About a Mid-Season

NBC is turning things around a bit with its sitcom scheduling for the 2014-15 TV mid-season, specifically for Tuesday nights.  "Marry Me," which I don't watch, and "About a Boy," which I do watch, are soon going on hiatus from their respective 9 PM Eastern and 9:30 PM Eastern time slots to make room for "Undateable," returning for a second season in the current time slot of  "Marry Me," and, in place of "About a Boy," "One Big Happy."  "Undateable" is about people who are, well, just that, while "One Big Happy" (being co-produced by Ellen DeGeneres) is about a man who artificially inseminates his lesbian ladyfriend so she can have a baby even as he romantically pursues a British woman.  Elisha Cuthbert plays the lesbian mom-to-be.  Both shows debut on St. Patrick's Day, March 17.

I don't know if I really want to give "One Big Happy" a shot, not because of its risqué premise, but because, well, it's going to run in place of "About a Boy," the ratings for which have been what the British would call "soft."  And the one Briton associated with this Britfilm-based sitcom, Minnie Driver, has already said that it's going to be canceled.  She doesn't have anything to go back on,  and there's no official confirmation of its fate yet, but Ms. Driver is convinced that the show is done.  If she's right, and the last episode of "About a Boy" for this season is in fact the series finale, well . . . I won't be too happy about that.   I like this show.

One finale I am happy about is the last episode of "Two and a Half Men" on CBS, airing this Thursday.  Too bad it's an hour long.  I have to wait longer than I thought I would for other eagerly awaited pop-culture events, like Adele's next album (which won't be so eagerly awaited and will probably be forgotten if she doesn't get the bloody record out in time for Christmas!) and Stephen Colbert's "Late Show" debut on CBS (that happens the day after Labor Day, and he'll probably start off wearing a white suit), but at least I get to see "Two And a Half Men" end its insufferably long run three months earlier than I expected.  (May is traditionally finale month in TV seasons.)  As I said earlier, I'm not looking forward to seeing the "Two And a Half Men" finale, of course; I'm just looking forward to it airing!  Because . . . it's the finale!

Also, debuting on CBS this Thursday is yet another TV-sitcom version of "The Odd Couple," starring Matthew Perry.  Since Perry has an uptight persona on the small screen, I figured he'd play Felix, but it turns out he's playing Oscar; Thomas Lennon plays Felix.  A Lennon in place of a Lemmon (Jack Lemmon played Felix in the 1968 movie version; Walter Matthau played Oscar), and Perry playing against type.  I'm sure it will be watchable, but with the Tony Randall-Jack Klugman sitcom version still highly revered (Randall and Klugman are the only ones who ever rivaled Lemmon and Matthau in those roles), why does anyone actually need an updated version of Neil Simon's classic story?          

And with bitterly cold temperatures expect to persist through the start of Lent, here's yet another reason to look forward to Easter: The second half of the final season of "Mad Men" premieres on Easter Sunday, April 5.