The TV Set: American Fall TV Is Coming

9 September 2013 | 3:54 pm | Andrew Mast

"Robots are finally making their move to infiltrate our lives."

Robots are finally making their move to infiltrate our lives.

That said, even though vampires are well and truly out of favour, thanks to True Blood going True Dud, there will be a spin-off from The Vampire Diaries and a big-budget take on Dracula (Oct 25 in the US). [Lucky then that Buffy is back… well, Sarah Michelle Gellar anyway… more on that later.]

Two years back the TV-nerd chatter had it that zombies would be the new vampires but very little has been seen outside The Walking Dead – although France's The Returned is a likely target for an English-language remake while the UK three-parter In The Flesh starts on SBS Tuesday night. Who knows, zombies may yet rise up as our most beloved undead TV entertainment [insert your own breakfast TV host gag here].

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Real Humans

While the new US schedules only include one robot show so far the networks already want more robots (they are likely to be less demanding than a Charlie Sheen or Eva Longoria). Almost Human (actually produced by JJ Abrams' Bad Robot team) starts on November 4 in the States, no word of it being picked up here. Already there is word of Swedish robot series Real Humans being reworked for non-European consumption –although SBS should have the second season of the Scandinavian orginal soon after it begins in its home territory later this month. And, last week a TV take on '70s robofilm Westworld was announced for HBO (Bad Robot are rebooting, natch).

Crazy Ones

It's surprising then to see the real Sarah Michelle Gellar back and not reprising her much-loved, esp by Spike, Buffybot character. Surely there's a drafted pitch for that somewhere under JJ Abrams' boxes of old Felicity scripts. Instead, Gellar teams with former TV alien Mork (aka Robin Williams, riding a new wave of credibility thanks to a corker spot on Louie). However, their project The Crazy Ones is a David E Kelley sit-com… set in the ad agency world, expect Ally McBeal meets Crazy People (you know, the 1990 Dudley Moore film about an institutionalised ad exec). It starts September 27 in the US and Foxtel are screening it here as fast as they can download it.

It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia

Other than bots infiltrating our vampire/zombie downtime, there are some other highlights of the US fall (with local start dates where available):

It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia started back last week. We can expect to see it here legally before the Tokyo Olympic Games.

Sons Of Anarchy (season six) returns to Showcase on Wednesday night. We can only hope that they also return to something resembling a plot after last season's retread of leadership battles. But Foxtel's promo of the cast rumbling does not bode well.

Sleepy Hollow finds Ichabod Crane time-travelling to now with a team who worked together on Xena and Fringe… but also the new Hawaii 5-O. Starts September 16, Ten are 'fast-tracking'.

Some often over-looked comedies are back – with little chance of them being fast-tracked or expressed, having failed to gain traction here outside of torrentors and those who can follow networks last-minute bumping and deckchair-shuffling scheduling. So it's up to you how to source The Mindy Project (Sep 17), Parks & Recreation (Sep 27) and the animated Bob's Burgers (Oct 2).

Agents Of SHIELD

Seven are 'fast-tracking' two of the most buzzed-about shows of the new season. There's James Spader playing a most-wanted fugitive who hands himself into the FBI in The Blacklist (Sep 23) [All involved keep repeating that it's not like Silence Of The Lambs or Hannibal. Unfortunately, they've not said it won't be like the director's previous work which includes The A-Team film.] And, of course, they have Agents Of SHIELD (Sep 24) – you either have a countdown to its air date on your screen right now or you are someone who plays Under The Dome drinking games.

Trailers for Homeland (Sep 29) look like its producers have flipped the script as much as Claire Danes flips out over a green pen in season one. It needed it and Ten needs to deliver it quicker than it takes for spoiler Dana Brody memes to drop. 

Also returning are: Eastbound & Down (Sep 29) and Showcase are saying they are gonna fuck us up with some Kenny Fucken Powers' truth aysap. The Winchesters are back for season nine of Supernatural (Oct 8), Eleven look like being fast-trackish with it – and yes, Castiel signed on for another year. The aforementioned The Walking Dead (Oct 13) is being expressed to FX and rabid fans are itching to be the first top cry 'zombie shark jump' if season four slips too far back to season two sit-around-and-talk-about-your-feelings style as has been rumoured, despite the success of the Governor-generated splat of season three. [In the US this will screen with Comic Book Men, a reality show about Kevin Smith's comic shop. So far no word on FX picking it up from the two-for-one specials racks.] If Grimm (Oct 25) can keep on track away from its police procedural format, season three will be worth sticking with – but really, how many monsters can infest Portland before it loses its hipster status, or is it Sunnydale's sister city?

Hello Ladies

And those new shows that could be either the next big hit or gone faster than The Mole racing Excess Baggage for an 11pm digichannel timeslot. Yet to find homes in Australia yet: Party Down's Lizzy Caplan in high-end cable show Masters Of Sex (Sep 29); Hello Ladies is a Ricky Gervais-less HBO sit-com for Stephen Merchant (Sep 29); Rebel Wilson reunites with Little Britain's Matt Lucas for sit-com Super Fun Night (Oct 2); and The Tomorrow People (Oct 9) revamp of UK cult kids '70s sci-fi show is the latest for CW – after the pointless Arrow and the '80s (s)crapbook  Carrie's Diaries. CW needs robots.