What’s New Choosing The Best Shows Of The Fall Television Season
This fall, the six broadcast networks will roll out 42 new weekly primetime series, most of them premiering this month in what amounts to an epic traffic jam of new programming.
We’ve been able to sneak a peek at most of the 42, so we might offer a few tips on what looks good and what looks like poison for the eyes.
Be aware that many shows shouldn’t be judged by the first episode, which often spends a lot of time setting up the premise and introducing the characters, and many shows don’t really start clicking until the season’s half over.
Consider this a field guide to help you find the ones that sound the most appealing at a time when the networks are trying to make them all sound like the Hope diamond.
ALMOST PERFECT (CBS) 8:30-9 Sundays Premieres Sept. 17
In this pleasant sitcom, Nancy Travis plays the new executive producer of TV’s hottest cop show, trying to hold her own against the all-male writing team she’s just been promoted to lead, while beginning a relationship with a prosecuting attorney (Kevin Kilner).
***
AMERICAN GOTHIC (CBS) 10-11 Fridays Premieres Sept. 22
Gary Cole is the demonic sheriff of fictional Trinity, S.C., a sleepy Southern town where evil spirits seem to hover behind every curtain. Obviously influenced by David Lynch’s “Blue Velvet” and “Twin Peaks” as well as the provincial fables of Stephen King’s stories about Maine, this has genuine thrill potential if the many confusions don’t stay that way.
***
BLESS THIS HOUSE (CBS) 8-8:30 Wednesdays Premieres Sept. 13
Andrew - the former “Diceman” - Clay and Cathy Moriarty play a 1990s Ralph and Alice Kramden in this blue collar sitcom about a frustrated postal worker and his urban family. Not very funny, but the good news is the misogynistic Clay has reformed and doesn’t threaten to “one of these days” send his Alice to the moon.
**
THE BONNIE HUNT SHOW (CBS) 8:30-9 Fridays Premieres Sept. 22
TV’s most promising comic actress, Bonnie Hunt, gets a second shot at series stardom after the failure of “The Building” a year ago - this time playing a small-town TV reporter going big-time in Chicago. Still relying on lots of improv and getting backup from fellow Second City veterans Holly Wortell and Tom Virtue. Very promising.
****
BROTHERLY LOVE (NBC) 7-7:30 Sundays Preview: Saturday, Sept. 16, 8-8:30 p.m.
Premieres Sept. 24
The gimmick here is that teen idol Joey Lawrence (“Blossom”) co-stars with his real-life brothers - Matthew and Andrew - in a sitcom in which they play brothers. Joey plays the big bro who left home, but comes back to help the widowed stepmom (Melinda Culea) he never liked hold the household together. Not bad, but it really belongs among those stickysweet TGIF Friday shows on rival ABC.
**
CAN’T HURRY LOVE (CBS) 8:30-9 Mondays Premieres Sept. 18
Nancy McKeon (“The Facts of Life”) returns to sitcomland after a long hiatus, playing a 28-year-old New Yorker, looking for love in all the wrong places, with like-minded friends Louis Mandylor and Mariska Hargitay. Amiable, but no world-beater.
**
CAROLINE IN THE CITY (NBC) 9:30-10 Thursdays Premieres Sept. 21
Lea Thompson has been in so many hit movies (“Back to the Future,” “The Beverly Hillbillies,” etc.) that one forgets she also was in “Howard the
Duck.” This series about a young comic book artist on the loose in the big city falls into the latter category - but it can’t lose because it’s between “Seinfeld” and “ER.”
*
CENTRAL PARK WEST (CBS) 9-10 Wednesdays Premieres Wednesday REST} Desperate for young demographics, CBS lured producer Darren Star (“Beverly Hills, 90210,” “Melrose Place”) away from Fox long enough to create a youthoriented serial drama for them. And here it is: Mariel Hemingway heads a huge ensemble as the new editor of a slick monthly magazine, but the staff vamp (Madchen Amick) sets her sights on Mariel’s hubby (Tom Verica) before the ink’s dry on her contract. Veteran stars Lauren Hutton and Ron Leibman seem lost among all the Generation X newcomers, but Hemingway stands tall, even in flats. Some promise.
***
CHARLIE GRACE (ABC) 8-9 Thursdays Premieres Thursday
Mark Harmon keeps trying for a hit show, this time as a very ‘90s-type version of the standard Raymond Chandler noir private eye. He does most everything like all the other Philip Marlowe-style private eyes you’ve ever seen, except he’s a single dad raising an adolescent daughter (Leelee Sobieski) and is definitely in touch with his feminine side. Comfy, but nothing special.
***
THE CLIENT (CBS) 8-9 Tuesdays Previews: Sunday, Sept. 17, 9-11 p.m. Premieres Sept. 19.
JoBeth Williams takes leave from the big screen to star in her first weekly TV series, ironically based on a big screen movie hit whose original star (Susan Sarandon) earned an Oscar nomination in it. Williams plays author John Grisham’s Atlanta-based defense lawyer, Reggie Love, a recovering alcoholic who’s trying to get her children back from her ex-husband. John Heard, Ossie Davis and Polly Holliday provide support. Well-acted, but needs more credible scripts.
**
COURTHOUSE (CBS) 10-11 Wednesdays Premieres Sept. 13
Writer-producer Deborah Joy LeVine (“Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman”) is a former trial lawyer, so this courtroom drama has a veneer of reality. It also has an intolerable level of silliness, but that may dissipate quickly. Patricia Wettig (“thirtysomething”) plays the presiding judge, Brad Johnson the rangy hunk who’s the newest member of the local bench, Robin Givens the sassy public defender. There’s also a lesbian judge and a surly dog who hangs around the chambers. Pushes hard to be cutting edge, but just misses.
**
THE DREW CAREY SHOW (ABC) 8:30-9 Wednesdays Premieres Wednesday
Stand-up comic Drew Carey plays the assistant personnel director at a department store in this irresistibly mean-spirited and insult-heavy sitcom that seems to explode with laughs. Could be a real breakaway hit.
****
DWEEBS (CBS) 8-8:30 Fridays Premieres Sept. 22
The dweebs of the title are the male misfits who work with computer genius Peter Scolari and seem forever lost in cyberspace. Into their lives comes new office manager Farrah Forke, who immediately becomes den mother to technonerds Adam Biesk, Corey Feldman, David Kaufman, Stephen Tobolowsky and even bossman Scolari. This ought to be a Silicon Valley smash.
***
THE HOME COURT (NBC) 9:30-10 Saturdays Premieres Sept. 30
Pamela Reed plays family court Judge Sydney J. Solomon in this irritating sitcom about the difficulties of resolving problems in court that she’s not too sure she’s resolving all that well at home. Like fingernails on a blackboard.
*
HUDSON STREET (ABC) 8:30-9 Tuesdays Premieres Sept. 19
Tony Danza is two for two in sitcoms (“Taxi,” “Who’s the Boss?”), and he may go three for three with this one, in which he plays a divorced New Jersey police detective who’s raising a 10-year-old son. Romantic complications ensue when he meets police reporter Lori Loughlin and, against all odds, gets interested. They’re likable and generate heat.
***
IF NOT FOR YOU (CBS) 9:30-10 Mondays Premieres Sept. 18
This is a sitcom about love at first sight - between Elizabeth McGovern, who’s engaged to someone else, and stranger Hank Azaria, who sets bells ringing when he comes into her life. The people are interesting, but the show isn’t yet.
**
JAG (NBC) 8-9 Saturdays Premieres Sept. 23, 8-10 p.m.
This one-hour action/adventure series from the producer of “Magnum, P.I.” introduces a promising new male heartthrob in David James Elliott, who plays Navy lawyer Lt. Harmon Rabb Jr., who works for the Judge Advocate General (JAG), prosecuting crimes in the Navy. Based on the pilot episode, this is a strong contender with an appealing new hero.
** 1/2
THE JEFF FOXWORTHY SHOW (ABC) 8-8:30 Saturdays Previews Tuesday at 8:30 p.m. Premieres Saturday
Jeff Foxworthy is a specialist in “redneck” comedy of the Southern variety. In this unpreviewed sitcom, Foxworthy plays a blue collar hick transplanted to Indiana, where he runs a heating and air-conditioning service and wife Karen (Anita Barone) works as a part-time nurse.
MAYBE THIS TIME (ABC) 8:30-9 Saturdays Previews Friday, 9:30-10 p.m. Premieres Saturday
Singer Marie Osmond does her first sitcom, playing a newly divorced mom trying to make it by running a small-town cafe with the help of her romantic mom (Betty White), a Scottish cook (Craig Ferguson) and a precocious 11-year-old daughter (Ashley Johnson). Good people, but a show that needs more humor.
**
MINOR ADJUSTMENTS (NBC) 7:30-8 Sundays Previews Saturday, 8:30-9 p.m. Premieres Sept. 24
Stand-up comic Rondell Sheridan plays an unorthodox child psychologist in this forgettable sitcom, which has lots of problems, not the least of which is being on opposite “60 Minutes.”
*
MISERY LOVES COMPANY (Fox) 9:30-10 Sundays Premieres Oct. 1; repeats 11:30-midnight, Oct. 7.
This is a comedy about guys in the throes of divorce, which doesn’t seem like much fun, based on what you get to see here. Dennis Boutsikaris, Stephen Furst and Julius Carry play the ex-husbands - or about to be ex-husbands - and the lone romantic idealist about marriage is never-married Christopher Meloni.
*
THE MONROES (ABC) 9-10 Thursdays Previews Tuesday, 10-11 p.m. Premieres Thursday
This is a serial drama in the tradition of “Dallas” or “Dynasty,” except that it has nothing to do with oil. William Devane plays the patriarch of the Monroe clan - a powerful Maryland business magnate who’s interested in a political career. His skirt-chasing son (David Andrews) already has one - he’s a congressman. His daughter (Cecil Hoffmann) is a defense lawyer who’s involved in a secret affair with a Washington bigwig. There are other Monroe kids, but the most decent one is an astronaut (Steven Eckholdt), who hates politics and his dad’s self-serving agenda. Perhaps a tad over-familiar.
**
MURDER ONE (ABC) 10-11 Thursdays Previews: Tuesday, Sept. 19, 10-11 p.m. Premieres: Oct. 12
Producer Steven Bochco (“Hill Street Blues,” “NYPD Blue”) again comes up with the class act of a new TV season: A courtroom drama that will follow cagey defense lawyer Daniel Benzali through a season-long trial of a Los Angeles wheeler-dealer who’s charged with a scandalous rape/murder. First-rate drama.
****
THE NAKED TRUTH (ABC) 9:30-10 Wednesdays Premieres Sept. 13
Tea Leoni keeps threatening to become a big star and this may be the show that does it. She plays a divorced socialite who needs to earn a living, so she goes to work as a photographer for a tabloid newspaper. Crisply paced and funny.
***
NED AND STACEY (Fox) 9:30-10 Mondays Premieres Monday
Thomas Haden Church, the lovable dope of a mechanic on NBC’s “Wings,” starts his own show, playing an insufferable business executive who marries a stranger (Debra Messing) in order to improve his corporate image. Her motive: She needed a nice apartment. When you start with values that shallow, don’t expect much.
*
NEW YORK NEWS (CBS) 9-10 Thursdays Premieres Sept. 28
In this unpreviewed drama series, Mary Tyler Moore plays the hardshelled editor of a New York tabloid newspaper, presiding over a mostly youthful staff, save for gossip columnist Madeline Kahn. Don’t look for Lou Grant to come aboard as an editor anytime soon.
PARTNERS (Fox) 9-9:30 Mondays Premieres Monday
This comedy is about two guys (Jon Cryer, Tate Donovan) who are partners in just about everything, including a San Francisco architectural firm. But when Donovan decides to marry girlfriend Maria Pitillo, Cryer figures he ought to be a partner in that, too. Not real promising.
*
THE PRESTON EPISODES (Fox) 8:30-9 Saturdays Premieres Saturday night; premiere episode repeats 11:30 p.m.-midnight, Sept. 23.
Despite the awful title, this looks like a very funny show, based on a preview segment. The title character is David Preston, played by David Alan Grier from “In Living Color,” a newly divorced college professor who decides to go for a career as a writer in New York City - and winds up working for a puff-piece mag styled after People. Grier is a howl and Clive Revill as his belligerent editor is a riot.
***
PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS (NBC) 9:30-10 Tuesdays Premieres Sept. 19
Tom Amandes is the central character in this ensemble comedy about an idealistic young lawyer trying to make it in Chicago. Nothing too fresh here. We should expect more from producers whose previous hits include “Cheers,” “Wings” and “Frasier.”
**
THE SINGLE GUY (NBC) 8:30-9 Thursdays Premieres Sept. 21
Jonathan Silverman is the last surviving single guy in his circle of friends, and this comedy is about the dizzy swirl of blind dates and fixer-uppers this particular single guy gets. A likable ensemble, including MingNa Wen, who was that earnest intern on “ER” last season, and Oscar-winner Ernest Borgnine as the single guy’s apartment doorman. Has hopes.
** 1/2
SPACE: ABOVE AND BEYOND (Fox) 7-8 Sundays Premieres Sept. 24 from 7-9 p.m.
Writers Glen Morgan and James Wong, who labored long with Fox’s hit “The X-Files,” have left to start this space action series about a squadron of young Marine Corps space pilots who must stop a race of aliens determined to conquer Earth in the year 2063. Basically, this is an upgraded “Battlestar Galactica” with considerable promise.
*** STRANGE LUCK (Fox) 8-9 Fridays Premieres Friday; repeats 11 p.m.-midnight Sept. 16
D.B. Sweeney plays Chance Harper, a photojournalist who’s had uncommon luck ever since he survived a plane crash that killed most everybody else aboard - like he keeps winning the lottery, rescuing people, finding suitcases full of money, etc. Now if only he could find a few good scripts.
*
TOO SOMETHING (Fox) 8:30-9 Sundays Premieres Oct. 1; repeats 11-11:30, Oct. 7.
Eric Schaeffer and Donal Lardner Ward, the real-life writer/actor team who made “My Life’s in Turnaround,” play people sort of like themselves in this buddy comedy about two guys trying to become famous without doing anything to deserve it. Too something, all right.
*
COMING LATER
Buddies (ABC) is about a white married guy (Christopher Gartin) and a black single guy (Dave Chappelle) who are best friends and run a film and video-tape business together. This is a first-rate howler, and the veteran Judith Ivey, who plays Gartin’s trash-mouthed mother-in-law, steals the show.
Champs (ABC) is a warm family show starring Timothy Busfield as a family man whose extended family includes the guys who played on his championship high school basketball team in 1973. The first show from the celebrated new DreamWorks company is produced by Gary David Goldberg (“Family Ties,” “Brooklyn Bridge”).
Divas (Fox) is a drama from producer Thomas Carter (“Under One Roof”) about four young female singers making their way up the R&B charts.
The Faculty (ABC) is a half-hour sitcom starring Meredith Baxter as the idealistic vice principal of a junior high school where idealism keeps getting it in the neck.
Kindred: The Embraced (Fox) picks up the flavor of Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles for this drama about all those vampires living (or is it reliving?) in modern San Francisco. Mark Frankel heads the feuding clans while C. Thomas Howell is the police detective probing their subculture.
The Last Frontier (Fox) is about a female public relations executive for an oil company, trying to put the lid on an oil spill in Alaska, who rents a guest house from three primitive macho-men.
Local Heroes (Fox) stars Ken Campbell of “Herman’s Head” in a comedy about old high school buddies trying to cope with adult life in a small town near Pittsburgh.
Matt Waters (CBS) is a one-hour drama starring talk show host Montel Williams as a Navy veteran who becomes a science teacher at an inner-city high school.
The New Muppets (ABC) brings Jim Henson’s delightful characters back to prime time with their make-believe broadcasts from TV station KMUP.
The Pastor’s Wife (Fox) pools the resources of the creative teams of “Picket Fences” and “Northern Exposure” for a whimsical comedy/ drama about the young pastor (Kyle Chandler) of Grace Lutheran Church on Staten Island.
Profit (Fox) charts the dramatic rise of a ruthless junior executive (Adrian Pasdar) who will do whatever it takes to get to the top.
Second Noah (ABC) is a one-hour drama starring Betsy Brantley and Daniel Hugh Kelly as the adoptive parents of eight children - and 40 animals - who live next door to a wild animal park.
Third Rock from the Sun (NBC) is a goofy, but irresistible sitcom starring John Lithgow as the head of an extraterrestrial family stranded on Earth. He gets a job as a teacher, working with Earthwoman Jane Curtin, who’s seen all this before in “The Coneheads.”