Various notes arising from the season finales now running and the next season announcements now coming out:
Both Blind Justice and Eyes are canceled (only the latter is a loss). So I guess that’s a bad run for ABC crime shows with titles centered around vision.
Joan of Arcadia is gone, which I’m fine with. It may not have gotten to say everything that it could say as a series… but it probably got to say everything that it was likely to say.
Minor spoiler warning for the most recent Lost: I’m betting that next week’s season finale ends with that bottle washing up on the beach.
While I’m quite happy about the announcement of another season for Arrested Development and Veronica Mars, the only new show announcement that gets me excited at this point is Jason Lee’s new sitcom, with a bit of hope held out for Chris Rock’s. Then again, if you’d given me the same level of detail about a Jason Bateman sitcom and a drama about a teen girl detective as I have about most shows now, I wouldn’t have been excited about them either.
CBS ought to be ashamed for paying self-professed medium James van Praagh money in order to be permitted to spread his lies. Yes. the TV show Medium is a hit. Does that mean that we have to underwrite everyone who lies to the weak and troubled for their own profit? What’s next, a series on being a mass-murderer based on a treatment by Charles Manson?
The ReplayTV didn’t know that Gilmore Girls was gonna run a minute over. I had to do some online searching to find out who proposed to whom at the end!
House, M.D. actually messed with its formula for the first time this week. Relatively well done, as well.
I don’t particularly welcome the revival of Family Guy itself; the very first episode turned me off of that series. Still, the thought that DVDs can drive a revival is interesting (although much easier for an animated show where you don’t need to retrieve the sets and are less likely having problems getting the actors back again.)
Just checking out the UPN website and I see that Veronica Mars is moving to Wednesdays at 9p so it’ll be opposite Lost which is a minor problem for me, but that’s why the Supreme Being invented VCRs and such.
Checking out FOX fall lineup as I type. I see Arrested Development is moving to Mondays at 8p.
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So I thought “Oh well, Enterprise is being cancelled, no biggie. I’ll just be able to watch Joan “live” without having to catch up with Enterprise on tape afterwards. So then CBS goes and cancels Joan too. Granted, neither one was a GREAT show, but I enjoyed’em for the pleasant enough diversions they were.
And I’m not crazy about the Medium copycat either. If you’re gonna copy something, at least copy something good.
I’ve noticed that the networks on their fall preview grids tend to list “(un)reality” shows as NEW even though they’re just the same old retreads with different “contestants.” CBS does this with Amazing Race and Survivor (Oooh, it’s in Guatemala next season! Who cares?) and UPN does it with Top Model. This just bugs me. Hellllloooo… It’s the SAME frickin’ concept, guys! Network execs. Sheesh!
Dang! I really wish there was a preview feature. Meant to close out my bold font immediately after the comment of “Arrested Development is moving to Mondays at 8p.” Sorry.
Ok one more comment for one more fall preview pet peeve….
Checking out some of the new shows on FOX I find that they’re so thrilled certain people are in (or involved with) a show that they have to parenthetically insert each person’s multiple past credits. It’s really annoying and just gets in the way of the write-up for the concept of the show. I’d rather they list that sort of stuff after each name in the cast list (which they DO have), not in the show description which should have a narrative flow to it no matter how short.
Or maybe I’m just easily annoyed.
A short note in today’s Philly Inquirer:
“The WB will repeat the May 17 season finale of Gilmore Girls at 9 p.m. Tuesday.”
“Because the episode ran 27 seconds long—the reason is still unclear, the WB says—viewers recording the show missed the final, crucial scene with Lorelai (Laren Graham) and Luke (Scott Peterson).”
“Naturally, the WB was barraged with angry e-mails and calls. As a bonus, it will throw in an encore presentation of the penultimate episode at 8 p.m.”
Some general commentary by Inquirer TV reviewer Jonathan Storm regarding the recently announced Fall TV schedules & shows from the 6 major broadcast networks…
For fall TV, shake-ups and derivatives
(The article is from May 29. Inquirer articles are only accessible online for one week via free registration. Not sure though if the posted link to the full fall network schedules might remain accessible for longer.)
An excerpt from the article:
Dramas continue to dominate. There are 19 new ones, and only 10 sitcoms. One of them, UPN’s Everybody Hates Chris, is easily the most highly anticipated show of the season. Three others generated at least a bit of buzz when previewed to advertisers at the network “upfronts” in New York May 16 through 19.
The most uncomfortable moments at those gatherings come when up to 1,000 would-be buyers sit stone-faced in such entertainment palaces as Carnegie Hall and Radio City Music Hall while the networks play supposedly hilarious highlights from their prospective sitcoms.
SciFiWire: Housewives, Lost Top Critics’ Noms
Posting this mainly to check out the “preview” feature.
Also thought I’d mention that since Veronica is moving next season, I figure I may be able to watch House so I’ve started watching the summer reruns and I like it even though I didn’t expect to be wanting to watch another medical show after having watched the entire runs of St. Elsewhere and Chicago Hope. I had heard that one episode of House featured a scene with someone holding a Princeton Record Exchange bag and that’s the episode they showed this past week. Since Plastic Fantastic in Ardmore closed, PRE is the best CD/record store left in the NJ/Philly area. I go there probably about twice a year. Just a neat little point of trivia/reality in the show. I wonder how much PRE had to pay for the product placement?
House, while well-writ, follows far too strict a formula. They only violated that formula for one episode, the penultimate one of the season, and that was probably the best show of the series to date (even despite having Carmen Electra, who has yet to be a positive force on anything I’ve seen her in, and was a blatant drain on Battlebots.)However, it is all made watchable by one thing: Hugh Laurie’s performance. I’ve always enjoyed him (currently working my way through the DVDs of Jeeves & Wooster), and this is him going an excellent job on a character who is colored quite differently than the happy dolts he was known for playing.
Just prior to the House finale episode (which was the FIRST one I saw) there was a piece in the local paper about the show and Mr. Laurie. It seems that during casting of the show execs seemed to be getting an inordinate amount of Brits trying out. At one point the main casting guy said something to the effect of “No more British dudes, I’ve seen enough of’em.” Then Mr. Laurie tried out and the guy said he was perfect. At which point one of the others around spoke up, “Uh, excuse me Mr. Casting Bigwig, sir—he’s British.”
I’m sure I butchered the account, but that’s the gist. I found it amusing. Mr. Laurie said in the article that the American accent is better some days than others, but if I didn’t know he was British, well, I wouldn’t know he was British. Not familiar with him otherwise.
I don’t mind formula shows if the formula’s executed well with interesting character variations.
Looking at the upcoming week’s TV listings I see that UPN has scheduled Veronica Mars for both Tuesday & Wednesday at 9 PM so if anyone didn’t catch it from the beginning, now’s your chance—highly recommended. (Of course, check your local listings just to be sure of the schedule in your area.)
The Tuesday episode appears to be the first one and I’m assuming the Wednesday ep is the second one. Of course, I don’t know if it will remain on the same two nights a week schedule or not, but my guess is it will so as to show the entire season over the summer.
the fall previews for all the networks is the week of may 16. could you tell me which station is at which location. i think abc is a radio city