The Only Fall TV Preview You'll Need to Read – Sunday

Our friends at Entertainment Weekly put out their annual Fall TV preview issue last week. So, for the next seven days, I'm going to do the same here. I'll be covering the shows I already watch, the one new show that intrigues me the most and the one new show that I wouldn't watch with your beady little eyes.

Shows I'm Already Watching: Even though The Simpsons peaked while I was still in college, I'm pretty much riding this franchise to its eventual and, likely, unfunny finale. The storylines are recycled, the writing has gone from "pointed" to "sledgehammery" and after years of resisting, the jokes have taken a turn towards toilet humor that my Simpsons never needed before. So, why am I staying? Well, do men ever leave their wives after a difficult 12-year stretch when there are better options out there? Well, do they?

And, how's this for "quickest hypocrisy"…I also watch Family Guy and American Dad. The latter found a nice little groove after a shaky first season, even though I freely admit that its comedic shelf life is limited. Meanwhile, Family Guy has been very uneven since its return from cancellation oblivion, but the week-to-week likelihood of a sequence like this 'un keeps me coming back.




The One New Show That Will be TiVo-ed (for at least a week): Hmmm…only two new shows on Sunday. One's about an American family that moves to South Africa, while the other is a "musical drama". I'm already beginning to regret creating this category. Tell you what…why don't I completely punk out and suggest that I might consider watching Brothers & Sisters? It's not a new show, but up until a few days ago, I only knew of it as "that one starring Harrison Ford's malnourished granddaughter".

So what kind of won me over…uh, almost? There's a terrific interview with two other actresses from the show (Sally Field and Rachel Griffiths) in this week's Entertainment Weekly. Hey, it's a really good interview and the show seems like it's about a more f*cked-up family than mine. This intrigues me.


The One New Show I Ain't EVER Watching: Sorry, Viva Laughlin, but it's not like you were counting on much of the Black audience, anyway. In the EW write-up, it seemed that the show's writers and producers went out of their way to say "It's NOT Cop Rock, ferchristsake!" Well, I don't want to jump to conclusions about a show I've never seen, but I'm going to say…yes…yes it is Cop Rock.