2012-13 TV Schedule
 

The network schedules are starting to take shape with up fronts arriving ... and I've come to the conclusion that NBC has just finally given up. Among the new shows:

* The New Normal: It's a "post-modern family" -- that's how NBC is promoting it. "Two gay dads and a baby mama create a totally new kind of family comedy." Oh dear lord.

* Go On: "An offbeat comedy about a cocky sportscaster dealing with his issues." Since Chandler Bing running a late night variety show and a municipal arena didn't work, let's make him a sportscaster!

* Animal Practice: "A veterinarian's office comedy with plenty of horsing around." Yes, it stars an ape. It's Mr. Smith and Manimal in one craptacular show.

* Guys with Kids: "Can new dads stay cool dudes? This new comedy is going to find out. Totally Dadass!"

* Revolution: "After 15 years of darkness, an unlikely group sets out to save the world." The pitch: Lost following a power outage!

* Chicago Fire: "America's everyday heroes face life and death in this thrilling drama." I'll be calling it Law & Order: Fire Department.

If you're wondering why NBC loaded up with some reality shows and short-season orders of Community and Parenthood, it's because they have 13 more "upcoming" shows tabbed for replacing bombs and midseason debuts. There's "Surprise with Jenny McCarthy" and "Howie Mandel's White Elephant where -- get this -- Howie hosts a game show based on the white elephant party game. "Crossbones" will test America's love of pirates, and "1600 Penn" will test the waters to see if America is ready for another White House sitcom.

Even when NBC seems to stumble on a potential winning formula, they find a way to piss on it. They have picked up "Hannibal" about early days of Hannibal Lecter from Bryan Fuller (Pushing Daisies and Heroes). But while they have picked up the show and given it a 13-episode order -- THEY HAVE NOT EVEN CAST HANNIBAL LECTER YET.

I think they need to quit while they are behind.

I am going to hold of on judging the sitcoms until I have seen a few episodes, as they are notoriously hard to gauge based on a short trailer and a brief description.

The "Guys with Kids" trailer looks horrible though.

I thought Hannibal was going to be a Hannibal Burress show.

Whitney to Friday night at 8pm is probably better than the show getting cancelled. Pretty funny stuff.

Are any if these shows the Sarah Silverman sitcom?

Some of these sound like they were created by a sitcom generator.

I'd rather they green light this one I just generated on www.fal.net/html/sitcom

Almost Full

Crusty, yet lovable ex-bank robbers and their sassy caregiver in the heart of Staten Island, who are obsessed with rescuing stray dogs from the animal shelter, find politics and sex don't mix.

I read that last line as "police dogs and sex don't mix". It's true, they don't.

Don't forget that they had a blossoming hit with The Voice, screwed it up for its second season, and then announced they would do 2 seasons a year, potentially with a second set of judges.

Two nights of the Voice sounds like an awesome idea. I can't get enough of these shows about talented amateur's who deserve a shot. I love me some karaoke.

:roll

NBC didn't pick it up after the bidding war, making you wonder if it was that bad or that good. If NBC passed on it, I assume it's great.

Revolution actually looks pretty cool. Heck J.J. Abrams and Jon Favreau are behind it!

NBC's scedule this year felt like a Pirates season. "We have all the depth". Then Prime Suspect bombs. The Yankees pay more than enough to make the Firm feasible. Let's hope Gerrit Cole isn't Awake.

Once I learned that "Parks and Recreation" was renewed for a full season, I didn't care too much about the rest. I will watch the last 13 episodes of "30 Rock." I will still record "Community", "Modern Family" and "Happy Endings". But that's pretty much it in terms of shows I watch on the traditional networks.

I may give that "Revolution" show a shot, but, so far, all that have tried be "Lost" have sucked.

Found this list. Most not surprising, a few were guilty pleasures I enjoyed. Terra Nova, breaking in and Pan AM. I've fallen of House a bit but always enjoyed it. Without spoiling to must were they given a chance for a proper ending?


Cancelled Television Programs 2012Alcatraz (Fox)
Allen Gregory (Fox)
Are You There, Chelsea? (NBC)
Awake (NBC)
Best Friends Forever (NBC)
Bent (NBC)
Breaking In (Fox)
Charlie’s Angels (ABC)
Chuck (NBC)
CSI: Miami (CBS)
Desperate Housewives (ABC)
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (ABC)
The Finder (Fox)
The Firm (NBC)
Free Agents (NBC)
GCB (ABC)
A Gifted Man (CBS)
H8R (CW)
Harry’s Law (NBC)
House (Fox)
I Hate My Teenage Daughter (Fox)
Man Up! (ABC)
Missing (ABC)
Napoleon Dynamite (Fox)
NYC 22 (CBS)
One Tree Hill (CW)
Pan Am (ABC)
The Playboy Club (NBC)
Prime Suspect (NBC)
Remodeled (CW)
Ringer (CW)
The River (ABC)
Rob (CBS)
The Secret Circle (CW)
Terra Nova (Fox)
Unforgettable (CBS)
Work It (ABC)

This season of House has been awful. That said, some of the House/Wilson moments lately have been outstanding. It's setup to be a very dark finale and I'm hopeful it will be. It ultimately needs to be to stay true to the show.

NBC is to major television networks what the Cleveland Indians are to Major League.

Except there is no happy ending.

I wonder what it says about me that of the marjor television networks I watch more NBC shows (3) than the other four combined (2). In fact, I don't watch anything on either CBS or FOX.

It probably says that I am pretty cool and have awesome taste, which would be accurate. :cool:

I don't watch a single show on any of the major networks.

That makes me pretentious.

I'd say that makes you a possessor of less than mainstream taste. Sometimes better, sometimes worse, but rarely mainstream.

(I'm trying to remember the last Big Four network show I actually watched even semi-regularly first run)

Kinda surprised House was cancelled, but it's been on for awhile, so not that much.

Actually liked Unforgettable, so I'm disappointed that's cancelled. One of the the few shows I record.

What happened to SyFy and their shows? Seems like the only thing on these days is Ghost Hunters or a spin-off of it.

The only tv shows I watch with regularity, meaning I have to catch new episodes are:

Game of Thrones, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, The Ricky Gervais Show, Life's Too Short and Boardwalk Empire.

I suppose I'm an AMC/HBO man.

I liked Unforgettable, but I think that most of the cast needed replaced. The male lead didn't really work and the supporting players were kind of meh(other than Herc). Ah well, I still liked the central idea and I think sine cable network could make the premise work.

This is the first time I can remember no shows I watched were canceled (except for Chuck, but I'm over a season behind that anyway).

I value the opinions of people who say there is nothing good on network TV somewhere below the opinions of Cub fans.

Maybe "nothing interesting" is more apt than "nothing good".

I mean I'm sure there's some good, I dunno, let's go with abstract art (for sake of an example) out there but it interests me not in the slightest.

edit to add: That said, there's a handful of the cop procedurals that I've seen virtually every episode of at some point ... just not on the network's timetable. I've binged them on late night cable repeats with an ep (or 2 or 3) at a time.

I make my wife turn it off whenever it happens to come on. It's been unbearable, even with it on mute and Odette on screen.

I really don't get the House hate other than perhaps people just threw up their arms when he started cutting out his own tumors and shit, which I wouldn't blame them for at all. But if you take away the goofy patient scenarios, I think the main characters on the show and their interactions have been pretty damn good this season. I never got the hate for the Asian girl at all. But yes, I think the finale needs to be dark. There shouldn't be any redemption for House.

Matthew Perry is getting another chance to suck?

Pretty much this, except I don't watch P&R. I also record HIMYM, Cougar Town (which is amazing - seriously, ignore the name) and Don't Trust the B in Apartment 23, which is promising. I also record the Office because I'm a masochist.

Dude, you're missing the best one!!

I thought he was good in Studio 60 and basically carried the show because the rest of the cast was not.

SI

I also thought Perry was good in Mr. Sunshine.

I finally caught up with the last half dozen episodes or so of House just to be ready for the finale.

I think there are many arguable "jump the shark" moments in House. I think the show was at its best the first three seasons, plateaued in season four, then started a slow decline in season five than picked up steam each season. I really had to sludge through the middle of this season just to make it to the finale.

But the last few episodes have been strong. If the finale isn't dark, you know fans will be upset.

Here's the strange thing ... I think all of these things are true.

Matthew Perry is a very likable actor. He was great in Studio 60 and Mr. Sunshine. I still think Studio 60 was better than most people did, but I understand the criticisms. But the thing is that Chandler Bing, Matt Albie and Ben Donovan are all pretty much the same character in different settings.

I'm surprised he's getting another vehicle too. I think he's better off finding a project where he doesn't have to carry the show.

I loved the first three seasons. The fourth season with the competition between all the applicants reality show style wore me down but I stuck it out through that season, early in season 5 it seemed like it was going to have to keep growing even more absurd and I gave up on it.

SyFy still has all their shows, Eureka is finishing it's last season this year, Warehouse 13 was picked up for 20, Alphas is doing 13, and Haven is doing 13 but those are just the ones I watch).

I actually enjoyed Mr. Sunshine.

I stopped watching most of their stuff since they changed to Siffy.

The name may have changed the shows I mentioned are all great in their own way, IMO.

Is that the same channel that has made for TV movies like Giant Aligator-Snake Thing etc? I might be getting it mixed up with another channel.

Yes, it is. For whatever reason there are people that enjoy the "creature feature" type movies, I don't but if I hated a network just because of the other crap they had on I would never watch Fringe or Community.

True, true. I'm looking through a list of their past shows now. Def some I use to watch all the time. Looks like something happened 6-7 years ago to that network where they just infused a ton of cheese and corn into everything. Stuff like Ghost Hunters, Piraniconda and Arachnaquake makes me not take the network seriously. But I still watch Being Human and Alphas.

Whatever happened to Andromeda, Farscape, MST, Outer Limits, Sliders, Stargate, stuff like that?

Agreed, if you want someone insight on the network check out this Ask me Anything on Reddit one of their higher ups did last year, interesting reading.

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comment..._syfy_channel/

It talks about some of the shows you just mentioned.

Great read, thanks. Pretty much sums it up: SyFy is just not a channel aimed towards viewers like me, therefore I don't really watch it. So when something advertises it's on Siffy, I'm guaranteed not to make any effort to DVR it. I only caught Alphas and Being Human because my wife watched them.

Ghost Hunters, while it gets repetitive if you keep watching, is pretty interesting, IMO. I wouldn't lump it in with the creature flicks or disaster flicks they do.

I don't even remotely believe in ghosts or the supernatural, so it's one of those shows that grate my nerves. Badly.

Same here, although I do think those things can exist the show just grates my nerves because it's so fake.

Mediocre ratings mostly.

I'm pretty sure that their movies aren't supposed to be taken seriously. Same could be said for most of television actually, now that I think about it.

"Last Resort" looks awesome. Count me the hell in.

I'll take "Revolution" too although I'm sure it won't survive. Seems like a takeoff of the S.M. Stirling "Emberverse" / Dies the Fire universe, which I love.

I heard today that both Dane Cook and Matthew Perry are playing talk radio hosts. NBC must be fracking the Fraiser well.

Revolution sounds quite tempting. But it's NBC, which gives high-concept stuff exactly three weeks to build an audience before pulling the rug out. So I'll be disciplined this fall and wait until it's on the 2013-14 schedule before taking a look. I liked Studio 60 and Journeyman, and I thought even the Playboy Club had some promise.

The only new network shows I'm thinking of giving a chance when the season starts are Last Resort (ABC) and Vegas (CBS).