May 13, 2008 10:22
ABC's Schedule: Old Shows, Old School
ABC announced its new fall drama in a Manhattan press conference this morning. That is not a typo: its new fall drama, singular, is a remake of the British show Life on Mars, in which a modern-day cop has a car accident and wakes up in what appears to be 1973. The network's new reality show—singular—is Opportunity Knocks, a game show in which the hosts show up unannounced at the contestants' homes. There are no new fall comedies, unless you count Scrubs, which, if you didn't watch it on NBC, is New to You! [Update: Actually, Scrubs is midseason, so the fall-comedy count remains 0.]
Every broadcast network has had to deal with the fact that it did not have time, after the writers' strike, for a traditional pilot season. NBC's Ben Silverman used this as an opportunity to remake the development process into a from-the-gut affair, picking up new shows on the basis of a script, a star or a concept, without shooting pilots at all. ABC's Steve McPherson, on the other hand—though he's known to have a decent programming gut himself—said this morning that "we don't really feel comfortable picking up stuff" without a conventional pilot. So while ABC reloads, it's main strategy for next fall is essentially a do-over of last fall as the network relaunches many of its decent but not-commercially-overwhelming fall 2007 debuts for a second time.
Good luck with that, I say.
To be fair, McPherson acknowledges that the networks are all in uncharted territory this year, not just because of the strike disruption, but also because of the dramatic audience loss this spring and the fact that no one really knows how much of it is a temporary side effect of the strike and how much is permanent. "I think the fall is a big challenge for all the networks," he said. "We have to come back and relaunch in a big way." And for all I know, maybe a relaunch that's not much different from last year's launch is as good a strategy as any.
Meanwhile, ABC is developing other new shows—eventually. The animated sitcom The Goode Family is coming in January (because animation takes a long time to produce); so far it's the new show I'm most excited about, simply because it's from Mike Judge, who has consistently produced one underrated project after another—King of the Hill, Office Space, Idiocracy—that has turned out to be awesome. There's an upcoming beauty pageant reality show from Ashton Kutcher and Tyra Banks. And there is a whole slew of pilots—17, by this morning's count—that may or may not make air, among them the remake of Cupid by Rob Thomas.
Not returning: October Road, Men in Trees, Big Shots, Cavemen, Miss Guided and Carpoolers. Returning for a final season is Boston Legal, after which someone besides James Spader will finally be allowed to win a Best Actor Emmy again.
McPherson promised some preview clips at this afternoon's presentation to advertisers; this morning, he played a trailer for Life on Mars on the conference call, and let me tell you, I plan to do all my TV-watching over a staticy landline connection from now on! I'll let you know if anything looks promising at ABC's event this afternoon.
In the meantime, here's my cut-and-paste of the fall schedule:
MONDAY: 8:00 p.m. “Dancing with the Stars” 9:30 p.m. “Samantha Who?” 10:00 p.m. “Boston Legal”
TUESDAY: 8:00 p.m. “Opportunity Knocks”
9:00 p.m. “Dancing with the Stars the Results Show”
10:00 p.m. “Eli Stone”WEDNESDAY: 8:00 p.m. “Pushing Daisies”
9:00 p.m. “Private Practice”
10:00 p.m. “Dirty Sexy Money”THURSDAY: 8:00 p.m. “Ugly Betty”
9:00 p.m. “Grey’s Anatomy”
10:00 p.m. “Life on Mars”FRIDAY: 8:00 p.m. “Wife Swap”
9:00 p.m. “Supernanny”
10:00 p.m. “20/20”
SATURDAY: 8:00 p.m. “Saturday Night College Football”
SUNDAY: 7:00 p.m. “America’s Funniest Home Videos”
8:00 p.m. “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”
9:00 p.m. “Desperate Housewives”
10:00 p.m. “Brothers & Sisters”
Note: It's a fall schedule, so don't freak out that Life on Mars is in Lost's time slot.
About Tuned In
James Poniewozik writes TIME magazine's Tuned In column, about pop culture and society. Tuned In, the blog version, is about the stuff we used to call "TV," whether it's in your living room, on your computer or--once the networks figure out the technology and line up the advertisers--in your dreams themselves.
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Reader Comments (12)
I know I said this in an earlier post, but I'm really hoping that they get Life on Mars right. The worst part of the British version of the show was the crime-of-the-week aspect; the best part was the Mad Men-like devotion to the realism of Manchester in the early 70s (random memorable moment: the detectives are amazed when a TV is installed in their local pub).
The key character is Inspector Gene, which will be played by Colm Meaney, if IMDB is to be believed. Also, it'll be interesting to see how Jason O'Mara does in the lead role - his work as the publisher in Men in Trees was not outstanding (I'm sure other people have seen him in more impressive things), but that's probably more the fault of the show than anything.
After Bionic Woman, I'm reluctant to get excited over a show I've never seen, but this one is on the top of my list for the slim pickings of the fall.
Posted by geoff | May 13, 2008 10:44 AM
Ugly Betty and Samantha Who are the only things on their fall lineup that I actually watch, so I will likely continue to just watch them. Without mixing the old shows with some fresh ones, I don't see them really attracting new viewers.
Posted by shara says | May 13, 2008 10:47 AM
I'll check out Life on Mars and Cupid (assuming it's picked up), because I've heard good things about the originals but haven't seen them.
I usually rely on cable for my dramas and networks for comedies, but next year's sitcom crop looks pretty weak so far. On the other hand, I will be able to watch 13 episodes of Reaper, which was picked up by the CW for midseason.
Posted by beerbaron | May 13, 2008 10:54 AM
Well, ABC's strategy for the last few seasons has been to give all their dramas a second chance, hasn't it (e.g. October Road)? As such, that everything down to Eli Stone gets a second shot isn't too surprising.
On the other hand, their "Pilots.. but in the fall!" system confuses me.
Isn't part of the reason for spring Pilots to at least get some idea of staffing for the next season, both in front (actors/actresses) and behind (showrunners) the camera? Won't this leave all those personnel in limbo, unable to take work elsewhere while they find out if their ABC pilots have a chance some number of months down the line? (Or more likely, and pilots that are picked up are actually staffed with whomever is sitting around with no work.) And doesn't it all but guarantee that even if picked up, they will be midseasons (although, as stated above, that is much less a death sentence on ABC as opposed to the rest of the nets).
I understand that ABC doesn't want to risk serious money on unseen (or even unmade) product, but this unilateral scheduling is likely to be frowned upon.
Posted by Tom Shaw | May 13, 2008 11:02 AM
@Tom: the less-charitable way of looking at it is that ABC has a weird history in recent years of picking up solidly middling shows, which are neither big commercial or critical hits (Jake in Progress, October Road, Men in Trees, Notes from the Underbelly) and inexplicably giving them an almost-certain-to-be-final season.
I know critics are not supposed to complain about networks being too SLOW to cancel shows, but there's something to be said for weeding your garden a little more aggressively.
Posted by James Poniewozik | May 13, 2008 11:10 AM
Didn't see Without a Trace on your paste-up. ?
Posted by Brian4 | May 13, 2008 11:25 AM
@Brian4: That's CBS.
Posted by James Poniewozik | May 13, 2008 11:32 AM
Ah, that's the new world of the DVR controlling the remote. When we go thru what's recorded, Grey's Anatomy is usually followed on the list by Without a Trace. When the DVR records everything automatically, who remembers what network things are on? (Obviously not me.)
Posted by Brian4 | May 13, 2008 11:40 AM
I am extremely pleased that "Pushing Daisies" made the cut. Love the Piemaker and his friends!
Posted by idigress | May 13, 2008 12:00 PM
I'll admit - I'm a little surprised and disappointed Miss Guided got cancelled. Judy Greer was pretty damn funny in it...
A night of Samantha Who, Miss Guided, Scrubs, and one other comedy (rumor has Old Christine heading to ABC, perhaps) might not sound like much, but it would have offered ABC a solid night of comedy, and the chance to fight against CBS's Monday night and NBC's Thursday night.....they could have even done it on Tuesday nights, making the Dancing with the Stars show a half-hour shorter, and filling the rest of the time before 10 with comedies (and primarily women-focused comedies, at that).
Posted by Chaddogg | May 13, 2008 12:17 PM
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3ia6e01d5af9d3596d7e7316d552841a9f
These folks say that Moonlight just got cancelled. My day just got sadder.
Posted by shara says | May 13, 2008 3:38 PM
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