Advance Looks at the New ABC Fall Shows

On Wednesday night I attended the Paley Center for Media’s 6th Annual Fall TV Preview Party saluting ABC. The night started off with a Q&A panel featuring Eileen Heisler, the creator of the half-hour comedy The Middle as well as series star Atticus Shaffer; Noah Hawley, the creator of the new series My Generation and executive producer Jon Harmon Feldman and actor Stephen Collins of the new series No Ordinary Family. The moderator for the night was Debra Birnbaum, Editor-in-Chief of TV Guide. The audience was treated to insights on the creation of the two new shows and what are the driving forces behind the popular sitcom.

Once this panel was concluded, the house lights were dimmed and the pilot episode of the new half-hour comedy Better With You was screened followed by yet another Q&A panel with the cast and creative team behind this new show. The cast of this show includes Jennifer Finnigan (Close to Home), Josh Cooke (Notes from the Underbelly), Debra Jo Rupp (That 70’s Show), Joanna Garcia (Privileged), Kurt Fuller (Supernatural) and newcomer Jake Lacy all of whom – except for Garcia – participated in the panel along with executive producers Shana Goldberg-Meehan and Greg Malins.

At the conclusion of this second panel, the audience was treated to the season premiere of The Middle followed by two of the network’s new dramas: No Ordinary Family and My Generation.

First of all, I must preface what I’m about to say in regards to the two sitcoms with the fact that I do not watch half-hour comedies nor do I typically like any show filmed in that format. And while Better With You wasn’t awful – the Paley Center audience certainly seemed to laugh and enjoy themselves – I didn’t really find much redeeming in the new series to ever entice me to watch it.

The series follows three couples within one family. Vicky and Joel, the mother and father (Rupp and Fuller) who have been married for 35 years, their daughter Maddie and her boyfriend of 9 years Ben (Finnigan and Cooke) and Maddie’s younger sister Mia and her boyfriend of less than two months Casey (Garcia and Lacy). The pilot episode is all about the perspective each couple has based on their time together and how their relationships each tie to the other couples.

You will have to tune in on September 22 at 8:30 PM on ABC to judge for yourself, but I won’t be watching.

As for The Middle, which returned for its second season on ABC on September 15, all I can say is if I ever “belonged” to a family like this, I would disinherit them immediately and never show my face anywhere near them ever. To me they are the most dysfunctional and irresponsible family since The Bundy’s on Married…With Children – a television show that, to this day, I still despise. Now, I am obviously in the minority as the Paley Center audience, for the most part, laughed and truly seemed to enjoy the absurdity of the Heck family; but I will not be tuning in at all.

However, if you like this kind of fare, tune in Wednesday nights at 8 PM for The Middle.

Moving along to the dramas that were screened, I can easily state that both of these new dramas are going to have difficulty sustaining an audience if the flocking of viewers from the Paley Center theatre is any example.

First up was No Ordinary Family, which – given its cast that includes Michael Chiklis (The Shield), Julie Benz (Dexter), Autumn Reeser (The O.C.), Romany Malco (Weeds) as well as newly added Stephen Collins (7th Heaven) – should be great just because of these terrific actors and the premise – an ordinary family who after a fateful family vacation that results in a plane crash into the Amazon River that alters each of the family members, providing them with extraordinary abilities – should capture the heart of this sci-fi-lovin’ gal, it all left me a bit disheartened.

I WANT to love this show because of its pedigree – obviously the aforementioned cast and the creative team, which includes Greg Berlanti and Jon Harmon Feldman – but there is just something missing in the pilot. I chalk it up to the fact the original pilot was screened at Comic Con then altered for the general viewing audience, perhaps causing a disjointed feel. But it is also the lack of chemistry between the four central family members.

I will continue to tune in to the show for as long as it lasts, but I can only hope the episodes beyond the pilot will continue to get better or else the show will not be long for this world. No Ordinary Family debuts on ABC on September 28 at 8 PM.

Lastly, there was the pilot of My Generation, which is a unique, documentary-style series that looks at the lives of 9 Austin teens in the year 2000 when a crew follows them around for their lat year of high school then revisiting them 10 years later to see where their lives have led them.

While I admire the inventiveness (if you will) of this sort of series – which is actually based on a Swedish program that ran for 5 episodes – the ABC version will, unfortunately, not be as lucky as its Swiss predecessor. If My Generation last even a couple of episodes, it will be very lucky indeed.

The overall problem for this series, at least in my opinion, is the fact that unless you are within the demographic of these 9 characters, you are not going to wholly relate to them. And, the even bigger problem for this series is the fact there is not enough heart in this show. What I mean by that is that the viewer has to care about the characters in a show or else they aren’t going to want to stick around and watch them. This show doesn’t have enough heart and doesn’t make me WANT to watch it.

Tune in on September 23 at 8 PM to see My Generation and judge for yourself.