The Back to School Post

For the last 29 years or so, my life has been lived on a school calendar. Every year since I was about two, I've either begun a new school year or a new job (usually at a school) in late August or early September. At some point, I suppose this will change. At some point, I will have a job that doesn't change schedules and begin a markedly new year in August or September. But, as my one-year clerkship has just begun, it will be a couple more years before that happens.

One of the great thing about living life on the school calendar is seeing all your friends again and making a bunch of new ones when school starts back up again in the fall. Sometimes, you can even manage to arrange things so that the people who made you feel uncomfortable last year aren't around any more or aren't too close by in the new school year. And, inevitably, every year you end up missing a few people who have moved on and don't sit next to you in class anymore.

TV is like this too. (You knew this post was going to get back to TV at some point, didn't you?) Every fall, the some old friends return, a bunch of new ones arrive, and some others go their separate ways. Sure, you have a few friends from summer camp (like the boys and girls from Army Wives, Side Order of Life, Saving Grace, and Mad Men this summer), but you miss your school year friends by the time August rolls around.

This year, I'm looking forward to spending some school nights with the folks from Dillon, Texas, the McHotties at Seattle Grace Hospital, and the Walkers from SoCal. Heck, I'll even be glad to see Denny Crane and Alan Shore and Tony Gates and Neela Rasgotra back on my TiVo again. But in general, this is going to be a year for making new friends. With Star's Hollow closed to tourists, Orange County destroyed by an earthquake, and Studio 60 canceled due to ratings, there are several slots available in my back-to-school social calendar.

Part of the fun of a new school year is the unexpected joy in meeting a really amazing new friend, like last year's Panthers. It's too early at this point to guess at who might play that role this year. Gossip Girl, Chuck and Private Practice will get an audition on my TiVo merely because of their impressive pedigrees. (Gossip Girl and Chuck are from O.C.-creator Josh Schwartz and Private Practice is, of course, the long-awaited Kate Walsh-headed Grey's Anatomy spin-off from Shonda Rhimes.) Pushing Daisies will also get an audition, largely because of the overwhelmingly positive reviews it's getting. I will be minding the buzz and adding a few other try-outs into the TiVo To-Do list as the need arises.

And I promise to post more often once the new school (TV) year begins in a couple weeks. There's just only so many times a girl can post about how good Army Wives is before she decides to just go dark until the school year starts again. In the meantime, I will reiterate my spring posts by reminding my reticent readers that the first season of Friday Night Lights may be streamed for free on-line, Netflix'd, or purchased. You really ought to do that before the October 5th premiere. Really. Even if you hate football.

Ah, to be back in Star's Hollow...

In tiny Brooklin, Maine, just up the road from WoodenBoat Harbor (where the magazine and school of the same name live), there is an inn that will make any faithful Legally Blonde reader have a sad little smile on her face. I bring you: The Dragonflye Inn. Lorelai herself would feel right at home. And Luke would have a place to finally launch his boat. I suppose that Friday night dinners could have been held in Northeast Harbor (near where Martha Stewart's summer home is) so that the senior Gilmores had a tony-enough enclave to call their own. It's not Cape Cod or the Hamptons, but it's darn close. (In this parallel Star's Hollow universe, Richard is already retired, of course.) Maybe Rory would have gone to Bowdoin, which, with a little Hollywood movie magic, could be conveniently relocated to be within a 40 minute drive of both her mother and her grandparents. And while Bowdoin isn't really the same as Yale, Rory certainly could have picked up the likes of Logan (and we do likes Logan, don't we?) there quite easily, secret society and all, I'm guessing. What do you think? Should I send my proposal to Amy Sherman-Palladino and see if she's up for a second go-round, relocated to coastal Maine?

Speaking of what they have to say...

Good news today! Twenty-two more chances to fall in love with Friday Night Lights, coming to the small screen near you next fall.

The network up-fronts (when we--the advertisers, actually, but fans too--find out next fall's schedule) are all next week, so lots of renewal news and word on pick-ups of new pilots will be trickling out in the next few days.

Gilmore has been officially canceled already; cause for celebration of the end of an era, in my mind, rather than mourning for the loss. (In fact, we will be celebrating this Tuesday at my house--by eating like a Gilmore (a Lorelai Gilmore, not an Emily Gimore, of course)! There will be tater-tot-topped-frozen-pizza and chicken nugget appetizers . . . and malomars, if I can find them.) After the completely appropriate and satisfying but still utterly sad end of Rory and Logan's relationship last week, I'm ready to say goodbye to the show, and eager to see what projects come next for all involved (particularly Matt Czuchry and Amy Sherman-Palladino).

With Gilmore off the schedule, it sounds like One Tree Hill may actually get a chance at another season--one in which they jump the action forward by 5 or so years. I'm all for it. This week's scene at the prom where the characters all make fun of the melodrama in their lives was priceless. O.C.-style self-aware irony. Love it.

News on the Renewal Front...

A new report from Ausiello suggests that the death knell may not yet have sounded for the Stars Hollow gang, but I'll be shocked if this May's season finale doesn't wind up as the last word we have from Lorelei and Rory. It sounds like Rory and Logan are history in any case, and since I think Logan is the only reason I've bothered to watch the show this season, I think I'm ready to let GG head off into the great television heaven in a few weeks.

On the other hand, everyone seems convinced that Friday Night Lights will be back.

And in an amusing, eerily torch-passing coincidence, Lauren Graham was apparently once roommates with FNL's brilliant Connie Britton. Two of the smartest, most talented women on the small screen, in my humble opinion: I would have loved to hang out at that apartment!

Save(d) One Show?

Gilmore Girls . . . and Veronica Mars were both given the nod when Kristin at E! announced the Save One Show results last night. Despite the name of the contest, apparently saving just one show wasn't enough . . . and apparently more than 6 million votes were received this year (which is, of course, not to say that 6 million people voted). Ultimately, the Gilmore fans were the most effective at repeatedly clearing their cache and re-voting. It's probably a good thing that we don't elect our president on-line. And, unfortunately, it sounds like no matter how web-savvy and motivated the GG fans are, Rory and Lorelei are not going to be back next season: the cast and crew "couldn't be reached for comment" on their big SOS win.

In any case, I'm content that, as reported in my last post, Friday Night Lights got an order for 6 more scripts.

Boston Legal was highly amusing this week: a surprise visit from Phyllis Diller (rather than Racquel Welch, whom Denny was trying to conjure up with "The Secret") had Denny reeling and N and I rolling with laughter; it's always fun to see Alan Shore come up with new and creative ways to elicit jury nullification; and Julie Bowen was brilliant (as usual). I'm looking forward to seeing what (if anything) they can do with the film shot last week when she went into real-life labor on-set during filming. BL is generally worth watching, but it's rarely at the top of my TiVo to-do list. I'm not sure why not. It's really quite good.

In other TV amusement, I caught the pilot and first couple eps of The O.C. when it premiered on SoapNet this week. It's fun to go back and revisit those classic scenes -- the scene where Sandy drives Ryan away as Marissa looks on from the end of her driveway, the "welcome to the O.C., bitch" scene, the model home fire ... so many good scenes. And with the benefit of hindsight it's fun to see how some of the later iconic scenes from the show called back those early episodes. I hadn't remembered, for example, the scene from the pilot where Ryan scoops the passed-out Marissa off her driveway and tenderly carries her to the poolhouse. The exact same shot is in the episode where she dies. Kind of cool to have that kind of internal reference (and there are so many more, especially in the music). Makes the show kind of literary in a funny sort of way.

TV Ramblings on a Monday Night

A few random TV thoughts:

• Finally no more Theismann on Sunday OR Monday Night Football. Yippeee! I'll be able to watch football without his inane ramblings to muck up the experience. Jaws is so much easier to listen to, and he usually has something mildly intelligent to say. Maybe they'll even let him have some sort of feature where he breaks down game film. There's nothing better than watching Jaws break down film. (See, I have many geeky tendancies ... they aren't just limited to school and serialized tv!)
• The Discovery Channel's new miniseries Planet Earth is good and worth watching ... if you have a 34 inch or larger HD tv. We watched the first episode last night in HD (which incidentally also means without commercials on Discovery's HD Theater channel) and then another episode tonight on our decidedly low-def TiVo. Even the three-and-a-half year old was more distracted during tonight's low-def episode. In general though, it's absolutely a nature show worth plopping down on the couch and watching with your preschooler. Well produced, well narrated (by Sigourney Weaver), well filmed.
  
• According to the Futon Critic, October Road gets good in the third episode. I'll be watching, but with no fresh Grey's as a lead-in will anyone else be watching?
• We'll be watching 24 in real-time again tonight for the HD viewing experience (and because it's the only thing my husband will agree to watch with me out of the whole week -- although he's starting to get hooked on The Amazing Race, of all things!) . . . but watching 24 this season feels a little bit like a chore to me. Not sure why.
• New episodes of One Tree Hill were advertised initially as returning this week. But the CW, in its infinite wisdom, has decided that re-running episodes of The Next Pussycat Doll (seriously?) sells more ads on Wednesday nights than fresh episodes of OTH, so Lucas, Peyton and friends won't return until the first week in MAY! Methinks this is not a good sign for the prospects of renewal. Gilmore's return was also pushed back, but only one week--meaning that fresh episodes will air throughout sweeps.
  

OTH SOS!

Every year, Kristin Veitch from E! has an on-line campaign to save one show from the network ax. She gives an excellent run-down of which shows are most likely safe, which ones are "on the bubble," and which are likely doomed. Then you get to vote. The campaign has, apparently, had an effect on network execs in the past.

So who to vote for this year? Three shows I love are theoretically on the list as in need of Kristin's life raft. They are, in order of affection: 1) Friday Night Lights, 2) Gilmore Girls, and 3) One Tree Hill. But I voted for One Tree Hill. Why? 1) Because I'm confident that FNL is safe -- the NBC network execs apparently see its virtues and will give it another season to build ratings. 2) Because I'm certain that the fate of GG rests exclusively on whether or not Alexis and Lauren will sign on for another season for an amount that the CW is willing to fork over -- and word on the street is that they won't. And 3) because OTH's show runner Mark Schwahn has announced that, if they get a 5th season, he'll jump the story ahead 5 years so that all the characters will have finished college. This is just plain smart: it allows actors who don't want to come back an easy way to bail out of their characters -- and I have a sneaking suspicion that Sophia Bush might not want to come back to work with her cheating ex-husband Chad Michael Murray. It will also line up the ages of the characters much more closely with the age of the actors who play them. So I voted for OTH.

Who's going to win? I'd guess Veronica Mars may well be able to muster the most votes this year (and oddly enough, show runner Rob Thomas has apparently borrowed Mark Schwahn's plan to jump Veronica ahead 5 years to be an FBI agent if she comes back). The winner will be announced April 13.