[UPDATE: Check out our up to date Complete 2008 Fall TV Preview!]

I was wondering about all the news out and about regarding what’s coming up on television next season with regards to fantasy, sci-fi and action type shows, so I tracked down the announcements from various networks that distribute them to whet our appetites via the “upfronts“. EH? I know. You’re asking, “What’s an upfront“?

Upfronts are when networks publicly announce their new shows to the press and the advertising world. It’s during the upfronts that networks give advertisers the chance to get advertising time at a discount, versus paying premium dollar during the season. It could also be looked at as the time when advertisers hedge their bets with shows that look promising to them. Basically, get in on the action up in front of the new season. Sadly, it’s the driving force behind everything we love and love to hate about TV programming.

The upfronts can also give you some insight into the minds of the network execs and the trends they either think will happen or help actually develop. By trends I mean setting the mark. IE: After ABC’s Lost or Fox’s Prison Break became hot commodities, we saw a rash of similar type programs pop up in the ensuing seasons.

With that being said let’s go through the developments that have come out of the upfronts, where I focus on shows on the tube that you the Screen Rant reader might be interested in knowing about, with no particular order to the networks:

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Jericho’s loss is Caprica’s gain as I see it.

Fresh off of Jericho, an actor I really enjoyed on NYPD Blue, Esai Morales will be joining the cast of Caprica as Joseph Adama, the father of William Adama and I can’t imagine a more suited actor to play the father to Edward James Olmos. If you’ve ever watched Deadwood, then you might be familiar with Paula Malcomson who’s been cast as the female lead of Amanda, A surgeon who turns out to be a double agent in the film

In case you’ve lived in a cave and not accessed this or other sites chatting about the movie, Caprica is a prequel to Battlestar Galactica (BSG) and is set 50 years before the events that take place in BSG.

Battlestar Galactica (aka to fans as BSG) is coming up on it’s fourth and final season, with the last 20 episodes slated to kick off on April 4th, 2008. I’m sure some of you are not looking forward to the show ending but there may yet be hope for your BSG addiction!

I’m sure that your rock solid memories recall that on April 27th 2006, the Sci-Fi Channel announced their plans for a spin-off prequel to it’s blockbuster hit Battlestar Galactica, to be titled Caprica.

Historically, I’ve been leery of prequels. I get enamored with a story and then someone wants to come along and try to tie some story line into what I’ve become accustomed in hopes that I buy into it. I hold my breath, and every now and then, I get surprised.

Well it’s a “go” for the BSG prequel!