UpDated 7-2-09

Last year at the 2008 San Diego Comic-Con, the event was ruled by several big named movies that ranged from youthful vampires to illegal vigilantes.  TV was more a side-note than anything else.

This year at the 2009 Comic-Con, things will be a bit different as television programming seems to have a bigger presence than last year.

For instance, the Warner Brothers Television Group will have 11 different panels for their shows.  That’s a studio best for them.  ABC Studios will have 7 panels.  20th Century Fox will have 9 panels.

Do you think your favorite television show will be represented?

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NBC has released the schedule of dates for their fall 2009 / 2010 season.

A pair of new dramas lined up for us are Parenthood & Trauma and some returning shows are Heroes, Law & Order: SVU and Law & Order.  Southland survived it’s first season and is returning for a second.

It’s with great sadness that we report that Bryan Fuller is leaving his spot as consulting producer on NBC’s Heroes.

Before you wonder, he isn’t leaving due to any internal strife.  Instead, he’s working on developing some new shows / pilots for NBC Universal, the studio which produces Heroes.

The shows he’s developing are keeping him so busy that he just ran out of time for everything and something had to give. The sad news is that Heroes was the show that got the short end of the straw.

Welcome to Thursday’s Weekly TV Wrap Up. Today we have a chunk of news to chat about.

I want to touch a bit on the television broadcast digital conversion and how well it went, or maybe not so well for some.  Then we’ll touch on some True Blood ratings news, Heroes casting info, Bones renewal info and some Lie To Me news.  We’ll then toss in some info on Patrick Swayze’s The Beast, My Name Is Earl and some Law And Order: SVU cast news.

Of course, I wrap it up with TV and cable ratings from last week.

Let’s get on with it, shall we?

Adding to the previously reported casting additions for Heroes Volume 5: Redemption, writer/producer Bryan Fuller recently talked about how the show has turned around with its newest season, which may point to the idea that Redemption is more than just this volume’s title.

In talking with SciFiWire, Fuller surprisingly admitted (in so many words) that the show isn’t what is used to be, saying that, “We love the cast. That’s the thing. … We just sort of have to find better uses for them.” I couldn’t have said it better myself. According to Fuller, one of the main areas that Redemption will concentrate on is getting the show back to what it used to be about:

Today in Screen Rant’s weekly TV Wrap Up, we have some great casting news for 24, we’ll be talking about David Carradine’s appearance in Fox’s new show Mental and we also have some Heroes casting news, the possibility that My Name Is Earl may be getting new legs, some news on Ghost Whisperer, The Sarah Connor Chronicles coming to DVD and a bit about Futurama’s, err, future.

We’ll wrap it up with ratings from last week.  This week in the ratings section, I thought I’d try something new and toss in some cable viewer numbers.

With Heroes‘ fifth volume, “Redemption”, set to start shooting next week, the cast has been accommodating a few additions, including a new villain and a new roommate for college-bound Claire (Hayden Panettiere). Thumbs up for a new villain, but a college roommate? Great! Because the whole going-to-college storyline worked so well for Claire last season [sarcasm].

Robert Knepper, best known as bad guy “T-Bag” from Fox’s Prison Break, will continue his villainous streak as Samuel on Heroes; Madeline Zima (a.k.a. the conniving “Mia Lewis” from Showtime’s Californication), will appear in a multi-episode arc as Claire’s edgy, outsider college roommate, Gretchen.

Today NBC announced their 2009 Fall and mid-season television schedules.  As you will see, there are some new shows, some old shows, and you might notice there are a couple of shows that are missing from the roster.

We’ll touch on the missing shows in a moment - and in the case of some of them, the situation may not be as bad as it looks. Here are the 2009 NBC Fall and mid-season schedules, as they stand today:

On Monday, May 5th 2009, The Jay Leno network NBC announced a slate of new shows at their In-Fronts for the 2009 / 2010 television season.  No the above screen shot is not from their in-fronts.  It’s a behind the scenes shot from NBC’s new show, Day One.

Keeping in mind that we here at Screen Rant are all about action / adventure and sci-fi / fantasy (with a dribble of comedy). I’ve left out some details on the new NBC comedy shows but only because we do like our action-adventure shows.  Rather than babble about what I am going to say, I might as well get right to it:

This week’s weekly TV report from April 30th, 2009 chats a little about Chuck’s sandwich run, the probable return of Fringe, a new character for Burn Notice and how Harper’s Island is not only sinking, but moving - much like the island on Lost!  We’ve also got some syndication news on My Own Worst Enemy, Knight Rider and Dollhouse.  Yep, syndication news on Dollhouse.  That can’t be good.  Read on folks!

Chuck Takes Fans To Subway

Though they feel they’re currently on the good side of the ratings / cancel bubble, the cast of Chuck are still trying to take care of their sponsors.

While the cast was attending a Starfury convention T1 event in Birmingham, U.K., a fan suggested they try to help the show by supporting a sponsor, in this case, Subway. Zachary Levi and Adam Baldwin (who else would have done this?) then asked those in attendance if they’d follow them to a local Subway. Sure enough, they ended up leading about 400 convention attendees to the poor beleaguered sandwich shop. That would have sucked to be the guy behind the counter when this unruly gang showed up!

I actually haven’t been following Heroes like I used to but it seems like a lot of people haven’t been following Heroes like they used to either. For one reason or another, NBC is only going to air approximately 18 to 20 episodes next season. I know that seems like a lot, but originally next season was going to have 25 episodes. At least, that was the plan while the show was going gangbusters.

What gives NBC?

In its first smash season, Heroes averaged just under 12 million viewers - I was one of those viewers. But they lost me 1/2 way through the 2nd season and I’ve found other shows to occupy my time.

This week marks a rare occasion for my Monday DVR showdown: it’s the first time all season where I’ve been more thrilled by an episode of Heroes than an episode of 24. And now I know why: this week’s episode, “Cold Snap,” was written by Sci-fi wonder-kid, Bryan Fuller.

Screen Rant reported back in December that Bryan Fuller was being brought back to Heroes to help get the show back on track. Well, after seeing what Fuller brought to the table with “Cold Snap” and the general direction the show has gone in since he became a “consulting producer,” I think that Brayn Fuller should be writing every Heroes episode from now on.

So what’s happening this week with some of our favorite television shows? I’ll fill you in on the vaporizing ratings for Dollhouse, The Sarah Connor Chronicles and others. I touch on some Supernatural & NCIS casting news and a season ending story development. I then sprinkle some CSI:NY bits and round it out with some Lily cast updates.

Let’s check it out.

It seems that Heroes has already been renewed for a 4th season.

While ratings have been eroding, apparently the show is still doing relatively well in the target demographic. The producers have tried to come back from a very disappointing last half-season, but the show really hasn’t recaptured the magic of its first season.

Hello Screen Rant readers. There isn’t a lot of TV stuff going on, but I did manage to dig up some noise on a few things. Namely some info on the upcoming Caprica DVD, Tin Man, The Mentalist, Dollhouse, Heroes and ER.

Let’s get to it.

So Heroes is back with the next chapter: Fugitives. Right from the opening scene the opening episode, “A Clear and Present Danger” had a different feel than last season’s “Villains” arc. It seemed more… quiet.

This was fine with me as it seems (at least in the season opener) that they’re paying more attention to and focusing more on the characters as people. Last season was all about crazy action and characters acting… well… out of character.

There will be season opener spoilers below…

In a recent interview, Masi Oka, better known as Heroes‘ time-hopping lovable geek Hiro, assured fans (what few of us are left) that the Heroes‘ fourth volume “Fugitives,” which premieres on February 2nd, is going to bring the show back to the first season roots that made it a hit with fans and critics alike.

(Wait, didn’t they promise the same thing about “Villains?”)

All kinds of goodies took place this last week. Let’s get on with the tidbits of TV!

1. Bruce’s Public Service Announcement: Be aware that the season premiere of season 4.5 (Is that just not the most ridiculous thing ever?) of Battlestar Galactica that is airing this Friday on January 16th will run over by 3 1/2 minutes. That means you need to make the appropriate changes to whatever recording device you may employ, if that is indeed what you are doing. Me, I’m gonna be there live! Despite in-laws crawling all over my place, they’ve been warned. Back off when my show comes on. Go to sleep, go for a walk, go for a drive, or watch it with me, but git out of my way and don’t talk during my show! I take my BSG serious! Source: SciFi Wire

It’s no secret that Heroes has been shaky ever since the extremely disappointing season 2. Because of the writers strike, that season was cut down to about half of what was originally intended and as a result it felt rushed and very underwhelming (although not all bad - there were certain things I liked).

And even though season 3 was a vast improvement, it still didn’t measure up to the fantastic first season. They’ve gotten carried away with the time travel thing, in my opinion, and made it overly complicated when it really doesn’t need to be. To be honest I don’t watch out of pure enjoyment as I used, I just tune in to “see what happens,” as they say.

You’re probably incredibly confused right now with my lead-in image. Don’t worry, it will all make sense by the time you get to the end…

“Time Shifting” is when a viewer watches a television program after its original air time. It’s the proverbial thorn in the side of advertisers. If people are not exposed to the advertising planted in the commercial spots when a TV show is aired, the ads don’t work (because people skip them when watching the show later). Then the money that pays for TV series doesn’t come in, and our favorite shows get canceled.

In other words, right now - it’s a bad thing.

So it’s finally over - This half season of Heroes has been hotly debated over the past few months… It started off with a bang but then seemed to quickly spiral into confusion and convoluted plots and character motivations. However by the end of the arc it seemed to find its footing again and I thought it came to a pretty satisfying conclusion.

So by now we all know that NBC’s super powered soap opera, Heroes, has been having a rough third season. The series’ ratings have plummeted, and both critics and fans are saying that the latest chapter, “Villains”, is the show’s most disappointing installment yet. (And that’s really saying something, considering how bad “Generations” sucked).

NBC has recently demonstrated just how committed they are to righting all that is currently wrong with Heroes by firing two of the shows top producers. Now the network hopes to continue steering Heroes in the right direction again, by bringing back one of the show’s most popular writers and introducing new plotlines that will hopefully return the show to its focused, coherent, former self.

With the Winter slumber upon the networks, we have to wait until January of 2009 to see new episodes of our favorite shows and what not.  With Screen Rant connoisseurs in mind, I was wondering just what might be coming up out there that would be remotely interesting to us.

Mostly, shows already in progress.

Some are running out their initial series and drifting off into the ethers once again.  Others are plugging on.

There’s an occasional new show being inserted into the mix.  I probably missed a few here and there, but I like I said, I’m focused on what we might be watching.

“… the only people watching a show — ‘Heroes’ perhaps — at the time it’s being broadcast by a network — say NBC — are the “saps and [expletives] who can’t figure out how to watch it in a superior way.”

It’s a fascinating contrast to his image from the writers strike, but that’s how Tim Kring “complimented” his viewers at the Creative Screenwriting magazine’s 2008 Screenwriting Expo. By referring to the couch jockeys that help make up the ratings as “saps and expletives,” all the while trying to explain away that the bad ratings for Heroes aren’t his fault. I think he’s trying to avoid the same ax that came along and took out 2 other writers from the NBC Heroes-wagon.

As a red-blooded American, I’m man enough to admit when I’ve been out-voted. Majority still rules this country in which we (Americans) live, and, despite my best arguments, it seems that the overwhelming opinion is that Heroes‘ third season, “Villains”, is officially CRAP.

Well, the execs over at NBC have heard the voices of the people (while watching Heroes‘ ratings fall faster than the Dow average) and are already starting to roll heads. The first necks to feel the cut of the guillotine: co-executive producers Jesse Alexander (Lost, Alias) and Jeph Loeb.

The marketing team behind NBC’s superhero drama Heroes spared no expense in getting viewers revved-up for the show’s third season, “Villains,” which promised to correct the turtle-crawl pace of season 2 by delivering a rogues gallery full of super-powered bad guys, along with more of the action-packed throwdowns that made the end of Heroes debut season worth the long journey of 22 episodes.

Well apparently NBC’s money would’ve been better spent on other prime-time fare, because the Nielsen ratings for Heroes are currently falling faster than a drunk girl in heels, with a whopping 22% of its viewership having turned away from the show as of the October 6 episode.

I was pretty excited by the Heroes Season 3 premiere and have been watching the show progress over the last few episodes. Saying that the pace has sped up compared to last season would be a wild understatement - things are happening at a rapid-fire pace.

But is it all light and no heat?

(BTW, there will be spoilers below.)

After a very long wait, and a somewhat disappointing second season, Heroes has finally returned for Season 3: Villains.

At the end of season 2, Sylar (Zachary Quinto) had just gotten his powers back, Noah Bennet aka “HRG” (Jack Coleman) had just gone back to work for “the company” in order to spare his family, and Nathan Petrelli (Adrian Pasdar) had been apparently fatally shot just as he was about to reveal his ability to fly to the world.

BTW, full-on spoilers in the review below.

Heroes Season 3 premieres on NBC next Monday, September 22nd, but you can watch a preview of it right now, right here.

NBC has put online 5 minutes of scenes from the season premiere online. I actually was lucky enough to watch the entire episode at Comic-Con a couple of months ago, and barring one minor nitpick I had, I thought it was VERY good.

The new 2008 Fall TV season is almost upon us, with the first new show of the season premiering on September 1st. Screen Rant has put together an extensive list of new and returning programs along with their premiere dates, along with descriptions and recommendations.

So what’s up this fall? What are we anticipating, what are we, well… not anticipating?