New fall TV lineups

[ElScorcho]

I predict an early demise for "Coupling". Not to be prejudiced, it's just that in the cutthroat environment of prime time, it doesn't sound promising. Viewers tend to shy away from clone shows regardless of the hype. Remember the show touted as the next "Seinfeld" - ABC's "It's Like, You Know [Lame]"? That was gone before the season was out.

NBC is grasping for a lifeline to replace the highly successful "Friends". They're even spinning off "Joey". (Seems he can't get a decent movie role like the other guys.) So, even though they're lunging at the prospect of a more risque version, they'll probably have to tone it down and/or subsequently cancel it. They're not Fox, after all.

 

[hypatia]

Still, Enterprise is Trek and it isn't all -that- bad yet.

In many people's opinions it is all that bad, and it has been for quite some time, unfortunately.

Trek is not equivalent to good, I'm afraid. Enterprise is the horrifying living proof of that.

 

[Shaal Mayan]

Well Jag is coming for an 8th season and I love that show as for the new lineups I see nothing of interest .Although I will probably check out enterprise again and see if they can do anything interesting this season.

 

[Lyta]

Gee, Hyp ... so just because my opinion doesn't align with the mass majority, it can be dismissed? Do you watch the show? If you want to rebutt my opinion with your own then go ahead but don't do it based on what everyone else says.

So far, Enterprise hasn't sunk to the lows of Voyager but it is close. That is why I said it isn't all -that- bad yet.

Did I say Enterprise (or Trek) is good? No, but it is marginally better than some of the other crap produced on TV and some of the other incarnations of Trek are fairly decent.

El, I am still going to see how Coupling does after I see an entire episode or two but you may be right. I just can't tell if it really is going to be awful or if it just doesn't sound right to hear the same words spoken by different actors.

 

[PsionTen]

So far, Enterprise hasn't sunk to the lows of Voyager but it is close. That is why I said it isn't all -that- bad yet.

Hey, I agree with you. Voyager was one of the few shows that I truly felt embarrased about watching. When friends called up and asked what I was watching I'd have to make up something on the spot.

 

[hypatia]

Gee, Hyp ... so just because my opinion doesn't align with the mass majority, it can be dismissed? Do you watch the show? If you want to rebutt my opinion with your own then go ahead but don't do it based on what everyone else says.

I have caught up with the tapes of this last season, and I must simply say that the writing is terrible and the characters have lost interest to me. And their ratings seem to indicate that the tactics they are trying to use are simply not working. Not in terms of getting the viewers that they need.

Only Trek would be allowed another season, I think, under the circumstances Enterprise is dealing with.

If only they'd hire some real writers, it could save that show. It's very sad.

 

[Mindwalker]

Nip/Tuck seems promiseing

 

[Nancy]

Nip/Tuck seems promiseing

Are you joking? I find it looks stupid. But, to each his own.

 

[Mindwalker]

have you even seen it?

 

[Nancy]

I saw the previews and that was enough. But maybe the previews doesn't do the show justice.

 

[Mindwalker]

I was iffy about the show from the previews as well but I would suggest you at least watch the first ep.

 

[Glacophane]

Nip/Tuck seems promiseing

I agree with that one. I watched it the other night and thought it was a good show.

But alas I'm not going to get into the Trek/Enterprise debate. It's a subject that seems to come up a lot and I can't keep retyping the same things over and over again...

 

[PillowRock]

I predict an early demise for "Coupling". <snip> Viewers tend to shy away from clone shows

Just one thing, ElScorch, ....

Coupling is NOT a clone of Friends (at least the original British version isn't). Just as not all shows set on a space ship are clones of Star Trek, a show's primary cast being 3 men and 3 women does not automatically make it a clone of Friends.

The original basic premise of Coupling was showing the early stages of a relationship and how that gets affected by the baggage that each of the two people bring into it. In this case the "baggage" is personified by each of their best friends and each of their most recent ex's. That pretty well forces the show into 3 men and 3 women regardless of whether Friends had ever existed. Actually, the thing that Coupling *was* loosely based on is not a work of fiction at all. It was the early part of the relationship between Steven Moffat (writer of all of the episodes Coupling BBC) and Sue Vertue (executive producer of Coupling BBC), who are now married. The central character names (Steve and Susan) are not a coincidence.

In fact, for the one or two episodes where Coupling (BBC) and Friends that do closely mirror each other, it was the Coupling episode that appeared a year or so earlier.

 

[Lyta]

Coupling (BBC version) f*cking rocks! I have been watching the re-runs of the show since they started over from the beginning and I swear I have never laughed so hard over a TV show!

 

[AntonyF]

And it has Jack Davenport. Mmm. Jack.

 

[ElScorcho]

Just one thing, ElScorch, ....

Maybe not, but it is portrayed [as I stated above] pretty much that way in the States. Either way, it would seem to be a mishmash of "Friends" and "Sex in the City" - two well-known and popular sitcoms. Comparison will be inevitable.

 

[PillowRock]

but it is portrayed [as I stated above] pretty much that way in the States.

A couple of comments about that kind of marketing:

1) It is done for everything out of the "need" of the marketers to create a "brand" identity in less than one complete sentence.

2) It is almost always wrong; which is why it amazes me that anyone pays any attention to pronouncements that some show is "The next <fill in the blank.>!"

3) I think that, very often, the marketers do a distinct disservice to shows by marketing them that way. It often attracts the wrong audiance to sample a show, which just leads to bad word-of-mouth. It can also prevent people who may well like the new show from sampling it.

it would seem to be a mishmash of "Friends" and "Sex in the City" - two well-known and popular sitcoms.

Again, not really. You can find common elements. Then again, you can find a few popular predecessors with common elements for *any* new scripted show.

All 3 shows have very different styles of humor. Friends leans more toward the typical American sitcom stream of one-liners. Sex in the City leans more toward observational humor. Coupling (BBC) has a much more farce-based style. I suppose that you could think of Friends as Henny Youngman to Sex in the City's Bill Cosby (albeit with more risque subject matter) while Coupling (BBC) is Zero Mostel.

It may well turn out that Coupling (NBC) will turn out to have a more one-liner based style once they get going with their American writers. I don't know who they have hired into their writing team or what their backgrounds are. I would find that unfortunate. I think there is room in American television for a more diverse set of comic styles to be represented.