Monday, May 17, 2004 Upfront Week: NBC Annnnnddd... the networks are off! Today NBC takes the lead by officially announcing next season's schedule -- tomorrow will bring the fall schedules for ABC and the WB, and the ballgame will really kick into gear. And the Liz commentary on the announcement: LAX intrigues. It intrigues for one reason. His name is Blair Underwood. But perhaps there will be more to it. Scrubs remains at 9:30 Tuesdays, after the unproven Father of the Pride. Which leads me to wonder -- has NBC just given up completely on their best sitcom ever leading a night? Revelations sounds really good -- and I don't just say that because of my apocalypse fetish. (I say that because of my John Rhys-Davies fetish.) I don't honestly care one way or the other about Joey, except to say this -- Drea de Matteo as Joey's sister is great casting. When NBC announced that they'd be remaking The Office, I decided to give it the benefit of the doubt -- if only because of my deep love for Steve Carrell. But after reading the plot synopsis, all hope for it succeeding has vanished -- if I wanted to watch the exact same storylines redubbed into bad American, I'd... Well, who the hell would want to do that? I'll just pretend it doesn't exist, and continue my quest to acquire the British Christmas specials, at any cost. CRAZY FOR YOU -- Welcome to the funny and highly unusual courtship of New Yorkers Nate (Josh Cooke, "Century City") and Marni (Emmy winner Jennifer Finnigan, NBC's "Crossing Jordan"). On the surface, they couldn't appear more different; Nate's the heir apparent to a long line of geniuses whose mental ability has caused them all to go insane. Then there's Marni, an occupational therapist and perpetual optimist, who ponders whether to take one more dip in the city's dating pool. Somehow, they meet and ironically find a connection that could become love. Although he's negative to a fault, she's likewise positive to a fault, so these total opposites may just be made for each other. Now they just have to figure that out if they don't get in the way first. This show loses. My god, does this show lose. If the futon critic doesn't end up collapsing in pain with the server traffic it'll get this week, I'll hopefully be able to do commentary like this for all the upfronts. Because I love the upfronts. So much potential for great television. So much potential for disaster. | permalink blog • archives • photos • about • contact This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. All content © 2004.