Upfronts Update: The Best and Worst Things About the New Fall Season

We're in the midst of Upfront Week, which is when the networks present their fall schedules to advertisers and to the world.

Four of the five broadcast networks have already presented their 2011-12 rosters, and via clips and show descriptions, it's possible to discern that which is good or at least interesting ('Lost' is back! Sort of! Not really!) and that which is disheartening or downright bad (My God, ABC, what have you done!?), all of which I present below.

The Top 6 Good Things about the Next Season of Television

Get ready for some interesting scheduling moves.
CBS, the most conservative network, has decided to move two of its flagship programs: 'CSI' is migrating to Wednesdays and 'The Good Wife' will air on Sundays next season. 'The Good Wife' is such a gem that I hope this scheduling move doesn't hurt the show.

And though ABC is trying an all-comedy night on Wednesdays, NBC is moving away from its all-comedy Thursdays (in the fall, Thursdays on NBC will feature 'Community,' 'Parks and Recreation,' 'The Office,' 'Whitney' and 'Prime Suspect'). NBC is also moving one of its rare success stories, 'Harry's Law,' to Wednesdays. Fox hasn't really done much shifting, but expect its new Simon Cowell talent show, 'X Factor' to take up a lot of real estate in the fall.

It's not all doctors, lawyers and cops ad nauseam.
In an effort to not make us all turn off our sets permanently, the networks have (thank goodness) turned away from the kind of predictable, cookie-cutter concepts that flooded the schedule in the last couple of years and have bet on shows that, even if they have procedural elements, also have supernatural flavors, otherworldly settings and strange scenarios built into their DNA. The straight-up science fiction that the networks attempted with shows like 'V' and 'The Event' certainly didn't pan out (and the new crop of genre-influenced shows may fare no better), but the next season is more about the spooky or strange, not so much about aliens plots. ABC's taking a chance on 'Once Upon a Time,' which is partially set in a fairytale world, NBC has the similarly mythic 'Grimm,' and Fox is spending big on the dinosaur drama 'Terra Nova' and the mid-season prison drama 'Alcatraz,' which is from J.J. Abrams and (naturally) has a time-travel element. Even CBS is getting into the act with 'A Gifted Man,' which isn't just about a doctor -- it's about a doctor whose wife speaks to him from beyond the grave. Of course she does.

Some of the pilots look pretty intriguing.
J.J. Abrams? An island? Time travel? Sign me up for that. Fox's 'Alcatraz,' certainly looks snazzy, and the fact that one of its stars is Jorge Garcia (a.k.a. Hurley from 'Lost') makes me inclined to give the show a chance. A note of caution, however: Abrams typically lends his name to at least a couple of pilots every year, but the man who co-created 'Lost' also gave us a dud like 'Undercovers,' so seeing his name on 'Alcatraz' isn't a guarantee of quality. But aside from Abrams' efforts in both 'Alcatraz' and 'Person of Interest', there are a number of intriguing pilots out there, including ABC's 'Once Upon a Time,' 'Apartment 23' and 'Good Christian Belles,' and NBC's 'Free Agents.'

I must add a disclaimer: I could well be wrong about all of these shows, and they could be terrible. I'm only judging them by the descriptions that the networks handed out as well as by clips that have been posted online.

There's lots of lady-centered programming.
Every few years the movie studios rediscover female audiences, and now, apparently, the television networks have realized that a lot of women watch TV. Who knew?

In all seriousness, it's heartening that so many shows this year were created or co-created by women, and it's good to see that so many of the leads on new shows (especially comedies) are ladies. The last few years were really lean in the female-lead department. But this year, there's even a whole mini-trendlet of naughty, rule-breaking female leads (see the NBC Maria Bello vehicle 'Prime Suspect' and comedy, 'Are You There Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea' and ABC's 'Apartment 23' and 'Good Christian Belles'). Though gender equity behind the scenes is a long way off (less than 30 percent of TV writers are female, and the figures on directing are even more dire), but the big bet on female talent is welcome nonetheless.

'Lost' lives on, sort of.
Not only is J.J. Abrams back with 'Alcatraz,' lots of other 'Lost' veterans will be working on shows that we'll see next season. 'Lost' writer Elizabeth Sarnoff is another of 'Alcatraz's' executive producers, and, as previously noted, Jorge Garcia is in the cast. Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, a writing team that worked on the ABC island drama, are the creators of ABC's 'Once Upon a Time.' Henry Ian Cusick (a.k.a. 'Lost's' Desmond Hume) has a supporting role in Shonda Rhimes' 'Scandal,' Nestor Carbonell (Richard Alpert) has a supporting role on 'Ringer,' and Michael Emerson (Ben Linus) will be back this fall on CBS' 'Person of Interest,' as a billionaire fighting crime. Abrams is an executive producer of that show as well. (Sadly, Terry O'Quinn isn't in any of the shows announced for next season, but if any of them need an enigmatic man played by a master actor, 'Lost's' Locke is available.)

The continued nerdification of Friday nights.
Now that NBC has moved 'Chuck' from its longtime Monday slot, cult TV fans across America will be giving their DVRs a workout on Fridays. In all likelihood, 'Supernatural' will continue to air that night (the CW won't announce its schedule until Thursday, but I'm betting 'Supernatural' will stay in that slot), and 'Fringe' and 'Chuck' will take up residence there as well come fall. The newcomer on the night will be 'Grimm,' an NBC show co-created by 'Angel' veteran David Greenwalt that will attempt to meld the genres of storybook fantasy and police procedural. If the CW announces later this week that its new thriller, 'Ringer,' which stars Sarah Michelle Gellar of 'Buffy' fame, is going to air on Friday night, the nerd nation might just melt down completely. (Having said that, 'Ringer' is a high-profile project and might not air that night -- we'll have to see what the CW says on Thursday.)


The Top 6 Bad Things about the Next Season of Television

We'll have to wait until mid-season for some returning shows and some intriguing newcomers.
Not only is a returning favorite, 'Cougar Town,' benched for the first few months of the fall season, some of the more intriguing new shows of the season -- such as 'Good Christian Belles' and 'Alcatraz' -- won't arrive until early next year. Same goes for 'Smash,' a Broadway-set show that somewhat resembles 'Glee.'

A few good shows went by the wayside.
We have a list here of all the network shows that have been canceled, and looking over this roster, I can honestly say, I'm not shedding a tear for most of these goners. Regarding new-ish shows that didn't make it, 'The Chicago Code' did have a good deal of potential and it would have been nice to see that potential more fully realized in a second season. And I know this opinion will invite scads of mockery, but I actually kind of liked 'Breaking In' and if Fox un-cancels it, as has been rumored, I wouldn't be opposed to watching it again.

How do you try to give viewers something different? Reboots!
In my head, I'm not calling 'Prime Suspect' by that name; I'm calling it 'The Maria Bello Detective Show.' To think of it as 'Prime Suspect' is to mentally compare this show to the Helen Mirren original, which is one of the best things that British television has ever produced. In my mind, it's best to think of this NBC show as an entirely different beast with a eerily similar name. Other remakes aren't quite as ambitious, yet the networks continue to go where 'Bionic Woman' and 'Knight Rider' went in the past. ABC is bringing 'Charlie's Angels' back, not that anyone was clamoring for it, and at mid-season, Fox will debut an animated version of 'Napoleon Dynamite.' (At least we dodged one Spandex-clad bullet -- the remake of 'Wonder Woman' did not get picked up. Whew.)

How do you try to give viewers something different? Copycat shows!
Four years after AMC's 'Mad Men' debuts, we'll be blessed with the ABC stewardess drama 'Pan Am' and NBC's 'The Playboy Club,' both of which are set in the swinging '60s. It's not encouraging that 'The Playboy Club's' protagonist looks and sounds like a watered-down Don Draper, and it's even less encouraging that the show felt compelled to shoehorn a murder mystery into its pilot. As for 'Terra Nova,' it's pretty much a retread of 'Jurassic Park,' but on the small screen, and 'Smash' is going to have to endure a lot of 'Glee' comparisons, but if it can be more consistently focused in its storytelling than the Fox show, it may well be doing the world a solid.

Some of the pilots look pretty bad.
Why is it always the comedies that manage to kill the last shreds of my soul? Even boiled down to short clips, I found it hard to get through ABC's trio of moronic man-centered comedies, 'Man Up,' 'Work It' and 'Last Man Standing.' (Note to ABC about that last one: NBC has been trying to make it 1997 through science or magic for some time now, and guess what -- it doesn't work!) It's as if someone at ABC still thinks it's 1985 and that comedies centered on the idea that the menfolk jus' don't unnerstand the wimmenfolk are all the rage. They are not. Having said that, as I noted, there are a lot of lady-centered comedies this year too -- let's not leave the gals off the "not promising" list. Fox's 'I Hate My Teenage Daughter' looks shrill and unwatchable, and NBC's 'Whitney' also looks pretty unpleasant.

ABC has committed a crime against God, humankind and Tom Hanks. This shall not stand!
Another disclaimer: I could well be wrong about all of these shows, and they could be wonderful. Except 'Work It,' which has two guys going undercover as female pharmaceutical reps. Hilarity ensues. No, wait. The worst sitcom of the year and possibly the decade ensues. ABC, why are you putting this flaming pile of dog poo on our television screens? Someone actually thought it was a good idea to make the 'Work It' pilot, let alone pick it up to series? It's appallingly unfunny and it's a direct ripoff of a dated but lovable comedy 'Bosom Buddies,' which was Hanks' first big success. Honestly. ABC president Paul Lee's tenure is not off to a promising start if that's the kind of decision-making that's occurring on his watch.

Tell us: Which new fall shows are you looking forward to the most?

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