Blog Archives
Weekly TV Update: September 3
Seth MacFarlane
Why was Jersey Shore canceled? Entertainment Weekly has the lowdown.
Randy Jackson, who is American Idol‘s only original judge left, may have his role reduced to mentor.
After Utah’s NBC affiliate refused to air The New Normal, KUCW, the state’s CW affiliate, agreed to pick up the show.
FX orders 90 more episodes of Charlie Sheen’s Anger Management.
Seth MacFarlane will host the 38th season premiere of Saturday Night Live.
“The New Normal” Embraces Stereotypes
This review is not meant to incite a political debate. It is based solely on the quality of the show, not on the politics behind it.
Depending on your point of view, The New Normal is either novel or controversial, which is to be expected since the show features a surrogate mother having a gay couple’s child. However, novelty and controversy cannot carry a show that lacks quality. If the rest of the series is like the pilot, The New Normal will get old fast because the show embraces the stereotypes its creators, Ryan Murphy and Ali Adler, intend to dispel.
The New Normal‘s pilot episode opens with Bryan Collins making a video for his unborn child. A few seconds into the video, Bryan realizes he is getting ahead of himself, since no one knows how he came to the decision to have a child with his partner, David Murray. The majority of the pilot is spent providing the audience backstory through a flashback.
Weekly TV Update: August 27
NBC’s Utah affliate KSL refuses to carry The New Normal.
Last Thursday, Jerry Nelson died at 78 years old. He was the voice of the Count on Sesame Street.
Dancing With the Stars viewers have chosen Sabrina Bryan to be the 13th contestant on that show’s all-star season.
Anthony Bourdain, host of the Travel Channel’s No Reservations, will take his show to CNN after its upcoming season is over.
The former voice of Dora the Explorer, Caitlin Sanchez, attempts to sue Nickelodeon again because she says her lawyer committed fraud. In the original lawsuit, Sanchez claims she was fired for hitting puberty.
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 1
Upon hearing that Community got renewed for a fourth season, I was excited, but also a little disappointed in the size of the order. Thirteen episodes means less of a chance of further continuation (six seasons and a movie!), but given the fact that NBC needed room to budget its new shows it wasn’t a surprise. It also got me very curious about the upcoming Fall season.
Most shows produced for network television never see the light of day. A lot of them get cancelled after a few episodes. Some get really bad time slots, others get terrible lead-ins. A lot of times, it’s just a bad show. The point is very few shows get respectable runs, especially in recent years. On NBC, the only truly stellar run in the last 5 years has been The Office, which is clearly on the decline. Not since the ending of Friends could any show on the network truly be considered a “classic”, so there’s a certain degree of skepticism in my mind when there are six shows debuting in the fall and many more set to debut afterwards.
Go On
Lately, Matthew Perry has made a career of less than promising movies and sitcoms that go no more than 15 episodes. It’s just not the same as when he was Chandler. Hopefully that will change because Go On is looking promising.
As Ryan King, Perry portrays a slick, sarcastic sportscaster who, after the death of his wife, is ready to get back to work. However, his boss will not let him back on the air until he goes to group therapy. King’s goal is really just to get back on the air as soon as he can, but it seems that his less-than-caring approach seems to work for him and the group. Perry’s character resorts back to what worked best for Chandler: a tragic backstory and the use of humor as a defense mechanism.
The highlight of the trailer was a sequence of Ryan holding a contest for “Who has the best sob story?”, known as “March Sadness”. With its snarky attitude, a caring story, and what seems like a solid supporting cast for Perry, this show looks like it could last a while. NBC is advertising this series as Matthew Perry’s return. Here’s hoping it’s a bit more triumphant than the last attempt, which was Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip in 2007.
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