First, say goodbye.
“According to Jim,” “Knights of Prosperity,” “What About Brian,” “George Lopez” and “Traveler” are gone from ABC.
CBS has axed “The Class,” “Jericho” and “Close to Home.” (“The King of Queens” bowed out this week, and let’s hope it took the laugh track with it; Monday’s finale repeats May 24).
“Veronica Mars,” “Gilmore Girls” and “All of Us” are nixed by CW.
“Drive,” “Justice” and “The O.C.” are disappeared from Fox.
“Law & Order: Criminal Intent” leaves NBC for a cable berth on USA. “Raines,” “The Real Wedding Crashers,” “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” “Thank God You’re Here,” “Andy Barker, PI” and so many others are dumped from NBC.
Recapping upfront week, the annual ritual in which advertisers plunk down dollars in advance of the TV season, here’s the best news from the network TV presentations:
“Friday Night Lights” stays on this fall. NBC moved the show to Friday, where people can actually remember it. (Fridays are generally considered dark TV nights; here’s hoping “Lights” can find its way.)
Moving on, television’s keyword for fall ’07 is escapism.
The success of this year’s supernatural, super-powered, sci-fi-tinged hit, “Heroes,” will be felt all over the schedule.
Imitation being the sincerest form of programming, a cluster of fantasy shows joins the slates – everything from vampires to time travelers to a “Bionic Woman” remake to a musical Hugh Jackman to cave men (an extended Geico commercial) will feed the hunger for surreal diversion.
“Heroes” itself will fuel the trend, offering filler to pump up its season to 30 episodes.
A quasi-spinoff, “Heroes: Origins,” will allow the network to run the series without repeats, possibly without running it into the ground in the process.
The “Origins” hours will delve into the back stories of additional, new characters within the “Heroes” universe. Viewers may vote to determine which character should join the main series the next season.
Clearly, it’s a way to make the series interactive for viewers and to pad the hours without touching the main storyline.
On a conference call, NBC president Kevin Reilly cited Charlie, the waitress with the perfect memory, as an example of a peripheral character whose story will be told in “Origins.”
The vampire gig, “Moonlight,” will be paired with “GhostWhisperer” on CBS. It’s the tale of an undead private investigator from producer Joel Silver (“Matrix”).
“Viva Laughlin,” the most talked about addition to the CBS lineup, is a musical mystery drama starring Jackman (“Boy From Oz”) in an adaptation of the British musical hit “Viva Blackpool.”
ABC is blowing up its Wednesday lineup and starting fresh – holding back “Lost” for a January start to avoid interrupting its run. “Private Practice,” the “Grey’s Anatomy” spinoff, will launch the night.
That’s followed by “Pushing Daisies,” ABC’s fairy-tale mystery about a man whose touch can bring people back to life. Visually, at least, it seems to take the surreality trend to bold heights.
A positive addition on the reality front: CBS unveiled a surprise unscripted entry that actually sounds worthy. “Kid Nation” is said to be nothing like “Lord of the Flies” or a youthful “Survivor.” Instead, it’s about kids seizing the chance to build a better civilization than their forebears did. Forty kids spend 40 days “building a new world in a ghost town that died in the 19th Century.”
Contenders ages 8-15 live without parents or modern comforts in Bonanza City, N.M.. They cook, clean, build businesses and start a government, led by four gifted, overachieving youth leaders. Nobody gets voted out of town; you only leave voluntarily.
A mini-trend of note is the proliferation of “Sex and the City” wannabes. “Cashmere Mafia” and “Lipstick Jungle,” on ABC and NBC, respectively, serve up hot women buddies who can’t find lasting love. These dramas (will they become known as “Cashmere/Lipstick” or “Lipstick-on-Cashmere”?) may represent broadcast TV’s take on chick-lit.
Fox extended “24” for two more seasons (this year’s finale is Monday). At deadline, the rest of the Fox schedule had not been announced.
TV critic Joanne Ostrow can be reached at 303-954-1830 or jostrow@denverpost.com.
