This week we examine the new fall schedule for NBC. The Peacock Network fell from number one to number four in the ratings this season due in large part to the departure of "Friends" and the fact that none of their new series in fall 2004 caught on big with audiences.
Editor's Note: Show descriptions come directly from the network press releases.
Shows returning to NBC this fall include: The Apprentice, The Biggest Loser, Crossing Jordan, Dateline (Friday and Sunday), ER, Joey, Las Vegas, Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Medium and The Office.
"MY NAME IS EARL" --Earl (Jason Lee, "Almost Famous") has taken one too many wrong turns on the highway of life. A bully and a low-rent crook, Earl wins a lottery and after an epiphany, he is determined to turn his good fortune into a life-changing event as he sets out to right all the wrongs from his past. Despite his seemingly limited intelligence, he is oddly effective -- and ultimately, the comedy series, like Earl himself, has a voice and style all its own.
"FOUR KINGS" - An exploration of four lifelong friends on the cusp of adulthood: Barry (Seth Green, the "Austin Powers" franchise), Bobby (Shane McRae, "One Life to Live"), Ben (Josh Cooke, "Committed") and Jason (Todd Grinnell, "The Dangling Conversation") couldn't imagine life without one another. Since childhood, these bosom buddies haven't spent so much as a birthday apart, but when Ben's grandmother, who dubbed them the "Four Kings of New York," passes away, Ben inherits her apartment and decides to share it with his lifelong friends. But despite the comfort of their posh new surroundings and efforts to cling to their youth, adulthood begins drawing these Four Kings knee-deep into situations that aren't always easy to escape in this honest exploration of life-term friendship.
"THICK AND THIN" - A comedy about Mary (Jessica Capshaw, "The Practice"), a formerly fat woman who embarks on a new journey as a fit and newly single woman. That's easier said than done, however, when Mary's family and friends still see her as her former self. They include her overweight mother (multiple Emmy winner Sharon Gless, "Cagney and Lacey"), her overweight younger sister (newcomer Amy Halloran), her father (Martin Mull, "Roseanne"), and her weight-loss program buddy (Mel Rodriguez, "Panic Room"). But it is at the pool-and-spa company franchise she owns in suburban Florida that she finds her most unlikely confidant, her brother-in-law (Chris Parnell, NBC's "Saturday Night Live"), the company's "leotard-ed" spokesperson named "Captain Chlorine." When a cringe-worthy misstep lands her in bed with her ex, she realizes that getting thin was less about pleasing others -- and more about being comfortable in her own skin
