, Joan of Arcadia and the Wednesday edition of 60 Minutes, as the most popular U.S. network tries to attract younger viewers.
The network will add two new comedies and four new dramas next season, including a series in which Jennifer Love Hewitt talks to dead people.
Two and a Half Men, the highest-rated situation comedy left on broadcast television, will move into the 9 p.m. Monday slot vacated by Everybody Loves Raymond, which drew a series-high 33 million viewers to its finale this week.
CBS is again the most-watched network and this season will narrowly miss beating Fox among the youthful 18-to-49-year-old demographic prized by advertisers. If Fox hadn’t aired the Super Bowl this season, CBS said, it would have won.
Four of the five prime-time CBS programs with the oldest audience were removed from the schedule. CBS also cancelled the Jason Alexander comedy Listen Up and the long-running military drama JAG stopped production. The Sunday 60 Minutes remains as the CBS show with the oldest audience.
“We want to win it all,” said Leslie Moonves, CBS chairman.
The Wednesday spinoff to 60 Minutes was doomed by low ratings, not its controversial story last fall about President George W. Bush’s military service, Moonves said. With 48 Hours Mysteries on Saturday, CBS has two remaining newsmagazines.
The failure of Joan of Arcadia, which received an Emmy nomination and critical acclaim in its first season but faded this year, was one of his biggest disappointments, Moonves said.
CBS is trying two supernatural stories on Friday nights. Threshold features a team of experts called in when the navy discovers aliens have landed in the Atlantic Ocean. Hewitt’s Ghost Whisperer, reminiscent of NBC’s Medium, is about a woman who conveys messages from dead people to the living.
“I think talking to ghosts may skew younger than talking to God,” Moonves said.
With its crime dramas continuing to work well, CBS will add Criminal Minds, a thriller about FBI profilers who try to stop criminals, and Close to Home, with Jennifer Finnigan (NBC’s Committed) starring as a suburban prosecutor.
King of Queens returns to CBS’s Monday comedy lineup, joined by two new shows: How I Met Your Mother, a Friends-like romantic story created by two of David Letterman’s former writers; and Out of Practice, about a dysfunctional family of doctors, created by the team behind Frasier.
CBS made no changes to its enormously successful Thursday lineup, where Survivor and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation reign supreme.

― Huk-L, Wednesday, 18 May 2005 15:50 (twenty-one years ago)

Fox bringing five new dramas and two comedies to fall schedule
By David Bauder
NEW YORK (AP) — Fox said Thursday it will add five new dramas and two comedies this fall in a nearly reality-free schedule that takes big chances with two of its most-praised shows, Arrested Development and House.
For the first time in its 17-year history, Fox will finish this season as No. 1 among the 18-to-49-year-old viewers that advertisers seek.
With its biggest hit, American Idol, beginning in January, Fox lately has two very different halves to the television season. Post-season baseball also pre-empts most of its prime-time entertainment schedule in October, making launching new shows a challenge.
There was some question whether Fox would even renew the Emmy-winning comedy Arrested Development, given that few viewers have made it a habit. Not only did Fox bring it back, it moved the show to Monday, alongside two new series.
“I recognize that putting it on at 8 o’clock is a bold, audacious move,” said Fox entertainment president Peter Liguori. “But we have confidence in the show.”
The medical drama House became a hit on Tuesdays this spring among viewers who stayed on Fox after American Idol and liked what they saw. Fox keeps it on Tuesday in the fall, then moves it to Monday in January — testing the loyalty of those new viewers.
Except for the Saturday staples of Cops and America’s Most Wanted, the network that largely pioneered the reality genre had no reality on either its fall or spring schedules.
Liguori said it was more a reflection of strong scripted series development than resistance to the genre. He said new episodes of Trading Spouses, Nanny 911 and The Simple Life had been ordered; odds are in the television business that some of the new series will fail and Fox will need quick replacements.
There’s no word on whether Nicole Richie, rumoured to be feuding with co-star Paris Hilton, will be back for another season of The Simple Life. Both stars are under contract for two more seasons.
Fox has cancelled Life on a Stick and Quintuplets.
Fox’s new fall series:
— Prison Break, a drama about a man on death row. His brother is convinced he’s innocent and robs a bank to get in the same prison, where he comes armed with an elaborate escape plan.
— Bones, a sort of CSI for really dead people, is a drama about a team of forensic anthropologists who study bones to solve crimes.
— Head Cases stars Chris O’Donnell as a lawyer who gets kicked out by his wife and suffers a nervous breakdown. He meets Rachel Leigh Cook to help him get on his feet again.
— Reunion, sort of the inverse of 24, follows six friends over the course of 20 years. Each episode is set in a different year.
— The Gate, set in San Francisco, is a drama about a detective in the police department’s deviant crime unit.
— The War at Home is a comedy about once-rebellious parents of now-rebellious kids.
— Kitchen Confidential is a comedy about a once-hot cook stuck slinging pasta at a restaurant chain because of his boozing lifestyle. He’s given one chance at a job at a top restaurant but has 48 hours to impress 300 people — including the food critic at the New York Times, a jilted ex.

― Huk-L, Thursday, 19 May 2005 14:44 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm going to miss the Contender. That show was great.

― Jeff-PTTL (Jeff), Thursday, 19 May 2005 15:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Is Anthony Bourdain at all involved in Kitchen Confidential?

― Huk-L, Thursday, 19 May 2005 15:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Answering my own question (like being yr own Grandpa!):

Welcome to the Kitchen Confidential guide at TV Tome.

Based on renowned chef Anthony Bourdain's best-selling autobiography, Kitchen Confidential explores the deliciously crazy world of upscale restaurants. Chef Jack Bourdain (Bradley Cooper, "Alias," "I Want to Marry Ryan Banks") found enormous success at a young age, but his culinary genius also led to a lifestyle of boozing, womanizing and drugs. After hitting rock bottom and deciding to sober up, the only job he could get was slopping soggy pasta for the masses at a tacky opera-themed restaurant. Out of the blue, Jack is offered an opportunity to get back in the game as head chef at a top New York restaurant.

There's just one problem: the owner gives Jack a mere 48 hours to fully staff his kitchen and prepare to dazzle over 300 customers – including the food critic for the New York Times (who also happens to be a jilted ex). Jack hastily assembles a renegade crew of colleagues from his past, including chefs Steven Daedalus (Owain Yeoman, "Troy"), Seith Klein (Nicholas Brendon, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer") and Teddy Wong (John Cho, "Harold & Kumar"). Also along for the ride are Tanya (Jaime King, "White Chicks," "Pearl Harbor") the hostess, a rookie pastry chef named Jim (John F. Daley, "Freaks and Geeks"), and the owner's daughter, the gorgeous Mimi (Bonnie Somerville, "NYPD Blue"), who can't wait for Jack to fail.

In Kitchen Confidential, executive producers Darren Star ("Sex and the City") and David Hemingson ("Just Shoot Me," "American Dad") expose the secrets of the restaurant business through the delectable story of a talented chef who's determined to climb back to the top of the food game.- Fox Press Release

― Huk-L, Thursday, 19 May 2005 15:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Fuck, Veronica Mars is going to be on at the same time as Lost (9/8c on Wednesdays) in the fall.

This so does not bode well for its ratings. :(

― Melissa W (Melissa W), Thursday, 19 May 2005 15:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Hey, John Daley is going to be on another TV show, awesome!

― n/a (Nick A.), Thursday, 19 May 2005 15:33 (twenty-one years ago)

I thought this was a Mark E Smith thread.

― The Sensational Sulk (sexyDancer), Thursday, 19 May 2005 15:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Ha ha, someone should do a mock-up recording of a MES soundalike reading the TV Guide.

― Huk-L, Thursday, 19 May 2005 15:41 (twenty-one years ago)

"Where's the fucking remote, cunt?"

― The Sensational Sulk (sexyDancer), Thursday, 19 May 2005 15:44 (twenty-one years ago)

UPN, which already has a comedy based on the life of Will Smith, will add another based on the childhood of Rock. UPN is moving WWE Smackdown to Friday nights to make way for Everybody Hates Chris and three other comedies.
“Everybody Loves Raymond, Everybody Hates Chris,” Rock said. “White man out, black man in. See how it works?”
UPN executives believe it can be a landmark series for the network. Obviously thinking little of NBC’s Joey, UPN president Dawn Ostroff said there’s a void of television comedy on Thursday nights.
UPN is seeking an audience of teenage girls and young women on the nights it doesn’t air wrestling, aggressively going after an audience its competitor the WB once owned. It continually flashed the slogan “Where the Girls Are” in a presentation to advertisers.
Its two other new series are Sex, Lies & Secrets, with Denise Richards heading a group of twentysomething friends, and Love, Inc., starring Shannen Doherty and Holly Robinson Peete as dating consultants.
The Taye Diggs drama Kevin Hill was cancelled, as was Second Time Around.

― Huk-L, Thursday, 19 May 2005 19:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Jack hastily assembles a renegade crew of colleagues from his past

http://www.crazyabouttv.com/Images/renegade.jpg

― Alan Conceicao (Alan Conceicao), Thursday, 19 May 2005 20:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Haha, Bradley Cooper and Nicholas Brendon on the same show! It should have been titled Disgruntled Sidekicks Confidential. I love the book so I am kind of intruiged.

― Leon Federline (Ex Leon), Thursday, 19 May 2005 20:28 (twenty-one years ago)

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