Friday, June 10, 2005

The Upfronts, Part B

Let's focus for a few minutes on NBC. Part of the reason is because those hardworking Teevee.org people did here. Another reason is because no one else has fallen so far, so fast this past year.
NBC used to be the uber-network, as we all know. Now? Outside of The Apprentice (which many accounts claim is fading fast) and Fear Factor (which people know of only for the purpose of public castigation), is anything going on at the Peacock? I used to commit myself to Friends, Seinfeld, and some other stuff, but now I don't think I watch the network at all. (I'm not a West Wing fan, sorry.)
So, what's going on there? I really don't know if I can adequately explain the anger that I have over the news that Scrubs isn't on the Fall lineup and is (presumably) being held in reserve when one of NBC's pitiful new shows dies a public, humiliating death. Who did Zach Braff piss off so badly around NBC . . . was it Katie Couric? That show is so much better than NBC treat it.
I . . . I just don't know what to say anymore. I've bemoaned this type of anti-Scrubs activity before and I just can't describe my disappointment anymore. Plus, no one at NBC cares . . . sniff.
E-Ring sounds like an attempt to recapture the glory of the best West Wing years. And while the idea of Dennis Hopper (hopefully) storming around the situation room like George C. Scott in Dr. Zhivago sounds like it could be fun--like preparing to watch a train wreck--I just don't see it working. The very fact that it seems like a West Wing spinoff makes me think of when ABC played Who Wants to Be a Millionaire on three nights of primetime. Too much of something . . . is too much of something.
Fathom is NBCs answer to Lost, but it is predicated on weird things happening in the sea. Didn't Waterworld and Sea Quest DSV teach anyone anything? You can have stuff on islands (Survivor, Lost) but you can have stuff in the water . . . it won't work. (And that is only the least likely reason this show will stink.)

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