A mascot and Matthew Perry in 'Mr. Sunshine'

Credit: ABC

[As I've already mentioned, and will continue to mention each and every one of these posts that I do: This is *not* a review. Pilots change. Sometimes a lot. Often for the better. Sometimes for the worse. But they change. Actual reviews will be coming in September and perhaps October (and maybe midseason in some cases). This is, however, a brief gut reaction to not-for-air pilots.]

Show: "Mr. Sunshine," ABC [MIDSEASON]
The Pitch: "Chandler Bing's Very Special Midlife Crisis"
Quick Response: [I hadn't been planning on doing midseason shows here, but somebody on Twitter asked specifically about "Mr. Sunshine," so I figured I might as well...] The elements are all in place for "Mr. Sunshine" to become a pretty funny comedy. You've got Matthew Perry, Allison Janney and Andrea Anders, all versatile favorites (plus a solid supporting cast). You've got a relatively unfamiliar milieu in the show's sporting arena backdrop. [I'm not saying it's a terrific milieu or that the pilot convinces me that it's necessarily a meaningful milieu, thematically, but I'm sure it's a milieu that hasn't been overexposed on TV. I'm now done saying 'milieu.'] With Tommy Schlamme directing the pilot with his signature walk-and-talks, you get a clear sense of a show that wouldn't mind being thought of as "Sports[Arena]Night." And there were definitely parts of "Mr. Sunshine" that made me chuckle, generally because of those aforementioned elements (and the un-aforemented elephants). What plagues the "Mr. Sunshine" pilot, though, is an obsequious need to over-explain the overall circumstances as if to say, "We promise there's a hook to this TV series. No, really!" See, Perry's character is celebrating his 40th birthday and realizing that he's been self-obsessed for so long that he no longer even knows how to make human connections, a fact I know because his character announces, "All of a sudden, I want to make a connection and I don't have the first clue how to do it" and because multiple characters reference his selfishness and whatnot. It's my suspicion/hope that once "Mr. Sunshine" stops needing to tell us that it's about a selfish guy trying to be less selfish and starts just becoming about a selfish guy trying to be less selfish, I might be able to relish Perry's trademark snarkiness, Anders' trademark perky loopiness and Janney's oddball eccentricities. Portia Doubleday, James Lesure and Nate Torrence also have potential.
Desire To Watch Again: "Mr. Sunshine," like "Running Wilde," is a comedy that feels unformed in its pilot form. And both comedies focus on unformed men trying to improve themselves. And in both cases, I'll give both shows multiple episodes to see how well and how quickly they find their voices. My ideal version of "Mr. Sunshine" makes a really good pairing with Courteney Cox's "Cougar Town." We'll see if that's how the show goes.

Previously...

Take Me to the Pilots '10: ABC's 'Detroit 187'
Take Me to the Pilots '10: ABC's 'Body of Proof'
Take Me to the Pilots '10: ABC's 'My Generation'
Take Me to the Pilots '10: NBC's 'Outlaw'
Take Me to the Pilots '10: NBC's 'Chase'
Take Me to the Pilots '10: CBS' 'The Defenders'
Take Me to the Pilots '10: CBS' 'Blue Bloods'
Take Me to the Pilots '10: CBS' 'Mike & Molly'
Take Me to the Pilots '10: NBC's 'Outsourced'
Take Me to the Pilots '10: The CW's ' Hellcats '
Take Me to the Pilots '10: FOX's "Raising Hope"
Take Me to the Pilots '10: NBC's "The Event"
Take Me to the Pilots '10: FOX's "Running Wilde"
Take Me to the Pilots '10: FOX's "Lonestar"
Take Me to the Pilots '10: CBS' "Hawaii Five-0"
Take Me to the Pilots '10: NBC's 'Undercovers'
Take Me to the Pilots '10: ABC's "Better Together"
Take Me to the Pilots '10: CBS' "Feces My Dad Says"
Take Me to the Pilots '10: The CW's "Nikita"
Take Me to the Pilots '10: ABC's "No Ordinary Family"

Donal Logue and Michael Raymond-James of 'Terriers'

Credit: FX

A USA-style quirky procedural done with FX-style grit and character depth, "Terriers" debuts on Wednesday (Sept. 8) night with an engagingly loose pilot, only to grow darker, tighter and better with each passing episode.

"Hellcats"

Credit: The CW

Happy Tuesday, boys and girls, and this week's Firewall & Iceberg Podcast is an unusual one, in that Iceberg wasn't available. Dan's out of the country on special assignment (I'm posting this to both blogs because the podcast's RSS feed is tied to Dan's blog), and because this is a relatively busy week (four notable premieres), I didn't want to miss a show. So I recruited Mo Ryan, who recently left the Chicago Tribune to be the senior TV critic for AOL (you can find her new blog here), to fill in for the episode, which features the following segments:

Alan welcomes special guest co-host Maureen Ryan from AOL to fill in for Dan (0:00-3:07)

"Sons of Anarchy" season 3 (3:07-15:30)

"Terriers" (15:30-25:59)

Mo yells at Alan about "Supernatural" (25:59-27:22)

"Hellcats" (27:22-31:10)

"Nikita" (31:10-37:28)

Mo's fall favorites (37:28-39:44)

"Mad Men" (39:44-1:01:01)

As always, you can subscribe to The Firewall & Iceberg Podcast over at the iTunes Store, where you can also rate us and comment on us. Or you can always follow our RSS Feed.

Michael Imperioli of 'Detroit 187'

Credit: ABC

[As I've already mentioned, and will continue to mention each and every one of these posts that I do: This is *not* a review. Pilots change. Sometimes a lot. Often for the better. Sometimes for the worse. But they change. Actual reviews will be coming in September and perhaps October (and maybe midseason in some cases). This is, however, a brief gut reaction to not-for-air pilots.]

Show: "Detroit 187," ABC
The Pitch: "So, um... Have we had a cop show in Detroit lately?"
Quick Response: Due to timing, I never got around to watching the original "Detroit 187" with its since-jettisoned documentary conceit. Instead, I watched a largely reshot Franken-pilot in which you can tell that the characters are just aching to talk to the camera but instead have to have slightly-too-confessional conversations with each other. With its documentary conceit, "Detroit 187" would have had a hook that might have interested me. Without the conceit, it's just a solid and sturdy police procedural of exactly the sort that validate (in my head) the various times I say, "I don't really like police procedurals." It's just not my cup of tea, which doesn't mean that I can't watch "Detroit 187" and respect the things it does very very well. The Detroit locations are well utilized and the show really doesn't look like any cop drama I've seen before simply because of that setting. I was also instantly intrigued by Michael Imperioli's nicely understated, yet still eccentric, performance. I liked the diversity of the casting even if Aisha Hinds' Stern Boss and James McDaniel's I'm Too Old For This S*** Veteran and Jon Michael Hill's Fumbling Newbie passed into genre cliche long ago. I didn't find the use of Motown on the soundtrack to be nearly as annoying as I initially feared I would. Etc. "Detroit 187" might have a little too much broadness at times, a tone that doesn't feel entirely committed, like somebody wanted to make an "NYPD Blue" knockoff and also wanted to make a separate knockoff of "The Unusuals" and instead combined little pieces of both without picking a side.
Desire To Watch Again: I definitely think there's an audience for this show and I think folks who dug "NYPD Blue" and who like "Southland" will find things to enjoy here. [Then again, that audience didn't bother trying "The Unusuals," which still makes me sad.] I'll probably watch the second episode, just to see how the series works when it isn't trying to hide its faux-doc roots, but I probably won't watch much more.

Previously...

Take Me to the Pilots '10: ABC's 'Body of Proof'
Take Me to the Pilots '10: ABC's 'My Generation'
Take Me to the Pilots '10: NBC's 'Outlaw'
Take Me to the Pilots '10: NBC's 'Chase'
Take Me to the Pilots '10: CBS' 'The Defenders'
Take Me to the Pilots '10: CBS' 'Blue Bloods'
Take Me to the Pilots '10: CBS' 'Mike & Molly'
Take Me to the Pilots '10: NBC's 'Outsourced'
Take Me to the Pilots '10: The CW's ' Hellcats '
Take Me to the Pilots '10: FOX's "Raising Hope"
Take Me to the Pilots '10: NBC's "The Event"
Take Me to the Pilots '10: FOX's "Running Wilde"
Take Me to the Pilots '10: FOX's "Lonestar"
Take Me to the Pilots '10: CBS' "Hawaii Five-0"
Take Me to the Pilots '10: NBC's 'Undercovers'
Take Me to the Pilots '10: ABC's "Better Together"
Take Me to the Pilots '10: CBS' "Feces My Dad Says"
Take Me to the Pilots '10: The CW's "Nikita"
Take Me to the Pilots '10: ABC's "No Ordinary Family"

Dana Delany of 'Body of Proof'

Credit: ABC

[As I've already mentioned, and will continue to mention each and every one of these posts that I do: This is *not* a review. Pilots change. Sometimes a lot. Often for the better. Sometimes for the worse. But they change. Actual reviews will be coming in September and perhaps October (and maybe midseason in some cases). This is, however, a brief gut reaction to not-for-air pilots.]

Show: "Body of Proof," ABC
The Pitch: "It's a little 'Bones,' a little 'House,' and a little 'China Beach.'"
Quick Response: "Body of Proof" has to spend too much time justifying/expositionalizing its premise -- Revered neurosurgeon has to become a medical examiner after a car accident -- but it's still a far more convincing Mid-Life Reversal Drama than NBC's "Jimmy Smits' Tiburon." Despite at least a half-dozen painfully over-declarative lines of dialogue -- "Tell me something... This new you, this Megan Hunt, ME, who seems to care about dead people more than she ever did about the living, is she for real, or is she just working off her guilt after killing a patient on the operating table." -- I actually found myself largely enjoying "Body of Proof" on its own simple merits. The show's secret weapon isn't exactly a secret weapon: Dana Delany has a meaty part to play and she tears into the role like the TV star she is. She's funny, interesting and, when she needs to be, appealingly sympathetic. Since the pilot has nary an original bone in its narrative body, "Body of Proof" is probably the fall's most purely and decently star-driven new show and Delany delivers. But that doesn't mean that there aren't worthy supporting players around her. You have the ubiquitous John Carroll Lynch and "The Wire" veteran Sonja Sohn as the two homicide detectives who are probably going to work with our main character every week, no matter how contrived that feels. You've got Jeri Ryan, basically reprising her role from "Shark," which isn't necessarily such a bad thing. You have Geoffrey Arend -- Mr. Christina Hendricks to you -- and Windell D. Middlebrooks popping up at the main character's workplace. And then you have Nicholas Bishop, like "Chase" star Kelli Giddish, trying to distance himself from "Past Life" as quickly as possible. I don't know how I feel about "Body of Proof" -- annoyingly generic title -- as an ABC show or as a Friday night show, but this is some solid, character-driven procedural comfort food for people who crave such things.
Desire To Watch Again: Moderate. I mean, I liked "Body of Proof," but I didn't exactly love it and it takes love, or at least a *heck* of a hook to get me to watch a procedural on Friday night. I probably won't be a regular "Body of Proof" viewer, but I might tune in occasionally.

Previously...

Take Me to the Pilots '10: ABC's 'My Generation'
Take Me to the Pilots '10: NBC's 'Outlaw'
Take Me to the Pilots '10: NBC's 'Chase'
Take Me to the Pilots '10: CBS' 'The Defenders'
Take Me to the Pilots '10: CBS' 'Blue Bloods'
Take Me to the Pilots '10: CBS' 'Mike & Molly'
Take Me to the Pilots '10: NBC's 'Outsourced'
Take Me to the Pilots '10: The CW's ' Hellcats '
Take Me to the Pilots '10: FOX's "Raising Hope"
Take Me to the Pilots '10: NBC's "The Event"
Take Me to the Pilots '10: FOX's "Running Wilde"
Take Me to the Pilots '10: FOX's "Lonestar"
Take Me to the Pilots '10: CBS' "Hawaii Five-0"
Take Me to the Pilots '10: NBC's 'Undercovers'
Take Me to the Pilots '10: ABC's "Better Together"
Take Me to the Pilots '10: CBS' "Feces My Dad Says"
Take Me to the Pilots '10: The CW's "Nikita"
Take Me to the Pilots '10: ABC's "No Ordinary Family"

 Kara DioGuardi

Credit: AP

 "American Idol" has a bunch of problems. 

Bucky Gunts. Emmy winner Bucky Gunts.

Credit: Chris Pizzello/AP

Happy post-Emmys Monday, Boys and Girls. Time for the third Firewall & Iceberg Podcast in a week. We could almost make this sucker a daily podcast at this rate.

If you didn't get enough of my Emmy analysis or Sepinwall's Emmy analysis on Sunday night, we kick this podcast off with more Emmy analysis. That's followed by some reader mail and then our regular discussion of this week's very fine episode of "Mad Men."

Whee!

The breakdown:

Emmy analysis -- 00:00 - 21:10

Reader Mail -- 21:10 - 32:15

"Mad Men" -- 32:30 - 52:00 

As always, you can subscribe to The Firewall & Iceberg Podcast over at the iTunes Store, where you can also rate us and comment on us. [Or you can always follow our RSS Feed.]

Jon Hamm arrives at Sunday night's Emmys

Credit: Matt Sayles/AP

After two hours of red carpet coverage, it's finally time to hand out some trophies, or at least it will be in 15 minutes. Follow along as HitFix live-blogs the 2010 Emmy Awards and drop your comments at the bottom. Join the discussion as we celebrate and mock TV's biggest night.

And if it's not too late and you still want to lose your Emmy pool, check out my fearlessly wrong Emmy predictions.

Full recap after the break...