Kick-offs and More Kick-offs

Buckle up
– it’s going to be an emotionally bumpy month on TV. There are series premieres, old shows returning – and hopefully gaining new creative ground – a new football season and the curious pairing of two unlikely entertainment bedfellows. Let’s start there.
Buckle up – it’s going to be an emotionally bumpy month on TV. There are series premieres, old shows returning – and hopefully gaining new creative ground – a new football season and the curious pairing of two unlikely entertainment bedfellows. Let’s start there.
CBS and TiVo have teamed up for a major first, proving, perhaps, that the networks are now willing to do anything they can to lure viewers. The news: TiVo subscribers can be the first in nation – hear the applause – to record some of the new shows on the CBS fall lineup a week before it debuts. Actually, it’s just one show, but it’s one of the best the network is offering this fall: “The Class” (I give it three stars out of four).
What’s in it for CBS? Publicity. Plus, it allows the network to preview a few of its other shows like “Jericho,” “Smith” and “Shark,” which launch later this month. (“Smith” and “Shark” show promise – look for reviews of those shows, plus “The Class,” one of the season’s better offerings, in a few weeks.)
Back to the TiVo gig. It’s a perfectly orchestrated move for CBS, especially considering that subscribers will be allowed to get a “season pass” TiVo recording option, which will allowing them to automatically record all shows they want for an entire season. Speaking of season passes …
Have Ball, Will Throw
ABC’s Monday Night Football becomes NBC’s Sunday Night Football, but there’s still a Monday Night Football in the football universe. Follow along. NBC’s much-anticipated launch of primetime football unfolds in all its athletic revelry at 8pm Sunday with the Indianapolis Colts traveling to the N.Y. Giants (wonder how Monday morning will feel after the beer buzz – oh, yeah, like Tuesdays felt last year). Not one to be out of the sports loop, ESPN officially catches the pass to air Monday Night Football – the 37th season premiere unravels at 7pm (Minnesota at Washington) Sept. 11 on ESPN. About Monday …
Five Years Later
ABC’s revealing two-part mini-series, “Path to 9/11,” concludes at 8pm Sept. 11, marking the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington D.C. (part one airs Sunday). The mini-series is a dramatization of the events detailed in “The 9/11 Commission Report” and other sources. Dive in, but expect some surprises. Elsewhere on Monday, expect CNN to air the events of the day as they happened five years ago.
Joking With Joely
Joely Fisher, fresh off a stellar stint on “Desperate Housewives,” heads to Fox this fall in a promising new comedy dubbed “‘Til Death.” Fisher stars opposite Brad Garrett, the Everybody Loves Raymond alum who nabbed three Emmys for his role in that show – everybody loves Brad, you know? ‘Til Death premieres at 8pm Thursday (I give it two and a half stars out of four) and features Garrett and Fisher as a couple who have been married 20 years. That’s enough to generate laughs, but when newlyweds move in next door, it gives both couples a lot to think about when it comes to relationships.
Fisher, who’s happily married to Christopher Duddy – the couple welcomed their second child this year – knows all about the ups and downs of couplehood. Her secret? Laugh. That should come easy – she also loves doing comedy.
“What I love most about comedy is that I can relax and into get into it, but I also like to shed a tear now and then,” Fisher told me in a recent interview. “But I think there are really fine lines between tragedy and comedy, so I really do love it all. There is something quite delightful about getting to make people laugh. It’s good for your soul. It’s a cliche, but there’s something about it that it very healing and very medicinal in a way.”
Fortunately, “‘Til Death” offers plenty of laughs. So long as the writers continue fueling Garrett and Fisher with the frenetic, yet relatable, situations you’d find in most marriages, the could be a critical hit. (Pitting it opposite CBS’s “Survivor” is curious …) The bottom line: The chemistry Garrett and Fisher create playing the “Been There, Done That, You’re Getting on My Nerves” couple Eddie and Joy is applauded. Fresh, witty, inviting.
While comedy has its own share of challenges – how can you perform against the giant that is Garrett? – Fisher is clear that her professional world comes second to family. Taking stock of family, actually, was some of the best advice she’s been given.
“I don’t know if I necessarily follow it, it’s from my mother (Connie Stevens),” she says, “and I don’t know if she necessarily followed it, but it’s good advice. She told me once – when I was heartbroken and threw myself on my bed sobbing about not getting a part, how I felt like ‘I am not enough; I am not talented’ – and she said, ‘It’s a job. What we do, even though it’s one of the most coveted positions, what we do is what we do for our work. It does validate you in many ways, but there are so many other things you want people to talk about when we are gone other than what we accomplished.’
“I like that. You know, the friends that you carry on with you, the family that you create. That’s far more important. So, when you are not working actor, you don’t feel like you are that shell of a person – that there’s so much more out there. That is isn’t all that there is.”
That seems to play itself out well on the homefront where Fisher has learned a lot from being a mom to her second child.
“I’m a superhero,” she jokes. “I gave birth in my bed with no rugs, and then I got up and asked everybody if they wanted a sandwich.”
Don’t Miss
The remainder of the week boasts some notables. The fourth season premiere of HBO’s much-heralded “The Wire” (I give it four stars out of four) launches at 10pm Sunday. The gritty urban drama is one of the best shows on TV.
Elsewhere, take note of the new season of “Nip/Tuck” (10pm Tuesday, FX). Last week’s frothy season premiere brought the series back to basics by shifting the focus on the relationships between the series’ main posse – Dylan Walsh, Julian McMahon and Joely Richardson. Tuesday’s episode (three stars) find Sean (Walsh) and Julia (Richardson) deciding on the fate of their unborn child, who has a rare birth defect – clever writing, considering the show is all about the thirst for perfection.
There’s also a new boss for the boys at the plastic surgery offices of McNamara/Troy – the mysterious Michelle Landau (Sanaa Lathan). The alluring woman came on board after her husband (Larry Hagman in a fun role) nip/tuck’d down south. Expect a season-long story arc with those two.
Don’t Bother
Fox’s misaligned “Standoff” (one and a half stars) may not stand much of a chance if the writers don’t grasp what the series is trying to be – and soon.
Last week’s premiere didn’t impress much, and judging by the way the series is headed – an awkward blend of comedy and mayhem and love between two otherwise appealing leads (Ron Livingston and Rosemarie DeWitt) – I doubt the show will last. The good news? Should the series tank, it may give Livingston another chance to find a show that better suits him. He’s a fine actor, and his talents are simply wasted here.
Greg Archer is an entertainment writer based on the Central Coast. He writes about television, film and being human. E-mail him at ga*****@**********rs.com or visit www.greg-archer.com.