LITTLE ROCK — The new fall season brings back a boatload of fan favorites today and Friday. Then Sunday debuts the new Fox animated lineup and several more stalwarts. Then you can catch your breath.
We’ll concentrate on today’s and Friday’s new and returning series. The new ones are in boldface.
Today:
7 p.m. - My Generation (ABC); Bones (Fox); Community (NBC); Big Bang Theory (CBS).
7:30 p.m. - 30 Rock (NBC); $#*! My Dad Says (CBS).
8 p.m. - Fringe (Fox); Grey’s Anatomy (ABC); The Office (NBC); CSI (CBS).
8:30 p.m. - Outsourced (NBC).
9 p.m. - Private Practice (ABC); The Mentalist (CBS).
Friday:
7 p.m. - Smallville (The CW); Medium (CBS).
8 p.m. - The Good Guys (Fox); Supernatural (The CW); Dateline (NBC); CSI: NY (CBS).
9 p.m. - 20/20 (ABC); Blue Bloods (CBS).
Here’s a look at the two comedies and two dramasdebuting in the next couple of days.
My Generation: This drama is another of those faux documentary programs. A film crew is revisiting several members of a fictional Austin, Texas, high school class 10 years after filming their hopes and dreams for the future as they graduated.
Naturally, we have the overachiever, the punk, the brainiac, the popular couple, the rich kid and other stereotypes. The cast includes a gaggle of young actors you probably never heard of.
Life stuff has happened to the ol’ gang over the past decade, but will you care? I didn’t find any of the characters compelling. Maybe it’ll grow on me if given time. This is a viciously competitive TV night, however, and ABC might see fit to pull theplug before Thanksgiving.
$#*! My Dad Says: Let’s forget the controversy over the stupid title. The title is insipid, but that’s what the Twitter feed was called.
That’s right. This is the first TV sitcom based on aTwitter feed and the ensuing book. It’s proof that TV isn’t ready for such a crossover.
The comedic talents of William Shatner are wasted in this ill-conceived offering about a crotchety geezer who incessantly hectorshis family in particular and spews vitriol to the world in general. It gets old in a hurry.
MadTV veterans Will Sasso and Nicole Sullivan are also on board this train wreck. The only question is how fast can CBS ready a replacement.
Outsourced: NBC has scheduled this new sitcom to follow The Office in hopes viewers stick around and sample the series. Viewers will be disappointed.
The show revolves around the misadventures of a salesman (Ben Rappaport) for a Kansas-based novelty company (whoopee cushions, foam fingers) when he gets shipped to India to manage the company’s new outsourced call center.
Yeah, I roll with laughter and giggle with glee every time I call an American company’s help line and get an unintelligible Indian accent. Nothing more hilarious.
Some will find the show’s racial humor offputting. I found it worse - borderline tedious. Still, it’s better than $#*!.
Note: Parks & Recreation returns at midseason.
Maybe before.
Blue Bloods: CBS has assembled an impressive cast and solid writing in this multi-generational tale of a New York family working in law enforcement.
Mustache icon Tom Selleck portrays NYPD Chief Frank Reagan. He has two sons on the force. The older (Donnie Wahlberg) is a loose cannon detective, and the younger (Will Estes) is a rookie.
The daughter (Bridget Moynahan) went to law school and is now an assistant district attorney.
Blue Bloods heads a lot of TV writers’ best-new-drama lists. It’s a bit earnest and self-absorbed for my taste, so ABC’s No Ordinary Family tops my roster.
But this series may stand out in a TV field up to its eyeballs in police procedural shows. One reason is that it’s actually more about family than solving crime.
One bad sign - Friday night is the black hole of TV programming. Nobody is ever happy about being scheduled on a Friday.
The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. E-mail:
Weekend, Pages 32 on 09/23/2010