Astral has recently announced fall 2010 schedules for the six premium-cable properties it owns.  For the purposes of this site, I will just highlight two Canadian premieres and one returning series.

Call Me Fitz, the Jason Priestley sitcom, will debut Sunday, September 19, 2010 at 8:00 PM ET/MT.  The show also stars Ernest Grunwald, Peter MacNeill, Kathleen Munroe, Tracy Dawson, Donavon Stinson and Brooke Nevin.

Durham County‘s third and final season will debut October 2010, with no specific date or time announced so far.  The show stars Hugh Dillon, Hélène Joy, Laurence Leboeuf and Greyston Holt.  Michael Nardone will join the cast for Durham County‘s swan song.  Both Durham County and Call Me Fitz will air on HBO Canada.

Meanwhile, Family Channel will debut Connor Undercover Friday, September 17, 2010 at 9:30 PM ET/PT.  The show will stay in the Friday timeslot for the duration of its run.  The show stars Max Morrow, Lola Tash and Jordan Francis.

Call Me Fitz will debut with back-to-back episodes.  I’m not sure if that’s a good sign.  This line from the press bumf worries me a bit:

His sybaritic lifestyle undergoes a radical transformation after a disastrous test-drive puts a potential customer in a coma and unleashes Fitz’s conscience, literally, in the form of Larry, a gentle man intent on rehabilitating Fitz’s battered psyche.

Oh boy!  A crisis-of-conscience sitcom!  The trailer looks better than the concept, at least.  I get the feeling Call Me Fitz was pitched as “Jason Priestley is a conflicted asshole!…yeah, we’ll come up with more later.”  At least it’s not the Minder ripoff I thought it was going to be.

As for airing Durham County on HBO Canada…why?  That’s an arbitrary move, considering HBO Canada is a sister channel to The Movie Network/Movie Central.  While I’m looking forward to DC‘s final season, what’s wrong with airing it on TMN/MC?

The two networks have a branding I don’t fully understand, other than HBO Canada airing HBO shows and The Movie Network/Movie Central airing Showtime shows.  I don’t think there’s much of a distinction.  As an aside, that new Astral logo is a multicoloured turd, isn’t it?

The Movie Network and Movie Central have recently announced their 2010-11 production slate, with three renewals, three new series and two original films.  Renewed shows include Living in Your Car (second season), Call Me Fitz (second season), and Less Than Kind (third season.)  Call Me Fitz is an odd renewal, as the show hasn’t even debuted yet.

New shows and original films include:

Just For Laughs: Funny as Hell (working title), which is essentially the Just For Laughs gala with digital shorts bunged onto the side.  On the plus side, Jon Dore’s the host, so his wraparound segments might actually be entertaining.

Skins, a Canada/UK remake of the E4 series about teens surviving their two years in sixth form.  Yes, this is the show that will air on MTV.  Toronto will stand in for Baltimore.  Isn’t that great?

The Yard, a Whizbang Films series sold as The Sopranos on the playground.  I assume this is an adult-oriented series, considering Michael Mabbott’s pedigree and the fact that it comes from the production company behind Cra$h & Burn.  I’m cautiously optimistic about this one.

Sleepyhead and Scaredycat, two feature-length Canada/UK co-productions.  The films are adaptations of Mark Billingham’s first two Tom Thorne detective novels.

---

Call Me Fitz is set to debut September 2010.  All other new shows will debut sometime in 2011.  All returning shows will air their new seasons in 2011.  No word on whether the shows will air on TMN/MC or HBO Canada.

The only new all-Canadian show in TMN/MC’s 2010-11 production slate is The Yard.  Why isn’t Skins set in a Canadian city, anyway?  Are Canadian teens all that different from American teens?  Also, why Just For Laughs?  Does Canada need to see abbreviated versions of well-known standup acts that badly?

At the same time, I like TMN/MC.  The premium-cable duopoly helps, but The Movie Network and Movie Central have launched a number of successful shows over the years – ReGenesis, Durham County, Living in Your Car, The Outer Limits (1995), Slings and Arrows and Sanctuary.  That’s not a bad legacy.

I like the 2010-11 production schedule – there are four new shows for 2010-11, a few returning shows, and no obvious burnoffs.  Add in some returning shows, including Durham County, and that’s as stable as television gets in Canada.

That said, I hope The Yard is as good as its premise will allow it to be.  The idea sounds fun, and more in keeping with how kids actually act.  Hell, Disney’s Recess is just kids reacting to totalitarianism.  How far off the mark could The Yard be?