The Fall TV Season (or Do I need a third TiVo?) (1 Viewer)

[Brad Porter]

I hate the network programmers. Why do they insist on piling the shows that I like up against one another? Here are the crimes against my TV viewing being committed this fall.
Sunday:
9P Alias (ABC) vs L&O: Criminal Intent (NBC) vs The X-Files (Fox)
If Alias turns out to be good, this could be the year I finally give up on The X-Files. Or NBC could move L&O to 10P where it belongs. I may start the season out using a VCR! My live TV feed will be tuned to Sunday Night NFL.
Tuesday:
8P Dharma & Greg / What About Joan? (ABC) vs That 70's Show / Undeclared (Fox) vs Gilmore Girls (WB) vs Buffy the Vampire Slayer (UPN)
Adios Dharma. So long Joan. You were fun while it lasted, but Buffy and the Gilmore Girls are getting recorded on the two TiVos. Damn You Fox! Why are you putting the show that I'm most hyped about (Undeclared) on against my must-sees? Cancel that stupid Comedy Wheel thing on Wednesday at 8 and move Undeclared there. Please. I still haven't figured this one out.
Thursday:
8P Whose Line...? (ABC) vs Survivor (CBS) vs Friends / The Show after Friends (NBC) vs. Family Guy / The Tick (Fox)
Aaaaaarrrghhhh! This is harder than Sophie's Choice. I can drop Whose Line because I've been able to catch up with those in the summertime (but it's still consistently the funniest show on TV). I can easily watch The Tick instead of NBC's never funny 8:30 show (which is Inside Schwartz at the moment), but Survivor vs Friends vs Family Guy is too painful to contemplate. Gilmore Girls lost this battle last year because I had never seen it. If it hadn't been moved to Tuesdays, I would definitely have to send a letter to my Congressman to get this resolved.
Another possible conflict:
Wednesday at 8
Ed (NBC) vs Grounded For Life (Fox) vs Enterprise (UPN)
This could be the end of GFL if Enterprise doesn't suck (unless they repeat the episodes on Saturday like they did with Voyager). But what are the odds that Enterprise won't suck?
So if there are any network programmers or assistants of programmers reading this forum, put down your latte, go to the big board and move L&O: CI, Undeclared, and Family Guy to better time slots. Thanks oh so much.
Can anyone else sympathize with my plight? I feel very sorry for those if you with only one TiVo. You must not like TV very much.
Brad
PS: My prediction for the first show to get whacked is Wolf Lake.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Not even one TiVo here
Let me share with you my choices for those key slots:
Sunday:
The X-Files (Fox)
I'm sticking to my guns with the X-Files... but if the show sucks without Mulder and Scully, then I'll point my clicker somewhere else
Tuesday:
That 70's Show / Undeclared (Fox) vs Buffy the Vampire Slayer (UPN)
I've followed both T7S and Buffy off and on throughout their runs... This will be a tough choice. My mom's into Buffy (which is surprising, considering the rest of her TV habits are CBS dramas and reruns of the Antiques Roadshow on PBS... she isn't exactly the target audience for Buffy) and she'll tape it while she's working, so I'll probably start the season with T7S.
Thursday:
Family Guy / The Tick (Fox)
Family Guy has to be the funniest show on television (with, in my opinion, only Malcolm and Futurama giving it a run for it's money anymore), and from the Tick pilot (I've got copies of all sorts of bootleg shit, I'd name my sources, but it's against HTF rules) that show looks damn funny. Fox once again gets the ratings from me.
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My DVD Collection

 

[Glenn Overholt]

Brad, that's a riot! They do that deliberatly - every year. I don't plan on buying any more VCR's but I have 3 set up right now, and a TV card on my PC. (got plenty of time!)
However, I will have to make choices too. Ask me again in a few weeks - after I find out what I have selected - so you don't pick them, because I always manage to pick the duds. It happens year after year. (I guess I shouldn't say that I'm picking Enterprise, huh?)
I have complete collections of Three, Relativity and Back to Sherwood. Good luck!
Glenn

 

[Jason Seaver]

What about another bottleneck, Tuesdays at 9pm: "24" and "Roswell" and "Smallville"? "24" is the show I'm most excited about this fall, but what I really don't get is why the two alien teenagers in a small town shows are against each other.

 

[Brad Porter]

...I always manage to pick the duds.

Tell me about it. I'm already getting suckered in by the "hot chick in a spy/secret agent/private eye action TV show" syndrome again. Don't believe me?
1996 Maria Bello in Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Cancelled after 13 episodes.
1997 Allison Smith in Spy Game. Cancelled after 13 episodes.
1998 Allison Smith (again) in Buddy Faro. Cancelled after 13 episodes.
1999 Paula Marshall (and Gina Gershon) in Snoops. Cancelled after 13 episodes.
2000 Jessica Alba in Dark Angel. Still alive, but I quit watching after about episode five.
So what does 2001 offer me?
Jennifer Garner in Alias.
Melissa George in Thieves.
I'll watch them both and weep when they're cancelled after 13 episodes because the ratings can't support the production costs. Maybe they should put all these women together in a show and call it Fox Force Five.
Brad

 

[Danny R]

I solved some of my problems by subscribing to the Superstation package that DISH offers. Thus I can get both east and westcoast feeds of the WB, and get some natural timeshifting that way.

 

[Brett Jason]

I feel your pain, especially the Sunday @ 9 PM and the Thursday @ 8 PM. I'm leaning towards a cheapo VCR. I have 1 VCR on a separate TV thats good to go and I have Replay TV but it's hooked up in such a bizarro fashion that I can't introduce a splitter to watch 1 show and tape another

 

[Graeme Clark]

This may only be a problem for a few weeks. A number of these new shows are bound to suck.
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[Glenn Overholt]

Brett - Don't know where you are but you might be able to pick up one station via rabbit ears.
I found Tuesday and Wednesday at 8 to be the worst.
Ok, as I said, I'd get back. These are my picks for new shows this Fall. Maybe we can get some bets going on how fast they'll drop out of sight. I'm skipping Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Enterprise because they both should make it. Oh, and two new shows may get scraped completely because they deal with terrorism.
Sunday Alias Crossing Jordan
Tuesday Undeclared* Philly 24
Wednesday Bernie Mac
Thursday Inside Schwartz The Agency
Friday Danny Thieves
Saturday Citizen Barnes
*Undeclared will be the first one to go, as I'm going to tape them.
So, be careful what you pick.
Glenn

 

[NickSo]

Ah, 24... that looks like a promising series...
And i've had a crush on Elisha Cuthburt since the 1st season of POPULAR MECHANICS FOR KIDS...

Family guy is the best... But The Tick looks like its pretty good as well... we'll see...
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The So Family Home Theater!
http://www.multimania.com/sonick182/ht/index.html

 

[Gord Lacey]

I have 3 VCRs in my room and 2 others in the house. The only problem I may run into is a conflict with a WB and UPN show since I get both those channels on digital cable and I only have one dc box. Luckily, however, I have two WB feeds, one from the West, one from the East, so I should be able to fit everything in. Of course if there is a major conflict I'll have to buy another box obviously.
It's too hard watching a lot of TV, DVDs, working and having a life.
Oh, and Brad, I watched all those same shows you did. I feel your pain.

 

[Brad Porter]

Gord,
I'm guessing that Canadian viewers get to enjoy all of the American broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, UPN, WB). Do you have the added problem of having native Canadian prime time programming to watch? Or is there such a thing as native Canadian programming? This is not intended as a slam, it's just that my knowledge of Canadian television programming begins and ends with Kids In The Hall. And hockey, of course.
Brad

 

[Gord Lacey]

Kids in the Hall RULED!!
Yeah Brad, we do have some Canadian shows that air on the Canadian networks like CTV, Global, CBC.
Most of the Canadian networks show the American shows at the same time as you see them in the US. Unfortunately we have a simulcast law in Canada so the Canadian channels override the US feeds (CTV feed would be on CTV and ABC for example). Sometimes they're a little slow flicking it back to the US feed so occasionally we miss the first min or so of the next show. It doesn't happen very often, but when it does....I GET MAD!!
One benefit to our TV channels is the fact that we don't have the US networks based in Canada so Canadian networks can license US content. If I wanted to watch Buffy last season I could catch it on twice from US WB feeds and then also watch it on YTV (Youth Television) on Sat night and A-Channel (local independant) on Sat afternoon because they licenced the show from WB. I think that gives us greater flexibility when planning our viewing schedule. That Buffy example is extreme; usually we don't have that many different airings of one show.
Of course, living in Canada we don't get HBO (although we do get most of the good shows - sometimes bastardized though), no Comedy Central, SCI-FI Channel (although we have "Space" here - along the same lines).
We just got a slew of new digital channels that I'm going through looking for good shows. Finally got to see "Taxicab Confessions"! The bad news about most of the new channels - HUGE, ANNOYING BUGS!!

 

[Brad Porter]

To complicate this subject even further, I'm recording the PBS documentary Evolution this week. That eats up 8 hours of prime time. So far I can cover everything but Enterprise because many of the new shows are premiering next week or later. I was momentarily pleased to see that the UPN is repeating the show on the weekend, but pissed off again when I noticed that it's on Sunday from 7 to 9, up against Alias and Law & Order: Criminal Intent due to the premiere's two-hour length.
Hey networks! Saturday night! It's not just for poorly edited, and massively cropped movies anymore. Repeat some original programming to hook some viewers that might not catch the shows during the week. CBS is the only network that hasn't given up on Saturdays for original programming.
Brad
[Edited last by Brad Porter on September 24, 2001 at 08:34 PM]