Fall 2005 TV Preview
I grabbed the annual Fall TV Preview from Entertainment Weekly (which I read voraciously and repeatedly like some men read NFL previews) and here’s my preliminary schedule with a couple notes. As usual I want to complain about the idiot programmers at the networks. Give me one good tactician who said “Hit their strong spot.” Especially the “outer networks” like UPN should know better than to put Chris Rock’s new show against “Survivor”, “The OC”, “Alias” and “Smallville”. People will only be watching it in reruns.
Shows in yellow are ones I want to see, but my Tivo can only get two shows at a time, so those may never get seen or possibly downloaded illigally. I figure bootlegging television shws is good punishment for poor programming
| ABC | CBS | NBC | FOX | WB | UPN | |
| Sunday | ||||||
| 7:00 PM | ||||||
| 7:30 PM | KOTH | |||||
| 8:00 PM | The West Wing | Simpsons | ||||
| 8:30 PM | The War at Home | |||||
| 9:00 PM | Family Guy | |||||
| 9:30 PM | ||||||
| Monday | ||||||
| 7:00 PM | Surface | |||||
| 7:30 PM | How I Met Your Mother | Kitchen Confidential | ||||
| 8:00 PM | Prison Break | Just Legal | ||||
| 8:30 PM | ||||||
| 9:00 PM | ||||||
| 9:30 PM | ||||||
| Tuesday | ||||||
| 7:00 PM | The Biggest Loser | Bones | Gilmore Girls | |||
| 7:30 PM | ||||||
| 8:00 PM | Amazing Race | My Name Is Earl | House | Supernatural | ||
| 8:30 PM | ||||||
| 9:00 PM | Boston Legal | |||||
| 9:30 PM | ||||||
| Wednesday | ||||||
| 7:00 PM | The Apprentice: Martha Stewart | |||||
| 7:30 PM | Freddie | |||||
| 8:00 PM | Lost | Related | Veronica Mars | |||
| 8:30 PM | ||||||
| 9:00 PM | Invasion | |||||
| 9:30 PM | ||||||
| Thursday | ||||||
| 7:00 PM | Alias | Survivor | The OC | Smallville | Everybody Hates Chris | |
| 7:30 PM | ||||||
| 8:00 PM | Night Stalker | Reunion | Everwood | |||
| 8:30 PM | Love, Inc. | |||||
| 9:00 PM | ER | |||||
| 9:30 PM | ||||||
| Friday | ||||||
| 7:00 PM | Ghost Whisperer | |||||
| 7:30 PM | Twins | |||||
| 8:00 PM | Threshold | Three Wishes | ||||
| 8:30 PM | ||||||
| 9:00 PM | Numb3rs | |||||
| 9:30 PM | ||||||
- Sunday
- “The War at Home” stars Michael Rapaport. Generally I am over sit-coms as an entertainment form, but his talent makes me want to give it another try.
- Monday
- “How I Met Your Mother” triples up on the ‘my favorite stars who aren’t working enough’ factor with Neil Patrick Harris, Alyson Hannigan and Jason Segel. This presents the most promise of being a true ensemble show ala “Friends”.
- “Kitchen Confidential” stars Bradley Cooper who was awesome in Wedding Crashers and “Alias”, but alas…
- “Surface” has the geek in me intrigued. It’s a fictional science show about finding a new creature in the oceans. (anyone remember that commercial about the coelacanth? Oh! That was funny.)
- “Prison Break” is getting good reviews and may be the new “24”.
- “Just Legal” stars Jay Baruchel and Don Johnson. Yes, it will be bad but I have to try. It’s Don Johnson.
- Tuesday
- “The Biggest Loser” was one of the best new shows last year. Maybe “Bones” won’t be good but I doubt it since David Boreanaz is a hot commodity and I don’t think they’d give him a bad show.
- I may come back to “House” if “Supernatural” sucks too bad(or download it illegaly if I think about it) , but I doubt I will ever get to see Jason Lee in “My Name Is Earl”.
- “Boston Legal” adds Julie Bowen to their cast — you know Carol Vessey! — so I’ll give that another try. (Especially since I finally saw Happy Gilmore and she wore those little lingerie outfits…where was I?)
- Wednesday
- How can I miss Martha Stewart’s version of “The Apprentice”? Have you met my wife? Seriously, Trump is gonna be pissed when he sees the ratings difference. Especially in women…of all ages.
- Unfortunately, “Freddie” is so named because of Freddie Prinze Jr. but it does have Brian Austin Green and Mädchen Amick.
- Yea! “Lost” returns. Boo! More cliffhangers.
- I’ve heard so many good things about “Veronica Mars” that it’s time to give it a try. (It’s a shame I won’t get to see Jennifer Esposito in “Related” since she did so good in Crash.
- Thursday
- “Survivor” is still a great show and while “Smallville” has become almost as unwatchable as “Alias”, I am more invested in the Superman myth. Chris Rock can only save his show if he starts showing up on it instead of just writting for it.
- “Reunion” is a compelling vehicle — covering a year in the life of the characters each episode — so it earns recording time. “Everwood” is “Everwood’. It’s one of the best shows on TV so it gets a record.
- “Night Stalker” is compelling so it’s sad that a moron at ABC put it on Thursday nights.
- “Love, Inc.” may have my girl Busy Philipps kicking Shannen Doherty to the curb for the lead role after the pilot (and Holly Robinson in a secondary role) but it’s not enough to get a spot.
- Friday
- Did you notice that Jennifer Love Hewitt has huge breass? That’s not entirely why I’m watching “Ghost Whisperer”. I just wanted to point it out because all the print photographs I’ve seen for it do the same. It has some good buzz. This is supposed to be the show that “Medium” didn’t accomplish. Write you own joke for that one…and be sure to include Love’s breasts.
- “Twins” features the return (again) of Sara Gilbert to TV. I’m still mad about the nose job, but I’ll watch her show.
- I don’t think I’ll watch “Three Wishes” more than once, but I figure I’m due since I’ve never seen “Home Makeover”…not to mention Amy Grant is still a hottie.
- “Threshold” may be the new “Lost”. We’ll wait and see.
- “Numb3rs” is one of Becky’s guilty favorites because of Rob Morrow and David Krumholtz but I like the respected geek factor.
10 Responses to “Fall 2005 TV Preview”
Comment from etrigan
Time September 13, 2005 at 12:03 am
LOL! It would seem that way. …I did consider taking time off to sort out the new good shows from the bad… Thank science for Tivo — HD Tivo, even more — or I mighthave to quit my job during the fall.
Comment from stavros
Time September 13, 2005 at 9:21 am
I just put together the same thing last week so that I could setup my DVR and config rss-torrent.
Only thing I saw you were missing was whether it was being broadcast in HD and the start dates :)
Shows Network Starts Ends Time Slot HD
24 2006
Alias ABC 29-Sep Thursday 8pm X
Boston Legal ABC 27-Sep Tuesday 10pm X
CSI CBS 22-Sep Thursday 9pm X
CSI: Miami CBS 19-Sep Monday 10pm X
CSI: New York CBS 21-Sep Wednesday 10pm X
ER NBC 22-Sep Thursday 10pm X
Gilmore Girls WB 13-Sep Tuesday 8pm X
Las Vegas NBC 19-Sep Monday 9pm X
Lost ABC 21-Sep Wednesday 9pm X
NCIS CBS 20-Sep Tuesday 8pm X
Numb3rs CBS 23-Sep Friday 10pm X
Surface NBC 19-Sep Monday 8pm
West Wing NBC 25-Sep Sunday 8pm X
Comment from jank
Time September 15, 2005 at 1:07 pm
Just noticed you’ve got the Biggest Loser there. Dug that show, too…
Comment from Anonymous
Time September 15, 2005 at 1:58 pm
Come on, people. These shows stink worse than a bag of old chicken parts that’s been sitting in the sun for a few days. There is nothing on any of the networks even remotely worth watching aside from Arrested Development, Will & Grace (starting to slip) and The Simpsons (starting to regain composure).
P.S. I hate your favorite band
Comment from k-pho
Time September 15, 2005 at 1:59 pm
sorry, that was me just then.
Comment from etrigan
Time September 15, 2005 at 2:15 pm
“Lost”…dude, you are missing out on a cinematic episodic event.
“Gilmore Girls” is the best girlie show ever (but then again, you don’t get Nora Ephron.)
I haven’t watched “Veronica Mars” but they call it the next “Buffy”.
I left “Monk” and “Weeds” off the list because I was only covering “broadcast” but they both are incredible. Tony Shaloub completely brings a fresh take on Columbo, and Mary Louise Parker is a shining angel surrounded by a heavenly host of ghetto pot dealers and hypocritical subrbanites.
I will maybe give you that the rest of it is questionable at times, but we can’t all be erudite hippies. (Amd would you want a world where we were?) I won’t get into why “Arrested Development” is not funny, but now that its the ’00s watching “Will and Grace” doesn’t make you cool with the kids…or the gay folks.
Comment from jank
Time September 15, 2005 at 3:16 pm
Here’s my schedule:
Sunday – “Simpsons”.
Monday – “Arrested Development”. Love the show. Not so much funny as satirical and bitter. Plus, Portia di Rossi is still hot. More so since she plays for the other team…
Tuesday – “Loser” and “Earl” – much of the same reasons as John.
Wed – “Lost” ‘cause it’s freaky and random enough that I think I can jump in in the middle. “Invasion” ‘cause there just aren’t enough aliens on TV
Thursday – Ummmm, nothing really appeals here. I never got “90210”, “Melrose” and still don’t get the “OC”.
Friday – “Battlestar Galactica” True, we’re sticking with broadcast here, but darn, this show is riveting.
Comment from k-pho
Time September 16, 2005 at 8:56 am
RE: Lost: Meh. Tried to watch it for a few episodes, but couldn’t get into it. It started heading into X-Files territory, which for me spells “unsatisfying.” I thought it best to break with it before it ultimately pissed me off.
RE: Gilmore Girls: You can’t possibly be serious. The show where they try to fit in 50,000 cultural references into every 15 seconds of dialogue? NO ONE TALKS LIKE THESE PEOPLE OR FALLS INTO THESE CUTESY-PIE SITUATIONS. At least The O.C. doesn’t try to take itself seriously.
RE: Arrested Development: Easily blows away all these shows as the most entertaining and funny half-hour on network tv. This is why their ratings suck, a sure-fire indication that it is too smart and irreverent for the masses (OK, or maybe its crappy timeslot). I don’t have to defend it, it speaks for itself.
And dude, I believe the preferred nomenclature is erudite, platinum-card-carrying hippy.
Comment from jank
Time September 20, 2005 at 7:03 pm
Hey, I just noticed that the times are all an hour early on your schedule. Is that some kind of 733t trick?
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Comment from WWJL
Time September 12, 2005 at 8:25 pm
Jesus – you really love yourself.
As if anyone cares what gay programming you watch. Its easy to tell you are unemployed.