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."

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.

Swordplay and Teen Angst: NBC's Merlin

Some stories never get old and are often reimagined. Even though I’ve seen dozens of versions of the Camelot story (Disney’s Sword in the Stone or NBC’s 1998 miniseries come to mind), the modern story telling in 2009’s ‘Merlin’ brings a fresh perspective to the story, giving the Arthurian legend the WB Smallville treatment, complete with buff teen heroes and vivacious damsels. NBC lured key demographics by premiering new Harry Potter previews during the show’s Sunday, June 21st debut. The ploy worked.

Filmed at a gorgeous Napoleon-commissioned Medieval style castle in France, Merlin is a retelling of the classic Camelot tale with updates that speak to a younger audience. Prince Arthur is not yet the noble king of legend. As a teen his is the arrogant quarterback character, the spoiled Prince who bullies the peasants. In short, he’s Lex Luthor to Merlin’s Clark Kent. However, Merlin is tasked by the last living dragon to shepherd Arthur into manhood, helping to form him into the once and future king. Merlin is reticent to accept the task but the dragon relentlessly affirms that helping Arthur become a noble king is Merlin’s destiny. Only the dragon and court physician Gaius know Merlin’s secret– that he has special powers. Merlin, like Clark Kent and Harry Potter when away from Hogwart’s, must keep his powers secret because King Uthur banned magic in the kingdom twenty years prior. Uther slew all the dragons as well, save one, which he inexplicably chained in a cavern beneath the castle, a perfect place from which to dispense cryptic advice to novice Merlin.

The series is a British import that originally aired last year on the BBC. Newcomers Colin Morgan, Bradley James, Katie McGrath and Angel Coulby provide the teen cast constituents. Anthony Head plays King Uther. Buffy fans will remember Head as Niles, Buffy’s mentor in the Joss Whedon series. John Hurt provides the voice of the dragon. He will reprise his role of Mr. Ollivander the wand merchant in ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows.’

The thirteen episode series explores many of the same themes as ‘Smallville’ and Harry Potter: teen angst, girl troubles, competition with others and the constant threat of death. Having seen only the first two episodes which NBC aired back-to-back, I am filled with hope that the series will be as great as it can be. Even if it’s only good, that’s better than most shows on air today. In a summer utterly bereft of interesting television, this update of Arthurian lore is a welcome addition. Catch new episodes Sundays through the summer on NBC or anytime at NBC.com