There were a few new shows that I missed commenting on, so here are my comments. First up is Deadline, which I heard was just cancelled. The setting was a newspaper and the premise was a columnist who investigates various stories and uncovers the truth. A little bit of a detective show or a private eye show but with more politics and newspaper issues. Oliver Platt starred as the newspaper columnist. Oliver Platt is supposed to be really good (and he's pretty good) but I first heard of him in The Three Musketeers and he was made out to be as big a star as Charlie Sheen and Kiefer Sutherland (at the time) but I hadn't ever heard of him.

Deadline was an ok show, although I only saw two of four episodes. It's strange that shows get pulled really quickly by networks. It does tend to favor shows that are interesting right off the bat, but shortchanges shows that build up slowly. Television is a volitile industry and there is no formula for what show is kept or not. Many times it seems that a borderline show is kept on based on the support of one or two key executives in the network. I guess Deadline had no support.

I also read that Dark Angel was picked up for a full season, same for the Geena Davis Show (though that was almost a given since ABC has some real programming problems). Some other shows were picked up, but what I forgot what they were. My favorite new show, The Gilmore Girls, hasn't been picked up for the whole season, though it hasn't been cancelled yet. In the last ratings it was like 104th out of 120 shows or so, though it did ok for a WB Network show so it might have a chance.

Boston Public premiered last week and I've seen both episodes so far. It's much more in the serial style (not soap opera, which is a serial but even more so), with several running threads that span multiple episodes. ER comes to mind as a successful show in that style. Anyway, Boston Public is set in a big city high school. Lots of photogenic teachers (with Fyvush Finkel the sole teacher that provides contrast) and sexually-obsessed students. I'll have to give it a couple more episodes before I can say whether I like it or not. Right now it has some good plots and bad plots, so we'll see.

Cursed is a new half-hour sitcom from NBC. It's being promoted in the coveted Thursday new show time-slot between Friends and Will and Grace. Now that NBC moved Will and Grace and Just Shoot Me to Thursday, leaving Frasier to anchor the Tuesday night primetime, there is no compelling reason for me to watch NBC on Tuesdays (other than Frasier). It used to be that NBC had Tuesdays and Thursdays locked up, at least with their dwindling number of good sitcoms, they're concentrating them on Thursday.

Anyway, Cursed was an ok show based on the one episode I've seen. I like Amy Pietz, probably the only reason I saw the ill-fated Muscle and the axed-last- season Caroline in the City (which went totally downhill once Caroline and Richard declared their love for each other. Chris Elliot is also in the show, but I don't really like Elliot's characters. Steven Weber is the star which is something since he was the funny brother in Wings.

The last two new shows that I can think of air on Sundays (at least in my area, in the case of the syndicated Andromeda). Ed is another new NBC show, shown on Sundays. It's a nice character drama with romance and some wackiness. I can almost like it, other than the fact that Ed is a bit too pushy trying to romance Carol. Once again I'll have to wait a few more episodes to see if I really like it or not.

Andromeda is a science fiction show starring Kevin Sorbo as Captain Dylan Hunt. Captain Hunt and the Systems Commonwealth Starship Andromeda were trapped in a black hole (technically the edge of it, otherwise they'd have been torn apart) for 300 years before being pulled out by salvagers. The Systems Commonwealth, that bastion of human truth and purity, is but a fading memory. The galaxy is a darker place and Captain Hunt doesn't like it. He's going to bring back the Systems Commonwealth, with the help of some of the salvagers, who didn't have anything better to do.

Andromeda is another ok show. Nice stories so far (I think I've seen three episodes) but a lot of the premises I'm not too happy with. I was never much of a Blake's Seven rebels-with-a-cool-ship-against-the-system concept (although I think the concept of Andromeda is older than Blake's Seven). The ship is ugly, the special effects are good, there is some sort of possibly weird love triangle forming, which would be interesting, and you gotta love the perky female alien, Trance Gemini.