Upfronts 2018: What new shows are you looking forward to?

[Carrie Fairchild]

With the upfronts now complete, what shows are people looking forward to this coming season? I can't say there's anything that has particularly grabbed me this year as it's quite an unoriginal crop of new shows. A few This Is Us knockoffs (The Village, A Million Little Things), reboots galore (Murphy Brown, Magnum PI, Roswell, Charmed) and the usual procedurals.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/fall-tv-2018-trailers-all-new-broadcast-shows-1109107

On the soap front, there's a couple of new shows entering the fray alongside Empire and Dynasty.

Grand Hotel - ABC

Based on the Spanish period drama of the same name, this modernised version from Eva Longoria, follows the upstairs downstairs dramas at a family hotel in Miami. The trailer isn't really enticing me to be honest so I don't think I'll be even bothered to watch the pilot.

All American - The CW

While it is apparently based on a real life story, all I could think about when I watched this trailer was Aaron Spelling's shortlived 90's saga Malibu Shores. There's shades of The O.C here too. I'm a bit long in the tooth for teen soaps these days but I'm sure it'll draw a crowd.

The Gilded Age - NBC

The only network show that I'm looking forward to this coming season is Julian Fellowes drama which will follow the lives of wealthy New York families in the late 1800's. The show hasn't been cast yet but it's due to air a ten episode run in 2019. Given that the show has been in development since 2012, it'd want to be good by the time it finally graces our screens. Interestingly, Julian Fellowes has recently announced that he's developing another show that covers similar ground to this one, about the lives of the Rothschild dynasty called Five Arrows. It'll air on Sky Atlantic, which I'm sure NBC are delighted with, given that he's left them hanging for nearly seven years for their "American Downton".

 

[Willie Oleson]

The trailer isn't really enticing me

Understatement of the year. I'd rather watch that Egyptian remake!

 

[Gabriel Maxwell]

Over the past couple of seasons - ever since the anticipated 'Empire effect' fizzled out and a lot of the dramas I used to watch came to an end - it's been slim pickings for me on US broadcast television.

Ironically, The CW -- a little network whose shows I never really watched (other than 'Arrow') -- is slowly becoming my main drama supplier. On top of the 'Riverdale' and 'Dynasty' combo which has been my savior this year, the show I look forward to the most next season is ALL-AMERICAN.

It's from Greg Berlanti, it has a well-cut trailer and it looks like a visually stunning cross between The O.C. and Friday Night Lights (two shows I used to enjoy for different reasons). Add a hot young actor called Michael Evans Behling, who might become my latest obsession, and I'm all in!

In another shocker, I found a couple of shows on CBS - yet another network whose shows I never used to watch at all.

First off it's the reboot of MAGNUM. As I see in the comments sections, the fans of the original are not thrilled at all. In fact, there is a lot of hate for it out there and I'd rather not go into why I think that's the case. I never watched the original series and I never found Tom Selleck in a Hawaiian shirt appealing, so I couldn't care less about that.

What I do know is that I love Jay Hernandez, it's great to finally see him as a principal lead and the reboot looks very slick. Sometimes I enjoy a high-octane brainless drama in a nice setting with things blowing up and this seems like a perfect show to fill that need. If CBS' McGyver and Hawaii-5-0 reboots have been able to succeed, maybe this one will stick around too.

The second CBS show I'm looking forward to is again a reboot, and this time it's a sitcom. I loved Candice Bergen as MURPHY BROWN back in the day, so I'm hoping they'll be able to bring it back funny, fresh and intriguing as well as Will & Grace or Roseanne. I think one step in the right direction is setting it in the very current and topical battlefield of morning cable shows - I myself began watching CNN's New Day and MSNBC's Morning Joe since this Trump disaster began.

Finally, I love ABC's line-up of family sitcoms. Though they're quite modern, they still remind me a little of those classic 1950s family sitcoms which I used to devour at one point. The Middle which is ending now was in fact filmed on that same street which was the setting of Bewitched, Hazel, Dennis the Menace and other classic sitcoms.

For this reason, I'll be checking out THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT, a sitcom set in the 1970s (further adding to the nostalgia factor). It doesn't look too great yet, but 1980s-set The Goldbergs also took a little while to find the right tone, and it's since become my favorite sitcom currently on air (now that FOX canceled my beloved The Mick, which I'm still mourning). Some people are comparing it to The Wonder Years.

I was looking forward to Eva Longoria-produced GRAND HOTEL, but I'm also disappointed with its look and tone. Instead I'll be checking out the original Spanish series this summer, which appears along the lines of Downton Abbey and I haven't seen it yet.

I'm also hoping ABC picks up FALSE PROFITS for midseason, a comedic soap set in the world of cosmetic marketing starring Vanessa Williams and Scandal's Bellamy Young. Those two ladies are great.

Here is the FALL 2018 US BROADCAST NETWORK schedule at a glance. As someone noted, with reboots like Roseanne, Murphy Brown, Dynasty and Magnum, a Wonder Years-style sitcom, plus lots of prime-time football, 2018 looks a lot like 1988 all over again.

 

[Willie Oleson]

Instead I'll be checking out the original Spanish series this summer, which appears along the lines of Downton Abbey and I haven't seen it yet.

It's very good, and now I'm feeling envious because I can't watch it for the first time anymore.

And I'm sure you'll find someone to obsess over.

 

[Emelee]

So far none of the new shows feel exciting to me.

 

[Alexis]

ABC's Grand Hotel looks like it could maybe be better than it's obnoxious trailer. All American is just The O.C spliced with One Tree Hill? I'd likely be most interested in The Gilded Age if that show EVER goes into production.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

ABC's Grand Hotel looks like it could maybe be better than it's obnoxious trailer. All American is just The O.C spliced with One Tree Hill? I'd likely be most interested in The Gilded Age if that show EVER goes into production.

Can you imagine being the NBC execs that signed Julian Fellowes up in 2012, at the height of Downton Abbey's popularity, thinking "Yeah! Lets hop on this Downton bandwagon and ride it 'til the wheels fall off". Then seven years later, after everyone else has had a go at cloning Downton (Grand Hotel, Mr Selfridge, The Halcyon, The Paradise), NBC are still waiting. I'm looking forward to it though. Having a bit of distance between it and Downton may actually work in it's favour although there'll inevitably be comparisons. I'm kind of surprised they stuck by the project for so long. Has any other series recently had such a ling gestation period?

 

[Alexis]

Can you imagine being the NBC execs that signed Julian Fellowes up in 2012, at the height of Downton Abbey's popularity, thinking "Yeah! Lets hop on this Downton bandwagon and ride it 'til the wheels fall off". Then seven years later, after everyone else has had a go at cloning Downton (Grand Hotel, Mr Selfridge, The Halcyon, The Paradise), NBC are still waiting. I'm looking forward to it though. Having a bit of distance between it and Downton may actually work in it's favour although there'll inevitably be comparisons. I'm kind of surprised they stuck by the project for so long. Has any other series recently had such a ling gestation period?

Oh didn't Blood and Oil take forever, only to become a disappointment?

I will believe The Gilded Age when I see it. I don't understand what the hold up has been? How can they sign up Fellowes and then he doesn't deliver? Would there not be a time limit on waiting for him to write and deliver scripts etc? I don't see how it has went on this long.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

Oh didn't Blood and Oil take forever, only to become a disappointment?

I will believe The Gilded Age when I see it. I don't understand what the hold up has been? How can they sign up Fellowes and then he doesn't deliver? Would there not be a time limit on waiting for him to write and deliver scripts etc? I don't see how it has went on this long.

Yes. I (unsurprisingly) forgot all about Blood and Oil. It started life as a more rustic drama about the new oil rush (named The Bakken) before ABC decided to hamfistedly try and turn it into Dallas.

I'm not sure what type of deal Julian Fellowes has but it's unusual for them to wait so long for a writer. I know he likes to do thorough research before proceeding with a project but that timescale is a bit excessive.

 

[Willie Oleson]

Having a bit of distance between it and Downton may actually work in it's favour although there'll inevitably be comparisons

Was Downton Abbey really that unique? There must be hundreds of British tv series about hats & bonnets, not all of them as popular as DA of course.

 

[Alexis]

Was Downton Abbey really that unique? There must be hundreds of British tv series about hats & bonnets, not all of them as popular as DA of course.

It was very much an Upstairs Downstairs redux.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

Was Downton Abbey really that unique? There must be hundreds of British tv series about hats & bonnets, not all of them as popular as DA of course.

It wasn't really that unique at all. British TV, particularly the BBC, churn out many period dramas each year. It was just that it had been a while since a British period drama had caught on on such a global scale.

 

[Willie Oleson]

American period dramas always have a very different tone, I find. And the mansions, oooh I love American mansions.

 

[Edie70]

I'm really looking forward to the new Murphy Brown. Let's hope it's not going to be just a liberal show taking stabs at Trump and his administration. I grew up with the original show so this one feels truly special and close to my heart.

 

[tommie]

Not many shows interest me, but ABC's Grand Hotel looks trashy and soapy enough for me to take a peek. I don't expect this to survive the season.

CW's In The Dark has a cute dog and a kooky concept. With the CW you never really know.

 

[Gabriel Maxwell]

It wasn't really that unique at all. British TV, particularly the BBC, churn out many period dramas each year. It was just that it had been a while since a British period drama had caught on on such a global scale.

And why did it catch on to such an extent? I think there was something incredibly appealing about the series that was present from the very first episode that set it apart from the other period dramas / primetime soaps. Not sure I can pinpoint the exact factor, most likely the sum of all contributing elements - the right casting, the beautiful setting, the high production values and attention to detail, etc. - but it's one of those shows where you see the pilot and you instantly know you have a mega-hit (the fantastic pilots of Desperate Housewives and Lost being additional examples).

 

[Daniel Avery]

I'm really looking forward to the new Murphy Brown. Let's hope it's not going to be just a liberal show taking stabs at Trump and his administration. I grew up with the original show so this one feels truly special and close to my heart.

I fully expect the show to be topical, since the setting lends itself to that. I just hope they can poke fun at everyone (all sides) equally and thus invite everyone to join in on the fun. Being stridently one-sided in your jokes/criticisms gets tiresome after a while and drives away 50% of the potential audience almost immediately. From what I've read, Murphy is now the host of a morning show (one reads between the lines to assume it's on CBS), and grown-up Avery hosts a competing program on another network in the vein of Fox News Channel. I'm not sure how the others fit in (one would assume Miles is her producer?). They've cast Tyne Daly to play Phyllis, the widow (?) of Phil, who ran the bar they all hung out in (Phil died in the original series), though this is something of a ret-con of events in the original (when Dena Dietrich played Phyllis and wanted nothing to do with running the bar). It's a bit of a stretch to think grouchy Murphy could be hosting a morning show* (where everyone has to be all chipper and bantering about silly stuff), but I guess they couldn't keep FYI without Jim Dial (Charles Kimbrough), whom I assume is not going to be in this version since he's not been mentioned.

* One memorable episode of original MB had Murphy and Corky drafted by the network to co-host the morning show for a ratings stunt. Murphy was predictably horrible at morning-show banter and fluff, while Corky took to it like a duck to water and ended up having to bail Murphy out of numerous gaffes on-air.