TVSquad

I'm still not sold on that show title; Terriers makes me think of little dogs yipping and running around. But FX and Shawn Ryan created magic with The Shield, and Ted Griffin made Ocean's Eleven so much fun. So I'm really excited about the show. My excitement can even withstand the news that Donal Logue (Life) has been cast in the lead role of Terriers.

I've never connected with Logue. I thought Grounded for Life was mostly crap, and he wasn't as "amazing" as the critics told me he was going to be in Knights of Prosperity. He has done better in some of his dramatic work. Maybe I'm just bitter that the hype machine told me Knights was going to be the greatest sitcom of the last millennium, and the next.

(S01E17) Well, they certainly are hitting all the hot buttons. The big sex episode is nothing new for a drama that deals with high school kids. Even though I knew going in that we would be traveling a familiar path, I was looking forward to it for the simple reason that we would get to see Tami Taylor's reaction. Connie Britton didn't disappoint. She continues to turn in one amazing performance after another.

The scene where she confronts Julie about having seen Saracen buying condoms was the highlight for me. It was a nice setup to the discussion she had with Eric later. With no real idea of what she was supposed to do, she just jumped right in. "I saw Matt Saracen buying condoms today." There's an icebreaker. By the end of it, she's so concerned, and so close to just losing control of her emotions. Great stuff. The interaction between Tami and Eric as they tried to deal with all of it was also very good.

• At 8, ABC has a new George Lopez Show, followed by new episodes of The Knights of Prosperity, According To Jim, In Case of Emergency, and Primetime.
• NBC has a new Friday Night Lights at 8, then new episodes of Deal Or No Deal and Medium.
• FOX has a new Bones at 8, then a new American Idol.
• The CW has a new Beauty and the Geek at 8.
• PBS has a new America's Ballroom Challenge at 8, then The Supreme Court.
• At 9, Bravo has the finale of Top Chef, followed by the debut of Top Design.
• The History Channel has a new Modern Marvels at 9, focusing on the canning and packaging of foods.
• At 10, Food Network has a new Good Eats, then a new Dinner: Impossible.
• Fox Movie Channel has Paul Newman in The Verdict at 10.
• Also at 10: HBO has a new Inside The NFL.
• At 10:30, Comedy Central has a new Naked Trucker and T-Bones Show.

Check your local TV listings for more.

Remember way back last fall? ABC was knocking heads with the Dancing with the Stars results show at 8 and Lost at 9. Boy, how things have changed. The network has been getting kicked around by everyone since Emmit walked away with the big silver disco ball and Lost went into hibernation.

This past Wednesday was rock bottom. The network found itself in fourth place both in total viewers and the 18-49 demo. Most disturbing was the performance of the new sit-coms Knights of Prosperity and In Case of Emergency. They managed to attract just 3.58 and 2.98 million viewers respectively. They were up against American Idol, but still... Ouch.

ABC's answer? Move Knights of Prosperity to 8:30 and let According to Jim lead off that 9PM hour. Yeah, that should work. It is good news for fans of Knights. Going up against Bones is certainly an easier task than facing Idol, so it would seem that they are at least trying to give the show a fighting chance. Things don't look good for In Case of Emergency though.

(S01E01) The Knights of Prosperity is a show with all the right ingredients, and yet, the result feels more than a little half-baked.

Donal Logue plays Eugene Gurkin, a janitor who decides he wants a change when a co-worker falls over dead on the job. Gurkin doesn't want to die never having made something of himself, so after a failed attempt at securing a loan to open his own bar, he decides to rob Mick Jagger. All of this happens in about the first ten minutes of the episode, so you either buy into the concept right away or you don't. This is a sitcom after all, and not a feature film, so they have to get into it right away. Still, a little more set up would have been nice.

I'm reminded of the great American poet Dave Mustaine who said, "Hindsight is always 20/20, but looking back it's still a bit fuzzy." You may recall that before it became Knights of Prosperity, that show was called Let's Rob Mick Jagger. And before that, it was reported to be I Want To Rob Jeff Goldblum. Unfortunately, that didn't work out because Goldblum already had a gig set up at NBC called Raines. It's about a detective that sees dead people. I like to think of it as The Ghost Whisperer minus the boobs.

Adam mentioned a couple weeks ago that Raines would be starting in March. That's still the plan, but Cynopsis is reporting that they have cut the episode order from 13 to 7, which is never a good sign. Maybe things would have been better for Goldblum had he jumped ship to get robbed over at ABC. On the other hand, given the state of the rest of the ABC midseason shows, I wouldn't bet on that one either.

ABC unveiled their new Wednesday night schedule yesterday, as Anna reported here. The big news is, of course, Lost moving to 10PM to duck American Idol and Criminal Minds. Gideon wins the Wednesday night slugfest by forfeit, I think. Crazy island adventure aside, aren't you wondering where Day Break went?

When Knights of Prosperity and In Case Of Emergency kick off on January 3rd at 9PM there will still be five more episodes of Brett Hopper's bad day. Could it be that the terrible ratings have finally caught up with the show and ABC is going to quit while they're behind? The other option is moving the show, but at this point I'm not sure the numbers will even allow them to do that.

They could stick a repeat Grey's Anatomy in any of the slots and easily get twice the audience. Added to that, there are still episodes of The Nine and Six Degrees in the can that are just as, if not more, deserving of any open slot. Day Break may be destined for the internet, and a complete series DVD set.

[ via Variety.com ]

I've long had a theory that a poor title for a show can sink it. Not all on it's own mind you. But a crappy title can do enough damage to push a struggling enterprise right into the television dustbin. It's happened before, and I'm sure we'll see it happen again.

So, when I saw one of the upcoming shows for our new fall season move from a great title to a bad one, I thought it was time to make a list. These are the five worst titles for TV shows that came to mind for me. I look forward to seeing suggestions for those that I overlooked. Feel free to submit your favorite bad titles in the comments. And remember, there are no wrong answers, just wrong titles.

Now that NBC and CBS have us all excited about its fall season, it's time to move along to the screener DVDs we've been receiving from ABC. While we're not allowed to technically "review" each new show, we can give you a short preview with our initial thoughts.

For ABC, we're covering: The Knights of Prosperity (formerly Let's Rob...), Help Me Help You, The Nine, Big Day, Notes from the Underbelly, Six Degrees, Ugly Betty, and Men in Trees. (We'll do a Part 2 of the ABC previews once we receive the remaining shows.)