Broadcast networks go for milk-and-cookies comfort this fall
If provocative, psyche-jangling shows like “The Handmaid’s Tale” are your taste, head directly to streaming or cable. But if you’re feeling the urge for milk-and-cookies comfort, broadcast television wants to help.
The upcoming TV season will bring more sitcom nostalgia in the “Roseanne” and “Will & Grace” mode. More heartwarming dramas taking a circle-oflife page from “This Is Us.” More crime and medical dramas in which the good guys always win, and in just an hour (minus commercial time).
As once-mighty broadcast rat- ings continue to be shredded by media alternatives, the networks are going where viewers are pointing them.
That means family- friendly shows in the reality genre as well as scripted: Say “awwww” for “Dancing With the Stars: Juniors,” a kiddie version of the original. While networks have tried before to compete with the daring fare of the likes of HBO, FX, Hulu or Netflix, the 2018-19 season won’t see much of that.
Here are details on some upcoming series and the trends behind them.
Room for politics? Yes and no
Roseanne Barr’s support for President Donald Trump was a conspicuous part of her character when “Roseanne” returned, but politics are a poor fit with broadcasting’s wide- net approach. To that end, ABC and NBC are tamping down anticipation that “Roseanne” or “Last Man Standing,” another show with an openly partisan star in Tim Allen, will be soapboxes.
There’s a likely dissenter: “Murphy Brown,” back on CBS with Candice Bergen in the lead role of a TV journalist.
Room for kumbaya? Definitely
The success of “This Is Us” served as a reminder that there’s more to life than comic book heroes and crimebusters — there’s the real world, as in love, marriage, child- rearing and struggle. That’s prompted a deep emotional response from the TV industry.
CBS’ “God Friended Me” stars Brandon Micheal Hall as a radio host who espouses atheism. Then, just as the title says, he gets a social media friend request from God that turns him into an “agent of change,” as the network put it. Think “Touched by an Angel” with a dash of “This Is Us.”
ABC’S “A Million Little Things” is about a group of friends who get a “wake-up call” to embrace life after one pal dies.
NBC, home of “This Is Us,” won’t be left out. Newcomer “The Village” is “a heartwarming ensemble drama set in a Brooklyn apartment building where the residents have built a bonded family of friends and neighbours.” Lights, multi-camera, action Everything old is new again, including sitcoms and how they’re produced. The multiple-camera, aka “multi-cam,” format that became popular in the 1950s with “I Love Lucy” has been steadily overtaken by comedies shot more like films and without a studio audience.
Even NBC, which network Entertainment Chairman Robert Greenblatt labeled a “more single-cam” network, is launching multi-cam sitcom “Abby’s.”
The new twist? It’s taped outside.