ABC Fall Schedule

ABC is the next network to announce its Fall Lineup. 

Even though the net gave a last-minute reprieve to Body of Proof, it is not on the schedule.  It may be a mid-season offering, though that would mean a shortened season.  That's a shame ... it's a good show.

Looks like a great deal of shows are returning.  Dancing With the Stars is doing an all-star edition - that was only a matter of time.  And, like NBC, in late fall they'll be putting comedies in the 8 o'clock hour on Fridays. Not sure why the shift in November, but I've given up trying to figure out how network powers-that-be minds work.  Revenge moves to Sunday to fill the void left by Desperate Housewives, which had a nice series send-off this week, in my opinion.

So, here is what ABC will be bringing you this fall:

Mondays
8 p.m. - Dancing With the Stars (January will switch to the Bachelor)
10 p.m. - Castle

Tuesdays
8 p.m. - Dancing With the Stars Results Show
                 in January, 8 p.m. - How to Live With Your Parents (for the Rest of Your Life) (NEW)
                                  8:30 - The Family Tools (NEW)
9 p.m. - Happy Endings
9:30 p.m. - Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23
10 p.m. - Private Practice

Wednesdays
8 p.m.- The Middle
8:30 - Suburgatory
9 p.m. - Modern Family
9:30 p.m. - The Neighbors (NEW)
10 p.m. - Nashville (NEW)

Thursdays
8 p.m. - Last Resort (NEW)
9 p.m. - Grey's Anatomy
10 p.m. - Scandal

Fridays
8 p.m. - Shark Tank (moves to 9 p.m. in November)
             November, 8 p.m. - Last Man Standing
                               8:30 - Malibu Country (NEW)
9 p.m. - Primetime: What Would You Do? (moves to 10 p.m. in November)
10 p.m. - 20/20

Sundays
7 p.m. - America's Funniest Home Videos (how many years IS this???)
8 p.m. - Once Upon a Time
9 p.m. - Revenge
10 p.m. - 666 Park Avenue

Still to come ... CBS and The CW.

Check back and, so as not to miss a thing from Your TV Tour Guide, follow me here:  www.twitter.com/TV_Tour_Guide

Update - More Renewals & Cancellations

This week the major networks are announcing their Upfronts - the shows that have made the Fall 2012 schedules.

Many shows have been renewed but there is certainly no lack of cancellations, some no-brainers, a few surprises, at least in my book.

ABC put the axe to GCB, Pan Am, Missing and The River, while FOX has dumped Breaking In, I Hate My Teenage Daughter (did it even air?), Alcatraz (leaving fans - however many - to wonder if lead heroine  Det. Rebecca Madsen survives her gunshot wound) and The Finder.

NBC, ever in transition, has canned Harry's Law, Are You There, Chelsea?, Awake, Bent and Best Friends Forever.

The biggest surprise for me was the CW's cancellation of The Secret Circle.  This is the one network that cancels the fewest shows, being that they rarely have enough replacement shows.  I also thought the show was a good match for the net's strongest performer, The Vampire Diaries.  I am, however, thrilled that Supernatural will see a season eight and Nikita has gotten a third season.  Gossip Girl will return for a shortened (11 episode) final season, and the net has renewed Hart of Dixie, which fills the hole left by One Tree Hill.

Also returning for a shortened final season is FOX's Fringe (YAY!).  Touch has also been renewed along with New Girl, Raising Hope and Bones.

NBC will bring back Grimm for a second season, ditto for Smash.  Also returning are The Office, Parks and Recreation, Up All Night and Whitney, the latter two very much "bubble" shows.  Parenthood will also return - another renewal I'm thrilled with ... it's terrific.

CBS has renewed a great many of its shows, most recently Two and a Half Men.  Still up in the air are CSI: Miami, CSI: NY and Unforgettable.  We'll know this week if they all make the cut.

Check back here throughout the week for full Upfront updates.

Season Finales & Summer Premieres

Alas, tis' that sorrowful time of year when our favorite shows end their season runs, leaving us with a vast summer hiatus to mull over the shocking, how-dare-you!?! character deaths and aching how-do-I-wait-til-fall? cliffhangers while mourning of programs that will not return (will miss you, dear Wisteria Laners).

But have no fear, fellow CPs, for television will supplement us with its rather satisfying summer fare to tide us over.

So turn your eyes to the column on the left to see your shows' season finales and summer premieres are and check back here often for lots of boob-tube goodness!

Better yet, "Follow" me on Twitter (click the link to the right or @TV_Tour_Guide) and on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/TVTourGuide)!

Firefly Reunion on Castle!

Boy, do I love it when television makes me giddy!  I admittedly - and regretfully - was late to the awesome party that was Firefly ... didn't become a fan till it was long off the air, but now I am a dedicated and enthusiastic Browncoat.  I was also a fan of the NBC series Chuck starring Adam Baldwin and am currently a big fan of ABC's Castle starring Nathan Fillion. 

Last night, all worlds gleefully collided as Baldwin made a hilarious guest appearance on the hit show.

Baldwin played Detective Ethan Slaughter - rightfully named, being the kind of cop he was - dangerous, prone to violence and recklessness, doing any means to achieve his end.  Problem was, Fillion's (Rick) Castle, still hurting after learning the truth that (Kate) Beckett, his partner and woman he loves has been lying to him for months about knowing his true feelings for her, opted to shadow Slaughter as his new muse, allowing himself to be put in harm's way repeatedly.

I confess, I wasn't really paying much attention to the case of the week - a father killed his son and tried to frame a local gang for the deed.  I was too busy enjoying the onscreen reunion and looking for any nods to  Firefly - "easter eggs," I guess you'd call them - and they were there ... or maybe I just saw what I wanted to see.  Eh, who cares?  I wasn't disappointed!

• In Castle's first scene, he is caught playing with dolls ... sorry, action figures ... saying he was working out a scene for his new book.  This was just like Wash (Alan Tudyk) in the Firefly pilot episode "Serenity," playing with the dinosaur figures he kept on his console ("taking over this land which they would then call ... This Land.").

• Baldwin had a line during his interrogation of the father, saying the son's activities were his "boy's brand of stupid."  In the Firefly episode "Heart of Gold," Fillion had a similar line, when deciding to take on the local bad guy rather than run, he told his charge "You're my kind of stupid."

• To get Slaughter to let him tag along, Castle trades his leather coat.  The color?  Brown, of course! (Browncoats were what the rebels wore in Firefly).

• Mid-episode, Slaughter made Castle believe that the former had killed someone, later having a good laugh about it.  In the Firefly pilot, Mal (Fillion) made Simon (Sean Maher) believe he'd killed Kaylee (Jewel Staite), then the crew had a hearty guffaw at Simon's expense.

• Later, Slaughter throws a gang member into a garbage truck to "question" him about the murder, threatening to kill him by turning on the crusher.  In the Firefly episode "Ariel," after Jayne (Baldwin) had betrayed the crew, Mal looked him the airlock and opened the door as they were heading off into space, threatening certain death.

There may have been more, but those were the ones I happened to catch.  Clearly the boys had a blast working together again and the shift of power - Castle tried to be a badass to keep up but ultimately needed to be bailed out by his team, while Mal was a natural badass who confidently led his team -was a cool dynamic.  Stana Katic (Beckett) took a backseat in this episode, but toward the end we were brought back to the magic connection her character shares with Castle, and both seemed on the road to healing.  Castle knows who his true partner is and so the will-they-or-won't-they continues.

Baldwin's Slaughter was very much a marriage of his Jayne character - lots of gun play, raw violence and lusting after women - and his Chuck character John  Casey - tough-as-nails spy, also with a penchant for violence, clearly in charge.  He looked more like the former, scruffy, unshaven, but with much more unruly hair. 

Slaughter, with Castle and Beckett's help, got the bad guy in the end and maybe learned that his methods don't always yield the right results.  But I don't see him changing his ways so easily.  Hope he returns.

I know it's a mission of Fillion's to have a bigger Firefly reunion on his show.  Unfortunately, this guest star appearance may not allow for Baldwin to join in that fun (as another character, that is), but you never know.  Castle is going strong and Fillion might get his way (fingers crossed!).

That's not to say other Firefly alums are busy with their own work!  Check out:

Gina Torres (Zoe) on USA's Suits, returning in June.
Alan Tudyk (Wash) on ABC's Suburgatory, airing now.
Sean Maher (Simon) on ABC Family's Make It or Break It, airing now.
Jewel Staite (Kaylee) on the CW's The L.A. Complex, premiering next Tuesday, April 24.
Summer Glau (River) has been most recently on ABC's Grey's Anatomy.
Morena Baccarin (Inara)on Showtime's Homeland, returning later this year.

Bonus:  sweet promo after the credits for May 4th's The Avengers featuring fun, playful, one-upmanship banter between Fillion and Robert Downey, Jr. (Iron Man)

Hope you got to enjoy the mini-reunion!  Catch Castle Mondays at 10 p.m. on ABC.

Review - Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23

I greatly anticipated seeing this new sitcom, having read good things about it and being a current fan of shows with a similar premise (2 Broke Girls) and similar pacing and bite (Suburgatory).

The series stars Krysten Ritter (Breaking Bad, Gilmore Girls) as Chloe, a seemingly black-hearted con artist who cycles through roommates, moving them in, charging them falsely higher rent and keeping the extra cash for herself, then becoming a horrible presence and doing unspeakably horrid things to drive them out, enabling her to keep their security deposit as a bonus. 

Enter her latest "victim" June (Dreama Walker, The Good Wife, Gossip Girl), a doe-eyed, overly optimistic, sunshiny gal from the mid west who, when we meet her, has her life plan on full steam ahead:  great new job, gorgeous new apartment, loving fiancé.  But within moments, it all goes to hell and she is forced to lift up her chin, put on a grin and start anew. 

 
First up - moving in with Chloe. Chloe seems like a great person to live with - she's fun, worldly and she's besties with with James Van Der Beek (Dawson's Creek), playing/paroding (one hopes) himself here with subtle, self-involved bravado and an all-about-me attitude (to get laid, he often appeases fans by wearing flannel and blasting the Dawson's theme song).  It's not until June receives fair warning from neighbor (and roommate #4) Robin (Liza Lapira, Dollhouse, NCIS) that all may not be as it seems.  Quite simply, Robin says "don't trust the bitch in apartment 23!" BAM!  Got there in just over five minutes in.  A good thing when setting up a new show - get right to the point.

Among Chloe's many shenanigans:  she walks around naked, eats food that is not her own, has men over for sexual trysts at all hours (though it's all for show - she's not really so promiscuous), serves alcohol to minors and invades private bathroom time.  But she is perhaps too quick to underestimate June, who manages to fight back with surprising gusto (for example, to get even for the hiked up rent, June sells all of Chloe's furniture).  It's a character trait you don't outwardly expect given her Pollyanna-like personality, but it's a nice twist.  And one Chloe is surprised and even impressed by.  Not such a pushover after all.  Could this be - of all things - the beginning of her very first female friendship?

Later, when she discovers June's fiancé is cheating on her, Chloe does the unthinkable - she seduces him.  On June's birthday.  On June's birthday cake.  But what normally would have been just another antic in Chloe's usual scheme is actually meant to help, showing June (who walks in on them) what a mistake it would be to marry the scumbag.  It's Chloe's first selfless act ... and the start of that aforementioned friendship.

So where am I at with this show?  Like I said, the premise is a bit like 2 Broke Girls - two ladies from different worlds - one hardened and cynical, the other optimistic and trusting - coming together to form an unlikely friendship.  It's a show I'm a big fan of, and Don't Trust the B---- isn't quite there yet for me.  

Apt. 23 is also a great match for the Wednesday ABC lineup it has joined, fitting in great with Modern Family, Suburgatory (another favorite of mine), The Middle and Happy Endings, which all have quick pacing and a plethora of imperfect, charmingly flawed characters.  It's definitely a good match.

Van Der Beek is a highlight.  It's going to be fun to see snippets of his past - nods to the Creek and Varsity Blues in the pilot alone - worked in.  Plus, it's capitalizing on a popular trend right now:  celebs playing, often self-depricating themselves (see Matt LeBlanc in Episodes, Neil Patrick Harris in the Harold and Kumar films, Bob Saget among others on Entourage). 

Ritter has Chloe's point-of view well in hand and she may be the newest person you'll love to hate.  But you can also see that the writers are going to play around with her discovering what it's like to actually be friends with the person she's living with rather that sabotaging them at every turn.  That does seems to go against the very premise of the show it was touted to be, set up quite clearly in early promos (a montage of "former roommates" reviled the many horrible things Chloe did to them to drive them out).  So where will the show go from here if it's to deviate from that right off the bat?  

I'm going to stick with Apt. 23 for at least a couple more episodes to see exactly where we're going to go.  Didn't love it outright like I thought I would, but I see snippets of promise.  And who can possibly resist "The Beek from the Creek?"  

Bottom line:  give a little trust to the gals in Apt. 23 ... for now.

Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23 airs Wednesdays at 9:30 p.m. on ABC.

Current Shows - Renewals, Safe Bets, Long Shots

Thanks to TV Guide online for compiling a current list of what shows have been renewed for another season, which have good odds for a return and the ones in jeopardy.

CBS has taken the lead, already renewing a great deal of their shows.  Other nets will follow shortly.

So where do your favorite shows stand?

RENEWED

CBS

2 Broke Girls  

The Amazing Race  

The Big Bang Theory
Blue Bloods 

Criminal Minds
CSI  

The Good Wife  

Hawaii Five-0
How I Met Your Mother 

The Mentalist
Mike & Molly
NCIS  

NCIS: Los Angeles
Person of Interest 

Survivor  

Undercover Boss 

ABC

To Be Announced …

FOX

American Dad 

The Cleveland Show 

Kitchen Nightmares 

The Simpsons  

The X Factor

NBC

To Be Announced ..

The CW

America's Next Top Model

GOOD ODDS

CBS

Rob 

Two and a Half Men

ABC

The Bachelor 

The Bachelorette 

Castle  

Dancing With the Stars 

Grey's Anatomy  

Happy Endings  

Last Man Standing 

The Middle  

Modern Family 

Once Upon a Time 

Private Practice 

Revenge

Suburgatory

FOX

Alcatraz
American Idol 

Bob's Burgers  

Bones 

Family Guy  

Glee 

Napoleon Dynamite
New Girl 

Raising Hope 

NBC

30 Rock 

The Biggest Loser

Celebrity Apprentice
Community 

Grimm 

The Office

Parenthood 

Law & Order: SVU

Parks and Recreation 

Smash  

Up All Night  

The Voice

THE CW
90210 

Gossip Girl
Hart of Dixie
The Secret Circle
Supernatural

The Vampire Diaries

THE LONG SHOTS

CBS
CSI: Miami   

CSI: NY 

A Gifted Man 

Rules of Engagement 

Unforgettable

ABC

Body of Proof  

Cougar Town  

The River

Pan Am

FOX

The Finder  

Fringe  

I Hate My Teenage Daughter

NBC

Are You There, Chelsea?  

The Firm

Harry's Law

Whitney

THE CW

Nikita
Ringer
Remodeled 

TOO  SOON TO TELL

ABC

GCB
Missing

FOX

Breaking In

Touch