• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, September 26, 2024

Since almost every new show coming down the pike is made available to journalists in advance of their premiere dates, the absence of two of them comes as a mild surprise.

One of them is the seagoing medical drama called “Doctor Odyssey.” It premieres Thursday night on ABC.

The other is this Sunday’s episode of “The Simpsons” that ushers in the show’s 36th season. 

Reviewing “Simpsons” season premieres is something of a fall tradition for the TV Blog, so you can imagine the disappointment of learning that a screener (slang for a show available for preview online) will not be available in advance for this year’s premiere.

Last year’s may not have been available in advance either. Indications are that the TV Blog swallowed its pride and reluctantly wrote about the show after it aired.

That was because of its timely storyline. The show was an allegory about unchecked power as Homer Simpson recruited his own private police force of loyal storm troopers to take over Springfield.

For this weekend’s season premiere, all the TV Blog has to go on is a description from Fox. “In ‘The Simpsons’ Season 36 premiere, Bart celebrates the most shocking birthday party of his entire life -- one that might just change everyone in Springfield forever.”

The only shocking birthday I can think of would be if the show has Bart actually aging a year, from 10 to 11.

But how this “might just change everyone in Springfield forever” is a question with an answer for which I have no guess.

Meanwhile, I cannot see a TV actor or reality star in a captain’s uniform without thinking about “The Love Boat.” This happened just last week in a TV Blog about “The Golden Bachelorette.”

In “Doctor Odyssey” on ABC, the fun-loving captain of the show’s luxury liner is Don Johnson, who is seen in uniform in the above photo.

The photo revives memories of the immortal Captain Stubing of “Love Boat,” played by the late Gavin MacLeod, although the TV Blog assumes (or at least guesses) that “Captain Odyssey” will not have a series of aging celebrity guest stars finding love on the high seas.

According to ABC, the show is about a “new on-board doctor for a luxury cruise ship where the staff works hard and plays harder. It’s all-hands-on-deck as [the new doc] and his small but mighty medical team navigate unique medical crises and each other, miles from shore.”

Based on long experience in the assessment of TV shows, the TV Blog guesses that this one figures to be “Grey’s Anatomy” on the bounding main.

The reasons given by publicists for the lack of screeners for “The Simpsons” and “Doctor Odyssey” were pretty much the same. 

Simply put, the shows’ productions schedules did not allow them to be provided to journalists before airtime. Or something like that.