FOX Shifts "Drive" Again, Announces Fall Premieres

Oh, you poor fans of Drive, I really do feel for you.

After announcing that it would burn off the two remaining installments of failed action/mystery series Drive with a two-hour send-off this Friday, FOX has recanted its statement, yanking Drive from the schedule once again.

The network has instead scheduled a repeat of Bones for Friday at 8 pm and a new installment of fellow failed drama Standoff at 9 pm.

It had previously scheduled the two-hour "finale" of Drive for last week but pulled a switcheroo at the last second there too, opting to air feature Anger Management in its place. (Talk about misplaced anger for the remaining fans of Drive.)

As for when--if ever--FOX will air those two remaining Drive episodes, your guess is as good as mine. It's still possible that they'll get burned off during some Friday this summer, especially with Standoff wrapping up at 18 episodes instead of the planned 19.

No word on whether the missing Drive episodes will be streamed over FOX's MySpace page.

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In other scheduling news, FOX was first out of the gate when it unveiled its fall premiere schedule, announcing that it would not hold back its fall launches until after baseball. After all, this is the network that has tried everything from launching in July or August (worked for The O.C. and Prison Break) and November, so why not try actually launching during or around premiere week for a change?

Given the shorter baseball season coverage this year and the perfect opportunity in the Emmy Awards (September 16th) to heavily promote their series, FOX has opted to use that week as a springboard for several of its new and returning series launches.

Below are the fall premiere dates for FOX:

Thursday, August 30
8 pm: Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?

Thursday, September 13
9 pm: Kitchen Nightmares (new series)

Friday, September 14
9 pm: Nashville (new series)

Monday, September 17
8 pm: Prison Break
9 pm: K-Ville (new series)

Wednesday, September 19
8 pm: Back to You (new series)
8:30 pm: 'Til Death
9 pm: Bones

Sunday, September 23
8 pm: The Simpsons
8:30 pm: King of the Hill
9 pm: Family Guy (one-hour season premiere)

Tuesday, September 25
8 pm: New Amsterdam (new series)
9 pm: House

Sunday, September 30
9:30 pm: American Dad

And there you have it. What will you be watching this fall on FOX? And which shows will inevitably get the Drive treatment from the notoriously trigger-happy network and get cancelled quickly?

What's On Tonight

8 pm: The King of Queens/The King of Queens (CBS); Most Outrageous Moments/The Singing Bee (NBC); America's Next Top Model (CW); The Next Best Thing: Who is the Greatest Celebrity Impersonator? (ABC); So You Think You Can Dance (FOX; 8-9:30 pm)

9 pm: Criminal Minds (CBS); America's Got Talent (NBC); America's Next Top Model (CW); American Inventor (ABC); Don't Forget the Lyrics (FOX; 9:30-10 pm)

10 pm: CSI: New York (CBS); Last Comic Standing (NBC); Traveler (ABC)

What I'll Be Watching

10 pm: Top Chef on Bravo.

After a one-week hiatus thanks to the Fourth of July, Top Chef returns with an all-new episode. On tonight's episode of Top Chef ("Cooking By Numbers"), the chefs must work together in teams of three, Joey and Lia butt heads, and Howie admits making an error in judgment.

10 pm: Traveler.

On tonight's episode ("The Reunion"), Jay and Kim are finally reunited for the first time since the bombing, while Will searches for Maya's killer in Manhattan.

"Drive" Screeches to a Halt; Series Pulled from FOX's May Schedule

Looks like FOX has pulled Drive onto the shoulder.

After announcing that it would take the rather unusual tack of intentionally breaking up Drive's 13-episode run into two chunks (thus limiting any momentum the series would have built up), FOX has now announced that it is in fact benching the series for the entirety of May sweeps.

Four hours of the freshman series, about an illegal underground cross-country race, have already aired. FOX will fill Drive's Mondays at 8 pm timeslot with (you guessed it!) repeats of House.

While there's been no official word of the c-word (that would be cancellation, people!), it's not a good sign for a series that's already had its share of odd scheduling and plummeting ratings.

Oh well. It's not as if I didn't already make the turn for the exit ramp last week.

Second Gear: Another Look at FOX's "Drive"

Sometimes I am a glutton for punishment, especially when it comes to a television show that I really do want to like but, for whatever reason, just doesn't meet my expectations. I know I shouldn't keep watching, but I keep giving the program in question one more chance to lure me in and win me over.

Such is the current battle I'm engaged in with FOX's new drama Drive. More than anything, I really did want to like this freshman series, even after announcements that FOX would be splitting the season into two puzzle pieces. After all, it has an amazing cast, populated by some of my favorite actors: Nathan Fillion (Firefly), Amy Acker (Angel), Melanie Lynskey (Heavenly Creatures), etc. And it was co-created by Tim Minear, a longtime Joss Whedon collaborator who has brought us some memorable--if short-lived--series such as Firefly and Wonderfalls.

Right? Right?

After seeing various versions of the pilot over the past few months (the original with Ivan Sergei in the Nathan Fillion role, the one-hour version with Fillion, the two-hour double episode that aired Sunday night), I still wasn't convinced by the show, which failed to catch me with its highly improbable and mind-boggling logic about a secret, illegal underground race and a mysterious cabal of people who coerce players by a Machiavellian strategy of kidnapping loved ones and the other players who just seem to want to be there to a win a $32 million prize.

I tuned in last night to the third episode of Drive ("Let the Games Begin") in a last-ditch effort to see if I would quit this thing cold turkey or keep filling up my TiVo with episodes that I would never watch. Sadly, I have to report that last night's episode again left me cold. Sure, we got to see frequent Minear associate Katie Finneran (Wonderfalls, The Inside) pop up as the sister of Alex Tully (Fillion) and I do love the rapport between father and daughter John and Violet (Dylan Baker and Emma Stone). Kevin Alejandro's Winston Salazar has even grown on me... if only he would stop using the word "homes" in literally every other line of dialogue. (Seriously.)

But no matter how many times I tune into Drive, there are still things that manage to get under my skin each and every time: the Lost-style flashbacks, the check-your-brain-at-the-door loopiness of the series' race, with its checkpoints and murders, and the fact that nearly every single person the racers encounter on the road is in some way connected to the race. Sure, Beth Grant's diner waitress was a hoot, but if the race's organizers seem to have the sort of constant surveillance necessary to guarantee that the racers would come into THAT particular diner at that particular time or break down alongside that road, why don't they seem to know that Corinne (Kristin Lehman) has stolen a flash drive containing the race's secrets? Or that Alex has kidnapped one of their enforcers and held him prisoner in his motel room bathtub?

The special effects are also, at times, shockingly lousy. For every jaw-dropping car crash (like the brilliant one at the beginning of episode 2), there are the amateurish fade in/fade outs from each car, or the grade school CGI rocket, or the hokey opening credits.

It's also the fact that the characters accept without question everything that they're told; last night, Alex was abducted, beaten, and questioned by a lunatic highway patrolman (who wasn't really a law enforcement officer in the end) and given the exact car he had as a wastrel gang member back in the day. I mean the SAME car. He accepts this "gift" without question and instantly transforms from the mild-mannered landscape gardener into a vicious speed demon.

Unlike Lost, where the characters accept the weirdness of the situation that they're in (even if they don't ask the right questions--for the audience--at the right times), Drive's racers don't bat an eyelash about the peculiarities of this cross-country race; the entire experience appears to strike them as entirely normal. At least John fessed up to Violet about the fact that they were even in a race to begin with; that sort of mindless aversion of reality was even more off-putting and unbelievable.

Ultimately, I can't go along with the "deepening mysteries" of Drive and the motivations of the players and their handlers, especially when there's no exploration and definition of our characters. The mysteries on Lost work because we trust in the characters and their shifting situation was originally based in something as possible as it was extraordinary (surviving a plane crash). Here, however, they are thrust on top of a shaky foundation of vague characterizations and an insistence that--trust us, we're creators!--all will be revealed later.

Sadly, I've taken this cross-country road trip for a spin around the block more than once and the only thing I can do now is to shift Drive firmly into park.

What's On Tonight

8 pm: NCIS (CBS); Dateline (NBC); Gilmore Girls (CW); George Lopez/George Lopez (ABC); American Idol (FOX)

9 pm: The Unit (CBS); Law & Order: Criminal Intent (NBC); Pussycat Dolls Present: The Search of the Next Doll (CW); Dancing with the Stars (ABC); House (FOX)

10 pm: 48 Hours Mystery (CBS); Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (NBC); Boston Legal (ABC)

What I'll Be Watching

8 pm: American Idol.

The seven remaining contestants compete after getting coached by Martina McBride but, with Sanjaya *STILL* in the mix, I'm more than over American Idol already.

8 pm: Gilmore Girls.

I've given up on this once-great drama, but for the few of you out there still watching, here's what's going on. On tonight's episode ("Hay Bale Maze"), Rory brings Logan to Stars Hollow for the annual spring festival, leading her to question her future with Logan. Oy, really, more questioning? Sigh.

FOX Slows "Drive" to Six-Episode Initial Run

FOX continued to tweak its late spring/early summer schedule today, with a number of scheduling-related announcements that would seem to confuse even the most seasoned TV viewer.

But the most, er, intriguing development has to be that the network has opted to split the 13-episode run of upcoming drama Drive, starring a slew of familiar faces including Nathan Fillion and Amy Acker, into two sections.

Drive kicks off on April 15th but, due to the series' "tight production schedule," FOX will only air the first six episodes of Drive for now, wrapping its five week run on May 7th. Subsequent episodes will then air at a to-be-determined date later in the season. (Read: summer burnoff.)

Due to the fact that On the Lot, Steven Spielberg's reality series ode to student filmmakers, is set to inherit the series' Mondays at 8 pm timeslot on May 28th (following a repeat of House on May 14 and the second half of 24's 2-hr finale on May 21st), some sort of arrangement was bound to occur. But is splitting Drive's freshman season in half really the best option? (It certainly doesn't belie any confidence from FOX in the series.)

Meanwhile, FOX has also announced that The War at Home will end its second season on April 22nd. That night, the lineup will shift around considerably, with King of the Hill moving to 7:30 pm in order to accommodate double episodes of The Simpsons and, starting April 29th, a repeat airing of King of the Hill at 7 pm.

But hold your horses! On June 10th, the network will again rejigger its Sunday night lineup, this time moving The War at Home to 7 pm, followed by King of the Hill. 8 pm brings The Simpsons and Amercan Dad, while at 9 pm, we've got Family Guy and Season Two of The Loop. Riiiight.

Casting Couch: Amy Acker Takes a "Drive" with FOX

Looks like the Whedon-verse is starting to come together again. Sort of.

Actress Amy Acker, best known for her roles as scientist-turned-monster hunter Winifred "Fred" Burkle and monster hunter-turned-ancient goddess Illyria on Angel (and a recurring stint on the final season of Alias), has joined the cast of FOX's midseason drama Drive.

Drive, of course, is the brainchild of Tim Minear, who created Firefly with Joss Whedon. Whedon is himself currently shooting an episode of NBC's The Office to air during February sweeps. (Here's hoping that Pam's ex-fiance Roy, ably played by David Denman, will have a part to play in the episode. After all, he did recur as the demon Skip on Whedon's Angel.)

Still with me? Here's the best bit: Acker will play Kathryn, the wife of landscaper Alex Tully, whose kidnapping by a shadowy syndicate forces Alex into the illegal (and very dangerous) underground race that propels the plot of Drive. And Alex is played by none other than Captain Tightpants himself, better known as Nathan Fillion, who starred on Whedon and Minear's Firefly and recurred in the final season of Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Whew.

TimMinear.net has listed the rest of the reconstituted cast assembled in Drive, which kicks off on FOX in March, and includes: Kristin Lehman, Melanie Lynskey, Dylan Baker, Emma Stone, Kevin Alejandro, J.D. Pardo, Riley Smith, Mircea Monroe, Taryn Manning, Michael Hyatt, Rochelle Aytes, Charles Martin Smith, Brian Bloom, Richard Brooks, Wayne Grace, and K Callan.

Meanwhile, FOX unveiled its midseason schedule today, which includes a two-night, 3-hour launch for Drive, beginning Sunday, April 15th.

The series will air in its normal Mondays at 8 pm timeslot, once its been vacated by Prison Break (which wraps its second season a bit earlier than expected), beginning April 16th.

While I was a little less than impressed by the original pilot of Drive (shot last year with Ivan Sergei in the Nathan Fillion role), I'm really looking forward to seeing the new version, with its new cast and a slightly altered direction.

Stay tuned as I try to get my greedy little mitts on the premiere episode.

Casting Couch: Fillion Shifts into "Drive"

That noise you hear? It's the collective sound of Firefly fans gasping for air as Captain Tightpants himself reunites with Firefly executive producer (and Joss Whedon collaborator) Tim Minear.

FOX has announced that Nathan Fillion has been cast as the lead in the midseason drama Drive, about an illegal underground race across America (think The Amazing Race on crack and throw in some violence and you get the idea). He'll play Alex Tully, a landscaper who is coerced into joining the race in order to track down his wife, who has been kidnapped by a mysterious syndicate.

Fillion replaces Ivan Sergei, who played Alex in the original pilot and who will next appear in the pilot for USA's dramedy To Love and Die in L.A.

According to Fillion, he was originally approached by Minear to participate in the pilot but had to turn it down thanks to scheduling issues (he was filming feature White Noise 2), but the two former co-workers met up at a summer barbeque and Minear again brought up the idea of Drive and showed him the pilot.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

Personally, I couldn't be happier. I saw the original pilot of Drive back in early November and Ivan Sergei was by far the least interesting element of the pilot, giving a somewhat wooden performance that failed to make the menace, breakneck speed, and tension of the race really come alive. Being a huge fan of Fillion, I think he'll add an emotional, sympathetic note to Alex that's really needed for the audience to jump in his pickup truck with him.

While I was a little disappointed by some elements of the original pilot, I do hear that storylines and characters are being rejiggered for the second go around and Fillion's involvement definitely piques my interest.

And who knows? Maybe Wash and the rest of the gang can turn up along the way.

FOX Shifts Into Gear with Tim Minear's "Drive"

Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines.

FOX has ordered 12 episodes of midseason drama Drive, on top of the pilot, which was shot over the summer outside of the normal production calendar. The 13 episodes are scheduled to launch this spring, possibly using American Idol as a lead-in. (Not such good news for the space-themed drama Beyond, however, which was also in contention for a spring slot and will not be moving forward.)

From the minds of Tim Minear (Angel) and Ben Queen (Century City), Drive revolves around an ensemble cast as the participate in an illegal cross-country race, a la The Amazing Race. Only there's no Phil Keoghan waiting at the pit stop and there's a twist that hasn't yet been revealed (I had a sneak peek at the script a few months back but my lips are sealed). Plus, this is one race in which all of the participants need to win, but there will only be one victor crowned at the end.

According to Minear, the hour-long drama will be a blend of Cannonball Run and The Game. (Um, the film with Michael Douglas, not the CW sitcom.) "I described it to Joss [Whedon] as Magnolia on wheels," Minear told Variety. "It's really about the people in those cars."

Those people will include Alan Ruck, Kristin Lehman, Melanie Lynskey, Shahine Ezell, Andres Saenz-Hudson, Emily Stone, and Ivan Sergei (who was himself recently cast in USA's pilot for To Live and Die in LA, opposite Shiri Appleby and Tim Matheson), among others. Uniquely, the series features a device by which the extended cast can expand or contract, according to the writer/producers' needs. In the meantime, FOX is expected to change some elements of Drive's pilot, which could include recasting some of the above actors, so don't be surprised if all of the above don't make it into the finished cut.

Additionally, the series will go on to explore the minds behind the race, or the "puppetmasters," as Minear calls them. Now that doesn't sound at all ominous, does it?

I don't know about you but I can't wait for Drive to rev its engines and tear up some pavement.