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Show rr Rash of questions arise from networks' fall TV schedule t t r v - 1 SORRY AFOOT MAKE YOO FE Y0URE PRETTY PLAYING POT THAT. ANY - AT GOOP PANG IF BETTER PEAP. Frazier Moore I The critic screens each show's pilot. I The critic then screens the week, the world stood still overhauled pilot, which may have recast and, just for the broadcast networks been their new schedules. good measure, maybe also retitled. (NBC's sci-f- i thriller "Fathom," for Everyone rejoiced at the announcement that, no, NBC wasn't instance, became "Surface" prior to its debut two years ago, then axing "Law & Order," while "Veronica Mars fans grieved at news failed, as it would have by. any other of its demise. Viewers began countname.) I If possible, the critic previews ing the days until Kelsey ("Frasier") Grammer and Patricia ("Everybody a couple more episodes before the Loves Raymond") Heaton return to show premieres. Another fundaus paired in the Fox sitcom "Back mental rule of TV reminds us that a to You." pilot is like a first date: Even if it's And we all were left shaking our great, it doesn't always signify relaheads over the tionship material. "Cavemen." (Will Geico Meanwhile, as critics dutifully issue ABC a policy to cover this sitcompile their "pick hits" lists, they com in the event of sudden death?) often lose sight of another factor Last week sure was exciting. But that can make all the difference in now that life and our collective pulse whether or not any new show fulfills its potential: the shows it's slotrate are getting back to normal, what do we really know about the ted before and after and opposite. new shows awaiting us come fall? Unlike TV critics, conveniently Not much. Nor is there any reabeset by stacks of DVDs from the son, come to think of it, for viewers networks, most viewers will get their first crack at each show in its gratefully ushering in the summer months to care about anything fall designated slot on the prime-tim- e has in store. grid. There it will be found, or not, But TV critics care. So let's press as just one of many options for the on. viewer at that hour. For one thing, it's such a temptaThe scheduling process (a comtion to start handicapping the new plex system of strategies mixed with voodoo) is vital in determinseries, even sight unseen. Like that "Cavemen" show! ing a series' destiny. Rest assured, it is no accident that on Mondays Sounds awfully lame, doesn't it? So lame, in fact, it could make you (Fox's gritty drama about New Orleans) cops in forget a fundamental rule of TV: There are no bad concepts, only bad will follow the compatible "Prison execution. Break," Consider the concept for "Lost" against sitcoms and sci-f- i "Heroes" on rival networks. (people stuck on an island who get So keep in mind yet another of along worse than "Survivor" castaways) or "House" (a doctor who's TV's key rules: A show's success is ruder and even more dismissive determined by four criteria: Locathan the doctors you deal with in tion, location, the show itself, and location. real life). Execution, not the screwball concept, is what made those Granted, that rule could languish in the shows click. era. Besides the So far, pretty much all we (and expanding access to what you want on TV when you want it, you're beby "we" I mean critics as well as the rest of TV Nation) are privy to ing offered more and more network even as a sneak among the new fall crop are conepisodes online cepts. peek before its TV airing. This can boost the odds that a new show Here's the concept for CBS's "Moonlight": a vampire private eye. gains a foothold against its competiMeet NBCs "Chuck": a computer tion on the schedule. Does this mean that viewers internerd whose brain gets gorged with ested in "Private Practice" (the spithe government's most sensitive noff from ABC's mega-h- it "Grey's secrets. ABC's "Cashmere Mafia" comAnatomy") as well as the CW's "Gossip Girl" (a comedy about a prises four "ambitious and sexy" New York career women, while its mystery blogger dishing up dirt at a "Big Shots" features four New York snooty New York prep school) and NBC's revival of "Bionic Woman" businessmen "at the top of their will have the opportunity to sample game." Not much to go on, huh? But now all three series despite their bethe journey has begun. As with eving scheduled to air the same hour? Could be. ery season, the truth will emerge, Will any of them be worth the step by step, for the TV critic strivviewer's time? So far that's not so ing to judge each series' merits. Here is that path to enlightenment: easy to say. Even for a caveman. ASSOCIATED PRESS rast fV. re-sh- ThENR-TRE- . ! h- T" TO TAKE PART IN SOU GOING TO SEE IT XM 5PlC.-fW-? MEV4 IS COOO - . WNT X . f ihri nracwhopuobikP A , ; WltAlb -- Trt5 CATdr? R?X IS ) TTT i j Mm (Dear (Diary post-Katri- wasHep zce. iy counter-programme- d IS) Not I c BP. NoBoPV MHHHMMHEHHM muttscomics.com mmmt m&jtmtmmnrrmmmm Wmfm nrfNOPLASrei Im A . "I SAL, BY 'FULFILL MEAN SOMETHING OR CHILDISH... k MY DREAMS' FRIVOLOUS - I DONT ( 9 J 1 MEAN FINDING "THE JOB," ONE THAT COMBINES MY PASSIONS WITH MY SKILLS FOR A TRULY REWARDING EXPERIENCE. 0 ( JUST Iyour j LIKE I S T YESTERDAY RALPH AND ARGUED THREE HOURS OVER WHETHER OR NOT THERE'S ANOTHER PENCIL JOBll I r7 iru I (BESIDES "NO. 2,'j |