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Fall 2006 ABC TV Network Programming Schedule

 Descriptions and Analysis

New Series in blue.

Click on underlined titles for information.

Here's the link to ABC's own 2006 Schedule website.

Midseason:  Traveler, In Case of Emergency,  Just for Laughs, American Inventor, Primetime.

New Series

Brothers & Sisters: The cast is everything in one of this season's most touted new series, helmed by producer/director Ken Olin (possibly best known for his acting in uber-sensitive '80s drama thirtysomething) and playwright Jon Robin Baitz.  Set in Los Angeles, B & S is the story of the Walker family, whose members confront individual and communal problems after the death of their father.  Calista Flockhart (the titular Ally McBeal), Rachel Griffiths (Six Feet Under), Balthazar Getty (Charmed, Alias), Patricia Wettig (thirtysomething, Alias, Prison Break, and Mrs. Ken Olin), Sally Field (Norma Ray, Steel Magnolias, et al) in the role of Calista's mother (originally cast with veteran actress/singer Betty Buckley), Jonathan LaPaglia (brother of Anthony LaP, The District, Seven Days...and did you know he's a real M.D.?), Ron Rifkin (Alias, Tony Award winner for Cabaret), heartthrob Dave Annable (Reunion), Sarah Jane Morris (Felicity, Windfall) ...: it's a big cast, and ABC's hopes are high that Brothers & Sisters will be as worthy of -- and as solid in -- the post-Desperate Housewives slot as was the immensely popular (and now anchoring Thursdays) Grey's Anatomy.  Calista plays a radio personality contemplating a move to an L.A. TV gig, but boyfriend is in NYC; other battling siblings have to get along in order to run the business they've just inherited, with a slew of personal issues thrown in as well, enough to make B & S this season's most prestigious soap opera.  Biggest question here is, does Desperate Housewives still have the oomph to launch Brothers & Sisters to success?  There's been a little carping lately that DH became too over the top and may already have peaked after only its second season.  Time will tell!  

The Knights of Prosperity aka Let's Rob ... :  Occasional (in the pilot, at least) appearances by rocker (and series co-producer) Mick Jagger are the draw for this blue collar aspirational comedy centering around a group of underachieving friends who decide to pull a spectacular heist on Mick Jagger's NYC luxury apartment in order to finance their dream business.  Donal Logue (ER, Grounded for Life, The Practice), Iran-born actor/comic Maz Jobrani (The Intrepreter, 13 Going on 30), sexy Sofia Vergara (Hot Properties), veteran voice-over actor Kevin Michael Richardson (American Dad, The Boondocks), Lenny Venito (The Sopranos, Blind Justice), and newcomer Josh Griseti are the members of the affable gang, and the emphasis in The Knights of Prosperity is on their camaraderie and inept criminal skills.  Lucky for TKoP, it's the only comedy in the time period, but has intense competition in the current ratings powerhouse House (although it will be airing at 8pm until post-baseball) and dramas The Unit and L&O:Criminal Intent.

Help Me Help You:  Ted Danson (Becker, Cheers) is back in the doctor biz, this time as an egotistical and slightly cracked celebrity psychotherapist with a group practice full of adoring but needy patients.  Charlie Finn (Super Troopers), Jim Rash (That '70s Show, Reno 911), Suzy Nakamura (Half & Half, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The West Wing), actress/writer Darlene Hunt, Jere Burns (All of Us, Good Morning, Miami), and at least a few appearances by Malcolm in the Middle's Jane Kaczmarek populate the sitcom.  With a work setting similar to Bob Newhart's old TV series, and a tone tailor-made for a post-Becker Danson, if lead-in The Knights of Prosperity gets off to a good start, Help Me Help You could sew up a Tuesday night comedy hour for ABC.  If not, then Danson's newest may be needing a little help of its own.  

Day Break:  Talented and debonair Taye Diggs (Kevin Hill, Will & Grace, Rent, The West Wing, Ally McBeal) stars in this placeholder series -- holding court between Lost's two spurts of first-run-only episodes in fall and spring -- with a gimmicky but interesting premise.  Diggs is a detective who's been framed for murder and runs for his life, again...and again...and again.  He relives the same crucial day over and over, somehow, and each time go-round tries desperately to get to the truth of his predicament and find a way to prove his innocence.  Sure, it's Groundhog Day meets Tru Calling, and it's far-fetched maybe, but with the charismatic and deserving-of-a-big-hit Diggs at the core, Day Break sounds as though it has the goods to keep Lost-awaiting viewers tuned to ABC, that is unless they switch over to the more conventional Criminal Minds on CBS.  Hope not!

The Nine:  Tim Daly (Wings, TV's The Fugitive), Chi McBride (House, Boston Public, Killer Instinct), Scott Wolf (Everwood, Party of Five), Kim Raver (24, Third Watch), Dana Davis (Veronica Mars, Point Pleasant), Lourdes Benedicto (24, ER, Dawson's Creek, NYPD Blue), John Billingsley (Enterprise, Prison Break), Jessica Collins, Camille Guaty (Prison Break, Crossing Jordan, Raising Dad), Owain Yeoman (Kitchen Confidential, Troy) are most of the large ensemble making up the cast of this episodically-unfolding -- so what else is new this season? -- bank robbery drama.  When nine people are caught up in a life-or-death hostage stand-off, each finds his very existence in jeopardy and knows that nothing will ever be the same...assuming they survive, of course.   This time-flipping series will have a good lead-in right off the bat with Lost, and has a real chance of making headway against vulnerable offerings on the other nets.  Update 2007: Off the schedule for now.  

Big Day:  It's 24 meets Father of the Bride, and if the very idea isn't enough to send you running, you might enjoy Big Day, a season-long comedic diary of a young couple's wedding day.  Maria Sokoloff (Desperate Housewives, The Practice, Party of Five) and Josh Cooke (Four Kings, Committed) are the loving couple; Wendie Malick (Just Shoot Me, Frasier), Kurt Fuller (Desperate Housewives, Alias, Boston Legal), Miriam Shor (Hedwig and the Angry Inch), and Stephnie Weir (Mad TV) lead the rest of the cast in this strictly chick concept which will have plenty of Thursday 8pm comedy competition from My Name is Earl and others.  Update 8/10:  Big Day, along with its lead-out Notes from the Underbelly, has been moved out of the Thursday 8p time period to make way for Ugly Betty.  Big Day will appear on the schedule in late fall, after celebrity competition show Dancing With The Stars finishes its run.    

Notes from the Underbelly:  This gestational comedy, designed to appeal, no doubt, to the newest crop of just-having-babies-and-we're-so-special-aren't-we? couples out there, Notes... follows a young couple from the early days of "life's greatest adventure" (according to ABC) and onward and outward, if all goes as planned.  Director Barry Sonnenfeld and a pair of producers from Two and a Half Men are behind this one, and you've got to admit that it makes a heck of a lead-out from Big Day, if not a lovely one-hour advertisement for total abstinence and social isolation.  Expect the cutes and a big dose of near-creepy sexual titters, if the often-smarmy Two and a Half Men is any indication.  Peter Cambor (The J2 Project -- where he plays Jesus' clone. Huzzah!), Jennifer Westfeldt (Kissing Jessica Stein, Hack, Judging Amy, 2004 Tony nominee for Wonderful Town), Melanie Paxon (Joyce DeWitt in the Three's Company TV-movie, Cupid), Rachel -- aka Rachael -- Harris (Fat Actress, the Groundlings, Reno 911, Curb Your Enthusiasm), Michael Weaver (Super Troopers, The Mullets -- where I thought he was great!), and Sunkrish Bala (Barbershop, Grey's Anatomy) make up the cast.  I hate to take sides, but I'm betting The Office takes this one down, as seems likely.  Update 8/10:  Notes from the Underbelly, along with its lead-in Big Day, has been moved out of the Thursday 8:30p time period to make way for Ugly Betty.  Big Day and Notes will appear on the schedule in late fall, after celebrity competition show Dancing With The Stars finishes its run. 

Six ° (Degrees):  The amazing coinky-dink of everybody supposedly being separated by just six intersects of people provides the theme for this series with good producer provenance -- J.J. Abrams (Lost, Alias), among others.  Jay Hernandez (World Trade Center, Hostel, Friday Night Lights, Ladder 49), Bridget Moynahan (Sex and the City, Lord of War, The Sum of All Fears, I, Robot) Hope Davis (American Splendor, The Matador, About Schmidt, The Secret Lives of Dentists), Campbell Scott (Roger Dodger, The Secret Lives of Dentists, The Exorcism of Emily Rose), Dorian Missick (Lucky Number Slevin, The Manchurian Candidate), and Erika Christensen (Traffic, The Upside of Anger, Swimfan) make up the attractive and talented cast.  With an intriguing premise, Six ° nevertheless will have to work hard to avoid the pitfalls of over-complication which could hobble its long-term chances.  Yes, it's coming out of last season's darling, this season's new-time-period pioneer Grey's Anatomy, but is that a blessing or a curse?  Update 2007:  Off the schedule for now.   

Ugly Betty:  Actress/producer Salma Hayek adapts the popular Latin American telenovela Betty Lo Feo for American television.  America Ferrara (Real Women Have Curves, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants) stars as Betty, the plain, plump and proficient office worker who's picked to become the assistant to the new, handsome and ambitious publisher of a fashion magazine.  Betty's pluck and brains make her an easy target in the superficial world of haute couture, but audiences will cheer (ABC hopes) for this ugly duckling underdog.  Eric Mabius (The O.C., The L Word) co-stars as her boss, along with Ana Ortiz (Boston Legal, Over There), Vanessa L. Williams (Boomtown, Shaft, Johnson Family Vacation), Tony Plana (Commander-in-Chief, 24), Ashley Jensen, Becki Newton (American Dreams, The Guiding Light), Mark Indelicato, and Alan Dale (E Ring, 24, NCIS, The O.C.).  Lots of successful competition -- The Ghost Whisperer and Crossing Jordan among them -- won't make Ugly Betty's road to success a pretty or easy one.  It will all come down to America Ferrara's ability to make audiences empathize with her and like her.  I say give her a chance -- it's not like The Ghost Whisperer is so terrific, is it?  Update: 8/10:  Ugly Betty has been moved to the Thursday 8 - 9pm time period, pushing out Big Day/Notes from the Underbelly to post-Dancing With The Stars in late fall.  This is supposed to be a promotion, but taking UG from a tough Friday night to a probably even tougher Thursday 8pm doesn't sound like much of a favor, except that ABC hopes the show will get sampling from viewers tuning in for Grey's Anatomy at 9pm.  It says more about the unsuitability of BD/NftU as a lead-in than that it's something great for Ugly Betty, to be sure.

Men in Trees:  The immensely talented -- but laden with mucho tabloid baggage -- Anne Heche (Everwood, Nip/Tuck, Ally McBeal, Six Days Seven Nights, Volcano, Donnie Brasco) stars in this way female-skewing -- and probably too quirky by half -- romantic drama.  When love advise columnist Marin learns that her fiancé is a rat, her press tour stop in a remote Alaskan town turns into more than just an inconvenience...it's a revelation for the harried and disappointed career girl.  Clean air, blue skies and it's raining...er, snowing -- men.  Heche is always worth watching, and if you liked Sex and the City you'll appreciate that Sex's head writer is one of the exec producers of MiT.  A good supporting cast -- new face James Tupper, Suleka Mathews (The West Wing, The Dead Zone, DaVinci's Inquest), John Amos (Good Times, The West Wing, The District), Derek Richardson (Hostel, Felicity), Emily Bergl (Gilmore Girls, Taken), Sarah Strange (ReGenesis -- my favorite Canadian drama, DaVinci's Inquest, The Newsroom, Life As We Know It), Seana Kofoed (The Audrey Hepburn Story -- as Kay Kendall), Abraham Benrubi (ER, Robot Chicken voices) -- and nice scenery probably won't be enough to overcome the tough issues of an iffy lead-in and lots of girly competition.  Update 8/10:  Now that Ugly Betty has been moved to Thursday nights, and an encore of America's Favorite Home Videos is in the Friday 8pm slot, it's hard to know what's to become of Men in Trees.  Certainly it's lost its female lead-in, which might have helped in a general climate way, but who, exactly, will be watching a repeat AFHV show?  Sounds like a bit of a loserville situation to me, and it's fair to say that those Men in Trees have certainly been left dangling.  

Returning Series

Boston Legal aka The Practice: Fleet Street:  After almost single-handedly reviving interest last season in David E. Kelley's faltering The Practice, the talented James Spader (as one-of-a-kind lawyer Alan Shore) gets his own spinoff with Boston Legal.  Joining him will be veteran thesp and certified pop culture icon William Shatner as the slightly daft head of the firm, Denny Crane, also spun-off from his successful string of guest star appearances on The Practice.  Along for the ride are Rhona Mitra, coming over The Practice, and Lake Bell (Miss Match), ditto.  No doubt Spader is one of the most intriguing actors gracing the small screen these days, and it will be great to see Shatner sinking his teeth into the role of Denny on a long-term basis.  These performers helped The Practice rise from the dead this past season, and viewers are once again entranced with the series.  Good for it.  Without a doubt this is one of the must-watch carryovers this season.   Connoisseurs of the slightly weird school of acting have a bonanza on Sunday nights, what with Vincent D'Onofrio  plying his mannered wares on NBC at 9p on Law & Order: Criminal Intent and now Spader a regular at 10pm on ABC.  Rejoice!  Premiere Date:  10/3/04.  Update 8/30:  The title of the show is officially Boston Legal.  Update 9/2/04:  Actress Monica Potter (Along Came a Spider, Patch Adams {ugh!}) has joined the cast as a junior partner in the Boston Legal firm.  Update 10/15/04:  Boston Legal is doing very well this season, benefiting from Desperate Housewives strong showing on Sundays nights, but also in its own right.    

Desperate Housewives:  The buzz on this sophisticated, sorta-American Beauty-esque premise is plenty positive.  Mary Alice Scott (Sheryl Lee -- who's being replaced, as of 6/10/04) commits suicide, and all her neighbors try to figure out what went wrong in their affluent, it-couldn't-happen-here suburb, all the while being observed by the late Mrs. Scott from the beyond.  This classy soap opera from writers and producers of Melrose Place and General Hospital certainly has the right provenance, and a cast of ladies ripe for a TV Guide cover:  Felicity Huffman (Sports Night), Nicolette Sheridan (Knot's Landing), Teri Hatcher (Lois & Clark, those Radio Shack ads), Marcia Cross (Everwood), Ms. Lee (Twin Peaks, Kingpin) and Eva Longoria (The Young and the Restless).  ABC has never quite been able to make Alias the hit that it should be in the Sunday 9pm time slot, so let's see if Desperate Housewives does the trick.  (Alias takes over the slot after DH departs in midseason).  Premiere Date:  10/3/04.  Update 10/15/04:  This critics' darling is also reaping audience gold for ABC, giving the network a Sunday triple-crown win with Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Desperate Housewives and Boston Legal, at least at this point two weeks into the season.  Update 11/16/04:  DH's incredible buzz and ratings dominance have changed ABC's plan to slip Alias back into the Sunday 9pm slot come January; now Desperate Housewives will continue in its winning timeslot and producer J.J. Abrams' Alias will be slotted in behind his -- and ABC's -- big Wednesday night hit Lost.  Good news for both nights! Update 7/05:  Naturally, this mega-hit will be back for next season, and was nominated for an impressive 15 Emmy awards (but then again, so was the tired Will and Grace, so there...).  No doubt devout fans of the show will love seeing Teri Hatcher (who deserves it), Marcia Cross and Felicity Huffman vie for Best Actress in a Comedy.  This too-much-a-hoot-to-be-a-drama but a bit-too-soapy-to-be-a-comedy (but there it is) hasn't spawned quite the number of clone shows for the 2005 season as expected, and it will be interesting to see if it has the same rabid fan base in its second go-round. 

Grey's Anatomy:  A group of talented female recent medical school grads suffer the trials and defibrillations of their tough first year of residency in this intense hospital drama.  Ellen Pompeo (Old School, Moonlight Mile) plays the most beautiful one, daughter of a famous female surgeon and trying to live it down, Sandra Oh (Under The Tuscan Sun, Judging Amy) plays the blunt, cynical one, and Katherine Heigl (Roswell) -- wait, maybe she's supposed to be the prettiest one -- rounds out the trio.  Patrick Dempsey (Sweet Home Alabama, Once and Again) is on hand as an instructor who's bedded by one of the gals, Chandra Wilson (Bob Patterson) is in as a tough administrator, and Isaiah Washington (Soul Food, Hollywood Homicide) gruffs it up as an even tougher head doc.  Looking like a sexy, rock n' roll grrrl take on the same-old, same-old doctor biz, Grey's Anatomy at least gets my vote for trying to reverse the inexorable trend towards grim police drama.  The potential success of this show could be hurt by any lousy numbers for the movie that precedes it, as if simply being in the Monday 10pm slot weren't difficult enough.  Update 7/05:  Anatomy got a real boost from Desperate Housewives super lead-in, and so will be back next season.  It's also received three Emmy noms, including Sandra Oh for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama.  I find the show flip and way too soap-opera/romance novel, but it's doing the trick in keeping those Desperate viewers stuck to ABC, and that's the point of the whole business.  Update 8/10:  Grey's Anatomy, to much hubbub, has been moved away from Sunday, where it eventually eclipsed its lead-in Desperate Housewives both in ratings and critical kudos, to Thursday at 9pm, competing with the possibly vulnerable C.S.I..  Much is riding on this maybe risky/maybe no-brainer move.  Original lead-in was supposed to be two rookie female-skewing sitcoms Big Day and Notes from the Underbelly, but Ugly Betty has just been moved to the slot, creating a formidable soap opera/dramatic triad of shows for ABC on Thursday nights.     

Lost:  Now, this one looks like a lot of fun!  J.J. Abrams, creator of Alias, gives us a spectacular airplane crash, a deserted island, a mismatched group of survivors, and something out there in the jungle with a big scary roar.  My kind of show!   The cast is very nearly enormous -- actress Evangeline Lilly (former Judgement Day girl on the G4 network, Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital) gets her big break here, along with co-stars Ian Somerhalder (Smallville, the never-aired Fearless), Dominic Monaghan (Hobbit Merry in LOTR), Jorge Garcia (Becker)  Maggie Grace (Oliver Beene), Naveen Andrews (The English Patient, Rollerball), Harold Perrineau (Oz, The Matrix trilogy, Romeo + Juliet), Matthew Fox (Party of Five), Terry O'Quinn (Alias, Harsh Realm, Millennium, and about a million other roles), Daniel Dae Kim (24, Angel, Enterprise) -- and one guesses that not all of them will make ultimately make it. That'll be too bad; it's a great group of charismatic acting talent.  We know that Abrams knows how to put together surprising, action-packed, thrilling yet intelligent television; though American viewers have shown again and again lately that they just may not be up to such a rich entertainment package, Lost will be a found treasure for those of us who crave more than just procedural plodding on the small screen.  Can it pull young viewers from Smallville?  Will people spurn that other island, Hawaii (on NBC) also running against it?  Give this one a chance -- Abrams hasn't let us down yet, though some of the early buzz is less than gleeful.  Premiere Date:  9/22/04.  Update 10/15/04:  In its three outings so far, Lost looks to be another hit for ABC this season, with solid numbers and the kind of attractive demos networks crave.  Review 10/15/04:  Although ABC has never quite been able to make Alias the hit it should be, J.J. Abrams has got to admit that they've been doing something right with his newest opus Lost, which has most definitely found its audience on Wednesday nights.  This Juraissic Park/real-life Survivor/Lord of the Flies/Twilight Zone-influenced hour is highly watchable, with its large cast plenty enough attractive, soulful, spunky, mysterious, menacing, haunted and heroic to make this the kind of exciting TV that's a welcome respite from the now-too-common police procedurals parade.  Lost producers are getting plenty of mileage out of the harrowing jet crash sequence from the pilot -- flashbacks of it turn up in every episode -- and if you've seen that, you know that the series isn't afraid to ramp up the terror quotient, though it's almost funny to see whatever huge beastie's lurking out there being heralded primarily by frantic bush-shaking.  But hey, it works, corny as it is.  Matthew Fox has grown up into a credible leading man in his role as a stalwart medico, Ms. Lilly is sweaty, sexy and dangerous as a woman with a mysterious criminal past, Dominic Monaghan convincingly and appealingly makes the could-have-been-difficult transition from darling of the Hobbit set to jaded yet plucky rock star (with an unfortunate coke habit), and of course Terry O'Quinn is his usual intriguing self as a he man-in-the-making who, we've discovered, has the crash to thank for miraculously giving him back the use of his paralyzed legs.  By god, I can't wait to see what happens in the next episode, and that's not something that happens very often.  There's a real plot here, and action, and excitement -- old-fashioned entertainment elements that happily have come together this year and found an audience.  We all know that's not always the case; let's just be glad it's happening now.  Update 11/6/04:  Come January, Lost's lead-out will be J.J. Abrams' other exciting series Alias, starting its third season.  Alias, previously set to move into the Sunday night 9pm Desperate Housewives slot at the first of the year, should be a great companion piece to Lost, which has become a somewhat surprise hit on Wednesday nights, helping give ABC its renewed vigor this year as a purveyor of popular dramas.  Update 7/05:  This surprise -- but not to me -- hit will, of course, be back for next season, and also has garnered a very impressive twelve Emmy noms, including for Best Drama Series, and a couple of Best Supporting Actor noms for Indian-playing-Iraq Naveen Andrews and Terry O'Quinn.  However, nominating Naveen (who is great, tho') over Dominic Monaghan, who gave the performance to beat, a fascinating, often gut-wrenching, multi-layered and touching portrayal of Charlie, is a big mistake.  If O'Quinn is the mysterious third eye of the show, Dominic is surely its heart.  Hopefully this can be rectified in further years.  Update 7/06:  Of course renewed for a third year, and unveiling in two batches, fall and spring, of first-run episodes, the network's response to viewer complaints about frequent reruns during the season.  Curiously overlooked in the Emmy nominations, a fault blamed on a new voting system that was supposed to bring more brains to the process but instead resulted in some head-scratching omissions and inclusions, including Lost, which won for Best Drama last year but completely missed the boat this year.     

What About Brian:  Is this the '05 version of late-80s hit thirtysomething?  Brian's a great guy, everybody's best friend, but can't seem to hook up with his dream gal (who happens to be his best buddy's fiancee).  Full of married-folks' trademark troubles -- like the we-don't-have-sex-anymore couple and another with their we-can't-get-pregnant woes -- this could fill the gap for self-involved-and-loving-it folks who've maxed out on the crude personal dynamics of reality shows.  Barry Watson (7th Heaven) stars as Brian, Matthew Davis (Legally Blonde, Blue Crush) is his best buddy, Canadian Polly Shannon (Sue Thomas F.B. Eye, Phyllis Nesmith in the TV movie about The Monkees) as Brian's secret love, veteran actress Rosanna Arquette (Desperately Seeking Susan, and many, many other appearances) as Brian's sister, Raoul Bova (Diane Ladd's handsome amore in Under the Tuscan Sun) as her husband, and Rick Gomez and Amanda Detmer as the no-sex partners.  What About Brian? is tailor-made for introspective romantics looking for the kind of series we haven't seen in a while.  Premieres in January '06 after football.  Update 1/06:  What About Brian's premiere is tentatively set for sometime in March 2006.   

Wife Swap:  Americans once again get their hands on a proven British award-winning TV show premise; this one actually sounds like it's more like PBS' Manor House or Colonial House rather than Big Brother, though surely ABC execs are hoping it skews towards the latter.  Two moms from different lifestyles swap families (conjugal privileges not included, presumably) for ten days, and after five adjustment days they get to impose their own rules on the households.  Veggie vs. meat-lovers, tidy vs. slob, quiet time vs. Playstation break -- either this show will foster a new tolerance for differences or some less pleasant alternative.  I hope this one doesn't emphasize families with money vs. those with less -- that would hardly be fair or anything less than repugnant -- but I'll admit that this series could a lot of appeal for many viewers.  It's on fairly late though, and will have insane competition -- the original Law & Order (could this be the year it takes a hit?), and CBS' newly-minted CSI: New York with the too-good-for-TV Gary Sinise.  Let's hope ABC replays Wife Swap on Saturdays -- at a time where younger viewers can catch it -- to get more exposure for what could turn out to be one of the more interesting breakout hits of the year.  There's no end to the fascination with the mundane rituals of life on TV these days, so this show's got the goods.  Buzz is very high on this one.  Premiere Date:  9/29/04.       

Set for the Rest of Your Life:

Traveler: