Web Search powered by YAHOO! SEARCH
05.04.2009 9:51 am

NBC announces its fall lineup

St. Louis Post-Dispatch
  • Email this
  • Print this
The cast of NBC's "Parenthood" includes Maura Tierney, Peter Krause.

The cast of NBC's new drama "Parenthood."

***See clips from NBC’s new shows and interviews with cast members at NBC.com.***

“Parks and Recreation” gets a second season in NBC’s just-announced fall lineup, which makes no mention of on-the-bubble series “Chuck,” “My Name Is Earl” and “Law & Order.” However, “additional series pickups will be announced May 19,” when NBC details its new schedule to advertisers in New York. (Today’s announcement included renewals and pickups but didn’t say what would air where.)

NBC ordered four new dramas: “Trauma,” “Parenthood,” “Mercy” and “Day One” (billed as an “event series”. The network’s two new comedies are “Community” and “100 Questions.” (Details below.) Also for fall, NBC ordered six episodes of the prime-time “Weekend Update.”

Renewals, most already announced, went to ”Heroes,” “Southland,” “Parks and Recreation,” “The Office,” “30 Rock,” “The Biggest Loser,” “The Celebrity Apprentice,” “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” and “Friday Night Lights.” In addition, NBC will reportedly pick up “Medium,” possibly for midseason.

NBC’s new unscripted series are “The Marriage Ref,” “Breakthrough With Tony Robbins” and “Who Do You Think You Are?”

Here are NBC’s descriptions of its new series:

PARENTHOOD
From the executive producers of the box-office hit “Parenthood” — Ron Howard and Brian Grazer (Oscar winners for “A Beautiful Mind”), and writer/executive producer Jason Katims (”Friday Night Lights”) — this contemporary re-imagining of the blockbuster film depicts the colorful and imperfect Braverman family — four grown siblings sharing the headaches, heartaches and joy of being parents. The star-studded cast includes Peter Krause, Maura Tierney, Craig T. Nelson, Dax Shepard, Bonnie Bedelia, Monica Potter, Erika Christensen, Sarah Ramos and Mae Whitman.

TRAUMA
Executive producer Peter Berg (NBC’s “Friday Night Lights”) delivers “Trauma,” the first high-octane medical drama series to live exclusively in the field where the real action is. Like an adrenaline shot to the heart, “Trauma” is an intense, action-packed look at one of the most dangerous medical professions in the world: first responder paramedics. When emergencies occur, the trauma team from San Francisco General is first on the scene, traveling by land, by sea or by air to reach their victims in time. From the heights of the city’s Transamerica Pyramid to the depths of the San Francisco Bay, these heroes must face the most extreme conditions to save lives — and give meaning to their own existence in the process. Starring in “Trauma” are Derek Luke (”Notorious”), Cliff Curtis (”10,000 B.C”), Anastasia Griffith (”Damages”), Aimee Garcia (”George Lopez”), Kevin Rankin (”Friday Night Lights”) and Jamey Sheridan (”Law & Order: Criminal Intent”). “Trauma” is a production of Universal Media Studios and Film 44. Berg, Sarah Aubrey (”Bad Santa,” “Friday Night Lights”), Dario Scardapane and Jeffrey Reiner (”Friday Night Lights”) serve as executive producers. The pilot was written by Scardapane and directed by Reiner.

MERCY
“Mercy,” a new medical drama with a unique point of view, portrays the lives of the staff at Mercy Hospital as seen through the eyes of those who know it best — its nurses. Nurse Veronica Callahan (Taylor Schilling, “Dark Matter”) returns to Mercy from a military tour in Iraq — and she knows more about medicine than all of the residents combined. Together with fellow nurses Sonia Jimenez (Jamie Lee Kirchner, “Rescue Me”) and Chloe Payne (Michelle Trachtenberg, “Gossip Girl”), Callahan navigates through the daily traumas and social landmines of life and love both inside the hospital and out in the real world. The cast also includes: James Tupper (”Men in Trees”) as Dr. Chris Sands, a new doctor at the hospital who complicates Veronica’s life; Diego Klattenhoff (”Supernatural”) as Mike Callahan, Veronica’s husband; and Guillermo Diaz (”Weeds”) as Nurse Angel Lopez. “Mercy” is a production from Universal Media Studios and Berman Braun. Joining writer/executive producers Liz Heldens (NBC’s “Friday Night Lights”) and Gretchen Berg & Aaron Harberts (”Pushing Daisies,” “Pepper Dennis”) are executive producers Gail Berman and Lloyd Braun. Emmy Award winner Adam Bernstein (NBC’s “30 Rock,” “Rescue Me”) is the director.

DAY ONE
From executive producer/writer Jesse Alexander (”Heroes,” “Lost,” “Alias”) and director Alex Graves (”Fringe,” “Journeyman”), “Day One” tells the story of life on earth following a global catastrophe that has devastated the world’s infrastructures. Beginning with the immediate aftermath of the cataclysmic event, an eclectic band of survivors — played by Adam Campbell (”Date Movie”), Catherine Dent (”The Shield”), Julie Gonzalo (”Eli Stone”), David Lyons (”ER”), Derek Mio (”Greek”), Carly Pope (”24″), Thekla Reuten (”Sleeper Cell”) and Addison Timlin (”Cashmere Mafia”) — strives to rebuild society as they unravel the mysteries of what happened and face their uncertain future. The group, all residents of one apartment building in suburban Van Nuys, Calif., embarks on a quest for survival and discovers that hope is found in small victories — and heroes are born every day. “Day One” is a Universal Media Studios production.

100 QUESTIONS (formerly known as “100 Questions for Charlotte Payne”)
Emmy winner James Burrows (”Will & Grace,” “Friends”) directs “100 Questions,” a new comedy series written and executive-produced by Christopher Moynihan (”For Your Consideration”) that provides hilarious answers to 100 questions about love. Charlotte Payne (Sophie Winkleman, “Peep Show”) is looking for love and has rejected multiple marriage proposals — but she has yet to meet Mr. Right. When she joins a popular online dating site, she gets a little help from her dating counselor Ravi (Amir Talai, “The Ex List”) – who requires her to take a 100-question compatibility test. The questions aren’t easy for Charlotte to answer, and each one requires her to recount a poignant and humorous time in her life with friends Leslie (Elizabeth Ho, “Women’s Murder Club”), Jill (Joy Suprano, NBC’s “Law & Order”), Mike (Christopher Moynihan “For Your Consideration”) and Wayne (David Walton “Quarterlife”). The test becomes a journey of self-discovery for Charlotte who begins to realize what she truly wants in a relationship. Ron West (”Psych”), Kelly Kulchak (”Psych”) and Michelle Nader (”King of Queens”) join Moynihan as executive producers. The series is produced by Universal Media Studios and Tagline.

COMMUNITY
From Emmy Award-winning directors Joe and Anthony Russo (”Arrested Development”) comes “Community,” a smart comedy series about higher education — and lower expectations. The student body at Greendale Community College is made up of high-school losers, newly divorced housewives, and old people who want to keep their minds active. Within these not-so-hallowed halls, “Community” focuses on a band of misfits, at the center of which is a fast-talkin’ lawyer whose degree has been revoked (Joel McHale, “The Soup”), who form a study group and end up learning a lot more about themselves than they do about their course work. In addition to McHale, the series also stars: Gillian Jacobs (”The Book of Daniel”); Yvette Nicole Brown (”Rules of Engagement”); Danny Pudi (”Greek”); Alison Brie (”Mad Men”); and comedy legend Chevy Chase (”Saturday Night Live”). “Community” is a Krasnoff Foster Entertainment, Harmonious Claptrap and Russo Brothers production in association with Sony Pictures Television and Universal Media Studios. Russ Krasnoff (”The Soloist”), Dan Harmon (”The Sarah Silverman Program”), Joe Russo (”Arrested Development”), Anthony Russo (”Arrested Development”) and Gary Foster (”The Soloist”) serve as executive producers. Joe and Anthony Russo directed the pilot that was written by Dan Harmon.

7 comments

Comments are closed.

Jay Leno is messing with the schedule. They should have just let him go to another network after they decided to take him out of the 10:30 time slot. he 9:00 shows on NBC were bright spots in the lineup. Now we may not hav Law and Order? And Southland will most likely have to be tamed down if it airs at 8:00. Does NBC think we really want a talk show at 9:00,10:30 and 11:30?

We want actors in a drama with scripts at 9:00.

— TV Fan
10:41 am May 4th, 2009

I too don’t care for what that Lame-O Leno is doing to NBC and how it may effect my Southland and L&O SVU.

— Kevin C. Johnson
11:30 am May 4th, 2009

If Chuck isn’t back I am boycotting NBC.

— Chris C
12:47 pm May 4th, 2009

I don’t know how the Leno experiment is going to work out, but why blame Jay. He is just taking advantage of what is offered to him. The network is the one making the ultimate decision of whether and where to put a new talk show with Jay Leno.

— D. Moe S.
1:56 pm May 4th, 2009

Day One will last 5 episdoes tops. The 100 Questions reeks of The Ex-List. 2 medical shows? really? And Parenthood is on its second try as a network show based a on movie from 20 years ago. Does Ben Silverman even have a clue what he is doing? He puts these shows on NBC while USA, an NBC division, has excellent shows in Criminal Intent, In Plain Sight, Psych and Monk. Not to mention they renew Heroes and cannot decide on Chuck. I would bet the farm Chuck would get better rating not on against House, the CBS comedies and DWTS. Let’ snot even talk about how Life was cancelled because the ratings against Lost and American Idol were low. Someone fire Silveman please before we get 20 hours a week of SNL and the rest of the time is Leno.

— bluenote13
4:26 pm May 4th, 2009

Chuck is one of the best shows on television, why hasn’t it been renewed yet?! It sucks when a good quality show like this can get cancelled when a lot of what is on tv is just plain crap.

— Stephanie
11:22 pm May 4th, 2009

All I know is that NBC gets what it deserves. Southland is decent, but they already bleep words at 9pm; what’s gonna happen to it at 8pm? And yes, canning Life and putting Chuck on the cutting board is just terrible. Replacing both with TWO medical dramas, a rehash of an old movie (which was a series once before, if I remember), and “Jericho, NBC-style”, is weak. the Leno show is gonna tank. I think that when it comes to the Tonight show, people watch because they’re just too tired to get up and turn off the TV after the news. Up yours, NBC.

— Leonardo Da Vinci
12:51 pm May 6th, 2009