GALAVANT:  Winter-ish Sunday 8PM on ABC THE FACTS:  A fairy tale musical comedy from Dan Fogelman, the creator of the late, lamented (by some of us) The Neighbors, with an original score by multiple Oscar-winner Alan Menken and Glenn Slater.  It tells the tale of Prince Galavant, whose true love left him for the […]

  NBC has perfected the art of releasing bits of information each day throughout pre-Upfront week, and today’s nuggets introduced a trio of additional new sitcoms.  It appears that at least 2 of these will be given small midseason runs of 6 episodes to see if they catch anyone’s fancy before potentially expanding. MISSION CONTROL:  […]

  MIND GAMES:  Tuesday 10PM on ABC – If Nothing Else Is On… The creator of ABC’s midseason MIND GAMES, Kyle Killen, was the man behind Lone Star and Awake (as well as the movie The Beaver), so he doesn’t lack in fertile imagination.  What he hasn’t had, however, is any commercial success whatsoever, and […]

  EMPIRE:  Midseason TBD on FOX THE FACTS:  Think Nashville, but with a hip-hop beat and an A-level pedigree.  Music tycoon Lucious Lyon (Terrence Howard) is dying–although not just yet–and has to decide who between his two sons will inherit his giant company, causing all manner of family scheming.  Complicating things further:  his ex-wife (Taraji […]

  Conservative CBS is making lots of changes next fall. UPDATED with reactions to trailers, which are available here.     No network preaches the “Everything is just fine in broadcast TV” scripture louder than CBS, but the fact is that its biggest hits (The Big Bang Theory, NCIS, Survivor) are aging, and the network […]

  STAR-CROSSED:  Monday 8PM on CW – Change the Channel If aliens are in high school, we must be on CW.  The network’s midseason entry STAR-CROSSED plays as a clip reel of CW’s greatest hits, from the supernatural teen romance of The Vampire Diaries to the forbidden love of Beauty and the Beast to the […]

  KILLER WOMEN:  Tuesday 10PM on ABC – Worth A Look KILLER WOMEN can’t keep up the pace of its Kill Bill-inflected opening, but it’s a fun ride nonetheless.  The premise, adapted from an Argentine format (one of the producers is Sofia Vergara) by US series developer Hannah Shakespeare, is straightforwardly procedural:  Molly Parker (Tricia […]

  ABC made some impressive strides this past season, especially on Wednesday and Thursday, and it was probably wise that the network decided to adopt a conservative schedule for the Fall.  Here’s a quick look, along with the network’s reported midseason plans, and reviews of the new shows’ trailers (new shows are in ALL CAPS, […]