Past experience has shown that it's wise to write down the new Fox schedule in pencil. There's always a change or two (or three) by the time the fall rolls around. But stability was the message for the 2007-08 season: Prison Break, 24, House, Bones, American Idol, Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? and the Sunday animation block will all return in their same time periods next season. Sure, Fox always falters when the season begins, but the network is about to finish No. 1 in viewers aged 18-49 for the third season in a row.As far as new shows, Fox is trying to regain the edge it seemed to abandon in this past season's development (which was dismal). The most promising attempt is on Monday at 9 pm with K-Ville, starring Anthony Anderson and Cole Hauser as two cops in post-Katrina New Orleans. We were puzzled when a reporter asked entertainment president Peter Liguori if doing such a show was exploiting a disaster. What should a contemporary show filmed in New Orleans be about? Mardi ...
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Anthony Anderson in K-ville by Rebecca Brenneman/Fox
3:50: Fox upfront. The words still send shivers down my spine. As you recall, the network's presentation last year was widely considered to be the single most grueling upfront in the history of upfrontmanship. The post-traumatic stress still hasn't worn off.3:51: Good news. Fox has clearly learned from their mistakes. In stark contrast to last year, the check-in process was easy-breezy. Even better, the air conditioning is working! Now if we can wrap this thing up in under two hours, almost all will be forgiven.4:01: I'm in complete denial about the VM thing, BTW. Just thought I'd share. Ooooh, the show is starting... with a 24 parody!4:05: Jack Bauer urges Fox president Peter Liguori to keep this year's presentation under an hour! LOL!4:06: They're bringing all their stars out onstage. Fox always has a good talent turnout at these things. 4:08: Well, most years they have a good turnout. The only Prison Breaker in attendance is Sucre (Amaury Nolasco)!4:09: No Kiefer Sutherland, but ...
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The new dramas premiering this fall are K-Ville, starring Anthony Anderson and Cole Hauser as police officers in post-Katrina New Orleans; and New Amsterdam, the first American television project from Oscar-nominated director/producer Lasse Hallström, featuring newcomer Nikolaj Coster Waldau as a unique New York City homicide detective.The new comedy slated for fall is Back to You, from executive producers Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd. Set at a TV news station in Pittsburgh, the sitcom stars Emmy Award-winners Patricia Heaton and Kelsey Grammer, and is directed by James Burrows.The new unscripted series that will premiere this fall include The Search for the Next Great American Band(working title), a reality competition from the producers of American Idol, which will do for undiscovered groups what Idol has done for singers. From the producers of Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County, Nashville (working title) is an unscripted docu-soap featuring a group of ambitious you...
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Fox's pickups for the fall include the Terminator-inspired, sci-fi The Sarah Connor Chronicles; K-Ville (concerning cops in post-Katrina N.O.); and New Amsterdam (about an immortal homicide detective), says the Hollywood Reporter. Comedy-wise, Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton's Back to You (FKA Action News) has been officially ordered to series, as have Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino's The Return of Jezebel James (starring Parker Posey) and The Rules of Starting Over (courtesy of the Farrelly Brothers).FALL TV UPDATE: The fates of Law & Order and CI decided!A new TVGuide.com blog — "First Look: The Hottest Fall TV" — starting Monday morning will serve as a veritable clearinghouse for all official upfront announcements/schedules. Bookmark it now!
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Jimmy Smits
The networks are just days away from unveiling their fall lineups. Here's the early word on what new shows to expect.
ABC will try hard to diversify its program lineup with a few dramas that don't fall into the soap category. That's why Marlowe, based on the famous Raymond Chandler detective character, and Pushing Daisies, a quirky supernatural drama about a man whose touch brings people back to life ("with procedural elements" as the pilot's log line says), are on the list of possible pickups. A sitcom based on the Geico cavemen and Sam I Am, starring Christina Applegate, are contenders on the comedy side. And oh, yes — the network also has a new series that will be spun out of a little show called Grey's Anatomy.
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Curtains' David Hyde Pierce at opening night.
Four-time Emmy winner David Hyde Pierce will always be a small-screen star due to his 11-season stint as Frasier's neurotic brother. But these days he's just a Broadway baby hoping for his first Tony nod for his work in the tuner Curtains. Although Pierce began his career on stage, he made his musical debut in the Broadway blockbuster Monty Python's Spamalot in 2005 and fell in love with the genre. Soon he signed up for Curtains, the final musical by John Kander and the late Fred Ebb, the team responsible for Cabaret and Chicago. A
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David Hyde Pierce won't be seen on the tube for a bit — he just began a one-year contract as a singing/dancing gumshoe in the Broadway musical Curtains — but that doesn't mean he won't be heard. Pierce tells TVGuide.com that he and his Frasier frère, Kelsey Grammer, recently reunited to record an upcoming Simpsons episode in which they reprise their roles as sideshow siblings Cecil and Bob. The thesps — with their Frasier father, John Mahoney (now appearing in Broadway's Prelude to a Kiss) — also recently discussed over breakfast potential onstage collaborations. But as they sat there mulling theater projects, Pierce relates, it was clear that to the world at large, they remain high-profile small-screen stars. "We got a few double- and triple-takes from patrons as we ate," Pierce says. "They couldn't quite figure out if they were in reality or television." — Reporting by Raven Snook
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Question: Is their any chance that 'Til Death will be renewed for next season and possibly paired up with the new sitcom starring Patricia Heaton and Kelsey Grammer? Since Heaton and Grammer are so well-known for the characters that they have played on other series, what are the chances that their new show will be successful? Sure, they have name recognition, and perhaps people will tune in to watch the first week. Will those viewers accept the actors in their new roles, or will they expect to see Frasier Crane and Debra Barone?
Answer: Case in point regarding the previous question: 'Til Death is now looking more and more like a contender for renewal, thanks in large part to the ratings spike that occurred once it was scheduled behind the American Idol results show on Wednesdays. And given the fact that 'Til Death is something of a star vehicle, with the Brad Garrett-Joely Fisher squabbling the primary reason to tune in, it probably would be a good fit with the star-driven
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Glenn Close
Question: I am extremely worried about Glenn Close's new FX project. Glenn Close is one of the most exceptional actresses in the industry. Her work on The Shield was nothing short of amazing. I fear, with some justification, that her new show will utterly waste her awesome talents. Look at how powerhouse stars Geena Davis and Donald Sutherland were wasted on Commander in Chief, and how the great James Woods is saddled with a thoroughly mediocre procedural. Not to mention Richard Dreyfuss in the failed Max Bickford show. Given that no famous movie star has ever made a succesful transition to television, do you think Close and FX can break the trend and produce an outstanding program that is worthy of her?
Answer: Never say never. And remember this is FX we're talking about, the very same FX that gave Glenn Close a terrific showcase in The Shield. It makes sense to me that she would want to be in business with this network, and you've got to think that, however this project (a legal
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Peri Gilpin on Medium
Allison Dubois' much-maligned and referenced mother gets a face in tonight's episode of Medium (10 pm/ET on NBC), when Peri Gilpin returns to TV for the first time since her 11-year-run on Frasier.
"I've been kept busy with babies," says Gilpin, the mother of 3-year-old twin girls, Stella and Ava, who were born a month and a half after Frasier ended. "The timing couldn't have been better — to be home with them and raise them and get to know them and not be frazzled and distracted. It's fantastic!"
Still, she's ready to return to TV. Gilpin, 45, says she "laughed out loud" when they told her she'd be playing the mother of Patricia Arquette, who is only seven years you
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