Every fall season has those newbies hoping to stretch their contracts past the pilot episode. Most fail, but there a few that actually make it out of premiere week alive.
BREAKOUT HITS
CBS’s How I Met Your Mother
Narrated by Bob Saget, the comedy How I Met Your Mother flashbacks back to present day to show how Ted (Josh Radnor) fell in love with his wife, Robin (Cobie Smulders). Ted’s best friend, Marshall (Jason Segal) proposes to his long-time girlfriend, Lily (Alyson Hannigan), while Barney (Neil Patrick Harris), a friend with endless, sometimes outrageous opinions, helps Ted out. Airs on CBS, Mondays at 8pm.
UPN’s Everybody Hates Chris
Sure doesn’t look like anyone hates Chris Rock. The comedian/producer’s new show Everybody Hates Chris is a surefire hit, in which Rock narrates how it was to grow up in the ‘80s. Tyler James Williams plays the young Chris Rock and is getting high praises for his role as the future funny man. Airs on UPN, Thursdays at 8pm.
NBC’s My Name Is Earl
Nothing like watching a show about a slacker trying to redeem himself. Jason Lee stars as Earl, whose life has been full of poor choices and mistakes. But after winning a small lottery jackpot–and promptly losing the ticket–he has an epiphany. He vows to right every wrong he has done, and we just howl at all the new mistakes he makes. Airs on NBC, Tuesdays at 9pm.
Fox’ s Prison Break
Talk about brotherly love. Prison Break stars Wentworth Miller as Michael Scofield, a man desperate to get his brother out of jail for a crime he doesn’t believe he has committed. So desperate, Michael actually robs a bank to get himself thrown into the same prison that houses his brother in order to plan an escape. Airs on FOX, Mondays at 9pm.
HBO’s Rome
The tagline for this show could have easily been, “What happens in Rome, stays in Rome.” The HBO series looks at Gaius Julius Caesar (Ciaran Hinds) during his reign over the wealthiest, most powerful city in the world. But rather than just focus on Caesar, the show cleverly spins around two fictional Roman soldiers–Lucius Vorenus (Kevin McKidd) and Titus Pullo (Ray Stevenson)–whose exploits manage to tie into ancient history. The 12-episode series ended in November but we’re hoping HBO brings it back for another season.
RETURNING SHOWS
We were thrilled to see the following returning dramas—and a few choice comedies—step up to the plate this fall, making us really anticipate their return.
ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy
Dr. McDreamy (Patrick Dempsey) and the staff at Seattle Grace hospital are back to show us why we’re thankful we aren’t patients at their hospital. With just about every doctor involved in some type of forbidden relationship with each other, patient care isn’t high on the priority list. But the sex, lies and drama make for great TV. Airs on ABC, Sundays at 10pm.
NBC’s The Office
A midseason replacement last March, we were really glad when the series got picked up for a full load this fall. As an American spin-off of the hit BBC show, The Office is a fly-on-the-wall “docu-reality” parody about modern American office life, delving into the lives of the workers at Dunder Mifflin paper supply company in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Steve Carell as the boss is the highlight. Airs on NBC, Tuesdays at 9:30pm.
ABC’ s Lost
Mysterious hatches, doomsday devices, the Tailies, the Others–the second season to this smash hit, about doomed Oceanic Flight 812 and its survivors trying to make do on a seemingly deserted island with all kinds of strange goings on, is just the kind of fresh television we need. Airs on ABC, Wednesdays at 9pm.
Fox’s House
Not just another one of your garden variety type medical dramas, the villain in this show is a medical malady and the hero is an irreverent, controversial doctor infectious disease specialist (Hugh Laurie) who trusts no one, least of all his patients, but loves the challenges of the medical puzzles he must solve in order to save lives. With the addition of Sela Ward as House’s love interest, the second season has stepped up. Airs on Fox, Tuesdays at 9pm.
HBO’s Entourage
This quirky inside look at the entertainment industry created quite a buzz its first season but really took hold in its second go-around. The show follows the rise of hot, young actor Vince Chase (Adrian Grenier) and his posse, including best friend and manager Eric (Kevin Connelly). Jeremy Piven is a marvel as Vince’s irascible agent, Ari. Although the second season ended earlier this year, HBO is airing encore episodes.
[PAGEBREAK]This television season started out as they all do–a slew of new shows in search of becoming the next Friends, Lost, whatever. But lack of marketing, bad time slots, and just plain bad writing contributed to the demise of many shows. Here’s just a sampling of the worst of 2005 TV.
TV MISSES
NBC’s Freddie
Freddie Prinze Jr. stars as a chef with a ridiculously large apartment who has to contend with his meddling family, wacky girlfriends and his boy toy best friend Brian Austin Green. The question begs: With a so-so career in movies, what makes a TV exec think doing a show around Freddie Prinze Jr. is a good idea? And poor Green. This is his first real gig since Beverly Hills 90210 went off the air. Unfortunately for the two struggling actors the show just isn’t funny.
Fox’s Reunion
Its one thing to cancel a show, but canceling it before we get to see who done it? Now, that’s just plain mean. The shows covers six high school friends, who over a span of 20 years, has to solve the murder of one of them. In just one season, no less, which seems to be an impossible task to begin with. Now, over four million people in America will never get to see who killed Samantha, in what was to be a 22 episode season, now cut to 13.
Fox’s Kitchen Confidential
A chef once at the top of his game, Jack Bourdain, loses his success due to a lifestyle of boozing, womanizing and drugs. Sounds like the makings of a good show, yet even with the likes of Darren Star producing and directing, Kitchen Confidential barely made it through half of its first season.
NBC’s The Apprentice: Martha Stewart
Sixteen men and women are competing to be Martha Stewart’s first apprentice. OK, so it worked for billionaire Donald Trump, but can it work for ex-con Stewart? The answer should have been rather obvious. Unfortunately for this group of creative entrepreneurs, lamp shades and cookies aren’t enough to get Martha out of this lock up. The show will not be returning for a second season.
Fox’s Head Cases
Whether it was a bad show or just had poor marketing, this show’s fate was decided even before the series’ premiere. After just two episodes, the legal drama staring Chris ODonnell and Adam Goldberg was cancelled due to a 50 percent drop in viewers from the first episode to the second. It never had a chance.
RETURNING SHOWS
ABC’s Desperate Housewives
Winning awards doesn’t always help. After such a huge start, Desperate’s second season just isn’t measuring up. I mean, when you need to lock a man in a basement, show ideas must be running thin.
Yet, we fans keep tuning to find out the latest on Wisteria Lane…for now. Hopefully, the show will have something up its sleeve for the next half of the season. If not, we may be adding this one to the misses list next year.
ABC’s Alias
With a new husband, baby, and life, Jennifer Garner will not be returning next season to reprise her role as Sydney Bristow. What does this mean for fans of the show? It will not be returning either. After five years, this undercover agent will not be coming back for more.
NBC’s Joey
Probably the most depressing news to come out of NBC since the last season of Friends, is the possibility of cancelling its spin-off starring Matthew LeBlanc, aka Joey. He was one of the most beloved characters of the now classic sitcom, but Joey by himself isn’t quite the same. It has yet to be cancelled; it’s just on a hiatus until NBC can think of something better to replace it.
