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 […]

  NBC’s one slightly surprising choice for the fall schedule was DRACULA, not because it doesn’t fit with its Grimm lead-in, but just that its straight-to-series order had been somewhat under the radar in the bustle of pilot season.  NBC’s trailer provides our first glimpse. “Teaser” may be a better word for the piece, since […]

  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 […]

  No name has more cachet at CBS than Chuck Lorre’s.  He’s given the network The Big Bang Theory, 2 1/2 Men and Mike & Molly, and hopes are high that his MOM, taking over the Monday 9:30PM timeslot this fall, can join those at the top of the ratings heap.  The network’s behind-the-scenes featurette, […]

  ABC wraps up its all-new Tuesday night with LUCKY 7, a wish-fulfillment (and probably a “be careful what you wish for”) drama about a group of 7 blue-collar workers at a Queens gas station who hit the lottery for $45M.  It’s set to air against Chicago Fire on NBC and whatever CBS is planning […]

  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 […]

  We’re continuing our look through FOX’s fall trailers with SLEEPY HOLLOW, which will hold the Monday 9PM slot until The Following takes it back at midseason.  It comes from genre specialists Alex Kurtzman and Robert Orci, and here’s the promo: http://youtu.be/oFOEzR9zgUo Sleepy Hollow has a bit of a second-hand feel, as though tropes from […]

  ABC has had no success at all in the Thursday 8PM slot for years, which is doubly frustrating now that 9PM and 10PM are humming along beautifully with the Grey’s Anatomy/Scandal duo.  The network is trying something familiar and yet new next season:  the spin-off ONCE UPON A TIME IN WONDERLAND, which in theory […]