Early fall TV
“The Orville” is the first broadcast show out of the gate this fall. While dates are subject to change, ABC’S “Dancing with the Stars” is up next on Sept. 18, followed by Fox’s “Gotham” on Sept. 21. CBS’ “60 Minutes” is scheduled to bow Sept. 24.
The bulk of new and returning fall shows will begin airing Sept. 25, the start of the traditional premiere week. The pilot — you know, the episode that introduces the characters, the world and sets up all the conflict — was broadcast as the 11th and final installment.
Max Bialystock (a character from “The Producers”) couldn’t have done more to sabotage a show. Yet “Firefly” still has legions of enthusiastic fans known as Browncoats.
“The Orville,” meanwhile, is being given a jumpstart on the new fall season with as big of a promotional push as possible: special airings this Sunday and next directly following NFL
doubleheaders.
There’s some genuinely funny repartee in Sunday’s premiere, directed by Jon Favreau. And the show’s sci-fi bona fides come courtesy of executive producer Brannon Braga (“Star Trek: The Next Generation,” “Star Trek: Voyager” and “Star Trek: Enterprise”).
But the second episode doesn’t even attempt to be funny. At least I don’t think it does. It plays more like Macfarlane and crew trying to faithfully re-create some of those forgettable syndicated sci-fi series from decades past the same way Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig played it mostly straight with their Lifetime movie, “A Deadly Adoption.”
“The Orville” isn’t funny enough to be a comedy or technologically advanced enough to be respectable science fiction.
It’s neither fish nor fowl. It’s closer to some sort of “Island of Dr. Moreau” experiment.
A flounderpigeon, perhaps.
Contact Christopher Lawrence at clawrence @reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4567. Follow @ life_onthecouch on Twitter.