Familiar faces will carry prime-time TV this fall, judging by the lineups announced to advertisers in New York last week.
Among the old hands rehired this fall: Courteney Cox, Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton on ABC; Jenna Elfman, Julianna Margulies and Alex O’Loughlin on CBS; Craig T. Nelson, Peter Krause and Maura Tierney on NBC. And Cleveland Brown, the animated “Family Guy” neighbor, in a spinoff on Fox.
And that’s not even counting Jay Leno-times-five on NBC.
Those regulars have been around the Nielsen block and are ready to try again.
What’s new this year is the possibility that comedy could make a comeback. Ensembles, big names, mockumentary style and plain old sitcoms are on tap — in relative abundance. Fox hopes its musical comedy “Glee” will connect with viewers and has given it the post-“So You Think You Can Dance” slot on Wednesdays. NBC will try “Community,” about a community college with Joel McHale and Chevy Chase, on Thursdays. “SNL” specials will get a half-hour place on the schedule, thanks to impressive ratings that those topical shows drew last year.
ABC in particular is throwing in its lot with half-hours, one of which looks very promising. I’ve seen “Modern Family,” a faux documentary-style comedy slated for Wednesdays this fall — the only advance screening so far that made me laugh aloud. The camera follows three branches of a family, a patriarch (Ed O’Neill) and his hot Latina second wife (Sofia Vergara); his gay son (Broadway’s Jesse Tyler Ferguson) and his male partner (Eric Stonestreet) and their just adopted Vietnamese baby; and his daughter (Julie Bowen) and her immature husband (Ty Burrell).
The mockumentary approach works to make the stereotypical blended and alternative families even funnier.
ABC screened short clips of its other new Wednesday-night comedies, “Hank” (Kelsey Grammer essentially reprising Frasier), “The Middle” (Patricia Heaton redoing a version of the harried housewife, this time in middle-America), and “Cougar Town” (Courtney Cox as a woman who hates her body and can’t find an age-appropriate date). No out-loud guffaws, but we’ll see.
Beyond comedy, the familiar faces will appear in series that adhere to well-worn genres. We’ll see a number of family dramas, like “Parenthood” on NBC, hoping to mimic the success of “Brothers & Sisters.” And more medical dramas, like “Trauma” on NBC — twice a week, no less — hoping to fill the hole left by “ER.”
“Flash Forward,” generating advance buzz for ABC, feels like “Lost” plus those valiant efforts like “The Nine” that failed on the network a couple of seasons ago.
Escapist fantasy/drama “Eastwick,” on ABC, seemingly mixes the “Desperate Housewives” formula with magic, adapted from the movie “The Witches of Eastwick.” But without Jack Nicholson.
Vampires may make inroads in the already crowded supernatural/sci- fi/comic book category, when CW introduces “Vampire Diaries” on Thursday nights.
And crime procedurals prove to be TV’s enduring go-to genre. Not only will CBS add an “NCIS” spinoff, “NCIS: LA,” but “The Forgotten,” on ABC, portrays civilians stepping forward to solve cold cases.
The glut of “reality shows” has eased somewhat. The only addition to that overdone category is ABC’s “Shark Tank,” an entrepreneur challenge from Mark Burnett (“Survivor”) on Tuesdays.
At their presentation, ABC executives stressed their new embrace of “live commercials.” Having Jimmy Kimmel pitch a product on his show, followed by a taped spot for the same product, is much more effective, executives preached. And they can charge advertisers more for the privilege. We may be in for a season of live pitches, an idea recycled from TV’s earliest days.
Finally, R.I.P. Among the axed: “Samantha Who?” “Without a Trace,” “The Unit,” “Eleventh Hour,” “My Name Is Earl” and “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.”
That list only grows. As the fanfare builds for series due in September, remember at least 80 percent of the new shows are destined to fail.
Joanne Ostrow: 303-954-1830 or jostrow@denverpost.com
