Well guess what? The casting didn't save this clunker, and yet it still made the FOX schedule. Which is really a shame since some of the other FOX sitcom pilots were a lot more promising.

The story goes like this: Nice guy Henry returns home from a fishing trip to find out his girlfriend Heather is breaking up with him because “things aren’t awesome anymore.” Henry gets pissed off because he moved to Chicago to work for Heather's uncle, but of course now that Heather has dumped him, Henry is also SOL on the job front.

Henry decides he doesn't want the relationship to end, so he decides he has to stay in the same apartment building to keep an eye on Heather and wait for her to come back to her senses. Henry asks the building super (who I think by sitcom law has to have a "Russian" accent) if there is an available apartment, but he's told there isn't. However, there is a guy looking for a roommate!

Henry then meets Larry, a care-free, swingin' Internet t-shirt peddler, who is looking for a roommate after his previous roommate, Brad, moved out with his ball-busting fiancé. Blah blah blah, Larry hooks Henry up with a job interview, Henry moves in with Larry, and by the end of it all you so don't care it's ridiculous.

What we end up with is an “Odd Couple” of sorts, where you have two outlooks on love. Henry is very optimistic, Larry is very cynical. But the bottom line is, none of it is very funny. The characters seem very one dimensional, the jokes fall flat, and I was pretty bored the entire time. The only thing I can say is that by the end of "Happy Hour" I really did want a drink.

“Ugly Betty” is adapted from the very popular Telemundo show “Betty La Fea.” But since I slept through almost all of my Spanish classes in High School, I never bothered to check out “Betty La Fea” on Telemundo so I guess I’ll have to settle for the ABC version.

The show is the story of Betty Suarez, a homely young lady from a poor family in Queens. Betty desperately wants to work in the publishing business, but when she shows up for her interview, she is told the position has been filled. But lucky for Betty, Bradford Meade the big wig of Meade Publishing, witnessed poor Betty getting the brush off. So he arranges to make sure that Betty gets a job. Meanwhile, Bradford’s son Daniel has just been named the head honcho at the popular fashion magazine Mode, but he seems to be taking the title “head” honcho a bit too literally what with his constant sexual escapades with his assistants. So, to keep Daniel in line, Bradford hires good ol’ ugly Betty to be his son’s assistant. Unhappy with the situation, Daniel treats Betty like crap to try and get her to quit, and then comedy and tender moments meet along the way.

A handful of other characters round out the show, including Vanessa Williams’ Wilhelmina, a former super model who wants Daniel’s job, and Amanda the pretty, yet stupid receptionist who would much rather be Daniel’s assistant.

As I mentioned earlier, I was fully prepared to hate this show, but it was funny enough, charming enough, and dare a say “cute” enough to make for an enjoyable viewing. It’s far from perfect, (in fact, the premise itself isn’t too far from recently axed ABC sitcom “Less Than Perfect”) but what can I tell you? I found myself chuckling a few times, and I was actually quite surprised at the “adult” humor. I can’t say for sure that “Ugly Betty” will be appointment viewing for TVadviceguy, but I will certainly watch a few and see where it goes.

It's kinda "Lost" meets "What About Brian." The coincidences that bring these strangers together are a bit "Lost" like, and the various relationship stories reminded me a bit of "Brian." But, it's also a bit of a soap opera, too. So it has all sorts of things working for it, or against it depending on your tastes.

Like most shows these days, "Six Degrees" has a narrator, this time it's this dude Carlos who is a public defender who falls for one of his clients, Mae (the always irritating Erika Christensen). Mae has a shady past and throughout the show is on phone calls with a mysterious man. So you know she's got all sorts of crazy shit going on.

Anyway, while Carlos is tracking down Mae, he befriends a limo driver named Damien. Damien has a dicey past his own-self, as he is in debt from gambling losses. Meanwhile Mae gets a nanny job for single mother, and recent widow Laura. See how all these people are already crossing paths in weird ways?

OK, so Laura then hits it off with this chick Whitney as they are both getting mani-pedis next to each other. Whitney works for a big time ad agency, and she just hired a recovering drug addict photographer who also seems to have - yep you guessed it - a sketchy past!

Those are your six main characters, but of course each has their troubled stories such as cheating fiances, and siblings who work for underground gangs. You know, the usual.

After about twenty minutes of watching "Six Degrees," frankly I was bored. But slowly, I was being drawn into the borderline absurd concept that "anyone on the planet can be connected to any other person through a chain of six people" as Carlos tells us in narration at the end of the pilot.

Once you make that concession, "Six Degrees" is a fun, intriguing, and potentially addictive show.

The story is basically as such: Four different characters who all went to the same high school together have found themselves far from where they expected they’d be. And on the same night, they all have life altering meltdowns. There’s Sherman (Greg Germann), a successful diet guru who hijacks a pastry truck after he finds out his wife has left him. Harry (Jonathan Silverman) leaves his young son with a babysitter as he goes to get a massage (the kind with a ‘happy ending’). At the massage parlor he finds his masseuse is high school valedictorian Kelly (Kelly Hu). Harry rescues Kelly from her abusive boyfriend, and they go back to his house where Harry soon gets a call from his friend Jason (David Arquette.) Jason, after finding out his Enron-like company is going belly up, botches a suicide attempt and shoots himself in the foot instead.

After I read the script a few months ago, I wasn’t sure I was entirely sold on “In Case of Emergency.” Now after watching the pilot, I still am not sure I am sold on “In Case of Emergency.” Not that there’s any thing in particular that terrible about the show, there’s just nothing in particular that kicks my ass, either.

It’s got humor, but I don’t think I ever laughed. It’s got interesting characters, but I wasn’t too curious about what happens next. And therein lies the problem. I just don’t know if I’ll care to watch future episodes.

On the bright side, I did rather enjoy seeing Jonathan Silverman back on TV. So there’s that.

In this unrealistic portrayal of a relationship, the husband, Peter Cambor presses his wife, Jennifer Westfeldt to have a baby. Why?!? Why is this man not content to enjoy his home as it is? Why is he so adverse to watching TV, drinking beer, getting eight hours of uninterrupted rest and sleeping with his wife sans screaming baby ?! Because he is an emasculated puss carting his own testes around in his wife’s designer purse while she shops at the mall with her rich sassy, oversexed friend, that's why. Not the type of characters I enjoy watching.

It’s difficult to see where this show will go. Hopefully in a climactic sweeps episode she suffers a miscarriage then maybe some real story lines will develop. Typically television comedy reserves the “she gives birth” episode for the jump she shark season. This show hopes to build upon it. We here at TAG say, "Notes From The Underbelly" did not jump the shark. It attempted to, but fell in midway only to be torn limb from limb by a hungry hammerhead. Quite the feat for a show that has not even aired.

Let's get it right out of the way: "30 Rock" does not rock.

The problem with "30 Rock" is that the show is pretty much unfunny. Think "Saturday Night Live"-sketch-number-eight-of-the-night funny. Yeah, it's pretty bad. Here are the things stacked against the success of "30 Rock":

1) It's too "inside." Have you ever been an NBC page? No? Oh, well then you won't even like the NBC page character probably, and he's one of the funnier characters. And if you've never been the head writer of TV show or a VP of development at a major TV network, then it's also very unlikely you will relate to this show.

2) Tina Fey is in no danger of winning an Emmy award for acting.

3) Tracy Morgan wasn't that good in "Saturday Night Live" or "The Tracy Morgan Show." Well, he's not that good here, either.

4) I've heard one of the main reasons "30 Rock" was picked up was because Lorne Michaels threw a shit-fit after learning "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" was being picked up, but his precious "30 Rock" was not. He threw around his weight (which couldn't be too much since the guy is just short of dwarfism) and the powers that be buckled. Could be just a rumor, but it's the only explanation for this show getting a series order.

Now, to be fair, there is one highlight of this otherwise disappointing show. Alec Baldwin is great; Funny, charming, and smarmy all at once. If there's anything good to come out of this show, it's that Alec Baldwin should be in a sitcom.

But here is the official TVadviceguy prediction: Nobody Is Going To Watch This Show. This Show Is Like A Bad SNL Sketch Stretched Out To 22 Minutes (Joe Piscipo Years), And Will Be Yanked After Three Episodes.

You heard it here first folks. And if we're wrong, then, well, we weren't wrong. NBC was wrong.