My Mea Culpa For CBS

Before the old year closes out, I'd like to offer my apologies to the program planners (or whatever they're called) over at the Columbia Broadcasting System.  Back in May, I complained that CBS's new shows for the 2012-13 television season, especially two of them - "Elementary," a modern take on Sherlock Holmes set in New York, the '60s period drama "Vegas" - sounded like old ideas. "There already is a contemporary take on Sherlock Holmes, set in London," I wrote, "shown in America on PBS. 'Vegas' may be based on the truth, but the execution (the 1960s?) is based on 'Mad Men' - didn't the failed 'Mad Men' clones at NBC and ABC teach anyone at CBS anything?"

Well, guess what? "Vegas" has succeeded where other "Mad Men" clones have failed, and not only  is  "Elementary" a hit, my mother - a Sherlock Holmes fan who normally takes a jaundiced view of such reworkings of the famous fictional character - watches it.  But she doesn't like Lucy Liu and never has. She's kind of funny that way.

So I was wrong.  Sorry.  But while I was also wrong that "Partners" would turn out to be a reworking of "The Odd Couple"  - I was apparently unclear about the concept - I was right about its chances for success.  "Partners," created by David Kohan and Max Mutchnick based on their friendship and business partnership, was more of a reworking of their earlier creation "Will & Grace," as one thing I failed to notice about this show was that the two lifelong best friends and business partners were a gay guy and a straight guy.  But, as noted here earlier, it was canceled and replaced by reruns of existing CBS sitcoms.  (It apparently sucked big time, and not even the presence of the lovely Sophia Bush could save it.)  I have a feeling that its one-time 8:30 PM Eastern time slot on Mondays, once a vital one for establishing new CBS sitcoms, is going to be as worthless as Baltic Avenue on a Monopoly board, given the recently aired bombs in that slot.

But I'm probably wrong about that too. So let's see how CBS will fill it come mid-season. :-)