thoughts on the new TV season

I looked over the new fall TV shows on tvguide.com and as expected it's pretty bleak. There's more reality fare, remakes of old programs like V and Melrose Place and some show about vampires that 12-year olds will probably go crazy for. There's also something called Cougar Town on ABC. I'm guessing it's not a wildlife show.

And then of course there's The Jay Leno Show. I'm really hoping it'll fail but I'm afraid it won't. The problem is that the bar is set extremely low. If it can attract just 5 million viewers it'll be considered a success i.e. more profitable than the shows it replaced. When that happens the networks will dump scripted programs en mass and replace it with god knows what. I'm not sure what the next step down is after reality shows but I'm sure people are working on it.

The only show I'm halfway curious about is Community on NBC with Joel McHale and Chevy Chase. Man, I remember when Chevy was a comedy god. He was the breakout star of SNL's first season. He was one of the biggest movie stars of the 80's with hits like Caddyshack, Fletch and National Lampoon's Vacation. Now he's taking a supporting role in a sitcom under a guy whose biggest credit is that he hosted a show on the E! network. Ouch. Well, I guess work is work. I think I'll tell my TiVo to record it if only for the fact that this may be the last thing we ever see Chevy in.