In my ongoing look at the upcoming Fall 2006 season, here is a peek at the new ABC lineup. To my taste, it is a little hit and miss. A few of the new shows seem intriguing, while others turn me off based on the simple descriptions. Well, I shall not bore you anymore, read on!
Sunday
- 7:00: America's Funniest Home Videos (10/1). Is this still on? I was bored after a year of Bob Saget.
- 8:00: Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (9/24). My mom swears by this show, but it is not to my taste. For the fans, it's back in its usual time slot.
- 9:00: Desperate Housewives (9/24). Will this show rebound from what I thought was a lackluster second season? Time will tell. I thought the first season was excellent, but felt the second lost steam pretty quickly. I did not keep up with it in the second half, so I cannot even speculate where it may be going.
- 10:00: Brothers & Sisters (9/24). This new series boasts a good-looking cast including Calista Flockhart, Sally Field, Balthazar Getty, and Ron Rifkin. It follows the drama around a family and their adult children who gather for a birthday, only to have the patriarch die. This leaves the rest of the family to deal with their issues. The cast looks good, but the description does not entice me to want to tune in.
Monday
- 8:00: Wife Swap (9/18). Um, next.
- 9:00: The Bachelor (10/2). Move along, nothing to see here.
- 10:00: What About Brian? (10/9). This series debuted last spring to decent reviews, and will be coming back this fall. The show follows three couples and Brian, a relationship drama that has a group of friends ranging from happily married, to engaged, to the solo Brian. Drama is built from Brian being enamored with his best friend's fiancee.
Tuesday
- 8:00: Dancing with the Stars (9/12). Didn't watch it last time, won't watch it this time.
- 9:00: Knights of Prosperity (10/17). I read the description of this, and I see bad show written all over it. Donal Logue stars as a late night janitor with dreams of opening a bar. To finance the dream he comes up with the idea of robbing Mick Jagger's apartment. Who thinks of this stuff?
- 9:30: Help Me Help You (9/26). A sitcom, marking the return of Ted Danson to television, about a self-help author leading group therapy for a group of messed up people. This sounds vaguely familiar, wasn't there a show like this back in the 1980s?
- 10:00: Boston Legal (9/19). Many people like the series, but I never quite warmed up to it, although I do find the idea of William Shatner as a lawyer to be quite amusing. It returns in its usual time slot.
Wednesday
- 8:00: Dancing with the Stars (9/13). Night two of the popular series. I'll be on another channel.
- 9:00: Lost (10/4). Season two was weaker than season one, but there is still something awfully compelling in this slowly unfolding mystery. I am actually really looking forward to season three, despite my complaints of its story stalling last year.
- 10:00: The Nine (10/4). This new series could be fascinating; I hope it is, as I like the description. It links nine people together through their shared experience during a bank robbery and hostage negotiation that had them together for 52 hours. Something happened there that will keep them connected in some way. Stars include Tim Daly, Chi McBride, and Scott Wolf.
Thursday
- 8:00: Ugly Betty (9/28). I'll keep this short. Think of a TV version of The Devil Wears Prada and you have a good idea of what this is about. I loved the movie, but am not sure I'm interested in a series. The stars are America Ferrara and Eric Mabius.
- 9:00: Grey's Anatomy (9/21). I have really enjoyed the first two seasons of this series, from the cases to the interaction of the cast. It will be interesting to see if the day and time change will affect it.
- 10:00: Six Degrees (9/21). This new series could go either way — it could prove fascinating, or be full of overly plotted coincidences. The series focuses on a chain of six people who are indirectly having an effect on the rest of the people in the chain. Stars include Jay Hernandez, Erika Christensen, and Hope Davis.
Friday
- 8:00: America's Funniest Home Videos Reruns. I'll pass.
- 9:00: MEN IN TREES (9/15). For some reason, the title is all in caps, not sure why. I am not sure that this is a show for me, but it could prove interesting. This new series focuses on a woman author finds out her fiancee was cheating on her, so the wedding is off and she takes up residence in Elmo, Alaska, where she had gone for a speaking engagement. She involves herself in the community as she starts her new book. It stars Anne Heche and Abraham Benrubi.
- 10:00: 20/20 (9/8). The news magazine back in its usual time slot.
Saturday
- 8:00: Saturday Night College Football. This should be self explanatory. Not really a football fan, but I know all of you are out there!
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Article comments
1 - donal logue
i am glad that you prefaced your review of abc's "Knights of Prosperity" with - "I read a description of this show..." and then went on to judge it harshly. It is a hilarious and fantastic show, uniformly praised by critics (Time Magazine singled it out as unmisseable) and as a castmember, the best thing I have ever been part of Including Tao of Steve. Too bad your job doesn't allow you access to the pilots to the fall season shows you are supposed to be giving your readers a heads up on- Don't get me wrong, it's ok to be wrong and forgiveable, especially seeing as you are a critic who is completely uninformed.
2 - Chris Beaumont
Donal,
Is that actually you?
I am willing to give anything a shot, but the concept didn't excite me. I enjoyed your work in the early season's of Grounded for Life, and your brief stint on ER, not to mention Blade.
Yes, I would love to be able to view pilots for all new series to give a better idea, if you could do anything about that..... :)
Until then, I still want to give people an idea of what this fall brings without just regurgitating what is on other sites.
Hopefully I will like it. Keep an eye on this site!
Chris
3 - Mistress La Spliffe
I saw part of the pilot for Knights of Prosperity with a tonne of other pilots for the fall season, and I have to say that if I watched television, I'd watch that show. It looked funnier than any of the other new stuff coming through this fall.
Oh, and the pilot for The Nine featured some of the most wooden acting I've seen since . . . why . . . Party of Five, I believe.
4 - Chris Evans
I'm anxiously awaiting the return of Housewives and Grey's, and I'll see anything with Sally Field in it, so ABC sounds like the network for me this fall.
5 - Sally
Not a good night to have Greys Anatomy on Thursdays, same time slot as ER? What are you thinking? I liked Sunday nights, there never was anything else to watch