In an effort to avoid the dubious distinction that comes with green-lighting the first cancelled show of the Fall, the CW tried their best to bury the news that production has been officially halted on THE BEAUTIFUL LIFE: TBL late Friday afternoon. But try as they might, the CW couldn’t stop the tweet. Which is why we thought it might be fun to compile our ten favorite TBL related ones, starting off of course with our own shameless twitter plug reaction upon hearing the news.

“Sorry CW, there is no hiding your massive failure on “Take Out the Trash Day.” THE WEST WING taught us well” @theTVaddict

“When the CW didn’t even bother sending out finished review copy of TBL pilot, the writing (or lack of) was already on the cancellation wall.” @roushtvguidemag

“I’m sad that Corbin Bleu took off his clothes for nothing. Colon TBL we hardly knew ya” @duckydoestv

“Bring on Life UneXpected! RT @TheLiveFeed: CW cancels Ashton Kutcher’s Beautiful Life – first cancellation of the fall http://bit.ly/fDuh9“ @stayingin

“This means I can delete that episode of “The Beautiful Life: TBL” from my DVR! http://bit.ly/FZ58g“ @hitfixdaniel

“‘Beautiful’ Disaster: CW tries to bury news of ‘Beautiful Life’ cancelation over Yom Kippur weekend. http://tinyurl.com/yd4vssn“ @TVMoJoe

“So my decision to not bother reviewing TheBeautifulLife paid off. Way to go, me.” @moryan

“it appears life wasnt so beautiful for the cw show – the beautiful life is fall’s first cancellation.” @laceyVRose

“Beautiful Life – They should have just turned the cast into models…wait for it…. who are also vampires. “That’s gold Jerry! Gold!”,” @seat42f

“CW cancels “The Beautiful Life”; will Mischa Barton blame wisdom teeth?” @gailpennington

Next season, The CW will introduce LIFE UNEXPECTED, a heartfelt midseason entry that may remind some viewers of the network’s predecessor, The WB. 

The resemblance to the shows that defined the WB is not unjustified. Creator Liz Tigelaar’s college internship at DAWSON’S CREEK turned into a staff job, where she worked alongside Greg Berlanti. She later went on to write for Berlanti’s ABC drama BROTHERS & SISTERS.

LIFE UNEXPECTED stars Britt Robertson as Lux, a teenage girl searching for her biological parents after being bounced around in the foster care system for fifteen years. The subject is close to Tigelaar’s heart, who was briefly in foster care as a baby before being adopted.  

“One thing that came to light when I was meeting with the writers was just how much of this story was something that had been with me my whole life,” Tigelaar said during a Q&A on Wednesday. “This idea of, ‘Where are my young, cool parents?’ No matter how great your own family is and my parents are wonderful, you can’t help but when you’re sixteen be in a fight with your mom and be like, ‘My real, cool, young, hot mom would totally understand! She would buy me beer!’” 

During the two years that “Life” was in development, Tigelaar found out who her birth parents were, but growing up, she had her own wild ideas about who her mother was. 

“I was born in D.C. That was one of the only things I knew. I was born in the ’70s. I really thought Nancy Reagan was my birth mom. In a really profound way, I believed it,” Tigelaar said. “As I got older, I obviously was able to do basic math and realize this was not possible. And as I became more of a liberal democrat, I realized this was not my preference.” 

In the series, Lux’s young, cool mom and morning radio show host Cate is played by Shiri Appleby, who’s torn between co-host/fiancé Ryan (Kerr Smith) and Lux’s dad/bar owner Baze (Kristoffer Polaha), who’s suddenly reentered Cate’s life. Both workplaces will provide plenty of opportunities to incorporate music into the series. 

Smith starred on DAWSON’S CREEK, but Tigelaar insists his casting is pure coincidence. 

“He literally came in to audition and I was like, “Jack! It’s Jack McPhee. Why is Jack McPhee wanting to be Ryan Thomas?’ He read and he was amazing,” Tigelaar explained. “I hadn’t seen him since ‘Dawson’s.’ We didn’t know each other really well because the writers were here [in LA] and they were in Wilmington.” 

Appleby’s WB past may make things difficult if the show should ever want to do flashbacks of Cate and Baze’s high school years. 

“Shiri was on ROSWELL when she was 19 or 20, so I feel like we know what little Shiri looks like whereas with other people, we would be able to cast somebody else. I don’t know if we’ll be able to do that,” Tigelaar said of possible flashbacks. However, she kept some hope alive, saying it would be “hilarious” if production could figure out a way to make it work. 

While the pilot focuses mainly on Lux and the adult characters, future episodes will open up Lux’s world as Cate and Baze enroll her in their old high school. In episode two, we’ll find out Lux wasn’t being entirely truthful about her emancipation. 

“Lux had other plans. We find out she has a 18-year-old boyfriend named Bug,” Tigelaar teased. “Her best friend, Vanessa, was planning on getting emancipated, as well, and now Lux has screwed everything up.” There will be tension between her foster care friends, who feel ditched, and Lux, who doesn’t really want to give up her new family. 

LIFE UNEXPECTED begins filming in Vancouver, B.C., Sept. 28, but is set in Portland, Oregon. Tigelaar dabbled with the idea of setting the show in Seattle (too many doctors), San Francisco (too glitzy), but finally settled on Portland because it “felt really unexplored” and gave the show a “Juno”-esque “indie feel for television.” 

Vlada resides in Los Angeles, where there are stars in the sky and on the ground. She has worked for TVWeek, Starpulse.com, SignOnSanDiego.com and The Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills, CA. She runs the TV blog Staying In and can be found on Twitter: @stayingin.

What am I looking at? Well, since you asked (1) A network that has so little faith in the intelligence of their audience — not to mention the show itself — that they’re taking the easy out by selling sex as opposed to such silliness as a plot or even concept; (2) A network that cancelled PRIVILEGED, a warm, witty, heartfelt show I wouldn’t be ashamed to let my non-existent daughter watch and replaced it with a show headlined by an actress who is no one’s idea of a role model; (3) A network so worried about the possibility (read: likelihood) of said actress’ well-publicized “personal problems” resurfacing that she’s been all-but-eliminated from the latest pre-launch publicity push (more of which can be seen after the jump); and (4) A show that will no doubt be a big hit — within the desired demographic — for the network, proving yet again that this TV Addict is rapidly becoming both too old and too smart for some of the crap being foisted upon us by The CW.

On why SMALLVILLE was the best choice for Friday: It was the best way to open up Friday, with a big established hit like SMALLVILLE.

On what the CW can offer to guys over 35: There are a lot of men who watch SMALLVILLE, SUPERNATURAL and TOP MODEL. Maybe they don’t admit it, but people come up to me all the time and tell me they love the network.

On the future of SMALLVILLE: This season I think the producers have done a great job. Zod is going to be the big villain and we’re all going to be kneeling to Zod. The cast is excited, as are the producers and we have high hopes for it staying on the air.

On the future of SUPERNATURAL: Eric Kripke has done a great job with the show and creatively it has gotten stronger every year. The cast is wonderful and we’re hopeful that it will stay on the air. (FYI: That noise you just heard was the squee of 2 million fangirls.)

On the status of the GOSSIP GIRL spinoff: Right now it doesn’t look likely.

On the possibility of a MELROSE PLACE/ 90210 crossover: With both shows set (and filming) in LA, I think that is something that we will explore.

On Mischa Barton’s health: It was not even an issue. We’re happy that she’s better but what went on in her personal life is a personal matter.

On the possibility of Michael Rosenbaum shaving his head again: The idea has always been to keep the character [of Lex Luthor] alive and make his presence really felt. I wouldn’t rule it out but I don’t know if it will happen this season. I don’t know that we’ve had a conversation with Michael.

On the future of the most-buzzed-about-pilot nobody’s seen: BODY POLITIC is dead. I’ve been doing this for a long time and I’ve never been in a situation where literally every pilot we’ve shot this year could have been on the schedule. They were just all great pilots, almost like a “Sophie’s Choice.”

Wait until you all see the new shows. Life UneXpected and Vampire Diaries are classic WB and perfect for CW. Life will remind many of Felicity, Gilmore and Juno. Melrose Place is just plain Fun. Full disclosure–I work for The CW. I also worked at The WB, including Everwood, GG, Smallville et. al, and our new shows have great potential. It isn’t easy building a network–especially in the digital age–but we are well on our way. See what you think a year from now. Thank you.

Thoughts?

Not to start a panic or anything among SMALLVILLE fans, but… um, yeah, enjoy the upcoming ninth season because chances are, it’ll be the last. Looking to place blame? Thinking maybe the rising production costs (including the ever-growing salary of star Tom Welling) or the shrinking audience (season two averaged 6.3 million viewers a week while the eighth season reached only 3.7 million) will prove to be the show’s kryptonite? Possibly… but it’s beginning to look like an assisted suicide with the network itself playing the role of Dr. Kevorkian.

Why do we say this? Well, the newly-released CW schedule (which you can see after the jump) reveals that the new season will air on Friday nights at 8 p.m. And while we’d love nothing more than to believe this is an attempt by the CW to reclaim the night — once home of CBS’ long-running powerhouses DALLAS and FALCON CREST — from those who’ve proclaimed it a dead zone, the fact that SMALLVILLE is not only the very last show to make its fall debut, but is being paired with reruns of AMERICA’S NEXT TOP MODEL would seem to neutralize that theory. Adding insult to injury, the schedule sent out even misspelled the show’s name!

Sorry, folks, but this looks like a death trap that not even the not-quite-yet-a-man of Steel will be able to escape.

Tuesday September 8
8PM: 90210 (Season Premiere)
9PM: MELROSE PLACE (Series Premiere)

Wednesday September 9
8PM: AMERICA’S NEXT TOP MODEL (2-Hour Season Premiere)

Thursday September 10
8PM: THE VAMPIRE DIARIES” (Series Premiere)
9PM: SUPERNATURAL (Season Premiere)

Monday September 14
8PM: ONE TREE HILL (Season Premiere)
9PM: GOSSIP GIRL (Season Premiere)

Wednesday September 16
8PM: AMERICA’S NEXT TOP MODEL
9PM: THE BEAUTIFUL LIFE (Series Premiere)

Friday September 25
8PM: SMALLVILLE (Season Premiere)
9PM: AMERICA’S NEXT TOP MODEL (Encore Episodes)

In looking at current hits like GOSSIP GIRL and 90210, not to mention upcoming trashfests MELROSE PLACE and THE BEAUTIFUL LIFE, this TV Addict can’t seem to shake the feeling that you’ve completely lost touch with your network’s roots. That thought became all the more apparent after spending this past weekend enjoying the emotional roller-coaster that was EVERWOOD’s second season.

Seriously, what’s happened to the once proud CW… once home to GILMORE GIRLS, FELICITY and even 7TH HEAVEN, each of which, in their own ways, defined outstanding television. These shows entertained, enlightened and surprised us with their ability to illicit laughter, summon up tears and even, on occasion, teach us a thing or two about ourselves and the world in which we live. Say what you will about the off-charts-preachiness of Reverend Camden and his 7TH HEAVEN flock, but creator Brenda Hampton raised more social issues than anyone since the folks behind the ABC Afterschool Special’s we all grew up on. Conversely, the only thing the current crop of CW shows seem interested in raising are their character’s hemlines and/or levels of alcohol and drug consumption.

Don’t get me wrong; It’s not as if I have anything against mindless entertainment per se. (I am, after-all a TV Addict!) However, I can’t help but wonder why the CW has exiled every positive role model — including Rory Gilmore, Felicity Porter and Ephram Brown — in favor of badly-behaving bitches like Blair Waldorf and Naomi Clark or horny hounddogs like Chuck Bass. If the trash-talking backstabbers on AMERICA’S NEXT TOP MODEL are the closest thing you’ve got to aspirational characters, your network is in trouble.

XOXO,

The TV Addict

Turns out that spending money on actual programming is the CW’s kryptonite equivalent. With PRIVILEGED getting the ax, alongside THE GAME, EVERYBODY HATES CHRIS, potential pilots BODY POLITIC and LILY (The GOSSIP GIRL spinoff) and their entire Sunday night lineup.

Also joining the CW this fall is the network’s not-so-subtle-attempt to jump on the Vampire bandwagon with their TWILIGHT-inspired VAMPIRE DIARIES starring DEGRASSI alum Nina Dobrev, their Ashton Kutcher produced Mischa Barton AMERICA’S NEXT TOP MODEL companion THE BEAUTIFUL LIFE and the much-buzzed about re-boot of MELROSE PLACE, which will air following their equally hyped uber-disappointing re-boot of 90210.

Snap Judgements to come, full schedule after the jump.

MONDAY
8:00 PM: GOSSIP GIRL
9:00 PM: ONE TREE HILL

TUESDAY
8:00 PM: 90210
9:00 PM: MELROSE PLACE (New Series)

WEDNESDAY
8:00 PM: AMERICA’S NEXT TOP MODEL
9:00 PM: THE BEAUTIFUL LIFE (New Series)

THURSDAY
8:00 PM: THE VAMPIRE DIARIES (New Series)
9:00 PM: SUPERNATURAL

FRIDAY
8:00 PM: SMALLVILLE (New night)
9:00 PM: AMERICA’S NEXT TOP MODEL (Repeat)

MIDSEASON:
PARENTAL DISCRETION ADVISED

With the CW getting set to officially announce their Fall lineup tomorrow in New York City, theTVaddict.com is thrilled to be one of the first to offer up an early glimpse at the three new shows that we may-or-may-not be borderline too old to watch! Meet the cast of MELROSE PLACE MELROSE PLACE 2.0, MODELS INC THE BEAUTIFUL LIFE and TWILIGHT THE VAMPIRE DIARIES after the jump.

MELROSE PLACE Pictured (Left to Right): Stephanie Jacobsen as Lauren, Colin Egglesfield as Auggie, Ashlee Simpson as Violet, Shaun Sipos as David, Katie Cassidy as Ella, Michael Rady as Jonah, Jessica Lucas as Riley in MELROSE PLACE on The CW. Photo Credit: Patrick Ecclesine/The CW © 2009 The CW Network, LLC. All rights reserved.

THE BEAUTIFUL LIFE Pictured: Corbin Bleu as Isaac, Mischa Barton as Sonja, Nico Tortorella as Kai, Sara Paxton as Raina, Ben Hollingsworth as Chris, Ashley Madekwe as Marissa, Jordan Woolley as Egan in THE BEAUTIFUL LIFE on The CW. Photo Credit: Jan Thijs / The CW © 2009 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES Pictured: Ian Somerhalder as Daman, Nina Dobrev as Elena, Paul Wesley as Stefan in THE VAMPIRE DIARIES on The CW. Photo Credit: Kharen Hill / The CW © 2009 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Good News: The always hilarious Rachel Dratch returned to television this week. Bad News: Cementing her status as the female Rodney Dangerfield, playing second banana yet again to fellow SNL alum Amy Poehler in a LATE NIGHT WITH JIMMY FALLON sketch. [Video]

Good News: The CW’s fall sked is shaping up rather nicely, with the rumor du jour calling THE BEAUTIFUL LIFE (Misha Barton’s MODELS INC re-boot), MELROSE PLACE and VAMPIRE DIARIES (or as we’re calling it, TWILIGHT: The Series) virtual locks for the fall. Bad News: For some of our TV Addict favorites, with no mention being made of the new Jason Dohring/ Minka Kelly/ Brian Austin Green vehicle THE BODY POLITIC and the Brittany Snow/ Krysten Ritter/ Ryan Hansen GOSSIP GIRL spin-off. [Source]