TV 2006: the Year of the Super Nerd

Interesting piece in the Boston Globe today, about how many of the new shows have at their core a nerd who comes out on top (though I'm sure if we went back in the TV archives we could find a nerdish/shy/lonely person who was the hero, and what makes these people "nerds" anyway, the fact that they aren't gregarious, they're just normal?).

Suzanne C. Ryan points out that Ugly Betty has a plain-looking girl who goes to work for a NYC fashion mag, screws up her first day, but eventually becomes the hero; The Nine has Louis Plunk, a nebbish who will become a hero when we find out what happened inside that bank robbery; and The Knights of Prosperity (what an awful title change) has a lonely guy who is one of the guys who decides to rob Mick Jagger (though I don't know if the word "hero" could be applied here).

The article doesn't even mention Heroes, which premieres on NBC tomorrow night. That show has a few nerds who literally become superheroes.