Behind the Upfronts

At the glitzy TV ad sales presentations that kick off billions of dollars in spending, the networks (specifically those networks with younger audiences like Fox and the CW) appeared to reach for a more Earth-friendly image.

The CW handed out "green" party favors like tote bags made of old billboards. Fox asked visitors to recycle their nametags and took the green theme a little too literally and offered its guests tins filled with soil and grass seeds. "Simply add water and watch the fun begin," reads the Fox 07 Turf 'n' Tin.

Billboards and nametags were not the only things the networks recycled. So were many of the program ideas they were pitching to the thousands of media and marketing executives who had suited up and filed into New York City's biggest venues, including Madison Square Garden and Radio City Music Hall.

Last year these upfront presentations kicked off negotiations for what tallied up to $10.4 billion in sales. This year's harvest harvest is just beginning, but television executives were working hard to tout the power of TV to communicate advertising messages while also presenting clips of the new programs they think will attract audiences.

Some of the "new" shows, though, seemed pretty familiar . . .

NBC's Journeyman

"What if you could go back and change history?" asks the voiceover. What if you could go back and watch Quantum Leap, Back to the Future and Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure? The Journeyman goes back in time to affect his present and future love life.

Fox's The Sarah Connor Chronicles

Think Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines but without Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong, or Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The CW's Online Nation

This show present TV viewers with user-generated video from the Internet. Hmmm. Sounds a lot like VH1's Web Junk.TV that shows the top clips from popular Web sites. And actually sounds a lot like what you can do with YouTube.

ABC's Cavemen

You've seen the Geico caveman commercials. You've liked the TV commercials. You may not have even fast-forwarded through them. And now you can have 30 whole minutes of what you already have seen and already like!

CBS' Viva Laughlin

Okay, it's based on a BBC show, Viva Blackpool, so already it's been recycled. But Viva Laughlin, a musical drama about a man trying to open a Nevada casino and support his family, also appears to draw both from NBC's Las Vegas, Broadway and The Pursuit of Happyness.

NBC's Bionic Woman

Need I say more?

Fox's Back to You

Think Murphy Brown crossbred with Frasier and Ron Burgundy, the fatuous title character in the move Anchorman. Add a little love from the 90's movie He Said, She Said and you've got Back to You, in which Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton play news anchors.

The whole upfront song and dance reminds me of a line in the The TV Set, THINKFilm's comedy about making a network television pilot. Sigourney Weaver's character, a network president, says: "Frankly, 'original' scares me a little."

That's just it. Giving people more of what they already like is safe.

by Willow Duttge