TVSquad

ABC is banking big on comedy this fall, with a Wednesday night lineup featuring four new sitcoms starring some familiar faces. The network is also set to unveil more high-concept dramas, including Flash Forward, V, The Forgotten and Eastwick.

I caught the first act of the Flash Forward pilot during the network's upfront presentation in May. It was good enough to become my most anticipated show of the upcoming fall season. My second most anticipated show is V, the revamp of the '80 series/miniseries about an alien invasion. ABC hasn't released full screeners for V or Flash Forward yet, but we got advanced looks at some of the network's other new shows, including Eastwick and Cougar Town, the new comedy from Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence. Look for previews of more new ABC shows here at TV Squad before the fall season kicks off in September.


Eastwick (Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET)

Premise of the screener: Rebecca Romijn, Jamie Ray Newman and Lindsay Price star in this comedic drama/fantasy series loosely based on the 1987 film The Witches of Eastwick and on the novel of the same title by John Updike. The stars play three very different women drawn together by supernatural forces in a small New England town. A mysterious and suave stranger shows up to help the ladies unleash their unique gifts.

Mike says: Surprisingly, Eastwick didn't turn out to be a hokey, watered down version of the 1987 film. The pilot was funny and engaging thanks to its charming cast, a perfect quirky tone and a story that unfolds at a fast but confident clip. Romijn, Newman and Price are perfectly cast, and they seem to be having a lot of fun riffing on the roles made famous by Cher, Michelle Pfeiffer and Susan Sarandon. These talented TV actresses have great chemistry together, and the show works best when all three are sharing the screen.

Of course, the show wouldn't work without a great devil, and Paul Gross seems to have just the right balance of charm and sleaze to pull it off. There's a bit of Nicholson in his performance, but thankfully Gross doesn't try to imitate ol' Jack. His devil is a mix of Clooney, Shatner and fluffy-haired '80s hunk (think Lorenzo Llamas). It might sound odd, but it works, and it helps establish Eastwick as fun and quirky alternative for the Desperate Housewives set.


Cougar Town (Wednesdays at 9:30 p.m. ET. premieres Sept. 23)

Premise of the screener: Courteney Cox stars as a divorced single mother trying to balance dating, aging, and raising her teenage son in a beauty and youth obsessed culture. The comedy is written and produced by Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence.

Mike says: The first few minutes of Cougar Town felt a little like a Robin Williams stand-up routine. There were a million jokes rushing at me at once, but only about half of them were funny. Thankfully, the show soon settled into a great groove offering tons of laugh-out-loud moments. A lot of the credit should go to Lawrence. Dude knows how to write the funny. But Cox also deserves some praise. She's great as an aging and insecure divorcee who seems to have no interior monologue. She was rarely this funny on Friends.

I didn't find the show's premise very appealing, but this is a comedy not a relationship drama. What really matters here are the jokes, the tone and the cast. Cougar Town delivers on all of those levels. Like he did with Scrubs, Lawrence has packed his new show with very talented comedic actors (Busy Philipps, Christa Miller, Ian Gomez) who hit all the right notes and seem to be in tune with his calculated, quirky style. (And yes, it seems like the town the characters live in is called Cougartown.)


The Middle (Wednesdays at 8:30 p.m. ET. premieres Sept. 30)

Premise of the screener: A middle class family goes about their days struggling to keep their heads above water. Patricia Heaton stars as the overworked mom who feels she has to lower her expectations and face reality when it comes to raising her family.

Mike says: It's not hard to see why ABC exec Steve McPherson compared this show to Malcolm in the Middle during the network's upfront presentation in May. Like Malcolm, The Middle is a single-camera comedy about a kooky middle class family. But the show's focus is on the overstressed mom instead of the middle child.

This was probably my least favorite pilot of the bunch, but the show still has a lot of potential. Heaton's manic performance was pretty fun to watch, Scrubs alum Neil Flynn was hilarious as the laid back dad, and there were even some tender moments amid all the jokes and commentary about family life. Child actor Atticus Shaffer stole the show as Brick, the weirdest kid in a family full of weird kids. Former SNL cast member Chris Kattan showed up to crack a few one-liners in a minor role, but the pilot didn't give him much else to do.


Modern Family (Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET. premieres Sept. 23)

Premise: This single-camera mockumentary follows three unusual American families to discover the complications of, er, modern family life.

Mike says: ABC is calling this the "next generation" of family comedies, but fans of Arrested Development and even the aforementioned Malcom in the Middle won't find much new here. Still, that doesn't mean Modern Family isn't worth a look. It has a fine cast, and some of the bits were pretty hilarious, but a lot of the lines and situations felt reheated. The characters sometimes seem too broad or thinly drawn, especially the gay couple, but the show sometimes uses the mockumenatry format to its advantage. The mock interview footage worked well, adding more layers and different perspectives to the more traditional comedic scenes.

Modern Family might not be a revelation, but it's definitely a step in the right direction for ABC. Like the show's format, the families shown onscreen are anything but traditional, and the pilot seemed to be about celebrating their similarities while highlighting what's unique about each household.