New shows on TV and streaming

by Lloyd Carroll

Chronicle Contributor

For years, summer was a time for reruns or limited replacement variety series or reality shows, while the fall remained the time networks broke out their best shows.

These days networks are paying less attention to the calendar as new shows are being rolled out throughout the year. Yet there is still something special about the arrival of autumn for the television industry.

Covid-19, however, despite the vaccines, is still bogging down a lot of production, especially for shows that want to have an audience, and for those that require a lot of shooting on indoor stages. The good news is the situation is less dire than it was a year ago.

With those factors in play, here is a quick look at what’s in store for us this fall. Since broadcast networks still draw the biggest audiences, let’s start with them.

The Tiffany Network practically invented the concept of spinoff programming, in which one successful program helps launch another. CBS Entertainment CEO Kelly Kahl is making a huge bet on spinoffs this fall. “FBI,” which debuted two years ago, and is filmed in New York, will now have the company of “FBI International.” The NCIS franchise is expanding to another location, the Aloha State, with “NCIS Hawaii,” starring Vanessa Lachey as the lead agent. In a move smacking of “back to the future,” the original “CSI” is coming back, with William Petersen returning as the forensic physician in “CSI Vegas.”

One “original” effort is “Ghosts,” in which a millennial, Samantha (Rose McIver), buys a dilapidated country estate with plans to turn it into a bed-and-breakfast. She discovers, however, the place is haunted with the ghosts of hipsters. Classic television fans can think of this as “Newhart” meets “Topper.”

The Peacock Network is joining CBS in going the spinoff route. If you thought they couldn’t come up with yet another “Law & Order” series, you’d be wrong. Last winter L&O veteran Christopher Meloni returned to the franchise with “Law & Order: Organized Crime,” which will return. Joining it will be the new “Law & Order: For The Defendant.”

In sci-fi fare, “La Brea” looks at how a sinkhole plunges unlucky Los Angelenos back into prehistoric times. “Ordinary Joe” stars the underrated James Wolk (he was terrific in Paramount Plus’ “Tell Me a Story”) as a man who each week gets to see how his life would have turned out if he had made a different decision at a particular time. This simple concept is relatable, as we’ve all had these forks in the road.

The Alphabet Network, to use Variety lingo, has two intriguing new shows that are worth sampling.

Comedienne and actress Quinta Brunson grew up in North Philadelphia and uses her hometown as the setting for “Abbott Elementary.” Brunson and her colleagues must tackle myriad obstacles — parsimonious budgets, angry parents, the endless bureaucracy of the School District of Philadelphia — in their daily lives as they attempt do right by their students.

Few TV shows were as universally beloved as “The Wonder Years,” which ran on ABC from 1988 through 1993. It looked at the world from the perspective of junior high school student Kevin Arnold and was set in 1960s Long Island. In recent years, “The Goldbergs” has borrowed liberally from “The Wonder Years,” with the key differences being the 1980s were the decade being lionized and the show is set in the Main Line Philadelphia suburbs.

Given the success of both shows, it’s not a surprise ABC has decided to reboot “The Wonder Years.” The show is still set in the late 1960s but in Alabama, with the Arnolds now being an African-American family and Dule Hill serving as the patriarch. Don Cheadle takes over Daniel Stern’s narration duties. Expect a great musical soundtrack to accompany each episode.

When it comes to singing competition series, Fox is the king. It launched the craze 20 years ago with “American Idol.” Three years ago, it hit big again with “The Masked Singer,” in which celebrities donned bizarre costumes as they crooned. It was a modern twist on the classic “What’s My Line?” Fox is trying to achieve those successes again this fall with “Alter Ego,” in which singers from all walks of life compete by singing as avatars instead of appearing in the flesh.

“Our Kind of People” has an intriguing premise. It’s a “Dynasty”-like soap opera about the upscale African-American community on Martha’s Vineyard. The topic was broached in the 1994 film “The Inkwell,” which starred Larenz Tate.

One of the most promising new fall shows based on the pilot I saw is “The Big Leap.” The show takes place in Detroit and the storyline concerns down-on-their-luck citizens of the Motor City who see being part of a fictional dance competition weekly show as an answer to their personal problems. The best-known actor in the cast is Scott Foley, who is hysterical as a cynical television producer.

The CW has quietly been a bastion of stability in the television world with its many superhero shows as well as teen-oriented programs. In recent years the CW has tried to expand its demographics into more adult fare. A good example is “In the Dark,” starring Perry Mattfeld as a blind woman who inadvertently witnesses a murder.

The network is continuing to try to broaden its appeal to an older audience with “The 4400.” The show’s title refers to the number of people who disappeared around 25 years ago and suddenly resurface in 2021. If this sounds like the storyline from NBC’s recently canceled “Manifest,” that’s correct, although it should be noted that the latter show had a substantial following.

The CW is leaping into the world of competitive-team reality with “Legends of the Hidden Temple” with host Cristela Alonzo. The show has four teams competing to fight the obstacles of the temple, find the treasure and escape. Think of popular films such as “Romancing the Stone” and the “Indiana Jones” series for its inspiration The first incarnation of this show ran on Nickelodeon from 1993 through 1995.

If you ask baby boomers what the biggest difference is between TV when they were growing up and today, the most likely answer would be the advent of cable television. If you ask millennials, it would be the arrival of streaming services. Here is a look at some of the fall highlights from both cable networks and streaming services.

For those who enjoy watching serious drama, AMC will be debuting “61st Street,” in which a talented high school athlete is arrested erroneously and must fight for his freedom through the Chicago judicial system. It stars Courtney B. Vance. Michael Keaton and Peter Sarsgaard star in Hulu’s “Dopesick,” a fictionalized account of how America developed a painkiller pandemic.

The 2001 anthrax scare, which now seems quaint in this Covid-19 era, is the subject of National Geographic Channel’s “Hot Zone.”

For those who like their homicide mysteries to have some laughs, Hulu was able to sign Steve Martin and Martin Short for “Only Murders in the Building” in which Selena Gomez co-stars. FX treads in similar territory with “Retreat,” in which those in attendance must try to solve a murder of one of the participants. Self-help gurus, such as Werner Erhard, are spoofed in Hulu’s “Nine Perfect Strangers,” which has Nicole Kidman starring as the one who knows the path to enlightenment, and it appears to be a rather twisted one.

The history of popular culture has been a weekend ratings bonanza for CNN, which has looked at the history of television and films by the decade. Its success has not gone unnoticed by other networks.

A&E will launch a 10-part series, “Secrets of Playboy,” which takes an unflinching look at the empire the late Hugh Hefner created. Several former Playboy bunnies and Hefner paramours are interviewed although the producers told me Barbi Benton, Hefner’s best-known ex, refused to take part. While the emphasis will be on centerfolds and bunnies, the producers told me they will devote attention to some of the magazine’s great writers such as George Plimpton, Anson Mount and Robert Christgau.

Discovery Networks’ steaming service, Discovery Plus, will devote time to the male equiv-

ABC’s reboot of “The Wonder Years” is still set in the late 1960s, but now has the Arnold family in Alabama with Dulé Hill, left, as the patriarch and Elisha Williams playing young Kevin, with Don Cheadle handling the latter-day voice-over role. PHOTO COURTESY WALT DISNEY TELEVISION