The joke that NBC now stands for Nothing But Comedies is a bit of an exaggeration - but only a bit. The current ratings champ has a whopping 18 sitcoms on its fall schedule - including two-hour, four-sitcom blocks on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
The network is ripping off its own strategy, trying to create "must-see TV" blocks on Mondays and Wednesdays in addition to Tuesdays and Thursdays.(The Monday ploy is a gamble, however. The atrociously named "Must-She TV" lineup of "Suddenly Susan," "Fired Up," "Caroline in the City" and "The Naked Truth" doesn't contain a single show that's strong enough to stand on its own.)
The network is also transplanting the moderate hit "3rd Rock from the Sun" to Wednesdays in an attempt to establish a beach head on that night, and - remarkably - NBC held onto "Men Behaving Badly" to anchor Sundays.
Other than that, NBC is trying to shore up its "Saturday Night Thrillogy" lineup and adding yet another edition of the news magazine "Dateline" - bringing the total to four!
Here's a rundown on NBC's new shows, which will be seen locally on KSL-Ch. 5:
JENNY (Sundays, 7:30 p.m.) brings the former Playboy bunny/MTV personality to network television. She plays a dizzy blonde (big surprise there, huh?) who inherits a Hollywood home from the actor-father she never knew. (George Hamilton will continue to play the dearly departed in a series of video apperances.) Jenny and her childhood pal, Maggie (Heather Paige Kent) leave Utica, N.Y., for Los Angeles. There they work a series of jobs to keep the house and rent rooms to a pair of aspiring filmmakers.
Forecast: The best thing you can say about "Jenny" is that it isn't as bad as you might expect. But it's still pretty bad. Where this mistaken impression that McCarthy has actual talent began is a mystery. Expect both this show and the one that precedes it, "Men Behaving Badly," to go away before too long.
Debut date: Sept. 28
THE TONY DANZA SHOW (Wednesdays, 7 p.m.) marks the return of Danza as - you guessed it! - a single father. This time, he's a divorced sportswriter raising two daughters - a rebellious 16-year-old and a neurotic 11-year-old. The cast includes Tony's sexy, brainy assistant (Maria Canals) and the young doorman at his New York apartment building (Shaun Weiss). It's predictable, pleasant stuff that will be familiar to fans of "Who's the Boss?"
Forecast: It's a tough time slot that features sitcoms on three other networks. But with NBC's promotional power and the Danza name, it could be around for a while.
Debut date: Sept. 24
BUILT TO LAST (Wednesdays, 7:30 p.m.) is yet another sitcom built around the talents of a standup comedian. Royale Watkins - the eighth of 14 children in real life - plays the third of five in this show. He's a computer whiz whose career plans are sidetracked when his father (Paul Winfield) suffers a mild heart attack and Royale takes over the family construction business. This comes to us from the producers of "Family Matters" and "Hangin' with Mr. Cooper" -but while most of the pilot episode is very pro-family and very much in the treacly mode of ABC's Friday-night comedies, stuck in the middle is a plot line about premarital sex.
Forecast: NBC isn't where viewers come for sappy family sitcoms. And this is a tough time slot, with competition from three other sitcoms and the youth-oriented "Beverly Hills, 90210."
Debut date: Sept. 24
WORKING (Wednesdays, 8:30 p.m.) is a comedy that owes a lot to the comic strip "Dilbert." Fred Savage ("The Wonder Years") stars as a young man fresh out of college who gets a job at a large, nondescript, multinational corporation and is determined to rise to the top based on his skills - a naive view of the world. He contends every week with his unethical boss (Maurice Godin); his boss's overqualified assistant; an overly perky co-worker and a tough office manager.
Forecast: The pilot is mildly amusing - and you can't help but love Fred Savage - but you have to wonder if the show will hold up for a few weeks, let alone a few years. Its success depends largely on whether "3rd Rock from the Sun" viewers stick around.
Debut date: Oct. 8
UNION SQUARE (Thursdays, 7:30 p.m.) takes place in a New York diner frequented by an aspiring actor (Constance Marie) and an aspiring writer (Michael Landes). They're at the center of a group that includes the diner's staff as well as a rock-star wannabe and a shark of a real-estate agent. Think "Cheers" with a younger group of actors.
Forecast: This sitcom features a very attractive, likable cast. Too bad the writers couldn't come up with a better script. The show is entirely too sitcommy - the set-up, joke, set-up, joke pattern that sounds funny in the writers' room but divorces the show from any sense of reality. But in this cushy time slot, the show should have enough time to improve - if it's capable of doing so.
Debut date: Sept. 25
VERONICA'S CLOSET (Thursdays, 8:30 p.m.) marks the return of Kirstie Alley ("Cheers") to TV comedy. She plays Veronica, the owner of a Victoria's Secret-like lingerie company and author of books on romance whose own life is a mess - she's finally decided to dump her philandering husband. The supporting cast is almost entirely top-rate - Kathy Najimy plays her friend/top executive; Wallace Langham ("The Larry Sanders Show") is her assistant - who may or may not be gay; Daryl "Chill" Mitchell ("The John Larroquette Show") is her harried marketing manager; and Robert Prosky ("Hill Street Blues") is her father/chauffeur. Oh, and Dan Cortese plays a former underwear model-turned-publicist. (You can't win 'em all.) Written and produced by the team that brought us "Friends," this show is bright and funny (and, not surprisingly, somewhat risque).
Forecast: This show is pretty much guaranteed to be a hit based solely on its time slot - between "Seinfeld" and "ER." But "Veronica's Closet" is one of the year's best new shows, and certainly the best to occupy this time slot since "Frasier."
Debut date: Sept. 25
PLAYERS (Fridays, 7 p.m.) is a fantasy cops-and-robbers show. Rapper Ice-T, Costas Mandylor ("Picket Fences") and Frank John Hughes star as con men who are released from federal prison to help the FBI catch other bad guys. The guys are portrayed as witty and fearless as they carry out various unbelievable stings.
Forecast: Producer Dick Wolf hates any comparisons between this show and "The A-Team," but there are similarities. "Players" is silly fluff wrapped around violence, and Ice-T has about as much screen presence as iced tea. Some are predicting this could be the first cancellation of the season. I don't know about that, but it will be a shock if it succeeds.
Debut date: Oct. 17
SLEEPWALKERS (Saturdays, 8 p.m.) is sort of a weekly version of the movie "Dreamscape" with a bit of "Brainstorm" thrown in. Bruce Greenwood ("Nowhere Man") stars as Dr. Nathan Bedford, the head of the Morpheus Institute, a scientific project in which high-tech equipment is used so the scientists can enter other people's dreams - and help prevent potential deadly consequences of the nightmares. The staff includes a technician (Abraham Benrubi of "ER"), an adventurous scientist (Naomi Watts), and an Air Force pilot (Jeffrey D. Sams) who is the research subject in the pilot episode. And then there's Bedford's comatose wife (Kathrin Nicholson), whom he can meet only in her dreams.
Forecast: This is a decent fit in NBC's so-called Saturday Thrillogy, but whether it can ever develop much more than a cult following is questionable.
Debut date: Nov. 1