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The Watercooler: Fall season brings some successes for CBS, ABC

By Dawn Meade Davenport
Press TV Blogger
ddavenport@johnsoncitypress.com

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Fall 2009 looks to be the most successful season for new network TV shows since 2004. That season brought us “Lost” and “Desperate Housewives” on ABC, “House” on Fox and “CSI: NY” on CBS, all of which have enjoyed some degree of critical or commercial success and are still on the air five years later.

It’s been a month since the official start of the fall season, and already the Big 4 networks have given full-season orders to several new shows and canceled none. (“Southland,” canceled by NBC, was about to begin its second season.)

The biggest success, ratings-wise: CBS, with two new Tuesday night dramas that have been flying high in the ratings since their premieres last month. “NCIS: Los Angeles” holds a steady presence in the Top 5, and it’s no wonder. The show is a spin-off of TV’s No. 1 show and its lead-in, the original “NCIS,” and while it hasn’t been universally loved by the critics, it still holds onto most of the mother ship’s audience, easily holding its own most weeks against it’s biggest time slot competition, ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars.”

CBS’ best new show, according to me and most TV critics, is “The Good Wife.” The legal drama doesn’t break new ground, but what it lacks in ambition it makes up for in execution. The writing is above par, Julianna Margulies is as good as she ever was on “ER,” and her supporting cast, especially Chris Noth as her jailed husband and Josh Charles as her colleague and friend Will, is fantastic. “The Good Wife” is not quite the smash hit its lead-in has become, but it’s a steady fixture in the Nielsen Top 20 each week, and that’s nothing to sneeze at.

The biggest critical success — and not exactly a ratings failure — is a trio of new comedies on ABC. The network hasn’t had much success with half-hour comedies in recent seasons, and that just wouldn’t do for the network that was known in the 1990s for such groundbreaking sitcoms as “Roseanne” and “Home Improvement.” Developing four brand-new shows to launch a fresh block of sitcoms on Wednesday nights was the boldest move by any network this season, and it’s paid off in a big way. Three of the four shows offer big laughs and have done well enough in the ratings to garner full-season orders from ABC. One of those sitcoms — “Modern Family” — is the closest thing to perfection on any network’s schedule.

I should disclose up front that I haven’t seen even one episode of “Hank,” the Kelsey Grammer sitcom that launches the night at 8. Every critic I respect has panned it, and so I haven’t wasted my time. I watch CBS’ “The New Adventures of Old Christine” instead.

At 8:30, Patricia Heaton (“Everybody Loves Raymond”) and Neil Flynn (the janitor from “Scrubs”) star in “The Middle,” about a working-class family in Indiana. Its irreverent tone (and the youngest kid) reminds me of “Malcolm in the Middle.” It’s story about a couple living paycheck to paycheck while raising three kids who wear clothes from Wal-mart and struggle to fit in reminds me of life.

At 9, I usually watch “Glee” on Fox (that network’s most buzzed-about new show) and record “Modern Family” and “Cougar Town” to play back at 10. Truth be told, though, “Modern Family” is a better show than “Glee.” Its scripts are sharper and more consistently funny, and its characters are more fully realized. Last night’s episode, in which Gloria confronts Claire about the tension between them, rang true. Of course, Claire would think hot, young Gloria is a gold digger. Why else would she marry the aging Jay? The episode’s funniest bit: Jay asking son Mitchell and Mitchell’s partner Cameron to convince him women (and gay men) find him attractive.

“Cougar Town,” which closes out ABC’s comedy block at 9:30, marks the successful return of perhaps the most underappreciated cast member of “Friends.” (I still can’t believe she was the only one of the six who never was nominated for an Emmy.) Courteney Cox is hilarious as divorcee Jules Cobb. In the beginning, I wasn’t sure “Cougar Town” would give her material that would live up to her talents, but over the last two or three episodes, the comedy seems to be finding its voice. The stories are more tightly written, and the supporting characters seem to be coming into focus, especially Jules’ assistant, Laurie (the lively Busy Phillips), and her ex husband, Bobby (Brian Van Holt).

Five years from now, I expect Wednesday will continue to be a big night for comedies on ABC — and that the network will finally have a successful entry for the 8 p.m. slot. I look forward to the laughs to come.