2013 Fall Television Schedule Announcement (NBC)

NBC has announced a new lineup of primetime shows for the 2013-14 season that includes popular returning series, fresh new comedies, compelling new dramas and the latest season of "The Voice."

Highlights of the year-round schedule - which will be bolstered in February on the heels of the Winter Games in Sochi, Russia - include "Believe," a new drama from J.J. Abrams and Alfonso Cuaron; the return of three-time Emmy winner James Spader in action thriller "The Blacklist"; and a comedy lineup that includes new series from "Friday Night Lights" and "Parenthood" executive producer Jason Katims, Will Ferrell, Bill Lawrence, Sean P. Hayes, and a return to NBC of one of the biggest TV stars of any generation, Michael J. Fox.

The new comedy additions are "Welcome to the Family," "Sean Saves the World," and "The Michael J. Fox Show" as well as midseason comedies "The Family Guide," and "About A Boy."

The new dramas are "The Blacklist," "Ironside," and "Dracula," plus mid-season dramas "Believe," "Crisis" and "Crossbones."

NBC has also ordered dramas "Chicago PD" and "The Night Shift" and comedy "Undateable" as unscheduled midseason series.

New alternative series premiering during the 2013-14 season include "The Million Second Quiz" and "American Dream Builders." Returning to the schedule are "The Biggest Loser" and "The Sing-Off." "Food Fighters" has been ordered as an unscheduled midseason show.

Scripted series returning include "Grimm," "Parenthood," "Law & Order: SVU," "Revolution," "Chicago Fire," "Parks and Recreation" and "Community."

Pick-up decisions on "Celebrity Apprentice" and "Hannibal" are still to be made in the next few weeks.

"The Voice" will kick off its fifth season in September on Mondays (8-10 pm. ET). The current cycle of "The Voice" has been primetime's #1 show of the week on the Big Four networks, excluding sports, for four of six weeks thus far in adults 18-49.

The announcements were made by Robert Greenblatt, Chairman, NBC Entertainment.

"The overriding strategy this year was to develop enough strong comedies and dramas to take advantage of the promotional heft of the Winter Olympics and devise two schedules for the upcoming season: one for fall and a slightly different one for midseason. I'm pleased to say that our development groups - headed by Jennifer Salke (scripted) and Paul Telegdy (alternative/reality) - really delivered," Greenblatt said. "This is the most robust and highest-testing slate of new shows we have had in years."

Greenblatt continued, "And aside from our Olympics planning, we also wanted to create better flow and compatibility on each night, and deploy our strongest lead-in ('The Voice') to maximum effect.

"Sunday in the fall remains the night to beat with 'Sunday Night Football.' After football and the Olympics are over, we will launch two classy, attention-getting dramas in February: 'Believe' from J.J. Abrams, and 'Crisis' starring Dermot Mulroney and Gillian Anderson. We think it's time for big dramas again on Sunday nights. And leading into these dramas at 8 p.m. will be an exciting home renovation competition hosted by Nate Berkus called 'American Dream Builders.'

"Monday and Tuesday will again dominate with 'The Voice.' Our highly anticipated new James Spader drama 'The Blacklist' deserves to go into the 10 p.m. slot on Monday, and we're moving 'Chicago Fire,' a show we really believe in, to 10 p.m. on Tuesdays to benefit from 'The Voice' lead-in that will be at 9 p.m. in the fall. "

After the Olympics, however, 'The Voice' moves back to 8 p.m. on Tuesday so that we can launch two of our strongest new family comedies in the 9 p.m. hour: 'About a Boy' and 'The Family Guide.' Landing more comedy on the schedule is important and using 'The Voice' as a lead-in after the Olympics is the strongest way to do that.

"I believe we'll have a more compatible Wednesday line-up with three dramas: 'Revolution,' 'Law & Order: SVU' and 'Ironside,' starring Blair Underwood, which is another new show we've very high on.

"Thursday will have a family theme, starting with a two-hour comedy block from 8-10 p.m. anchored by strong stars: Amy Poehler in 'Parks and Recreation,' Mike O'Malley in 'Welcome to the Family,' Sean Hayes in 'Sean Saves the World' and the new 'Michael J. Fox Show.' Then at 10 p.m. 'Parenthood' moves in to top off the night with what I know is the best family drama on television.

"On Fridays, anchored by 'Grimm' at 9 p.m., we will have a more fun genre night with the limited-series 'Dracula,' starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers at 10 p.m. In the spring, 'Crossbones' - with John Malkovich as the infamous pirate Blackbeard - replaces 'Dracula,'" said Greenblatt.

Jordan Wertlieb, President of Hearst Television and Chair of the NBC Affiliate Board, commented, "This schedule is another example of NBC's continued commitment to restoring prime time to its traditional leadership position. I am sure the investment in partnering with some of the most recognizable names in television will be obvious and exciting to the affiliates."

NBC Fall 2013-14 schedule (New shows in ALL CAPS)

MONDAY
8-10 p.m. - "The Voice"
10-11 p.m. - "THE BLACKLIST"

TUESDAY
8-9 p.m. - "The Biggest Loser" (New Day and Time)
9-10 p.m. - "The Voice" (New time)
10-11 p.m. - "Chicago Fire" (New Day and Time)

WEDNESDAY
8-9 p.m. - "Revolution" (New Day and Time)
9-10 p.m. - "Law & Order: SVU"
10-11 p.m. - "IRONSIDE"

THURSDAY
8-8:30 p.m. - "Parks and Recreation" (New time)
8:30-9 p.m. - "WELCOME TO THE FAMILY"
9-9:30 p.m. - "SEAN SAVES THE WORLD"
9:30-10 p.m. - "THE MICHAEL J. FOX SHOW"
10-11 p.m. - "Parenthood" (New Day and Time)

FRIDAY
8-9 p.m. - "Dateline NBC"
9-10 p.m. - "Grimm"
10-11 p.m. - "DRACULA"

SATURDAY
Encore programming

SUNDAY
7:00-8:15 p.m. - "Football Night in America"
8:15-11:30 p.m. - "NBC Sunday Night Football"

NBC MIDSEASON 2013-14 SCHEDULE (New programs in UPPER CASE; all times ET)

MONDAY
8-10 p.m. - "The Voice"
10-11 p.m. - "THE BLACKLIST"

TUESDAY
8-9 p.m. - "The Voice"
9-9:30 p.m. - "THE FAMILY GUIDE"
9:30-10 p.m. - "ABOUT A BOY"
10-11 p.m. - "Chicago Fire"

WEDNESDAY
8-9 p.m. - "Revolution"
9-10 p.m. - "Law & Order: SVU"
10-11 p.m. - "IRONSIDE"

THURSDAY
8-8:30 p.m. - "Parks and Recreation"
8:30-9 p.m. - "WELCOME TO THE FAMILY"
9-9:30 p.m. - "SEAN SAVES THE WORLD"
9:30-10 p.m. - "THE MICHAEL J. FOX SHOW"
10-11 p.m. - "Parenthood"

FRIDAY
8-9 p.m. - "Dateline NBC"
9-10 p.m. - "Grimm"
10-11 p.m. - "CROSSBONES"

SATURDAY
8-10 p.m. - Encore and specials programming
10-11 p.m. - "Saturday Night Live" (Encore)

SUNDAY
7-8 p.m. - "Dateline NBC"
8-9 p.m. - "AMERICAN DREAM BUILDERS"
9-10 p.m. - "BELIEVE"
10-11 p.m. - "CRISIS"

For information on NBC new shows, click here.

Patton's speech

Hopefully you saw last week's episode of Parks and Recreation, which featured guest star Patton Oswalt playing a concerned Pawnee citizen who decides to filibuster the city council in an effort to stop certain charter laws from being changed. The focus of his filibuster was his proposed script for the upcoming Star Wars: Episode VII movie. If you missed it, you should certainly check out the episode, since it was fantastic. In the meantime, you can watch below the equally amazing uncut version of the entire filibuster that was done in one take. It's a thing of pure nerd awesomeness.

Hip to be Square

GQ made the wise choice of honoring the cast of Parks and Recreation in their Man of the Year issue and to commemorate the honor, the gang from Pawnee made this awesome video playing a game of Hollywood Squares. Enjoy it below!

RBR: Safety Not Guaranteed

Quirky is an understatement when it comes to Safety Not Guaranteed a small indie film about a trio of magazine workers going to investigate an odd ad in the personals from a man looking for a companion to time travel with him. The film's title comes from a line included in the ad. Aubrey Plaza from Parks and Recreation stars as one of the curious trio and quickly becomes fascinated with Kenneth (Mark Duplass), a man who is both odd and ernest in his belief of being able to go back in time. With a runtime of barely 80 minutes, the film is brief and yet still offers some fully developed characters. I was engaged by both the central story, as well as the subplots involving the other two magazine workers and was really curious as to how they would resolve this story. Unfortunately the ending is rather disappointing. They wanted a magical ending to this offbeat love story, but I feel they would have been better to opt for something more down to Earth. If a strong ending is important to you, you're best to skip this insignificant film. But if you enjoy being charmed and appreciate good performances, then you may find yourself seeing this as a small treasure. Rating: *** 1/2

Fall TV Report Card (Thursdays Part 1)

Some of my favorite shows on Thursday got a jump start and premiered last week, so I'll review those now and the ones that debut tonight will be recapped later on.

The Office - After struggling to deal with the loss of Steve Carrell last season, this show promises a renewed sense of focus as it heads into its final season. This first episode nicely sowed some seeds for the end game of several of the key characters like Jim and Dwight, which I appreciated. The humor in the episode though was a mixed bag with a handful of decent lines but still too much wacky, physical humor that has weakened some of the characters (Kevin should be dim, but not THAT dim). This show can never recapture the glory of its early days, but it appears that they are going to do their best to give this cast a proper sendoff that will allow us to still think fondly of the show even after it is gone. Grade: B

Parks and Recreation - Last season ended with Leslie's big victory, winning the race for councilman. So in typical mockumentary fashion, we can't let the characters' wins last for too long as we saw here in the opener. Leslie got a wake up call while visiting Ben in Washington about how much she's been a big fish in a small pond for a long time. The storyline was well done, but didn't produce enough big laughs for me. Meanwhile Ron's attempt at throwing a barbeque went in typical fashion. Oddly enough, Rob Lowe's Chris brought the biggest laughs for me from this subplot. It's so nice to see him really integrate into the world and return to his happy self after being depressed for most of last season. Though their time was brief, April and Andy always bring the laughs and I wish we could have seen more from their time together in the nation's capital. I'm not sure if this worked well as a season premiere, but given the Washington bigwigs that had cameos in the episode, I can see why they went with it. I'll definitely be anxious to see everyone back in Pawnee sooner rather than later. Grade: A-

Beat this

Actor, meat eater, and the manliest-man on this planet, Nick Offerman, aka Ron Swanson on Parks and Recreation shares with us some beat poetry about one of his most favorite things - bacon. Enjoy!

Twit Nick

Curious about what's going on in the lives of today's young female celebrities but don't want to join Twitter? That's no problem no thanks to Nick Offerman, who will gladly share with us what they're tweeting while he does some woodworking. Courtesy of Conan

Win Lose or Draw director's cut

Here's an extended version of the fantastic season finale of Parks and Recreation

2012 Fall Television Schedule Announcements (NBC)

I could post all of the news here if I wanted the post to take up the entire length of the blog, so I'll instead make it easy for you guys and direct you to all of the information in the link below from Comingsoon.net:

2012 NBC Fall Lineup

I'll instead spend this space giving my thoughts on NBC's moves. Of all the major networks, I probably watch the most shows on NBC, yet for the past several years they have languished near the bottom of the ratings. I commend them for saving some of the shows that they did, despite less than stellar ratings. Namely keeping Community and Parks and Recreation Parks was given a full season pickup and remains on Thursdays, while Community gets a 13-episode order and gets shunted to Fridays. The Friday move is fine, but I question why they paired it up with Whitney. Those two shows seemingly have nothing in common other than they were both lucky to get renewals. In fact, that was a trend throughout most of NBC's schedule. They slotted several sitcoms, but I thought some of their pairings were odd. For instance, I felt they should have paired Up All Night, which focuses on being young parents with the new sitcom Guys With Kids, which also deals with parenthood. Meanwhile the show that they did pair it up with, Animal Kingdom seems better suited with the single-camera, laugh track free comedies on Thursday nights.

On the drama side of things, the only new show that caught my eye was Revolution, a drama dealing with people living on Earth 15 years after a blackout hit the entire planet. While the premise was intriguing, I feel like we've seen this type of 'event' drama over and over again ever since the success of Lost and none of them have been successful. I've become jaded, but I feel like this one may suffer the same fate: sizable audience for its premiere that vanishes in the subsequent weeks when impatient fans get frustrated when the show doesn't give them answers to the central mythology quickly enough.

Finally, with their reality slate, the biggest news is that NBC's one new hit The Voice will already be returning in the fall. I personally don't watch the show, but I don't blame NBC for wanting to schedule another season so soon given that it's about the only thing in their schedule that consistantly pulls in viewers. Let's just hope that they don't create an overkill backlash like they've done with some of their other hits like Deal or No Deal. If it can remain a hit, hopefully viewers will be willing to stick around and watch some of their other shows as well.

Bus Tour Producer's Cut

Here's another episode of Parks and Recreation to receive the supersize treatment. Enjoy this week's episode with three minutes worth of new content.

The Debate director's cut

Here's an extended version of last week's new Parks and Recreation episode.

Live Ammo deleted scenes

Lucky deleted scenes

Campaign Shake-Up deleted scenes

Dave Returns deleted scenes

Operation Ann deleted scenes

Bowling for Votes deleted scenes

Newport News

In case you missed it last week, here's a look at Paul Rudd on Parks and Recreation playing Bobby Newport, Leslie Knope's opponent in the race for city council.

The Comeback Kid deleted scenes

Paulitical opponent

From nymag.com

For months now, fans of NBC's Parks and Recreation have been wondering just who might play Leslie Knope's opponent in her race for city council. There'd been speculation that Katherine Hahn (Free Agent) might be tackling the role, but it turned out she's set to play an adviser to one of Leslie's rivals. With the election plotline heating up on the show — according to NBC's listings, the next three scheduled episodes, including this Thursday's, all have campaign themes — Vulture set out to discover the identity of Knope's new nemesis. We believe we have done so, and it appears Leslie will be doing political battle against ...

Paul Rudd! The star of films such as I Love You, Man and Role Models will appear in at least one upcoming episode of Parks and Recreation, Vulture has learned. Nobody from the show or NBC would confirm the casting, but our industry sources say Rudd shot his scenes late last year. That likely means his appearance will come sometime within the next month. While Rudd did a vocal guest-stint on The Simpsons last season and has guested in the past on the late, lamented Veronica Mars and Reno 911!, the Parks and Rec stint marks his return to Thursday nights on NBC after spending several years as a recurring player on Friends. Rudd also has several movies coming out this year, including Wanderlust (opposite Jennifer Aniston), Judd Apatow's This Is 40, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower.