Zap2it fall TV preview 2009: NBC's new shows

Drama Premise: High-octane, adrenaline-filled medical drama about first-responder paramedics from the San Francisco General trauma team who rush by land, sea or air to reach their victims on time.

[Don]

Looks like another year in last place for NBC

[Austinite]

So somebody thought "Let's cross Melrose Place with Jericho" and sold that pitch? Wow.

[CherylA]

Obviously all the people over 50 didn't make it, although we do have one African American and one Asian American, apparently the Latino people got wiped out with the AARP memebers.

[CherylA]

OH "ER', "Saint Elsewher", "Grey's Anatomy", "Chicago Hope" - how ground breaking!

[Boz]

They better be selling hard, because none of these sound like shows I'm interested in. Leno's new show may be the only thing I watch on NBC, other than a football matchup I am interested in. Is it too soon for the government to urge bankruptcy -- theit ideas clearly are.

[JZJ]

So let's review. NBC, the network of brilliant programing choices got rid of ER which was a solid show, and punted Scrubs to ABC in order to replace them with two ER like clones.

I smell another season of lowly rated quickly canceled crap from the back end of the peacock.

[Openedge1]

A bunch of junk, yet no "Chuck"...how sad.

Off to the other stations it looks like.

[Yum]

They had to get rid or ER because its been on for 15 long seasons.

[Yum]

They should make a rule to have every series last for only 5 seasons.

[Yum]

eat me chuck....I want janis to drink some juice. Beyonce rules!!!

[Rena Moretti]

Getting a show from the producers responsible for Pepper Dennis, Friday Night Lights and Pushing Daisies hardly seems to be the recipe for success for "Mercy".

Once again, we see the pattern of NBC hiring people with a track record of failure and hoping against all evidence things will work out.

Now I'm not against people getting a second chance (or even a third or fourth), especially if they're genuinely talented, but the pattern of NBC recycling producers from hyped-up commercial bombs is too obvious to miss.

[Rena Moretti]

CherylA wrote:

Obviously all the people over 50 didn't make it, although we do have one African American and one Asian American, apparently the Latino people got wiped out with the AARP memebers.

Great observation (although I'm pretty sure Chevy Chase it a couple years over 50!)

NBC is once again falling prey to the idea that those all-elusive younger audiences want to see a stereotypical world made up mostly of white people with model-like features and the attending dead eyes and poor acting skills.

And every failure of those types of shows only seems to bring back more.

[Rena Moretti]

Yum wrote:

They should make a rule to have every series last for only 5 seasons.

This is really not a bad idea. 110 episodes is a lot of stories to tell.

I know shows like ER or The X-Files became old and stale right around their 5th season and hanging on to them feels like a good short-term solution but in reality prevents the development of the next generation of hits.

[Chuck Bartowski]

All of these new shows are pathetic. All of them will flop worse than Kings, and Kings was a good concept wasted on the vapid American Idol watching public.

I predict Knight Rider will come back as a mid season replacement for one of these worthless shows.

I am looking forward to Jay Leno at 10:00 pm and hopefully Chuck next season.

[Rena Moretti]

Parenthood is the only show that looks like it has a compelling cast. Sadly, with Jason "shakycam" Katims (Bionic Woman, Friday Night Lights) producing, one can only expect another ratings bomb for NBC.

Again, what possessed them to hire a producer with such a dire track record?

[Allie]

I actually am pleasantly surprised by a few of these! Not saying I will watch them all, but I imagine I will check out Day One, Community, & 100 questions at least. Probably not Mercy or Parenthood. Maybe on Trauma (if the other networks don't appeal...)

[Rena Moretti]

Allie wrote:

I actually am pleasantly surprised by a few of these! Not saying I will watch them all, but I imagine I will check out Day One, Community, & 100 questions at least. Probably not Mercy or Parenthood. Maybe on Trauma (if the other networks don't appeal...)

The one surprise is that there isn't yet another bad remake of a 70s hit.

Then again, they do have a remake of a 90s bomb (Parenthood). ;)

[Glenn]

Ugh, didn't CBS do this show a couple of years ago? As I recall, it was something called "JERICHO"!

[Sheryl]

Ummm, isn't this pretty much the same as Jericho?

[trixie]

Why does the description of TRAUMA have me thinking "Rampart! Rampart! This is Squad 51! Do you copy?"

Oh...and the JERICHO-where-only-the-pretty- people-survive. I give it 6 episodes.

Another year where I don't think I need to worry about what's on NBC any given night.