Idiot Box: Networks Announce New Fall Lineups

Networks Add Scads Of Shows To Fall Season

\ May 23, 2013

4 min read

Last week, we took a glimpse at all the shows the networks were tossing away at the end of this season. So let’s look over all they’ll be adding in the fall.

ABC—“Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” is probably the most anticipated show of the new season. Clark Gregg from Avengers returns as a government super agent. Well-known Marvel superheroes may or may not appear. In “Back in the Game,” an All-Star softball player moves back in with her beer-guzzling dad (James Caan) after having a kid, getting divorced and losing her college scholarship. “Betrayal” is an hour-long thriller about a photographer and an attorney who get entangled. There are politics and murder, and it sounds really complicated. If you miss the pilot, you’re probably screwed. “The Goldbergs” was arguably the first sitcom on TV. (It debuted in 1949.) ABC’s new show of the same name has nothing to do with that. It’s about an 11-year-old kid in the ’80s who records his wacky family on a video camera. “Lucky 7” features a group of employees at a Queens gas station who win the lottery. It changes their lives in ways both good and bad. Does anybody remember the failed 1983 drama series “Lottery!”? It also aired on ABC. “Once Upon a Time in Wonderland” is a spin-off of “Once Upon a Time” (obviously) which sticks exclusively to the Alice in Wonderland mythos. John Lithgow is the White Rabbit. That could be fun. Or not. “Super Fun Night,” the long-gestating sitcom from Rebel Wilson (Bridesmaids), finally shows up on the schedule. The plot finds a junior attorney (Wilson) and her dorky pals going out every Friday night looking for laughs. In the sitcom “Trophy Wife,” a reformed party girl (Malin Ackerman, Watchmen) marries a guy with three kids and two ex-wives.

NBC—In “The Blacklist,” James Spader plays an FBI fugitive who agrees to catch all his old partners-in-crime—but only if he’s teamed with a particular rookie agent. “Dracula” (which is about Dracula) looks to “The Tudors” star Jonathan Rhys Meyers for its titular bloodsucker. Blair Underwood (“L.A. Law”) takes over for Raymond Burr in a remake of the classic detective-in-a-wheelchair series “Ironside.” “The Michael J. Fox Show” casts Michael J. Fox as a New York news anchor diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. It’s funny. “Sean Saves the World” casts Sean Hayes (“Will & Grace”) as a divorced gay dad. “Welcome to the Family” provides generic sitcom laughs thanks to a mixed marriage of white and Hispanic families. (That plot worked so well for Rob Schneider’s last sitcom.)

CBS—“The Crazy Ones” is a David E. Kelley comedy starring Robin Williams and Sarah Michelle Gellar. For “Hostages,” producer Jerry Bruckheimer adapts an Israeli political drama. Will Arnett runs from family sitcom “Up All Night” to family sitcom “The Millers.” Newly sober mom Anna Faris (Scary Movie) inherits a vineyard in “Mom.” “We Are Men” finds Jerry O’Connell (“Sliders”) doing manly things.

FOX—Andy Samberg and Andre Braugher star in the detective sitcom “Brooklyn Nine-Nine.” Seth Green and Giovanni Ribisi are two successful guys whose worlds are tuned upside down when their “Dads” move back in with them. “Sleepy Hollow” has Ichabod Crane transported to modern-day to solve crimes alongside a female sheriff. Cooking competition “Junior Masterchef” would appear to feature Gordon Ramsay cursing out 10-year-olds.

The CW—“Vampire Diaries” gets a spin-off with “The Originals.” The 1970s British sci-fi series “The Tomorrow People” (basically “The X-Men” with accents) gets a reboot. In “Reign” the 15-year-old Mary, Queen of Scots rises to power. You know, like “Gossip Girl” but for Anglophiles.