Fall TV season officially begins

[BillBrasky]

Today marks the official beginning of the 2011-2012 TV season. Tonight on NBC, there is a sneak preview of the single-camera sitcom "The New Normal", from creator Ryan Murphy ("Glee"), followed by a repeat of the pilot of the Matthew Perry series "Go On". Tomorrow, the shows will premiere in their regular time slot at 9 and 9:30 PM respectively.

Wednesday will see the time-slot premieres of "Animal Practice", from writer/creators Brian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka ("The Sitter"), at 8 PM on NBC, followed by the multi-camera comedy "Guys With Kids", produced by Jimmy Fallon and starring Anthony Anderson and "The Whitest Kids U Know"'s Zach Cregger. (The only new multi-cam sitcom on NBC, by the way).

The new TV season will continue over the next 2 weeks with the premieres of "Up All Night", "The Office" and "Parks & Recreation" on Sept. 20th and all the CBS Monday night comedies (including the new "Partners") on September 24th. "New Girl", "The Mindy Project" and "Ben & Kate" premiere on FOX on Sept. 25th, and "The Middle", "Modern Family", and new family sitcom "The Neighbors" premiere on ABC Sept. 26th. Finally, all the FOX animated shows will premiere September 30th.

After that there will be a little bit of a wait for the premieres of 30 Rock (October 4th), Suburgatory (Oct. 17th), Community (October 19th), and Happy Endings and Don't Trust the B--- in Apartment 23 (Oct. 23rd).

[BillBrasky]

Ok, I just listened to the new Comedy Bang Bang and apparently Animal Practice starts on the 26th, so only "Guys With Kids" premieres on Wednesday this week. I think everything else in the story is accurate though.

[mueXog]

Raising Hope also starts on October 2, I believe. Weird how so many shows are starting so late this year. I guess with Tuesdays and Wednesday comedies so crowded this year, it's better that they networks are spreading out some of the premieres.

[BillBrasky]

So far I think "Animal Practice" is the best of the new fall shows. It's the only one I'm really interested in continuing to watch regularly. "Go On" is pretty much a bust and "The New Normal" I can tell is not for me. Somehow I'm doubting that "Guys With Kids" is going to be any good.
The pilot for "The Mindy Project" was not very promising, although "Ben & Kate" was pleasant enough and has the potential to be a nice inoffensive, mainstream-ish comedy similar to "Raising Hope". I was looking forward to "The Neighbors", but it has been getting bad reviews from every source I've seen.

[mueXog]

Yeah, not too crazy about "Go On" so far either, but I'll stick with it for now since there's not much else on yet and for the chance of hoping to see Brett Gelman and Seth Morris get to do something funny. But unless it gets a lot better, I don't know if I'll bother staying with it once "Happy Endings" is back. I agree that Mindy's show was pretty disappointing, hopefully the rest of the series will be better than the pilot was. I haven't watched "Ben & Kate" yet, but I'll probably check it out because Nat Faxon always makes me laugh.

[BillBrasky]

"Go On" and "The New Normal" receive full-season pickups from NBC

Unfortunately, these are the only NBC comedies that are doing well right now, primarily because they air after "The Voice" which has a huge audience lead-in. I guess if these shows stay on Tuesday nights that would be OK, but I'd hate for one of them to move to Thursday nights.
I would much rather see "Animal Practice" or maybe that "1600 Penn" show replace "30 Rock" once its season ends.

[Gern Blanston]

"Go On" and "The New Normal" receive full-season pickups from NBC

Unfortunately, these are the only NBC comedies that are doing well right now, primarily because they air after "The Voice" which has a huge audience lead-in. I guess if these shows stay on Tuesday nights that would be OK, but I'd hate for one of them to move to Thursday nights.
I would much rather see "Animal Practice" or maybe that "1600 Penn" show replace "30 Rock" once its season ends.

I think Animal Practice is more likely to get canceled by the end of this month, as opposed to getting moved to Thursdays.

I imagine Go On and 1600 Penn will move to Thursdays once 30 Rock is done (and Up All Night either finishes its 13 episode run, or is canceled before then). I don't like Go On, but i'm hopeful about 1600 Penn, as Mike Royce is showrunning it. Hopefully that show will be more like the other great NBC Thursday comedies.

[BillBrasky]

That would be a real shame if they cancelled Animal Practice without giving it a chance; I know only 2 episodes have aired so far but the style of the humor seems much closer to the other Russo Brothers-directed shows (Community, Happy Endings) than the schmaltz-fests that are Go On and The New Normal.

I thought Up All Night had been picked up for a whole season, not just 13 episodes. I have to say that the direction they have gone in in this new season is not great, plus Will Arnett looks weirdly, unhealthily thin now (maybe post-separation "trying to look buff for the ladies"-itis?) It's also kind of annoying that they added Luka Jones as the brother character, when clearly he was already IN a show on NBC that was much better than a lot of the new shows they picked up this season (*cough cough BFF*). If they cancel Up All Night NBC will truly have zilch next season to rely on.

[Gern Blanston]

I agree, NBC hasn't done a very good job with Animal Practice. They premiered the pilot after the Olympics, and they don't air the second episode for at least a month afterwards. Go On's second episode was only maybe 3 weeks after its post-Olympics airing, and it seems to have had much more marketing behind it (at least after the Olympics) than AP.

And yep, Up All Night only had a 13 episode order for season 2. I guess it was either that or NBC cancelling it outright, but I imagine Lorne Michaels pressured NBC into giving the show those extra 13. A shame, as I like Emily Spivey and the cast a lot, but the second season hasn't been as good as the first.

[BillBrasky]

I guess we know why Christina Applegate is hosting SNL on October 13th, a last-ditch "watch my show before it gets cancelled!" effort I guess.

[mueXog]

Yeah, it's definitely a bummer that AP isn't getting pushed the way "Go On" is. On one hand, I'm happy for Brett Gelman getting more attention even though he's been pretty wasted on the show as "crazy guy who gets to say one wacky line per episode", but I'd much rather he get to keep doing Eagleheart. Also agree about seeing Luka Jones on UPA, kind of a step down after appearing on the much better BFF last season. I'd be very surprised if its extended beyond these 13 episodes. So yeah, it'll be interesting to see what NBC Thursdays look like next year, it sounds like NBC wants to go back to doing comedies with "broader appeal" next season, so unfortunately no more stuff on the level of P&R and Community. My guess is "Go On" and the new Michael J. Fox sitcom will be paired together at some point.

And I forgot about "1600 Penn", that actually didn't look too bad compared to the rest of the mid-season comedies coming to NBC this season. Josh Gad from "Book of Mormon" plays the lead, so it might not be too bad.

[BillBrasky]

TV By the Numbers predictions for which shows will be cancelled/which have a good chance of being renewed:

Certain to Be Cancelled: Up All Night (NBC), Animal Practice (NBC), Partners (CBS)

Toss Up: Ben and Kate (Fox), Guys with Kids (NBC), The Neighbors (ABC)
More Likely to Be Renewed than Cancelled: Parks and Recreation (NBC), The Middle (ABC), The New Normal (NBC)

Certain to Be Renewed: The Mindy Project (Fox), Modern Family (ABC), How I Met Your Mother (CBS), New Girl (Fox), Go On (NBC), Raising Hope (Fox), The Cleveland Show (Fox), Two and a Half Men (CBS), 2 Broke Girls (CBS), Mike & Molly (CBS)

Already Renewed: Bob’s Burgers (Fox), American Dad (Fox), Family Guy (Fox), The Simpsons (Fox), The Big Bang Theory (CBS)

Final Season: 30 Rock (NBC), The Office (NBC)

Yet to Premiere (so there are no ratings from which to base predictions): Community (NBC), Happy Endings (ABC), Whitney (NBC), Don't Trust the B—- in Apartment 23 (ABC), Suburgatory (ABC), Malibu Country (ABC), Last Man Standing (ABC), Rules of Engagement (CBS)

I guess there are no big surprises here, except that I can't believe they might renew 2 1/2 Men and How I Met Your Mother for another season(s). Both shows seem like they should be ending at this point.

[isoS]

I still enjoy HIMYM, but I just want it to end so we can find out who the "YM" is!