FOX Unveils its Fall 2013 Line-Up, with Bones on the Move and New Girl Winning!

Overall Fox's schedule is one of the more stable schedules, they cancelled one of the smaller number of shows, but also cancelled the loose ends or less than stellar shows from their network.  The most interesting thing about this schedule announcement is that Bones will start on Mondays in the fall, but then move to Friday, this is an interesting move, and making Friday much more competitive. FOX has the Super Bowl this year,  and they picked....New Girl to follow (thankfully not X-Factor).  This is one of the smartest moves a network has made for a post Superbowl show in a few years.  

Glee will replaced in 2014, and return late in spring to finish its season in June. I think Glee's awkward schedule proves it longer has the power, and is seen as more vulnerable, than something FOX can bank upon.  I am intrigued to see 24 come back as a limited series.  This is not a bad move, but seems out of the blue.  FOX's midseason shows are as follows: Gang Related, The Following, Us & Them, Surviving Jack, and Murder Police.  I am proud FOX stuck with the Following! Listed below is the full schedule and some of the descriptions of the shows.

MONDAY
8/7c Bones (fall)/ALMOST HUMAN (late fall)
9 pm SLEEPY HOLLOW (fall)/ The Following (midseason)

TUESDAY
8 pm DADS
8:30 pm BROOKLYN NINE-NINE
9 pm New Girl
9:30 pm The Mindy Project

WEDNESDAY
8 pm The X Factor (fall)/American Idol (midseason)

THURSDAY
8 pm The X Factor Results (fall)/American Idol results (midseason)
9 pm Glee (fall)/RAKE (midseason)

FRIDAY
8 pm JUNIOR MASTERCHEF (fall)/Bones (late fall)
9 pm Sleepy Hollow encores (fall)/Raising Hope and ENLISTED (late fall)

SATURDAY
7 pm Fox Sports Saturday

SUNDAY
8 pm The Simpsons
8:30 pm Bob’s Burgers
9 pm Family Guy
9: 30 American Dad

Gang Related (Drama)
EPs | Scott Rosenbaum (The Shield), Chris Morgan (Fast & Furious)
CAST | Terry O’Quinn (Lost), Ramon Rodriguez (Charlie’s Angels), Jay Hernandez (Last Resort), Sung Kang (The Fast and the Furious), Inbar Lavi (Underemployed), Rza, Cliff Curtis (Missing), Shantel VanSanten (One Tree Hill)
Follows a gang member sent in to infiltrate the San Francisco Police Department and rise through its ranks — ultimately landing on the Gang Task Force. There, he must balance his obligations to his crime family with an increasing sense of loyalty to his new “family” on the SFPD.

Almost Human (Drama)
EPs | J.H. Wyman, J.J. Abrams and Bryan Burk (Fringe)
CAST | Karl Urban (Star Trek), Michael Ealy (Common Law), Lili Taylor (Six Feet Under), Minka Kelly (Friday Night Lights), Michael Irby (The Unit), Mackenzie Crook (Pirates of the Caribbean), Mekia Cox
An action-packed buddy cop show set in the near future when all LAPD officers are partnered with highly evolved human-like androids.

Rake (Drama)
EPs | Peter Duncan (creator of the Australian series of the same name), Peter Tolan (Rescue Me), Michael Wimer, Greg Kinnear
CAST | Greg Kinnear (Little Miss Sunshine), Miranda Otto (Lord of the Rings), Necar Zadegan (Emily Owens, M.D.), Bojana Novakovic (Edge Of Darkness), John Ortiz (Luck), David Harbour (The Newsroom), Tara Summers (Boston Legal)
Centers around Keegan Joye, a brilliant but self-destructive criminal defense lawyer.

Sleepy Hollow (Drama)
EPs | Alex Kurtzman and Bob Orci (Star Trek)
CAST | Orlando Jones (MADtv), Katia Winter (Dexter), Nicole Beharie (The Good Wife), Tom Mison (Parade’s End), guest star John Cho (Go On)
A modern-day supernatural thriller based on the legend of the titular Westchester Country, N.Y. town

Brooklyn Nine-Nine (Comedy)
EPs | Mike Schur and Dan Goor (Parks and Recreation)
CAST | Andy Samberg (Saturday Night Live), Andre Braugher (Last Resort), Terry Crews (Are We There Yet?), Melissa Fumero (One Life to Live), Joe Lo Truglio (Free Agents)
The single-camera project revolves around a diverse group of detectives in a precinct at the very edge of New York City.

Dads (Comedy)
EPs | Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy), Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild
CAST | Seth Green (Family Guy), Giovanni Ribisi (Friends), Brenda Song (The Suite Life On Deck), Peter Riegert (The Good Wife), Martin Mull (Roseanne, Arrested Development), Tonita Castro (Go On), Erin Pineda, Vanessa Lachey (Hawaii Five-0)
The live-action, multi-cam comedy, which has already earned a six-episode order, revolves around two successful guys in their 30s who find their lives turned upside-down when their nightmare fathers unexpectedly move in with them.

Enlisted (Comedy)
EP | Kevin Biegel (Cougar Town)
CAST | Keith David (The Cape), Geoff Stults (The Finder), Parker Young (Suburgatory), Chris Lowell (Private Practice), Angelique Cabral (Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23)
Based on Biegel’s relationship with his siblings, this single-cam comedy follows three very different brothers working together in the Army at a small base in Florida.

Surviving Jack (Comedy)
EPs | Bill Lawrence (Cougar Town), Patrick Schumacker ($#*! My Dad Says), Jeff Ingold, Justin Halpern ($#*! My Dad Says)
CAST | Chris Meloni (Law & Order: SVU), Alex Kapp Horner (The New Adventures of Old Christine), Connor Buckley (Deception), Claudia Lee (Hart of Dixie), Kevin Hernandez, Tyler Foden
An adaptation of Halpern’s book I Suck at Girls, the single-cam comedy tells the story of “a boy becoming a man and a man becoming a father, in a time before ‘coming of age’ was something you could Google.”

Us & Them (Comedy)
EPs | David Rosen (I Just Want My Pants Back), Gavin & Stacey creators James Corden and Ruth Jones, Jane Tranter, Julie Gardner and Henry Normal
CAST | Jason Ritter (Parenthood), Alexis Bledel (Gilmore Girls), Kurt Fuller (Psych), Jane Kaczmarek (Malcolm in the Middle), Kerri Kenney (Reno 911!), Dustin Ybarra
A single-camera adaptation of the UK series Gavin & Stacey, about two very different lovers who try to make a long-distance relationship work.

Jumping the Shark Part 3: Revenge of the Sitcom, Drama, and Beyond

Revenge (2011-Present) Remember when Emily Thorne had a list and she crossed names out on the list?  The show was about revenge, and the simplicity of her avenging her father's death, and then enter the initiative.  This season has had a few episode which brought out some of those traditional things which made the first season great, but I hate to say I was right, but I was right.  This simple show about revenge should have a short shelf life, but the creator is stretching out the concept too thin, and not focusing enough on the basics.  I loved the simple red sharpie, and the way each episode Emily/Amanda got revenge on someone who contributed to the downfall of her father.  Emily's mother being alive was wasted, and the shows fans can tell.  Time to keep it simple folks, do not let this show go on too much longer.

American Idol (2002-Present) Whoever the judges are, and whatever beef they have with one another it's time to put this show out of its misery.  The show is no longer relevant, and often feels like a bad karaoke contest.  I am tired of shows like this focusing on the judges and host rather than the actual talent.  This show not about Nicki vs. Mariah, but that's what is has turned into now.  Get this show off the air and put it out of its misery!

Saturday Night Live (1975-Present)-Justin Timberlake can come back as host as many times as you want, but he is not going to save your show forever.  This show has peaks and valleys, but the most recent years beyond some of the strong female talent have proven to be worse than the SNL of the 80s which is saying a lot!  Host after host this season has been atrocious, and only Timberlake could back bring in the ratings and deliver.  Yet it was the weakest of his five past performances because the writing is just plain terrible, and the talent on the show is so lackluster these people would be booed off stage at the Chuckle Hut. This show has jumped the shark many times, but these past few seasons prove more miserable than most.

Family Guy (1999-Present) MacFarlane is slowly becoming one of the most bankable funny men in media, but the television series which put him on the map has lost so much of his time an attention its starting to tarnish his brand a little.  Is the quality of this show preventing him from getting more work, No!  MacFarlane hosted the Oscars, had Ted, and is working on his first non animated sitcom; he is doing just fine.  So who suffers, the original fans of Family Guy because the show is just not funny anymore, and the schtick of the obnoxious talking baby Stewie has worn off.    Time to put this show to bed, and let America love different shows from this comic genius.

The Reality of Reality Television:American Idol Edition (and other Music Competition Programs), The Same Old Song

Today American Idol filled one of the vacant judge spots with superstar/singer Mariah Carey.  I have a lot of gay male friends who will tune in to watch their diva critique the contestants.  Two of the shows seats were recently vacated by Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler.  Lately the judges from American and Idol and X Factor have been making the biggest splash in the news, hence the problematic trend with these shows, but I will get to this problem.  The main problem is quantity vs. quality.  When I talk about quantity with respect to reality television I am speaking to their need to try and "compete" and have the "next big thing" on the air.

At the moment I can name five reality competition programs about singing: American Idol, The Voice, X Factor, Duets, The Glee Project, and two shows that were cancelled, The Sing Off, Going Platinum. Five is not a large number, but is there something that makes each show unique?  I have seen 3 of the five shows still on the air, I have avoided The Glee Project and Duets.  I regularly watched American Idol during the first three seasons and after that on and off until Adam Lambert lost proving this show likes washed out white male guitar players.  X Factor was Simon saying I want to go do my show I did in the UK on my own in the states, the show only had one unique factor asking, do you have the X Factor?  What does that even mean?  The Voice has swivel chairs and contestants are judged purely on their voice, until the judges see them and America votes.  I can't comment on Duets but Glee's reality program seems to be in place to provide cheap talent for the regular series.  This is the state of music competition programs today.

Let's go back to the beginning (in the States).  Although the root of the first major series in this vein is an Australian/Brit combo.  The original show in Australia was entitled Popstars, and soon after Nigel Lythgoe saw the series he brought it to Britain and renamed the show Pop Idol.  The team on Nigel Lythgoe, Simon Fuller, and Simon Cowell combined their concepts and brought the show to United States where Rupert Murdoch's daughter convinced her father to buy the show; he did, it was renamed American Idol, and it debuted in the Summer of 2002.

One thing that hooked American audiences from the start was the panel, whom all were musicians or worked as producers, or choreographers.  The first was often realistic Randy Jackson (still with the show) who was a member of Journey, and has played with Carlos Santana, and many other musicians. The next was the middle judge pop star from the 90s Paula Abdul whose positivity often seemed as though she was straight up high.  Finally American audiences fell in love with the judge in the third seat Simon Cowell whose snark combined with his accent made him hard to hate with his blunt statements.  Throw in some eager talented hopefuls eager to want to make it big, and some terrible singers thinking they could make it big.  Then of course in the first season there was also the element of the host or well hosts playing nice between the contestants and the judges Ryan Seacrest and the forgotten Brian Dunkleman.

The show produced some, not many major stars within the music industry namely Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Chris Daughtry, and Clay Aiken. These are top four selling artists from the show.  When you look at past winners and even losers their album sales are pretty pitiful.  Same thing can be said for the other winners/losers of the other reality series.  Why continue to make these shows if the artists make no money/get dropped from their labels, the ratings keep slowly dipping, and the judges keep asking for more and more money?

At the moment I would state my main gripe within this vein of reality competition programming centers on the focus on the celebrity judges.  In a good reality show the judges are the main stays, they are the returning characters season after season, but they should not be the reason you watch a show.  The contestants should matter just as much as the judges, they do not need to become as big as the judges, but the point of these shows like within The Voice is mentorship.  Yet within The Voice and American Idol, and now this season of X Factor we are focused on Christina and Adam bickering, Mariah Carey being hired, and Britney Spears judging a singing competition (I am just as puzzled on that fact as many other people are).  Then there are the hosts who are either bland, Carson Daly or stealing the spotlight themselves, Ryan Seacrest.

These shows are grasping at straws.  Duets marketing proved to try and state they did not need swivel chairs, they were different from all the other shows, and they had a former winner from one.  What was the end result, from the word of others something cool in the beginning (like The Voice) that turned out to be the same as the rest of the shows in the end.  Proving this genre needs more than a quick fix and a new judge or two.  I have been sitting on these thoughts since I decided to watch and finish this season of The Voice.  The show ended on such a low note where the winner's name escapes me, and the show flatlined from the fun originality.  Maybe America is easily distracted by a spinning chair, and shows need more than then cheap gadgets to revive a genre.  All signs point to yes.

Season (Series) Finales the Best and the Worst (Spoilers Inside)

Worst Reality Show FinaleThe Voice/American Idol (tie)-I only regularly watched The Voice, I never watched Idol, but all both shows have a hit a point where once the competition begins the excitement is lost.  As The Voice was narrowed down to fewer and fewer contestants the I got more and more bored because the show seems to focus more on the judges bickering.  Idol picked another white boy who plays a guitar?  Will this show realize there is a problem?  Jennifer Lopez is selfish and wants more money for doing nothing.  The problem with these shows and the reason they are bad is that the judges/hosts takeover. Time to go away, or re-tool, in a major way.


Best Series Finale

Desperate Housewives- I am only going to count the second part of the two hour episode (couldn't they have just split them into two different weeks?)  The show was fun, and ended perfectly, the same way it began, with friendship, poker, and mysteries of the suburbs.  There were a lot of great scenes referencing the first season/episode, and the last scene with Susan driving past the dead residents of Wisteria Lane, was haunting yet touching.

Biggest Letdown 

How I Met Your Mother-I love this show, but I am tired of the run around.  The show runners need to get their act together and just take a direct path to meeting the mother, which is the so called point of this show.  I get that they like to focus on Barney, because he became so popular, but honestly the ending left me unsatisfied. Throughout the whole episode I became comfortable in the fact that Barney was going to pick Quinn even though I figured it would be Robin.  I was happy Barney had moved on and of course the pull the old switcheroo.  This show needs to move forward I feel like I have been stuck seeing the same thing.

Best Musical Show Finale

Smash-The show got back to the roots.  The first few episodes of this show were good because they were about the production, the middle got bogged down in drama in everyone's personal, but the last few episodes did a boomerang to make the last episode the best of the season.  Smash had energy, and made things come together for the test run in Boston.


Worst Season Finale (Comedy)


30 Rock-This show has lost its spunk.  I am glad season seven is the last because this season has devolved into something I hoped it would not, something less funny.  Jack's story with Avery was awful, the live episodes was solid enough, but could not save the season.  I love you 30 Rock but this was your worst season, and the finale did not help.  This was the worst for me because the show proved that even their writing could not save their bad story lines (I love you Tina).
Worst Season Finale  (Drama)
Grey's Anatomy-The finale made me want to re-watch all of the seasons and catch up (but only because I missed Bailey and Christina).  The death of Lexie Grey was so quick and sudden I barely had time to process.  At the half  way point I said "Was that real? Did that happen?  Did she die that quick without any payoff?"  While I applaud Rhimes for making her death more realistic, in a television drama you can take some liberties; she was a major character in the shows history and I feel like her death was handled poorly.

Best Season Finale (Comedy)


Parks and Recreation-The buildup for Leslie Knope's city council campaign was done incredibly well, and in the end she lost, but then won with a recount.  The episode was the perfect combination of humor and touching moments.  The characters have continued to develop and find their place, like Andy potentially being a cop.  I think this show has great character, and ended perfectly.


Best Season Finale (Drama and Of the Season)


Revenge-This is how you end a season!! This show slowed down a little in the middle and after the hiatus, but ran on full cylinders in the finale. Emily  and Daniel are done, look for her former best friend Ashley to knock boots with Daniel next season! Emily kicked some ass with the WHM, and thankfully saved Nolan.  Fake Amanda is pregnant with Jack's baby (I don't think its real or it's not Jack's baby).  Then to top it all off Queen Grayson (Victoria) and her friend Lydia get on a plane, and the plane explodes, was Victoria on the plane?  Charlotte sees the news takes too many pills and her father comes in to try and save her.  Then to top it all off Nolan shows Em a video and says her mother is alive...boom ends.  Jam packed action and suspense, way to go!