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The Funny and the Freaky New Sitcoms and Eerie Drama Invade Prime Time This Fall. Cue the Aliens

Posted on: Thursday, 15 September 2005, 21:00 CDT

This fall, TV viewers can expect to laugh until they cry - that is when they aren't shrieking until they burst into hysterical laughter.

Two clear trends emerge from the new shows on the 2005-2006 prime- time schedule. Eerie dramas are huge - some involving space aliens, others concerning the paranormal - but situation comedies are back in a big way as well.

Almost every network is trying its hand at the eerie drama, but each is also in desperate search of a comedy hit.

As unlikely as that combination would seem to be, it makes a lot of sense from a business standpoint - and as ever the six major broadcast networks are nothing if not business-oriented. First, under the heading of "nothing succeeds like success," almost every network is out to mimic last season's hits "Lost" and "Medium," two series that were unabashed about drawing on sci-fi mysteries and the paranormal for their thrills.

Get this list of eerie new dramas this fall: For space aliens, there's NBC's "Surface," ABC's "Invasion" and CBS' "Threshold," while for things that merely go bump in the night there's CBS' "Ghost Whisperer," ABC's "Night Stalker" and the Warner Bros. network's aptly if not inventively named "Supernatural." Is it a mere coincidence that so many like-minded shows should come along at the same time? I think not. Only the United Paramount Network and Fox are bucking the trend, and keep in mind Fox kept the paranormal going for years with "The X-Files," while UPN already has the otherworldly mutants of "WWE Smackdown!"

UPN, however, is all over the other top trend: the search for a successful sitcom. Sitcoms tend to fare better in reruns than dramas, and they reap much more money in syndication. Networks have felt the pinch in both areas with the dearth of successful comedies over the last several seasons. This year, however, they have finally produced a handful of series that are actually - dare I suggest it? - funny.

UPN's "Everybody Hates Chris" is the best of the bunch, a family sitcom from the unlikely mind of Chris Rock that is sweet without being saccharine, tart without being too bitter. It fits into the old "The Cosby Show" time slot of 7 p.m. Thursday, and it's worthy of the comparisons.

Yet most of the other networks have at least one promising sitcom as well, including CBS' "How I Met Your Mother," Fox's "Kitchen Confidential" and even NBC with "My Name Is Earl," an off- kilter hybrid of redneck humor and "Garden State" drollery, which threatens to finally end the peacock network's long comic drought.

If mixing escapist comedy with whiteknuckle horror makes business sense for the networks, permit your friendly neighborhood TV critic to suggest it also seems to make cultural sense, to fit with the zeitgeist. Four years after Sept. 11, the world remains a tense and terror-stricken place, what with the war in Iraq, bombings in Europe and the natural disaster of Hurricane Katrina here at home, and horror seems to suit the average viewer's current mindset. Of course, when we're not enmeshed in horror, we all like to laugh it off, which explains the yearning for a good new comedy as well.

In addition, there are also the usual new entries in lawyer shows and police procedurals, as well as tough-to-categorize potential hits like ABC's gender-bending political series "Commander in Chief" and the WB's chick soap "Related," as well as the reality series "The Apprentice: Martha Stewart" and Amy Grant's "Three Wishes."

So let's try to make sense of the week one night at a time, starting with the formal start of the TV season on Monday. Yes, it's a stormy, turbulent, complicated world out there in prime time, but there's nothing really to fear except for what's supposed to frighten a viewer.

Monday

NBC's "Surface" imagines sea monsters - potentially alien - bubbling up from the deep at 7. That may not be enough to upset CBS, because even with "Everybody Loves Raymond" gone, it bolsters its cornerstone night by moving "The King of Queens" back to 7 and "Two and a Half Men" into the old "Raymond" slot at 8. In between is its top new comedy, "How I Met Your Mother," a high-concept "Friends" in which a father in the future tries to explain to his children, well, what it says in the title. Monday's pilot has a neat twist at the end that really opens up the premise. Unfortunately for viewers, it's directly opposite Fox's best new series, "Kitchen Confidential," in which chef Anthony Bourdain's restaurant tell-all is turned from meaty nonfiction book into frothy sitcom confection.

At 8, Fox's compelling if ludicrous "Prison Break" is opposite the WB's merely ludicrous "Just Legal," a star vehicle for Don Johnson and uberdweeb Jay Baruchel. CBS also offers up the unfunny "Out of Practice," which squanders Henry Winkler and Stockard Channing.

Tuesday

Geena Davis is not just the first female president, she's the first politically independent president in ABC's unlikely but appealing "Commander in Chief." At 8, it's up against the WB's "Supernatural," the best of the new ghost-hunter series, and NBC's dryly funny "My Name Is Earl," not to mention CBS' "Amazing Race" and Fox's "House." Forget UPN's tawdry "Sex, Love and Secrets." CBS' "Close to Home" brings "CSI"-style crime-stopping to suburbia at 9, while "Bones" matches former vampire David Boreanaz with the sultry Emily Deschanel in an FBI procedural at 7 on Fox.

Wednesday

At 8, each network goes with either a new drama or one new to the time slot. UPN's excellent if low-rated "Veronica Mars" is one of those moving in; unfortunately, so is ABC's hit "Lost." Four new shows scramble for the leftovers. CBS' "Criminal Minds" with Mandy Patinkin is a formula whodunit, while NBC's "E-Ring" with Benjamin Bratt and Dennis Hopper is a formula Pentagon drama. "Head Cases" is a cheesy star vehicle for Chris O'Donnell and Adam Goldberg. Best of the new is the WB's sisterly soap "Related," but I'd hate to see it take any viewers away from "Veronica Mars."

Martha Stewart tries her hand at "The Apprentice" at 7 on NBC, but best of the night could be ABC's "Invasion" at 9; it's an alien- invasion series that might have been a little too prescient, as things are set in motion by a killer hurricane. Matters of taste have tied ABC's hands in making a promotional push.

Thursday

UPN's "Everybody Hates Chris" tries to step in where "The Cosby Show" once ruled over prime time at 7, opposite "Survivor,""Alias,""The O.C." and "Joey." As unexpectedly good as "Chris" is, that's how predictably bad its UPN stable mate "Love, Inc." is at 8:30. At 8, ABC brings back the '70s paranormal series "Night Stalker," as reimagined by "The X-Files" producer Frank Spotnitz. It's opposite Fox's high-concept, flashback-driven young-adult soap opera, "Reunion."

Friday

Having sold out "Joan of Arcadia" to the devil, CBS covers the eerie trends by mixing Jennifer Love Hewitt's paranormal "Ghost Whisperer" with Carla Gugino's alien-encounter group "Threshold." Fox mixes the moved comedies "The Bernie Mac Show" and "Malcolm in the Middle" with "Killer Instinct," the most gratuitously gruesome of the new police procedurals. NBC counters with the super-sweet reality series "Three Wishes" and the distasteful fertility-clinic drama "Inconceivable." (That pun should have been aborted.) ABC's "Hot Properties" and the WB's "Twins" are largely unfunny comedies that squander Gail O'Grady and Sara Gilbert, respectively.

Saturday

As in the last few years, the networks continue to write off Saturday as a movie night. Nothing new, and nothing old worth watching, either.

Sunday

Fox's crass "The War at Home" - which ought to be titled "Yet Another Unfunny Attempt to Remake Married ... With Children" - is the lone new show on Sunday. The best thing that can be said about it is it prepares the audience for the letdown going from "The Simpsons" to "Family Guy" and "American Dad." Yet "The West Wing" moves in to make its case for another term at 7 on NBC, leading the way for "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" and "Crossing Jordan" as they try to stand up to the ABC juggernaut of "Desperate Housewives" and "Grey's Anatomy."

Sure, there are some awful shows and some real time-devouring monsters in the prime-time schedule this fall, but also some excellent new series. So be careful where you point the remote control, and you might find yourself laughing with hysterical glee at all the good stuff on TV this season.

- Ted Cox's column runs Tuesday and Thursday in Suburban Living, Friday in sports and Friday in Time out!

Source: Daily Herald; Arlington Heights, Ill.

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