Tuned In, TV Blog, Television Reviews, James Poniewozik, TIME

July 23, 2008 8:58

TCA Wrapup Roundup: Welcome to the Dollhouse

Posted by James Poniewozik | Comments (4) | Permalink | Trackbacks (0) | Email This

America's TV critics are picking the cocktail spears from their clothing, heading for LAX and embarking for their home cities, having concluded one of the weirder TV critics' press tours in a while. Weird because there was relatively little new TV to preview in it. Largely because of the writer's strike, but partly because it's starting to dawn on TV executives that they may need to start doing business differently, the broadcast networks are launching fewer new shows in the fall (and planning to launch more shows year-round instead), and providing only a handful of pilots for the shows that they will launch.

So unlike past years, at this point in the summer we critics can't even give you preliminary reactions as to whether most new shows are any good or not: NBC's lineup, for instance, remains almost entirely theoretical. Whether this is a one-fall-only blip or whether doing business on the fly is the new reality of network TV is something we'll find out over the coming year. In the meantime, a last few highlights from this summer's tour:

* Joss Whedon offers a tour of the Dollhouse set and says that, as with Firefly, they're replacing the original pilot with another episode. But this time, he insists, it was his idea, not Fox's.

* NBC insists it's still doing a spinoff of The Office, though the rest of the world seems to be saying, No really, you don't need to.

* What do Selma Blair and Ian McShane have in common? They don't take any crap from critics. Also, neither of them are ever going to appear in a two-hour Deadwood wrap-up movie.

Sphere Related Blogs & Articles

Reader Comments (4)

shara says:

RE: Dollhouse - also, unlike with Firefly, they aren't scrapping/burying his pilot, just making a different episode to go first, and have the og pilot be the second episode (if I'm understanding correctly). I guess it makes sense that there will be some disconnect between what the networks are expecting and how the shows have taken shape, considering that they've been flying into production for several new shows without initial pilots having already been made/remade prior to being picked up. I'm very very interested to see how this fall goes.

And let me just take this moment to Not Care about the Office spinoff, or the not-Office-spinoff (or possibly both?), or whatever it/they is/isn't/are/aren't. I don't watch much SNL but I'm wondering how much Amy Poehler can actually carry a show. It just seems like overkill, why oversaturate the market with shows like shows that are already hits? I'm worried about that happening with the sci-fi/supernatural shows - nobody needs to drag down quality existing material with an ocean of mediocre, opportunistic crap. Hmmm, but I did acknowledge at some point recently that I shouldn't judge shows based on what other shows their premises sound like. Blah. We'll see.

Posted by shara says | July 23, 2008 9:30 AM

Chris Kw.:

That Ian McShane response was awesome!

@James

I have heard different things about Caprica lately. Do you know if its going to be a 2-hour movie/backdoor pilot first and then possibly get picked up as a series? Or is it a traditional pilot in that we will either see a full first season or NOTHING? The Sci Fi president made it sound like a traditional pilot. And that kind of has me worried a little bit.

Posted by Chris Kw. | July 23, 2008 10:26 AM

shara says:

Yeah, I've been confused about Caprica as well - at first I thought it as going to be a stand-alone movie, but then there was talk of a series, and I just haven't been paying enough attention to suss out what the deal is. Any info would be most welcome!

Posted by shara says | July 23, 2008 10:39 AM

James Poniewozik:

Re: Caprica--what I know is what they said at press tour. It will be a two-hour movie; after Sci Fi sees it, it may or may not get picked up as a series. Whether it will air before the BSG finale or after is still up in the air.

Posted by James Poniewozik | July 23, 2008 2:10 PM

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.