BAD TEACHER: Thursday 9:30PM on CBS – Change the Channel There’s rarely much point in transforming an R-rated movie comedy into a broadcast network TV series, especially if the appeal of the movie came largely from its shock value. (And especially if the network is CBS.) Bad Teacher was hardly a masterpiece of cinema, […]
FOX announced most of its midseason decisions today, and there were a few surprises. Biggest was the reduction of AMERICAN IDOL‘s Thursday night results show to 30 minutes, with the new sitcom SURVIVING JACK at 8:30PM, and the Greg Kinnear vehicle RAKE following at 9PM. We’ve come a long way from the days when […]
FRESH OFF THE BOAT: Midseason TBD on ABC THE FACTS: Based on the memoir of chef Eddie Huang, it’s the story of a Chinese-American family that moves from Washington, where there’s a thriving Asian community, to Orlando, Florida, where there isn’t one. The focal point is young Eddie, but the heavy lifting comes from […]
RESURRECTION: Sunday 9PM on ABC – Potential DVR Alert The restrained tension of RESURRECTION‘s pilot may remind you of early, suburban Spielberg, and of M. Night Shyamalan before he became a punchline. The premise, based on a novel called “The Returned” by Jason Mott (and also perhaps inspired by the unrelated French miniseries that ran […]
Everyone knows that the shine of a post-Olympics “preview” berth doesn’t last long–just ask 2012’s Go On and Animal Practice. But it’s at least supposed to provide a new show with a strong sampling. Ironically, last night’s WINTER OLYMPICS ratings were so disastrous (2.6 in preliminary numbers–see Mitch Metcalf’s Skedball post for details) that ABOUT A […]
GALAVANT: Winter-ish Sunday 8PM on ABC THE FACTS: A fairy tale musical comedy from Dan Fogelman, the creator of the late, lamented (by some of us) The Neighbors, with an original score by multiple Oscar-winner Alan Menken and Glenn Slater. It tells the tale of Prince Galavant, whose true love left him for the […]
NBC has perfected the art of releasing bits of information each day throughout pre-Upfront week, and today’s nuggets introduced a trio of additional new sitcoms. It appears that at least 2 of these will be given small midseason runs of 6 episodes to see if they catch anyone’s fancy before potentially expanding. MISSION CONTROL: […]
ABC made some impressive strides this past season, especially on Wednesday and Thursday, and it was probably wise that the network decided to adopt a conservative schedule for the Fall. Here’s a quick look, along with the network’s reported midseason plans, and reviews of the new shows’ trailers (new shows are in ALL CAPS, […]