• by Paul Gough , May 12, 2003

As NBC moves into the season before it goes without Friends and Frasier, it charted a course heavy on scripted comedies and dramas and familiar faces. Surprises included the return of critical favorites like Ed and Boomtown, the ditching of Watching Ellie and Kingpin, and the renewal of Good Morning, Miami.

NBC Entertainment President Jeff Zucker said that the network's priorities for the upcoming season included premiering strong comedies and keeping its focus on dramas along with fixing problem night Tuesday.

"I think we've hit on all three goals," Zucker said.

The schedule includes a number of familiar names, including Rob Lowe's new legal drama, The Lyon's Den; James Caan, Las Vegas; Alicia Silverstone and Ryan O'Neal, Miss Match; Whoopi Goldberg, in Whoopi; and John Larroquette and Christine Baranski, both in Happy Family. Returning shows include Law & Order's three programs, The West Wing, ER, Will & Grace, and Fear Factor. Along with Boomtown, the other 2002-03 shows returning to the schedule are Good Morning, Miami, Scrubs and American Dreams.

Even with the announcement of the programs that would make the fall schedule, Zucker acknowledged that Friends would be in its last season and that this year would also be the last for Frasier. Zucker said that this season's Tuesday schedule had not been kind to Frasier and that NBC's priority was finding out how to change that.

"Frasier operated as an island on the entire night and it wasn't fair to that show," Zucker said. Frasier will now be surrounded by a two-hour block of comedies and then move Law & Order: Special Victims Unit from Friday nights to 10 p.m. Tuesdays.

On Wednesdays and Thursdays, NBC focused on stability with only two changes. Ed, which had moved to 9 p.m. Fridays near the end of the season and was also considered "on the bubble," returns to 8 p.m. Wednesdays as a lead-in to The West Wing. Law & Order stays at 10 p.m. Wednesdays. Thursdays remains essentially the same, with a new show - Coupling - moving into Good Morning, Miami's vacated space. Coupling is based on a BBC show that Zucker promised will retain its edgy, sexy attitude even though it's going to be on more inhibited American television. And though it will be Friends' last season, Zucker said that NBC had just inked a two-year extension with the producers of ER to keep it on the air at least another three years.

Zucker said that Crossing Jordan would return in January after the birth of star Jill Hennessey's first child and that two other program, sitcom The Tracy Morgan Show and unscripted The Apprentice, would be waiting in the wings with a commitment to air by the beginning of next year. The Apprentice, from Survivor creator Mark Burnett, pits 16 contestants to vie for a $250,000-a-year job with Donald Trump. Not surviving the cut are The Ortegas, Watching Ellie and Kingpin.

Fear Factor and The Apprentice are the only two unscripted series on the NBC schedule, and Zucker said it's no accident.

"We do believe in reality, we just think it has its place. For us, principally, that place is in the summer. We know who we are and what we want to be. NBC is committed to scripted comedies and dramas," Zucker said. He said that you know what you get when you buy scripted programming, but that's not the case with unscripted series. "You're looking for lightning in a bottle and it happened this year," Zucker said in a reference to Fox's Joe Millionaire. "But it's very rare for lightning in a bottle to happen twice."