21 Hours of TV Fall Preview 2010 (Weekend and Final Tally)...

And now, the rest of the story.

19 hours accounted for and only 2 hours left with three nights of TV to go.   Can it even be done?  Uh.... Have you seen the weekend schedule?  It's a barren wasteland of programming.  I half expect the networks to just go ahead and show 3 hours of the same tumbleweed blowing across the screen, over, and over, and over.

Here's the day by day.

Friday

Seriously, this is ugly.  I briefly considered checking out Secret Millionaire, but it just feels so much like an Undercover Boss rip off, and I can only take so much heart warming in my television gumbo before it becomes heart burn.  

I also occasionally miss Smallville, but not enough to add it to an already tight list.

TWO HOURS OF MUST:  I don't know, go back and watch the other half of Lie to Me?

The color coded breakdown:

Green = Will be programmed on my DVR

Blue = Not for me, but feel free. 
Red = Move along, nothing to see here.

8PM

ABC - Secret Millionaire

CBS - Medium

CW - Smallville
Fox - Human Target

NBC - Who do You Think You Are?

9PM

ABC - Body of Proof

CBS - CSI: NY

CW - Supernatural

Fox - Good Guys

NBC - Dateline NBC

10PM

ABC - 20/20

CBS - Blue Bloods

NBC - Outlaw

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Saturday

NBC is airing 3 straight hours of repeats, and CBS is airing two straight hours of "Crimetime Saturday"  which to me sounds less like a TV Show and more like the mafia's cute little phrase for how they spend their weekends.

TWO HOURS OF MUST:  play a game of Sorry with the kiddos.

The color coded breakdown:

8PM

ABC - College Football

CBS - Crimetime Saturday

Fox - COPS

NBC - Repeats

9PM

CBS - Crimetime Saturday

Fox - America's Most Wanted

NBC - Repeats

10PM

CBS - 48 Hrs. Mystery

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Sunday

I'll give Seth McFarlane this, he's prolific.  Raunchy and shallow, but prolific.  OK, fine, yes, and funny, but not funny enough to wade through the nonsense, at least for me.  If any of his three shows had half the heart of Homer and the gang, I might have to watch (implied assertion: they don't). The Simpsons stand as a testament that you can do joke a minute satire and still have depth and a heart, and for 22 seasons now I've been grateful for that amazing combination.   Speaking of Amazing, I'm always up for another season of the race.  One of these seasons I'm still holding out hope that that will be me searching hours through haystacks for needles and making a fool of myself trying to gyrate correctly to some other country's national dance.  A boy can dream, can't he?

Undercover Boss is a great concept and I'll be watching this season, if for no other reason than to see if they can pull it off now that the jig is up. (Which I could dance in Ireland if they would just cast me on the race!)

On a sad note, I think I've finally had enough of even the corniest of CSIs, and will no longer be glued into the weekly reshadings of Mr. Horatio Cane.  Horatio, your corpse side humor has made me happier then you will ever know, and I will miss your sunglasses most of all.

Speaking of CSI: Miami, any chance we could get an episode where the gang tries to solve who is the most responsible for killing Lebron James' reputation?  I can hear Horatio now, "With murder, nothing is a slam dunk."   AAAAAARRRRRRRRRRR.

TWO HOURS OF MUST:  The Simpsons and Amazing Race (Watch the Simpsons twice if you need to.)

The color coded breakdown:

7PM

ABC - America's Funniest Home Videos
CBS - 60 Minutes
Fox - The OT
NBC - Football Night in America

8PM

ABC - Extreme Home: Makeover

CBS - Amazing Race
Fox - The Simpsons

8:30PM

Fox - The Cleveland Show

NBC - Sunday Night Football

9PM

ABC - Desperate Housewives

CBS - Undercover Boss
Fox - Family Guy

9:30PM

Fox - American Dad

10PM

ABC - Brothers and Sisters

CBS - CSI: Miami

Weekend's Total:  One half hour sit-com, Two 1 hour Reality, 2.5 Hours
Final Total: 11 hours drama, 4.5 hours comedy, 6 hours Reality = 21.5 hours

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Are you kidding me?! Half an hour?!

OK, fine.  My first instinct is to look at the half hour shows to see if there is one I could ax to give me Blackjack.  Community, Modern Family, Simpsons, Office, and 30 Rock are untouchable.  The Middle is really good and it's one Wife of Dice really digs, and I really dig when she's happy, sooooo....  It has to be one of the newbies, but I've promised Outsourced, Shatner, and Running Wilde a 3 Ep Test.

Here's my solution.  Since there is no possible way all three of them will be worthy of full time status on the DVR by the time the 3 episodes are up how bout I ditch the worst of them and be at 21 in 3 weeks time.   Who knows?  Maybe one of them will have a laugh track and make it easy for me.