Television returns with new fall line-up
Patrick White/HC Media/Collegian
September 25, 2008
Who shot Nathan Petrelli? Will Derek commit to Meredith? Will Leonard and Penny’s date go well? What will the Philly gang do next? Finally the age old question, whose baby is it? All these questions and more have or will be answered…eventually.
The fall television season kicks into gear with new shows like J.J. Abrams-produced “Fringe” and returning favorites like “Heroes” and “Dancing with the Stars.”
Many shows return and some unlucky ones have been cancelled like “Cashmere Mafia,” “Journeyman,” “Bionic Woman,” “Shark,” “K-Ville,” “Dirt,” “The Dead Zone,” etc.
However many are returning this fall with others coming shortly after in the winter months.
Some of the favorites people might be anticipating are “Dancing with the Stars,” “Pushing Daisies,” “Ugly Betty,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Heroes,” “Chuck,” “The Office,” “30 Rock,” “Family Guy,” “American Dad,” “The Simpsons,” “Big Bang Theory,” “CSI,” “Two and a Half Men,” “Prison Break,” “House,” “Gossip Girl,” “America’s Next Top Model,” and so on. These returning shows will be faced with some new blood as all the networks have one or more shows to fill the spots of their past failures. However, these returning favorites should not be too worried about their new competition, but rather working out the kinks caused by an event in Fall and Winter months.
The problem people are seeing is that there are so many unanswered questions due to shortening of plots and rewrites due to the writers strike. The strike took place last year into early this year. The writer’s strike is said to have hurt the advancement of episodes from network to network.
The strike began Nov. 5, 2007, and ended on Feb. 12, 2008. The strike was against Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers over DVD residuals, union jurisdiction over animation, reality program writers, and compensation for new media. The strike was eventually resolved, but the damage had been done. The shows were losing their fan bases and reruns were just getting old.
The hopes of the television companies are to reclaim the faith of their fans and create shows of interest to the public. Some of the television studios are going so far as to have longer premiere events for their shows. One example of this would be the “Heroes” premiere which was a 3-hour- event. This event included a red carpet premiere of the show’s third season and then afterwards showed two of the new season episodes. This premiere event was meant to create interest in a show that had lost its fans due to crowded plots and lack of direction.
“Fringe” the new Fox drama also had a premiere of its own with a 90-minute first episode.
Another television event that took place last week was The 60th Primetime Emmy Awards, which played on Sunday. The award show did well with about 12.2 million viewers. This latest award show was filled with surprises and upsets from “30 Rock” to “Mad Men.”
The top prizes went to the NBC show “30 Rock,” but not without some competition on their heels. The story at the Emmy’s is not about the NBC winner, rather the power that cable TV has shown lately in the awards market.
In fact of the 28 awards given this Emmy season, 17 of those awards went to cable shows. Cable television is gaining more and more support from fans and critics. HBO took 10 of the 17 awards; AMC took 3, while both FX and Comedy Central took 2 awards.
The national networks faired well too, but no show faired as well as NBC’s Tina Fey driven “30 Rock.” The NBC comedy came out of the ceremony with four awards, two of which went to Fey for writing and acting, the third to Alec Baldwin for acting, and finally the Best Comedy Series award went to “30 Rock.”
Some of the surprises included the lack of awards for the AMC drama “Mad Men” which had the most nominations. The other surprise was Bryan Cranston’s Best Actor win as he faced off with fellow AMC star Jon Hamm of “Mad Men.”
After the latest awards for the last season of television, maybe some of those new shows and troopers of the past will make a comeback. Perhaps we might even see a national network sweep for next year’s awards. Until then just slump into a comfy couch and snack on some chips, and feel the warmth of that remote control in your hand.
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