A Weak Lineup

At last week's ABC Upfront, Jimmy Kimmel ripped his network's new fall shows in his monologue. New York Times writer David Itzkoff took Kimmel's words at face value and thought his brutally honest rhetoric would leave him on thin ice with network executives. Apparently Itzkoff can't detect humor, or sarcasm because Kimmel's monologue (as you can see in the video below) was not given with any malcontent.



While he was clearly going for laughs, his words were actually quite accurate. After watching the trailers for ABC's new fall shows, I couldn't be any less excited. I usually give new shows a chance for two reasons. 1.)I never know if they are going to be the next smash hit and DVR lets me view them at my convenience and 2.) Some shows (like Lost for example) are best understood if you watch them from the get go.

However, like Kimmel said, most of these shows will get canceled, so getting hooked can be dangerous. For example, when FOX canceled Reunion, it left me and the other 12 people that watched it on a cliffhanger that we will never see end of. Please FOX, just tell us who the killer was.

You can watch the trailers for the new fall shows that you'll see on ABC and FOX here.

A few quick comments about these new shows.

ABC

V: I don't know what's more unrealistic, another life form contacting earth or a journalist saying what this joker says to the alien right before the interview in the second video. I've got two words for V: No thanks.

Flash Forward: People dig time travel, but I'm not one of them.

Cougar Town: Courtney Cox needs to realize that she's been George Costanza'd (Yeah, I just made that up). Just like people will always think of Jason Alexander as George Costanza, people will always think of her as Monica Geller and there's nothing she can do about it.

The Deep End- Shows about hospitals and law firms are generally liked because people idealize doctors and lawyers, but the drama in this one seems a little too contrived for me.

Hank- I like Kelsey Grammar, but I don't know how this one can make it past one season.

Happy Town- A murder in Pleasantville brings out a town's murky history. This horror genre has a niche market, but it's a small one, so I don't like this one's chances for success.

The Middle- Good to see the janitor from Scrubs get a chance, but this show looks like a knockoff version of Malcom in the Middle.

FOX

The Cleveland Show: Cleveland is a great character on Family Guy, but spinoffs never work, right?