Fall Lineup Announced By NBC

With the current television season set to wrap in a flurry of finales, NBC announced their fall television lineup this Monday morning. What will you find on NBC this fall? A lot of familiar faces. NBC veterans John Lithgow and Tina Fey get their own shows, “Larry Sanders” vet Jeffrey Tambor gets another shot, and NBC returns old standbys like the “Law & Orders”.

The biggest announcement in new shows is confirmation that the much touted Aaron Sorkin drama “Studio 60” will have a place in the NBC lineup. It’ll air on Thursdays at 9pm, to shore up NBC’s already strong “My Name is Earl”, “Office” lineup. If “Studio 60” is as good as many think it will be, Thursdays on NBC could be well on their way back to their former Must See TV glory.

Other new shows include John Lithgow and Jeffrey Tambor’s comedy “20 Years” and the Tina Fey scripted comedy “30 Rock”. Numbers in series names seems to be a big player. I have no idea what that means, but “20 Years” and “30 Rock” are the only two new comedies on NBC’s schedule. NBC explains it by saying comedy is a “challenged genre”, which I guess means they think it’s too much work. An odd attitude when you consider that the two shows spearheading NBC’s Thursday night resurgence are in fact comedies.

In new dramas, NBC is introducing “The Black Donnelly’s”, a show put together by Crash director Paul Haggis. Also on the schedule is something called “Heroes”, a show about ordinary people turning into superheroes. With the superhero genre pretty well saturated in movies, why not move it to television. Anyone up for the resurrection of “Misfits of Science” or “My Secret Identity”?

Officially on the cancelled list are “Joey”, “Surface”, “Four Kings”, “E-Ring”, “Fathom”, “Conviction”, and “Teachers”. Television is better for their passing.

Below is a night by night breakdown of NBC’s fall schedule, courtesy of Variety. New shows are in bold.

MONDAY