Eternal Thoughts of Kevin's Mind: FOX

Showing posts with label FOX. Show all posts

Monday, May 13, 2013

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.

Thursday, May 9, 2013

FOX Orders 5 New Comedies and 4 New Dramas for the Fall Television Series

Fox has ordered 4 new Dramas, and 5 new comedies for the Fall television season. The dramas include a JJ Abrams produced futuristic cop show entitle Almost Human, and a modern day adaptation of Sleepy Hollow, entitled surprisingly Sleepy Hollow. On the other hand I think FOX's comedies sound better, or have more potential. Seth MacFarlene will be starring in, and executive producing his first live action television series entitled Dads. Chris Meloni who has underrated comedic timing (see Scrubs) will be starring in another Bill Lawrence produced series entitled Enlisted. Then their other comedies star big television stars like Jason Ritter, Alexis Bledel, and Andy Samburg.

FOX surprisingly did not pick up a comedy entitled Gabriels starring Rob Riggle who has guest starred on a lot of sitcoms lately. They also did not pick up a drama entitled Boomerang starring Felicity Huffman. Below is a list of all the shows picked up for the fall, their stars, and executive producers.

Thursday, August 30, 2012

GLAAD Fails CBS and TBS, while Showtime, ABC, and the CW Pass with Flying Colors

This year's annual GLAAD report card was released for the the major television networks, and while not much has changed the statistics are a reminder of network priorities. Here is a quick rundown from their report for basic cable networks:

The report shows that while the CW has dropped ever so slightly they still remain at the top. The CW is network with much younger demographics, and as youth become more progressive they have used more LGBT representation on shows like 90210, and LA Complex. ABC got a slight bump from Chaz Bono's appearance on Dancing with the Stars, a casting that also stirred up a lot of controversy, but the network stood by their decision. FOX dropped to third and while NBC moved up in percentages the Peacock network remained in fourth place. CBS continues to fall farther and farther, but their network and the CW have completely opposing demographics, and while I am sure Les Moonves (a good network head) wants to have a better grade he is doing things to slowly change the perception of this network. Both the last place networks have two shows focused on LGBT characters, CBS has Partners with Michael Urie and Brandon Routh as a gay couple (from the creators of Will & Grace), and NBC has The New Normal (from Ryan Murphy). These two shows could help these networks in a major way.

One thing that's clear is that the same creators create the shows centered around or that contain LGBT characters, and most of those people are gay men. Ryan Murphy, Marc Cherry, Michael Patrick King, Alan Balll Max Mutchnick all as gay men, and seem to be some of the names that pop up with gay characters at the center. I am proud that these men have achieved the success that they have, but it would be nice to see other creators incorporate LGBT folks into their framework. Show runners like David Caspe (whom I believe identifies as heterosexual) has done a great job with Max on Happy Endings, another reason for ABCs bump. Steve Levitan and Christopher Lloyd who created Modern Family should also be applauded for adding a gay male couple to their line up. The landscape is changing, but if you look at the gender of all the characters I have mentioned and the creators/producers most of them are men and the networks need to step it up on providing LB and T more.

The cable networks statistics look like this:

Showtime (46%), ABC Family (34%), TNT (34%), and HBO (33%) all received “Good” ratings for the quantity and quality of their LGBT-inclusive original programming.
MTV (23%) which received an “Excellent” score two years ago received an “Adequate” score this year along with FX (34%), TLC (20%) and USA (17%).
For the fourth year in a row TBS (5%) received a “Failing” rating, as did the History network (3%).

Interestingly enough I did not see AMC within this study, although I feel as though they were lumped into the "other cable network status" which is interesting because they have far more original programming than the History Channel. I would not assign AMC a good grade either, even though most of their programming is some of the best on television, there are no LGBT character, which I can think of. Everyone states that the cable networks are more progressive, and they take more risks, but in reality their scores are not much better than the three top scoring networks on the basic cable side.There are obviously other factors to look at, like the CBS parent company Viacom oversees Showtime so this could be seen as a win just as much as a loss.

Statistics matter, but networks should not put something on the air, just to do it. NBCs new fall comedy The New Normal appears to be a forced example getting LGBT folks on television. As networks attempt to be progressive they forget they need to shop around, and not put something on the air that lacks quality. I would rather have these numbers with quality representation than force things on viewers.

Does this report matter, yes and no. I like that there are statistics to point out the networks which show me on television, but this is also a business, and money talks. Losing affiliates is costly. Utah affiliates will not even be showing The New Normal this fall. My hope is that data like this becomes more useful, and people do not have to something like this in the future because it just becomes a natural occurence to see LGBT folks in television