knights of prosperity

ABC unveiled their new Wednesday night schedule yesterday, as Anna reported here. The big news is, of course, Lost moving to 10PM to duck American Idol and Criminal Minds. Gideon wins the Wednesday night slugfest by forfeit, I think. Crazy island adventure aside, aren't you wondering where Day Break went?

When Knights of Prosperity and In Case Of Emergency kick off on January 3rd at 9PM there will still be five more episodes of Brett Hopper's bad day. Could it be that the terrible ratings have finally caught up with the show and ABC is going to quit while they're behind? The other option is moving the show, but at this point I'm not sure the numbers will even allow them to do that.

They could stick a repeat Grey's Anatomy in any of the slots and easily get twice the audience. Added to that, there are still episodes of The Nine and Six Degrees in the can that are just as, if not more, deserving of any open slot. Day Break may be destined for the internet, and a complete series DVD set.

[ via Variety.com ]

If you've ever wondered how the networks manage to trap a team of otherwise intelligent writers in a room for sixteen hours stretches to punch up jokes on some lame sitcom that you can't even bare to watch, the New York Times has your answer. It's the food.

This Sunday's Times magazine had a ton of great comedy revelations in it. There was the How to be Funny compendium put together by sometime Daily Show correspondent John Hodgman with two cents from TV scribe and director Paul Feig and, of course, the comedy writer's snack attack article.

Writers from Knights of Prosperity, Everybody Loves Raymond and How I Met Your Mother all confessed to the terrible eating habits of the writer's room and the accompanying weight gain. How I Met Your Mother's Chris Harris even relayed a story of how the staff of Joey "apparently weighed themselves at the beginning of what turned out to be a grueling season and then again at the end. The net gain was around 125 pounds - more than what their lead actress weighed."

Remember way back in August, when Ugly Betty was moved from Fridays to Thursdays? Even though it was only two months ago, people have already forgotten the names of the two new shows that were displaced by the move. Well, here's a refresher: one of the shows was called Big Day, a serialized comedy that takes an entire season to explore the ins and outs of a young couple's wedding day. According to this press release, the show will finally debut on Tuesday, November 28 at 9. That was the time slot that was reserved for The Knights of Prosperity before ABC decided to delay its premiere until midseason. Considering how little-regarded Big Day show was when ABC sent the pilots out over the summer (Anna said in her preview, "I don't think I laughed at all."), it seems like Knights might end up back in that timeslot sometime around Christmas.

Oh, the other displaced show, Notes from the Underbelly, has yet to be rescheduled. Don't rush with that one either, ABC.

[via The Futon Critic]

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.

I've long had a theory that a poor title for a show can sink it. Not all on it's own mind you. But a crappy title can do enough damage to push a struggling enterprise right into the television dustbin. It's happened before, and I'm sure we'll see it happen again.

So, when I saw one of the upcoming shows for our new fall season move from a great title to a bad one, I thought it was time to make a list. These are the five worst titles for TV shows that came to mind for me. I look forward to seeing suggestions for those that I overlooked. Feel free to submit your favorite bad titles in the comments. And remember, there are no wrong answers, just wrong titles.

Now that NBC and CBS have us all excited about its fall season, it's time to move along to the screener DVDs we've been receiving from ABC. While we're not allowed to technically "review" each new show, we can give you a short preview with our initial thoughts.

For ABC, we're covering: The Knights of Prosperity (formerly Let's Rob...), Help Me Help You, The Nine, Big Day, Notes from the Underbelly, Six Degrees, Ugly Betty, and Men in Trees. (We'll do a Part 2 of the ABC previews once we receive the remaining shows.)