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 Monday
9:00pm
Dragnet
(ABC - Midseason) — Dick Wolf gives the grandaddy of all cop
shows the Law & Order treatment. Or ABC is hoping he will, anyway.
girls
club (FOX) — Yet another legal show from David E. Kelley
(is he familiar with the concept of being in a rut?). This time
it's three female attorneys dealing with life, love and the law
in San Francisco.
Everwood
(WB) — Treat Williams stars as a neurosurgeon who has neglected
his family. Then his wife dies and he moves his brood to a small
Colorado town to try and reconnect. Oh, yes, and he opens a practice
where he works for free. It follows the equally sacharine 7th
Heaven, so maybe it'll work, but you can count me out.
9:30pm
Still
Standing (CBS) — This should be interesting. If only because
it stars Englishman Mark Addy (The Full Monty) as a blue-collar
Chicago dad. Let's watch and see how often the accent slips! It
also stars Jamie Gertz as his wife. They struggle with kids, life,
you know the same stuff as Everybody Loves Raymond and more
than a few other shows. The clock is ticking...
 Half
and Half (UPN) — Stop me if you've heard this one. Two
sisters who share only a father but have never met, end up living
in the same apartment building in San Francisco. One is smart, the
other is a "free-spirit". Of course, lack of originality
is no barrier to success in the sitcom world, but this baby looks
positively painful.
10:00pm
CSI:
Miami (CBS) — CBS spins off its successful forensics show
to Miami, bringing in David Caruso (NYPD: Blue) to lead the
team. Audience hunger for forensics-themed shows, whether docs or
dramas, shows no sign of abating, so it's hard to see how CBS could
screw this up.
Tuesday
8:00pm
8
Simple Rules for Dating My Daughter (ABC) — John Ritter
and Katey Sagal star as the harried parents in this show based on
the W Bruce Campbell best-seller. Ritter takes center stage as the
father who is having more than a little difficulty coping with the
fact that his sweet little girls are now teenagers.
The
In-Laws (NBC) — Jean Smart and Dennis Farina play the parents
to a grown son who moves back in with his wife and baby while he
attends cooking school. It's in the Emeril slot of death,
the premise couldn't be more labored. If you want to see it, you'd
better tune in early.
 9:00pm
Life
with Bonnie (ABC) — Bonnie Hunt stars in and produces this
new sitcom for ABC. She plays a local TV host who (you guessed it!)
has to balance her job with life at home. Still, that formula worked
for Tim Allan in Home Improvement. Perhaps the distaff version
will play too.
Haunted
(UPN) — This new drama focuses on a cop (Matthew Fox) whose
son is kidapped and never found. Four years later, he's divorced
and working as a private eye when he has a near-death experience
that leaves him able to communicate with the dead. So, what we have
here is a Sixth Sense/X-Files'ey type deal. This is the kind
of thing that'll either work or be so lame you'll blink and miss
it, but it has a good lead-in with Buffy, as long as it doesn't
go the heartwarming route.
9:30pm
Less
Than Perfect (ABC) — Cheery temp moves up to become the
executive assistant of a TV anchor. This could be smart and witty,
or too "inside" for its own good. The premise reeks of
the "we should write a show about this place" mentality.
Let's hope that all involved realize it's going to take more than
a perky girl and a bunch of snooty execs to make this work.
 Hidden
Hills (NBC) — This sitcom is intended as a spoof on all
those "move away from the big city to the purity of small town
life" shows (see Everwood, above).
In this case the small town is anything but sweet. It could work,
but a lot of the target younger demo for it will be over on the
WB watching Smallville.
Wednesday
8:30pm
Cedric
the Entertainer Presents (FOX) — Sketch comedy. Will it
last? No. Next!
9:00pm
Fastlane
(FOX) — McG (Charlie's Angels) heads the production
team on this Miami Vice for the new century. The plot has
two undercover cops using the LAPD's warehouses full of seized goodies
to create their covers while they pursue the bad and beautiful.
Tiffani Thiessen (didn't she used to have a middle name?) stars.
The
Twilight Zone (UPN) — You know what this is about. This
time around, Rod Serling is replaced by Forest Whitaker, and name
stars are being slated to star. But, nam recognition aside, anthology
shows don't have a very good record on network TV (for some reason
they do better in syndication). Look for this to be cancelled and
then picked up by SciFi.
 Birds
of Prey (WB) — That team that created Smallville is behind
this show, inspired by the DC Comic. The set-up involves the Joker
killing Catwoman and confining Batgirl to a wheelchair while Batman
leaves town in a miasma of grief. Batgirl changes her name to "Oracle"
and takes in "Huntress", the secret love-child of Batman
and Catwoman. I know, I know...it sounds like a total dog, but Smallville
looked kind of iffy on paper too. Look for Birds of Prey
to replace Dark Angel in the hearts of pre-pubescent boys
everywhere.
10:00pm
Meds (ABC) — ABC is hoping this will
be a M*A*S*H for a new generation, updated so that instead of a
war the iconoclastic docs are battling those nasty HMOs. It's set
in San Francisco so maybe the attorney's of girls
club can handle their malpractice.
Presidio
Med (CBS) — More San Francisco doctors. This time they're
doing the ER thing, rather than the battling the HMOs thing. How
many medical shows can we take? Look for one (or less) to be left
standing by sweeps.
Thursday
8:00pm
Dinotopia
(ABC) — A continuation of the miniseries. People and dinosaurs
live together in peace and vegetarian happiness. Will it work as
a weekly series once the novelty of the dinosaurs has worn off?
Probably not.
 Family
Affair (WB) — Yup, it's a new take on the 60s series. Only
this time, with Tim Curry as the butler it will (hopefully) be a
little less sugar-shock inducing. The "bachelor uncle"
(gotta be careful with that one these days) originally thesped by
Brian Keith is played by Gary Cole this time around. Look for a
slightly more ascerbic 7th Heaven.
8:30pm
Meet
the Marks
(FOX) — Yet another hidden camera show. On this one, they shoot
two different, fully scripted shows, but introduce an unsuspecting
member of the public into the scenario Will he/she catch on? Why
should we care? Does anyone really enjoy watching these squirm-inducing
humility-fests? (Sadly, yes)
Do
Over (WB) — A middle-aged guy is sent back in time to his
freshman year in high school. Taking advantage of this second chance,
he sets out to live his life over. Set in the 80s, Do Over
has plenty of opportunity for sarcasm, but also lots of chances
to present something new and interesting. Which will it be? And
will TV auds, overloaded with nostalgia shows, give it a chance?
Push,
Nevada (ABC) — Another Damon/Affleck effort. This time
we get an IRS agent in pursuit of missing cash who travels to a
desert town where he meets a slew of weird and eccentric characters.
Each episode presents puzzles for viewers to solve, and if anyone
manages to figure out the mystery before the show ends, they get
the money that the characters are after. Will the interactive element
work? Previous experience has shown that most TV viewers don't want
to have to work at their evening entertainment (after all, they've
been working all day), and a show with a puzzle prize has to have
almost zero syndication potential, let alone foreign sales possibilities.
Septuplets
(FOX) — Oh, jeeze, who on earth came up with this? And who
gave it the okay? The Wilde family (geddit?) run a fancy hotel on
the beach in southern California. The family consists of Mom, Dad
and their nine 16-year old kids. Nuff said.
 9:00pm
Good Morning, Miami (NBC) —
Another show set around a local TV show. This time a TV producer
is persuaded to take a job on a struggling morning show because
he is besotted with the show's hairdresser. Honestly. That's the
set-up. The fact that it's being produced by the people who brought
you Will & Grace would seem to argue that there's a better
than even chance that they will be able to make this work.
10:00pm
Without A Trace (CBS) —
A cop show centered around the Missing Persons Squad of the FBI.
That means that every week they'll be after people who are missing
for one reason or another. In the context of this show "missing"
means finding out if they were murdered, kidnapped, committed suicide,
or just did a runner. With a cast led by Anthony LaPaglia, it should
be initially interesting, though its long-term future is going to
depend on whether or not what is essentially the same story can
be given enough wrinkles for a whole seasons-worth of shows.
 Friday
8:00pm
Firefly (FOX) — Joss Whedon's
(Buffy) new show. He's calling it a "space western"
in grand Gene Roddenberry tradition, but unlike the Star Trek
maven, he's going so far as to outfit his cast in pseudo-western
gear. Cringe. Fox originally turned this down, but then Whedon re-wrote
the pilot and won them over. You're either scifi, or you're not,
and while Buffy and Angel are entertaining, but they
ain't scifi. Meanwhile, SciFi's Farscape has brought wit
and self-deprecating humor to a genre that tends to be short of
both, so Whedon's going to be playing catch-up, at best.
What
I Like About You (WB) — Jennie Garth and Amanda Bynes play
sisters living in New York. Yes, the usual chalk-and-cheese routine.
Blah blah.
9:00pm
That Was Then (ABC) — Similar
to Do Over (FOX) but in an hour-long format. This show also takes
a thirty-something guy whose life hasn't worked out as he'd hoped
and gives him the chance to go back in time to fix things. In this
case, it's one particular horrendous week. These Groundhog Day/Peggy
Lee Gets Married plots have a certain appeal, but you have to
wonder how they're going to play out over an entire season.
 Hack
(CBS) — Cop gets fired, becomes a cab driver and returns to
fighting crime by helping his passengers. Hack has elements
of The Equalizer, but without the sophisticated menace of
Edward Woodward. David Morse stars, with able support from Andre
Braugher (Homicide). It could work, but it's very CBS (the
decent guy battling evil), but Friday night is pretty wide open
with the younger auds out and about, so an older-skewing show could
definitely work.
John
Doe (FOX) — A mysterious stranger who can't remember who
he is, yet is capable of doing almost eveything (The Bourne Identity,
anyone?) shows up. Who is he? What is his story? Is it a coincidence
that he looks like a soap star? Well, okay, that isn't one of the
questions in the show, but let's face it, the guy is just a tad
too square-jawed. At least The Pretender looked like
he might actually have a few brain cells.
9:30pm
Greetings from Tucson (WB) —
The 15-year old son of a Mexican-American/Irish-American marriage
tries to sort out his place in the world. Could be funny, or could
be awash in stereotypes.
10:00pm
RHD/LA (CBS) — More hard-edged cops,
but this time led by Tom Sizemore. The cats looks good, but initial
buzz says it tries too hard. If CBS can avoid making its stars warm
and fuzzy, it could be in with a chance.
 Sunday
7:30pm
Oliver
Beene (FOX) — This look at growing up during the 1960s
is narrated by its adult protagonist, a device that can't help but
recall The Wonder Years. Oliver Beene has an edgier Cold War mentality,
though, which could give it an original voice.
8:00pm
Bram and Alice (CBS) — A writer (Alfred
Molina) discovers that his greatest fan is in fact his long-lost
daughter. Once they get to know each other, she is stuck coming
to terms with the fact that her favorite author is a little...um...flawed,
while he feels the urge to rediscover the writer he was instead
of living of his reputation. This thing has "heartwarming"
written all over it. It'll probably be a hit. Yuck.
American
Dreams (NBC) — Set in 1960s Philadelphia, this show tells
the story of a family growing up with the decade. Yes, I know you've
seen this before, but this time Dick Clark is producing and the
kicker is that the daughter in the family wants to be a dance on
American Bandstand, so we get lots of archival footage of
the show slotted in. Still, it's basically a period soap opera.
9:30pm
The Grubbs (FOX) — A kid from a
more-than-usually depressing family decides to change his life after
he falls for a new teacher. Randy Quaid has a ball as the slovenly
dad, and Carol Kane returns to sitcom-land as the mother. The show
is co-produced by Granada Entertainment and based on a British show,
but hard-edged British wit doesn't usually travel very well to America's
Touched By An Angel-loving heartland, so clever or not, don't
look for this to last too long.
 10:00pm
Boomtown (NBC) — Rashomon
comes to prime time. This DreamWorks-produced cop show looks at
the same crime from several different points of view, slowly revealing
the truth. With Law & Order: Criminal Intent as alead-in,
Boomtown could be a winner, particularly in a season that
doesn't look to have too many serious dramas.
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