TVSquad

In what must be a major slap in the face to Kelsey Grammer and the creators behind Hank, ABC is pre-empting the show on October 28th with the Halloween classic It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. Wait, it gets worse. It's pre-empting the show with a repeat of It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown from the night before. Granted, the previous night will be the expanded, hour-long version, but still...

Admittedly, opinions of Hank haven't exactly been stellar. Quite the opposite, in fact. While the show has not actually been canceled, it does not seem long for this world. Its only consolation is that it lasted longer than The Beautiful Life.

Kelsey Grammer will never be able to get away from Frasier Crane, much like Carroll O'Connor was never able to get away from Archie Bunker. It's a shame since Grammer is a better actor than that.

Let me give you a quick inside look at how things operate here in online entertainment journalism land: ABC sent us an invite to talk to Kelsey Grammer (and his co-star Melinda McGraw) during the same whirlwind "defending Hank" tour that Bob mentioned in his post yesterday. As much as I wanted to talk to Grammer, the conditions just didn't seem to be right.

For one, we would have had maybe ten minutes to talk to him. For another, he'd be defending a show that is a) terrible and b) on the verge of being cancelled. I want to talk to Grammer about comedy, Frasier, Cheers, his heart attack, and lots of other stuff. I wasn't particularly interested in him telling me how good he thinks Hank is for the whole interview.

But, when he told The TV Addict that last night's episode was going to be funny, it got me curious; maybe they had figured things out and made a leap in quality. So I tuned into last night's episode. I wish I hadn't.

I've always heard that three out of four ain't bad. But if you're Kelsey Grammer, it's a whole different ball game. While there's been no word on the horrid Hank, ABC has ordered full season pick-ups for the rest of their Wednesday comedy block. At this point, I'd say that was inevitable. ABC's bold experiment of a whole new night of programming seems to have worked out.

Early buzz on Modern Family particularly brought people to sample the wares, and luckily that show delivered. The Middle has been impressive as well, and would probably fare even better if it switched places with Cougar Town. Courteney Cox's latest vehicle is much better than I expected, but not up to the creative caliber of its lead-ins.

As for Hank? Well, it is the only multi-camera comedy on the night, so it stands out a bit in that respect. Oh, and its derivative and lacking in any originality or, and this one can be a bit of a problem, comedy. So there's that to deal with as well.

The title of this post seems far-fetched: How could a big TV star like Kelsey Grammer think that Kevin Reilly, the programming head of FOX, had something to do with the heart attack he suffered a year ago?

If you heard Grammer speak about it during the panel for his new ABC comedy Hank, it's not hard to connect the dots. "I had an event they thought was stress related. You can make of that what you will. It was a rough year," said Grammer, whose FOX sitcom Back to You was cancelled after its first season.

His beef was that he pitched the show to Reilly when the exec was still at NBC, and he passed. Then Reilly got the position at FOX after they bought Back to You. So, basically, the show was airing on a network whose entertainment head already passed on it somewhere else. That, according to Grammer, caused conflict between the network and the writers of the show.

Alyssa Milano's career resurgence continues (or begins, it depends on your perspective, I guess). ABC is expected to order 13 episodes of Romantically Challenged, a sitcom about a thirtysomething man dealing with his new girlfriend (Milano) and his needy best friend. If picked up, the series will air midseason on ABC, around the same time the network plans to premiere three dramas, Happy Town, V, and The Deep End.

This news comes almost a year after the network dumped Milano's last shot at a sitcom, Single With Parents. Romantically Challenged almost ended up on ABC's fall schedule, reportedly due to the strong buzz surrounding Milano's performance. But the network decided to push it back, presumably to make room for its other new comedies, including Bill Lawrence's Cougar Town and Hank, starring Kelsey Grammer.

ABC will make official pick up announcements Tuesday, but the trades are already reporting that the network has ordered a large number of new shows for the upcoming fall season.

Along with some dramas and mythology-laden shows, it looks like ABC is playing it safe by picking up four half-hour family comedies starring some well-known TV vets.

Joining the already renewed Scrubs and Better Off Ted will be Hank, a multi-camera family show starring Frasier's Kelsey Grammer and The Middle, a single-camera comedy with Grammer's former Back to You co-star Patricia Heaton. Both shows seem to have pretty tired concepts. Hank is about a washed-up Wall Street deal maker who moves back to his home town, and The Middle is about a middle-class mom who is approaching middle age. Hopefully the stars, and the jokes, will make these shows worth watching.

Do you think there are times when Patricia Heaton wishes she was still working on Everybody Loves Raymond? What about Kelsey Grammer...don't you think there are days when he reflects on how lucky he was to have played Frasier Crane first on Cheers then on Frasier all those years, winning awards and having job security, critical acclaim, the knowledge that you were at the top of your game? That's not to say that either Patty or Kelsey are not on the top of their game now, but the failure of Fox's Back to You last season must have been a shock to the system.

Now they're both working on new sitcom projects and hoping for the best. Scrubs' Neil Flynn has joined Patricia Heaton in The Middles, an ABC sitcom pilot about a middle-class family living in middle America struggling in these tough economic times. They have three kids, too, just like the set up in Everybody Loves Raymond. Meanwhile, Kelsey Grammer's also doing comedy for ABC. The network has ordered a Grammer pilot about a corporate big shot who tries to reconnect with his estranged family.

This week's letter comes from a fan named Jim Rodrigues.

Jim writes...
"I just saw an episode I've never seen before! This was rare indeed. It involved the crew of the Enterprise devolving into different creatures. Barkley became a spider. Captain Picard was becoming a lemur. Warf (sic) was biting amphibian Troi. It was my favorite episode other than one of the best T.V. episodes ever, "Cause and Effect." I was wondering if this "monsters running around" episode was released for Halloween? It would be the perfect October 31st episode. If someone knows the title and the date of release, I surely would appreciate it."

According to People magazine, Kelsey Grammer is in a Hawaiian hospital after suffering a mild heart attack. A rep for Grammer says it happened Saturday morning as he was paddle boarding with his wife near their home in Hawaii. He immediately went to the hospital where doctors determined it was a mild heart attack. He'll be in the hospital for a few days for observation.

Grammer was most likely enjoying a little time off before he returns to television this fall. His Fox sitcom, Back to You, was recently canceled but he quickly rebounded and took a role on an ABC comedy called Roman's Empire. He'll have the title role, actually, as Roman, the wacky patriarch of a wealthy and eclectic family. This new comedy is a departure, of sorts, for Grammer. Rather than the Frasier and Back to You-style sitcoms with multiple cameras, his new project is a single-camera venture.

It didn't take long for Kelsey Grammer to bounce back from his Back to You flop stint. The Fox sitcom, a high profile one at that with Emmy-winner Patricia Heaton as his co-star, was dumped by the network recently. Kelsey was so bummed out that he even tried to get other networks, CBS in particular, to pick up the news room comedy. No dice. Back to You was a dead shark.

Now, less than two weeks later, Kelsey Grammer has been cast in a new ABC sitcom called Roman's Empire. This is big news for a big star and he's the emperor in the title. He's playing Roman.

Roman's Empire is not a three-camera, traditional sitcom, which has been Grammer's playground since Cheers. Frasier may have been one of the best three-camera sitcoms ever. As an actor, Kelsey's accustomed to having an audience watching him work. Empire is a single-camera comedy -- like The Office or My Name Is Earl or Samantha Who? -- and revolves around a nice guy named Leo (Nick Thune), who's dumped by his heiress-like girlfriend (Christine Woods), but remains connected to her crazy family, the Prettys. That's especially true of Roman Pretty, the family patriarch, an outspoken, outrageous character.

Frasier has left the building, but Kelsey Grammer hasn't. Or maybe he just doesn't want to. The actor, whose Fox situation comedy, Back to You, was canceled after just one season, doesn't want to call it quits. He wants the show to continue and he's so determined, he's even lobbied for the show personally. The Emmy award winning star phoned CBS executives -- including CBS CEO Les Moonves -- to plead the case for Back to You.

When Kelsey phoned, Les took the call, and he even told Grammer that he'd "think about it," that is, moving Back to You to CBS. However, when Kelsey followed up with a call to Nina Tassler, CBS Entertainment prez, she dismissed it. There really was no room on the CBS schedule for another sitcom; even Rules of Engagement (which CBS has a vested interest in bringing back) won't be broadcast till mid-season next year. There's no mention of Kelsey calling ABC or NBC; perhaps they didn't take his call?

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!).

... Six welcome returns.

Every fall season I get stoked about all the new shows, with cool new premises ("A guy travels through time trying to make right what once went wrong!"-- Journeyman not Quantum Leap), and all the big changes in store for existing shows. But it's equally exciting to see which beloved actors will be returning to television. Brad Garrett coming back to television in 'Til Death last year? Cool! Patricia Heaton and Kelsey Grammer both coming back to television ... together? That's gotta be awesome, right? Jerry O'Connell on Carpoolers ... well ... ? I like the guy, but I'm not scheduling a 'Welcome Back' shindig for him.

Half the fun of a new television season is the return of great actors and actresses to the small screen. And while I could have easily done 10 or even 20 of these, I've narrowed it down to the six talents who were most welcome back in my house on a weekly basis this past year. I've even been so bold as to rank them. Feel free to agree, disagree and present your own lists in the comments.

By now you may have seen the preview for FOX's new comedy Back to You, which stars Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton. In the preview Grammer's character, a prominent Los Angeles news anchor, apparently cusses out a colleague while still on the air. I say apparent because all of the swear words are bleeped out for network television.

You're probably just itching to find out what Kelsey really said, aren't you? Well, thanks to the pack rat known as YouTube you can see that same clip in all of its foul-mouthed glory. It's not the entire preview, just the part that shows Grammer's character yelling and screaming at the off-camera production crew. It's also minus the laughing you hear on the FOX preview. Don't know if this is a good or bad sign for the show or not. I have labeled the video, which you'll see after the jump, as Not Suitable For Work.

Sometimes, when I'm bored and my WiFi router is broken, I like to play "guess the celebrity commercial voice over." Most of the time, I usually get things right, as advertisers are using more familiar voices than ever before. But sometimes I wonder if a company uses a particular voice for more reasons than they're available, recognizable, and like cashing large checks for very little work.

Case in point is a recent set of Hyundai ads starring the voice of Kelsey Grammer. In the ads, Grammer compares the attributes of the Korean car company's Santa Fe SUV with a much more expensive Land Rover. Of course, this being a Hyundai ad, the Santa Fe comes out favorably, matching the Land Rover in every category except cup holders.