Reuse, Retread, Recycle

Time for another TV rant; this time NBC's going to be the target of my disapproval. The Peacock made some announcements yesterday regarding their fall plans. They stopped short of detailing their full schedule, but outlined the new shows in the works.

First, there's Jay Leno. I have nothing against the guy, but his show is boring, and I think giving over five hours of prime-time real estate to what will essentially be the same show he's been doing since 1992 is a bad idea. It's a cop-out, and it might as well be a white flag from NBC, because there's no way Jay is going to draw more viewers than CSI: Extra Cheese or other competing shows at 10 PM.

So, what else does NBC have lined up for us? Not one but two medical dramas, trying to fill that ER void, I guess. One is called Trauma and focuses on EMTs, the other is called Mercy and focuses on nurses. How long until we get Hospital Accounting or a gritty drama about the travails of candy stripers? Yeesh.

Also, there's another attempt to do a series based on the 20-year-old movie Parenthood. I'm completely baffled by why anyone would think this is a good idea, especially since the first attempt, which I was not aware of (I had to go look it up on IMDB) was a miserable failure. I guess I'm not the target audience. They're also prepping a post-apocalyptic drama called Day One, which sounds an awful lot like CBS's Jericho from a couple of years ago, and we all know how well that worked out.

If you prefer comedy but don't get why people like those shows on Thursday without laugh tracks, you might enjoy Community, starring... wait for it... Chevy Chase, as a later-life student at a community college. Wow. I mean... wow. (Are we sure he's not a teacher?) I just have to think someone spiked the water cooler at NBC's programming offices with peyote. This one also stars The Soup host Joel McHale, probably because they owe him for not moving forward with the US version of The IT Crowd that he was slated to be in. There's one other comedy, 100 Questions, something about dating. I wouldn't even mention it, except that behind-the-scenes TV comedy legend James Burrows is somehow involved. And of course there are more crappy reality shows.

But what I'm really bitter about is that NBC did not see fit to renew Life. (Some other shows are still on the bubble as far as renewal, but I'm not invested in any of them.) Life wasn't a great show, but it was pretty entertaining, and it was an attempt at a police procedural that was a bit different than most, which probably made it too quirky to succeed. It would be a natural fit on parent company NBC Universal's USA cable network, but don't look for such a miracle to happen, because if it was going to happen, they would have already arranged it and announced it.

At least I know that, aside from the Thursday comedies and Sunday night football games, I won't have to concern myself with NBC come September.