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Posts tagged as “Crazy Rants”

The Guessing Game 2009 – Rundown

Now that I’m (almost) fully caught up on the Upfronts, time to make a rundown of The Guessing Game 2009.

Like I said previously, what was the most surprising for me weren’t the actual pick-ups, but the schedules the networks made for this fall (and mid-season).

First, CBS.
I gladly called 3 of the new shows as well as their new timeslots save for Accidentally on Purpose which goes on Mondays.
The NCIS spin-off is now called NCIS: Los Angeles.
Ground-breaking.
We also have the renewals.
It wasn’t Cold Case that got canned, rather Without a Trace. Meanwhile, Old Christine also got renewed. NBC’s Medium jumped ship, joining the Eye on Fridays.
So that’s 6 out of 9 guesses correct for renewals.

Some previews:

Most of the CBS previews are unfortunately kinda nuked.
Not that much of a loss though.

On to NBC.
Now here starts the weird stuff.
I already posted the various previews for those of you interested.
Again, not a lot of surprises regarding the picks for the new shows, and as for the renewals, well, I’ve been waiting since several months to say that but: I frakkin’ called it for Chuck getting renewed! Hell yes.
As for the rest of the renewals, I think I can get half a point for Medium at least, making 6.5 out of 7 guesses correct.
Now, the strange part comes with the actual schedule.
Trauma is put right after Heroes on Mondays, a slot I would have thought Day One was gonna be put in. But no, Day One is mid-season after the 2010 Olympics and coupled with a 13-episode Chuck season. Perhaps too soon to tell, but I’m thinking neither Heroes not Chuck will live past the 2009-2010 season.
Community has been put on Thursdays whilst 100 Questions was as well pushed for mid-season.

Moving on to ABC and probably the strangest schedule yet and its 11 (!) new shows.
Some of the drama picks surprised me (like Copper), but overall pretty straight-forward choices with V, Happy Town, Cougar Town, and Eastwick.
Regarding the renewals however, there we have a few strange moves, not the least of which were the renewals of Better Off Ted, and also Scrubs, getting a ninth season (a disappointing renewal for me). Castle also gets a second season and keeps its slot, making 2 of my 5 guesses the right ones.
Time to talk a bit about the scheduling.
What the frak?
First, you’re putting what might possibly be your next new SF hit (Flash Forward) before Grey’s Anatomy, on Thursdays, and moving Ugly Betty on Fridays.
Then, you’re trying to imitate NBC’s old Thursdays, but on Wednesdays, putting 4 comedies followed by a drama.
This is madness!

And now, time for FOX.
Pretty surprised AbFab wasn’t taken, as for the rest, we’ll see.
Regarding the renewals, the biggest surprise on my part was Dollhouse, although I guess they succeeded in cutting the budget. The other picks were again somewhat obvious, so that is 6 out of 7 guesses correct.
FOX’s schedule, like the other nets this season is peculiar to say the least.
Dollhouse was obviously put on Fridays, but behind ‘Til Death and Brothers. I don’t really see the point of picking up Brothers and Dollhouse if you’re just gonna throw them out to die.
Another really strange move is not only changing Fringe‘s timeslot, putting it behind Bones, but putting it on Thursdays head-to-head against C.S.I., The Office, and Grey’s Anatomy, making this in my opinion one of the dumbest moves this season.
Human Target on the other hand gets a nice push by being put in mid-season just behind American Idol. I’m not sure though the audience will stay given that Target is sandwiched before and after its run by Glee. And let’s just say I doubt the audience for Glee and Target share much similarities.

Previews as usual:

Brothers

The Cleveland Show

Human Target

Past Life

Sons of Tucson

To sum up:
CBS – 6 out of 9 guesses correct
NBC – 6.5 out of 7 guesses correct
ABC – 2 out 5 guesses correct
FOX – 6 out of 7 guesses correct

All done.
Not bad for a first timer, right?

As for the actual shows, we’ll see this fall how all those crazy moves, pick-ups, and schedules, play out.
It should definitely be an interesting season…

Coming soon to a screen near you

Is it just me or is nothing major going on in H-Wood (other than massive layoffs)?
Well, actually, a couple of other things have been happening lately.

For one, here are two pics from upcoming pilots.
One is for ABC’s Flash-Forward ($7 million budget), the other one is for FOX’s Absolutely Fabulous.

Over here, the Jules Verne Festival in Paris has just announced its last event for the whole 3 days, after a disappointing opening night (a documentary about the moon basically), and both a small Lost and even smaller BSG event, the only night left to reveal was the closing one.
Barely two weeks before this night, they finally reveal that they’re going to honor Gerard Depardieu.
What the frak?
Some people were expecting a Star Trek premiere or something similar (they hyped it as if it was going to be something major), and we get a tribute to Depardieu?
I know he’s a great actor and all that, but, seriously, we’re talking about a festival named Jules Verne.
How does he relate in any possible way to “adventure” or “science-fiction” or “fantasy”?
No wonder they waited until the last minute to reveal what was going to be night about.

The jury is also even more ridiculous than last year.
What a disappointment overall.
I hope we’ll at least get something epic off the BSG/Lost events.

In the meantime, let’s take a quick look at Showtime.
The cable network has passed on The L Word spin-off as well as theMatthew Perry/Peter Tolan comedy, The End of Steve.
Is this a huge mistake? Time will tell.
Steve will however be shopped around to other nets.
I’m expecting Tim Robbins’ Possible Side Effects to be picked up though.

Also, no surprise, AMC has renewed Breaking Bad.

Even Luck

Is it just me or is nothing major happening in el biz?
I mean, besides all the layoffs.

Since I don’t have much to talk about, I’ve decided I’ll blog about a never-ending supply of epicness and failures all-in-one: me!

Wow, I just saw my stats drop by 80% just then.

Anyway, I had these few weeks what some might call bad luck, others good luck.
I call it even.

On the one hand, I had very bad things happening to me, like loosing all my computer data (still no news on when, or even if, I’ll get it back, and for how much).

But on the other, some great stuff is going on.
Next week for instance I’ve arranged an interview (by phone) with Carlton Cuse & Damon Lindelof (mainly for Lostpedia).

I’m also getting my V.I.P. Pass later this month for both the Lost and Battlestar Galactica events over at Paris’ Jules Vernes Festival, with respectively, again Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse for Lost, and James Callis, Mary McDonell, and Jamie Bamber, for the BSG panel.

It’s also a strong possibility that I’m going to Cannes for the Film Festival and the Short Film Corner in May (although the price for an appartment over there during that time is a jaw-dropper, so it’s not yet locked).

Obviously I’ll try to report on all of those events in due time.

In the meantime, I’ll let you go back to your life (I can’t believe you read that post entirely!).