Fox stalks its prey on Thursdays

The network will use 'Bones' and 'Fringe' to try to pry the lucrative night away from rivals.

Reporting from New York City -- Fox has been TV's top network among young adults for five years. And now it hopes it has the goods to take control of Thursday, TV's most lucrative night.

The network kicked off TV's upfront week on Monday by announcing a fairly conservative fall schedule -- four comedies, two dramas and a late-night talk show -- that nevertheless contained a bold play for Thursdays, which has for years been ruled by rivals.

In contrast, ABC is expected to unveil a much larger crop of new shows for the fall today, while NBC, which already revealed its pickups two weeks ago, will finally announce its upcoming schedule as well. CBS and the CW will follow with their presentations later in the week as part of the annual event aimed at media buyers.

In the fall, Fox will start off Thursdays with "Bones," its durable fifth-season forensics drama, followed by the second season of "Fringe," J.J. Abrams' sci-fi drama. Last fall, Fox had essentially punted for the night, airing back-to-back episodes of the reality series "Kitchen Nightmares."

Read the entire article: Fox stalks its prey on Thursdays

-- Scott Collins

TV critic Mary McNamara talks about those sexual hallucinations on "Bones."

What is it with Fox and the season finale sexual psych-outs? First we discover that the consummation of the House/Cuddy relationship, so vividly if briefly portrayed in last week's episode, was not just a figment of House's Vicodin-addled imagination but a symptom of Actual Mental Illness. (Loved the brooding Thornfield-esque mental institution into which House disappears during the finale's final moments -- I did not know they had moors in New Jersey.)

Now, after months of flirtatious magazine covers and Internet teasers about "Bones," we find out that the big “Bones and Booth Hit the Sheets" episode was similarly rigged.

After 40 or so minutes of a more-gray-than-noir story line that had Bones (Emily Deschanel) and Booth (David Boreanaz) happily married and owners of a nightclub where a murder has been committed, it all turned out to be either a Booth coma-dream or a Bones novel-outline. The season ended with Booth, having survived his brain-tumor removal, looking at Bones and asking "Who are you?"

Read more 'Bones' finale

(Photo courtesy Fox)

One therapist's empathy threatens to consume his life. Another is so narcissistic she holds sessions while being fitted for her wedding dress. A third manages to help her patients but is in such personal disarray she does not know which colleague fathered her child.

As if in answer to the country's economic woes and general anxiety, there are suddenly an awful lot of shrinks on TV. Ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous, these doctors create a microcosm of television's, and popular culture's, evolving relationship with psychoanalysis.

At opposite ends of the spectrum are HBO's “In Treatment,” in which Dr. Paul Weston (Gabriel Byrne) and his therapist Gina (Dianne Wiest) provide aspirational therapy -- they're the doctors you wish you had -- and Starz's “Head Case”, which plays more like "What About Bob?" meets "Entourage." Matching egos with the likes of Kevin Nealon, Tori Spelling and Jeff oldberg, Alexandra Wentworth's Dr. Elizabeth Goode practices something closer to psycholo-me. It's no coincidence that her officemate is a Freudian with more wives than patients.

In between are the Team Players, including Dr. Violet Turner (Amy Brenneman) on “Private Practice” (she of the DNA-test aversion) and Dr. Lance Sweets (John Francis Daley) on “Bones.” Nor should we overlook the Special Guest Star Therapists like one of the originals "M*A*S*H"'s "Dr. Sidney Freedman" and newcomers like Amy Madigan on "Grey's Anatomy" and Stephen Fry also on "Bones."

Read more Tuned into the shrink’s office

(Photo of "In Treatment" courtesy HBO)

Female forensic scientists, the geek goddesses of crime procedurals, nail the bad guys, but rarely get their man: the square-jawed partner. Though it’s hardly an original conceit, the unconsummated romance between forensic anthropologist Temperance “Bones” Brennan (Emily Deschanel) and FBI special agent Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz) on “Bones” has worked its way under viewers’ skin.

Week after week, “Bones” serves up icky cadavers for Brennan and her crew of oddly endearing “squints” (so named by Booth, because they are always looking through microscopes). They examine corpses to determine the cause of death and the identity of victims but the more compelling mystery of the show is why brainy Brennan and brawny Booth haven’t turned their stakeouts into make-outs. Their crackling, screwball comedy-inflected chemistry promises a fully fleshed-out partnership, despite their oft-examined psychological scars.

Female forensic scientists, the geek goddesses of crime procedurals, nail the bad guys, but rarely get their man: the square-jawed partner. Though it’s hardly an original conceit, the unconsummated romance between forensic anthropologist Temperance “Bones” Brennan (Emily Deschanel) and FBI special agent Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz) on “Bones” has worked its way under viewers’ skin.
Week after week, “Bones” serves up icky cadavers for Brennan and her crew of oddly endearing “squints” (so named by Booth, because they are always looking through microscopes). They examine corpses to determine the cause of death and the identity of victims but the more compelling mystery of the show is why brainy Brennan and brawny Booth haven’t turned their stakeouts into make-outs. Their crackling, screwball comedy-inflected chemistry promises a fully fleshed-out partnership, despite their oft-examined psychological scars.

Review: 'Bones' finale

TV critic Mary McNamara talks about those sexual hallucinations on "Bones."

What is it with Fox and the season finale sexual psych-outs? First we discover that the consummation of the House/Cuddy relationship, so vividly if briefly portrayed in last week's episode, was not just a figment of House's Vicodin-addled imagination but a symptom of Actual Mental Illness. (Loved the brooding Thornfield-esque mental institution into which House disappears during the finale's final moments -- I did not know they had moors in New Jersey.)

Now, after months of flirtatious magazine covers and Internet teasers about "Bones," we find out that the big “Bones and Booth Hit the Sheets" episode was similarly rigged.

After 40 or so minutes of a more-gray-than-noir story line that had Bones (Emily Deschanel) and Booth (David Boreanaz) happily married and owners of a nightclub where a murder has been committed, it all turned out to be either a Booth coma-dream or a Bones novel-outline. The season ended with Booth, having survived his brain-tumor removal, looking at Bones and asking "Who are you?"

Read more 'Bones' finale

(Photo courtesy Fox)

One therapist's empathy threatens to consume his life. Another is so narcissistic she holds sessions while being fitted for her wedding dress. A third manages to help her patients but is in such personal disarray she does not know which colleague fathered her child.

As if in answer to the country's economic woes and general anxiety, there are suddenly an awful lot of shrinks on TV. Ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous, these doctors create a microcosm of television's, and popular culture's, evolving relationship with psychoanalysis.

At opposite ends of the spectrum are HBO's “In Treatment,” in which Dr. Paul Weston (Gabriel Byrne) and his therapist Gina (Dianne Wiest) provide aspirational therapy -- they're the doctors you wish you had -- and Starz's “Head Case”, which plays more like "What About Bob?" meets "Entourage." Matching egos with the likes of Kevin Nealon, Tori Spelling and Jeff oldberg, Alexandra Wentworth's Dr. Elizabeth Goode practices something closer to psycholo-me. It's no coincidence that her officemate is a Freudian with more wives than patients.

In between are the Team Players, including Dr. Violet Turner (Amy Brenneman) on “Private Practice” (she of the DNA-test aversion) and Dr. Lance Sweets (John Francis Daley) on “Bones.” Nor should we overlook the Special Guest Star Therapists like one of the originals "M*A*S*H"'s "Dr. Sidney Freedman" and newcomers like Amy Madigan on "Grey's Anatomy" and Stephen Fry also on "Bones."

Read more Tuned into the shrink’s office

(Photo of "In Treatment" courtesy HBO)

Female forensic scientists, the geek goddesses of crime procedurals, nail the bad guys, but rarely get their man: the square-jawed partner. Though it’s hardly an original conceit, the unconsummated romance between forensic anthropologist Temperance “Bones” Brennan (Emily Deschanel) and FBI special agent Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz) on “Bones” has worked its way under viewers’ skin.

Week after week, “Bones” serves up icky cadavers for Brennan and her crew of oddly endearing “squints” (so named by Booth, because they are always looking through microscopes). They examine corpses to determine the cause of death and the identity of victims but the more compelling mystery of the show is why brainy Brennan and brawny Booth haven’t turned their stakeouts into make-outs. Their crackling, screwball comedy-inflected chemistry promises a fully fleshed-out partnership, despite their oft-examined psychological scars.

Female forensic scientists, the geek goddesses of crime procedurals, nail the bad guys, but rarely get their man: the square-jawed partner. Though it’s hardly an original conceit, the unconsummated romance between forensic anthropologist Temperance “Bones” Brennan (Emily Deschanel) and FBI special agent Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz) on “Bones” has worked its way under viewers’ skin.
Week after week, “Bones” serves up icky cadavers for Brennan and her crew of oddly endearing “squints” (so named by Booth, because they are always looking through microscopes). They examine corpses to determine the cause of death and the identity of victims but the more compelling mystery of the show is why brainy Brennan and brawny Booth haven’t turned their stakeouts into make-outs. Their crackling, screwball comedy-inflected chemistry promises a fully fleshed-out partnership, despite their oft-examined psychological scars.

Tuned into the shrink's office

One therapist's empathy threatens to consume his life. Another is so narcissistic she holds sessions while being fitted for her wedding dress. A third manages to help her patients but is in such personal disarray she does not know which colleague fathered her child.

As if in answer to the country's economic woes and general anxiety, there are suddenly an awful lot of shrinks on TV. Ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous, these doctors create a microcosm of television's, and popular culture's, evolving relationship with psychoanalysis.

At opposite ends of the spectrum are HBO's “In Treatment,” in which Dr. Paul Weston (Gabriel Byrne) and his therapist Gina (Dianne Wiest) provide aspirational therapy -- they're the doctors you wish you had -- and Starz's “Head Case”, which plays more like "What About Bob?" meets "Entourage." Matching egos with the likes of Kevin Nealon, Tori Spelling and Jeff oldberg, Alexandra Wentworth's Dr. Elizabeth Goode practices something closer to psycholo-me. It's no coincidence that her officemate is a Freudian with more wives than patients.

In between are the Team Players, including Dr. Violet Turner (Amy Brenneman) on “Private Practice” (she of the DNA-test aversion) and Dr. Lance Sweets (John Francis Daley) on “Bones.” Nor should we overlook the Special Guest Star Therapists like one of the originals "M*A*S*H"'s "Dr. Sidney Freedman" and newcomers like Amy Madigan on "Grey's Anatomy" and Stephen Fry also on "Bones."

Read more Tuned into the shrink’s office

(Photo of "In Treatment" courtesy HBO)

Female forensic scientists, the geek goddesses of crime procedurals, nail the bad guys, but rarely get their man: the square-jawed partner. Though it’s hardly an original conceit, the unconsummated romance between forensic anthropologist Temperance “Bones” Brennan (Emily Deschanel) and FBI special agent Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz) on “Bones” has worked its way under viewers’ skin.

Week after week, “Bones” serves up icky cadavers for Brennan and her crew of oddly endearing “squints” (so named by Booth, because they are always looking through microscopes). They examine corpses to determine the cause of death and the identity of victims but the more compelling mystery of the show is why brainy Brennan and brawny Booth haven’t turned their stakeouts into make-outs. Their crackling, screwball comedy-inflected chemistry promises a fully fleshed-out partnership, despite their oft-examined psychological scars.

Female forensic scientists, the geek goddesses of crime procedurals, nail the bad guys, but rarely get their man: the square-jawed partner. Though it’s hardly an original conceit, the unconsummated romance between forensic anthropologist Temperance “Bones” Brennan (Emily Deschanel) and FBI special agent Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz) on “Bones” has worked its way under viewers’ skin.
Week after week, “Bones” serves up icky cadavers for Brennan and her crew of oddly endearing “squints” (so named by Booth, because they are always looking through microscopes). They examine corpses to determine the cause of death and the identity of victims but the more compelling mystery of the show is why brainy Brennan and brawny Booth haven’t turned their stakeouts into make-outs. Their crackling, screwball comedy-inflected chemistry promises a fully fleshed-out partnership, despite their oft-examined psychological scars.

'Bones': He pulls, she pushes

Female forensic scientists, the geek goddesses of crime procedurals, nail the bad guys, but rarely get their man: the square-jawed partner. Though it’s hardly an original conceit, the unconsummated romance between forensic anthropologist Temperance “Bones” Brennan (Emily Deschanel) and FBI special agent Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz) on “Bones” has worked its way under viewers’ skin.

Week after week, “Bones” serves up icky cadavers for Brennan and her crew of oddly endearing “squints” (so named by Booth, because they are always looking through microscopes). They examine corpses to determine the cause of death and the identity of victims but the more compelling mystery of the show is why brainy Brennan and brawny Booth haven’t turned their stakeouts into make-outs. Their crackling, screwball comedy-inflected chemistry promises a fully fleshed-out partnership, despite their oft-examined psychological scars.

Female forensic scientists, the geek goddesses of crime procedurals, nail the bad guys, but rarely get their man: the square-jawed partner. Though it’s hardly an original conceit, the unconsummated romance between forensic anthropologist Temperance “Bones” Brennan (Emily Deschanel) and FBI special agent Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz) on “Bones” has worked its way under viewers’ skin.
Week after week, “Bones” serves up icky cadavers for Brennan and her crew of oddly endearing “squints” (so named by Booth, because they are always looking through microscopes). They examine corpses to determine the cause of death and the identity of victims but the more compelling mystery of the show is why brainy Brennan and brawny Booth haven’t turned their stakeouts into make-outs. Their crackling, screwball comedy-inflected chemistry promises a fully fleshed-out partnership, despite their oft-examined psychological scars.

'Bones': Why stakeouts don't turn into make-outs

Female forensic scientists, the geek goddesses of crime procedurals, nail the bad guys, but rarely get their man: the square-jawed partner. Though it’s hardly an original conceit, the unconsummated romance between forensic anthropologist Temperance “Bones” Brennan (Emily Deschanel) and FBI special agent Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz) on “Bones” has worked its way under viewers’ skin.
Week after week, “Bones” serves up icky cadavers for Brennan and her crew of oddly endearing “squints” (so named by Booth, because they are always looking through microscopes). They examine corpses to determine the cause of death and the identity of victims but the more compelling mystery of the show is why brainy Brennan and brawny Booth haven’t turned their stakeouts into make-outs. Their crackling, screwball comedy-inflected chemistry promises a fully fleshed-out partnership, despite their oft-examined psychological scars.