The TV thread

That was a solid night of comedy on ABC. How often do you think that?

 

Last time was 197....8? Probably the early '90s if you were 11 or so and thought Urkel was the bomb. Still makes me shake my head that NBC has pretty much abandoned the sitcom - all they have left is The Mayor, Young Rock and the Kenan Show, three shows they launched last year.

 

NBC's Must See TV nights were murderer's rows, depending on whether you preferred the Cheers, Seinfeld or Friends years. Even the half-hour block shows ranged from great-but-too-quirky (Newsradio) to solid but unspectacular (Caroline in the City, The Single Guy). I don't think something like The Kenan Show, or absolute dreck like Connecting (only aired four episodes, despite the lack of any other content because of Covid) would get on the air back then.

ABC's night built around Modern Family usually wasn't that bad, if we're talking family comedies. I think at one point, it was The Goldbergs, Suburbgatory (Jane Levy), Modern Family and Trophy Wife. I still think a bunch of ABC's shows with potential killed themselves thanks to stupid names - Don't Trust The B (Kristen Ritter), Happy Endings (The Russo brothers before Marvel, Wayans Jr. and Cuthbert), Selfie (John Cho and Karen Gillan), The Knights of Prosperity (Donal Logue, Sofia Vergara), Trophy Wife (Mixon) all had talented costs but ridiculous titles.

 

American Rust is pretty good. The Mon Valley looks like a pretty depressing place.

NBC Thursday night of Cheers, Buffalo Bill and Hill Street Blues was great TV.

 

Was Buffalo Bill a Dabney Coleman show?

 

I might have to finally cave and pay for Hulu.

As a side note, this will offer one last chance to hear Norm McDonald, who provided the voice of a non-humanoid alien on the show.

 

I don't even know what the new pilots are this season. Usually, I go to TVLine and they do a calendar of when all the premieres are, but I can't find it.

 

Yes, set in a Buffalo TV station. With a very young Meshach Taylor and Geena Davis.

 

Here you go
Fall TV Premieres Dates 2021 — Calendar or Season and Series Premieres | TVLine

 

Not sure if it's Covid or the new normal, but even the traditional broadcast networks, the shows are all back at random times. (i.e. For NBC, Average Joe started this week, but La Brea is next week.) Then, you have the streamers and the cable networks, who just seem to debut any month now.

 

Holy shit. The Sandman.

 

I love the casting of Charles Dance for that character.

I know it was never going to happen, but I would have loved to see Tom Ellis play Lucifer. The version of the character from the show is based on the one Gaiman wrote in Sandman.