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Animal Practice… Worth the View or Just a Zoo?
As anyone who has ever been to a theatre knows, nothing is ever on time. Because the Olympics wasn’t over by 10:30 last night, the Sneak Preview of NBC’s Animal Practice was pushed back 20 minutes. When it started, I was left wondering if it was worth NBC finally cutting time out of the Closing Ceremonies to see it.
Justin Kirk plays Veterinarian Dr. George Coleman who is good with animals, not so good with the owners. When the woman who owned the animal hospital George works in passes away, her granddaughter, Dorothy Crane, takes over. Crane, played by Joanna Garcia-Swisher, also just happens to be Dr. Coleman’s ex-girlfriend.
The main human-centered storyline of the Sneak Peek episode is that after the owner of the hospital dies, Dorothy takes over and tells George that they can keep the hospital running without it being too awkward. Other important story line centered around a dog that swallowed something and needs surgery to remove it. The owner isn’t happy that the surgery will cost two-thousand dollars and demands to put the dog down despite the fact that it would destroy his young daughter’s happiness. George, angry with the owner, takes the dog and proceeds to hide it. He plans to do the surgery anyway despite the consequences.
Weekly TV Update: August 13
NBC interrupted the closing ceremonies to preview Animal Practice.
Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte is eyeing reality show offers.
Another Olympic swimmer, Michael Phelps, is interested in reality TV. Phelps will appear on a Golf Channel show that helps amateur golfers improve their game.
Two and a Half Men gets a new guest star: Miley Cyrus.
CNN’s Fareed Zakaria has been suspended for plagiarism.
NBC Announces New Fall Schedule
NBC is using the Olympics to launch it’s fall schedule. On August 8, Go On will air commercial free following Olympic Games coverage. Animal Practice will get the same treatment, on August 12, following the closing ceremonies.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, this is the full NBC Fall Schedule with new shows in ALL CAPS.
Wednesday, Aug. 8
GO ON (sneak peek following Olympic Games coverage)
Sunday, Aug. 12
ANIMAL PRACTICE (sneak peek following Olympic Games Closing Ceremonies)
Monday, Aug. 13
8-10 p.m. STARS EARN STRIPES (two-hour premiere)
10-11 p.m. Grimm
The rest of NBC’s 2012 Fall Schedule is after the jump.
Previewing NBC’s Fall 2012 Season- Part 2
Every year, countless writers work sleepless nights, most likely putting themselves virtually under house arrest for several months, just for the outside chance of getting their pilot produced for television. Even six shows greenlit for NBC seems like a lot for the upcoming fall season. As discussed in Part 1, considering the network’s limited success producing long-running shows in recent years, the very deliberate effort to introduce new shows concerns me a bit. New shows do tend to interest me, though. I’m relatively young, and there have not been many chances for me to say I was a regular viewer of a really quality, long running television series from start to finish. This year could be my shot.
Animal Practice
Animal Practice revolves around Dr. George Coleman, a veterinarian at Crane Animal Hospital in New York City. The premise is relatively simple: he’s a prestigious veterinarian because of his kindness and care toward animals, but just doesn’t have the same kindness toward people. With that brief description, one might be inclined to chuckle in somewhat of a forced way. “He would be so likable if he cared about people that much, but he doesn’t! How amusing!” Upon watching the trailer, however, it becomes clear that this sentiment is nothing more than a misguided hope in the minds of the show’s creators. Dr. Coleman’s lack of sympathy and utter disinterest for anything human dominates the trailer. From the get-go, after Coleman, with no emotion, explains to a customer that he thinks her cat tried to commit suicide. At that moment, I knew the rest was not going to be promising. As it progresses, his boss calls him a lousy director so he says, “My system may not be perfect, but I help a lot of animals and I meet a lot of girls.” After a beat, he says excitedly, “My system is perfect!” The unsympathetic comedy protagonist has proven successful in past shows, but those kind of characters should be at least somewhat enjoyable. Most importantly, the characters and their surrounding situations should be funny and the attempt at humor seems very forced. Basically, I really don’t see Animal Practice lasting.
Wait! What's A Dial? 