Fox's Fall Line Up 2008

[Geekyfanboy]

FOX's 2008/2009 TV Schedule
By Garth FranklinThursday, May 15th 2008 9:34am

The Fall TV Season presentations for all the new network shows take place this week with the fifth and final announced today. Here's a full breakdown of which concepts have made the list over on FOX.

The Murdoch network continues to dominate the ratings with its reality juggernauts like "American Idol," "So You Think You Can Dance" and both Gordon Ramsay shows along with strong series such as "House," "Bones" and "The Simpsons". With belts being tightened, the network announced a quieter than usual line-up with two dramas, two animated comedies, one sitcom and one reality show entitled "Secret Millionaires" about the wealthy helping the needy.... sigh, only FOX.

Among the more interesting news is that "Prison Break" returns in the Fall with only a 13 episode order for what many expect will be the show's last season. Similarly "Terminator" also only seems to be getting a 13-episode stint with the remaining nine episodes likely to be determined by how the ratings do. Fox hopes it will get traction as it is the only scripted series from last season to have survived into this year.

The biggest news of course is the return of "24". After a poor-rating and much malinged sixth season, the series got a third of the way through production of the seventh season before the writer's strike cancelled it altogether. Production has since resumed and the season will commence airing without interruption in January as usual. To stave off fans in the interim, a special two-hour prequel episode will air on November 23rd that was shot on location in South Africa and is set just a few months before events in the new season.

A few notable pilots didn't make the final cut. These include the American remake of British comedy "Spaced"; the Grazer/Howard-produced comedy "The Church of Reggie"; Shaun Cassidy's invisible criminal series "Inseparable"; the mid-life crisis drama "Night Life"; the Darren Star-produced Albanian detective drama "Raffik"; the relationship drama "The Oaks"; and a new version of animated comedy "The Pitts". Fates in doubt for now include the spaceship-set comedy "Boldly Going Nowhere," and the "Prison Break" spin-off "Cherry Hill."

Onto the new shows and they are:

The Cleveland Show
(Animate Comedy, Sundays 9:30pm)
Many years ago, CLEVELAND BROWN (Mike Henry) was a high school student madly in love with a beautiful girl named DONNA. Much to his dismay, his love went unrequited, and Donna wound up marrying another man. Cleveland once told Donna he would always love her, and if this man ever done her wrong, he'd be there when she called. Well, this man done her wrong. Donna's husband skipped town with another woman, leaving Donna with a daughter and a baby.

Now she's come to Cleveland and offered him another chance at love. Unattached after the Loretta-Quagmire debacle and true to his word, Cleveland joyously accepts and he and CLEVELAND JR. move to Stoolbend, VA, to join their new family. Once in Stoolbend, Cleveland has a few surprises in store for him, including a flirtatious new stepdaughter, a 5-year-old stepson who loves the ladies, as well as a collection of neighbors that includes a loudmouth redneck couple, a British family seemingly stuck in the Victorian era and a family of bears living at the end of the block. FAMILY GUY was only the beginning.


Dollhouse
(Sci-Fi Action Drama, Mondays 8pm)
ECHO (Eliza Dushku) is an "Active," a member of a highly illegal and underground group who have had their personalities wiped clean so they can be imprinted with any number of new personas. Confined to a secret facility known as the "Dollhouse," Echo and the other Actives including SIERRA (Dichen Lachman) and VICTOR (Enver Gjokaj) carry out engagements assigned by ADELLE (Olivia Williams), one of the Dollhouse leaders.

The engagements cater to the wealthy, powerful and connected, and require the Actives to immerse themselves in all manner of scenarios romantic, criminal, uplifting, dangerous, comical and the occasional "pro bono" good deed. After each scenario, Echo, always under the watchful eye of her handler BOYD (Harry Lennix), returns to the mysterious Dollhouse where her thoughts, feelings and experiences are erased by TOPHER (Fran Kranz), the Dollhouse's genius programmer. Echo enters the next scenario with no memory of before. Or does she?

As the series progresses, FBI Agent PAUL SMITH (Tahmoh Penikett) pieces together clues that lead him closer to the Dollhouse, while Echo stops forgetting, her memories begin to return and she slowly pieces together her mysterious past. DOLLHOUSE revolves around Echo's blossoming self-awareness and her desire to discover her true identity. But with each new engagement, comes a new memory and increased danger inside and outside the Dollhouse.

Joss Whedon, creator of groundbreaking cult favorites "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Firefly," returns to television and reunites with fellow "Buffy" alumna Eliza Dushku for this thrilling new drama.


Do Not Disturb
(Comedy, Wednesdays 9:30pm)
A workplace comedy set at one of New York City's hottest and hippest hotels: The Inn. Named one of the Big Apple's "10 Best Places to Stay," The Inn is just that the "in" place to be, with its chic dcor, stylish staff and celebrity clientele. Behind the scenes, however, the upstairs/downstairs dynamic tells quite a different story.

The hotel's top-notch reputation and sophisticated look is due in large part to NEAL (Jerry O'Connell) at least in his opinion. Although The Inn's charismatic owner R.J. (Robert Wagner) takes all the credit, Neal is the egotistical, hyper-stylish, detail-oriented general manager who will do whatever it takes to keep the hotel and its employees up to his standards. RHONDA (Niecy Nash) is the head of Human Resources who also keeps Neal's demands in check. She's brash, fabulous and brutally honest and runs the HR department from her bullpen downstairs with a set of rules that are all her own. Rhonda does her best to keep the back of the house in line and the front of the house out of trouble.

At the front desk handling check-in while wearing 6-inch Manolos is NICOLE (Molly Stanton), an aging model who is svelte, cynical and slightly starving. Fresh from Nebraska is JASON (Brando Eaton), the nave bellman who would prefer to work behind-the-scenes, but was hired to show off his chiseled face and perfect pecs at the front of the hotel. The downstairs staff includes MOLLY (Jolene Purdy), a reservations clerk who dreams of pop-singer stardom as much as she craves to be part of the action upstairs; and LARRY (Jesse Tyler Ferguson), the head of housekeeping who spends more time on the phone cleaning up his messes at home than he does cleaning up after the guests upstairs.


Fringe
(Sci-Fi Mystery Drama, Tuesdays 9pm)
When an international flight lands at Boston's Logan Airport and the passengers and crew have all died grisly deaths, FBI Special Agent OLIVIA DUNHAM (Anna Torv) is called in to investigate. After her partner, Special Agent JOHN SCOTT (Mark Valley), is nearly killed during the investigation, a desperate Olivia searches frantically for someone to help, leading her to DR. WALTER BISHOP (John Nobl), our generation's Einstein.

There's only one catch: he's been institutionalized for the last 20 years, and the only way to question him requires pulling his estranged son PETER (Joshua Jackson) in to help. When Olivia's investigation leads her to manipulative corporate executive NINA SHARP (Blair Brown), our unlikely trio along with fellow FBI Agents PHILLIP BROYLES (Lance Reddick), CHARLIE FRANCIS (Kirk Acevedo) and ASTRID FARNSWORTH (Jasika Nicole) will discover that what happened on Flight 627 is only a small piece of a larger, more shocking truth.

From J.J. Abrams ("Lost"), Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, the team behind "Star Trek," "Mission: Impossible III" and "Alias," comes a new drama that will thrill, terrify and explore the blurring line between science fiction and reality.


Sit Down, Shut Up
(Animated Comedy, Sundays 8:30pm)
Emmy Award-winning writer Mitchell Hurwitz ("Arrested Development") and Eric and Kim Tannenbaum ("Two and a Half Men") comes an animated comedy that focuses on the lives of eight staff members at a high school in a small northeastern fishing town (Go Baiters!) who never lose sight of the fact that the children must ALWAYS come second. We watch them grapple with their own egos, needs and personal agendas, their petty insecurities and prejudices, unrequited loves, and ruthless battles for power and that's just at the staff meeting.

SUE SEZNO (Kenan Thompson), a woman who frequently says "no," is the acting principal of the school (the actual principal is recovering from a series of unfortunate accidents that might be seen as escape attempts). Then there's Vice Principal STUART PROZACKIAN (Will Forte) who has a terrifically positive and upbeat attitude... possibly from the performance-enhancing medication he's been secretly put on by the other teachers. There is one educator who feels the focus should be on academics, but despite the old adage, at this school, those who can teach, teach gym and that's where LARRY SLIMP (Jason Bateman) has been exiled to. Immensely frustrated, Larry nurses a crush on science teacher MIRACLE GROHE (Maria Bamford), a woman whose superficial grasp on science is balanced by her superficial grasp on spirituality.

Rounding out the staff is the aging German teacher WILLARD DEUTSCHEBOG (Henry Winkler), a deeply defeated man whose yearbook quotation reads "If I believed in reincarnation, I'd kill myself tonight." Uptight HELEN KLENCH (Cheri Oteri) is a librarian whose life's work in research and archiving can now be surpassed by the average Google search from the average cell phone. Proud ANDREW SAPIEN (Nick Kroll) is the flamboyant drama teacher. ENNIS HOFFTARD (Will Arnett) is a fellow teacher and a self-obsessed body builder who yearns to be thought of as a "cool dude" by his students. And finally there's HAPPY (Tom Kenny), the plotting secretive custodian who's assumed to be Hispanic despite the fact that his real name is Muhannad Sabeeh Fa'ach Nuaba.

With a distinctive new look a combination of animation against a live-action backdrop SIT DOWN, SHUT UP is a series for the young and old at heart. It lampoons modern society while exposing the dreams, flaws and struggling humanity of our first and most formative authority figures: teachers.


Renewals include "24," "American Dad," "American Idol," "America's Most Wanted," "America Fights Back," "Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?," "Bones," "Cops," "Don't Forget the Lyrics," "Family Guy," "Hell's Kitchen," "House," "King of the Hill," "Kitchen Nightmares," "MADtv," "The Moment of Truth," "Prison Break," "The Simpsons," "So You Think You Can Dance," "Talk Show with Spike Feresten," "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles," "'Til Death."

Cancellations include "Back to You," "Canterbury's Law," "K-Ville," "Nashville," "New Amsterdam," "The Next Great American Band," "The Return of Jezebel James," "Unhitched."


The nightly FOX schedule will be as follows:

AUGUST TO DECEMBER 2008:

MONDAY
8pm: "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles"
9pm: "Prison Break"

TUESDAY
8pm: "House"
9pm: "Fringe"

WEDNESDAY
8pm: "Bones"
9pm: "'Til Death"
9:30pm: "Do Not Disturb"

THURSDAY
8pm: "The Moment of Truth"
9pm: "Kitchen Nightmares"

FRIDAY
8pm: "Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?"
9pm: "Don't Forget The Lyrics"

SATURDAY
8pm: "Cops"
9pm: "America's Most Wanted: America Strikes Back"
11pm: "MADtv"
12am: "Talkshow with Spike Feresten"

SUNDAY
7pm: "The OT" (NFL Post-Game)
8pm: "The Simpsons"
8:30pm: "King of the Hill"
9pm: "Family Guy"
9:30pm: "American Dad"


JANUARY TO MAY 2009:

MONDAY
8pm: "Dollhouse"
9pm: "24"

TUESDAY
8pm: "American Idol"
9pm: "Fringe"

WEDNESDAY
8pm: "House"
9pm: "American Idol Results Show"
9:30pm: TBA Comedy

THURSDAY
8pm: "Hell's Kitchen"
9pm: "Secret Millionaire"

FRIDAY
8pm: "Bones"
9pm: "'Til Death"
9:30pm: "Do Not Disturb"

SATURDAY
8pm: "Cops"
9pm: "America's Most Wanted: America Strikes Back"
11pm: "MADtv"
12am: "Talkshow with Spike Feresten"

SUNDAY
8pm: "The Simpsons"
8:30pm: "King of the Hill" (Jan)/"Sit Down, Shut Up" (Mar)
9pm: "Family Guy"
9:30pm: "American Dad" (Jan)/"The Cleveland Show" (Mar)

[Rico]

Dang - the two shows I want to see most don't come on until Jan. (Dollhouse & 24).