TVSquad

I am about to write something that I normally don't do when it comes to the way networks program their primetime schedules. It's something that will shake your foundations, rock the world, turn Republicans into Democrats (and vice-versa) and make Amy Winehouse finally get sober. Ready? ABC is being smart with its programming schedule.

There, it's done. Now to sit back and wait for the accolades.

Seriously, after years of relying on only a handful of shows to carry the schedule throughout the year, ABC has been filling out their schedules with a number of backup shows to fill those gaps that always appear when a fall premiere tanks. Granted, some of these mid-season replacements also tank, but at least the network is letting them try. Because of that we have been lucky to enjoy shows like Samantha Who? and Eli Stone. This time around, ABC has five new series - all scripted - that will be premiering during the 2008-09 season. You'll find a brief explanation of each after the jump.

I'm hesitant to get my hopes up, because there's always talk of TV shows making a leap to the big screen. Whether it's a great idea, as with Arrested Development, or a horrific one like Friends: The Movie, it seems that as soon as a show ends, the silver-screen talks begin. Regardless, I just about peed my pants when I read that a Veronica Mars movie may actually become a reality.

Even though Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas has two pilots in the works (Cupid and Outrageous Fortune), he still hasn't forgotten the little detective show that is singlehandedly responsible for people no longer asking him if he's the dude from Matchbox Twenty. Apparently, Thomas's production office is located on the same lot where VM star Kristen Bell is currently shooting Heroes and the two sat down for a little chat.

Sometimes you come across a line in a column, an opinion, an observation, that is so mindblowingly wrong-headed that it leaves your mouth hanging open for a full 30 seconds. That's what happened to me when I read this list of the Shows That Died Too Young (great one season shows that shouldn't have been canceled) over at The New York Post. Talking about HBO's John From Cincinnati, the writer says this:

John [From Cincinnati] was not only the most creative program in the medium's sixty year history, but also some of the most mysterious.

Now, the second half of that quote is grammatically baffling, but we get the idea: JFC was the most creative show that has been on television in its 60 year history. Well, what do you think of that?

It's hard to believe that we're a full year removed from the glorious mess that was Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. It seemed that the split between "liked it" and "hated it" was about 50-50, but everyone wanted to comment. One thing I noticed in those comments was that, even among the people who liked it, there was a strong sentiment against the performance of Sarah Paulson as Harriet Hayes. Most people just didn't like the chemistry she had with Matthew Perry, and she didn't manage to make us care enough about the plight of the über-religious comedian to root for her to connect with anyone.

So, for anyone who's looking forward to the revival of Rob Thomas' Cupid, the news that Paulson's been cast as the female lead on the show has to be disheartening. She's playing Dr. Claire Allen, the same role Paula Marshall played in the original series, opposite Bobby Cannavale, who is taking over the Cupid role from Jeremy Piven.

This sounds like a stroke of genius. Make that two geniuses when it comes to comedy. Catherine O'Hara and Rob Thomas working together. O'Hara has been cast as the lead in Good Behavior, one of three Rob Thomas projects in the works for next season (although he has stepped back from Beverly Hills 90210 to concentrate on Good Behavior and Cupid). If the ABC dramedy manages to get picked up and O'Hara is heading up the project, they can count on me to tune in. Yeah, I said it. I'm committed if the SCTV-vet is committed.

Catherine, who might be best known as Kevin's mother in Home Alone and Home Alone 2, is better known to comedy devotees for her brilliant work on SCTV -- Lola "I want to have your baby" Heatherton, and the Christopher Guest mockumentaries like Best in Show (she was Cookie Guggleman Fleck, the trampy wife of Eugene Levy, both of whom adored their terrier).

Good Behavior is based on Outrageous Fortune, a New Zealand series about a criminal family. Catherine is Jackie West, the matriarch of the clan, and when her spouse is caught and thrown in jail for five years, she decides that it's time for the rest of the family to go straight.

Every time I see an image of Rob Thomas I can't help but think, "man, that is one huge neck." Sorry, just had to get that out of the way.

It turns out that the aforementioned tight-tie-wearing director/producer/writer has decided to pass on heading the Beverly Hills, 90210 spinoff series to concentrate more on a couple of other projects, one of which we've already mentioned before: Cupid and Good Behavior. Thomas will still be involved with the spinoff show, but only as an executive producer. In fact, the script for the series is being totally rewritten by Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah from What About Brian (Update: They also wrote for Freaks & Geeks and Undeclared). In a nutshell, fans of Rob Thomas won't likely be feeling the Rob Thomas-ness in this series.

This isn't the first time in recent history that Thomas has stepped down from a new series. The same thing happened with Miss Guided last year, though it's unclear if that show has suffered at all from his departure.

[via PopCandy]

Jeremy Piven was unavailable this time around, busy as he is playing Ari in Entourage, so writer/producer Rob Thomas went in another direction. Taller, by four inches. Thomas has chosen Bobby Cannavale for the title role in Cupid for ABC.

Cannavale, an Emmy-award winner for his guest turn on Will & Grace as Vince, will be Trevor Hale in Cupid. He's described as manic and charming and firmly believing in the fact that he is the real Roman god of love, Cupid. His mission is to make 100 love matches so he can earn the right to leave Earth and return to Mount Olympus. ABC is behind this new pilot, an updated version of Thomas' 1998 Cupid that didn't make it past season one.

Is that a throne Rob Thomas is sitting on? Seems like he's quickly becoming King of TV! The prolific scribe is quite literally sitting in the catbird seat. ABC has just greenlit another Rob Thomas pilot, that's his third -- but who's counting? It follows ABC's resurrection of Cupid and a Beverly Hills, 90210 spinoff for the CW. The latest Rob Thomas opus is an import based on the New Zealand TV series Outrageous Fortune.

Outrageous Fortune is a one-hour dramedy is about a family of criminals. When the father is jailed for four years, the matriarch declares that it's time for the family to go straight. Thomas has written the pilot and will act as executive producer, along with John Barnett, Michael Larkin, Michael Goldstein, Bruce Cervi and John Lansing.

What's going on at the other TV blogs via the internets.

• BuzzSugar has the scoop on the Freaks & Geeks reunion.
• Bill O'Reilly is not happy with David Letterman or John Edwards.
• Mad Men's Rich Sommer (Harry) has one of the coolest celebrity blogs you'll find, and check out the incredible Xmas card he sent out.
• What were you doing in 1983? I was graduating from high school and watching MTV.
• New York picks 10 shows that they'd like to see NBC's Ben Silverman bring back.
• This teen wanted to crash a Hannah Montana concert - literally.
• Matt Roush loves ABC's new show Eli Stone.
• During the strike, Alan Sepinwall is reviewing episodes of Cupid.

I was a fan of the short-lived Jeremy Piven show Cupid, which aired on ABC in the late 90s. But I never would have thought that of all of the shows that have been canceled that it would be the one that would make a comeback, ten years later.

But that's what's happening. Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas, who created Cupid, was looking for a show sort of like Cupid to do for ABC, and ABC just asked if he wanted to do Cupid again. And Sony gave the OK. The setting of the show will move from Chicago to Los Angeles, so they can have more guest stars (let's all say it at once: "ugh"). You can watch most of the original pilot here (part one isn't there for some reason).

Of course, Piven won't star in the remake. He's too busy doing HBO's Entourage and big screen movies. So who should we get for the lead role? How about Matthew Perry?

Veteran actress Paula Marshall is joining the FX show Nip/Tuck this fall. She'll play Dylan Walsh's love interest for at least four episodes.

I call her a veteran actress even though shes not that old (her birthday was last week - Happy Birthday Paula!). She's been on a ton of TV shows over the years. Some should have lasted longer than they did (Sports Night, Veronica Mars, Cupid), and some probably lasted longer than they should have (Out of Practice, Snoops).

I know, 89% of you reading this are saying, "what's Michael Hayes?" You might even be saying " what's Michael Hayes?" without the italics, because you're not even sure if it's a TV show or not. But it was: it was a short-lived legal drama starring David Caruso before he left for Miami and put on sunglasses.

It's one of the shows that Sony might release on DVD, and they're asking you to vote for which show you want to see released on DVD later this year. The other choices are The Rookies, Cupid, Police Story, The $treet, and What's Happening Now!

Ah Festivus, it's a magical time of the year. Hurricanes, week long power outages, how can you not be in the mood to celebrate? While my real world desires would lean more toward the practical, like a generator, so the next time 5000 trees get thrown on the power lines I don't have to miss Las Vegas, Dr. Who and South of Nowhere, these are some of my TV universe wishes for the coming year.

TV on DVD - Every week I read Bob's list of the new DVD releases, and every week I have the same reaction. How can THAT be coming out on DVD but none of my top 5 most wanted are? Seriously, there is more of a market for the Stacked DVD than any of these? I'm not greedy. I'll settle for just one of these shows to finally get the DVD set it deserves. Cupid, Beggars and Choosers, Going To California, Maximum Bob, or Mr & Mrs Smith.

As we all get ready to eat way too much pie and nap/shop (choose your own adventure) away a couple days it's time to give thanks for that which is good in television land. So, this year, I'm thankful for...

1: Tivo. I resisted the siren's call of Tivo for a long time, opting instead to stick with the complex system of tapes, VCR's and my computer that had kept me up to date for years. But finally, after hearing again and again from the TV Squad readers to just get a Tivo already, I did. And it has been as good as everyone said it would be. I'll say it. You were all right. I was wrong.

I'm still hoping for all the goodies to work with OS X, or dare I say, Ubuntu, but for now I can begrudgingly run Windows. The ability to archive shows to another machine is fantastic, and if you do the math, it works out to about the same price as using tapes for storage anyway.

The A.V. Club has a list up on their site featuring 15 "lamentably lost" TV shows that only made it one season or less. As with anything where you start listing things, there are going to be omissions. And probably more glaring, there will be inclusions that make you scratch your head and say, 'Wha-huh?" Overall, I like their list. It has the usual suspects that I would have expected with Firefly, Freaks and Geeks, and Now and Again. They also included a couple that I don't think get enough press with That's My Bush and Cupid. Really, the more press that Cupid can get the better, because it really deserves a DVD release.

The wha-huh inclusion for me though, Cop Rock. It was an original concept, sure, but "lamentably" implies that you feel some kind of sorrow that it's gone. I think 11 episodes was more than anyone needed to get full and complete closure with Cop Rock. As far as omissions, the shows that come to mind right away for me are Going To California, Keen Eddie, Maximum Bob, The Adventures of Brisco County Jr., and Wonderfalls. Going To California remains my number one most wanted DVD set, and Maximum Bob is in the top five. I'm curious to hear what other people view as the ones that got away.