The WB Fall Schedule, 2004-05. Click on the graphic above for more info.

For this viewer, of all the networks The WB (even though it’s not available in Vancouver, most of the programmes find their way onto Canadian airwaves) has the most consistently watchable programmes, ranging from Everwood and Gilmore Girls, to Smallville and (the increasingly long in the tooth) 7th Heaven. Oh sure, The WB’s programming is drama heavy and far from hip, but migawd it’s mostly free of dreadful ‘reality-based’ programmes, and rarely talks down to you.
So, what does The WB have up its sleeve for the fall? Well, it seems that ratings are down, and as such The WB’s grand poobahs, Jordan Levin and Garth Ancier, have had to do more than a little tweaking.
New shows include Jack and Bobby, the dramatic retelling of the childhoods of John F. and Robert F. Kennedy, and The Mountain, which some have described as ‘Dynasty’ on skis. Most of the rest of the new programming (designed to raise ratings) appears to be barely watchable, but at least The WB left their core programming alone. We thank God (wherever she is) and Messieurs Levin and Ancier for this small favour.
For further insight (such as it is) into The WB’s 2004 fall season, we’ll start you off with The Futon Critic. Then there’s: Rick Porter at Zap2it.com, and Rachel Porter at some About.com site called … oh, never mind.
For the remaining fall television schedules for the major U.S. networks, click on the following direct VanRamblings’ links: CBS, NBC, ABC, and FOX.

The ABC Fall Schedule, 2004-05. Click on the graphic above for more info.

There’s something decidedly anti-climactic and mildly dispiriting about the announcements of the fall television schedules — or should that read: ‘soon to be cancelled shows’ — for the major U.S. networks. For its part, ABC is doing everything it can to wrest itself from the bowels of the ratings basement. But what has new head honcho Stephen McPherson come up with? You can judge for yourself, but from VanRamblings’ vantage point, aside from the humour that the Defamer brings to the situation …

ABC’s doing its part to make sure laughter stays dead by reducing their comedy load and by bringing back According to Jim, My Wife and Kids, and George Lopez. In any case, look for ABC to suffer another season in the toilet, looking up at Fox’s pimply, third place ass.

there’s not that much, unless you’re excited about the prospect of six more hours of barely watchable, so-called ‘reality’ programming, a spinoff of The Practice starring William Shatner, or a new series titled Lost, about the survivors of a plane crash stranded on a remote island.
Want to know what others are saying about ABC’s Fall Schedule? Not much, but here goes anyway. Zap2it.com offers this, while Gary Levin at USA Today writes about ABC’s reality heavy programming.
David Bauder, writing for the Associated Press, and Bill Carter and Stuart Elliott, writing in the New York Times’ Business section, compare the ABC and WB new fall schedules, while Kimberly Potts, at E-online, bemoans the loss of Alias this fall (not to worry, Kim, it’ll be back mid-season).
For the remaining fall television schedules for the major U.S. networks, click on the following direct VanRamblings’ links: CBS, NBC, the WB, and FOX.

Click on the graphic above for more info on NBC’s fall schedule

From the Defamer: Happy to derive its laughs from aspiring actors devouring the genitalia of dead animals on Fear Factor and from hopeless nerds trying to lay third-place beauty pageant contestants on Average Joe, NBC’s fall schedule will go light on the sitcoms.
The only new comedies on NBC will be the animated, Siegfried and Roy-inspired (and, disappointingly, mauling-free) Father of the Pride, and Friends spinoff Joey. NBC head Jeff Zucker is banking on Joey to deliver big ratings numbers in the Friends timeslot; if it falters, expect Matt LeBlanc to ingest a yak labia just before each commercial break.
For a somewhat less catty take on NBC’s proposed 2004-05 television season read Daniel Fienberg at Zap2it.com, who writes that the motto for NBC’s upcoming season ought to be ‘Comedy Doesn’t Live Here Anymore’.
Gary Levin, at USA Today, indicates that NBC seems to not to have much faith in their coming season, given the large number of mid-season replacements that are on order.
Kimberly Potts at E-Online offers this, while Lisa de Moraes, at The Washington Post, suggests that the proper way to appreciate NBC’s fall schedule would be to have a stiff drink in hand.
For the remaining fall television schedules for the major U.S. networks, click on the following direct VanRamblings’ links: ABC, FOX, the WB, and CBS.

When it comes to political jokers, David Letterman beats Jay Leno and critics’ darling Jon Stewart hands down.
It makes sense that the late-night talk-show wars, just passing their 10-year anniversary, would continue to consume audience interest. With each passing day, David Letterman — who seems to have developed a comfort level at CBS, even as he continues to make ironic detachment a way of life for several generations of fans — becomes ever more honest and human, allowing for a darker, more mature side to his comic’s take on life. More grounded than the competition, there’s genuine power to his words, particularly since his recovery from heart surgery.
Jay Leno, meanwhile, remains the guy who will do anything for ratings, most obviously when it involves some degree of political partisanship, like the kind that gave Arnold Schwarzenegger’s recall-candidacy, last year, the shove it needed to take California’s governorship.
In a recent article published in L.A. Weekly, Nikke Finke (an archive of her work is available as a link, to your left, under Cinema) writes …

Late Show has the brass balls to go where the cowardly White House news corps and corporate suck-up Leno fear to tread: presenting Dubya in all his dumb-ass glory.

Finke’s article is well worth a read.
As always, Slate continues to publish regular Bushisms, a malaprop version of the U.S. president’s accidental wit and wisdom.