Cryer, Braugher Head Up ABC Fall Shows
July 18 -- Reality might be the latest trend in TV programming, but ABC executives claim they’re not eager to jump on any bandwagons.
Addressing the Television Critics Association summer press tour Sunday, ABC Entertainment Television Co-chairman Lloyd Braun was quick to point out that when ABC’s Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? became a surprise hit, “We were the one network not to throw a whole bunch of game shows on the air thinking that America wants to see game shows.”
Still, while Braun and Co-chairman Stu Bloomberg downplayed CBS’s successful Survivor as an indicator of TV’s future, ABC is developing its own reality-based series, The Mole, The Runner (created by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck), and a still-unnamed show about journalists at an Internet start-up.
For this fall, however, ABC is launching only four new shows, all featuring regulation scripts and actors: sitcoms The Geena Davis Show, Madigan Men, and The Trouble With Normal, and an hourlong drama, Gideon’s Crossing. Five more shows will be launched throughout the season, including comedies starring Joan Cusack, Damon Wayans and Denis Leary.
Cryer Dares TV Trouble
The Trouble With Normal (Fridays, 8:30 p.m. ET), marks the small-screen return of Jon Cryer (Pretty in Pink). With more failed sitcoms under his belt than anyone in prime time, the former Duckman is something of a glutton for punishment. Discussing his rotten luck, Cryer joked, “I loved every show that I’ve … Well, OK, not every show, but I loved most of the shows I’ve done.”
His latest follows four paranoid but not-quite-certifiable neurotics in New York City and Claire (Paget Brewster), the insecure therapist who treats them. On the first episode, Zack (Cryer) and Bob (David Krumholtz — known to ER fans as Lucy Knight’s killer) are next-door neighbors who each believe the other is spying on him. (Viewers will be excused for echoing Claire’s sarcastic question: “Two paranoid people living right next door to each other — what are the odds of that?”) Eventually, Zack and Bob meet and become uneasy friends.
