day 4.57

this.

zooey deschanel and karmin are coming to snl this week. yes. also, how weird is it that i blogged about zooey two days in a row?

i salute whoever made this

santana lopez, one of the greatest tv characters of all time.

day 4.56

new girl: you decide?

chances are you've checked out one of this season's breakout hits, "new girl," staring the "adorkable" (their word, definitely not mine) zooey deschanel. and chances are, if you've seen the show, you've gotten its theme song stuck in your head. well now you can get it stuck in your head all over again while interacting with the cast. sort of. fox released an "interactive" music video for the theme song. so, go interact.

day 3.159

tv time: fox

here are my predictions for fox's fall line-up.

the hits: fox

i've never really enjoyed fox's attempts at comedy, but this is a show i can get behind. zooey deschanel stars in new girl, a show about a 20something forced to move into a bachelor pad after the end of her relationship. i already see a cheesy deschanel sister promo (emily stars in the network's bones) in fox's future.

joining new girl on the comedy front is i hate my teenage daughter, headlined by my name is earl's jamie presley and tony winner katie finneran. the duo star as two moms who, you guessed it, hate their teenage daughters. the promo makes the show look hilarious, and its a return to the lost art of the multi-camera sitcom.

i'll never watch this, but it looks hilarious.

the misses: fox

sometimes, well enough should be left alone. but fox didn't get that message and will launch the animated adaptation of napoleon dynamite this fall. dynamite would have been right on target in 2004, but it's been 7 years since the movie became a sleeper hit. i don't know if the audience is there for this series.

high concept doesn't work! why don't the networks get this? while this show sounds interesting - figuring out why missing alcatraz prisoners are back in the modern world, unaged - it would make a much, much better movie. i wish creator jj abrams would return to his tv start, alias, a show that was a lot more serialized- you could tune in having never watched the series and understand what was going on. i don't think that'll be the case with alcatraz.

this show's been pushed back again. and again. and again. originally announced at last year's upfronts, the show was pushed back until may of this year. then, the network decided to move it to fall. terra nova follows a group of us citizens who travel to a new earth (hence the title) to rebuild society and find salvation. yeah.

day 3.101

pilot season, take 2

here's my take on the two networks i didn't hit last week - fox and the cw.

fox

the formerly fourth place net continues to climb up the ratings charts with hits like american idol, glee and (the now defunct) 24. because fox only broadcasts for two hours a night, they have considerably less space for new series - therefore, they order less (natch). so far this season the pilot gaining the most buzz is the half-hour laugher, i hate my teenage daughter. fox nabbed one of the season's most in-demand actors, my name is earl's jame pressly, to headline the series. the plot? two moms (pressly and tony award winner katie finneran) realize they're daughters are just like the girls who tormented them in high school. while i like the plot, i don't think fox has found its footing as far as sitcoms. malcolm in the middle is fox's ones success story, and i think they've tried to recreate that success with this season's raising hope. the only thing is both of those series share a very specific tone, which doesn't appeal to everyone. i think fox needs to embrace the traditional sitcom - laugh track, live audience and multicam, if they want to make something like this work. too bad they never will.

fox has been far more successful with their dramedies. a new pilot from liz meriwether (who wrote this fall's box office hit no strings attached) follows the life of elementary school teacher jessica as she moves out of her now ex-boyfriend's apartment and into a glorified bachelor pad, where three less-than-stellar dudes also live. the fact that fox landed zooey deschanel for this pilot means its bound to be good. deschanel dabbled in tv work, recurring on showtime's weeds, but has never starred. she joins her sister, emily, on the net (she currently headlines bones). it will be important for fox to pair this as-yet-untitled vehicle with a strong series (like glee) if they want it to hit. deschanel's not quite a household name, and doesn't pack enough star power to bring in a huge audience.

the cw

with even less original-programming time than fox, the cw seems to be looking at even less possible pilots. from the looks of it, the teen-centric net has only one viable pilot option - heart of dixie. from the team behind gossip girl and chuck, which just so happens to be the same creative force behind fox's former teen soap the o.c., heart of dixie will track the trials and tribulation of zoe hart, a big time manhattan doctor who inherits a practice in a small, southern town. former o.c. star rachel bilson is set to headline the series, which adds some credibility to the cw. bilson has been a hot property in tv since the o.c. left the airwaves, so its a big get - especially since bilson was attached to star in a pilot for nbc that fell through.