Fall TV Draft

I was sitting around contemplating the end of summer, reflecting on what I had done and what I had failed to accomplish when I realized that the summer was really truly over. This made me weep openly.

I realized that it was time to do the one thing that cheers me up at the end of every summer. Initiate the “Fall 2009 TV Draft”! Every fall I do a little research as to what shows will return/premiere and then decide what shows will make the cut into my weekly television habit. This season the research was expedited by tv.ign.com and their excellent “Fall TV Preview”, if you are looking forward to something that didn’t make my cut feel free to check them out for the less interesting fare.

This year the draft surprised me because I had no idea how excited I was about “V” until I set my series priority. On the flip side, I was flabbergasted to see how far down the list Heroes was in comparison to previous years. The other issue that came up was Thursday overload. Ten of my seventeen drafted series air on Thursday nights which makes for a DVR/Tivo/Hulu/Netflix scheduling mess.

I know 17 shows seem like a lot to start the season and in truth it actually is a bit of a DVR full. But through cancelations, bad writing, series priority, and smart time shifting this list will become extremely manageable. I have drafted five series premiers this season and if history teaches us anything at least 3 of them won’t be back next season. For example, ABC could drop FlashForward after one episode if they don’t pull the right numbers on Thursday night after all the promotion they have done for it this summer. FOX bringing Dollhouse back for any episodes surprised me so if their numbers sink at all I think they are goners as well.

Supernatural and Fringe should be safe for this season and I am hopeful they have extremely strong ones. However, even Fringe was on the bubble to return this season as their numbers dropped significantly over the course of last year and the storyline involving multiple dimensions is one that is bound to make the network nervous. Thankfully Supernatural airs on the pathetic CW network and any show that scores better than static will at least get to finish its season.

If a show falls in the priority 11-17 range I am not opposed to catching up on DVD or Hulu (It’s Always Sunny), my wife makes me watch (Private Practice), or I have been so disappointed by this show in the past but for some reason can’t let it go (Heroes).

Oddly enough, the show I am most excited about this season is one I have heard the least about and does not premiere until turkey month. “V” is an “alien visitors come to Earth in peace… or do they” series that has a lot of interesting writers, producers, and actors involved. Talent has been recruited for “V” from such notable shows as Lost, Alias, Angel, Chuck, and The 4400 which is enough to make this guy watch. Also, let’s face it, I am a sucker for shows about aliens, shows about conspiracies, and shows that claim they want to be the spiritual successor to Lost.

Finally the show by which I plan on measuring all others, Lost does not even get back on until the spring TV season. Caprica and Chuck are two others I am looking forward to that are not listed here because they won’t be on for many months.

Series	Premiere	Timeslot	Network	Priority	Day
V	11.3.09	8pm	ABC	1	Tuesday
Supernatural	9.10.09	9pm	CW	2	Thursday
Dollhouse	9.25.09	9pm	FOX	4	Thursday
Fringe	9.17.09	9pm	FOX	4	Thursday
FlashFoward	9.24.09	8pm	ABC	5	Thursday
Glee	9.09.09	9pm	FOX	6	Wednesday
How I Met Your Mother	9.21.09	8pm	CBS	7	Monday
30 Rock	10.15.09	9:30pm	NBC	8	Thursday
The Office	9.17.09	9:00pm	NBC	9	Thursday
House	9.21.09	8pm	FOX	10	Monday
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia	9.17.09	10pm	FX	11	Thursday
Community	9.17.09	9:30pm	NBC	12	Thursday
Survivor	9.17.09	8pm	CBS	13	Thursday
Stargate Universe	10.02.09	9pm	Syfy	14	Friday
Heroes	9.21.09	8pm	NBC	15	Monday
Grey’s Anatomy	9.24.09	9pm	ABC	16	Thursday
Private Practice	10.01.09	10pm	ABC	17	Thursday

Guild'ed

I realize I’m going to lose 75% of the people reading this once they read my next sentence, so thank YOU for reading on anyway (yea I have some stats on the number of people who visit the blog and it’s pretty much just you). I am really enjoying an internet distributed micro-TV show about a group of people who play a massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG).

Seriously, it’s called “The Guild” and it is funny. The series basically starts when Zaboo (his in game name) shows up on the doorstep of his fellow player’s apartment; she goes by the name Codex. They’ve never met in real life (IRL) but Zaboo appears with flowers, professes his love for Codex, and opens his laptop to join the game again. This prompts Codex to call for a guild (the group of people she regularly games online with) meeting IRL. That is where the real charm of this series shines through; watching the members of the guild deal with the real world and their real selves rather than the online avatars they’ve been hiding behind.

This show is not a major time commitment as most of the episodes run about 5 or 6 minutes. Therefore I think you owe it to yourself to check out the first episode at the very least. The humor on this web series really is on par with that of the best that television has to offer. While the characters in “The Guild” are all obvious caricatures of real people they all fun and endearing in their own special way.

There are a variety of ways you can view this web series. The easiest thing to do is go http://bit.ly/PEIXp where you can find all the episodes in seasons 1 and 2 streaming for free. If you feel that going to “The Guild’s” official website is too much of a commitment and would simply like to dip your toe into this quirky universe you can head over to Youtube. That way if someone notices you watching a video about people who play MMORPG’s you can simply explain that you meant to watch a video of a cat on a skateboard but this popped up instead, and you are too lazy to click off it. The third way to get this show and the only way to get season 3 episodes at this point is to download them via the XBOX 360. XBOX financed season 3 and therefore gets first dibs on distribution but these episodes will eventually find their way to the other outlets as well.

Now's a good time to watch with most comedies still in reruns for the next few weeks!