thenine

Ok, cancelled may be a little strong. Maybe changed to a limited run would be better. I ask because, if you watched Lost last night, you must have caught the Daybreak previews. There was an interesting bit at the end of the first one. "Every question will have an answer. And in 13 weeks, the mystery will be solved." Given the complaints about answers with Lost, and the performance of The Nine, I can understand why the network would want to assure viewers that they are not about to be jerked around and strung along again. But you could also take it that they are going to tell this story in 13 episodes and be done with it, moving on to whatever next season's hot formula is.

That's all just speculation, of course. If it turns out to be the case though, I like it. Some ideas are just not compatible with an open ended, we don't know how long it's going to go, format. There's something to be said for knowing how much story you have to tell, getting to it, and stopping when you're done.

ABC has a bit of a problem. Dancing with the Stars is going to end soon, they are down to the final four now, and with that it will lose two of the top five shows on TV. They've announced their plan for Wednesday. Beginning November 22, the results show will be replaced with a new game show from Endemol USA called Show Me The Money. Contestants will be presented with 13 dancers on stage and each of the dancers will have a scroll. As they answer trivia questions, dollar amounts from the scrolls will be added to or subtracted from their total. The press release also says that the 13 dancers will be ready to break into any style of dance at any time, "while audacious master of ceremonies William Shatner spontaneously boogies with the beauties on stage." Shatner... boogies with the beauties.

Every television season has its trend. After The Cosby Show premiered in 1984 the trend was toward family sitcoms. In the late 90's and the early 21st Century reality shows and nighttime game shows dominated the schedule. Last year, the trend was towards science-fiction and supernatural shows like Surface, Invasion, Threshold and, well, Supernatural.

This year is no exception as the very prominent trend is leaning towards the serial drama or comedy. Now, before you get all defensive I know that the serial has been around since the dawn of television, particularly in the daytime soap operas and previous shows such as Dallas, Dynasty, and Melrose Place. And, I also know that shows like Surface, Invasion, and Threshold, as well as the late-lamented Heist could all be considered serials. But, this year seems different because it looks like a good number of these shows could actually last the whole season and beyond.

This is a bad thing. Would you like to find out why? Then, jump ahead, my doubting friend.

When we all decided to post what we'd be watching this fall, I originally thought my list wouldn't be so lengthy. Boy, was I wrong. How the hell am I supposed to keep up with this schedule? I'd better put some cooling fans on my DVRs, because they're going in overtime.

Sunday
Sunday afternoon football, though since I'm a devoted Patriots fan, it's pretty much the only game I'll turn to. Sunday night: Dexter -- I've caught the first three episodes of this show, and it's GOOD. This is going to be a sure hit. I'll also catch Sopranos and Entourage when they come back and will record Family Guy. I may record Desperate Housewives out of curiosity, since I've watched it since day one, but I'm not the one covering it this season.
A surprisingly busy night.

And now, written and proofread for your enjoyment, a poem on the official start of the 2006 fall television season. Please hold all applause until the end.

Rejoice, rejoice,

the new season's here!

So warm your remotes,

and sit on your rears.

Its been a long summer

with nothing to watch

so we just sat around

scratching our . . . sunburn we got at the beach.

I guess I could just devote my evenings to MyNetworkTV's telenovas but that would be too easy. From the NFL, to New Caprica, Star's Hollow, the Sunset strip, Rockefeller Plaza, and west Baltimore, here's where I expect to park my butt this fall season:

Sunday
5:15 pm (West Coast) Sunday Night Football (NBC). John Madden.

10 pm The Wire (HBO). The best ... blah blah blah, etc. (Actually, I'll most likely catch these earlier in the week On Demand.)

Thank God summer is almost over! Not because it was so hot, or that vacation driving pushed the price of a gallon of gas above three dollars, or that I used my air conditioner so much that the graph of electric usage took up two pages of my monthly bill. No, I'm glad summer is almost over because I'm tired of watching America's Got Talented Dancing With the Stars Who Want to be Supernovas while the Last Comic Stands With The One. In other words, bring on the new television season, dammit! So, without further ado, here are my five fall picks for the 2005-2006 season.

1. More season finales, less series finales: Over the last three seasons a number of good television shows left the airwaves for a life in syndication and DVD box sets. I'm talking about shows like Friends, Frasier, Everybody Loves Raymond, West Wing, Alias, Malcolm in the Middle, Arrested Development, Will & Grace and of course Joey. This left plenty of open slots in network schedules that had to be filled. Sometimes a network like ABC got lucky and hit with the right shows at the right time. Other times you had networks like NBC struggling to find its place after losing many of its most popular shows (and revenue generators). Hopefully with this season things will calm down a bit. We know that The Sopranos is definitely leaving this season, and shows like 7th Heaven, The Shield and Gilmore Girls may hang it up come April or May, but I hope that's all the attrition we'll see.

Man, I have to limit myself to only five things I'm looking forward to for the fall TV season? What in the hell was I thinking? Well, at least it doesn't stop you readers from letting us know what your picks are, so sound off!

Anyway, here's my short list:

1) Veronica Mars season three -- I've been completely hooked on this show ever since I did my quick reviews of season one last year. The writing has only gotten better with each episode, and I'm sure the new season will be no different in that respect. What will be different, though, is how the mysteries are solved throughout the season. Instead of one or two "big bad" mysteries that wrap up in the final two episodes, the season will basically be in three chunks, each chunk having a big mystery solved. I'm nervous while at the same time excited to see how it plays out. Plus, I'm once again not having to decide between watching this show live or ...

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.)