Three Mid-season TV Premieres Worth Watching

Some of you may have gotten a letter in the mail, asking you to take part in an important survey. No, not the census, no one cares about that. I'm talking about the Nielsen ratings survey. March is when the networks make their mid-season line-up adjustments in preparation for April, when Nielsen determines network ad rates. This spring's pre-sweeps premieres include a few worth watching.

"The Celebrity Apprentice," Sundays @ 9 on NBC
(New episodes available following Monday via Hulu and NBC.com)
A common gambit with a declining reality show is to add celebrities to the mix. In the case of "The Celebrity Apprentice," it works well, if only for the surreal situations: like disgraced former Illinois Governor Rob Blogojevich waiting tables along side WWE wrestler Goldberg. Or The Donald and Cyndi Lauper arguing about Rosie O'Donnell. This is the ninth season of Trump's show and the third season to pit celebs against each other for their favorite charities. It's a battle of the sexes; Sharon Osbourne, Holly Robinson Peete, Lauper, a former WWE diva, a model, a stand up comedienne and an Olympian make up the women's team, which they named Tenacity. The name sounds like a perfume, so of course the Donald likes it. Pop quiz: What is Rocksteady? A: a villain in the old 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' cartoon; B: the name of Brett Michaels' clothing line; C: the team name Brett Michaels tricked the guys into choosing to shamelessly promote his clothing line of the same name; D: all of the above. If you guessed 'D,' give yourself a cookie. No seriously, Brett Michaels is diabetic, so don't give him the cookie. On the two-hour season premier, his team raised $100,000 for the American Diabetes Association. Rocksteady, which coincidentally is also the name of a No Doubt CD, consists of Michaels, Darryl Strawberry, Goldberg, Blago, Sinbad, plus a celebrity chef and an Olympian. Trump clones Ivanka and Donald, Jr. return to assist their genetic donor in the boardroom. Donald's hair is provided by Jim Hansen's creature shop. Rob Blogojevich's hair is provided by DuPont, maker of Teflon.




"Sons of Tucson," Sundays @ 9:30 on FOX
(New episodes available following Monday via Hulu and FOX.com)
It's hard to talk about this show and not reference "Malcolm in the Middle." Justin Berfeld, who played Malcolm's older brother Reese in the 90's family sitcom, is one of the show's producers. Also on board is Todd Holland, who directed 26 episodes of "Malcolm in the Middle" as well as "The Wizard," a 1989 film that introduced the world to Fred Savage and Super Mario Brothers 3. Imagine Malcolm and his brothers being raised by an reluctant schemer, like Bernie Mac mixed with Earl Hickey. The three boy's real dad is in prison for stock fraud. Their mom was out of the picture long ago, so they're on their own. They travel from New Jersey to Tucson to claim some of their dad's ill-gotten money and a home he hid away. To stay off child services' radar, the boys need to enroll in school and for that they need a parent, so they enlist down-on-his luck Jack Black look-alike Ron Snuffkin to portray their papa. The writing is superior, delivering exchanges we haven't heard since "Malcolm." For example:

Oldest Brother Brandon: We’re working too hard. Let’s just put an ad out on Craigslist. ‘Wanted: Father to three boys.’ Bam. We’re done.
Middle Brother Gary: Great idea. A footrace between the pervs and child services. Bam. We’re screwed.

Gary is played by Frank Dolce, who starred on Broadway as "Billy Elliot." You may recognize Tyler Labine, who plays fake father Ron Snuffkin, as the slacker sidekick on CW's "The Reaper."





"Ugly Americans," Wednesdays @ 10:30 on Comedy Central
When it comes to slackers, Comedy Central's new cartoon trumps "Sons of Tucson" with the ultimate loser loafer, zombie roommate Randall Skeffington. Unemployed and undead, Randall spends his days doing odd jobs and finding replacements for his decaying body parts. "Ugly Americans" bills itself as an animated horror-comedy series. It follows Mark Lilly, social worker at the Department of Integration, as he helps new citizens both human and "other" adapt to hectic life in New York City. There are easier tasks than weaning vampires from blood, socializing land-whales, and housebreaking werewolves, but Mark is up to the challenge. Besides Mark and roommate Randall, season one introduces twenty-eight odd characters including a robot, a cyclops, a floating brain and Astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, as well as several characters not stolen from "Futurama." Oh, and magician "Christ Angel."

Fall Brings New Network Name, New Stargate Spinoff

Recently The SciFi Channel underwent some elective surgery- it had LASIK so it could lose the glasses, had it's acne lasered off and got Da Vinci veneers for it's bucked teeth. In short, it had a geek-ectomy. Since it came on the air on September 24, 1992 the channel has had a bit of a 'nerd' stigma. Early on, during the channel's awkward adolescent years, most of the programming was reruns of The Incredible Hulk, Lost In Space and Battlestar Galactica (the original series, not the slick revamp). Eventually SciFi was able to seek original programming, eventually acquiring the rebroadcast rights to ShowTime's Stargate: SG-1, a one hour action drama spun off from the Stargate movie starring Kurt Russell. The show began as an instant success and Sci Fi soon gained rights to produce new episodes of it. SG-1 lasted for five years on Showtime followed by five more on the Sci Fi Channel where it spawned a spin off of it's own, Stargate: Atlantis. Since the channel has lost it's nerdy exterior, it now goes by SyFy, a phonetically identical name that attempts to put some distance between the channel's cool present and it's dorky past. The new Syfy shows will still focus on scientific themes, but now the character drama of a show will be the focus. This has been the channel's trend for a while now. Shows like the new BattleStar Galactica don't use the science fiction aspect to drive the plot. Really, the show is a military drama that could as easily be set in space as in the Pacific Theatre of WWII or during those pioneering days of wagon trains to the west. The fact that it is set in space does not take away from the effective character drama.
The newest entry in the Stargate franchise, Stargate Universe hopes to marry themes from many contemporary science fiction series, including Battlestar Galactica, Lost, Star Trek and, of course Stargate. First, a primer on the Stargate universe. Stargates are round structures build by an ancient space fairing race. These gates are teleportation devices between worlds in other star systems. Humans discovered the one on Earth at an Egyptian dig site. SG-1 was the first team the Air Force sent through the gate, which at the time could only 'dial' to one planet. The story of that first off-world visit is told in the movie Stargate. One year after the events of the movie, the television series Stargate: SG-1 picks up the thread. Humans have finally figured out how to 'dial' all the planets in the gate system, so SG-1 was reassembled to explore them, make alliances and secure technology for the Earth's defense, which they did for ten years. Two years later Stargate Universe picks up the story. Mankind has discovered an ancient secret: a gate that can dial not just to planets in this galaxy, but to any galaxy. Of course, we they only know how to dial to one address. In a split second decision while their research base is under attack, everyone is evacuated through the Stargate to this mystery address. The escaping military and civilians end up on an ancient and vast space ship, crewless and badly damaged. They discover they are traveling the outskirts of the universe, near the outer galaxies, and that the ship had been sent on it's solo mission millions of years ago by the ancient creators of the Stargate system.
For the most part, the cast is a bunch of newcomers (read: nobodies). Ming-Na (ER, Disney's Mulan) and Lou Diamond Phillips (La Bomba) are the biggest stars in the ensemble cast, but don't let that deter you. What drives shows like this and Battlestar Galactica is how the cast interacts. Big names don't necessarily yield better interactions. With SGU the drama revolves around how each character reacts differently to their common misfortunes. The first episodes, a two part pilot titled “Air” examines how each stranded character handles their sudden change of situation, being thrown from an orderly research station through the Stargate to a cold, dark alien ship. The refugees soon learn that the ship's life support isn't working and that there are probably large section of missing hull. Due to the nature of their hasty egress some of them have severe injuries. So they have to seal the damaged ship sections, repair the life support system and treat the wounded. Unfortunately, none of them know anything about the alien ship, let alone how to use any of it's control panels. Again, the drama could be unfolding on a battleship in the Pacific just as well as a wagon train on the prairie. The specific circumstance is completely science fiction, but the way the characters deal with these problems is the show's focus. In such a stressed environment, many of the survivors lash out. Tempers are volatile as the command structure is overtly and covertly challenged. Hysteria and panic take hold. Paranoia spreads. Distrust grows. Taut psychological dramas unfold between the characters. But eventually the tension resides as solutions are found. The injured begin to recover. The scientists begin to figure out the aliens controls. The survivors make peace with their situation and finally focus on surviving. All this occurs in the first two episodes. In episode three, the ship's power fails. Imagine the opportunity for panic as the still-addled survivors must confront a new fear. Like Lost, the survivors are facing the unknown each episode, learning more about their strange situation as they explore and solve the problems thrown at them. And like Star Trek, they are likely to use their situation to explore new planets, to seek out new life and new civilizations. They have to, because without supplies or means to fix the ship they have no hope of ever seeing Earth again.
New episodes air on Syfy Fridays at 9 and are available at hulu.com and syfy.com

NBC invites us into it's Community

My faith in the sitcom format has recently been renewed, thanks to NBC’s Community. It stars the hilarious Joel McHale of The Soup fame, along with legend Chevy Chase, John Oliver (senior British correspondent for The Daily Show) and Ken Jeong (the Asian dude in The Hangover, Role Models and Pineapple Express). Focusing on Greendale Community College, Joe and Anthony Russo direct and executive produce the series. If they bring to it the cult-like fan devotion their Arrested Development garnered, this show will be a runaway hit.

In a bold marketing move that other networks are sure to imitate, NBC previewed the show on the Facebook, the most popular social networking site. American Facebook subscribers were jilted– the pilot was only viewable by users outside of the US. This was an attempt by the Peacock Network to get an unadulterated opinion on it’s new show.

The show focuses on McHale’s character, Jeff Crocker, a lawyer who discovers his undergraduate degree is not quite legit– it’s from Colombia, not Columbia. He’s forced to go to community college, and runs into Professor Ian Duncan (Oliver), a former client that he got off of a DUI charge. Crocker uses their relationship to his advantage, hoping to skate through college with Duncan providing him test answers. Of course Crocker falls for a fellow student, The Book of Daniel’s Gillian Jacobs as Britta (not like the water filter). He pretends to be a board certified Spanish tutor to insinuate himself into her graces and, eventually, pants.

From what I’ve seen, the cast is stocked with actors who are in their own right funny, but as an ensemble will prove to be blatter-bustingly so. If you can’t find a bootleg of the pilot online, you can at least see clips on NBC.com/community, and see the show's website at Greendalecommunitycollege.com.