May 2010 Archives

DVD UPDATE: 'Life' (US) vs. 'Life' (UK)

May 31, 2010 9:20 PM

Now's the perfect time for the return of our weekly TV DVD coverage because June 1 marks a major TV release smackdown:

Oprah Winfrey vs. David Attenborough!

They're both narrating the epic nature series Life -- Winfrey on the Discovery Channel version seen in this country, Attenborough on the BBC's original UK version. Each arrives in four-disc sets on both DVD and Blu-ray -- all coming out Tuesday.

That means you'll find four competing BBC Video boxes on shelves -- plus another option of ordering a Winfrey Discovery-labeled version direct from DiscoveryStore.com.

Which to get?

Attenborough has already proven he's tops at narrating the type of outdoors footage to which this natural-world broadcaster has devoted the 60 years of his adult life. (Attenborough's British broadcasting credits stretch back to 1952's Animal, Vegetable, Mineral?) His previous UK vs. USA narration duel on Planet Earth vs. Discovery voice Signourney Weaver was a clear win for Attenborough's deftly expressive delivery.

Life is even clearer. As noted by TV critics reviewing Discovery's Life premiere, Winfrey turned out to be a disastrous narrator, sounding either/both out of her depth or condescending to ours. Where Attenborough has always employed an economy of words to render concise descriptions and succinct emotional imagery -- to keep things direct and simple -- Winfrey was painfully simplistic. She sounded as if she was being made to explain things to third-graders ex-treee-me-ly slooooow on the uptake.

Attenborough's narration feels not only respectful to his audience, but often profound. He speaks in warmly gruff yet silken tones, easily bending a phrase or a word to set the scene or convey a sentiment -- irony, humor, tragedy, wonder. It's almost as if you can hear an arched eyebrow or a subtle forewarning. Maybe it's a rare gift, or maybe it's understanding the subject matter deep in your bones. In either case, Winfrey simply doesn't have it. Attenborough reflects and amplifies the sense of awe we feel watching Life's astonishing photography and natural drama.

So let's say you've voted to go with Attenborough. Which Life to live? Blu-ray, if you've got the equipment, looks absolutely stunning -- almost as if you're looking down from a helicopter or off a boat. The effect is sometimes almost 3-D, with fish swimming right at you or prey practically fleeing through your screen. The Attenborough box (look for the cover with a silver show title, a frog and Attenborough's name as narrator) lists its video definition as 1080p, while Winfrey's (the letters Life are in chartreuse above her name) says 1080i, the same as HD broadcast quality.

One difference in special features on both DVD and BD -- Winfrey's box collects the "making of" segments into one long special, as aired on Discovery, while Attenborough's BBC version adds each behind-the-scenes segment at the end of an episode as an integral part of that hour. Discovery's episodes need to be shorter to make room for commercials, of course. And those ad breaks are painfully obvious, too.

As is something else when you sit down to watch Life in marathon doses. (It's encoring on TV's Animal Planet starting June 6 from 8-11 p.m.) Life is just as much about death. The segments are crammed to the gills, or wings, or foreheads, with animal attacks, wails, blood, dismemberment and other gruesomely lethal reality of the food chain. For every gloriously poetic moment of a sea dragon dance, there's an ostrich hunted down and ripped apart by cheetahs. It's likely to be a bit much for kids -- especially in the crisp clarity of progressive-video DVD and BD.

Life likely won't be as big a seller as Planet Earth, which devoted itself to our planet's most magnificent vistas and breathtaking species. Earth was all about marveling at natural variety and adaptation, where Life is, well, survival of the fittest. Which can be nasty business indeed.

Also out June 1:

Burn Notice Season 3 -- No Blu-ray option this time. (Guess that Season 2 BD set didn't sell.) "Burned" spy Jeffrey Donovan and Gabrielle Anwar heat up Miami just fine in standard-def, with drinking buddy Bruce Campbell, mom Sharon Gless, thieves, con men, terrorists, and other loose cannons. Extras include stunts featurette and Comic-Con panel. USA's Season 4 starts Thursday, June 3.

Drop Dead Diva Season 1 -- Lifetime's revenge-of-the-plus-size-attorneys finds a haughty model reincarnated as a larger lawyer. Great guest stars: Paula Abdul, Liza Minnelli, Kathy Najimy, Jorja Fox, Rosie O'Donnell, Tim Gunn and more, plus Margaret Cho every week. Extras include featurettes and "dreamisode" shorts. Season 2 launches on Lifetime next Sunday, June 6.

Mister Ed Season 3 -- How much do we love Shout Factory for rescuing otherwise dead-on-DVD shows like this? They even keep adding extras, like this set's recent Alan Young radio interview.

Hope Springs -- Alex Kingston (ER) leads a group of female ex-cons planning an escape with their ill-gotten goods while biding time in a sleepy Scottish town -- which turns out to be anything but. This BBC series has murders, hit men and more, for eight hours of serio-comic escapist fun.

Catching up with May releases:

Marcus Welby, M.D. Season 1 -- Robert Young's 1970s family-physician drama still packs a punch. Doctor knows best, even if he gets a little preachy, or more than a little pushy. He's certainly the kind of (com)passionate doctor we wish we had now even more than back in those pre-HMO days. The 27 episodes (on 7 discs) hit harder on the era's issues than you might expect, from drugs to abortion, hippies to faith healers. And the guest stars are a great mix of veteran stars -- Anne Baxter, Vera Miles, Strother Martin, Frank Silvera and Dolores Del Rio -- with up-and-comers like Richard Thomas, David Cassidy and Barry Williams. Not to mention that up-and-coming young partner, James Brolin, the youthful Dr. Kiley on his too-cool motorcycle. (And that up-and-coming 23-year-old director Steven Spielberg. Too bad his episode is so disappointing.) Special features would've been nice, but we're happy just to have these episodes. And distributor Shout does provide a nice printed episode-guide booklet, in a nice plastic case. Buy now, please, so we'll see some more.

Royal Pains Season 1 -- Mark Feuerstein of Fired Up and Conrad Bloom and Good Morning Miami finally finds success playing a hotshot doctor exiled from exciting Manhattan to the "quiet" Hamptons. He straddles the resort area's social stratopheres, from rich jet-setters to ailing locals, while also straddling drama and comedy in patented USA Network style. Extras include commentaries on four episodes (sometimes two per episode), costar Paulo Costanzo's video blogs, and a featurette with the show's "real doctor" consultant. Season 2 starts on USA Thursday, June 3.

True Blood Season 2 (also on Blu-ray) -- Snack on last season while waiting for the new season (June 13 on HBO) of lurid bayou blood-sucking. The fun on disc extends to cheeky bonus features -- pro- and anti-vampire "news," juicy audio commentaries on six episodes, and more. The Blu-ray release adds funky interactive goodies like pop-up factoids, picture-in-picture commentary from characters (in character), and handy flash forward-and-back bridging of related scenes from previous and following episodes (when Tara tells cops she saw a pig in the road, you get to see it). Nice packaging, too -- HBO has to do something to rationalize those high price points.

The Virginian Complete First Season -- This '60s western flashback is a rarity -- a 90-minute series, which makes it almost a weekly TV movie. The extra time is put to use fleshing out quiet character studies of the costars who weekly intersect with authoritative rancher Lee J. Cobb, understanding foreman James Drury (the unnamed title character), and fun-loving cowboys Doug McClure and Gary Clark. The pace, however, is definitely leisurely and can take some getting used to. It's worth the effort when complex visitors are played by the likes of Bette Davis, George C. Scott, Lee Marvin, Eddie Albert, Ida Lupino and Robert Vaughn. Sit back and savor. The 30 episodes come on 10 discs inside book-page sleeves (not the best for avoiding scratches) in an embossed tin box (nice, but nicer to have spent the money on decent sleeves). A bonus disc includes extended interviews with cast members like Drury and Clark.

30 Days The Complete Series -- Super Size Me filmmaker Morgan Spurlock lives a month in the lives of coal miners, illegal immigrant, convicts, wheelchair users, Native American reservation dwellers, and other eye-opening folks. All three seasons of the FX docuseries (18 episodes total) come on six discs, with audio commentary and "diary cam."

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FALL FLASH: Diane Holloway assesses the 2010-11 lineup

May 26, 2010 11:21 PM

Diane Werts here . . . to let you know that the words below come from our Diane2 -- Diane Holloway, who's digested the news from last week's network upfronts to let you know what's new, what's back and what's gone for good.

For more fall details, click the links below to see show descriptions, video clips, and more.

But broadcast TV is no longer the be all and end all of prime time. Cable and satellite are just as active these days. And fall isn't where all the premieres are, either. We'll be back shortly to report on the summer goodies coming from networks and cable.

TV has become a year-round business. That's why TV Worth Watching is here 365 days a year.

(Make that 366 in 2012.)

Fall highlights, lowlights and dead ducks

By Diane Holloway

Last week, the broadcast networks unveiled their new fall schedules. This used to be a big, flashy affair that every newspaper, magazine and TV station covered with fervor.

Thanks to the networks' decimated audience levels these days, the new fall "reveals" aren't as big a deal. Of course, that doesn't mean devoted TV-aholics such as myself don't pay attention. Close attention.

Here's my handy-dandy "charticle" of the new fall season. (I have exercised my TV-critic option to totally ignore the CW.)

ABC ditched or ended 10 series, the most noteworthy of which were Lost and Ugly Betty. Of the seven newcomers that will join the lineup, arguably the most talked about right now (as in: sight unseen) is No Ordinary Family, a family superhero drama starring Michael Chiklis, formerly the tough-as-nails Vic Mackey of The Shield.

The alphabet network's other highlights: Rob Morrow, fresh off the canceled Numb3rs, in The Whole Truth; Dana Delany in the whodunit Body of Proof; and My Generation, an Austin-filmed series with a large cast that includes Austin's own Mehcad Brooks (True Blood, Desperate Housewives). Yes, I feel compelled to acknowledge my hometown.

CBS is adding only five new shows, but axed plenty, many of which most people will not remember (Three Rivers, for example). Some folks may mourn Cold Case and Ghost Whisperer -- but probably not for long.

As usual, CBS has more big names on its schedule than the other guys. Alex O'Loughlin will star in a remake of Hawaii Five-O, Tom Selleck will headline Blue Bloods, and Jerry O'Connell and Jim Belushi will go Las Vegas legal in The Defenders [photo above]. Oh, and the always hilarious William Shatner will star in the Twitter-inspired (and nearly impossible to type) $#*! My Dad Says.

Poor, downtrodden NBC, which killed off Law & Order and Heroes, has what appears to be a woeful schedule. Not to be defeated, producer Dick Wolf has conjured up Law & Order: Los Angeles; Jerry Bruckheimer serves up yet another action drama, The Chase; Jason Ritter stars in the espionage thriller The Event (which sounds a lot like 24, by the way); and -- this one pains me deeply -- Jimmy Smits stars as a Supreme Court justice who quits to fight crime in The Outlaw. This series airs on Friday nights, so we probably won't have to suffer long.

Fox, which is finally closing 24 but still has American Idol to sustain it, offers a couple of new sitcoms and a Dallas-inspired sudser called Lonestar. As a Texan, I'm dreading this one. But one of the comedies, Running Wilde, a romantic romp starring Keri Russell and Will Arnett [photo at right], sounds promising -- on paper.

Are you breathless with anticipation? If so, hang onto my little fall wrap-up, and you can begin scratching off the dead ones in early October.

FALL 2010 PRIMETIME (new series in caps)

SUNDAY
ABC: America's Funniest Home Videos, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Desperate Housewives, Brothers & Sisters
CBS: 60 Minutes, Amazing Race, Undercover Boss, CSI: Miami
NBC: Football Night in America, Sunday Night Football
FOX: The OT, The Simpsons, The Cleveland Show, Family Guy, American Dad

MONDAY
ABC: Dancing with the Stars (2 hrs), Castle
CBS: How I Met Your Mother, Rules of Engagement, Two and a Half Men, MIKE & MOLLY, HAWAII FIVE-O
NBC: Chuck, THE EVENT, CHASE
FOX: House, LONESTAR

TUESDAY
ABC: NO ORDINARY FAMILY, Dancing with the Stars, DETROIT 1-8-7
CBS: NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles, The Good Wife
NBC: The Biggest Loser (2 hrs), Parenthood
FOX: Glee, RAISING HOPE, RUNNING WILDE

WEDNESDAY
ABC: The Middle, BETTER TOGETHER, Modern Family, Cougar Town, THE WHOLE TRUTH
CBS: Survivor, Criminal Minds, THE DEFENDERS
NBC: UNDERCOVERS, Law & Order: SVU, LAW & ORDER: LOS ANGELES
FOX: Lie to Me, Hell's Kitchen

THURSDAY
ABC: MY GENERATION, Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice
CBS: The Big Bang Theory, $#*! MY DAD SAYS, CSI, The Mentalist
NBC: Community, 30 Rock, The Office, OUTSOURCED, LOVE BITES
FOX: Bones, Fringe

FRIDAY
ABC: Secret Millionaire, BODY OF PROOF, 20/20
CBS: Medium, CSI: NY, BLUE BLOODS
NBC: Who Do You Think You Are?, Dateline NBC, OUTLAW
FOX: Human Target, THE GOOD GUYS

SATURDAY
ABC: College Football
CBS: Crime-time Saturdays (reruns), 48 Hours
NBC: Series reruns
FOX: Cops, America's Most Wanted

Canceled or ending series:

• ABC: Better Off Ted, The Deep End, Eastwick, Flash Forward, The Forgotten, Romantically Challenged, Hank, Scrubs, Ugly Betty, Lost


• CBS: Accidentally On Purpose, Cold Case, Gary Unmarried, Ghost Whisperer, Miami Medical, The New Adventures of Old Christine, Numb3rs, Three Rivers


• NBC: Law & Order, Heroes, Mercy, Trauma


• FOX: 24, Brothers, Dollhouse, Sons of Tucson, 'Til Death

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WATCH THIS: Tonight's report on Uganda's anti-gay bill helps define Current TV

May 26, 2010 12:28 PM

The Current TV channel has had a hard time getting traction since its 2005 launch, partly because of its original schedule of short-take video "pods," and partly because, well, what the heck IS Current?

Missionaries of Hate premieres Wednesday night at 10 p.m. ET on Current as a part of the Vanguard news series that's trying to define this youth-aimed current-events channel with the viewing public. Vanguard is the program for which Euna Lee and Laura Ling were reporting when they strayed into North Korea in March 2009 and got captured to become political pawns for months before their release.

It's an assertive program, with young correspondents reporting with an individual point of view, like this week's installment on "the American architects of Uganda's anti-gay bill" -- the one that not only criminalized homosexuality but made it punishable by death. Missionaries of Hate (here's a trailer) probes the influence of American evangelicals on Uganda's sudden push for the legislation, and talks with Ugandans to hear their feelings about gays and the law. But Uganda isn't alone on this issue -- Current notes 40 of Africa's 53 countries have anti-gay laws in effect.

Vanguard is literally the vanguard of Current TV, a channel designed to break away from traditional talk-at-you or talk-down television by immersing today's info-savvy viewer in the entire process. User-generated content was featured from the beginning. Web and TV snippets fly by as if refreshing your memory because you're hip to everything already.

And cheeky-smart humor is often a key component, too. That's not surprising in a channel aimed at the generation that worships Jon Stewart's Daily Show for both info and attitude. SuperNews! (Thursday at 11 p.m. ET) assesses the generation gap by skewering elders' technophobia and Larry King, while Rotten Tomatoes Movie Review (Thursday at 10:30 p.m. ET) partners with the cinema-takedown site.

infoMania (Thursday at 10 p.m. ET) has become a must-see of dishy observations of the week in media and culture. A recent best-of show led with a clip reel on the broadening of Christian TV into shows about fitness, extreme sports and rap. Next came a sharp video column (from the recurrent That's Gay! feature) that arched an eyebrow on current song hits' sudden "no homo" lyrics insistence. And then there was a scatological sendup of TLC cable docusoaps like I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant. I didn't know I could ROTFL so hard.

The channel also serves its target demo with full doses of web weirdness in Viral Video Film School (Thursday at 8:30 p.m. ET, it's "Crazy Online Communities"), hazardous travel in Deadliest Journeys (Wednesday at 9:30 p.m. ET), and all-around strange stuff in Amazing Eccentrics (Thursday at 5 p.m. ET, it's bizarre food). And of course, there's always Million Dollar Motorcycles and Surf Stories.

While shows like these air at specific times, they also air many times, at different times of day. In other words, you don't have to arrive on Current's terms -- it's always there on yours.

Which also means you can watch Current online whenever you want.

Next time you're playing a little viewing roulette, try getting Current.

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DVD SALE: Warner Archive

May 26, 2010 10:05 AM

Media maniacs like me are always on the lookout for obscure TV shows and movies that have long been unavailable on DVD. Now studios are responding to our thirst by pouring out lesser-known titles exclusively through online storefronts, cutting out the middleman and enabing enough profit to finally release these unsung gems, campfests and subsequent seasons.

Right now, Warner Archive is hosting a Memorial Day sale that takes 30 percent off single DVDs and 20 percent off multi-disc sets (which are usually already a significant savings over individual discs).

Be sure to take a look at their offerings -- then come back here soon to learn more about this sudden TV and movie DVD bonanza.

I'm writing a more extensive feature story on online archive goodies, to be posted shortly in our homepage DVD spot to the right of For Better or Werts. It'll outline offerings from Warner, Shout, MGM, MTV and other production entities.

And it'll include lots of links to quickly and conveniently connect you to all the goodies they've got going.

I've watched several Warner Archive titles, from last season's CBS series Eleventh Hour to NBC's still-superb 1983 TV movie Emmy winner Special Bulletin, a riveting breaking-news tale shot on videotape to approximate TV coverage of an ongoing terrorist situation. The quality has been good, considering few of the titles are specifically restored for DVD.

Check back shortly for more on this great new opportunity for connoisseurs like us to flesh out our DVD (and download!) collections. But shop the Warner Archive sale now! (It ends Monday, May 31.)

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CONFESSION: How 'Lost' lost me (and so many millions of other viewers)

May 24, 2010 11:55 AM

So how does Sunday night's big Lost finale stack up historically in terms of the ratings? While the 2 1/2 hour climax certainly monopolized media attention, it sure didn't dominate viewership the way broadcast bye-byes used to. Monday morning's early Nielsen overnights showed an 8.7 rating and a 13 percent share of the audience, as reported at our friend Marc Berman's daily online must-read The Programming Insider. That works out to 10 million households tuned in to the May 23 Lost finale. [UPDATED BELOW WITH MORE RATINGS DETAILS, AT END]

By comparison, CBS' oft-cited M*A*S*H finale pulled 50 million households and a whopping 77 percent share of viewership in February 1983, and remains the top-ranked scripted finale ever. NBC's more recent send-off for Cheers in May 1993 drew 42 million households for a 64 share. (Going all the way back to August 1967 reveals TV's first cliffhanger resolution of ABC's The Fugitive got 26 million households and a 72 share.)

TV viewership has fragmented in so many directions -- not just among channels but also DVD, VOD, video games and streaming online options -- that insider Berman ranks the Lost finale among the night's ratings "winners." But it was joined in that category by NBC's competing two-hour finale of the much less classic The Celebrity Apprentice, where the final half-hour pronouncing the season's winner earned a 7.6 rating and 12 share -- hot on the heels of ABC's super-duper event.

So much for "buzz" as any measure of ratings potential. Of course, Lost has mostly fanatical followers who're likely to re-view the episode online, where it also runs ads, and on DVD/Blu-ray Disc, where the show's studio-network symbiosis brings in more bucks. And as a scripted series, it's even got a TV afterlife in syndication/repeats. Its makers are merry.

But if the incessant hoopla of recent weeks -- the fawning showbiz-TV features, news reports, magazine covers, online mania, and all the rest -- can't draw anything more than 10 million Americans and a 13 share, what does that say about the state of TV today?

My take would be that it says, don't complicate your drama into something so intricate and internecine that only a small subset of the audience will have the time, energy or interest to follow it. I used to love Lost, but my attention steadily dwindled as the plot's conniptions progressively ramped up.

And they really lost me when the still-inscrutable Others tortured the show's three ostensible central characters in squalid cages in the pouring rain for weeks on end with almost no perceptible plot progress. A story that used to keep opening up like a spring flower suddenly closed down like a Venus Fly Trap. The fresh air of the Hawaii location's natural beauty was overridden by the drama's human depravity, in a creative choice that I still think basically killed the series' mainstream appeal. (Supposedly, the whole Jack-Kate-Sawyer-in-cages thing was meant to attract women to their "exciting" romantic triangle. Dumb condescension, plus sordid execution.)

Lost became a niche show, for clue-tracing junkies, web obsessives and sci-fi fanatics -- and I don't say sci-fi to disparage the genre, since I've always been drawn to the idea-expanding universe of Star Trek, Farscape, Battlestar Galactica and even Syfy's current cult attraction Caprica. But sci-fi has never really worked on the broadcast networks, very well or for very long, and the choice to take that increasingly self-absorbed road sealed any chance the show had to expand its audience.

I initially admired Lost for its revelatory character study, and continue to appreciate the first half of its run for the probing richness and profound emotions of those portrayals. Going back to re-watch those episodes is still rewarding. But following The Numbers, spotting Dharma clues and all the other minutiae -- that's where Lost lost me, and so many other viewers.

So for me, the finale was anticlimactic, not to mention muddled and maudlin. I just didn't care anymore. The more the music surged to sound "epic," the more the message got "deep," the more ridiculous the whole thing seemed.

In the end, Lost became much ado about nothing. And that's so much less than I expected when I invested those early years of rapt attention in what looked like it would be one of TV's smartest adventures.

The series may indeed be considered a classic judged to operate exquisitely in its own universe.

That's just not a place I care to visit.

-----

UPDATE [Monday, May 24, 6pm ET:

The Hollywood Reporter's Live Feed puts last night's Lost viewership numbers in further perspective.

And THR's James Hibberd offers a crisp finale analysis that sure makes sense to me.

For more detailed Lost finale ratings, and city-by-city numbers, see Marc Berman's more recently updated PI Feedback post.

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FALL FLASH: CBS shakes it up

May 19, 2010 7:41 PM

So now it's staid old CBS that's upending the primetime grid? Go figure. Long-established shows are moving all over the place this fall to make room for fresh arrivals.

Biggest news out of Wednesday's Manhattan upfront presentation to advertisers --

Hot sitcom The Big Bang Theory moves to Thursday 8 p.m. ET, as CBS takes direct aim at NBC's venerable (and perhaps vulnerable?) comedy empire that night.

Hawaii Five-O is back. (Kono has lost a lot of weight and grown boobs.)

And, of course, there's William Shatner.

Click for a report on the upfront presentation (and this other smart, funny take on it), CBS' fall schedule grid, and descriptions and clips of the new shows.

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FALL FLASH: TNT and TBS step up

May 19, 2010 3:20 PM

The TV motherlode was waiting last week when I returned home after two weeks away, and started sifting through a piled-up mountain of press kits that practically blocked the door. Amid the DVDs of upcoming reality shows, documentaries and made-for-TV movies, one little pile of series gold lay glittering -- a half-dozen pilot episodes and season-return screeners from one of TV's most savvy and reliable hit-producing outlets.

No, not CBS, not Fox, not ABC or NBC. Not even HBO or Showtime.

These shining nuggets arrived courtesy of the Turner entertainment empire's TNT and TBS:

My Name Is Earl star Jason Lee as a funky police detective in TNT's new Memphis Beat [photo at right]. TBS' take-it-literally animated comedy Neighbors From Hell [image above], hatched by longtime South Park producer Pam Brady. Sitcom faves Terry Crews (Everybody Hates Chris) and Essence Atkins (Half and Half) heading TBS' family movie spinoff Are We There Yet? And new-season samples of TNT's edgy copfest Saving Grace, con romp Leverage and hospital drama HawthoRNe.

No wonder the Turner folks crashed the broadcast networks' upfront week Wednesday, throwing a big Manhattan presentation touting their summer/fall slate to advertisers. You can read about that here, or check out the shows yourself at the websites for TNT and TBS.

TNT will have more screeners dropping at my door soon, with Kyra Sedgwick's bona fide blockbuster The Closer coming back for its sixth season July 12, followed by the new Rizzoli & Isles, starring Angie Harmon as a Boston police detective. Dylan McDermott's Dark Blue is back Aug. 4. And the returns of acclaimed series Men of a Certain Age and Southland are just months around the corner.

TBS' big news, of course, is Conan O'Brien, sliding into the 11 p.m. weeknight slot Nov. 8 -- take that, networks, during sweeps month! -- followed at midnight by George Lopez' pushed-back party. That's two fresh talk hours a night, on top of original sitcoms like the returning gem My Boys (July 25) and the Tyler Perry pair of House of Payne and Meet the Browns.

Who needs networks?

What's interesting is that TNT and TBS seem to be becoming networks, while the broadcasters frantically ape complex-drama cable innovators like HBO and FX. The Turner channels, along with USA, have returned to a more traditional drama emphasis on strong stars over ensembles, and mainstream-aimed laugh-along sitcoms that widen beyond pretty young casts and cinematic single-camera showoffs.

Call 'em crowdpleasers. Because, increasingly, they're the ones drawing the crowds the networks are now floundering to find.

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FALL FLASH: ABC upfront

May 18, 2010 12:00 PM

UPDATED --

Let ABC know what you think of its new fall shows. After presenting the 2010-11 slate to advertisers in Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon, the network's website posted "sneak peek" clips from most of the pilot episodes, and opened them up to viewer comments.

Does Michael Chiklis' superhero saga No Ordinary Family seem like a mom-and-pop-and-kids version of Heroes? Can ABC make "documentary-style drama" stick with its My Generation look at life stories told through world events of the last decade? Do we really need more cops, doctors and lawyers?

Have at it here. Click the Find Out More box in the upper photo screens to access show videos.

Download the fall grid PDF here.

ORIGINAL POST --

ABC presents its new 2010-11 prime-time slate to advertisers Tuesday afternoon, but the network's website has already posted the night-by-night grid (it's a PDF download). Read more about the shows in the press release posted here.

Get ready for that flashback feeling -- it's a stable lineup with few changes from the current schedule. And it features familiar faves like Michael Chiklis [photo above], Michael Imperioli, Dana Delany, Matthew Perry, and Dexter dead wife Julie Benz.

ABC execs have already talked to reporters, too. Read about that here.

More details/video after the official presentation . . .

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FALL FLASH: New Fox shows

May 17, 2010 12:28 PM

UPDATED --

So Fox has posted its fall prime-time schedule at its website, as presented Monday afternoon in Manhattan to advertisers -- and, incidentally, to critics, who only get invited if there's extra room in the dedicated-to-money-making upfront venue.

One who got in offers instant reaction here.

Fox 2010-11 highlights include the latest from The Shield producer Shawn Ryan (midseason's Chicago cops hour Ride-along, photo at top), Steven Spielberg's dinos-to-cell-phones time trip adventure Terra Nova, and a next-generation Dallas in the Texas oil soapfest Lonestar (from Party of Five honchos Chris Keyser and Amy Lippman, so don't sneer yet). Fresh animation, too.

Unfortunately, there's also a third show from screaming chef Gordon Ramsay.

Video clips and details can be found here.

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ORIGINAL POST --

Fox presents its 2010-11 prime-time slate to advertisers Monday afternoon in Manhattan. Because I'll be without computer access for awhile, I'm linking to reports from the morning's conference call preview with reporters.

(Photo above is of Jennifer Beals and Jason Clarke in Ride-along, new midseason drama from The Shield creator Shawn Ryan.)

Expect official-speak updates upon return . . .

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FALL FLASH: NBC's new shows

May 17, 2010 12:05 PM

It's upfront week, and NBC kicked things off Monday morning with its presentation to advertisers.

We'll be weighing in before long -- but in the meantime, have your own look at the unusually large number of new series being added to plug the leaks sprung by last season's disastrous Jay-at-10 gamble.

NBC has cast info, videos and more at this link.

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