Question: Can you tell me how many shows that premiered last season are still on the air? For example, does Fox have any returning shows that premiered last season that are coming back? If none of them is, then is that because the shows were not given enough time to draw an audience, or because they were scheduled poorly, or because they really did not have a chance because they were just terrible? Can you comment on all the networks using the above criteria? IMO, the problem is that shows are canceled prematurely.
Answer: I'll start with Fox, since that seems to be your primary gripe. Keep in mind its schedule was a mess, with summer shows and reality filler bleeding into fall, and many shows not starting until much later. Of the fall shows, only House, a genuine hit, survived, along with negligible late-season starters American Dad and Stacked (but for how long?). Most of what Fox aired was truly terrible (Jonny Zero, Point Pleasant), so I think Fox is better off this fall with newer,
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Question: I read that Jennifer Tilly has joined the cast of CBS' Out of Practice in the role of Henry Winkler's girlfriend, a part I think is already portrayed in the pilot by another actress. Does this mean the pilot will now be reshot because of the addition? It might not be a bad thing, considering I have yet to read one positive review about it.
Answer: I think the advance word on this show, wherever you're getting it from, is a little too harsh, though I'd agree there's plenty of room for improvement. This isn't pretending to be a groundbreaking comedy, and it's definitely outshone by CBS' other new Monday-night comedy, How I Met Your Mother, but Practice has a terrific cast and a workable premise (a family of squabbling, high-maintenance doctors) that I'm hoping will gel quickly. Anyone who's knocking it should think back to a year ago when CBS inflicted Center of the Universe and Listen Up on us. And remember, you can always go to Yes, Dear and Still Standing on Wednesdays for a
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Wouldn't all you Newhart fans just love a reunion show? Well, sorry, you ain't gettin' one. But how's this? As previously reported by TV Guide Online, Peter Scolari and Julia Duffy — who played lovebirds on Bob Newhart's 1982-90 sitcom — will guest-star on tonight's Listen Up (8:30 pm/ET on CBS). In the episode, entitled "Snub Thy Neighbor," they play Jason Alexander's snooty new next-door neighbors.
"We're very straight-laced, which is funny because that's anything but what we were on Newhart," says Duffy, who played daffy debutante Stephanie to Scolari's yuppie hubby Michael. "On Listen Up, Jason Alexander and his wife are the wacky neighbors trying to ingratiate themselves to us, and we're normal."
Here's the sitch: "Jason meets Peter while he's taking out the garbage, and then he's obsessing over whether to say hel
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