TVSquad

• At 7, CBS has a new 60 Minutes, then new episodes of The Amazing Race, Three Rivers, and Cold Case.
• NBC has a new Football Night in America at 7, followed by the Cowboys vs. the Eagles.
• FOX has a new Brothers at 7, then new episodes of American Dad, Family Guy, Family Guy Presents: Seth & Alex's Almost Live Comedy Show, and The Cleveland Show.
• Cartoon Network has a new Ed, Edd, 'N Eddy at 7.
• At 7:30, ABC has a new America's Funniest Home Videos, followed by new episodes of Extreme Makeover, Desperate Housewives, and Brothers & Sisters.
• At 8, PBS has a new Nature, then a new Masterpiece Contemporary.
• At 9, HBO has a new Curb Your Enthusiasm, followed by the season finale of Bored To Death.
• Showtime has a new Dexter at 9, then a new Californication.
• Food Network has a new Next Iron Chef at 9, then a new Iron Chef America.
• Syfy has 2012: Startling New Secrets at 9.
• At 10, AMC has the season finale of Mad Men.
• Discovery has a new Storm Chasers at 10.
• At 11:30, Cartoon Network has a new Titan Maximum.
• At midnight, Cartoon Network has a new episode of The Venture Brothers, followed by a new Metalocalypse.

Check your local TV listings for more.

The Fox network cannot risk pissing off Seth MacFarlane. If they do, they run a good chance of suddenly finding most of their entire Sunday night line-up sucking eggs. At least, that's one possible reason for the renewal of American Dad for a sixth season. That pickup gives MacFarlane the renewal trifecta for Sunday nights.

Actually, of MacFarlane's three series, American Dad is the best one (although I'm finding The Cleveland Show inching closer to first place). As opposed to Family Guy, the storytelling is more linear than the other two and the jokes actually have some relevance to the plot or characters (I'm on Team South Park regarding that "feud").

The Cleveland Show is also better at linear storytelling and jokes than its predecessor, but it's still not up to the standards of American Dad. Sadly, American Dad will likely live in the shadow of Family Guy and The Cleveland Show for years to come. At least MacFarlane has three chances with Fox to keep on working.

Well, it seemed like an unusual pairing when it was announced. Kind of like oil and water. Well, the oil slick has hit the proverbial fan. Microsoft has withdrawn its sole sponsorship of Fox's Seth MacFarlane comedy special. That's the special that Fox was promoting like crazy yesterday all during the NFL games, the special called Family Guy Presents: Seth & Alex's Almost Live Comedy Show.

In the grand tradition of show business, though, the special will go on November 8, just without Microsoft commercials. Fox is looking for alternate sponsors. Here's my first call if I'm at Fox -- Apple. Don't you think those Mac/PC ads would send a message to viewers who might still think Microsoft is behind this?

It would also be a brilliant PR move by Steve Jobs and Apple. After all, they could say, "Hey, we're not afraid of the content in Seth MacFarlane's show. We have a sense of humor."

• At 7, ABC has a new America's Funniest Home Videos, followed by new episodes of Extreme Makeover, Desperate Housewives, and Brothers & Sisters.
• CBS has a new 60 Minutes at 7, then new episodes of The Amazing Race, Three Rivers, and Cold Case.
• NBC has a new Football Night in America at 7, followed by the Bears vs. the Falcons.
• FOX has a new Brothers at 7.
• At 8, FOX has a new episode of The Simpsons, then a new Cleveland Show.
• TBS has Baseball Playoffs at 8, the Dodgers vs. the Phillies.
• Nickelodeon has a new Nick News Special Edition at 8.
• At 9, PBS has a new Masterpiece Mystery!
• Food Network has a new Next Iron Chef at 9, then a new Iron Chef America.
• IFC has Monty Python: Almost The Truth (The Lawyer's Cut) at 9.
• HBO has a new Curb Your Enthusiasm at 9, followed by a new Bored To Death.
• Also at 9: Showtime has a new Dexter, then a new Californication.
• At 9:30, FOX has a new American Dad.
• At 10, AMC has a new Mad Men.
• At 11:30, Cartoon Network has a new Titan Maximum.
• At midnight , Cartoon Network has a new Venture Brothers.

Check your local TV listings for more.

Not that the future of this series was ever in doubt, but Fox has extended its original season-and-a-half order of The Cleveland Show to a full two seasons. Given the strong premiere ratings for the show, seasons beyond number two will likely be in the bag. If Fox didn't extend, they'd have to deal with an irate Seth MacFarlane who currently controls most of their Sunday night line-up.

Is The Cleveland Show going to end up being more popular than its progenitor Family Guy? Do these ratings simply represent a high initial interest in the new show that will wane over time? I have used the analogy of The Jeffersons spinning off from All In The Family, but did The Jeffersons ever beat All In The Family in the ratings?

Whatever the case, Seth MacFarlane doesn't have to worry about it for at least two seasons, and probably longer.

[Watch clips and free episodes of The Cleveland Show at SlashControl]

The man who virtually owns Fox Sunday nights, Seth MacFarlane, will be joining Carrie Underwood in what is seemingly Fox's attempt to revive the variety show genre. Didn't anybody learn the lesson of Rosie O'Donnell?

The show is called Family Guy Presents: Seth and Alex's Almost Live Comedy Show. It'll be broadcast on November 8th and be commercial-free thanks to Microsoft (who will be promoting Windows 7). The special will be a mix of animated and live performances. I've seen Seth MacFarlane and Alex Borstein (the voice of Lois Griffin) perform together in Family Guy Live and they're certainly better together than anything Rosie could produce.

It's interesting how retro these planned variety shows are going. It used to be that shows like The Colgate Comedy Hour would have live sketches about their sponsors sprinkled throughout the show. I wonder how MacFarlane and company will handle shilling Windows 7. Do they even like Windows 7? MacFarlane strikes me more as a Mac guy. "Mac" is even part of his last name.

This is the third week of the new FOX Sunday night, so it's time to check in and see how the lineup is shaping up. I wanted to give The Cleveland Show a few weeks to settle down and start to figure out what kind of show it wants to be. The pilot wasn't the strongest, but there was so much set-up involved, you couldn't tell anything about what future episodes would be like.

With Seth MacFarlane now providing a full hour-and-a-half of FOX's Sunday programming, we decided to take a look at all of his shows in a single post each week. At first, I wasn't sure if I was even going to like The Cleveland Show enough to do this, but it's already grown on me. And that's much faster than American Dad, which took more than a year of sampling here and there before I tuned in regularly.

• TBS has Baseball Playoffs all night.
• At 7, CBS has a new 60 Minutes, followed by new episodes of The Amazing Race, Three Rivers, and Cold Case.
• NBC has a new Football Night in America at 7, then the Colts vs. the Titans.
• FOX has a new Brothers at 7.
• At 7:30, ABC has a new America's Funniest Home Videos (30 minutes), followed by new episodes of Extreme Makeover, Desperate Housewives, and Brothers & Sisters.
• At 8, FOX has a new episode of The Simpsons, then new episodes of The Cleveland Show, Family Guy, and American Dad.
• Food Network has a new Challenge at 8, followed by new episodes of Next Iron Chef and Iron Chef America.
• At 8:30, Disney has a new Jonas.
• At 9, PBS has a new Masterpiece Mystery!
• HBO has a new Curb Your Enthusiasm at 9, then a new Bored To Death.
• Showtime has a new Dexter at 9, then a new Californication.
• Lifetime has the season finale of Drop Dead Diva at 9, followed by the season finale of Army Wives.
• At 10, AMC has a new Mad Men.
• At 11:30, Cartoon Network has a new Titan Maximum.

Check your local TV listings for more.

• At 7, ABC has a new America's Funniest Home Videos, followed by new episodes of Extreme Makeover, Desperate Housewives, and Brothers & Sisters.
• CBS has a new 60 Minutes at 7, then a new Amazing Race, the series premiere of Three Rivers, and a new Cold Case.
• NBC has a new Football Night in America at 7, followed by the Chargers vs. the Steelers.
• At 8, FOX has a new episode of The Simpsons, then new episodes of The Cleveland Show, Family Guy, and American Dad.
• Food Network has a new Challenge at 8, then the season premiere of The Next Iron Chef.
• At 9, PBS has a new Masterpiece Mystery!
• HBO has a new Curb Your Enthusiasm at 9, then a new Bored To Death.
• Lifetime has a new Drop Dead Diva at 8, followed by a new Army Wives.
• Showtime has a new Dexter at 9, then a new Californication.
• Discovery has two new episodes of Raging Planet at 9.
  
• At 10, AMC has a new Mad Men.
• At 10:30, HBO has the season finale of Entourage.
• At 11:30, Cartoon Network has a new Titan Maximum.

Check your local TV listings for more.

I figured I'd post this open thread for the season premiere of American Dad not just because I want fans to have a place to talk about the show but I'm wondering, well, if anyone even cares about it anymore.

I tried to get into the show but, beyond some funny lines here and there, I just don't find it that amusing. It seems rather forced and off-balance to me. Are you still watching it? It seems to be the FOX animated show that not many people talk about.

[Watch episodes and clips of American Dad and other shows at SlashControl.]

• At 7, ABC has the two-hour season premiere of Extreme Makeover, followed by the season premieres of Desperate Housewives and Brothers & Sisters.
• CBS has a new 60 Minutes at 7, then the two-hour season premiere of The Amazing Race and the season premiere of Cold Case.
• NBC has a new Football Night in America at 7, followed by the Colts vs. the Cardinals.
• At 8, FOX has the season premiere of The Simpsons, then the series premiere of The Cleveland Show and the season premieres of Family Guy and American Dad.
• TBS has The Wizard of Oz at 8.
• Nickelodeon has a new Nick News Special Edition at 8.
• Also at 8: Food Network has a new Challenge, followed by a new Iron Chef America.
• At 8:30, ESPN has the Red Sox/Yankees game.
• At 9, HBO has a new Curb Your Enthusiasm, then a new Bored To Death.
• Showtime has the season premiere of Dexter at 9, followed by the season premiere of Californication.
• Cartoon Network has a new Total Drama Action at 9.
• Hallmark has the movie Mrs. Washington Goes To Smith at 9.
• At 10, AMC has a new Mad Men.
• At 10:30, HBO has a new Entourage.

Check your local TV listings for more.

We've been hearing about it for an eternity, the premiere was delayed until this past spring until fall, and for the longest time, the only thing we knew about FOX's upcoming Family Guy spin-off, The Cleveland Show, was this here picture. Heck, it's been over a year since that pseudo-promo for the show started floating around, but at least we were told how and when Cleveland actually left Quahog via this Family Guy clip.

However, now we have real proof that the new cartoon, which premieres on FOX on Sunday, September 27th, is actually real. Check out the new clip from the premiere episode below and tell us what you think. Personally, and I've said this before, but American Dad killed my faith in Seth MacFarlane's ability to make another animated hit. That being said, I'm willing to give anything a shot that has a bear who sounds like the voice you hear over the loudspeaker in an Ikea. Oh, and if you're wondering who the voice behind Mrs. Bear is, it's Arianna Huffington.

[via NCM]

I was one of those people who bought the Family Guy DVDs and helped bring that show back to Fox. As such, when word came out that Seth MacFarlane was branching out with a new show, I was beyond excited about it. And yet, try as I might I just couldn't get into American Dad. I didn't make it past the first season, and hadn't checked in with it since. Maybe it was too different than what I was used to.

When a friend of mine told me that Dad was better than Guy now, well I wasn't buying that at all. Lo and behold, suddenly it was summertime and I had all this freetime on my hands ... because I'm not going to watch Surviving Suburbia and CSI reruns and I'm certainly not going to go outside! I decided to take advantage of the time to catch American Dad reruns and see if the show got better. Fortunately for American Dad, Family Guy has been really hit or miss this past season with more episodes devoid of laughter than before.

When it comes to Family Guy, I really tried. I honestly gave it my best shot. I watched the Sunday episodes, the late night reruns on Adult Swim, and even some of the DVDs from my college-aged brother's collection, including the famed feature-length Star Wars parody. I watched until my eyes started planning a prison break from my skull.

I wanted to like it. It's goofy, occasionally satirical and completely unafraid to be silly and bat#*$& crazy. Alas, I couldn't take it. I didn't find it funny or entertaining. The jumps to the pop culture flashbacks made the whole thing disjointed and screwed up the continuity. The characters are as two-dimensional as the paper the Korean sweatshop animators draw on for each episode. The way the show just drags on certain jokes is downright irritating. We get it. Peter hurt his knee jumping out of The A-Team van. A prom night dumpster baby musical number would be hilariously tragic. It's the one and only time I ever rooted for Cartman in an episode of South Park.

That doesn't mean the show's creator deserves the same contempt.

Fox showed some surprising stability in its schedule (our network is growing up) for the 2009-2010 season. But they are bringing in four new comedies, two dramas and a late night Saturday show.

Returning Summer: Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?, Don't Forget the Lyrics!, So You Think You Can Dance

Returning Fall/Winter: 24, American Dad, American Idol, Bones, Dollhouse,, Family Guy, Fringe, House, Kitchen Nightmares, Lie to Me, The Simpsons, 'Til Death (for some reason), So You Think You Can Dance (yeah, two separate seasons summer and fall)

Gone: Do Not Disturb, King of the Hill (though there's still episodes in the can which will air sometime next year), Prison Break (a 2-hour film is being produced that may air next year), Sit Down Shut Up, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

New: Brothers, The Cleveland Show, Glee (sneak peek tomorrow), Human Target, Past Life, Sons of Tucson, The Wanda Sykes Show (late night Saturdays)

The schedule and some details on the new shows after the jump.