BLUE MAG

I’ve never been much of a Union guy, and most of the time I view striking workers cynically. It’s not my most well-thought out opinion, it’s just one of those instinctual things. But I can get behind a WGA strike, if it means a slight chance of seeing “Battlestar Galactica” or “Project Runway” on NBC. Granted, since “BSG” is going away next year it would be more selfish than anything. Plus, it’s probably more likely that a strike would mean more reality game shows.

Read about the strike and its Canadian and cable implications in Variety here.

Reader Uncle Meatball tipped me off to this slick video preview of all the Fall TV shows. Here are some random observations from my viewing:

One to look out for might be “The Big Bang Theory.” I think the dude from “Roseanne” might actually work as a geek straight man. If it is even just OK, it’ll be between “How I Met Your Mother” and “New Adventures of Old Christine” which are the 2 best stock sitcoms on TV and 2 of the funniest shows period. The clip is just OK though….

If Ray Wise as the Devil is half as creepy as Ray Wise as Bob that could help “Reaper.” I don’t really understand what is going on from the clip, it’s way too choppy….

The “Chuck” clip has some real laughs. That could be a lot of fun. “Life” looks boring but I like the guy from “Band of Brothers.”

The Amy Sherman-Palladino show with Parker Posey is a sitcom? I don’t know if that will work. How is the laugh track supposed to do its thing when the characters don’t stop talking?

Thoughts from anybody else? That are not about Chris Brown?

Here is the official description of ABC’s fall show “Dirty Sexy Money”

Power, privilege and family money are a volatile cocktail thrust on an idealistic lawyer when he inherits the job of tending to the legal (and sometimes illegal) needs of the absurdly wealthy Darlings of New York City. Peter Krause, Donald Sutherland, Jill Clayburgh and William Baldwin star in this younger, sexier, redheaded stepchild of Dallas and Dynasty.

It stars Peter Krause as the lawyer who takes over the family trust. William Baldwin plays a Senator. The youngest sibling is a male, and appears to be sort of a fuckup. The patriarch is played by a grizzled movie actor. The show is exec produced by Greg Berlanti.

In other words, a former “Six Feet Under” cast member is at the reins, one character is a Senator/Presidential candidate, one character is played by one of a famous pair of actor brothers, and it is exec-produced by Greg Berlanti. There are so many points where this is a ripoff of “Brothers and Sisters” that I almost don’t know where to start.

I know I’m not the first person to point this out, but this is where TV programming goes wrong. They take a hit show, and with all the marketing and focus grouping they do they still can’t figure out that what makes it a hit is that it is fresh and unique. See Lost, 24, even Brothers and Sisters. So they decide to copy it, instead of finding something else unique.

Where’s that book I was reading?…

CBS has yet to officially announce its fall lineup, but the LA Times is reporting that “How I Met Your Mother” is safe. That is excellent news.

It must be, or it couldn’t have been canceled today as NBC announced its new fall lineup. “Bionic Woman” remake, a “Sex and the City” remake, several shows featuring — are you sitting down? — supernatural twists, and “Heroes: Origins.” The best idea ever? I’m pretty sure it sounds rad…

The spinoff will introduce a new character each week, and viewers will select which one stays for the following season.

In what will probably end up as the best news of the week — especially after reading that CW has not booked the cast of “Veronica Mars” in to NYC for the upfront — NBC made right by Texas and picked up “Friday Night Lights,” moving it to … Friday nights. Will that be better? Maybe it will.

Continue reading Breaking NBC upfront news: “Crossing Jordan” is still on

I have been waiting for this a long time… According to Variety today, HBO Films has greenlight “The Pacific,” a companion miniseries to “Band of Brothers” set in the Pacific theater of WWII. The same crew will be responsible — Senor Spielbergo, Tom Hanks and Graham Yost, but no casting has been announced.

WTF??

As expected, the Peacock (yeah, I wrote that) has grown usable hands and pulled the plug on “Andy Barker, P.I.,” the Andy Richter sitcom. As I sort of meant to more explicitly predict.

I think next time, Andy should play a sidekick or a secondary character, like a Tobias Fünke type. He obviously just doesn’t work as a main man.

We can only hope… via TV Squad, Six Degrees was put on hiatus yet again by ABC. Although I quite enjoyed watching Campbell Scott and Hope Davis on a weekly TV series, this show got worse and worse. I haven’t watched the two new episodes, but my wife watched last week’s and reported that it was bordering on unwatchable.

I always maintained that the “six degrees” concept is what ruined this show. The play and movie “Six Degrees of Separation” (Will Smith’s only good movie?) does deal with lives intersecting in New York, but since it wrapped its story up in one convenient package we understand the significance and we see the intersecting more clearly. “Six Degrees” the show is basically just about a bunch of people becoming “Friends” in New York, been there done that.

I would have watched “Six Degrees: Babel, the TV Show”…

No, I don’t mean that Logan gets homicidally jealous after seeing her with Piz… Kristin Veitch of E! now puts Veronica Mars in the category of “Looking Doomed” for a return in the Fall. I think Kristin Bell probably would want to die if VM gets canceled and part of the reason is the success of its midseason replacement, The Pussycat Dolls: The Search for the Next Doll.

While you’re pondering this, hop on the FREE WALLACE bandwagon…

Ted can’t believe it either

Anna Johns at TV Squad speculates that How I Met Your Mother was the subject of a hint earlier this week by TV Guide’s Michael Ausiello about a CBS comedy being in hot water.

Ausiello points out that the real problem is that nobody in the world considers the show in question as being on the bubble. With 10 million viewers the last few weeks, HIMYM (I love spelling it that way because it looks like one of the ineffable names) seems to be here to stay. It is a fabulous show. It will make you love straight sitcoms again. Neil Patrick Harris’ womanizing Barney character alone is reason to watch. Check it out Monday at 8 p.m. and then sign the petition to save it.