Spots, 9/22.

The morning after the Emmys is as fine a time as any to point to TeeVee's anti-Emmy TeeVee Awards (intro) and round up some of the recent TV-related verbiage out there.

PBS's series on The Blues is being treated as the event of the season, and for contributing directors, you could certainly do a lot worse than Scorsese, the executive producer of the series as well, plus Wenders, Pearce, Burnett, Levin, Figgis and Eastwood. Still, the New York Times's Jon Pareles gives the sum of these disparate parts a decidedly mixed review. Nancy Franklin, writing in the New Yorker, isn't exactly blown off her couch, either.

Also in the NYT, Jim Rutenberg captures some of the desparation at ABC, where suits and writers alike are hoping It's All Relative, one of 19 new sitcoms spread out over 6 networks debuting this season, will save the very idea of the situation comedy. And Alessandra Stanley ponders God's TV comeback.

Fimoculous is chock full of TV stuff recently: R.E.M.'s Morning Team, "TiVo'd," a still-fresh piece from the always astounding Joshua Allen and "Things Viewers Never, Ever Say," such as, "Oh, they're LIVE at the State House. Well, alright then. There was no way I was going to believe a pre-packaged story about the budget."

Posted by dwhudson at September 22, 2003 6:02 AM