TV Hot Spot: News

The Washington Post Comments on the Fall Season!

Post by: Sal

Here is what the Washington Post thinks of the falls shows:

Serialized Reruns: So Long

Serialized dramas did not vanish, as forecast by TV industry navel-gazers when many of these shows crashed and burned so early in this season -- including "Six Degrees," "The Nine," "Daybreak," "Kidnapped," "Vanished" and "Runaway."

Reruns on serialized dramas, however: Pretty much over. Instead, a slew of new and returning serialized dramas will try the play pattern of Fox's serialized fairy tale "24" -- straight through, no interruptions, no repeats.

Two seasons ago, when "24" was sliding in the ratings, Fox held the show's fourth season until January and ran the episodes straight through. The size of the audience jumped 16 percent. (In its fifth season -- same play pattern -- it jumped another 16 percent.)

After "24's" fourth-season revival, ABC executives were asked about airing "Lost" in the same fashion. At that time, some of them said they liked the idea but couldn't afford to do it; now, ABC execs say, they can't afford not to.

"Lost" is one of a bevy of new and returning serialized dramas all adopting the "24" model. The list includes CBS's "Swingtown" (about swinging couples in a '70s Chicago suburb), CW's returning "One Tree Hill," Fox's new "Sarah Connor Chronicles" (based on the "Terminator" flicks' mother character) and Fox's new Julianna Margulies drama "Canterbury's Law." And to a lesser degree, NBC's "Heroes," which, the network says, will share its time slot with a six-episode "spinoff" in which new "Heroes" characters will be introduced -- one of whom will join the regular show the next season, based on viewer vote. "Heroes: Idol," it's being called in the biz; "Heroes: Origins" is what NBC calls it.

"You almost have to do that nowadays," Fox scheduling chief Preston Beckman told the TV Column. "We discovered it three years ago. . . . You have to respect that the viewer wants the weekly habit of the show being there, and that when you disrupt that habit, there are consequences. It's the way of the future.

"With shows like 'Lost' it makes a lot of sense, but there is no guarantee with a new show that keeping it on every week is going to have anything to do with success."

Immortal Detectives

There are only two new series about immortal detectives on the fall prime-time lineup, and The Washington Post clearly defines a "trend" as "three or more." But, things being what they are in the network TV business, we're confident that if one of these shows opens, we'll see that third immortal-detective series on some network or another before the close of the 2007-08 TV season.

Immortal detectives are so unfair -- the deck is so stacked against the criminal. Even so, the broadcast networks decided this was The Year of the Immortal Detective.

CBS thinks it's found the perfect companion piece for "Ghost Whisperer" in its new show "Moonlight," about a private investigator who is also a vampire -- but one who wants to help people, not suck their blood, because he's getting all the blood he needs from his friend at the morgue. Things get complicated when he falls for a mortal chick, bringing us one of the best lines of this year's upfront presentation, which we will now paraphrase: "Of course he's conflicted -- when you're going to live forever, your search for love never dies."

That is not to be confused with Fox's new Tuesday-night drama "New Amsterdam," about a New York City detective who, in the mid-1600s, was a soldier who was fatally wounded saving a Native American woman. She, naturally wanting to return the favor, put a spell on him that would make him immortal until he finds true love, of whom he could then say, in all honesty, "She'll be the death of me."

Nerds Are Very Hot

This is also The Year of the Nerd on broadcast TV. Why? For the same reason that a few years back there were multiple shows about guys getting to jump back to their childhood to "do over" their lives -- just 'cause. One network executive confided that their research showed nerds were very hot with young viewers. And that's all you need to know.

CBS is giving new sitcom "Big Bang Theory" a slot on its coveted Monday comedy lineup. It's from Chuck Lorre, the same guy who brought us "Two and a Half Men" as well as a slew of sitcoms starring women you wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley, including "Roseanne," "Cybill" and "Grace Under Fire." "Big Bang Theory" is about two Cal Poly nerds and the hot bimbo waitress who lives across the hall who, we are asked to believe, is an aspiring screenwriter. Anyway, she looks great in a towel.

NBC, meanwhile, coughed up "Chuck" for its Tuesday lineup, from Josh Schwartz of "The OC" fame. It's about a geek who works at an electronics chain store called Buy More, and who becomes a secret agent after accidentally downloading top secrets into his brain. I know, but it's a Josh Schwartz show -- what do you expect?

NBC also bought U.S. rights to the Britcom "IT Crowd" about the IT department at a large company -- a show being held for midseason.

CW, meanwhile, will follow its Chris Rock comedy "Everybody Hates Chris" with the new "Aliens in America" in the fall. It's about a nerd who is bullied at school to the point where his mother literally imports a friend for him -- a Pakistani Muslim exchange student who is also bullied at the school.

Sex & the City Redux

More than three years after "Sex and the City" had its series finale on HBO, networks will try to recapture the lightning.

NBC bought "Lipstick Jungle," based on a book by Candace Bushnell, whose sex column for the New York Observer was the basis for "Sex and the City."

ABC bought "Cashmere Mafia," executive-produced by Darren Star, who created the HBO series "Sex and the City" (as well as "Beverly Hills, 90210" and "Melrose Place").

And CW bought "Gossip Girl," based on the books of same name -- that series has been called "Sex and the City" for teens.



Take Care,

Sal