Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Friday, January 5th, 2024

Is the world ready for the origin series "Everybody Is Going To Love Raymond?

Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Friday, January 5th, 2023. 

PROGRAMMING NOTE
It'll be a short newsletter tonight. It's a super-slow news day and I have written a few novella-length newsletters this week. So let's all take a breather.

HOW JOSH GATES TOOK OVER ADVENTURE TELEVISION
Vulture's Matt Zoller Seitz has a nice profile of Discovery's Josh Gates and these two paragraphs tell you all you need to know about his series Expedition Unknown:

But Gates and his crew usually find something when they visit a ruin or tomb. The moments when he digs an old coin or helmet out of the ground aren’t exactly staged for the Expedition Unknown camera, but they are facilitated — or the odds of their occurrence increased — by, for instance, having the crew hang around a very active dig site where lots of objects are being unearthed daily or following a tip from working archaeologists who’ve found “a door to a thing” and are willing to wait for production crew to be there when they open it.

“I do think it’s important that there are moments of discovery,” Gates says. “And sometimes they are big moments. We’ve been there to discover entire pyramid complexes and platforms that nobody’s seen in centuries.” Still, “people who watch the show need to know that if we’re gonna go look for the lost tombs of the Snake Kings of the Maya empire, I’m probably not going to find the lost tombs of the Snake Kings in the next 43 and a half minutes.”

Not finding the thing you're looking for is its own genre of television. From not finding gold to not tracking down Bigfoot, viewers have an astounding willingness to invest multiple seasons watching shows that don't ever reach their stated goal.

CBS ORDERS ANOTHER NCIS SPIN-OFF
CBS has ordered another NCIS spin-off to series for the 2024-2025 season. NCIS: Origins will focus on the early career of Mark Harmon's Jethro Gibbs, and will star Harmon's real-life son Sean Harmon in the lead role. In fact, Sean Harmon played the role in a few episodes of NCIS and when I reviewed the show's 400th episode in the fall of 2020, I noted it was a role he did very well:

And we're left with a show that really only works now when the episode directly involves Gibbs or somehow touches on some aspect of the Gibbs mythology. So given all of that, it makes sense that the 400th episode of NCIS would flashback forty years to tell a previously unknown story about Gibbs and Ducky.

A man is found dead in the NCIS basement and he is connected to a case that Gibbs was associated with back when he was still a young Marine headed off to sniper school. The present-day case doesn't amount to much, but it's really only there to give David McCallum a reason to return (always a welcome sight) and a way to set up the flashback portions of the episode. We get to see how Gibbs and Ducky first met, hear a bit more backstory about Gibbs and his future wife Shannon and even a reminder of how Gibbs was first introduced to the house he has now lived in for years. 

The flashback scenes are most of the reason to watch the episode and they are exceptionally well done. Sean Harmon (son of series star Mark Harmon) and Adam Campbell are perfectly cast as young Gibbs and young Ducky and the parts of their backstory introduced in the episode deftly reveal some new facts about the duo for fans. In fact, while I don't think this episode was designed to be a back-door pilot, CBS should really consider signing them both to star in a "Young Gibbs" series. Which would be a great project for the upcoming Paramount+ streaming service.

While I haven't always been a fan of the NCIS spin-offs, I'm looking forward to this one. Mark Harmon will narrate the show (apparently Young Sheldon-style) and while they haven't announced who will play young Ducky, I hope Adam Campbell is able to come back to reprise his previous performances.

One NCIS spin-off I thought held a lot of promise was NCIS: Red, which was ordered to pilot back in 2012. It starred John Corbett, Kim Raver and Scott Grimes in a story about a team of NCIS agents that traveled together throughout the US to solve crimes. There was a two-part backdoor pilot that aired in early 2013, but CBS ultimately decided not to move forward, citing concerns about the show's premise. But I thought the two-part episode was fun and I suppose one reason I enjoyed the idea is that unlike some of the later spin-offs, it wasn't just the original NCIS concept transplanted to another city with a new cast.

But with the order of NCIS: Origins and the success of The Big Bang Theory origin series Young Sheldon, perhaps CBS should consider some other origin story spin-offs. How about Everybody Is Going To Love Raymond? Or The Prince Of Queens? Murder, She'll Write?

WHAT'S NEW TONIGHT AND THIS WEEKEND

FRIDAY, JANUARY 5TH, 2024:
*Ancient Aliens Season Premiere (History)
*Foe (Prime Video)
*Good Grief (Netflix)
*James May: Our Man In India (Prime Video)
*LOL: Last One Laughing Quebec (Prime Video)
*Man On The Run (Netflix)
*RuPaul’s Drag Race Season Premiere (MTV)
*Sasaki And Peeps Series Premiere (Crunchyroll)
*The Demon Prince Of Momochi House (Crunchyroll)
*The Prison Confessions Of Gypsy Rose Blanchard (Lifetime)
*The Unwanted Undead Adventurer Series Premiere (Crunchyroll)
*The Wrong Way To Use Healing Magic Series Premiere (Crunchyroll)
*Where The Devil Roams (Tubi)

SATURDAY, JANUARY 6TH, 2024:
*A Sign Of Affection Series Premiere (Crunchyroll)
*Blue Exorcist Series Premiere (Crunchyroll)
*Kingdom (Crunchyroll)
*Love On The Right Course (Hallmark)
*Mashle: Magic And Muscles (Crunchyroll)
*One Piece [Egghead Island Arc] (Crunchyroll)
*OWN Spotlight: Oprah & Taraji P. Henson (OWN)
*Solo Leveling Series Premiere (Crunchyroll)
*Tales Of Wedding Rings Series Premiere (Crunchyroll)
*The Incredible Dr. Pol Season Premiere (NatGeo Wild)
*The Incredible Pol Farm Series Premiere (NatGeo Wild)
*The Strongest Tank's Labyrinth Raids Series Premiere (Crunchyroll)

SUNDAY, JANUARY 7TH, 2024:
*All Creatures Great And Small (PBS)
*Banished From The Hero's Party, I Decided To Live A Quiet Life In The Countryside (Crunchyroll)
*Bob's Burgers (Fox)
*81st Golden Globe Awards (CBS)
*Funny Woman Series Premiere (PBS)
*Grimsburg Series Premiere (Fox)
*Highway Through Hell Season Premiere (Weather Channel)
*Home Town Season Premiere (HGTV)
*Krapopolis (Fox)
*Love At The Ranch (UP tv)
*Married To Medicine Season Premiere (Bravo)
*Miss Scarlet & The Duke (PBS)
*Mr. Villain's Day Off Series Premiere (Crunchyroll)
*7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys A Carefree Life Married To Her Worst Enemy! Series Premiere (Crunchyroll)
*The Great North (Fox)
*Worst Cooks In America: Spoiled Rotten Season Premiere (Food)

MONDAY, JANUARY 8TH, 2024:
*Cash Cab Series Premiere (AXS tv)
*Antiques Roadshow Season Twenty-Eight Premiere (PBS)
*Going To Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project (HBO)
*High Card (Crunchyroll)
*Hoarders Season Premiere (A&E)
*Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable! Series Premiere (Crunchyroll)
*90 Day Diaries Season Premiere (TLC)
*Secrets Of Polygamy Series Premiere (A&E)
*The Foolish Angel Dances With The Devil Series Premiere (Crunchyroll)
*'Tis Time For "Torture," Princess Series Premiere (Crunchyroll)
*TSUKIMICHI-Moonlit Fantasy (Crunchyroll)

SEE YOU MONDAY!