Proposed Fall Schedules for NBC and ABC

It's that time of year with spring rains and the watering of a new crop of fall TV programs.  NBC and ABC have already announced their new shows.  While many of these shows are simply rehashing existing programs (aka cops and robbers, sexy doctors, dysfunctional funny families), a few of the more supernatural programs indicate an interesting movement away from the pack.  Here are two I found most interesting:

-- NBC's Grimm:  Brought to you by the producers of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, this new show tells the story of a police detective who is also one of the last remaining members of the Grimm family.  And, of course, members of the Grimm family have a unique ability to see things the rest of us cannot - monsters in every walk of life.  It's an interesting premise and not too far away from the CW's Supernatural, which also brought urban ghost stories back to life.  The tag line of the show is "Remember the fairy tales your parents used to tell you before bedtime? Well, those weren't stories, they were warnings."  Catchy, and maybe a show that you should keep away from the kids for now.

-- ABC's Once Upon a Time:  In this case, the producers from Lost take you on a strange journey that hopefully will make a little more sense than their last show (even though that show had its own fantasies).  Emma Swan connects with her long lost son and visits the New England town of Storybrooke where the entire town is part of a fairy tale.  The scenes remind me of a cross between BBC's Merlin and SyFy's Haven, but I am ready for a good show and hopefully this one has some staying power.  Here is a litte more from the producer posted at blastr.com (and it is not clear if this really helps to sell the new series): 

According to ABC Entertainment president Paul Lee, Once Upon a Time is "completely unlike Lost. But in some ways it's like Lost ... because it's about a group of people who are trapped." While the new series will use flashbacks like Lost, those flashbacks will be of the fairytale world the characters come from, he said.