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Clearly I don't know how to be early, but at least this is before the fall actually started!

I'm going to break this down as simply as possible.

Fall Mandate: More comedies.
Over the last seven years, ABC has really built their brand around the shows that saved the network, i.e: Lost, Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy. However, with Grey's having all the backstage drama that really seems to upstage everything onscreen, Desperate Housewives five year jump not really adding anything to the show, and Lost coming a close next season, the alphabet net is looking to add a little bit of laughs to its sched. Cut to four new sitcoms the company has greenlit this year. Also with returning seasons of the Zach Braff-less Scrubs and promotion heavy Better off Ted, look for ABC to be a funnier place this season.

What to watch for:
Modern Family. ABC is so confident of this show, they screened the entire pilot at its upfronts, and I must say its awesome. If the entire season stays as strong as the pilot, make sure you check this out!

Say Goodbye to:

According to Jim. After eight horrible horrible years, we say goodbye to this good for nothing show!

Fall Mandate: More of the same.

When you're the number one network in the land, there isn't too much you need to change. The eye has added four new shows this fall. Three dramas, one comedy.

What to watch for:
My take would be NCIS: Los Angeles. The show has a built in audience, and with LL Cool J and Chris O'Donnel as the leads,the show seems like it has all the tools to be a success. Plus its a procedural on CBS, can't fail right?

Say Goodbye to:
Without a Trace. The once strong ten o'clock Thursday show will not be coming back in this fall.

Fall Mandate: Build a pretty kick ass schedule!

FOX has always been known as that network that put on tacky shows that sink to the lowest common denomenator. And while that has been true, you have to give them credit for building quiet a decent line up of programming. The number two network in the land (number one for young viewers 18-35, Wow, I know), has an entire line up of critically acclaimed shows (House, Lie to Me, Bones, Fringe), mixed with the zany stuff that makes FOX...well FOX.

What to what for:

The Cleveland Show: Seth McFarland is determined to make Sunday nights his, and from everything I've heard about this Family Guy spin-off, it seems like he's well on his way. Reviews of the show say its got more heart than its predecessor, and with a two season pickup, looks to be one of the surprises of the fall.

Glee: Technically this has already aired, but the show has a lot of heart to it and room to grow. It also has the amazing Ryan Murphy (Popular, Nip/Tuck) working on it, so here's hoping Glee can be the High School Musical to adults what True Blood is to Twilight.

Say Goodbye to:

Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles. Everything I've heard about this show has been good. But FOX had two sci-fi shows on the table, and room for one of them to be saved. T:TSCC had been given a couple of chances, but as seen with the Terminator Salvations movie, people aren't really jumping on that bandwagon. The possible good news: Expect to see Summer Glau possibly on Dollhouse?

Fall Mandate: Change EVERYTHING

Probably the network taking the biggest risk this year. 2009/10 will be a telling year for the peacock. The network that built some of their biggest hits at 10pm is giving it to their late night leader Jay Leno. They are also going with shorter seasons and less reruns, something that works well in the world of cable. Works well for Entourage. Will it for Heroes?

What to watch for:

Community: The pilot was a little slow, but you can't go wrong with Joel McHale and Chevy Chase. Once it finds its footing, this show will be the perfect companion to the Must See TV line up.

The Parenthood: Ron Howard. Brian Glazer. Writers of Friday Night Lights. Great all star cast. This has the makings of something great. Others have tried to make the hit movie into a TV show. The ingredients are there. Lets hope it can be mixed to make something special.

Say Goodbye to:
Two many to count. Luckily most of them were the crappy ones. Here's hoping the shorter seasons can be helpful to the NBC cause.

Fall Mandate: Hoping for something that sticks

Since the merger of the WB and the UPN, the CW hasn't really done anything of note. Well, they have, but its for all the wrong reasons. Gossip Girl is their most buzzworthy show, however it isn't exactly setting the ratings on fire. 90210 had a strong opening but has had trouble holding on the audience, mainly because its not sure whether it wants to be a throwback or something new. The network is clearly going for a younger female demo, but is having a hard time cutting through the clutter. This year they seem to be going with a variety of shows and hoping something works.

What to watch for:

Melrose Place: Clearly working off the buzz they got from the 90210 reboot, the network green lit the original shows spin-off. Early talk says the show captures the essence of the original, which is a good thing. The down side being if this is a success, watch for updated versions Dallas, Knots Landing, Dyansty....

Say Goodbye to:

Privileged: One of the few shows to get good reviews from the CW's fall lineup last season. Alas, I'll be looking for my Joanna Garcia fix next year. Joanna, if for some reason you're reading this, call me :D

So that's it for my fall predictions. I've got a few reviews coming up here and there over the next couple of days. Once again, please feel free to drop me a comment or two!

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So, after a long break... mostly due to watching a lot of television as well as a screwed up PC, and the banning of access to my site from work, I'm finally back.

But I'm finally caught up on my television viewing, and I'm finally have a brand new laptop, so I'm definately going to try and bring things back to the way it used to be before the craziness.

Tuesdays and Thursdays will be norm. Of course, with the updates, hopefully there will be some interesting topics. As usual, please feel free to let me know if there is anything you want to talk about.

Since I've been gone, things in the tv landscape has changed a little.

The Late Shift Pt.2

Firstly, there's been a change in the late night landscape. Conan O'Brien has finally become the host of the Tonight Show after Jay Leno's 17 year reign. The show largely follows the format of O'Brien's Late Night, which I'm totally fine with. Ratings for the first week have been pretty decent though reviews have been showing up somewhere in the middle. Jimmy Fallon's Late Night seems to be finally finding its feet after the first couple of weeks. The show seems to have found its balance between college humour and tech tv.

NBC begins Prime Time Strip programming

While a lot of the talk has been about NBC moving Jay Leno to primetime, I think their summer programming has started that experiment. With I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here, the network is testing the waters to see if viewers will indeed start watching programming four to five days a week. Ratings have been so so thus far, with a lot of the publicity coming from Hills "stars" Heidi and Spencer Pratt. It will be interesting to see if this is a trend that becomes popular in the states. Currently many a show in Britian follow this format, though mostly in the summer.

Americans beginng to embrace non American Programming

First it was Flashpoint, now the Listener. Seems like the American public seems like they are willing to watch shows not based in America. Both shows are produced by CTV (here in Canada) and are both airing on American stations CBS and NBC, respectively. Both shows were green lit out of need for new programming during the writers strike, and it seems like the networks may be on to something. CBS also has deals struck with networks in Austrailia and Britain. My only qualm is, should a show do well in the country of its origin, but fail to garner interest in the states, will the show continue outside America?

Britain's Got Talent becomes a global Sensation

Over the last couple of weeks something interesting happened. Susan Boyle auditions on Britian's Got Talent and becomes a global sensation. But in the process, she has caused people from all over the world to follow the show, which airs exclusively in the UK. Between the kid who sings a Michael Jackson song, to the dance troupe that eventually won it, people were clamouring all over youtube passing videos around. I'm not sure if its just the talent in the UK, but the shows American counterpart barely registers in comparison. Who knows, may 2009 will its year!

The networks have all introduced the fall shows they are looking to be the next big thing. I'll be back on Tuesday to discuss what each networks strategies are.

As usual, please feel free to drop me a comment if you agree, disagree, or whatever else!

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These are words uttered by (the always amazing) Conan O'Brien during his appearance on Inside the Actors Studio with James Lipton. He continued to mention that he’s always looking for that left brain thinking of ending a sketch the way no one else has done before.

It is said that there are seven themes that are used in all of literature. They are:

1. [wo]man vs. nature
2. [wo]man vs. man
3. [wo]man vs. the environment
4. [wo]man vs. machines/technology
5. [wo]man vs. the supernatural
6. [wo]man vs. self
7. [wo]man vs. god/religion

However, there are some people who do fantastic versions of these themes, and some that do like to recycle stories from the past.

I’m going to go over four of the shows I believe that have used the “left side thinking” to create different types of television shows.

Dexter (2006 – present)

When talking about shows that are like absolutely nothing else on television, Dexter should always be on that list. This show seems to work on three of the topics on the list. Man vs. Self, Man vs. Man and Man vs. Environment. The protagonist is always one that is fighting against himself, to try and suppress and satisfy his need to kill. Through his “code” Dexter is trying to rid the world of people who hurt society. And he has to do all of this while working in a police station, where he must help and hinder to get his end result.

This show is fascinating to me, because by all accounts, this show shouldn’t be successful. This is the story of a guy who is a serial killer. You shouldn’t like this guy. Yet he’s the good guy! When the cops are close to catching him, you want him to not get caught. You want him to have the life that other people have, but somehow continue doing what he’s doing. Somehow the writers/actors/producers have clicked in on something where they have taken something familiar, but twisted it around itself. Thankfully, we have another two years of this!

Seinfeld (1990 – 1998)

You want to talk about a show that totally went against the grain. This was a show about nothing!
Actually, that’s not true. It was a good marketing ploy, but really it was a show about four very self centered people. And it was a sitcom to boot!

If you look at the main characters through TV sitcoms over the decades, they all had one thing in common. The characters were always kind hearted people. People you wanted to be, or people who represented you. Take Richie Cunningham from Happy Days, or Dr.Huxstable from The Cosby Show. Then you have this series where Jerry Seinfeld will dump a girl just because one part of her does not meet his liking. The characters were so reprehensible to people within its own universe that they were arrested at seasons end. But somehow, everyone involved managed to make the show one where every character was loveable in spite of each of their flaws. Not that there’s anything wrong with that!

The Simpsons (1990 – present)

What do you do when you take the Man vs. Environment concept, and make both of them absolutely insane?

You have the longest running programming of any kind of television – The Simpsons.

Before this genre changing show came on air, cartoons were for kids. They were also about crazy kids/pets, while their parents/owners reined them in. They didn’t have swearing, they didn’t have nudity, they were built around the concept that they were sitcoms for kids.

Then Homer lost his job, and lost his money on a dog race, and saved Christmas, and a phenomenon was born.

This show created the idea of a dysfunctional family.

The father is a drunk, lazy, working drone who wants to stay away from his kids. The son is a hell raiser. The mother is your 50’s housewife. The daughter is the smartest girl in town with a superiority complex, and the baby never utters a word. And yet, this show is the most real family on television.

And from there you have the re-genesis of primetime animation. Cue King of the Hill, Family Guy, American Dad and the soon to debut The Cleveland Show: shows built in the same mold as clueless father, but not quiet there yet. The beauty of the Simpsons has been that there has been a great supporting cast, as well as proper issues and stories built around it. The show that seems to learn the most from The Simpsons is South Park. Hell, they even built an episode around the Simpsons, which proves to you how important this show really is.

Our attention deficit world has unfortunately caused the focus on story to falter a bit over the last couple of years, but the consistency and depth this show had for a good 7-9 years (or anything where Conan O’Brien was the writer) makes sure this series should be on the list.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003)

Back in 1992, Joss Whedon wrote a film about a young girl accepting her fate as the Slayer of

vampires. The story was dark, witty and poked fun at the horror genre and gender stereotypes. Then someone else made it a movie, and made it the campiest thing you’ve ever seen.

Cut to 1997, and Joss was given the opportunity to remake his version of the script into a TV show. Thus began one of the most inspired shows for women in ages. Incase you haven’t noticed, this one is Woman vs. Supernatural.

I consider this show a classic, because of one simple thing. Buffy Summers was a real girl with real problems, and still managed to be strong. Previous to this, if you had a woman in a supernatural setting, she was either a damsel in distress, or she was a superpower who could solve anything.

Buffy was different. She could have been any girl in the world. She had her friends, she had her issues, and she dealt with them and she dealt with her supernatural responsibilities. She got help from her friends when she needed, and she sometimes struggled with her own self.

The show also had some groundbreaking episodes like ‘Hush’, ‘The Body’ and ‘Once More, with Feeling’. All three episodes feature something unique about them. ‘Hush’ had very little dialogue, ‘The Body’ had absolutely not background music and actually focuses on the lives of the characters without any supernatural elements, while ‘Once More, with Feeling’ was a complete musical episode. Considering the show was very dialogue driven and very much based in the supernatural genre, it was an amazing risk that the show managed to pull off.

These are the four that most come to mind for me. Of course, there are other shows that are “left brainers”. Lost and Six Feet Under seem to be two of those shows. I haven’t had the opportunity to see them, but hopefully by the time the 2010 season rolls around, I’ll be able to add them to this list.

Are there are any shows that you think take the seven basic ideas and mangle them, or just completely abandon them? Don’t agree with me about the shows above? Sound off in the comments below.

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Starting this summer, the Orbituary Channel goes live (no pun intended) to air in Quebec.

The station will "broadcast obituaries, notices of hospitalization, and messages of thanks and prayers"

Are you kidding me! Do we really need this? Has there ever been a time when you were watching TV and wondering to yourself, “I wonder who died tonight?”

I would suspect that obituaries are big reading in the senior citizen community. Chances are they are looking for friends who they aren’t quiet in touch with, but are reaching the finishing line. But even they would be doing so checking out the newspaper. They pretty much are the last demographic that does like the opportunity to sit down and read the stories of the day.

Also, where does this channel go from here? Air episodes of deceased stars of E!True Hollywood Story and Behind the Music?

It doesn’t make too much sense to me. But what do I know. This channel will probably end up striking gold and be franchised all over the world.

Just you wait and see!

Source: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/obit+channel+live+this+summer/1374651/story.html

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OK, I've admitted a lot of things on this site, and I'm going to admit one more thing. I love cartoons. I don't care if they are adult cartoons or kids cartoons. I love these damn thing.

They can be hilarious – like Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, serious – like Batman Gotham Knights, Childish – like Scooby Doo, or thought provoking – like Persepolis.

But I also realize that I’m a 26 year old male adult, and part of the issue with watching cartoons is that this is something I do in my private time away from the prying eyes of… well you know…society.

I’ve made no bones about the fact that I’m a huge Spider-man fan. The guy is like a personal hero of mine. With great power comes great responsibility. Seriously, you could teach that to your kids and it would be a good lesson! Anyways, I digress. I’ve watched every series, and continue to do so to this day. However, when the Kids WB, or CW for Kids, or 4KidsTV, whatever they are re-branding themselves to this week, decided to air season two of The Spectacular Spider-man, but decided not to let anyone know when or where to watch it, I had to sort out other means.

Cut to a few weeks later and here I am watching it on Youtube, where a nice young webhead has placed every episode in chronological order for my viewing pleasure. Now, I was here simply catching up, as I later found YTV here in Canada airing the show on Sunday mornings. (9:30am for those of you who are wondering).

I then went looking for the new Wolverine and the X Men series, which has recently started. Too bad, with X Men Origins:Wolverine movie coming out, this particular title cannot be found anywhere on the net. Apparently Marvel’s legal team (imagine if it was actually Matt Murdoch emailing you haha), has contacted Youtube and asked all these shows be taken off.

Now, I get why they doing this. Clearly they own the copyright and it’s theirs to do what they will. BUT, c’mon Marvel. You know as well as I do, that this TV show is on only to create and interest and buzz for the upcoming movie. If the station that airs it (I have no clue which one, and neither does WIKIPEDIA!- that damn thing knows everything!) can’t be bothered to promote it, give the fans a chance to view it elsewhere. Hell, even if I did know where they were airing this show, at least give me an opportunity to catch up! With the amount of different models there are to view programming – On Demand services, Hulu, iTunes, Youtube etc, there isn’t anywhere to catch this show.

Plus, does it really matter where I view this cartoon? It will still promote the movie. Essentially what Marvel is doing here is stopping me for seeing a 22 minute commercial for the movie, because they are trying to force me to watch it elsewhere.

Marvel is a company that went bankrupt in 1996. Thanks to trilogy hits like X Men, Spider-man and Blade, today they are a major power in the entertainment industry, most recently signing Samuel L. Jackson to a NINE picture deal to play Nick Fury.

They’re not exactly hurting.

Give your fans the chance the opportunity to watch your 22 minute commercials, and they will pay you back in kind by buying tickets to the movies, purchasing the nine special edition DVD set, collecting the comics and not opening the action figures.

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OK, what can I say? I'm a damn TV watcher. It's hard to sometimes keep up with the television and update this damn thing! But I love all six of you that read... or all one of you that are reading it over and over!

So no more rules, we are going to hit this whenever something strikes me, and believe me, things strike me all the time! I just have to get online and actually do it.

I may have an editor, who may get me to update this thing regularly. We’ll have to see. You know who you are, help me! :P

So what’s been going on since I left? Well…

• Life on Mars is over. I really enjoyed this show, and it really felt like it was just about taking shape. The episodes leading up to their hiatus in the fall/winter were very instrumental in setting up Sam’s life in 1973, and how he was getting used to it. The episodes since its return in February have been great in setting up the show’s sci fi-ish premise. Unfortunately too little too late. On the bright side, ABC is allowing the show to build towards its ending. The season will end in April 1^st, 2009. If you’re looking for more of the show, I hear the British original is a classic, as well as, the spin off Ashes to Ashes, that recently debuted on BBC America.
  
  By the way, for fans of October Road, the show has finished up shooting on a direct to DVD finale that should be included on the Season 2 DVD.
  
  

• Looking for great TV in Canada. I’m late to the bandwagon on this one, but please check out The Hour w/ George Stoumboulopoulos on CBC. I’ve loved this show and its idea, however, never found the time from it. However, I have found the show through podcasts. Great way to promote the show, and in some cases you get more than what is available on the Tele. You can catch episodes of the Hour at www.cbc.ca/thehour or on iTunes.
  
  By the way, for those of you who are going to refer back to me ranting to enjoying televison in the comfort of my chair rather than an ipod or on the pc, I’ve recently purchased this… http://store.apple.com/us/product/TM170LL/A?fnode=MTY1NDA0OQ&mco=MjIzNDk4OA&p=2&s=topSellers very sweeet! (Though I am evolving my habits just a tad hehe!)
  
  

• Conan O’Brien will be hanging out a little earlier on our screens. Thanks for 16 brilliant years. This however, ushers in the age of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Fallon has started out very nervous, but I think he’s getting better with guests that don’t intimidate him. Watch Conan’s first show, and it was pretty much the same way!
  
  By the way, Robert De Niro may have been good ratings wise, but he’s not the guest that Fallon needed. Hell, he didn’t even seem interested in really being there. Also, Fallon really seems to get the generation that watches the show. He just needs to calm down and bit and perhaps this thing will get off the ground. NBC execs, give this dude some breathing room!
  
  
  
  
  
• Friday Night Lights may be coming back for TWO seasons! NBC, working on its profit sharing deal with DirecTV says even though the show has low ratings, it still turns a profit. The new season has been class, and to create a show with SO many well built character, is simply amazing. Here’s hoping to more
  
  By the way, NBC really seems to be playing around with trying to change their business model up a little bit. I mean, first they are moving Leno up to ten (can’t say I agree with that one, but it just might work!), they are streaming their shows on Hulu (along with FOX) to get their shows some added attention and now this profit sharing idea with DirecTV. It’s not all going to work, but the business model for TV is broken. Clearly something else needs to be reworked.

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I’ll be back soon (I swear!) with an article I’ve been tinkering with for a while.
In the mean time, you can find me on twitter...at http//twitter.com/dwenie – GASP! He gave us his real name! Until then, please, sound off below. I’d love to hear what you’re watching, and what I should check out on the web.

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