TV in the trenches

By ERIC DEGGANS

© St. Petersburg Times, published October 1, 2000

After a successful season of keeping cable at bay, the networks have turned timid once again. Don't look for any bold maneuvers this fall.

Just past the best TV season in years, basking in the afterglow of Survivor and the Summer Olympics, viewers might have expected a fall TV season bursting with innovative concepts, fresh voices and new daring.

Better think again.

This fall's crop of 30 new shows, which begins rolling out in earnest tonight, is less a bold statement than a retrenching, an intake of breath between a topsy-turvy summer and the flood of "reality TV" shows expected in early 2001.

TV in the trenches After a successful season of keeping cable at bay, the networks have turned timid once again. Don't look for any bold maneuvers this fall. No guts, no glory Networks forget the lessons of summer, filling the fall season with the same old stuff. First air dates for shows With a TV season already pushed back two weeks by the Summer Olympics, presidential and vice-presidential debates and baseball playoffs, viewers will soon discover finding their favorite shows is tougher than ever. This timeline shows when each network series is set to debut. Looking for the dud Which new show will tank first? It's harder to predict than one might guess, but we have a few ideas. The cream of the new crop One thing about bad TV: it makes you appreciate the good stuff that much more. Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

And with a host of challenges on the horizon -- from fall TV debuts disrupted by the Olympics, presidential debates and baseball playoffs to the rise of unscripted reality series and expected strikes next year by actors and writers -- now is not the time for network timidity.

Last year's best efforts -- Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, The West Wing, Once and Again, Malcolm in the Middle -- helped make network TV the place to be once again. Even some of the canceled shows, most notably CBS' Now and Again and NBC's Freaks and Geeks, wereabout something.

This fall, we get Seinfeld alum Michael Richards playing Kramer without admitting it in The Michael Richards Show, and Bette Midler channeling Lucille Ball on Bette.

Even a show focused on quality and bold statements, former Homicide star Andre Braugher's medical drama Gideon's Crossing, takes itself way too seriously to be any good.

As we'll detail in today's special fall TV preview, picking out the quality in a field this mediocre takes some guidance. We'll point out what works, what doesn't and what's likely to vanish so quickly you'll never notice.

After all, with four months between now and the next Survivor, you've got to watch something.

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