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May 17, 2003 |
By MELANIE MCFARLAND
Hope
and faith aren't just characters on a sitcom coming to ABC. They're
also the feelings engendered in TV viewers scanning the fall schedule.
We hope the 2003-04 season will bring about
improvement in our favorite shows, along with new series we actually
can get excited about. We want to have faith that TV as a whole won't
let us down to the point that we're forced to dig through Michael
Jackson's closets again during sweeps.
But based on what the past two seasons have hurled
at us, the wise viewer knows to curb his or her enthusiasm. Fall's
still months away.
Remember, though the past week's "upfronts" in New
York give those of us in America's hinterlands something to look
forward to, they were for advertisers, not us common folk. Of course,
the networks are going to paint their schedules like Monets,
presenting everything in the rosiest colors.
And I'm not being completely fair, because there are
bright spots. For one thing, scripted shows have trumped reality this
fall season. Even ABC, where reality sprayed like buckshot all over
the schedule after midseason, has only two hours per week on the fall
grid. Of course, reality's quick and cheap, which makes such shows
perfect Band-Aids over the inevitable hemorrhages brought on by
cancellations.
And who knows? Maybe all of fall's series will be
imaginative, impeccably executed concepts, producing a string of
runaway hits and making us ecstatic that we're watching more TV than
ever.
Ha! Yeah, sure. Anyhow, here are a few trends
materializing.
Secret agents everywhere
Just as the past few seasons saw the number of
police procedurals skyrocket, look for this to be the season of the
special agent. Blame it on the success of "Alias"
and "24," particularly the latter spicing things up by playing on very
real global terrorism threats. As if news reports of attacks like the
one in Saudi Arabia weren't enough, ABC's "Threat
Matrix" will have its elite
Homeland Security task force chasing down fake ones around the world.
(Until we see the thing, elevate your TV threat advisory status level
to Orange.)
But you know, the fake task force isn't the only
breed this season's special agents will come in. There's super and
sexy, a la Rachel Leigh Cook in The WB's "Fearless"; ridiculously
power-enhanced, like UPN's "Jake 2.0"; extra youthful, like the FBI
kids that Joe Pantoliano grimaces over in CBS's "The Handler."
Lest we forget our other men and women in uniform,
ABC also has a show about a youthful sheriff ("10-8")
and a hot U.S. marshal ("Karen
Sisco.") And on CBS, "CSI's"
formaldehyde flavoring also permeates "JAG" spin-off "Navy CIS" and
Fox's "Tru Calling," where the heroine begins her temporal
backtracking in the hospital morgue.
I feel safer already.
Seeing brown
I like the fact the coming season appears to take
into account recent population shifts. Now that Hispanics are
officially America's largest minority, we're seeing Hispanic actors
enjoying a more prominent presence on network shows. Well, mostly on
Fox. Still, that means four shows about Latino families on television:
ABC's "George
Lopez" and Fox's "Luis," a
vehicle for Luis Guzman, "The Ortegas" and "Skin." Which soothes the
sting of NBC's "Kingpin" being passed over, and "Greetings From
Tucson" getting the ax on The WB.
That network is placing its bets with the
second-largest minority, the black viewers UPN desperately courts.
Steve Harvey is back. He has a new show on The WB, as does comic
Anthony Anderson.
But let's be real. TV's embrace of minorities
probably is driven less by census reports than the notion that many
Hispanic and African American viewers are younger, falling into the
18-49 demographic advertisers treasure.
Living in perfect harmony
TV's modern methods of addressing our culture's
differences have proven shaky at best. Currently we have shows with
mixed families, like Wanda's white sister-in-law on Fox's "Wanda at
Large," or interracial couples, such as Gunn and Fred on The WB's
"Angel." They kiss, they hug, they love. No one talks much about the
racial divide. And there's "Will & Grace," funny enough to make Middle
America love gay men, in concept.
Again, haven't seen the new shows, so who knows?
Maybe the coming season could break new ground. The description of
"Skin," a "West Side Story" kind of thing in which a Latino boy falls
in love with a rich white girl, says the topic will come up as the
story develops. On "Like Family" on The WB, which has a black couple
helping raise their white single friend's teenage son, race is
supposed to be less of a big deal than the addition of more people
into the house.
As for what to make of "It's
All Relative" on ABC, which has
a couple attempting to blend their in-laws -- his traditional Irish
Catholic family and her gay fathers -- sorry if I'm cringing this
early in the game.
Coming home to roost
Census Bureau stats for May 1991 indicated societal
trends, including a recession, divorce rates, delayed marriage and
advanced education, meant more adult children were living at home.
While no results from the recent census seem to have been crunched
yet, maybe TV knows something we don't. More likely, though, it's just
more rampant cloning of last year's family shows.
CBS's "Two and a Half Men" has a divorcing
chiropractor and his son moving in with his Hollywood brother, while
on ABC, a fired soap-opera actress shacks up with her suburbanite
sister's family in "Hope
& Faith." NBC's "Happy
Family" has the adult kids moving back home, as does The WB's "All
About the Andersons."
On the other hand, Fox's "Arrested Development's"
grown son tries to get away, but since his dad's arrest jeopardizes
the family business, he has to go back to the bosom of family -- and
invites his sister's brood into the household.
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