The fall lineup shows promise after a bleak summer.
Sick of summer TV?
Bored with all the reruns and old movies?
Fed up with replacement reality series like “The Restaurant” and “The Real Roseanne Show”?
Don’t worry, there’s relief on the way – the new television season starts in just a few weeks. And there’s plenty of cool stuff to look forward to.
Like seeing how far the sexy new NBC sitcom “Coupling” really goes. Or laughing at the idea of an updated twist on “Green Acres” – with heiress Paris Hilton living on a farm. Or watching former “Sopranos” wiseguy Joe Pantoliano switching sides to play a lawman. Then, of course, there’s the TV event of the season still ahead – the long goodbye to Rachel, Ross, Joey, Monica, Chandler and Phoebe on “Friends.”
Inside are our tips on 10 things to get excited about on the tube this fall.
1. Want sex? Want sex talk? Want a lot of hype? Check out NBC’s “Coupling,” which is the new series most likely to succeed this season. It’s no wonder. Folks have been talking about the Americanized version of the British series for months now.
Think of it as “Friends” with an edge. There’s six of them. They all want to sleep with someone in the group. It airs Thursday after “Will & Grace.” Sounds like a hit.
2. The last time we saw Joe Pantoliano, his head was being stuffed into a bowling-ball bag on “The Sopranos.” Now, one of TV’s favorite bad guys is a lawman. He plays an FBI agent in CBS’ drama “The Handler” and brings to the part all of the cool swagger his fans love. It’s one of the best new shows of the season. Also in the cast is Lola Glaudini, known to “Sopranos” fans as the FBI agent who went undercover last season.
3. Paris Hilton is known to most New Yorkers as an incredibly skinny blond who shows up in the newspapers because, well, she’s an incredibly skinny blond – with a big, fat wallet. Hilton and pal Nicole Richie (daughter of singer Lionel Richie) set out to dispel myths about blonds – at least we hope that’s the intention – in Fox’s reality show “The Simple Life.” Here’s the concept: Two city girls head to a farm in Arkansas for a month. In the process, they show how clueless they are. They shop at Kmart, check to see if cows are pregnant (don’t ask, it takes a long glove and a boxer’s reach) and again prove that money can’t buy everything – brains, for instance.
4. Speaking of blonds, get ready for a real hunk-a-thon in prime time. Calvin Klein model Travis Fimmel will burn up the screen in the WB’s “Tarzan.” The series is set in modern civilization, so viewers, especially females, may long for the old days, when Tarzan scampered around bare-chested and in a loincloth.
5. Will Ross and Rachel finally get together for good? What about Joey? We know he’s getting his own TV show, but does that mean his romance with Rachel is doomed? And what does the future hold for Chandler and Monica – or for Phoebe? Get ready for lots of tearful goodbyes when the cast of NBC’s “Friends” finally departs after 10 seasons. Of course, it won’t happen until next May.
6. The future is now for two returning shows. ABC’s “Alias” and Fox’s “24” will pick up their story lines well after they left off. “Alias” ended its second season with Jennifer Garner’s Sydney Bristow waking up two years after she was knocked out, with no knowledge of what had happened in the interim – including the wedding of her lover, Michael Vartan’s Michael Vaughn, to another woman. “24” will begin its season more than a year after the cliff-hanger in last season’s finale.
7. Here are three faces worth watching this fall, whether you like their shows or not: Melinda Clarke, already on view in the Fox soap “The O.C.”; Ron Silver, as the volatile porn king in another Fox soap, “Skin,” and Amber Tamblyn, the sweet young star of the CBS drama “Joan of Arcadia.”
8. Sharon Stone is the guest star we can’t wait to see turn up this season. Stone has been signed for several episodes of ABC’s “The Practice,” which could be a much-needed boost for a series returning with a reconstituted cast.
9. Will everybody still love Raymond? With all of the backstage shenanigans – a trio of supporting actors’ sudden illness, Brad Garrett’s holdout – it’s worth tuning in to CBS’ “Everybody Loves Raymond” just to see the aftermath.
10. Finally, the most encouraging sign that this may be a decent season is that ABC’s “The Real Roseanne Show” bit the dust so quickly and deservedly.
Maybe now all the networks will scale back on reality shows. At least we can hope …
Send questions/comments to the editors.
