The first day of network Upfront presentations features a doubleheader, with NBC followed by FOX.  That means another stack of trailers (unlike NBC, FOX also released the materials for its midseason shows), so let’s take a look.  Reminder:  it’s patently unfair to judge a TV series based on a 3-4 minute trailer, except that […]

  The final bit of Upfronts material released by CW is a brief clip from its midseason series STAR-CROSSED, about an alien and a human in love. A group of nervous, ostracized teens (presumably the aliens) are bused into a high school, and guy alien locks eyes with girl human, and the whole world changes, […]

  CW has released a mix of promos and short clips from its new series, which don’t do much more than provide the premises and a brief taste of the pilots.  Strong caution should be used in making any judgments from these, although we will anyway.  For THE TOMORROW PEOPLE, which will be paired with […]

  The CBS featurette for its new Monday 8:30PM comedy WE ARE MEN is at great pains to suggest that the cast–Chris Smith, Tony Shalhoub, Jerry O’Connell and Kal Penn, as divorcees who live in the same residential hotel–has as much fun together behind the camera as in front of it.  The bigger question is […]

  THE GOLDBERGS, as it will be described in roughly 10 billion places between now and September, is The Wonder Years set in the 1980s, based on the childhood of series creator Adam F. Goldberg, with Jeff Garlin as gruff but loving dad, Wendi McLendon-Covey as mom, and George Segal as grandpa, who’s losing it […]

  CBS–because it’s CBS–doesn’t release trailers for its new series, but instead provides 3-4 minute behind-the-scenes featurettes.  These are about as informative as the puff pieces you’d find as an “extra” on a Hollywood DVD, and they’re even less reliable as a predictor of series quality than a real trailer would be.  So take them […]

  In the CBS featurette for its new midseason action-adventure INTELLIGENCE (it’ll take over the Monday 10PM timeslot from Hostages), the show is variously compared to Mission: impossible, Frankenstein, The Six Million Dollar Man and James Bond.  Curiously, the one they left out was Chuck, for which this show’s concept is virtually a dead ringer:  […]

  We’re continuing our look at NBC’s crop of trailers for its fall shows (apart from The Blacklist, the network doesn’t seem to be releasing pieces for its midseason series right now), and next up is the return of a TV icon (for those who were watching TV in 1967):  IRONSIDE. What becomes increasingly clear […]