THE MCCARTHYS:  Thursday 9:30PM on CBS THE FACTS:  Ronnie McCarthy (Jake Lacy) is part of a lovingly smothering Boston Irish-Catholic family, who are just fine with him being gay but embarrass him at every turn anyway.  The series was created by Brian Gallivan, a relative newbie, so the showrunner will be Mike Sikowitz, of […]

  One of FOX’s big moves for the fall is revamping its Tuesday 8-9PM comedies, shifting sharply in tone from last falls soft duo of Raising Hope and Ben & Kate to a more guy-oriented tone.  Seth MacFarlane’s Dads has the responsibility for kicking off the night, and then the cop comedy BROOKLYN NINE-NINE is […]

  The Upfronts are over, which means the real Upfronts are about to begin–that is, the networks’ advance sale of advertising time (usually about 80% of the season’s total) for the Fall 2013 TV season.  Although last week’s Upfront presentations now serve a marketing and publicity purpose as well, their original–and still most important–goal is […]

  MULANEY:  Sunday 9:30PM on FOX THE FACTS:  John Mulaney, in real life a stand-up comic and TV comedy writer (most notably on SNL, where his biggest claim to fame may be co-creating Bill Hader’s Stefon character), plays one in the sitcom he created for himself, too.  His TV show boss is Martin Short, and […]

  Although its official Upfront presentation isn’t until tomorrow morning, NBC has unveiled its Fall 2015 primetime schedule, and here it is along with some instant analysis (new shows are in ALL CAPS, new timeslots are in italics): MONDAY 8PM:  The Voice 10PM:  BLINDSPOT (trailer here) The network may not have moved The Blacklist back […]

  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 […]

  The network averages for last week are significant because they represent a full week of sweeps programming, which means reruns were at a minimum and some stunting (although not a tremendous amount of it: a Chicago Fire/PD crossover here, the IHeartRadio Music Awards there) boosted the numbers.  In other words, barring really big events […]

  SELFIE:  Tuesday 8PM on ABC THE FACTS:  Suburgatory creator Emily Kapnek may have lost one sitcom this week, but she gained a new one, this spin on My Fair Lady.  Eliza Dooley (Karen Gillan) is an entirely self-obsessed, social  media-magnet narcissist (think a slightly less sociopathic Dahlia from Suburgatory), but when she herself gets […]