There once was a time when people would look forward with great anticipation to the lineup for the new television shows every fall.
However, whether it's the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic or just the simple fact that television executives have lost their creativity it seems like a lot of shows are spinoffs of ones that have been on for many years. When it comes to naming the new ones there isn't a great deal of ingenuity involved either as acronyms seems to be the way to go these days.
Case in point is we had a big winner with NCIS first then NCIS Los Angeles and NCIS New Orleans followed and now we have NCIS Hawaii. In fact the original NCIS has been around for 18 years and actually outlived the spinoff NCIS New Orleans that ended last year. Kind of like a parent losing a child before they pass away.
Who knows, one of these years we just may see a NCIS Manistee on the tube if things keep going the way they have been for the past few years. Now that would be Emmy award winning television to say the least.
Likewise, another great show FBI went to FBI Most Wanted and now FBI International. On the season opener this year, we were treated to three hours of FBI with different lead characters in each show; that had to be a first for television.
There has been an occasion or two when we had back-to-back episodes of the original and a spinoff show, but three in a row has to be some kind of television record. Of course from the venue that brought us more Law and Order and CSI spinoffs than most of us can remember it really isn't that surprising.
If you get bored with those action shows you might want to check out S.W.A.T. as an alternative acronym show.
What is also interesting is some of those drama shows have featured a few on the main characters since the show first premiered years ago.
Mark Harmon just stepped down from the lead role on NCIS after 18 years as Jethro Gibbs and he went from a dark haired action packed character to white haired and hoarse old man voice that resembled 91-year old actor Clint Eastwood.
And you never know considering the way Law and Order revived the role of Chris Meloni this season, if we wait a few more years we just may see Harmon on another spinoff called NCIS Nursing Home starring him and Ducky (David McCallum). Funny thing is many of us would probably tune it in to watch Gibbs and Ducky run down criminals from their wheelchairs.
Some have been on so long we don’t even remember all the original cast members who actually began the series Something that has changed is spinoff TV shows have been taking place for decades, but in the last few years they seemed to have gone to using the exact same concept only set in a different city with different cast members.
What's also interesting is the number of acronyms used for those shows, but that shouldn't be surprising considering they are being seen on television (also known as TV) and networks known as ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS and TBS.
The odds are good that lots of people don't even know what those initials stand for, but they might be the ones who only watch CNN — oops another one. But then again we are living in the LOL and other abbreviation times for email, texts, tweets and Instagram so the networks really are up with the times.
Using acronyms really shouldn’t really surprise anyone since most schools gave up cursive writing, maybe words will be next to go from our world. Wouldn’t that B2:) LOL? It would certainly make writing this column a challenge.
Of course if those action TV show acronyms have got you down maybe you need to watch some sports this time of the year like the NFL on CBS or one on ESPN and the PGA on NBC. Yup, you just can’t escape acronyms on television no matter how hard you try these days.
Television today is also big on certain sports like football for instance. On any given week you can pretty much watch football until it sends you in a coma. Sometimes it seems to them that when you look at the TV guide to check out the schedule a listing that says NFL probably stands for Non-stop Football Likely.
There is NFL games on all kinds of networks from 1 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. on Sunday and then again on Monday and Thursday nights as well. Lately they have even featured a couple of Sunday morning games from London, England.
If that doesn’t leave you bleary eyed you can tune in Saturday for college games from noon until midnight. And if you are lucky the chance may present itself to watch the U of M play MSU in the Acronym Bowl on ABC.
And lying in wait just around the corner is probably 40 bowl games or more for near the holiday season that will be featured around the dial on television.
It is kind of amazing when you hear people say they have access to 80 plus shows available and can't find anything to watch. On the bright side there are plenty more acronyms available out there that may be coming to a television screen near you.
Acronyms and more acronyms on TV, but the one thing you can count on is you will see KLG next Monday in the MNA on this very same page.
Ken Grabowski is the retired associate editor at the Manistee News Advocate who has more than 36 years in the newspaper business.
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October 28, 2021 at 02:09AM
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KEN GRABOWSKI: Acronyms getting in the way of good TV - Manistee News Advocate
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