2003 Fall Schedule omnibus thread (1 Viewer)

[Jason Seaver]

I would have posted this Monday, except my internet connection was out for the past week (bloody Comcast...). Anyway, where Brian's threads will have all the info from the press conferences and presentations, this will be about matchups and what we're planning on watching. Had a similar thread last year, and it worked out OK.

THE SCHEDULE - All times are Eastern, and I'll save my comments for when everything's been announced on Thursday

SUNDAY

7:00
ABC - America's Funniest Home Videos
CBS - 60 Minutes
Fox - Oliver Beene
NBC - Dateline NBC
WBn - Smallville Beginnings

7:30
Fox - King Of The Hill

8:00
ABC - 10-8
CBS - Cold Case
Fox - The Simpsons
NBC - American Dreams
WBn - Charmed

8:30
Fox - The Ortegas

9:00
ABC - Alias
CBS - Sunday Night Movie
Fox - Malcolm In The Middle
NBC - Law & Order: Criminal Intent
WBn - Tarzan & Jane

9:30
Fox - Arrested Development

10:00
ABC - The Practice
NBC - The Lyon's Den

MONDAY

8:00
ABC - PrimeTime Monday
CBS - Yes, Dear
Fox - Joe Millionaire
NBC - Fear Factor
UPN - The Parkers
WBn - 7th Heaven

8:30
CBS - Still Standing
UPN - The Opposite Sex

9:00
ABC - Monday Night Football (Movie Night)
CBS - Everybody Loves Raymond
Fox - Skin
NBC - Las Vegas
UPN - Girlfriends
WBn - Everwood

9:30
CBS - Two And A Half Men
UPN - Half And Half

10:00
CBS - CSI Miami
NBC - Third Watch

TUESDAY

8:00
ABC - 8 Simple Rules For Dating My Teenage Daughter
CBS - Navy CIS
Fox - American Juniors / American Idol
NBC - Whoopi
UPN - One On One
WBn - Gilmore Girls

8:30
ABC - I'm With Her
NBC - Happy Family
UPN - All Of Us

9:00
ABC - According To Jim
CBS - The Guardian
Fox - 24
NBC - Frasier
UPN - Rock Me Baby
WBn - Fearless

9:30
ABC - Less Than Perfect
NBC - Good Morning, Miami
UPN - The Mullets

10:00
ABC - NYPD Blue
CBS - Judging Amy
NBC - Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

WEDNESDAY

8:00
ABC - My Wife And Kids
CBS - 60 Minutes II
Fox - That 70s Show
NBC - Ed
UPN - Enterprise
WBn - Smallville

08:30
ABC - It's All Relative
Fox - A Minute With Stan Hooper

9:00
ABC - The Bachelor
CBS - The King Of Queens
Fox - The Bernie Mac Show
NBC - The West Wing
UPN - Jake 2.0
WBn - Angel

9:30
CBS - The Stones
Fox - Cedric The Entertainer Presents

10:00
ABC - Karen Sisco
CBS - The Brotherhood Of Poland, N.H.
NBC - Law & Order

THURSDAY

8:00
ABC - Threat Matrix
CBS - Survivor
Fox - Tru Calling
NBC - Friends
UPN - WWE Smackdown!
WBn - Steve Harvey's Big Time

8:30
NBC - Scrubs
WBn - JKX: The Jamie Kennedy Experiment

9:00
ABC - Reality Wheel
CBS - CSI
Fox - The O.C.
NBC - Will & Grace
WBn - What I LIke About You

9:30
NBC - Coupling
WBn - Run Of The House

10:00
ABC - Primetime Thursday
CBS - Without A Trace
NBC - ER

FRIDAY

8:00
ABC - George Lopez
CBS - Joan Of Arcadia
Fox - Wanda At Large
NBC - Miss Match
UPN - Friday Night Movie
WBn - Reba

8:30
ABC - Back To Kansas
Fox - Luis
WBn - Like Family

9:00
ABC - Hope & Faith
CBS - JAG
Fox - Boston Public
NBC - Dateline NBC
WBn - Grounded For Life

9:30
ABC - Life With Bonnie
WBn - All About The Andersons

10:00
ABC - 20/20
CBS - The Handler
NBC - Boomtown

SATURDAY

8:00
ABC - Wonderful World Of Disney
CBS - 48 Hours
Fox - Cops
NBC - NBC Saturday Night Movie

9:00
CBS - Hack
Fox - America's Most Wanted

10:00
ABC - Dragnet (aka L.A. Dragnet)
CBS - The District

In Reserve
ABC - Line Of Fire (drama)
ABC - Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital (drama)
CBS - Star Search (?, unscripted)
Fox - Banzai (unscripted)
Fox - Cracking Up (comedy)
Fox - Still Life (drama)
Fox - Wonder Falls (drama)
NBC - The Apprentice (unscripted)
NBC - Crossing Jordan (drama)
NBC - The Tracy Morgan Show (comedy)
WBn - Gilmore Girls Spin-Off (Mariano Men?) (drama)
WBn - The Help (comedy)
WBn - High School Reunion (unscripted)
WBn - Make My Day (unscripted)
WBn - The Mayor (comedy)
WBn - One Tree Hill (drama)
WBn - The Surreal Life (unscripted)

 

[Jason Seaver]

Updated with CBS, which really only has a couple of moves I don't like (no Amazing Race, Hack to Saturday). That said, most of their new shows look interesting, with good casting (Lindsay Price & Samm Levine in The Stones, Joey Pantoliano in The Handler, Charlie Sheen and Jon Cryer in Two And A Half Men).

Tomorrow's when the fun stuff comes - Fox's schedule. Sure, it'll be more throwing stuff against a wall to see what sticks, but it's also where you'll see the most creativity.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Well, I don't know if Amazing Race is canned or not, I'd say AR4 will be the nail or the saviour. I would think it'll either run in the summer or tag-team with Survivor (AR ends in sweeps, Survivor starts in 1 sweeps, ends the next, AR starts after sweeps are over and so on)

 

[Jason Seaver]

Oh, certainly, if Amazing Race 4 does well, I can see it being on CBS's list of backups and running between Survivors. I imagine Star Search will be the first thing off the bench for CBS, although CBS's schedule really doesn't have much in the way of holes I can see.

Another possibility might be for The Amazing Race to wind up on UPN; Viacom tried giving it an encore run there, though it fizzled. Interestingly enough, since Viacom owns both the local UPN and CBS stations here, the finale for AR3 ran on UPN38 (bumping The Twilight Zone to 11pm) when the CBS station had local programming.

 

[Jason Seaver]

Updated with UPN and Fox. UPN is as dire as can be expected, but Fox is surprisingly underwhelming - usually they at least have something that I'm excited to see, but not much here looks more than mildly interesting.

 

[Jason Seaver]

And the day-by-day breakdown of what I think:

Sunday
What I'll Be Watching/Sampling: Cold Case, The Simpsons, The Ortegas, Alias, Malcolm In The Middle, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Arrested Development

Sunday at 9pm remains a logjam, but that's to be expected, since it's probably got the biggest audience of any night of television. Cold Case is a neat idea for a cop show, and I do like my police procedurals. Arrested Development and The Ortegas get looks based on the strength of their casts.

What I Don't Get: Why are ABC and NBC pitting The Practice and The Lyon's Den against each other? The last time this worked out even vaguely well was when Chicago Hope and ER debuted in the same timeslot, and CBS blinked there.

Also, does anyone think Tarzan & Jane is a good idea? Anyone?

Monday
What I'll Be Watching/Sampling: Las Vegas, maybe Skin, possibly Two And A Half Men

Wow. There's nothing here.

What I Don't Get: Fox had better have a really neat gimmick for Joe Millionaire 2.

Tuesday
What I'll Be Watching/Sampling: Gilmore Girls, 24, Fearless, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, maybe Happy Family

Let's be honest: Wherever you see I "may" check out a sitcome, if it's not next to something I already watch, forget it. Still, John Larroquette and Christine Baranski are tempting.

What I Don't Get: Rachel Leigh Cook in an action show. I love her and she made several movies (Blow Dry, Josie And The Pussycats, She's All That) more enjoyable than they had a right to be, but I just don't see it. You'd think WB would go with Mariano Men (or whatever the GG spinoff winds up being called) here.

Wednesday
What I'll Be Watching/Sampling: That 70s Show, Enterprise (I need help breaking the habit), Smallville, A Minute With Stan Hooper, Angel, The Stones, Karen Sisco, Law & Order

I'm not a big one for sitcoms - I watch little live any more and recording them feels weird - but Stan Hooper is Norm McDonald and Penny Miller, while The Stones is Jay Baruchel (of Undeclared), Lindsay Sloane (Grosse Pointe), Robert Klein and Judith Light (which means she won't be replacing Stephanie March on L&O: SVU). As to Karen Sisco, I like the talent, but I don't see it being up to Out Of Sight.

What I Don't Get: It's not like CBS is airing King Of Queens and The Stones after a drama, but 9pm seems like weird placement. Also, couldn't Karen Sisco find a name that reminds people of Out Of Sight?

Thursday
What I'll Be Watching/Sampling: Tru Calling, What I Like About You, Without A Trace, maybe Threat Matrix or Run Of The House

Tru Calling has Eliza Dushku and the pilot was directed by Phillip Noyce, so I'm sold. Run Of The House and Threat Matrix both have people I like (Kyle Howard and Kelley Rutherford, respectively), but don't excite me.

What I Don't Get: Supposedly, Coupling is exactly what's available on DVD except without funny accents. Seems pointless.

Supposedly, WB's plan this year was to establish a comedy block on Thursday in anticipation of having something in place when NBC's Thursday imploded, especially considering Friends was ending. They say that the definition of madness is trying the same thing multiple times and expecting different results.

Friday
What I'll Be Watching/Sampling: Joan Of Arcadia, Miss Match, Luis, Boston Public, The Handler, Boomtown, maybe All About The Anderson if it gets good reviews.

There's a lot of potentially interesting stuff here, along with surprising casting: Luis Guzman, Alicia Silverstone, Joe Mantegna, Anthony Anderson, and Joe Pantoliano all have new shows (why couldn't one have been on Monday?). Both Miss Match and Joan Of Arcadia could be either very good or disastrous - I like Silverstone but think a 30-minute sitcom could be more her speed, and will Arcadia be closer to Miracles or Touched By An Angel?

This could be really good for Boomtown, though - The Handler is looking like a lighter show, SVU took of when it moved here, and the audience is already there.

What I Don't Get: Ed was doing well here; why not leave it there and put Miss Match on Wednesday? Also, there's some potentially-quirky shows here, and Friday seems more like a place you can move offbeat shows than start them lately.

Saturday
What I'll Be Watching/Sampling: Hack, Dragnet

Hack was frustrating toward the start of the year, with all that acting talent but so little to show for it, but ended very well indeed. I gather Dragnet is being tinkered with somewhat, but it really doesn't need it - Ed O'Neil really earned that "the best part of Sunday is Friday" advertising line.

What I Don't Get: Changing Dragnet's name to "L.A. Dragnet". Isn't that sort of redundant?

Mid-Season
What I'm Looking Forward To
Line Of Fire (ABC) - Rod Lurie apparently so liked the cast of a pilot he did a year ago that he brought most of them back for this one, which could be a very nifty crime show along the lines of Big Apple or EZ Streets.
Cracking Up (Fox) - It took them long enough to give Christopher McDonald a sitcom.
Wonder Falls (Fox) - Looks a lot like Joan Of Arcadia; I could easily see it getting bumped all the way to June no matter what happens to Joan
Crossing Jordan (NBC) - There's absolutely no way they could write Jill Hennessey's pregnancy into the show, so it won't resume production until she gives birth. This makes me hate cliffhangers even more.
Mariano Men (WB) - We basically saw the back-door pilot on Gilmore Girls this week; there's a potentially very good show there. Hopefully WB's first off the bench when Tarzan & Jane crashes and burns some unknown show underachieves.

 

[Malcolm R]

Well, that'll only last for 6 eps unless there are a lot more DVD's coming out this summer. Plus, I doubt the vast majority of the audience has probably watched the DVD.

I'm just wondering if large numbers of people will want to watch a Friends clone on the same evening as the original or if they'll tune it out as a copycat?

 

[Brad Porter]

Demographic Info (for those network commercials salespeople out there): Single, white professional male, 30 - 35 years old. Not shopping for a new car.

My Plan:
Shows color-coded as follows
Recorded by TiVo #1
Recorded by TiVo #2
Watch Live

SUNDAY
7:00...Fox - Oliver Beene
7:30...Fox - King Of The Hill
8:00...ABC - 10-8 I'll watch the pilot, then see if it's worth tuning in again.
.......CBS - Cold Case
.......Fox - The Simpsons
8:30...Fox - The Ortegas
9:00...ABC - Alias
.......Fox - Malcolm In The Middle
9:30...Fox - Arrested Development
10:00..NBC - The Lyon's Den

NBC - Law & Order: Criminal Intent recorded during its repeat on the USA network

Winners: Fox has my full attention, but I'll need The Ortegas and Arrested Development to be much better than The Pitts or else I'll be quite upset at them wasting the time slots paired with The Simpsons and Malcolm again.

Losers: The WB is completely ignored by me on this night. ABC had a chance to kill off The Practice and put something new up against The Lyon's Den (Elizabeth Mitchell and David Krumholz, excellent!), but they must not have anything they deem worthy enough for this task. I'm absolutely not going to start watching The Practice again. I wish NBC would move L&O: CI to the 10:00 slot instead so I could catch it in it's first run and not rely on USA repeats.

MONDAY
8:00 - 9:00 nothing
9:00...ABC - Monday Night Football
.......CBS - Everybody Loves Raymond
.......Fox - Skin I'll try the pilot.
.......NBC - Las Vegas
9:30...CBS - Two And A Half Men I'll try it out, but I don't expect much.
10:00..CBS - CSI Miami Is this show written and directed by a computer program? I'd give up on it if there was competition.

Winners: CBS & ABC, I guess. If it wasn't for Monday Night Football, I'd hate Mondays more than Garfield the Cat.

Losers: The TV watching public. Joe Millionaire 2 vs Fear Factor. What would Howard Beale have to say about that?

TUESDAY
8:00...WBn - Gilmore Girls
9:00...Fox - 24
.......WBn - Fearless
10:00 nothing

Winners: I have no idea. What happened to Tuesday? It was the biggest night of the week for me. Buffy is over. Smallville goes to Wednesday. Life With Bonnie moves to Friday. Hidden Hills is canned. Maybe the ratings for Gilmore Girls and 24 will go up now. I hope Fearless is good, but I agree with the others who think that Rachel Leigh Cook is woefully miscast.

Losers: ABC, CBS, NBC. It's all cops, lawyers, and sitcoms. Yawn.

WEDNESDAY
8:00...NBC - Ed
.......WBn - Smallville
9:00...NBC - The West Wing
.......UPN - Jake 2.0
10:00..ABC - Karen Sisco
.......NBC - Law & Order

Winners: NBC. Bringing back Ed is good. And ABC is showing up on my TV on Wednesdays for the first time since... maybe Sports Night? If Jake 2.0 isn't very good, I may have to start watching Angel. I haven't watched it in the past, though, so I would expect to be somewhat confused.

Losers: UPN or more specifically Enterprise. I recorded it out of habit this year. Now I have no reason to bother doing that anymore.

THURSDAY
8:00...CBS - Survivor
.......Fox - Tru Calling
.......NBC - Friends
8:30...WBn - JKX: The Jamie Kennedy Experiment
9:00...CBS - CSI
.......Fox - The O.C.
10:00..NBC - ER

Winners: Fox. They've got me tuning in for two new shows. Doug Liman & Philip Noyce. & Don't let me down, fellas.

Losers: NBC if they don't quit with the damned supersize Friends episodes. I'm ready to quit watching for real this time. The Friends season pass is getting put lower on the priority list than JKX. You have been warned. And I think I'll rent the DVDs of the original Coupling, just to rub it in.

FRIDAY
8:00 - 8:30 nothing
8:30...Fox - Luis
9:00...WBn - Grounded For Life
9:30...ABC - Life With Bonnie
10:00..CBS - The Handler
.......NBC - Boomtown

Winners: None that I can clearly see. Friday just seems to be where the networks place the shows that they don't really care about.

Losers: Boomtown. Adding another character and moving to Friday. Eeek! I should just be glad it wasn't cancelled.

SATURDAY
8:00 - 9:00 nothing
9:00...CBS - Hack
10:00..ABC - L.A. Dragnet

Winners: CBS and ABC actually get me to record something on Saturday. Unbelievable.

Losers: Hack and Dragnet. I think a Saturday time slot is a demotion from everywhere.

Reserve shows I'll watch:
ABC - Line Of Fire (drama) Maybe
Fox - Still Life (drama) I like Susanna Thompson, so I'll check it out.
NBC - The Apprentice (unscripted) This looks silly.
NBC - Crossing Jordan (drama)
WBn - Gilmore Girls Spin-Off (Mariano Men?) (drama)
WBn - High School Reunion (unscripted) I hate myself for liking this show.
WBn - The Mayor (comedy) Maybe
WBn - The Surreal Life (unscripted) Who will be on it?

Actually, I'm probably more looking forward to new episodes of The Chris Isaak Show, the premiere of Out of Order, and the eventual return of The Shield, Monk, The Dead Zone and The Sopranos than I am most of these new series.

Brad

 

[Jason Seaver]

If Jake 2.0 isn't very good, I may have to start watching Angel

The funny thing is, David Greenwalt (co-creator of Angel) has been hired to be the showrunner for Jake 2.0. Which, if Miracles is any indication, may be a mixed blessing - the show Greenwalt produced was good, but also wasn't the Miracles I'd been sold.

Of course, this puts Jake on my "worth sampling" list, now.

 

[Andrew Beacom]

Jason,

I know nothing about Cold Case but by it's name it sounds like a good show I've watched a few times on BBC America. Can't remember the name of it at the moment though.

 

[Michael Hughes]

Here's mine:

Demographic Info:
Married, white professional male, 35-40 years old.
Just bought minivan

I will Tivo or Watch Live, and preview a few...

Sunday:
7:00
Fox - Oliver Beene: Tivo
8:00
CBS - Cold Case: Preview

9:00
ABC - Alias: Tivo
9pm: Sopranos: Live

10:00
NBC - The Lyon's Den: Preview

MONDAY

8:00
ESPN: Monday Night COuntdown

9:00
ABC - Monday Night Football: Live
CBS - Everybody Loves Raymond: Tivo

9:30
CBS - Two And A Half Men: Preview


TUESDAY

8:00
Fox - American Juniors / American Idol: Live
WBn - Gilmore Girls: Tivo


9:00
Fox - 24: Live
NBC - Frasier
WBn - Fearless: Preview

WEDNESDAY

8pm: NBC - Ed: Tivo

9:00
CBS - The King Of Queens: Tivo

9:30
CBS - The Stones: Preview

10:00
ABC - Karen Sisco: Preview
CBS - The Brotherhood Of Poland, N.H.: Preview

THURSDAY

8:00
ABC - Threat Matrix: Preview
CBS - Survivor: Live
Fox - Tru Calling: Preview
NBC - Friends: Tivo

9pm: CBS - CSI: Tivo
Fox - The O.C.


9pm: CBS - Without A Trace: Tivo

FRIDAY

8:00
CBS - Joan Of Arcadia: Preview
NBC - Miss Match: Preview

9:00
ABC - Hope & Faith: Preview

9:30
ABC - Life With Bonnie: Tivo

10:00
CBS - The Handler: Preview
NBC - Boomtown: Tivo

SATURDAY

8:00-10 Trading Spaces: Tivo