And by making their upfront presentation a bare-bones affair–only one Sanjaya joke, no speeches from "creatives," and apparently a very strict walk-across-the-stage-as-quickly-as-possible, and-then-get-the-hell-off policy for the cast members of all the shows they announced–Fox pretty much stuck to that timetable. If NBC's presentation was a sleeker version of a Tony Robbins seminar, this upfront was a basically a giant powerpoint presentation set on a mini American Idol stage. They even had a pie chart. Which was thrilling.
—Carrie Fisher looks uncomfortable when yielding to a strict walk-across-the-stage-as-quickly-as-possible-and-then-get-the-hell-off policy.
—Inexplicably, 'Til Death is still on the air.
—Fox's three new comedies are all governed by a special kind of irony, because the two that sound really promising and funny on paper (Amy Sherman-Palladino's The Return Of Jezebel James starring Parker Posey, and The Farrelly Brothers' The Rules For Starting Over starring Rashida Jones and Craig Beirko) look really, horribly, painfully unfunny. My-date-lives-with-a-monkey!-level unfunny. But the show that sounds most annoying on paper (Back 2 You, starring Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton as ex-lovers who must anchor a local TV newscast together) actually looks kind of funny. It also stars Fred Willard, which helps.
—The equation for New Amsterdam, one of Fox's new dramas, is something like: Interview With The Vampire – blood lust + the search for true love + Law & Order – Order.
—According to the producer of The Search For The Next Great American Band, "band" can mean many things: "You can be a rock band. You can be a fiddle band. You can even be an Irish Celtic band if you want." In other words, there are going to be some very long, zydeco-and-Riverdance-filled audition episodes.
—K-Ville, another new drama, looks kind of like The Wire but set in post-Katrina New Orleans–that is to say, it looks kind of promising.
—The "real" people "documented" in Nashville, an "unscripted" series from the creators of Laguna Beach, seem a lot more earnest than their MTV counterparts. In the trailer one of them said, "This is a song I wrote for my grandfather who has Alzheimer's. It's called 'I'll Remember For You.'"
—That line got more laughs than the entire Return Of Jezebel James trailer.
