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Perhaps one of the most buzzed about new shows of the Fall schedule, but for all the wrong reasons, is Fox’s Dads. Created by Family Guy vets Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild, and executive-produced by Seth MacFarlane himself, Dads stars Seth Green and Giovanni Ribisi as a pair of successful video games developers whose lives are interrupted when their fathers (Martin Mull and Peter Riegert) decide to move in with them. Critics who got early access to the Pilot have been scathing, and unsurprisingly for a Seth MacFarlane product it’s been labeled highly offensive (which Fox have sadly tried to use to their advantage). That’s been the headline, and unfortunately it has served to obscure the other key criticism present in most of those reviews: Dads just isn’t funny. The Pilot is a mess, and it’s much easier to take offence when you’re not...

Fox has one of its better slates coming your way with the new season, especially if you take the midseason shows into account. Some of these shows may not jump out at you now as must-see, but some of them are going to take over, if I’m any judge anyway.

Clear showcase offerings Dads, Almost Human, and Us & Them are guaranteed to take off early. Almost Human has J.J. Abrams recognition to pull people in, though it looks to be a show that could flounder after a few episodes, even if I hope it doesn’t. The other two are going to become hits. Unfortunately, we have to wait until mid-season for the Gavin & Stacey remake.

Rake also looks like a winner, as long as the translation can be made to work as an Americanized product, and the show actually delivers what made the Australian original so brilliant.

Take...

By Rachel Bennett

Television Editor & Columnist

Every Friday, Rachel recaps the week’s major TV-related news, announcements, and gossip!

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Top Stories

• President Barack Obama will take a seat on CBS’s Late Show with David Letterman Tuesday, Sept. 18. It will be his second time on the show since being elected in 2008. The same day, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney will appear on ABC’s Live! with Kelly and Michael.

• NBC’s Today show is coming under fire — again. After being the only major network to not cover a moment of silence for 9/11 victims at Ground Zero (and instead airing an interview with Kris Jenner), the network defended its decision. It did, however, send a memo to network affiliates, apologizing for viewer complaints many have received.

• Despite the much-hyped additions of singers Britney Spears and Demi Lovato, the season premiere ratings of Fox’s The X Factor decreased 23 percent from last season’s premiere.

Welcome back to our weekly look at the new podcasts available at our “partners in podcast crime” the GeekCast Radio Network. As usual here’s our weekly look at the podcasts from Gcrn, This Week in Geek and the latest toy review videos from Baltmatrix, with descriptions and links to each and every podcast.

Tele-Cast – Episode 27 – Land of the Lost

OptimusSolo continues his look at the more bizarre shows on Season 1 of the Tele-Cast by going on a routine expedition to The Land of the Lost! You may be familiar with the Will Ferrell movie from a few years ago but this is the original 1970s kids show that started it all. So, join OptimusSolo, Marshall, Will & Holly as they plunge into the world of the Pakuni and the Sleestacks..and don’t forget about those dinosaurs!

Tele-Cast – Episode 28 – ABC Weekend Specials

OptimusSolo continues his look at the more unique...

Trailers are an under-appreciated art form insofar that many times they’re seen as vehicles for showing footage, explaining films away, or showing their hand about what moviegoers can expect. Foreign, domestic, independent, big budget: I celebrate all levels of trailers and hopefully this column will satisfactorily give you a baseline of what beta wave I’m operating on, because what better way to hone your skills as a thoughtful moviegoer than by deconstructing these little pieces of advertising? Some of the best authors will tell you that writing a short story is a lot harder than writing a long one, that you have to weigh every sentence. What better medium to see how this theory plays itself out beyond that than with movie trailers? We Need To Talk About Kevin Trailer The French had a crack at this, [1] now us Americans have a shot. Director Lynne Ramsay certainly has...

It takes a special actor to star opposite giant fighting robots without seeming, well, small and human. That man is Hugh Jackman, who plays a boxing-robot promoter (yes, they exist in the future) in the father-son action drama "Real Steel."

And it takes a special fan to interview Hugh Jackman without blinking an eye. That fan is Rena Jenkins, who entered our Twitter contest and won a chance to chat with Jackman himself. Despite not having any journalism experience, Rena handled the interview like a pro -- in fact, in a lucky coincidence, she was an extra on the set of "Real Steel," so she and Jackman had plenty to talk about.

Read on to find out how Rena got the "Real Steel" star to confess to his "bad parenting" skills, his love for Eminem and what's next on his bucket list.

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