The 2004-05 TV Season

Now that I'm back, let's go to the news of the day, starting with the fall television season.

The New York Times recently featured an article about this season's new situation comedies - yes, there are some - that show men in a more positive light. That's right - TV sitcoms that show men who aren't schmucks! Among those mentioned are ABC's "Complete Savages," a Mel Gibson-produced sitcom starring Keith Carradine as the single father of five unruly boys trying to raise them to be decent honorable young men (it's based on Gibson's own family). Another is CBS's "Listen Up," based on sports columnist Tony Kornheiser's writings, with Jason Alexander, which I've already mentioned here. Both have generated some buzz, and "Listen Up" sounds like the more interesting of the two simply because Alexander is playing an antithesis of George Costanza.

The male characters in these new sitcoms won't necessarily be nice guys, but it may be the best we guys get after seeing all those shows ripping off "According to Jim," which ripped off "Everybody Loves Raymond." Part of the reason I liked to watch "Ed" and "I'm With Her" was because the lead male characters were both nice, unassuming men that women wanted to be with. That those shows were both canceled last season reveals a sobering truth - not only do nice guys finish last in real life, apparently not enough people want to see nice guys finish first on the small screen.