PTC: CBS Has Best and Worst for Fall

It was the best of networks, it was the worst of networks.

The Parents Television Council's TV reviewers have picked one best and one worst out of the new crop of fall season shows, and both are on CBS.

PTC has named three in each category in the past, but said this year it said that only one show was really good, CBS's Me, Myself and I, and one truly bad, CBS' 9JKL.

PTC called Me, Myself and I a touching story that "movingly demonstrates how small events at age 14 can greatly shape a life…but also things that seem disastrous at age 14 (or 40) will ultimately turn out okay. "

PTC recommended it for parents and children to watch and talk about together.

On the other end of the scale was 9JKL, which PTC said it did not recommend to anyone, branding it a "laughless” mélange of stereotypes, sex and "toilet humor."

Fox came within a photon's width of making PTC's nice list with The Orville, ironically from Seth MacFarlane, whose Family Guy has drawn PTC's continuing ire.

"Fox’s The Orville comes tantalizingly close to being a positive family show, but falls just a little bit short," PTC said, saying there was just enough "inappropriate humor" to not be able to recommend it for children.

But PTC did call the show an "exceptional Star Trek-themed program with top-notch special effects and quality acting and storytelling."

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.