2008 Fall TV Preview

Less is more on TV this season, at least when it comes to new shows. That’s because most of the shows starting up this fall really aren’t “new” at all.

There are only 18 bona fide “new” scripted series premiering this year (last year, there were almost 30). Some aren’t so much new as they are adaptations of popular overseas shows (the networks call this “reimagining”). The NBC sitcom Kath & Kim, based on an Australian comedy of the same name, falls in this category, as do Eleventh Hour and Worst Week on CBS, Life on Mars on ABC and Little Britain USA on HBO (all of which are “reimaginings” of British series). Then there are the holdovers from 2007-08: Pushing Daisies, Dirty Sexy Money and Private Practice on ABC, Life and Chuck on NBC. These shows all premiered last year, only to have their launches aborted due to the writers strike. Rather than bring them back last spring, the networks decided to “relaunch” them this season as if they were new (even though they’re not).

Confused? No worries. Here’s a brief look at what’s new, what’s sort of new, and the best of what’s coming back on broadcast television and cable:

For a complete list of all returning shows this season, click here:

Ed Robertson
Pop Culture Critic and Television Historian
Co-Host, TV CONFIDENTIAL
Every other Tuesday at 10:30pm ET, 7:30pm PT
Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org
www.edrobertson.com
www.tvconfidential.net
blog.tvconfidential.net
Also available as a podcast via iTunes

Top Ten Summer TV Series That Went On to Become Big Hits or Cult Classics

Back in the ’60s and ’70s, it was standard practice for the networks to replace many of their popular shows in June, July and August with short-run comedy and variety shows, such as This is Johnny Cash and The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour. That changed, however, in the 80s, as HBO, Showtime, and other cable networks came into force. For years the broadcast nets conceded the summer to the cable channels networks gave up on the summer . . . until Regis came along in 1999 with Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, followed by Survivor in 2000, then American Idol in 2002. Now the networks are back to creating original summer shows, such as Flashpoint and Swingtown on CBS, in the hopes that one of them will catch fire and become TV’s next big hit. 

With that in mind, I thought it might be fun to take a look at some other summer series that either became big, big hits or have continued to live on as cult classics:

10. Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (summer series in 1999, big hit in 2000)
9. Sonny & Cher (summer series in 1971, big hit throughout the early ’70s)
8. Northern Exposure (summer series in 1990, big hit throughout the ’90s)
7. The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd (NBC summer series in 1987, major cable series for Lifetime throughout the early 1990s)
6. Coronet Blue (Fugitive-like summer series from 1967; still a cult classic)
5. Buffalo Bill (summer series in 1983; still a cult classic)
4. Fernwood 2-Night (summer replacement for Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman in 1977; still a cult classic)
3. (tie) Survivor and American Idol (summer series in 2000 and 2002, still big network hits)
2.  The Prisoner (summer replacement for The Jackie Gleason Show in 1968; still a cult classic)
1. Seinfeld (the pilot originally aired in the summer of 1989)

Ed Robertson
Pop Culture Critic and Television Historian
Co-Host, TV CONFIDENTIAL
Every other Tuesday at 10:30pm ET, 7:30pm PT
Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org
www.edrobertson.com
www.tvconfidential.net
blog.tvconfidential.net

Remembering William Conrad and Isaac Hayes on TV Confidential

In you case you missed it, last week’s edition of TV CONFIDENTIAL is now available on the archives page of our website, www.tvconfidential.net. Paul Robert Coyle joined Frankie and me in our look back at the career of William Conrad, from his radio work on Gunsmoke, to his behind-the-scenes work as head of Warner Bros. Television, from his versatility as Narrator on Rocky & Bullwinkle and The Fugitive, to his starring roles in Cannon and Jake and The Fatman. We also paid tribute to Isaac Hayes and his work with James Garner on The Rockford Files.

Ed Robertson
Pop Culture Critic and Television Historian
Co-Host, TV CONFIDENTIAL
Every other Tuesday at 10:3opm ET, 7:30pm PT
Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org
www.edrobertson.com
www.tvconfidential.net
blog.tvconfidential.net
Also available as a podcast via iTunes

Standing His Ground: Interview with Brian Copeland about “Not a Genuine Black Man”

Brian Copeland is one of the top voices on KGO radio, but he also knows his television. When he first developed Not a Genuine Black Man—his riveting one-man show about growing up black in San Leandro in the early 1970s, at a time when the East Bay suburb was notoriously 99.9 percent white and determined to keep it that way—he set out to capture the style of All in the Family, Good Times, Maude and other groundbreaking comedies produced by Norman Lear, where the audience finds themselves laughing hysterically one moment and sobbing the next. “It would be really funny—then you’d find out Edith got raped, and you’d go, ‘Where in the hell did that came from?’” he explains. “Or you’d watch Good Times, there’d be a hilarious line, then all of a sudden J.J. gets shot by a gangbanger. So when I wrote the show, I knew the rhythms I wanted were the rhythms of Norman Lear.”Copeland nails those rhythms in Genuine, the long-running San Francisco solo show from 2004 that recently debuted in San Jose after successful runs in Los Angeles and off-Broadway. The show runs at the Historic Hoover Theatre through Aug. 24. At a time when Barack Obama calls for a national discussion on race in America, Copeland provides that and more in a two-hour roller-coaster ride that explores how our surroundings (and surviving them) make us who we are.

I recently had a chance to chat with Brian Copeland for The Wave Magazine. Among other topics, we spoke about his one-man show, his beginnings in stand-up comedy, and how making a roomful of people laugh really is better than sex. An excerpt from our conversation appears below; the complete interview is available by clicking here.

 

What made you want to be a comic?

BC: I always loved comedy growing up. Then when I was in high school, I saw Richard Pryor: Live in Concert on HBO, and it literally changed my life. I did not know that comedy could be like that. Here’s a guy who’s talking about all of the things that happened to him the previous year, about being drunk on vodka and shooting the tires off his wife’s car and leaving, about his heart attack and having a dialogue with his heart (“Please don’t kill me”), about snorting cocaine and about how his father behaved at his mother’s funeral. In fact, Genuine is a lot like that concert film in spirit, because it’s very truthful.This was the early ’80s (I was class of ’82). The comedy boom was just starting. Tommy Thomas, who’d been my CYO baseball coach when I was a fifth grader, opened up the original Tommy T’s Comedy House in San Leandro, right up the street from my house. The week after I graduated from high school, I called Tommy and said, “I’m thinking about trying comedy. Do you have an open mic night?” This was like five o’clock on a Tuesday. He said, “No, but I have a comic sick tonight, can you do about 15 minutes?” Being 18 years old, I said, “Sure!” Today I’d say, “Are you out of your mind?” But I’m 18 years old, “Sure!”So I pulled out the newspaper and wrote a bunch of stuff. It was a small crowd, maybe 20 people, and they laughed. Tommy invited me to come back the next Tuesday. The next Tuesday, I packed the place with friends and family, I wrote some more stuff, and I killed. Then the next week I came back, wrote a bunch more stuff, and died a horrible, horrible death. I was scared to go back on stage again for about nine months.

How’d you get over it?
BC: Just got back on the horse. I realized that I missed it. I realized there was nothing that made me feel like I felt when I thought of something, wrote it down, said it in front of an audience, and they reacted and responded. There is nothing like it, Ed, it really is better than sex. And only a real comic can understand that. To write a joke that you tell in front of 250 strangers and they laugh and applaud, it is better than the best sex you ever had.

Ed Robertson
www.edrobertson.com

Remembering Isaac Hayes this week on Share-a-Vision Radio

Most of us remember Isaac Hayes for his many contributions to music, not the least of which was his Oscar-winning “Theme to Shaft,” as well as his recent work as the voice of Chef on Comedy Central’s South Park.  But for Rockford Files fans, Hayes is best known for his impressive turns as ex-con Gandolf Fitch in three episodes of the popular NBC detective series (1974-1980), most notably the second season episode “The Hammer of C Block.”

Frankie and I will pay tribute to Isaac Hayes as part of our premiere edition of TV CONFIDENTIAL, this Tuesday, Aug. 12 beginning at 10:30pm ET, 7:30pm PT on Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org.  We’ll talk about his many contributions to music, film and television starting at about 10:35pm ET, 7:35pm PT. Then, as previously announced, television writer Paul Robert Coyle will join us at 11pm ET, 8pm PT as we look back at the career of William Conrad. We hope you’ll join us.

Ed Robertson
Pop Culture Critic and Television Historian
Co-Host, TV CONFIDENTIAL
Every other Tuesday at 10:3opm ET, 7:30pm PT
beginning Aug. 12 on Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org
www.edrobertson.com
www.tvconfidential.net
blog.tvconfidential.net
Also available as a podcast via iTunes

Remembering Bernie Mac

http://news.yahoo.com/s/eonline/20080810/en_celeb_eo/23032

TV CONFIDENTIAL: Premiering Tuesday, Aug. 12 on Share-a-Vision Radio

In case you missed it, last week we announced that Dave White has officially handed over the reins of Talking Television, and that Frankie Montiforte and I will be taking over as hosts of the program beginning Tuesday, Aug. 12 at 10:30pm ET, 7:30pm PT on Share-a-Vision Radio. As we also announced last week, the program will now be called TV CONFIDENTIAL, and will be broadcast every other Tuesday at 10:30pm ET, 7:30pm PT (instead of weekly, as before).

Other than those two changes, TV CONFIDENTIAL will be the same program you know as Talking Television, only with different hosts. We’ll have many of the same features, such as our DVD report and David Krell’s commentary, plus we’ll continue to take you behind the scenes of your favorite shows and pay tribute to your favorite TV personalities. In fact, on our Tuesday, Aug. 12 program, we’ll look back at the career of William Conrad—from his early days as the radio voice of Matt Dillon to his memorable work as the narrator on Rocky & Bullwinkle and, of course, The Fugitive, from his behind-the-scenes work as a TV producer to his starring roles in Cannon and Jake and The Fatman.

Paul Robert Coyle, who worked with Bill on Jake and The Fatman, will be joining us on Tuesday, Aug. 12… we hope you’ll join us, too.

In the meantime, if you would to be on our email list for future announcements, or if you have an idea for a future program, please email us at our website, www.tvconfidential.net. As a matter of fact, the idea for our tribute to William Conrad originated from a regular listener—so we definitely want to hear from you!

And speaking of hearing from you… many thanks to all who wrote with feedback to our tribute to Dick Martin last week. For those who may have missed our broadcast, it is available on the archives page at www.ksav.org.

Ed Robertson
Pop Culture Critic and Television Historian
Co-Host, TV CONFIDENTIAL
Every other Tuesday at 10:3opm ET, 7:30pm PT
beginning Aug. 12 on Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org
www.edrobertson.com
www.tvconfidential.net