UPFRONTS: NBC

NBC released its fall 2007 schedule today.

Returning: Friday Night Lights, Law & Order, Law & Order: CI, Law & Order: SVU, Deal or No Deal, 30 Rock, The Office, Heroes, Scrubs, ER, The Biggest Loser, Las Vegas, My Name Is Earl, 1 vs. 100, Dateline, Football Night In America, Medium, and Saturday Night Live.

New: The Bionic Woman, The IT Crowd, Chuck, Journeyman, Life, Lipstick Jungle, The Singing Bee, World Moves, and Heroes: Origins.

Out: Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip, Crossing Jordan, The Black Donnellys, Kidnapped, Andy Barker, P.I., Identity, Raines, 20 Good Years, Grease: You're The One That I Want, The Real Wedding Crashers, Thank God You're Here.

Moving: Friday Night Lights moves to Friday nights at 10pm. On Thursdays, 30 Rock moves to 8:30, The Office to 9, and Scrubs to 9:30. Law & Order will move to Sundays at 8pm (in 2008). Law & Order: CI will be on USA Network first, then NBC will air the repeats.
My Thoughts:

Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip: I'm actually sorry to see this go. While it wasn't always as good as I think it could have been, it was more than watchable and I think there is a possibility that I'm addicted to Sorkin’s rapid fire dialogue delivered by good actors. It was always one of the first shows I watched when I looked at my queue to see what was available. I guess I'm also a sucker for the most of the cast. There won't be, as far as I can see so far, a show this fun or consistent in the new line-up. I'm not big on comedies anyway, so I like to get my fun in when I'm watching dramas. Oh well, it had been making death rattles for the last six months anyway.

Raines: I'm really kind of sad this one didn't get picked back up. Out of all of the "troubled detective" series and "I see dead people" series out there, this one was one of the most original. What made it great was that all of the victims Raines saw in his head, were exactly that, in his head and he knew it. They would appear to him and follow him and smack on him when he wasn't getting the job done. They'd change as his perceptions of them changed, and they generally had some of the best lines. I'm also an unabashed fan of Jeff Goldblum, no matter what anyone says and his style fit with this show perfectly. One of the things most people didn't know was that a lot of the LA locations were from real crimes or old great LA noir films. They constantly made homage’s to the detective fiction that surrounds and permeates LA. Bad Call.

Crossing Jordan: Should have been cancelled after the second season before it got stupid. Or did it get stupid in the second season? I can't remember.

Andy Barker, P.I.: I never saw this one, but I heard good things. I guess Andy Rickter is no longer in control of his Universe.

NEW SHOWS:

The Bionic Woman: Of course I'll give this a chance, if I don't, the 10 year old in me will never be forgiving again.

The IT Crowd: I saw a few episodes of the British original and it was no OFFICE. Maybe the American version can have some success, but I doubt it.

Heroes: Origins: The usual crap spun from successful series. It makes me think the writing staff can't come up with any new good characters or the network is so frightened of losing the audience's interest that they're going to "focus group" the new characters in this little spin off series (6 eps) to then add the most popular to the next season of Heroes. It's like some sick blending of American Idol with a fictitious show. I never liked "Choose your own adventures" when I was a kid and the thought of this makes me want to puke. So NO.

RETURNING SHOWS:

Law & Order, Law & Order: CI, Law & Order: SVU: STOP IT. JUST F$#KING STOP IT ALREADY!

ER: DIE, you unwieldy beast.