The 2019-2020 Pilots

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

The last time I posted was about last year's pilots, so it seems fitting that I'm doing it again. At first I was really surprised at how few shows were on my list, but then I did some digging and found that there are just fewer scripted series being developed for the broadcast networks at this time. I'd love to dive deeper about why that is, but that's a story for another day.

First, a quick review on what I was looking forward to a year ago and how that went...
- on ABC, I liked and stuck with Single Parents, A Million Little Things, The Conners, and The Kids are Alright (which failed). I dropped The Rookie midway through the season, and still haven't gotten into Schooled.
- on FOX, I watched three or four episodes of Rel before I gave up, and even now I had to think a moment before I remembered what it was.
- on NBC, New Amsterdam was king, and I enjoyed Manifest as well. I liked I Feel Bad but nobody else did, and I never bothered with Gilded Age, Abby's, or The Village. 
- on CBS, I never did try Million Dollar Mile or Murphy Brown, I'm half a season behind in God Friended Me, got tired of Blood & Treasure by the time it actually began, was ho-hum about Happy Together, but did enjoy the mindless The Neighborhood.
- old shows from last year that are still kicking... Fresh off the Boat, American Housewife, The Goldbergs, Black-ish, The Good Doctor, Bob's Burgers, The Resident, Last Man Standing, This is Us, Superstore, Will & Grace, The Good Place, Young Sheldon, and Dynasty.
- I have dropped A.P. Bio, How to Get Away with Murder, Jane the Virgin, and Man with a Plan. I never got around to checking out The Mick or Good Girls in greater detail.

- Other Networks: South Park is still a guilty pleasure, Grown-ish was terrible and I gave it up shortly, completely forgot about Good Trouble (I'll try to remedy that...).

Now, on to the new things I'm going to give a whirl...
- For CW, I'll try just Katy Keene (mid-season), and for CBS, only Carol's Second Act.
- Over on ABC, I'll give the newest spin-off of Black-ish, Mixed-ish, a go, plus United We Fall just to see what that's like.
- It's over on FOX and NBC where I'm slightly more intrigued this season with the latter drawing me in for Council of Dads, Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist, Perfect Harmony, and the untitled Tina Fey show with Ted Danson. The former will bring me to watch Bless the Harts, Filthy Rich, Outmatched, and the already-premiered BH90210. At this stage in my life, many of the plots of these are not overly intriguing, but I have favorite actors I want to see succeed, so that drives me for several of these selections.

What are you going to be watching this fall?

Looking Ahead at 2018-2019

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

Well, it's been a summer. There was a whole lot of nothing on television, aside from the Bates Family, the Duggar Family, the Roloff Family, and the newer addition to my reality followings - the Busby Family. Technically, there was also Trial & Error, but I'm behind in that because Spectrum is awful and we're on our third DVR box in two months. But, I spent some time last night going through the new shows for the broadcast networks and made some selections. because, you know, there's more to TV life than

ABC came in high, CW isn't even on the board, and FOX tanked. CBS and NBC are surprisingly equal, but we'll see how that pans out. I picked more shows this year than I did last year, but a few of them I really don't think will make it to Thanksgiving, so not much is lost in giving them a try.

What made the cut?
For ABC, I'm going with the soon-to-premiere Single Parents (a bit too much exposure, already, I think), A Million Little Things (it better be better than Friends with Better Lives), plus the farther out The Rookie (Nathan Fillion, anyone?), The Conners, Schooled, and The Kids are Alright (it seems that we're on an every-other-year-there's-a-Catholic-family-show module). As two of those are spin-offs, I'm not really feeling like my ABC selections are as high as they appear.

For FOX, the only thing I'm going to bother with is Rel, which starts tonight. It's about a guy who has to rebuild his life after a divorce, so it'll be a rough start, but Sinbad plays the protagonist's father, so that could be fun.

On NBC, the start dates are mostly soon. In September alone, I'll be checking out New Amsterdam (I'm a sucker for medical shows), I Feel Bad (I need more "mom shows"), and Manifest (it's going to be awful or amazing), plus later on there's Gilded Age (period show!), Abby's (this looks like a hot mess), and The Village (which, really, I'm only in to see Daren Kagasoff act again).

Rounding it out on CBS, there's the crazy (unscripted) Million Dollar Mile, the unlikely-to-work Happy Together, the reboot of Murphy Brown, the too-much-like-Living-Biblically-from-last-season God Friended Me, the is-this-Timeless-again? Blood & Treasure, and the Beth-Behrs-is-back The Neighborhood.

The bigger, scarier thing (if you can believe it) is that I have a TON of returning shows, which I don't think I realized back in Spring!
ABC: Fresh off the Boat, American Housewife, Speechless, The Goldbergs, Black-ish, The Good Doctor [only one new thing from last year remaining]
FOX: Bob's Burgers, The Resident, Last Man Standing (I don't think it'll be that good this time around, though...) [only one new thing from last year remaining]
NBC: This is Us, Superstore, A.P. Bio, Will & Grace, The Good Place (which I discovered online over the summer) [only one new thing from last year remaining]
CBS: Man with a Plan, How to Get Away with Murder, The Big Bang Theory, Young Sheldon [only one new thing from last year remaining]
CW: Jane the Virgin, Dynasty [one old, one from last year]
Other Networks: South Park (Comedy Central), Grown-ish (Freeform), Good Trouble (the Freeform spin-off of The Fosters), plus the aforementioned follow-an-atypical-family shows I enjoy. 

And, at some point, I still do plan to check out The Mick and Good Girls. So... yeah, there's a lot of television entertainment to be enjoyed this year. 

Black-ish: Valentine's Day 2015

Blackish just had an interesting holiday episode for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, so I wasn't expecting something for Valentine's Day. But, this was a welcome surprise, as the format was a little different, and we were able to get adults/kids storylines which is a breakdown we don't seem to get often on this series. I definitely agree that the more important the day, the more likely it is that big things will go wrong. I was taken aback, though, at the idea that Diane is mean to everyone... I guess I hadn't noticed? Part of me kinda wants to go back and watch earlier episodes to see if it's been a trending trait that I ignored...

Black-ish "Big Night, Big Fight" (S01E13): Dre and Bow tend to have a fight every Valentine's Day, but Dre thinks that he'll be able to make it a perfect holiday this year. He forgets to make a reservation, takes forever ordering and Bow isn't able to get her preferred entree, and winds up putting his foot in his mouth more than once. [loved the guys hanging out in the restroom!]

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It's not the ideal romantic holiday, but probably on the memorable side if nothing else!

Meanwhile, at home, the kids try to teach Diane how to give compliments after she's upset that Jack got more valentines than she did. [when I was in elementary school you had to give one to every classmate, so I never experienced feeling left out. In middle school, some kids got carnations and others didn't but my friends and I would send them to one another so there was no real sad point there, either.] However, it turns out creepy and Bow and Dre tell the kids to "fix Diane" so that she's back to her usual, "mean" self. [if you're a parent, shouldn't you want your child to be a nice person??]

Black-ish: Martin Luther King Day 2015

It makes perfect sense that Dre would use MLK Day as a chance to demonstrate his kids' lack of knowledge regarding Black History, but I still didn't see it coming! I smiled at the idea of using the three-day weekend to go skiing - when I was a senior in high school my youth group went up to West Virginia that weekend to do that, and it was awesome. This episode fell a bit short of awesome, but was pretty interesting... Dre being determined to show Junior that racism is alive and well, only for the teen to wind up taking a stand for something completely different: snowboarding! Of course, his spiel on a bus still wasn't as funny as Dre's sit-in in the lodge lobby!

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Black-ish "Martin Luther Skiing Day" (S01E12): The Johnsons take part in "black ski weekend" during MLK Day every year. [here in California, everyone takes President's Day weekend to go skiing... but maybe I just don't know enough black people here?] One of Junior's (white) friends is coming along, so Dre decides that he needs to beef up the family's knowledge of the cultural icon whom the weekend honors. [Dre isn't at a new company, so why is it that he's only now finding out that the corporation doesn't seem to recognize the national holiday? "it's a holiday for you two, so feel free to take the day off," sounds more like something you say for Yom Kippur, but I grew up with a Jewish superintendent, so we had all the Jewish holidays off anyway. as far as "black holidays" go, I am now curious as to how many people celebrate "Obama's inauguration" and "OJ getting off" as such...]

Dre invites Charlie to come, and then the two of them ride with Junior and his friend while Bow has the twins and Zoe in the SUV. [thoughts on "we raised a bad black person" ??] When the guys get pulled over, Dre begins to act like they're in trouble just for being black, but it was really for expired tags. [ha!] Dre then begins to look for prejudice everywhere, and makes mountains out of molehills, even throwing a fit over not getting adjoining rooms. [well, in all fairness, this sounds like a big deal when you're traveling with five kids!] But, the next day, when it's time to hit the slopes, Junior makes a scene on the bus over snowboarders having to ride in the back, and Dre is temporarily proud of his son.

An Orange and Black-ish Halloween

Who seriously leaves a handwritten note in this day and age? That would have been unbelievable to the point that I would have known something was up. Having a security camera in the house being the tip-off, however, was a perfect fit for this series and its ideal that you just get so spoiled you don't appreciate what it took to get where you are. I've never really thought of Halloween as a particularly big prank holiday, but I remember Roseanne having related pranks, so I guess it might be a regional or generational trend. I am happy, however, that they had a family-themed costume, as I feel like that's something we never see on television anymore.

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Black-ish "The Prank King" (S01E06): Andre decorates the house for Halloween, but the bigger deal is the family pranking one another. These jokes include fake spiders, super gluing items, and wetting someone else's beds... [that last one is gross but was actually pretty funny - a classic example of how younger family members don't totally understand how to participate in a tradition.]

Andre is proud of Zoe's past feats and looks forward to her stuff this year, but she thinks she's outgrown pranking. Andre tries to inspire her by pranking Junior in front of her, but it fails. [I loved the chair gag!] But, little does Dre know, the family works together to prank him into thinking someone is breaking in. But, Dre was wise to it all and played along, and had Josh come scare the family. [Bo punches him in his broken nose - ouch! I was also sad that Josh was punched on purpose at work, too.] And, despite that some of the family doesn't seem to be in the Halloween spirit, they do all dress as the Jackson 5 + Janet. [which is much better than The Beatles!]

The end of the episode played on the old joke that all black people know one another. 

NEW SHOW: Blackish: The Urban Division

I’m not going to reiterate every other article about the pilot, but yes, I will agree that this new series could be the black family comedy that’s been missing from the broadcast airwaves for the past decade. It’s not the most cleverly written show so far (I think they missed a gag in putting Andre in a grey sweatshirt instead of a full-on hoodie), but there is definitely a foundation upon which comedic genius could be built. For starters, Andre is heading up a new division, so it’s only a matter of time before he’ll need to do some hiring. Similarly, I imagine it’ll be a point of contention that oldest daughter Zoey will consider elite schools while her parents may want her to think about attending an HBCU. But, let’s just hope that the series does well and gets chances to showcase some plotlines like those!

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Blackish "Pilot" (S01E01): An advertising executive and a doctor have four kids in their large Los Angeles home that contains everything any of them need. At work, Andre is promoted to Senior Vice President of the Urban Division, but he isn’t sure if the bosses are taking his contributions seriously, so he decides to test the waters by goofing off and doing a gag ad. [Chris is cool, Josh is annoying.] The whole situation makes him second-guess the way his children see the world, and Andre’s father’s input isn’t helping.

Freshman Andy plays field hockey, which Andre has a tough time accepting over basketball. [you know, the “blackish sport.”] The bigger ordeal, however, is that he wants a Bar Mitzvah for his 13^th birthday, freaking out Andre, who decides to throw an African Rites of Passage party. Dad comes around, however, and hip-hop bro mitzvah theme for his son. [so the kid was 12 when he started high school? That makes him two grades ahead for his age, right?]

Fall 2014 Network Viewing Schedule

So, now that we've looked at all of the network pick-ups for the 2014-2015 season, how does our nightly schedule look? We have 13 shows to factor in: six in the fall, and seven six later on... plus we have old favorites coming back as well. Of course, this doesn't include the many cable series we adore, but most of their seasons don't run the same way, so there's a variety of overlaps. For now, it looks like we have a total of three Monday series, one on Tuesdays, four Wednesdays, two Thursdays, and a Friday.

New Series:
The McCarthys (Thursdays, 9:30pm, NBC)
Black-ish (Wednesday, 9:30pm, ABC)
Manhattan Love Story (Tuesdays, 8:30pm, ABC)
How to Get Away with Murder (Thursdays, 10pm, ABC)
Red Band Society (Wednesdays, 9pm, FOX)
Scorpion (Mondays, 9pm, CBS)

Returning Series:
The Big Bang Theory Mondays, 8pm (CBS) [later Thursdays]
2 Broke Girls Mondays, 8pm (CBS) [after TBBT moves]
The Middle, Wednesdays 8pm (ABC)
The Goldbergs, Wednesdays, 8:30pm (ABC)
Last Man Standing, Fridays, 8pm (ABC)

Popping up later:
The Odd Couple
Fresh Off the Boat
Hieroglyph [FOX canceled this project on 6/30/14]
Weird Loners
Mission Control
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
Members Only
and, the returning Bob's Burgers

2014-2015 Season: ABC Comedy

ABC's comedy pilots for the 2014-2015 season don't look like the best bunch, even though I'll give half of them a shot. They ordered six this year, compared with five last year (only The Goldbergs is continuing on). Their round-up features a Hispanic family show, an Asian family show, a black single-woman show, a show that'll be dated in five years, a musical fantasy, and a couples' sitcom. The first three are bound to have jokes which will have white journalists tip-toeing around, fearing that they shouldn't be laughing, and two out of the last three may be lucky to have decent jokes at all, so I don't know if this was the best line-up, press-wise. However, the collection is diverse enough that something should stick for somebody, right?

Red titles I'm not interested in. Green titles I'm going to try out. "Who" covers actors, writers, creators, etc. "Where" covers the location of the series. "What" describes the basics of the premise.

First, the fall premieres:

Selfie
Who? from the creator of Suburgatory. Stars Karen Gillan (Amy from Doctor Who) and John Cho (Harold of Harold & Kumar).
Where? present day.
What? A woman has a huge online presence (hoping to be famous) but no real life. Based on My Fair Lady.
My Thoughts: This sounds like a CW show, what with the young demographic and all, but maybe it'll do okay. I can't imagine tuning in, but maybe the 18-29 crowd is into this... I kinda hope nobody my age is looking forward to it!

Black-ish
Who? Laurence Fishburne, Anthony Anderson (Gary from Guys with Kids)
Where? present day Los Angeles suburbs
What? A black man with a biracial wife and their four kids is living a good life, but Grandpa wonders if they’ve lost touch with their roots, so Dad decides it's time to focus on acting black.
My Thoughts: I feel like we've kinda seen this before on both the big and small screen, but it might be worth a laugh so I'll program it to the DVR for a trial.

Manhattan Love Story
Who? Kurt Fuller (the dad on Better with You, among other things)
Where? Present day Manhattan.
What? A couple has just started dating, and their thoughts are shared with viewers.
My Thoughts: I'll watch the pilot if for no other reason than to see how the concept is executed. I'm really curious as to how this specifically wound up on ABC, and whether it'll stand up to other couples' stories premiering this season.

Now, the mid-seasons: 

Galavant
Who? Alan Menken is among the EPs... but no big talent otherwise.
Where? Fairy-tale land. Yeah.
What? A knight lost the love of his life and is on a quest to win her back in this musical show.
My Thoughts: Many people peg me as the perfect demo for Once Upon a Time, but that show is not for me. Galavant is designed to be for that same demographic, so I'm probably going to pass here as well. 
 

Cristela
Who? Nobody recognizable, though it is named after the star.
Where? I'm guessing Texas, given where the actress is from.
What? A law student moves home to do an unpaid internship, as her family has various opinions about how she should live her life.
First Impression: I was semi-interested until I read that it's a semi-autobiographical piece and the lead is 35 years old. Not nearly as amusing as Made in Jersey could have been. Pass.

Fresh off the Boat
Who? Nobody recognizable. 
Where? Orlando (though it may start in Washington, DC) in the 90s.
What? A Taiwanese family struggles to assimilate to the US culture as they get a steak restaurant going. Dad wants the American dream, but Mom is more skeptical about the future.
My Thoughts: Also semi-autobiographical, I'm curious as to how many red flags will go up when stereotypes beyond the title pop up in the pilot. Still, I will check it out to see the depiction of Orlando in the 90s.