TVSquad

Every year, there's a show that's on the top of viewers' "You mean that's still on the air?" list. Whether the show was good or not, it was one that hung on in obscurity for years and years, getting just enough of an audience to keep it going. You know the shows I'm talking about: The Facts of Life. Wings. Yes, Dear. Matlock.Just Shoot Me. George Lopez. King of the Hill. JAG. Heck, even the great Scrubs was at the top of this list for many people for awhile (still might be for some).

But for the last five years or so, the reigning champ of that list was According to Jim, both because of its inexplicable longevity and its questionable quality. Now, with Jim Belushi's vanity project finally gone, it looks like another show has taken its place: FOX's 'Til Death.

The network just doesn't want to let the show die. Every time the show is in a low-rated slot, the network moves it to one that's higher-profile in an attempt to boost ratings. Case in point: the Brad Garrett sitcom will be replacing Brothers on Sundays at 7, starting January 10, after football's regular season is over.

Fox has given the release date for the premiere of Dollhouse, as well as their new musical comedy Glee and several other shows. However, I wanted to focus on Dollhouse for a moment.

Once again sitting in the Friday night Death Slot of 9 PM, this time it doesn't even have a lead-in of another sci-fi drama. This time, starting September 18, the lead is 'Til Death starring Brad Garrett and Joely Fisher.

The only reasonable hypothesis I can reasonably come up with is that Fox wants to broadcast all thirteen episodes of season 2 during the 2009 calendar year before they finally pull the plug on this show. This would mean that the entire run of Dollhouse would have been during 2009.

In short, if you really want the show to make it to a third season, I recommend buying a hundred copies per household member of the DVD set for season one. Otherwise, I don't see it happening.

Primetime Wednesday seems to be the toughest night of all for TV programmers. There's not one network that seems to do particularly well in the 8-9 p.m. time slot, and the juggling has begun. Fox yanked Do Not Disturb weeks ago, admitting it was a dud.

Now the Brad Garrett-Joely Fisher sitcom Til Death will be off the air for two weeks, effective immediately. In that time slot, instead, we'll be seeing more House, albeit repeats. Still, you watch, those reruns will do markedly better than the sitcoms did.

Til Death, to be frank, has regressed this year. I defended the renewal of the show when Fox gave it a third season, based on the episodes I watched last spring. But the comedy has really strained since its season premiere in September. There's no other way to put it -- Death is in the death throes and should be put out of its misery. This two week hiatus should be the end of the series.

Fox has made the call, and it's a big "see ya later" for Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton. But their loss is someone else's gain. The pilot for the Jason Bateman directed comedy series The Inn has been picked up for a 13-week commitment, while Back to You has been axed. The Brad Garrett-Joely Fisher sitcom, Til Death, meanwhile, has been given another year.

Bateman, who starred in Arrested Development -- the Emmy-award winning comedy that the network dumped unceremoniously because of low ratings -- was behind the camera for The Inn pilot. The show, which is about the haves and have-nots in a fancy, five-star New York City hotel, has a promising cast of funny folks including Niecy Nash (Reno 911!), Jerry O'Connell (who looks like Jason's twin), and the really hilarious Jesse Tyler Ferguson (remember him on The Class -- he was so funny!).

Two days of presentations from FOX wrapped up with yet another outdoor "all-stars" party. FOX held its gala at the Santa Monica Pier just in time for out-of-town TCA members to see the sunset and the Pacific Ocean.

While there was plenty of swag in sight (mostly various sizes of dolls from The Simpsons), you had to earn it!

Party attendees played carnival games (ring toss, shooting baskets, knocking down bottles with baseballs, popping balloons with darts) in order to take home prizes.

Fox has picked up the back nine episodes of the new comedy, 'Til Death, starring Brad Garrett and Joely Fisher. Even though the show hasn't done much in its Thursday night timeslot, Fox thinks there is an audience out there for this sitcom. Fox thinks that 24 and American Idol will draw in more viewers to the network when they begin in January.

The network has also ordered six more episodes of Standoff, starring Ron Livingston and Rosemarie DeWitt (and Gina Torres for all you Firefly fans). A rep for the network says it didn't order the full back nine (considered a full season) because there isn't going to be any room for a full season once 24 and American Idol begin.

'Til Death will stay off the air for an extra week after the World Series because star Brad Garrett is holding up production. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Garrett was very unhappy with the latest script. That's actually a good reason to postpone a show... to make the script better. Unfortunately for Brad, it might not matter that much. The show is taking a beating on Thursday nights against Survivor and Ugly Betty. It'll be interesting to see that episode when it does get made, to see what Garrett considers a 'good' script.

(S01E01) A lot of times when a big show, especially a sitcom, goes off the air, we see a series of spinoffs, or almost spinoffs, leading from it. When Everybody Loves Raymond left the airwaves at CBS, you could have seen it coming that Brad Garrett's character would have been perfect to have on his own. Well, howabout the best of that world, plus a whole new gig. FOX's 'Til Death plays Eddie, a schoolteacher whose new neighbor is a newlywed (12 days in or so) who also happens to be the new vice principal at the school Eddie works at.

If you'd seen any of the advertisements for the show, then you have probably gotten a pretty good idea of the style of humor on the show. That isn't to say that you know all the jokes already at all, but it's fun to see the complete and total difference between Eddie, his wife Joy (such a happy name!), and newlyweds Jeff and Steph (oh so cute with the rhyming names!). Even with all the jaded comments that Eddie makes about marriage, he and Joy have a really great time together, even if it is while they are eating snack food on the couch and watching Ellen together. You can actually see the money lines just flowing out of this show, with about halfway through the premiere being the moment when Jeff sees that all the things Eddie believes will happen to their marriage aren't just figments of his imagination. No pool table for you, young man!

Last, but certainly not least, we are giving you a preview of the shows that FOX has planned for the fall season. We've already discussed ABC, CBS, and NBC's new shows. Let's just say that our TiVos are going to be working overtime this fall.

For FOX, we're covering comedies Happy Hour, 'Til Death, and The Winner. And the dramas are Justice, Standoff, Vanished, and The Wedding Album. The network was kind enough to send us the DVD screeners but, since we can't technically "review" them, we're just going to give you a short preview and our initial thoughts.

Well, FOX isn't waiting for May upfronts (when all the networks release their fall schedules) to announce that they have picked up two new shows for the fall. One is Til Death, which stars Everybody Loves Raymond's Brad Garrett as a married man (Joely Fisher is his wife) who lives next to a younger married couple. Vanished is another conspiracy drama, and stars Christopher Egan, Gale Harold, Rebecca Gayheart, and John Allen Nelson.

In other fall news, NBC has picked up all of the Law and Order shows for yet another season.