NBC: Easy But Irresistible Target

The Hollywood Reporter has this look at the NBC 2010-11 schedule. The sharpest joke is the copyright logo.

It’s already been pointed out that making fun of Law and Order and CSI spinoffs (not to mention the multiple NCIS-es we’ll inevitably get) is the second-easiest target in making jokes about current television. (Easiest target: David Caruso’s one-liners followed by the “Yeaaaahhhh!”) The reason it’s an irresistibly easy target is that while many network TV shows are recycled versions of earlier hits, most of them are, at least technically, different shows. The Dick Wolf and Jerry Bruckheimer franchises allowed networks to do similar shows, under the same names, running concurrently with the original (until L&O got canceled), where the main difference was either the setting or the particular types of crimes being investigated. It’s easy to make fun of that — too easy, and the joke is a little played-out by now, but there you go.