Two Tivos To Paradise 05.20.11: Fall Lineup Edition

Posted by Al Norton on 05.20.2011

News on Family Guy's latest Star Wars episode, a big name departs House, raves for Parks and Recreation, a full analysis of the network's upcoming fall lineups and more!



Hello friends. I hope you haven't had the same seven days of gloomy, overcast weather that we've getting here in Seattle, err, I mean Boston. This will be a shorter than usual cold open as we've got a lot to get to but I did want to let you know that the latest confirmations we've had to our big 250th column celebration are Regina King, official TTTP singer/songwriter Will Dailey, and Paula Marshall. And speaking of that big event, which is 7 weeks away, I am now 80% of the way to my weight loss goal; as of Monday morning I was down 40 pounds!

Quick note to let you know that if you were a part of the TTTP Facebook community you'd have been getting instant updates on all of this week's big news – find us, like us, join us!

Here's a look at the new ABC Family comedy State of Georgia





And here is a trailer for Current TV's upcoming reality series 4th and Forever…




This news about to blow, blow!

The Sun Slants In So Fine And The Air's So Clear You Can Almost Hear The Grapes Grow On The Vine
The five major broadcast networks revealed their fall lineup's this week. Here is a rundown (shows with an "*" are new)…For trailers on all the shows use the links at the bottom to pull up my 411mania profile, which will take you to the special daily editions of TTTP that ran this week.

ABC

Monday
8pm Dancing with the Stars

10pm Castle

Tuesday
8pm Last Man Standing*
8:30pm Man Up*

9pm DWTS Results Show

10pm Body of Proof

Wednesday
8pm The Middle
8:30pm Suburgatory*

9pm Modern Family
9:30pm Happy Endings

10pm Revenge*

Thursday
8pm Charlie's Angels*

9pm Grey's Anatomy

10pm Private Practice

Friday
8pm Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

9pm Shark Tank

10pm 20/20

Sunday
7pm America's Funniest Home Videos

8pm Once Upon A Time*

9pm Desperate Housewives

10pm PAN AM*

Cancelled
Mr. Sunshine, Off the Map, Better with You, No Ordinary Family, V, The Whole Truth, Detroit 1-8-7, My Generation, Brothers & Sisters

Mid-season
Cougar Town, Missing*, The River*, Apartment 23*, Good Christian Belles*, Scandal*, Work It*

Quick Thoughts
Not very happy that I will have to wait until 2012 for new episodes of Cougar Town. Charlie's Angels at 8 on Thursdays is an interesting call as the competition is all comedies or reality shows, so I can get the idea. And looking at the glass as half full, all of Revenge's competition for Wednesdays at 10pm are long running, established series, so if you are looking for something new (and/or something that doesn't involve heinous crimes), this is your only option.

Best Looking Trailer





CBS

Monday
8pm How I Met Your Mother
8:30pm 2 Broke Girls*

9pm Two and a Half Men
9:30pm Mike and Molly

10pm Hawaii 5-0

Tuesday
8pm NCIS

9pm NCIS: LA

10pm Unforgettable*

Wednesday
8pm Survivor

9pm Criminal Minds

10pm CSI

Thursday
8pm The Big Bang Theory
8:30pm How to be a Gentleman*

9pm Person of Interest*

10pm The Mentalist

Friday
8pm A Gifted Man*

9pm CSI: NY

10pm Blue Bloods

Saturday
8pm Rules of Engagement
8:30pm Comedytime Saturday

9pm Crimetime Saturday

10pm 48 Hours Mystery

Sunday
7pm 60 Minutes

8pm The Amazing Race

9pm The Good Wife

10pm CSI: Miami

Cancelled
The Defenders, $#@! My Dad Says, Mad Love, Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior

Mid-season
The 2-2

Quick Thoughts
New programming on a Saturday night?!?!? I give them points for trying, and if one of their new comedies bombs they can shift Rules to that slot right quick. CSI moving from Thursdays is a big story but with the demos this spring, a change was needed. Unforgettable and Person of Interest are crime shows so it's not like CBS is getting away from its wheel house but, while Unforgettable seems only several steps removed from a SNL digital short mocking the network's typical programming, Person stands out quite a bit.

Best Looking Trailer






FOX

Monday
8pm Terra Nova*

9pm House

Tuesday
8pm Glee

9pm The New Girl*
9:30pm Raising Hope

Wednesday
8pm The X-Factor*

9:30pm I Hate My Teenage Daughter*

Thursday
8pm The X-Factor*

9pm Bones

Friday
8pm Kitchen Nightmares

9pm Fringe

Sunday
7:30pm The Cleveland Show

8pm The Simpsons
8:30pm Allen Gregory*

9pm Family Guy
9:30pm American Dad

Cancelled
The Chicago Code, Lie to Me, Human Target, Traffic Light, The Good Guys, Running Wilde

Mid-season
Alcatraz*, Napoleon Dynamite*, The Finder*, Bob's Burgers, American Idol

Quick Thoughts
If it's not broke you don't fix it, so Fox going with 2 & ½ hours of singing competition in the fall hardly qualifies as a surprise (it's worked so well for them in the winter/spring). Terra Nova will either be a big hit or die a quick death. They are clearly committed to live action comedy, which is good, although I am not sure either of these new shows looks all that promising.

Best Looking Trailer





NBC

Monday
8pm The Sing Off

10pm The Playboy Club*

Tuesday
8pm The Biggest Loser

10pm Parenthood

Wednesday
8pm Up All Night*
8:30pm Free Agents*

9pm Harry's Law

10pm Law & Order: SVU

Thursday
8pm Community
8:30pm Parks and Recreation

9pm The Office
9:30pm Whitney*

10pm Prime Suspect*

Friday
8pm Chuck

9pm GRIMM*

10pm Dateline

Sunday
8pm Sunday Night Football

Cancelled
Law & Order: LA, The Paul Reiser Show, Perfect Couples, Outsourced, The Cape, Chase, The Event

Mid-season
30 Rock (late start due to Tina Fey's pregnancy), The Voice, The Celebrity Apprentice, Awake*, Smash*, The Firm*, Are You There Vodka? It's Me Chelsea*, Bent, Best Friends Forever

Quick Thoughts
Mid-season can't come quickly enough as Awake is the drama I am most looking forward to, with Smash a pretty close second. What I have seen of GRIMM, BFF, and AYTV?IMC has been hard to watch, while Bent has some potential and Hank Azaria made me laugh in the Free Agents clips. The network has clearly learned to put SVU on at 10pm and leave it there. The Playboy Club might be decent but the trailer I saw screamed, "we are trying to make our version of Mad Men", and not in a good way. Up All Night has the best trailer of any comedy of the new season.

Best Looking Trailer



The CW

Monday
8pm Gossip Girl

9pm Hart of Dixie*

Tuesday
8pm 90210

9pm Ringer*

Wednesday
8pm H8R*

9pm America's Next Top Model

Thursday
8pm The Vampire Diaries

9pm The Secret Circle*

Friday
8pm Nikita

9pm Supernatural

Cancelled
Hellcats, Shedding for the Wedding

Mid-season
One Tree Hill, The Frame*, Re-Modeled*

Quick Thoughts
Ringer is among the most interesting new shows on any network, with Sarah Michelle Gellar returning to TV and a supporting cast that includes Nestor Carbonell and Kristoffer Polaha. Hart of Dixie looks pretty cute, and my guess is The Secret Circle will do quite well with The CW's target market. H8R – a new reality show were someone who hates a celebrity spends time with that celeb to see if they can be swayed to change their opinion of them – prompts my standard, "yes, this is a series" response.

Best Looking Trailer






I Know I'm Back With Just A Song And I've Been Gone So Awful Long
While the five major broadcast networks were busy giving us their fall plans TNT/TBS released the shows they have in development while also confirming that the finale batch of episodes of The Closer will run in the summer of 2012 and lead into a 10 episode first season of Major Crimes. This spinoff will feature much of the cast of The Closer being lead by Mary McDonnell's Captain Raydor. They also announced Conan would do a week of shows from New York the last week in October/first week in November.

TNT Scripted Series In Development

*Kip Koenig/John Wells Project; family of cops working in a small Pacific Northwest town where evil mystical forces may be at work.
*Scent of the Missing; based on book of same name, about a search and rescue officer and her partner, a Labrador retriever.
*Gateway; post Civil-war western where three brothers try to clean up their town.
*Eric Garcia Project; police clerk uses her overactive daydreams to help solve crimes
*Jay Cocks Project; adaptation of Laura Lippman's Tess Monaghan novels about a reporter who becomes a
private investigator.
*Shaun Cassidy/Kimberly Williams-Paisley Project; dramedy about a Southern family
*The Command; based on real life divison of elite NY cops
*Enigma; modern day Sherlock Holmes style mysteries
*Mitch Albom Project; successful radio station manager returns to his small hometown

TNT Reality Series in Development
*The Great Escape; teams match wits to get out of situations straight out of big action/adventure movies
*Joel Silver Project; each week two contestants dropped into the middle of a situation in a fictional small town and have to figure out what happened before time runs out.
*Shooters; up and coming commercial directors compete for their own production company
*Search & Rescue Project; docu-series following the Alaskan Coast Guard's search and rescue team.
*Business Makeover Project; expert visits different struggling business each week to help them survive.

TNT Tuesday Night Mystery Movie (Tuesdays in Nov & Dec the network will run original mystery movies)
*Innocent; adaptation of Scott Turrow novel, sequel to Presumed Innocent
*Ricochet; adaptation of Sandra Brown novel
*Silent Witness; adaptation of Richard North Patterson novel
*Deck the Halls; adaptation of Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark (mother & daughter) novel
*Good Morning Killer; adaptation of April Smith novel
*Hide; adaptation of Lisa Gardener novel
*The Killer Next Door; based on real life NY case of a son accused of murdering his Dad and disfiguring his Mom.
*The Broken; LA cop goes on the run with murder suspect.

We'll run down the TBS shows next week.

I Had To Meet You Here Today, There's Just So Many Things To Say
Season Finale Season is almost over…Here is a look at the final finales…If there is an "*" it's also the series finale.

Tonight
Kitchen Nightmares, 8pm, Fox
Supernatural (two hours), 8pm, The CW

Saturday, May 21st
Saturday Night Live, 11:30pm, NBC

Sunday, May 22nd
America's Funniest Home Videos, 7pm, ABC
American Dad, 7:30pm, Fox
The Simpsons, 8pm, Fox
Bob's Burgers, 8:30pm, Fox
The Celebrity Apprentice, 9pm, NBC
Family Guy, 9pm, Fox
The Borgias, 10pm, Showtime

Monday, May 23rd
House, 8pm, Fox
The Event*, 9pm, NBC
The Chicago Code*, 9pm Fox
Make it or Break It, 9pm, ABC Family

Tuesday, May 24th
The Biggest Loser, 9pm, NBC
Dancing with the Stars, 9pm, ABC
Glee, 9pm, Fox

Wednesday, May 25th
American Idol (two hours), 8pm, Fox
The Middle, 8pm, ABC
Modern Family, 9pm, ABC
Cougar Town (one hour) 9:30pm, ABC
Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior, 10pm, CBS

Sunny Day, Sweepin' The Clouds Away, On My Way To Where The Air Is Sweet
The Sesame Street video of the week…





But You Were Up To Your Old Tricks In Chapters Four Five And Six
All you need to know about the Nielsen's for the past 7 days…

THURSDAY
Grey's Anatomy hit a series low in the demos…Bones won 9pm in the demos (actually, it had the best scripted demos of the night!) while CSI won in total viewers (CSI was up 11% in the demos from last week's series low but it still was a season finale low for the long running show)…American Idol was up from last week and won the night in totals and demos…Community dropped 7% and tied a series low…The Vampire Diaries was up 17 in the demos for their season finale…

FRIDAY
Smallville< was up 50% in the demos but interestingly enough the series finale was not even a season high…Flashpoint was up 18% from last week's disappointing premiere…The Shark Tank season finale was up 8% in the demos and 11% in total viewers…Kitchen Nightmares won 8:00pm in demos…The season finale of Blue Bloods was up 11% in demos…

SUNDAY
The two hour Survivor finale and the reunion special that followed won each primetime hour in totals and demos…Desperate Housewives posted the worst demo numbers for a season finale in series history…Celebrity Apprentice finished third in totals and demos…Game of Thrones hit another season/series high…Game one of the Eastern Conference Finals Heat- Bulls match up on TNT was the most watched basketball game in cable TV history, topping the 2003 All Star Game…

MONDAY
All of CBS season finales were up from the previous week, although How I Met Your Mother posted their lowest finale numbers since season two despite being up 20% in the demos from last week…Chuck was up 9% in totals and 15% in demos…Castle won 10pm in totals and demos…Dancing with the Stars pulled in 21.4 million as the night's most watched telecast…House was up 14% in totals and 21% in demos…The Chicago Code and The Event – both cancelled – were up 10+% in the demos…Gossip Girl was up 17% in the demos…Law & Order: LA was the only show of the night to drop, down 10% from last week… The Real Housewives of New Jersey premiere was the most watched episode in The Real Housewives of… franchise history and put up the best season premiere demos in Bravo network history

TUESDAY
The Voice was once again the top demo performer of the night, with lead-in The Biggest Loser up 8%...The entire CBS line up was up double digits in the demos, with NCIS pulling in 18.1 million total viewers…Raising Hope was up 10% in their season finale while Breaking In was down quite a bit from its usual post-Idol slot, killing any possible chance for a second season…Body of Proof was second in totals but last in demos at 10pm…

WEDNESDAY
Despite all the talk that American Idol was on its last legs, Wednesday's episode was up 7% in demos and 23% in total viewers from this week last year…The Middle was up from last week while the rest of ABC's comedy block dropped…Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior hit a series low two days after it was cancelled…SVU was up 4% from last year's finale and won 10pm in demos…Minute to Win It was up 11%...

All The Young Dudes, Carry The News
Industry News, Notes, and Hot Rumors…Lisa Edelstein will not return for the 8th (and most likely final) season of House. The recent People's Choice Award winner was asked to take a pay cut and chose to not re-sign…Seth MacFarlane has reached a deal to reboot The Flintstones for Fox…HBO picked up a third season of Treme…Robert De Niro is in talks to play Bernie Madoff in the HBO adaptation of the NY Times bestseller The Wizard of Lies…Masi Oka will be a full time cast member for Hawaii 5-0's second season…Showtime's The Franchise: A Season with the San Francisco Giants premieres on July 13th…When Bio's Celebrity Ghost Stories returns next month for a third season it will be paired with Celebrity Close Calls, where famous folks discuss their near-death experiences…Survivor alum Russell Hantz will be featured on A&E's new real estate reality series Flipped, where he and his family buy low, renovated, and try to sell high in the Houston housing market…

Turns Out Not Where But Who You're With That Really Matters
The top thing I watched since the last column went to press aka The Best of What's Around…
Quick, what major broadcast network show did the best in building to a romantic pairing between two characters this season? If you said anything other than Parks and Recreation and the love growing between Leslie and Ben then we watch TV through different eyes.

I've always known that Amy Poehler was a gifted comedic actress capable of generating all sorts of laughs but it's only been this season of Parks that showed me she had the ability to get me to root for her and her romantic future. Adam Scott deserves his share of the praise in this duo as well as he has made light social awkwardness an almost art form, and it's because the audience relates so well to his character that we've fallen for Leslie at the same time he has.

Parks and Recreation has been very funny for the last two seasons but by adding some heart to the series they've taken the next step and can now proudly take their place among the handful of best comedies on TV.

People Say I'm Crazy Doing What I'm Doing. Well, They Give Me All Kinds Of Warnings To Save Me From Ruin
What's flashed before my eyes the last seven days …




A bit over the top, for sure, but that's what makes it so damn funny…Very disappointed with the How I Met Your Mother finale; it had its moments but I could have watched the last five minutes and really not missed anything. Yes, Lily being pregnant is great but it was so clearly telegraphed you'd have had to have never watched a sitcom before to not see it coming. Ted's whole "I stepped on some gum so I'll get back together with Zoey" thing was just plain stupid, and the show seemed to waste the comedic talents of guest stars Chi McBride and Dave Foley, which should be a crime. Great, we know Barney is the one getting married, but that's about it. I suppose this was a fitting ending to a highly erratic season…I am really convinced that the Gossip Girl powers-that-be are clueless about Serena being the single most unlikeable character currently on TV. And not in a love-to-hate way, just in a pure dislike way. They should call it Serena heat instead of X-Pac heat. I had stopped watching the show but the Blair-Dan pairing got me back in, only to have them go away from it the last three weeks of the season, boring me to tears…A very bizarre episode of Glee this week, with some scenes containing much emotional power but also some just plain stupid plot devices that detracted from the long term storytelling. Wait, I suppose that criticism could be directed at roughly half the episodes of Glee. Also, if you watched the last 15 minutes of that episode with dry eyes than you may be frozen inside…

TV Pick Of The Week
Diehard Family Guy fans have most likely seen It's A Trap, the third in the show's adaptations of the Star Wars films, as it's been available on DVD since last fall, but the masses get their first chance to watch when it airs as the long running animated comedy's season finale this Sunday.

If I use the first two episodes to set my expectations than I am sitting down prepared to laugh my ass off while at the same time not feeling stupid for getting all the jokes. Also, there will probably be kettle corn.

Don't miss Family Guy, Sunday at 9pm on Fox.

Hope You Need My Love, Babe, Just Like I Need You
Here is some other noteworthy programming of the next seven days…

*Cee-Lo Green is the latest to take part in VH-1's Storytellers series (tonight, 11pm).

*It's an all Red Sox – Cubs weekend, with Chicago making its first trip to Fenway since they apparently threw the 1918 World Series; Fox has the game Saturday at 7pm and ESPN broadcasts on Sunday at 8pm.

*The Billboard Music Awards (Sunday, 8pm, ABC) is always a good Cliff's Notes version of today's pop music; watch it so you don't have to listen to Top 40 radio all year.

*The best on-going TV series you have never heard of is CBS' Jesse Stone movies, which debuts its 7th edition Sunday at 9pm with Innocents Lost. An adaptation of a set of novels by the late Robert B Parker, they feature the best work of Tom Selleck's career. It's amazing to me that these movies are so good and I find all of CBS regular crime shows to be so lacking.

*The newest season of The Bachelorette premieres Monday at 9pm on ABC.

*Nobody puts together a cast like HBO, which explains how William Hurt, Paul Giamatti, Ed Asner, Topher Grace, and Bill Pullman are just some of those starring in Too Big To Fail, a look at the economic crisis that hit the US in 2008.

*Norm McDonald stops by The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson this Wednesday at 12:35 am.

*Fox doesn't waste any time; less than 24 hours after American Idol crowns its latest champion, So You Think You Can Dance? (Thursday, 8pm, Fox) begins a new season.

Two Tivos To Paradise
24 Restaurant Battle, 30 Rock, After the Catch, American Idol, Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, Antiques Roadshow, Archer, Auction Hunters, The Big C, Big Love, Boardwalk Empire, Being Human, Bones, Bored To Death, Breaking Bad, Breaking In, Brothers & Sisters, Burn Notice, Celebrity Apprentice, Cake Boss, The Chicago Code, Chopped, Chuck, The Closer, Community, Cougar Town, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Deadliest Catch, Desperate Housewives, Destination Truth, The Dish, Entourage, Eureka, Fact or Faked, Fairly Legal, Flipping Out, Food Feuds, Food Network Challenge, Ghost Hunters, Ghost Hunters Academy, Ghost Hunters International, Ghost Lab, Glee, Gossip Girl, Great Food Truck Race, Grey's Anatomy, Happy Endings, The Hard Times of RJ Berger, Hawaii 5-0, Hollywood Treasure, House, How I Met Your Mother, How To Make It In America, Hung, If You Really Knew Me, Iron Chef America, Justified, Kate Plus 8, The Killing, Last Comic Standing, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Law And Order: Criminal Intent, Law and Order: Los Angeles, Law And Order: Special Victims Unit, Mad Men, Man v. Food, Men of a Certain Age, The Middle, Mike and Molly, Mr. Sunshine, Modern Family, Next Food Network Star, Next Great American Restaurant, Next Iron Chef, The Office, One Tree Hill, Parks & Recreation, Private Practice, Project Runway, Psych, Raising Hope, Real Time With Bill Maher, Rescue Me, Restaurant Impossible, Royal Pains, Rules Of Engagement, Sanctuary, Saturday Night Live, Shear Genius, So You Think You Can Dance?, Sons of Anarchy, The Soup, Spectacle: Elvis Costello with…, Sports Show with Norm McDonald, Supernatural, Table For 12, Top Chef, Top Chef Just Desserts, Top Chef: Masters, Top Design, Torchwood, True Blood,The Vampire Diaries, The Voice, The Walking Dead, Warehouse 13, Web Soup, Worst Cooks In America,

People Love You When They Know You're Leaving Soon
Here ends another Two Tivos To Paradise.





We'll be back in 7 days with all the latest TV headlines. Use the comments section below to talk about your favorite season finales plus give feedback on the new fall lineups.

Sources for this week's column include Daily Variety, Entertainment Weekly, TV Guide, and Hollywood Reporter (plus the web sites for those publications) as well as Aintit.cool.com, TVline.com & Deadline.com.