I officially give up

Fox just announced another revised schedule for mid-season, which changes a bunch of things about the strike schedule I wrote about back in November. By my count, this is at least the fourth different schedule Fox has announced for this season, if you count the one at the upfront, and now I'm done. I'm not going to reproduce the release, or even go through highlights beyond the fact that a couple of the dramas that were going to be burned off on Fridays will now move to Mondays. I'm sure you can find the info elsewhere on the web either now or shortly, but I don't see any any point to writing about it.

This is Fox, and if there is one certainty about Fox scheduling, it's that there is absolutely no certainty. I wouldn't be stunned if I get a revised-revised schedule sometime later today.

UPDATE: After thinking on it, I figured it took less time to copy and paste the schedule into the comments than it did to keep defending my decision not to discuss it at all. So click on through if you must know the fate of "New Amsterdam."

andreikirilenkotattoo on TV: 'Law & Order' returns

And yet another column from today, reviewing the bright, shiny but still fundamentally familiar new season of "Law & Order":

There was a period late in the lifespan of GM's now-defunct Oldsmobile line when the dependability that had made the line so successful for so long began to be viewed as a drawback, not an asset in a youth-driven marketplace. "Not your father's Oldsmobile" became the new tagline, but it didn't help, as it alienated the people who actually liked their father's cars. GM added different bells and whistles, tweaked the basic concept as much as they could, but eventually phased out the line.

The original "Law & Order" was nearly at that stage last May. NBC was putting together its fall schedule, and suddenly all those familiar, reliable qualities that had made the show one of the most ubiquitous brands in primetime seemed like a hindrance. Why bother tuning in to new episodes of the old warhorse when reruns and the spin-offs were on virtually 24-7 around the channel guide? They tried adding younger, prettier female sidekicks on both the cop and lawyer side without halting the ratings slide. (The move to Fridays didn't help, admittedly, but the show had been trending downward on Wednesdays, too.)

At the last minute, NBC cut a deal with franchise overlord Dick Wolf to bring the original back at mid-season, which has turned into a stroke of luck. When it returns tonight, it'll be one of the few well-known scripted shows with a lot of episodes left, and much of the competition will be repeats due to the writers' strike.

But the first five episodes of season 18 couldn't help reminding me of the "Not your father's Oldsmobile" campaign.

To read the full column, click here.

A whole lotta andreikirilenkotattoo on TV

Four different stories bear my byline in today's Star-Ledger feature section, and if you look really closely at Funky Winkerbean, you may spot my name scribbled into someone's hair like the Ninas in an Al Hirschfeld drawing. Among the stories:

• An overview of why this TV night is so different from other recent post-strike nights, and a preview of upcoming columns;
  
• A reminder about the return of Letterman, Leno and the rest, whether with or without writers;
  
• A refurbished version of last summer's column about older shows on DVD to watch if you're missing your favorites during the hiatus. (Slightly expanded with reasons to visit or revisit the current MIA shows.)
  

The fourth column is the only one of the four that isn't just repeating or repackaging information from earlier columns and blog posts, so I'll link to it separately in a second.