I have a response to Lucas' post from last week, but I'll save it for later so that this doesn't become a football blog. Without David's annual Fall TV recommendations this year I was unsure about what new shows to watch, so I did more research than I normally would into this year's premieres. What I found was that all the new shows fell into three camps: 1) Non-SciFi Shows with a slightly scifi edge (i.e. Heroes ripoffs) 2) Shows about rich people and their various trappings of success (i.e. Desperate Housewives ripoffs, seemingly ABCs entire Fall lineup) and 3) Horribly-conceived comedies based on characters from 30-second commercial spots (OK, fine, I guess there is only one of these, but it's still one too many). I'd like to talk about #1 for a bit, because I think that it's an interesting offshoot of pop culture as a whole.

Due to the efforts of networks to copy each other's successes, TV shows travel in packs. In the mid 90's, thanks to the success of Seinfeld and Friends ensemble comedies about single 20-somethings ruled the airwaves (anyone remember Townies?). In the early 2000's, it was all about cheaply-made reality shows. But between these two periods there were a couple of years where the trend was what I like to call "fat oaf with hot wife" shows.

The husbands didn't necessarily have to be fat, nor the wives hot, but the husbands invariably worked at middle class-ish jobs and were clueless about anything having to do with the household and the wives were successful businesswomen who also had to do all the housework and shopping and take care of their men like children. Somehow we went from Cliff Huxtable, doctor and head of the household, to the King of Queens, for whom an hour at the grocery store was more complex than brain surgery. Anyone from another country who turned on a television then must've thought that, between these shows and the commercials that still run to this day, American men are all overweight idiots financially supported by their wives who would neglect their children and live in a cesspool of filth if left to their own devices.

A common joke in these shows would feature a husband having to run to the grocery store to pick up something small, like a bottle of ketchup, and they would end up coming back with all manner of snack foods but either no ketchup or the wrong kind of ketchup, as if to say these men are so stupid they can't even mentally compare the products in the store to the product they see on their kitchen table every night. Ha! I'm rolling on the floor...

Well we seem to have come full circle. Now more and more men in television shows are quirky, adorable nerds who are socially-awkward geniuses. Many have written on the geeking up of Hollywood, to the point where on a show like The O.C. the fan favorite and star of the show was not the hunky protagonist or the star athlete or the waifish female eye candy but the lovable geek who draws comic books.

Our all-American archetype is no longer the quarterback of the football team but instead the geek who does the QB's homework and fixes his computer. This paradigm shift has mostly been attributed to the fact that all of the Hollywood writers were the socially awkward teens on the fringe of high school society and are just writing what they know, but I think there's more to it. In our high-tech culture, advertisers have realized that the ones with the most disposable income to spend are the former high school nerds. Watch one of these geek hero shows and you won't see the usual "This is ouuuuuuurr countryyyyy..." car ads, but instead ads for business productivity software and all flavors of cell phones (including the iPhone, which in a recent spot managed to prevent a flight from being delayed. Apple. Is there anything it can't do?). All the kids who grew up watching Mr. Wizard and playing with Legos are now the ones driving the economy. This all begs the question, has the shift made it down to the high school level? Is the A/V club the place to be now, or is it still the quarterback hooking up with the head cheerleader?

Now for some picks:

SF at ATL: The funniest thing about the 49ers is that the Patriots get their 1st round draft pick next year, so the more they lose the better it gets for the Pats. Somehow I can't see them losing to Joey Harrington, though. SF

CIN at BUF: Trade Chad Johnson? Why would they get rid of the one player on their team who is crazy but not a criminal? BUF

DEN at DET: This feels so wrong... DET

CAR at TEN: A 43 year old quarterback got hurt in his 2nd game back from retirement? I'm as shocked as you are... TEN

GB at KC: The Packers have the worst running game I've ever seen. I think they're better off spotting the other team 14 points and then having to come back than taking an early lead and having to run out the clock. GB

SD at MIN: "Chargers have a clear edge against Vikings" says ESPN.com. Really? What makes you say that? Is it the fact that the Vikings have no QB or that their coach refuses to start their best running back? SD

JAX at NO: Don't call it a comeback...no, I'm serious, don't call it a comeback. They're not very good. JAX

WAS at NYJ: Boy, those Redskins looked great last week in New England. Now it's their turn to run up the score. WAS

AZ at TB: I have zero clue about this game, none at all. TB

SEA at CLE: The Cleveland Browns are proof that having a good offensive line will make the whole rest of your team look better. CLE

NE at IND: It kind of annoys me that people were already complaining that this game was overhyped last Sunday. It's one thing to complain about it on Wednesday or Thursday after ESPN has beaten it into your heads all week that this is the only game worth watching, but it is kind of a big deal that two undefeated teams are facing each other in November and they're both actually good. NE

HOU at OAK: Yikes, GIDCAOTW. HOU

DAL at PHI: At this point I think the Eagles have a reverse home field advantage. DAL

BAL at PIT: I'd be tempted to pick Baltimore, but they already lost to Cincinnati on a Monday night and their offense rivals the Bears' in terms of boredom. PIT