LITTLE ROCK — OK. That’s it. Your Fall 2010 TV schedule is finally in place.
Well, almost.
Sometime in late October ABC will deem it the proper time to launch Body of Proof at 9 p.m. on Fridays.
The medical drama stars Dana Delany as a brilliant neurosurgeon whose personal life is in shambles because she’s so dedicated to her work. Then a car crash affects her ability to operate and she finds herself demoted to being a lowly, lowly medical examiner.
Sounds promising. As an added bonus, Jeri Ryan, our favorite Borg from Star Trek: Voyager, is her boss.
Wait a minute. We like Delany. We’ve liked her since China Beach. We even liked her on Desperate Housewives. Now she’s the star of a Friday show?
For years, Friday night has been the elephant graveyard for dying programs and the night when networks dumped their cheesy reality offal just to fill time.
Suddenly, there are viable choices on Friday nights.
Back in the day, boys and girls, Friday night was hip and cool. Yes, I said hip and cool. Friday night was the home ofDallas and The X-Files, The Brady Bunch and Miami Vice. Then VCRs were invented and Fridays turned to sludge.
Did you feel a recent shudder in the Force? If there’s good stuff to watch on Fridays now, when are we expected to catch up with all those programs backed up on the DVR from during the week?
All of a sudden, we have Friday options.
Friday night is now the home of the last season for Smallville and the new home of Supernatural on The CW.
Friday now has the fun Fox shows Human Target and The Good Guys.
On Fridays, CBS now offers CSI: NY and Tom Selleck’s new Blue Bloods. NBC is airing Jimmy Smits in Outlaw.
Why the change? Nielsen Media now counts DVR viewings in their ratings, so it’s not as crucial for survivalthat a program be viewed when it first airs. For the record, 38 percent of TV households now own DVRs. That’s enough to make a difference.
Of course, there is always the possibility - no, the certainty - that the networks will start playing musical chairs with their schedules now that the new season is a couple of weeks old.
Quick trigger fingers will be pulled on those shows the networks feel are hopelessly mired in bad ratings. A promising Friday show could easily find itself on earlier in the week. We’ll keep an eye out.
Tony’s back.
Tony Danza first got our attention as the lovable Tony Banta on Taxi (1978-83). That was a Tuesday night show. Then a Wednesday series, then a Thursday night show again. Then it switched from ABC to NBC and aired on Thursdays, then Saturdays, and finally Wednesdays.
Danza went on to star as assorted lovable Tonys on Who’s the Boss, Hudson Street and The Tony Danza Show.
As with other aging stars long removed from their last hit shows, the 59-year-old Danza now has a reality series. It’s on, you guessed it, Friday night.
Teach: Tony Danza debuts at 9 p.m. on A&E. It follows the adventures of Danza as he taught a 10th-grade English class last year at Philadelphia’s Northeast High School.
His 15-year-old students were born in 1994 and most didn’t have the foggiest idea who he was, although their parents would have known.
The series will look at the challenges Danza faced and the rewards he experienced.
Vince’s back.
Law & Order: Criminal Intent is gearing up for its 10th and final season on USA next year. There will be only eight episodes to wrap things up, but fans will be pleased to learn that former star Vincent D’Onofrio, who left after Season 8, will be back as Detective Robert Goren.
Matt’s back.
Or at least Matt Passmore will be back since A&E has ordered a second season of the criminal procedural series The Glades. The drama (with lots of humor) co-stars Kiele Sanchez and was one of the new favorites at our house.
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Weekend, Pages 34 on 09/30/2010