Watch NBC’s 2009 Fall Preview Online
It’s Fall Preview time! NBC has made its 22-minute fall preview special available online and, as I wrote a few weeks ago, it will be shown on several cable channels and eventually on NBC itself before the new season starts. Supposedly it will be aired some 300 times. You can watch it for free online at Hulu if you’re in the United States:
No word yet on whether ABC, CBS, FOX or The CW will have fall preview specials this season or when they will air. Frequent contributor via the comments section, Barry I. Grauman, had this to say about the special:
“NBC PRIMETIME PREVIEW” made its debut in New York on Sunday, August 16th, at 12:30pm(nyt). Joel McHale, one of the cast members of the network’s new Thursday night comedy “COMMUNITY”, was the host, introducing preview segments of the new shows appearing on the fall schedule starting next month, and “clowing around” on the outdoor “COMMUNITY” campus set inbetween the previews.
He may well be funny on “COMMUNITY”, but McHale came off as an absolute ass in this one. It’s a sure sign a network’s fall schedule is going to be a disaster if the host{ess} of their preview special has to “act funny” IF the material given them is downright terrible. And it was…I wonder how many people on those American Airline flights showing this special are going to attempt to jump off the plane after they’ve seen at least 10 minutes of it? Will the White House use this as “psychological warfare” in trying to convince North Korea to give up their nuclear weapons program? [Kim Jong-il: "All right, ALL RIGHT, we won't bomb ANYBODY!! Just turn off those horrible pictures before I go INSANE!!! Uh-oh, I think I am...goo-goo-goo-goo-goo..."].
Years from now, people and media experts are going to wonder, “Whatever happened to NBC?”. And this fall preview is the beginning of the answer…..
I haven’t watched a full fall preview special in years. With all the promotional material made available online they’re almost worthless and hardly anyone watches them. But they must be of some value or else the networks wouldn’t continue churning them out.
Related:
August 18th, 2009 at 4:35PM
NBC’s fall preview specials over the past 10 years have usually featured a supporting cast member from one of the network’s series {usually from one of their sitcoms} as host/hostess, introducing slickly produced excerpts from the new shows, along with delivering “comedy patter” inbetween the segments [most of the material is often downright mediocre]. This is what happens when a conglomerate THINKS it knows how to package “entertainment”, without ever understanding what makes an entertaining special {or fall schedule} tick. ‘RGJ’ is quite right when he said most fall preview specials these days are “almost worthless”….NBC’s in particular.