ABC reveals its fall plans to big advertisers this afternoon, unveiling a schedule that doesn't look dramatically different from this year's.
Even the new shows don't seem particularly new.
As expected, "FlashForward" got the ax, but "V" will return. The slower-than-molasses alien invasion saga won't return to the schedule until mid-season.
Here's the fall schedule, with new shows in all-capital letters:
Monday: 7 p.m, "Dancing with the Stars," 9 p.m.; "Castle."
Tuesday: 7 p.m., "NO ORDINARY FAMILY;" 8 p.m., "Dancing with the Stars the Results Show;" 9 p.m., "DETROIT 1-8-7."
Wednesday: 7 p.m., The Middle;" 7:30 p.m., "BETTER TOGETHER;" 8 p.m., "Modern Family;" 8:30 p.m., "Cougar Town;" 9 p.m., "THE WHOLE TRUTH."
Thursday: 7 p.m., "MY GENERATION;" 8 p.m., "Grey’s Anatomy;" 9 p.m., "Private Practice."
Friday: 8 p.m., "SECRET MILLIONAIRE;" 8 p.m. "BODY OF PROOF;" 10 p.m., "20/20."
Saturday and Sunday are unchanged, with college football taking up the Saturday night prime-time lineup this fall.
Of the seven shows new to ABC's lineup, "Secret Millionaire" is a "reality" show that formerly aired on Fox.
None of the others is likely to be a blockbuster.
"No Ordinary Family" is about a family with superpowers led by Michael Chiklis, "My Generation" is about a bunch of friends 10 yeas after high school, and "Detroit 1-8-7" is Michael Imperioli's latest cop show.
Dana Delaney is a medical examiner in "Body of Proof," Jerry Bruckheimer brings us another legal drama in "The Whole Truth," and the only new sitcom on the fall lineup is "Better Together," which follows the lives of two couples.
Charlie Sheen stays put: CBS' fall lineup won't be out until tomorrow, but there's early word that Charlie Sheen has reached agreement to do a couple more years of "Two and a Half Men," one of the network's most successful shows.
His legal and personal problems had led to talk that he was moving on, although a lot of that may have been a negotiating tactic.
Loads and Loads of winners: The Wisconsin Broadcasters Association gave out its annual awards over the weekend, in more than 125 different categories.
There are a couple important awards: station of the year and best news operation. Channel 12 won both among large market TV stations.
Amon large market radio stations, WTMJ-AM (620) was named station of the year, and WUWM-FM (89.7) won the best news operation award.
Here are the rest of the awards.
One more winner: Door County's White Gull Inn won the best-breakfast competition on the weekend edition of ABC's "Good Morning America." The Fish Creek establishment won for its cherry-stuffed French toast.
Worth a listen for radio buffs: Former Wisconsinite Mark Pfeiffer has launched a Facebook page he calls "Mostly Upper Midwest Airchecks," featuring old audio from a lot of Milwaukee radio stations.
Recent airchecks include a bit of WLUM-FM (102.1) from 1987, and Dan Weber on the old WZUU-FM back in 1986.
Pfeiffer, who now lives in Corpus Christi, e-mails that he made a lot of the recordings as a teen in the 1980s.
"As I have noticed that Milwaukee airchecks tend to be underrepresented on national aircheck Web sites, I have recently decided to share the contents of the boxes of tapes stored in the basement of my family's home for many years."
He's also looking for contributions from other radio fans to post on the page. You can contact him by e-mail if you have recordings to share.
Speaking of recordings worth listening to: Former WQFM-FM voice Scott (Scott the Kid) Beddome has posted bootleg recordings made by someone in the the audience at the famous Dec. 7, 1982 Milwaukee show by The Who on the band's farewell tour on his blog, "93QFM: The Halcyon Daze."
They're from "a super secret source," and Beddome notes that the quality isn't perfect.
"But for those who were there it will be a compelling and goosebumpy listen. Headphones are strongly recommended."
By the way, Beddome has started a Facebook page for talk about the old days in Milwaukee radio.
A bit of Paul Reiser's new show: One of the fall shows provoking discussion is NBC's mid-season sitcom starring Paul Reiser of "Mad About You" fame.
He plays a version of himself, not unlike "Seinfeld" or "Curb Your Enthusiasm," as this trailer shows:
Tim Cuprisin is the media columnist for OnMilwaukee.com. He's been a journalist for 30 years, starting in 1979 as a police reporter at the old City News Bureau of Chicago, a legendary wire service that's the reputed source of the journalistic maxim "if your mother says she loves you, check it out." He spent a couple years in the mean streets of his native Chicago, and then moved on to the Green Bay Press-Gazette and USA Today, before coming to the Milwaukee Journal in 1986.
A general assignment reporter, Cuprisin traveled Eastern Europe on several projects, starting with a look at Poland after five years of martial law, and a tour of six countries in the region after the Berlin Wall opened and Communism fell. He spent six weeks traversing the lands of the former Yugoslavia in 1994, linking Milwaukee Serbs, Croats and Bosnians with their war-torn homeland.
In the fall of 1994, a lifetime of serious television viewing earned him a daily column in the Milwaukee Journal (and, later the Journal Sentinel) focusing on TV and radio. For 15 years, he has chronicled the changes rocking broadcasting, both nationally and in Milwaukee, an effort he continues at OnMilwaukee.com.
When he's not watching TV, Cuprisin enjoys tending to his vegetable garden in the backyard of his home in Whitefish Bay, cooking and traveling.
