Just Here

Forever officially premieres on ABC this Monday, September 21st @ 10:00 p.m. Eastern in a "Special Series Premiere Preview." Forever's "Series Time Period Premiere" will be on Tuesday, the 22nd in its normal timeslot of Tuesdays @ 10:00 p.m. Eastern. Official episode press releases are available on ABC's MediaNet micro-site for Forever. Note: According to TheFutonCritic.com's listing schedule for Forever, it appears that after the second episode, the next three episodes will be shown out of production order, with 1x05 being the third episode, followed by 1x04, and then 1x03. I cannot find any independent confirmation of this, but the website is fairly reputable. (Cf. the schedule listings for Almost Human, which was notoriously shown out of order.) And, whether the production order is actually the intended airing order remains to be seen, as sometimes episodes are filmed out-of-order due to production issues. So, if there are continuity issues that pop up, then the out-of-order airing is probably the culprit.

I'm not sure how much longer these will be available*, but the CW (CWtv.com) has a few older series available: Birds of Prey (13 episodes), as well as Hellcats and Jack & Bobby (both 22 episodes). *In the past, series such as Birds of Prey only tend to be available for a seasonal window (e.g. over the summer when most CW scripted shows are in repeats).

Here's a quick primer on state grand juries in Texas (TDCAA.com). But, as merylinkid mentions, the indictment being after the latest Ray Rice revelations may have been what swayed the (apparently different) grand jury. But, a different grand jury with different personalities and attitudes, may have made a difference. And, how the prosecutors presented the evidence and witnesses to the grand jury the second time around could have also changed the voting outcomes. Also, Under Texas law, nine grand jury members are needed for an indictment, so perhaps the numbers were almost there with the grand jury (e.g. eight or seven granded jury members voted to indict the first time around).

I think Highlander: The Raven counts. Elizabeth Gracen, played Amanda, an Immortal, who was a spin-off character from the original Highlander series. She worked with a male police detective who was portrayed by Paul Johansson. The series lasted one season (1998-1999). And, not that I'm really invested in this show, but I dislike these special timeslot premieres. I think they just confuse viewers, making it harder to convert passive viewers into regular viewers, and thus reduce the potential audience for a series.

Yes. Here's a timeline of the series' schedule (Canadian airings) and renewal annoucements (all pulled from Wikipedia): 27-May-2012: Season One Premiere Date. 05-Aug-2012: Season One Finale Date. 24-Aug-2012: Renewal Annoucement (Season Two). 21-Apr-2013: Season Two Premiere Date. 05-Jun-2013: Renewal Annoucement (Season Three). 04-Aug-2013: Season Two Finale Date. 16-Mar-2014: Season Three Premiere Date. 22-Jun-2014: Season Three Finale Date. Positive thinking: There is some sort of contract renegotations going on behind the scenes that is dragging out the renewal announcement. (And, Shapeshifter, I liked your post because of the Early Edition reference.)

Here's a half-serious idea, so don't send me hate-PM's... The People's Court... as a sitcom. Or, in other words, Night Court updated with a reality TV angle, although in practice The People's Court is an arbitration process. So, you could have some wacky small claims cases, with wacky plaintiffs and defendants, plus the personal lives of the rag-tag collection of on-air talent and others on the show-within-a-show. *And, it's crazy enough ("High Concept!") that a network exec might approve it.

Except Henry didn't do his job properly: His earlier exam of the subway conductor missed the obvious trauma (where the poison was applied) behind the conductor's ear. -- This was my one major procedural nitpick, even under "TV Rules." (And, this isn't a nitpick of your statement, just using it as a jumping off point.) Regarding this pilot, add my voice to those who hated the voiceover. I think a better alternative, especially given that Judd Hirsch's character is Henry's pyschological son, would have been to use a gateway character who discovers Morgan's secret early on in the pilot. E.g., Henry calls Joel David Moore's character to rescue him because Hirsch's character is stuck in traffic somewhere. I would have liked to see Alana de la Garza's character have a bit more personality, but that could easily get ironed out over the next several episodes. But, at least we have a female TV homicide detective whose actress is actually old enough to realistically be a homicide detective, let alone just have a detective's badge: Wikipedia lists de la Garza's age as 38 (born in June 1976). The pilot's mystery-of-the-week did not seem as tight as it could have been (even without the "Oops, I missed a major clue" issue mentioned above). I was uncertain as to whether we're supposed to think that the Mysterious Caller is just a Very Interested Observer. or a criminal mastermind who is pulling strings from behind a curtain. And, I had to laugh at seeing Bones "squint" alum Joel David Moore as a medical examiner. Overall, I don't see this series getting more than one season, and I doubt that it will get a full season order. But, it would be a shame if there was not an episode where Judd Hirsch's character has to 'borrow' a taxi in order to pick up Henry.

IMDb is essentially a wiki that can be edited by anyone, so it is far from a definitive source. The press release for the second episode (via TheFutonCritic.com) lists six regulars: Though, whether every regular appears in every episode remains to be seen.

Every time I hear the character's name, I think of Harry Morgan (of M*A*S*H, Dragnet, and many other roles), who was credited under the name "Henry Morgan" in most of his earlier roles.

Thanks, I was all set for a WTF reaction, but now I'll give it a second chance (though Messing is not a must-see actor for me). But, hopefully the show embraces "the crazy" and doesn't try to take itself too seriously, so perhaps something in the vein of ABC's short-lived "The Unsuals."

Ha. If this was more of an action show, I suspect that within a few episodes Paige turns out to be some super-spy in Witness Protection.

Not really looking forward to this because none of the characters, especially the female ones, really grab my attention (based on the extended promo). So, I understand that this was based on a real person -- see Scorpion: How an Irish genius saved the world (The Irish Times) -- and I'm not sure of the back stories of the various hackers... But, wow, it seems like they missed some opportunities for drama/tension. Instead of an all-good "corporate" hacking team, have at least one hacker be some sort of hacktivist and perhaps another be a freelance mercenary hacker (just in it for the money) with one or both only working for this team due to an "It Takes a Thief" arrangement (either work for the government or go to jail). Thus, there could be some tension in the team, instead of a "Yes, Boss"* mentality which seems like what the show has, and tension between the team and the government (or at least to a greater degree). Plus, the back stories of these characters could be springboards for season-long or series-long plot arcs. *I get the feeling that this series is going to be very Walter-centric, rather than a bit more ensemble in nature. Which given how this series came to be, with having the real life "Scorpion" involved, probably was inevitable.

Regarding The Rockford Files, it is on the schedule for MeTV (Wikipedia), which is available as a digital subchannel of a number of local over-the-air stations. [FYI, another free over-the-air subchannel that also shows older/classic TV series is Antenna TV (Wikipedia).] Also, regarding CW shows: The CW website (cwtv.com) generally has new episodes available for its original series at 3 a.m. ET the morning after the episodes air, rather than a week later at Hulu.