TVSquad

The "Ask TV Squad" column, published every Wednesday, answers your questions about current and past TV shows, as well as about the celebrities appearing on TV. Every week, I will pick a question (or more) sent to us and provide answers in the column. If your question is not picked for a column, it may be answered in a subsequent column or in TV Squad's APB Podcast.

To submit questions to the "Ask TV Squad" column, you can post them below in comments or email them to asktvsquad@gmail.com.

This week, I answer questions about Ghost Whisperer, How to Make It in America and Better Off Ted.

This is disheartening. ABC has been looking to Lifetime as a new home for Men in Trees and October Road. Both dramatic series have not as yet been picked up for next year, and now this report makes it clear they are both skating on thin ice. The powers that be at Lifetime were given copies of both shows to review and chose not to pick up either of them. They basically threw the ball back to ABC, forcing the network to decide the fate of these two shows.

One of the creators of the freshman drama October Road told the Boston Globe he was surprised that his show -- about a successful writer returning to his Massachusetts hometown filled with people he satirized in his novel -- got picked up. But getting a coveted post-Grey's Anatomy time slot is a lot of pressure.

"Given what's on TV, I do feel like we snuck one by," said Scott Rosenberg, who based October Road "loosely" on his film Beautiful Girls which the Globe said was "loosely based" on his life. "Everyone's out there looking for the next Lost or 24, and here's this little show."

October Road, shot in a suburb of Atlanta but crafted to try to look like an autumnal Boston suburb, features caricatures of some of Rosenberg's friends from his hometown of Needham, friends who still aren't happy with how they were portrayed in Beautiful Girls.

(S01E01) I went into the series premiere of October Road with very low expectations. The reviews, by and large, ranged from "this show is so-so," to "this show blows."

But still, something made me want to watch. It was set in the greater Boston area. (I live in the Boston area.) A character wears a Boston Red Sox cap all the time. (There are many different kinds of Sox caps in my house.) The main character's a writer . . . you get the idea.

With the gift of the time slot after Grey's Anatomy -- but the curse of being up against the NCAA first round games -- October Road was given a golden opportunity that many new series aren't.

And it kind of faltered. But, if ABC gives it enough time (a precious, almost non-existent commodity in today's primetime environment), I think there's a chance that, like the freshman series Brothers & Sisters, it could, repeat, could right its ship. If it stops being so heavy-handed that is.

The new drama October Road will slide into the post-Grey's Anatomy slot, Thursday at 10pm, on March 15, knocking the Anne Heche show Men In Trees onto the shelf for about a month (that show will return in April).

I've been looking forward to October Road ever since I first heard about it last year, for two reasons. One, I found out a friend of mine is working on it, and two, it's about a writer who decides to go back to his hometown and the people there resent him because of all of the things he wrote about them in his books. That sounds like a great premise, though I wonder how it will translate to weekly television.

The show stars Bryan Greenberg (Unscripted, One Tree Hill, Life With Bonnie) as the writer. Also in the cast are Tom Berenger, Laura Prepon, and Geoff Stults.

[via TV Tattle]