THE BOOK OF LIFE - PART 14

Well let's see....four comedies are ready to be entered into The Book of Life. Here are the possible entries including the new category of LET'S GO TO A BRIS which means the order will be snipped back from 13. It's sort of cancelling the show but being in denial for a while. Won't apply to many mid-season shows in that they have either completed their order or were circumcised prior to getting on the air.          

BUY THE DELI PLATTER AND PAY A SHIVA CALL (stick a fork in it, it's done)
WILL CELEBRATE THEIR B'NAI MITZVAH (will get to 13 on the air)
LET'S GO TO A BRIS (the order will be snipped)
SET A PLACE AT THE SEDER TABLE (should finish full the season)
SEE YOU AT NEXT YEAR'S KOL NIDRE SERVICE (there's a second season)


There's also a good chance that most of the mid-season shows will be around to see their B'Nai Mitzvah because the cupboard is bare and it's either playing them out or going to repeats and, you know, patience is one of the new buzzwords so.....

We've got SUPERSTORE and TELENOVELA on NBC and COOPER BARRETT'S GUIDE TO SURVIVING LIFE and BORDERTOWN on FOX.

Let's start with the good news

SUPERSTORE
When I saw this puppy in May I awarded it with the MASKY for best new mid-season comedy. There were a lot of elements that I felt would make it relatable to a broad audience. It was an environment that we were all familiar with, it had a diverse case, it had some romantic tension and we all wonder about the backstories of people we see working at these big stores........oh and there were some funny moments in it. This wasn't rocket science just a good, solid comedy with an infinite number of stories that it could tell.

NBC previewed it and put it in a leadoff time period and ta-da SUPERSTORE was a self starter. This network is starved for comedies and they may have a keeper here. Now the question is do they understand why it's working and can they develop something with a similar sensibility to pair it up with because regarding SUPERSTORE
SEE YOU AT NEXT YEAR'S KOL NIDRE SERVICE 

I really hope that NBC's approach to this good problem isn't to develop "Superstore:Cincinnati". I wouldn't put it past them.

PS over the four or five years that I've been doing the MASKYS I have a pretty solid track record (other than Animal Hospital). Hopefully I can get my hands on the pilots and, if I can, will try to Periscope the event this year.

TELENOVELA
Shows about television generally don't work. Viewers don't really care about how the sausage is made. Yeah 30 ROCK lasted a while but it was never really a ratings success. At least that was somewhat smart. This is just bad and over the top oh and we have JANE THE VIRGIN which has figured everything out better than any show on TV including how to integrate a telenovela into a bigger smart, funny and over the top telenovela (I think the word is meta but who knows).
TELENOVELA has substantially dropped from its SUPERSTORE leadin every week in spite of NBC trying to push the two Latina leads as a reason to watch both (lesson in that). It will get B'nai Mitzvahed but sadly
BUY THE DELI PLATTER AND PAY A SHIVA CALL

And now on to FOX

COOPER BARRETT'S GUIDE TO SURVIVING LIFE
Titles really matter. MOB DOCTOR was one of our strongest testing pilots. The scores on the lead were Jack Bauer levels if I remember correctly. We had a much more soapy title for it (I could be wrong but it was something like INDEBTED) but, for a variety of reasons we settled on Mob Doctor. It was sort of like leading with our chin.
COOPER BARRETT had four strikes against it before it ever saw the air.
The title
It suffers from the FOX doofus syndrome (that's a story for another day)
It's surrounded by animation therefore screamin young and male.
January and February are a bitch for FOX on Sunday nights given all the event competition on the other networks.

FOX's comedies have been getting very narrow in addition to attracting rather small 18-49 audiences relative to other network comedies. I just don't see this as starting off a night. Also, where else would CBGFSL go on the FOX schedule? The producer is my friend but I have to try to be honest with all of you or why read any of this crap, so I assume CBGFSL will get B'Nai Mitzvahed (may move somewhere like 7-8 on Sunday or get a shot on Tuesday) but, at the end of the day....
BUY THE DELI PLATTER AND PAY A SHIVA CALL

BORDERTOWN
Animation is a tricky business. It often takes years from the time you see the pilot to getting the show on the air...and then you often have to  make a gut call regarding picking up more episodes before seeing any evidence of acceptance (ratings). My memory is a bit fuzzy but we screened BORDERTOWN a few years ago with some other animation contenders. I believe we went with some animated cop show which did not work. I liked BORDERTOWN because, for me, any successful animated network show centered on a family. I was in the minority.
                      
During my tenure at FOX we tried several animated shows and the ones that generally went beyond the initial 13 episodes were family comedies...American Dad, Cleveland and Bob's Burgers. It helped that Seth MacFarlane had a hand in them. Seth wasn't involved in the original BORDERTOWN pilot so, I figure with Seth now in the mix, even if the ratings are so so we might still see more beyond the initial 13.

I don't believe they have ordered more so if we see BORDERTOWN return it would not be until next January at the earliest. Since I am not aware of any other FOX animated series ordered for next season I will go out on a limb and say that, regarding BORDERTOWN
SET A PLACE AT THE 2017 SEDER TABLE 

I think JLo's show is up next. Stay tuned.