Fall TV Sunday

The fall television schedule has got some winners. And some real losers. Sort out the ones to see - and the ones to flee.

By Eric Deggans, Times TV / Media Critic
Published September 23, 2007

Viva Laughlin

Preview 9 p.m. Oct. 18,CBS,  debut 8 p.m. Oct. 21.

Showbiz shorthand: Casino meets Chicago with Father Knows Best thrown in.

My take: Don't ask why CBS okayed a quirky musical drama about a self-centered family man building a casino in Laughlin, Nev. Instead, wonder why the show doesn't really commit to the musical format, making characters sing over well-known tunes by Elvis and the Rolling Stones, like some oddball karaoke contest.

TiVo or Ti-No? Not even hunky executive producer Hugh Jackman as a bad guy - or Tampa's Carter Jenkins as casino guy's slacker son - keeps this clunky version of the BBC's Viva Blackpool from rolling snake eyes. Ti-No.

Life Is Wild,

8 p.m., The CW, debuts Oct. 7.

Showbiz shorthand: Born Free for the High School Musical crowd.

My take: Let's say you're a Manhattan veterinarian with a typical-for-TV, whip-smart teen daughter, beautiful new wife and abrasive stepson who puts the punk in skatepunk. Do you heal your newly blended family's wounds by forcing everybody to move into a broken-down animal preserve/resort in the boondocks of South Africa? Only if you're the father in a creaky CW family drama, it seems.

TiVo or Ti-No? Unless they figure a way to cast Miley Cyrus or Zac Efron, this effort is going down like a chocolate-covered grasshopper on Meerkat Manor. Ti-No.

[Last modified September 21, 2007, 11:05:06]