NBC Unveils SF and Fantasy Entries for New Season

Posted on April 3, 2008

NBC unveiled its upcoming television schedule and it's quite heavy with SF/Fantasy elements, which certainly works for us. Here's what's coming:

Fear Itself will debut on May 29. It is a horror anthology series from the makers of Masters of Horror.

Shows on the fall 2008-'09 schedule include Chuck and Heroes on Monday nights. Christian Slater will return in a new series called My Own Worst Enemy. NBC says Slater plays "Henry Spivey, an efficiency expert and married father of two who learns that he has an alter ego named Edward Albright, an operative who speaks numerous languages and can kill with his teeth." That sounds different and interesting.

A new Knight Rider series will air Wednesdays at 8 p.m. It stars Justin Bruening, Deanna Russo, Sydney Tamiia Poitier and Bruce Davison.

New shoes this fall will include Merlin, which is a fantasy series set in Camelot. It explores the famous characters' lives before they became legends. Anthony Head of Buffy fame has a big role in the series.

Kings is a modern-day spin on the King David tale. Francis Lawrence (I Am Legend) directed the pilot and will executive-produce the series as well.

NBC also announced a new four-hour miniseries called The Last Templar. It begins when four horsemen dressed as knights crash the New York Metropolitan Museum during the opening of an exhibition of Vatican treasures. They steal a medieval decoder and send archaeologist (Mira Sorvino) and FBI agent (Scott Foley) on a wild chase for the secrets of the Knights Templar.

We recently read the book, The Last Templar: we liked it and it should make a great miniseries. Plus -- Victor Garber from Alias! Well, and of Eli Stone. And Mira Sorvino, too. That works quite well.

In addition to the new shows, there will also be new webisodes for Heroes, Chuck and The Office, which will debut on NBC.com beginning in July. Additional chapters of webisodes for each show will roll out throughout the season.