CEDRIC THE ENTERTAINER PRESENTS FOX, 8:30-9 PM -- DEBUTS SEPT. 18
CONCEPT The Original Kings of Comedy and Steve Harvey Show costar in a sketch-comedy/variety-show setting. THE SCOOP Says Cedric: ''I always liked the formats of Carol Burnett and Flip Wilson.... We'll have some dance and some songs.'' Also look for Cedric's recurring characters like a sassy female cafeteria worker. BOTTOM LINE It's all about having good material at your fingertips in this sort of show, and too often, this is Cedric the Empty-Handed Presents.
MDS ABC, 10-11 PM -- DEBUTS SEPT. 25
CONCEPT Two wise-guy doctors (William Fichtner and John Hannah) head up a dramedy ensemble, flouting the rules and putting patients first: It's...H*M*O*M*A*S*H! THE SCOOP Exec producer Marc Platt says of the rule-breaking docs: ''They work hard to keep their lives together, yet the business of the hospital is always stepping on it.'' BOTTOM LINE In the pilot, Hannah pleasures a woman with his vibrating beeper, which kinda undercuts any attempt at high-toned, anti-HMO satire.
PRESIDIO MED CBS, 10-11 PM - DEBUTS TUES., SEPT. 24
CONCEPT Like MDs, it's set in a San Francisco hospital, but this one's staffed by more women than an Oxygen-channel boardroom. A cast including Blythe Danner, Dana Delany, Anna Deavere Smith, Dawson's Creek's Sasha Alexander, and Ally McBeal's Julianne Nicholson operates and emotes. THE SCOOP Says Deavere Smith, who had a recurring role on The West Wing and here plays a cardiologist: ''I haven't seen a black woman character like this in any medium.... For a person of my generation to be a cardiologist, the elite of internal medicine, [my character]would have had to have been really competitive her whole life. She [probably] comes from a long line of educated people.'' BOTTOM LINE If only the show -- a rushed hodgepodge of soapy medical subplots we've seen before -- were as well thought out as Deavere Smith's comments.
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