2005 Fall Schedule Thread (1 Viewer)

[NeilO]

It all depends on their actual schedules. There are quite a few actors who seem to be on several shows all at the same time. Steven Culp was a recurring character on JAG, The West Wing, and Enterprise all in the same season. Then he did get to be full-time on Desperate Housewives, but you never really know what will happen.

Neil

 

[hanson mat]

I agree, the only thing I can think of is that Zach Braff wants to pursue other avenues.

 

[NeilO]

If you check Zach Braff's IMDB page
you can see he is involved in fliming one 2006 release film and starring in another film which is in pre-production.

So, that should explain the current Scrubs situation. Has anyone tried the 916-Call-Turk phone line to see if they have any relevant news?

Neil

 

[Abby_B]

I'm a huge Scrubs fan but I can understand why NBC is holding back on it, unfortunately. It really hasn't ever done well in the ratings...maybe holding it to get a good partner show established and/or to build anticipation will help it. I also wouldn't be surprised if Zach Braff's movie schedule played a role too, although I think he wants Scrubs to succeed and likely wouldn't take roles that would mess up the show's schedule...

 

[Jason Seaver]

Heck, I imagine he's contractually obligated not to. I mean, can you imagine how much it could potentially suck for the rest of the cast and crew if he's not ("yeah, we're not going to be able to start shooting until October, so don't bother coming in to work next week... and you won't be getting paid for the next month and a half... Hey, take it up with Braff...").

Article on Zap2It about WB and ABC targeting Thursday night.

 

[Mikel_Cooperman]

I guess the Zach Braff excuses are just that...

From TV Guide.

At NBC's upfront presentation on Monday, Peacock president Kevin Reilly said he was holding Scrubs until midseason because Zach Braff landed a movie that'll shoot later this summer. However, a source close to the show claims production on the new season will begin on schedule in August. "Zach is shooting two movies this summer, but it won't delay production," groans the insider. "No one knows why Kevin said that." And if his films were going to have an impact on the new season, I'm pretty sure Zach would have mentioned it to me Sunday night when we were hanging out at Scrubs' Season 1 DVD launch party in New York.

 

[Jason Seaver]

Hmm... Did Reilly actually say production would be delayed, or might the thinking be "Zach Braff has a movie scheduled to come out in December that we expect to be a huge hit and we'd like to use that in our promotion"?

 

[Chris_Morris]

Fox announces 2005-2006 schedule
Press release here at Futon Critic

Listing of Fall schedule and 2006 schedule starting in January:

FOX PRIMETIME SCHEDULE: FALL 2005
(All Times ET/PT)

MONDAY
8:00-8:30 PM ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT
8:30-9:00 PM KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL
9:00-10:00 PM PRISON BREAK

TUESDAY
8:00-9:00 PM BONES
9:00-10:00 PM HOUSE

WEDNESDAY
8:00-8:30 PM THAT '70s SHOW
8:30-9:00 PM STACKED
9:00-10:00 PM HEAD CASES

THURSDAY
8:00-9:00 PM THE O.C.
9:00-10:00 PM REUNION

FRIDAY
8:00-8:30 PM THE BERNIE MAC SHOW
8:30-9:00 PM MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE
9:00-10:00 THE GATE (working title)

SATURDAY
8:00-8:30 PM COPS
8:30-9:00 PM COPS
9:00-10:00 PM AMERICA'S MOST WANTED
11:00 PM-MIDNIGHT MADtv

SUNDAY
7:00-7:30 PM Animated Encores
7:30-8:00 PM KING OF THE HILL
8:00-8:30 PM THE SIMPSONS
8:30-9:00 PM THE WAR AT HOME
9:00-9:30 PM FAMILY GUY
9:30-10:00 PM AMERICAN DAD

FOX PRIMETIME SCHEDULE: BEGINNING JANUARY 2006
(All Times ET/PT)

MONDAY
8:00-9:00 PM HOUSE
9:00-10:00 PM 24

TUESDAY
8:00-9:00 PM AMERICAN IDOL
9:00-10:00 PM BONES

WEDNESDAY
8:00-8:30 PM THAT '70s SHOW
8:30-9:00 PM STACKED
9:00-9:30 PM AMERICAN IDOL
9:30-10:00 PM THE LOOP

THURSDAY
8:00-9:00 PM THE O.C.
9:00-10:00 PM REUNION

FRIDAY
8:00-8:30 PM THE BERNIE MAC SHOW
8:30-9:00 PM MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE
9:00-10:00 THE GATE (working title)

SATURDAY
8:00-8:30 PM COPS
8:30-9:00 PM COPS
9:00-10:00 PM AMERICA'S MOST WANTED
11:00 PM-MIDNIGHT MADtv

SUNDAY
7:00-7:30 PM Animated Encores
7:30-8:00 PM KING OF THE HILL
8:00-8:30 PM THE SIMPSONS
8:30-9:00 PM THE WAR AT HOME
9:00-9:30 PM FAMILY GUY
9:30-10:00 PM AMERICAN DAD

 

[Jason Seaver]

I'm curious about when some of these Fox shows are going to premiere - I'm guessing a lot of the stuff that's on the fall but not January schedule will get an August premiere and run more-or-less continuously, or they're planning for something to go wrong: After all, it's Fox - some midseason show just won't actually get made, and there's a good chance of That 70s Show crashing and burning hard without its star. Or Stacked could go the Method & Red route and completely implode behind the scenes despite ratings success.

Also, I wonder where The Inside potentially fits in here: If it does well this summer, does it get a place on the fall schedule, get more episodes made for midseason, or what?

I do think setting Prison Break up for a timeslot share with 24 is a damn good idea - both are big-budget, action-packed hyperserials, and that should get the audience primed for action Mondays at 9pm all year long. I'm also really looking forward to Bones, since Emily Deschanel may just be cuter than her sister.

 

[Brad Porter]

I've never watched Joey, but I've been a regular watcher of all of the other shows. I'll stop watching The O.C. and I may wait for Smallville to show up in syndication, but I won't like it. Booooooooooooo!

Brad

 

[Patrick Sun]

Damn, looks like my 3 ReplayTVs and 2 VCRs are going to get a workout on Thursday nights next season.

 

[DaveF]

I'm disappointed Judging Amy was canceled. For me, it was one of the best written, best acted, and most interesting family dramas in recent years. But while I wish they had one last seasons to properly wrap it up, the season conclusion had the tone and scope of a series finale. They must have know it was likely the last season.

As for Alias, I hope Abrams plots it as if it's the last season, and gives one hell of a story to finish with.

The final must-see show for me is Battlestar Galactica, which returns this summer. Nothing else -- Lost, Desparate Housewives, and Grey's Anatomy -- have a place in my heart like Alias and JA.

 

[StephenT]

So we have all of these schedules but no premiere dates? What are the networks doing in the summer? I always like to check schedules at the begin of the summer and the beginning of the fall and add shows that sound interesting to my TiVo, but I need dates for that. Shows moving days means nothing to me, but I want to know about brand new shows. Where are the summer replacement shows? That's what matters to my TiVo season passes at this time of year.

 

[Jason Seaver]

And UPN with the last schedule. Wednesday at 9pm for Veronica Mars, which is packed, but not as crazy as where it was, and it gets UPN's best lead-in. Smackdown! moves to Friday, which surprises me because I didn't realize UPN could move that. I know the other WWE contracts with Viacom are expiring, so with this likely being the show's last year on UPN, they might as well try and build something on Thursday.

 

[Rob P S]

House and 24 back to back -

 

[Jason Seaver]

So, now we arrive to the "what we'll be watching" portion of the program:

Sunday

Most likely: Cold Case, The Simpsons, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Grey's Anatomy, Crossing Jordan

Maybe: Desperate Housewives

Sampling: The War at Home

Fox pretty much falls off the radar for me with the live-action shows moved to other nights, leaving the schedule wide open for some good crime. I liked Michael Rappaport on Boston Public, and I'll check his new series out if it has no laugh track. The two ABC shows both have killer casts, but Desperate Housewives is one I feel I can let go.

Monday

Most Likely: Arrested Development, Prison Break

Maybe: Two and a Half Men, Las Vegas, Medium, Fathom

Sampling: How I Met Your Mother, Kitchen Confidential, Barely Legal, Out of Practice

Dueling Buffy vets at 8:30, with Xander having the better lead-in. Prison Break looks like a good placeholder for 24, and the Pate brothers have decent bona fides (although I suspect I'll watch their series on Sci-Fi, if NBC gives it second-run airings there. I like Las Vegas a fair amount, but I more or less relegated it to "I'll watch it in reruns" status when 24 returned.

Tuesday

Most Likely: Bones, Gilmore Girls, Commander In Chief, The Amazing Race, House, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

Sampling: Sex, Lies, and Secrets, My Name Is Earl, Supernatural, Close to Home

Heck of a cast some of these shows have. I like both Deschanel sisters, and Geena Davis (who looks amazing for being almost my mom's age) as the first female president in a series written by the guy behind Deterrence, The Contender and Line of Fire seems like the surest thing (quality-wise) this fall. As to the samplings - well, sue me, I like Denise Richards, and I liked Jennifer Finnegan on Crossing Jordan. I like Jason Lee and Jared Padalecki, too, but I've only got three recording devices and Tuesday 9pm is murder (why isn't WB doing the "easy view" thing for Supernatural?).

Wednesday

Most Likely: Veronica Mars, Invasion, Law & Order

Maybe: Stacked, Lost, E-Ring

Sampling: That 70s Show, Freddie, Head Cases

Hey, Freddie has the producers of Drew Carey and Norm behind it. I've only seen a couple episodes of Stacked, and it seems pretty disposable. Invasion has Shaun Cassidy back in American Gothic territory. Meanwhile, Lost will have to do something pretty damn incredible next week to keep me. It's too inconsistent and the science-fiction aspects have gotten too ridiculous as the series went on. But, woot!, new Veronica Mars!

Thursday

Most Likely: Alias, Smallville, Without a Trace

Sampling: The Night Stalker, Reunion

The Night Stalker will be on an extremely short leash, since I really didn't like The X-Files much at all and Frank Spotnitz is running it. I've got no idea how Reunion sees a second year with its premise without getting a new cast and starting from scratch or becoming a wholly different show.

Friday

Most Likely: Malcolm in the Middle, Threshold

Maybe: Numbers

Sampling: Ghost Whisperer, The Gate

Yeah, I'm harsh on Brannon Braga on the Trek threads, but he's not burned out on this yet, and it's got Charles Dutton and Carla Gugino. I watched two episodes of Numbers before deciding it will get a summer rerun check-in. And The Gate has Marguerite Moreau, who I really adored in a not-very-good festival movie called Easy.

Saturday

Nada

Bench

(ABC) Emily's Reasons Why Not (Monday 9pm) and In Justice
(CBS) Everything I Know About Men and The Unit
(FOX) 24 (Monday 9pm)
(NBC) Four Kings
(tWB) Pepper Dennis

Add Heather Graham, Rebecca Romijn, Seth Green, Dennis Haysbert, Robert Patrick, Amy Acker, and Jenna Elfman tot he list of people I like

 

[David Williams]

This show is bad juju... I was part of a focus group that was asked to watch the pilot and then give opinions on it and some future story ideas they had cooked up.

The show desperately wants to be The West Wing back when that show was great, but it can't hold a candle. The President of the United States is about to die and tells his VP, Geena Davis, that he wants her to resign because she was only on the ticket to be window dressing and he wants his crony, the Speaker of the House, to carry on his legacy. Mackenzie Allen's motivation for taking the role of President is laughable: The Speaker of the House basically calls her an airhead woman and Allen gets really angry and decides not to resign. You've sure come a long way, baby! Of course, this is only slightly better than her male aide telling her she should take the job to front their/his/? liberal agenda (Mackenzie, oddly enough, is an independent). BTW, all Donald Sutherland (Speaker of the House) needs is a waxed mustache to twirl and a nametag that reads "Hi, My Name is: White Chauvinist Republican Nazi". In the future storylines they read me, he only gets more melodramatic.

Of course, we get teenage angst in the form of Allen's daughter who hates the fact that she's going to be President. Her husband has his panties in a twist because he can't be Chief of Staff like he was when she was VP and has to adjust to being 'First Lady' (which some twit spends the entire pilot a) calling him and b) talking about all the no-nos Hillary did in what is supposed to be the humorous part of the show).

The pilot spends its last few minutes going down in flames when Mackenzie's pre-K daughter spills juice on her while riding in the limo to Congress so she can address the nation. Her female aide/speechwriter comes to the rescue by giving her a smart scarf to cover her shirt. Mackenzie's address to the nation comes from the tiniest Congressional set I've ever seen (Disney didn't shell out the bucks?). In the middle of her speech, Dick Dastardly (aka Donald Sutherland) kills her teleprompter so she has to wing it to the stirring strains of the score. Gag me, now!

 

[Patrick Sun]

I guess I'll be sleeping when I'm dead:

Sunday

08:00 (CBS) - Cold Case

09:00 (ABC) - Desperate Housewives
09:00 (FOX) - Family Guy

09:30 (FOX) - American Dad

10:00 (ABC) - Grey's Anatomy
10:00 (NBC) - Crossing Jordan

Monday

08:00 (FOX) - Arrested Development
08:00 (NBC) - Fathom

09:00 (ABC) - Monday Night Football
09:00 (CBS) - Two and a Half Men
09:00 (NBC) - Las Vegas

10:00 (CBS) - CSI: Miami
10:00 (NBC) - Medium

Tuesday

08:00 (CBS) - NCIS
08:00 (FOX) - Bones
08:00 (tWB) - Gilmore Girls

09:00 (CBS) - The Amazing Race
09:00 (FOX) - House
09:00 (NBC) - My Name Is Earl

09:30 (NBC) - The Office

10:00 (ABC) - Boston Legal

Wednesday

08:00 (UPN) - America's Next Top Model
08:00 (tWB) - One Tree Hill

09:00 (ABC) - Lost
09:00 (UPN) - Veronica Mars

10:00 (ABC) - Invasion

Thursday

08:00 (ABC) - Alias
08:00 (CBS) - Survivor
08:00 (FOX) - The O.C.
08:00 (NBC) - Joey
08:00 (tWB) - Smallville

08:30 (NBC) - Will & Grace

09:00 (CBS) - CSI: Crime Scene Investigations
09:00 (tWB) - Everwood

10:00 (CBS) - Without a Trace
10:00 (NBC) - ER

Friday

09:00 (CBS) - Threshold
09:00 (FOX) - The Gate

10:00 (CBS) - Numbers
10:00 (NBC) - Inconceivable

Saturday

Nada

The Bench

(ABC) Emily's Reasons Why Not (Monday 9pm)
(ABC) Jake In Progress (Monday 9:30pm)

(CBS) Everything I Know About Men

(FOX) American Idol (Tuesday 10pm, Wednesday 9pm - Bones to Tuesday 9pm, House to Monday 8pm)
(FOX) 24 (Monday 9pm)

(NBC) Scrubs

--------

I'll have to do some more research on the new show offerings before putting those on my viewing schedule.

Thursday at 8 p.m. is the largest logjam for me.

 

[WadeB]

So UPN moved VM to go up against Lost? And that will help, how? :frowning:

 

[Jason Seaver]

::sigh:: There are no good timeslots. None. Every slot from Sunday through Thursday has a fairly successful show in it, either on your network or on the others.

However, Wednesday at 9pm does have its advantages. It's on directly after UPN's most popular program. It's better than where it was, which didn't have any one show as popular as Lost but did have several popular shows that aggregated to worse. And there aren't any teen-oriented shows on the other networks; last year Veronica had a real uphil battle since a lot of its core audience (or at least, what UPN thought its core audince to be) were likely watching One Tree Hill.

It's not perfect, but it's the best option UPN had.