I’m about to reach 100 issues of this thing. This week’s issue is jam packed with the news coming out of the network presentations from the TV networks announcing their fall lineups. Because of that, there isn’t much room for a lot else but I wanted to cover this thing as best as I could. I took several hits on the old schedule this year. So, that leaves me to ask, anyone got any shows that they want to recommend to me? I ask because I’m losing favorites left and right. You know what kind of shows I like so send me any recommendations. Keep in mind that the CW is kind of a sore spot right now for me. And, I’ve got PLENTY to say about the CW presentation. Isn’t the saying to not drive when angry? I think that is the catchphrase? Well, I’m writing while angry and I’ve got plenty to say about the CW here in a moment. FURIOUS!!
All right. Here we go into the up fronts from the TV networks as they presented their fall and midseason schedules. The show I’m obviously going to start with is Veronica Mars before I get into the other stuff. I’m biased and I’m mad so there you go. LOL. Veronica Mars is apparently done but you wouldn’t really know for sure with the way that the CW has stretched this thing out and made us wait. Their talk at their presentation didn’t help either and really just made fans more mad and frustrated as it was like they were afraid to announce a decision. The CW has been pressured for months now wondering about renewing Veronica Mars. They said that they would make a decision on the week of the up fronts. Up fronts week gets here and word gets out that the CW is talking about holding off on a decision until later after the up fronts as the show is under contract until June 15th. There was talk of it maybe being a midseason replacement. So, we all waited until today for the presentation to find out the official word on what was going on. Here is what went on at the CW up fronts earlier today. A lot of comments from the entertainment bloggers in attendance at the press conference on the Pussycat Dolls opening the show and performing. I say a lot of comments cause there is a lot of heat on the Dolls from the Veronica fans including the many critics that love Veronica Mars. E’s Kristin commented “I’m highly concerned for their safety because there are a good 50 Veronica Mars fans outside this building who are p* the show hasn’t yet been picked up.” CW was really looked at harsh by the critics with awaiting news on Veronica and then comparing these new shows to Veronica. When head of CW, Dawn Ostroff, was asked about Veronica Mars, she could not have dodged around the question any more than she did. She completely danced around it. It was really annoying. She said that Veronica Mars is likely gone but they are talking to Rob Thomas and Kristen Bell about doing another show but wouldn’t call it a spinoff. She didn’t mention that it would even involve the character of Veronica. When asked a followup, Dawn said that they are discussing “an idea” but that she “didn’t think it was going to happen”. That was it? Veronica was obviously not on the fall schedule that was leaked a couple of days ago so we knew the news couldn’t be good. Michael Ausiello over at TV Guide pinned Dawn down after the press conference to continue to push on Veronica Mars as he was as frustrated as the fans were with the lack of answers. She had this to say, “Veronica Mars is over, but we’re talking about something else. I don’t know if it’s going to be anything. I’m being honest with you. It could come back in some form, but I don’t know what form that would be.” She also pointed out that the network has until June 15th to make a decision. No doubt to let the backlash settle down and then quietly announce the official cancellation. But we have to make room for that great quality TV of the new Search For The Next Pussycat Doll show. Unbelievable. Ausiello also forwarded the comments made by Dawn to Rob Thomas and these were his comments, “No one has talked to me about a new, non-Veronica project. All my writer’s have been offered jobs elsewhere, and I believe they will now all accept these jobs. Very, very, very sad day around the VM offices. I assume that anything Dawn would be talking about in the realm of a Rob-Kristen project would involve a new from-scratch pilot as they don’t have me in a deal, and they’ll lose Kristen in a couple of weeks.” Well, two years after the cancellation of American Dreams on NBC, it looks like I’ve got a new network to bash every chance that I get. Welcome to the club CW. It’s like I’ve said, the dancing around this subject annoys me more than the cancellation itself. They’ve done nothing but dodge this question for weeks and months promising to announce it this week. This week gets here and they DANCE around it even MORE. It’s unbelievable and really disrespectful to all the fans of the show that just want to know what is going to become of the show. Were they afraid to get hammered at the press conference with an announcement? I know a lot of the reporters were ready to pounce. This is a new and struggling network that already made a LOT of fans and reporters mad last year when Everwood was canceled. So, you already have the Everwood fans turned against you. They now have a lot of the Gilmore fans fired up. Beauty and The Geek will get the spot vacated by the departing Gilmore Girls and Dawn made sure to point out that Beauty and The Geek pulled in more young adult viewers than Gilmore did. Ok, are you taking shots here or what? Instead of paying tribute to Gilmore, you take a little jab at it saying that Beauty and The Geek pulled in more young viewers and then string the Veronica fans along and STILL are. That’s a great way to run a network in a day when viewers aren’t watching TV as much. Now, why should I as a viewer stick with a network that is going to treat fans this way? Quit with the “well, we might bring it back later or do something else” stuff when you know that you’re not. Just be honest and straight up tell us that it isn’t coming back. The treatment of Veronica Mars reminds me of another show that was canceled years ago, Angel. Remember how The WB was kicking off the backlash by saying “we’re going to do some TV movies”. Those were great movies. All zero of them. It was funny how the talk of those movies being made suddenly just went away. So, it looks like one of the best shows on TV is gone but wait till you see the greatness that is replacing it especially the reality shows. Critics were furious today seeing the shows that CW is launching while they leave no spot open for Veronica Mars. Like I said, I’m more mad at the way that they handled this cause we really had an idea that it wasn’t coming back. Just show some guts and tell us that it isn’t coming back.
CW:
Shows Returning: Everybody Hates Chris, Girlfriends, The Game, Beauty and The Geek, America’s Next Top Model, Smallville, Supernatural, One Tree Hill, WWE Friday Night Smackdown, Pussycat Dolls
Shows That Are Gone: Veronica Mars, Gilmore Girls, 7th Heaven, All Of Us.
New Shows: Aliens In America (comedy about a family that takes in a foreign exchange student and the student and son go to school together), Reaper (comedy about a family that sold their son’s soul to the devil who wants him to be his bounty hunter), Gossip Girl (comedy about a girl who blogs about the lives of some privileged teenagers with the voice of Gossip Girl at the upfronts being Kristen Bell), CW Now (a prime time news magazine show from the producers of Extra), Online Nation (sort of a You Tube type video show), Life Is Wild (drama that sees a veternarian move his family to South Africa to live on a game preserve), Farmer Wants A Wife (just what it sounds like, reality show about finding a city girl for a farmer), Crowned: The Mother Of All Pageants (beauty pageant reality show).
Overall Thoughts: I’ve gotten into my Veronica thoughts but here is some other news on the other shows. One Tree Hill is being kept back till midseason and the show will flash forward ahead four years as has been talked about. Dawn had this also to say about One Tree Hill, “I know a lot of One Tree Hill fans are worried. I’m here to reassure you that we love OTH, which is why we’re strategically holding it till midseason. That gives us a chance to make a bold creative change: We’re going to fast-forward four years to a point where the characters have already graduated college. And we’re producing online digital diaries, so the fans can keep up with what happened to those characters in the interim.” Umm, isn’t this the same network that got too involved with the creative process of Veronica Mars this season? When networks get involved in the creative process, it’s bad news most of the time. A lot of new shows were announced with some getting no sort of response from the crowd at the presentation. One new reality show was announced that got no reaction and just fueled the backlash that there was room for that thing on the schedule and not for Veronica Mars? Some of the renewals kind of surprise me. Glad to see Smallville coming back. I hear good things about Supernatural so it’s nice to see it back as well. After the ratings of the Pussycat Dolls show, CW has obviously decided to load up on reality stuff. Needless to say, you have no chance in me watching one of these new shows. When you canceled one of the best shows on your network, what does that tell me about these other shows that I’d want to check them out? It’s amazing that my Tuesday night lineup of TV got wiped out in one week. Losing Gilmore and Veronica punched a lot of fans and critics around the country including me.
NBC:
Shows Returning: Deal Or No Deal, Heroes, The Biggest Loser, Law & Order: SVU, My Name Is Earl, 30 Rock, The Office, Scrubs, ER, 1 vs. 100, Las Vegas, Friday Night Lights, Dateline, Law & Order, and Medium.
Shows That Are Gone: Crossing Jordan, Studio 60, The Black Donnellys, Raines, 20 Good Years, Andy Barker PI, Grease, Kidnapped, The Real Wedding Crashers, Thank God You’re Here, and Identity.
New Shows: Bionic Woman (remake of the 70’s series), Life (detective drama about an innocent cop who was sent to prison and returns to his job), The Singing Bee (karaoke competition), Journeyman (time travel
sci-fi show), Chuck (comedy spy drama), The IT Crowd (comedy based on the IT world of technology), World Moves (dance team reality competition show), and Lipstick Jungle (drama)
Overall thoughts: Not really any surprises for me looking over this besides the addition of a Heroes spinoff. NBC has decided to add more of Heroes as they are doing a spinoff type show called “Origins”. The plan is for Origins to be six standalone episodes about different new characters. Fans would then be given a chance to vote on what characters that they would like to see move over to the main show. NBC has yet to decide on when they will run them but plan to use this as a way to cut down on reruns for Heroes. My first thought upon reading this news was, uh oh, they’re going to over saturate their only new hit show and do too much of it. Maybe I’ll be wrong but networks have a real tendency to mass produce something that is a hit. See example: Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. There was talk for a few weeks that NBC was going to drop Scrubs but ABC was waiting in the wings to pick it up if NBC did get rid of it. Thursday night is going to be reshuffled a bit as far as order goes. My Name Is Earl will remain where it was at 7pm. It will be followed by 30 Rock at 7:30, The Office at 8pm, and Scrubs at 8:30, with ER remaining at 9pm. Friday Night Lights will be moved to Fridays at 9pm and I’m glad that it is sticking around as I know a lot of people really are fighting for that show. Law & Order and Medium won’t return until midseason. Law & Order: Criminal Intent will be back but it is going to have its new episodes airing on USA Network and, from what I understand, the reruns of the episodes will air on NBC. Strange.
ABC:
Shows Returning: Lost, Ugly Betty, America’s Funniest Home Videos, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Desperate Housewives, Brothers & Sisters, Dancing With The Stars, The Bachelor, Boston Legal, Grey’s
Anatomy, Men In Trees, 20/20.
New Shows: Sam I Am (comedy about a woman who awakens from an 8 day coma with amnesia), Cavemen (a comedy based off of the Geico commercials), Carpoolers (comedy about four men who carpool to work and vent about their lives), Pushing Daisies (drama about a man who can bring people back to life by touching them but they will die if he touches them a second time), Private Practice (the much talked about Grey’s Anatomy spinoff involving Dr. Addison Montgomery), Dirty Sexy Money (drama about a lawyer inheriting his father’s practice and the problems that come with it), Big Shots (drama about four CEO’s looking to do whatever it takes to stay on top), Women’s Murder Club (drama about four women who work together to solve murder cases), Cashmere Mafia (drama about four friends from business school who work together to try and take over New York), Eli Stone (drama about a lawyer who thinks he’s a prophet), Miss/Guided (comedy about a student who was unpopular in high school returning in a job as guidance counselor), Oprah’s Big Give (reality show with people competing on who can be the biggest giver)
Shows That Are Gone: According To Jim, Big Day, Day Break, Extreme Makeover, The George Lopez Show, The Great American Vote, Help Me Help You, In Case Of Emergency, The Knights Of Prosperity, The Nine, Show Me The Money, Six Degrees, What About Brian
Overall thoughts: ABC is definitely going for it with launching some new shows. I wouldn’t mind checking out some of these new shows. Cavemen could be funny as I think the commercials are very funny. The question is can they take the 30 second funny and turn it into 22 minute funny week after week? The President of ABC is excited about Lost getting a straight run through instead of reruns or a break in between episodes. He also commented saying that he was very disappointed that they didn’t get to pick up Scrubs as there was full intent on picking it up if NBC had dropped it. I expect the Grey’s spinoff to do well but like Heroes, I wonder if it may be too much of an overload. It has been talked about that the spinoff does need some tweaking from the original plan. Carpooling is a show that has a solid cast to it that could perform well.
CBS:
Shows Returning: CSI, Two and A Half Men, Rules Of Engagement, 60 Minutes, Survivor, How I Met Your Mother, CSI: Miami, NCIS, The Unit, Criminal Minds, CSI: New York, Without A Trace, Ghost Whisperer, Numbers, Cold Case, Shark, 48 Hours: Mystery, Crimetime Saturday, Amazing Race (not till January). New Adventures Of Old Christine.
New Shows: Big Bang Theory (Comedy about two geniuses who have a beautiful woman move in next door), Cane (drama about a family running a rum business in Florida), Kid Nation (reality show about 40
kids building a community in a town), Moonlight (drama about a vampire that is working as a private investigator. Hey, I’ve seen that show before, it’s called ANGEL), Viva Laughlin (drama about a man opening a casino while also being involved in a murder investigation), Swingtown (drama about residents in a suburb who are into open marriages and couple swapping).
Shows That Are Gone: Jericho, 3 LBS, Armed & Famous, The Class, Close To Home, The King Of Queens, Rock Star, Smith, Waterfront.
Overall thoughts: Obviously, the show that I was concerned about most was How I Met Your Mother. Why there was even consideration in not bringing that show back is beyond me? It’s a unique sitcom that is
different in style in a day when all sitcoms tend to be the same. At least I have one of my favorite shows coming back so I’m happy about that. Not surprised about MOST of the shows not returning although one
really stood out. Jericho not coming back was a surprise to me. It did good ratings early on but then went on, wait for it, hiatus. When it returned, a lot of the viewers didn’t come back. Again, networks really are going to have to look at ways to prevent that from happening. Lots of fans are stunned that the show isn’t coming back and I don’t think CBS made the right call there. One entertainment news guy that I listen to is FURIOUS over the cancellation of Jericho. He found a phone number for CBS complaints department and left a message with them and is encouraging the others to do it as well but be polite about the complaints. He actually used to work in the entertainment business as well. New Adventures Of Old Christine will be returning in midseason instead of the fall.
Fox:
Shows Returning: Prison Break, House, 24, The Simpsons, King Of The Hill, Family Guy, American Dad, COPS, America’s Most Wanted, ‘Til Death, Bones, Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader, American Idol, Mad TV, Talk Show With Spike Feresten
Shows That Are Gone: Drive, Happy Hour, Justice, The O.C., The Rich List, Vanished, The Wedding Bells
New Shows: Back To You (comedy starring Patricia Heaton and Kelsey Grammar about a big city news anchor having to return to his old TV market working with his former anchor who is also his ex), New
Amsterdam (an immortal working as a homicide detective in New York City), Canterbury’s Law (drama about a tough female defense attorney), The Return Of Jezebel James (comedy about a book editor asking her estranged sister to carry her baby), The Rules For Starting Over (comedy about a group of friends recently becoming single again and learning how different dating in their 30’s is from dating in their 20’s), K-Ville (drama seeing a police force working on helping to build back New Orleans), The Sarah Conner Chronicles (based off of the Terminator movies around the Sarah Connor character), Kitchen Nightmares (reality show based on Gordon Ramsey traveling the country working on helping restaurants in trouble), The Search For The Next Great American Band (reality show from the producers of American Idol looking to put a band into stardom), Nashville (reality show from the producers of Laguna Beach focusing on the Nashville music scene).
Overall Thoughts: Well, I have a rule with Fox. Don’t watch new shows on Fox cause they tend to pull the plug quick. I’ve gone on my Reunion rant many times including recently so just go with that. If you see a show that you are interested in, record it for a few weeks before you watch it in case they pull it. I do think that The Rules For Starting Over could be funny. Back To You has the star power that it could be a hit. Fox has all their heavy hitters back with most of them returning in January. Fox is also holding off some of their new shows till midseason looking to pair them with American Idol and get a rub from that audience.
So, there you go. There are the plans from all the networks. Hopefully I didn’t leave anything off and if I did, I apologize. There are several shows that look like they could be interesting. Problem with that? Well, the networks are so quick to cancel anything after even one episode sometimes that it really makes you not want to even tune in until you know it’s going to be around for a while. It is clear that the networks are trying different strategies on how to deal with the hiatus problem with viewers not coming back after a hiatus. NBC is trying to launch more Heroes. Fox is holding some of their shows off as is ABC where they can run the season straight through with no interruptions . I’m not sure what CW’s plan is. Veronica Mars was getting its highest numbers ever at the beginning of the season until that first near two month hiatus which gave viewers plenty of time to find something else to watch. Lost has recently had the same problem with viewership down since the end of its hiatus. Networks need to make that a point to work on that problem as the hiatus’ are killing some of these shows. I see it getting worse too as TV ratings continue to fall.
Box office numbers for last weekend. 1. Spiderman 3 – $58.2 million. 2. 28 Weeks Later – $9.8 million. 3. Georgia Rule – $6.8 million. 4. Disturbia – $4.7 million. 5. Delta Farce – $3.4 million. 6. Fracture – $3.0 million. 7. The Invisible – $2.3 million. 8. Meet The Robinsons – $1.8 million. 9. Next – $1.74 million. 10. Hot Fuzz – $1.72 million.
With the news of Veronica Mars or LACK of news, the 2 hour series finale of Veronica Mars will air Tuesday night on The CW. It looks like this will be the series finale instead of a hoped season finale. Funny thing was that they were promoting it as a SEASON finale on Tuesday.
This week saw the end of Gilmore Girls which I consider one of the greatest shows in the last 10 years for sure. It will remain one of my favorite shows of all time. First, comments on the finale before I speak on the series as a whole. I liked the finale and thought it did wrap up the series very well. We got to see so many of the great characters in the town featured in this last episode. The show began with a guest appearance by Christiane Amanpour who has been talked about throughout the series as Rory’s goal in life was to be a reporter like her. I thought that was a very cool way to open the show with them getting to meet at the Inn. Rory then got a job offer that would take her out on the trail, the campaign trail. She took the job and she will be a reporter on the Obama election campaign trail. This meant that instead of the trip that her and Lorelai had planned and the demanded graduation reenactment by the town, Rory left in three days. Luke brought up throwing a surprise town bash for Rory. Luke got the whole town involved and it all came together even with the rain. Lorelai was then told that Luke was the one that threw this whole thing together and we saw the kiss between Luke and Lorelai. I really liked that Luke put the Rory celebration together cause all through her life, Luke had done anything that he could to help her out. It was actually one thing that drove Christopher crazy cause Luke had been a sort of father figure to Rory replacing her dad who wasn’t there for most of her life. There was no Logan in this episode which is obviously the loose end that didn’t get tied up from what was discussed. They broke up last week and there was little mention of him this week. The final scene of the show was very fitting as it took place with Lorelai, Rory, and Luke at Luke’s diner. If you remember, the first ever scene of the show also took place in the diner with the three of them so I noticed immediately how cool it was that the show was also going to end the way it started. Only thing missing was that I was hoping for them to start playing the song “There She Goes” which opened the series. Unfortunately, it didn’t close it but, ah, it’s ok. I thought it was a good, yet sad, finale. Sad to see the characters being separated. It’s no secret that the writing team changed going into this season and the change was really apparent in the first half of the season. The Palladinos’ who created the show and wrote the first six seasons of the show left us with one of the most smartly written and clever shows that I’ve ever seen. They wrote what I consider to be the best mother/daughter TV relationship that I’ve ever seen. The adventures of Lorelai and Rory have been very entertaining over the years. They invented the town of Stars Hollow that you would watch and think how fun it would be to live there in that fantasy town. I heard in the last little while that on the Warner Brothers tours that you can go on, they take you through the Gilmore set. All I could think was how fun that would be!! They did a great job of making this set come alive and make it feel like a real town. We also have the relationship between Lorelai and her parents. The Emily and Richard scenes are always fun. It gave us the relationships over the years such as Luke & Lorelei, the triangle of Rory/Dean/Jess, and the Logan relationship that made me miss having Jess around (LOL). Sookie and Jackson were also fun characters on the show. They even wrote side characters that, if they weren’t to return to the show, would be greatly missed. I’m talking about Paris, Kirk, Lane, Mrs. Kim, Miss Patty, Taylor, and many others. I think that Paris Gellar is one of the best characters on TV today and you can tell that the writers really enjoy writing that character. They took the simplest of scenes and made them funny such as the season one episode where Rory is late for school and a deer hits the jeep. SHE doesn’t hit the deer. The deer runs into HER while she is sitting at a stop sign on the phone. I thought that was one of the funniest scenes in the show’s run. It will be odd in the fall not checking out what the characters are into. I’m going to miss what Rory and Lorelai are up to. I’m going to miss wondering what Paris is all freaked out about this week. I’m going to miss the constant battles between Luke and Taylor. I’m going to miss what crazy ideas that Taylor has for Stars Hollow. I’m really going to miss this show and was not about to let it go without giving a good write up about it. The show will remain on DVD and in reruns which will be great. If you’ve never seen the show, give it a look on DVD or on ABC Family. What I like about this show is that with a lot of shows, you just aren’t interested in watching the episodes over again. This show is an exception. I would watch reruns anytime of it. Episodes that I would recommend checking out and are some of my favorites:
Season 1: The pilot of course and the second episode which sees Rory’s first day at Chilton.
Season 2: The Road Trip To Harvard (features Rory and Lorelai going on a road trip to check out Harvard),
A Tisket, A Tasket (this involves a Stars Hollow tradition of the picnic basket auction)
Season 3: They Shoot Gilmores, Don’t They? (24 hour dance marathon)
Season 4: The Lorelais’ First Day At Yale (This episode features Rory getting a unexpected hurry rush off to Yale when they get the arrival date wrong when arriving back from a trip. A reunion with Paris. This episode features the best battle over a mattress that had me laughing all through it.)
I think you’ll really enjoy it. I know I did for many years!!
Down to the final two on American Idol. Melinda Doolittle was eliminated last night which was a shame cause she has been the most consistent contestant all season. I’m disappointed that she won’t be in the finale. It will be Jordin Sparks vs. Blake Lewis in next week’s finale. I’m staying with my pick of Jordin to win this thing.
A first for a Survivor winner on this past Sunday night’s finale. The winner got every single vote which has never happened. Dreamz won the final four immunity and went back on his deal with Yau Man and kept the immunity which cost Yau to be voted off. Dreamz made the statement at one point that he had to turn his back on the deal cause then he had a chance at a million dollars. Dreamz had NO chance. Not only did he make people mad for turning his back on the deal but he also had Mookie, Alex, and Edgaurdo up there who he had turned against and had something to do with their being voted out of the game. When seeing that it was down to Earl, Dreamz, and Cassandra, there was no doubt on who was going to win. Dreamz had made too many people mad and sealed his fate with the turn of the deal. Cassandra wouldn’t get many respect votes as she didn’t really do any big game plays at all. She just mostly rode along and wasn’t strong in the challenges for the most part. Earl had earned a lot of respect and was a strong player throughout including finding an immunity idol. I liked Earl all season as he seemed like a really good guy and strong player. I was pulling for Yau to win overall though.
TV on DVD releases for Tuesday, May 22nd. 24 (Seasons 1-4 being re-released in slim sets), Airwolf (Season 3), Avatar: The Last Airbender (Book 2: Earth, Volume 3), Instant Star (Season 1 – Director’s Cut), Kitchen Confidential (Complete Series), Kyle XY (Season 1), Legend Of The Dragon (Season 1), The Magnificent Seven (Season 2), Mythbusters (Collection 1), The O.C. (Season 4), Scrubs (Season 5), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Season 1 – Volume 1).
TV Line Of The Week:
“Ok, you have to fire her cause she may drop a shorty during your wedding.” – Robin to Lilly on How I Met Your Mother talking about the pregnant harp player that was hired for the wedding, that was also overdue by a week.
That is it for this week. Should be back to regular business next week with the TV presentations over with. Have a good weekend!
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