NBC’s Fall Lineup Includes James Spader in The Blacklist and Mike O’Malley in Welcome to the Family

NBC has released trailers for their fall lineup, and two new shows have caught our eye, Welcome to the Family and The Blacklist. While the plot lines presented in the trailers look a little played, we’re still rooting for the stars of the shows, James Spader and Mike O’Malley, who both have Boston ties in their own ways.

Monday nights after The Voice this fall, James Spader (who played Alan Shore on Boston Legal) will star in The Blacklist, a drama in which his character, fugitive Raymond “Red” Reddington, turns himself in to the FBI. He says he’ll help authorities take down a long list of bad guys, but only through communications with rookie agent Elizabeth “Liz” Keen. Contained crime fighting tales in each episode? A mysterious arc to last three seasons before we find out something along the lines of, “Elizabeth, I am your father”? The Blacklist looks like a crapshoot crime drama basket that NBC is putting a lot of its eggs into.

If The Blacklist represents NBC’s effort to wade deeper into crime dramas, then Welcome to the Family is its 372nd attempt to steal Modern Family fans from ABC. Mike O’Malley stars in the comedy, in which two families are forced together when their kids procreate. How original!

Don’t recognize the name Mike O’Malley? Well, you’ll surely recognize his face. The younger crowd knows O’Malley as the world’s coolest dad on FOX’s Glee. He plays Burt Hummel, Kurt’s dad, who has been a firm supporter of his gay son for several seasons now. Below, watch one of Burt Hummel’s greatest moments on Glee, when he scolds Finn for using the term “fag.”

Aside from his breakout moments on Glee, O’Malley has previously played the “average Joe sports guy” type spokesman on a number of commercials. O’Malley was born in Boston and is a big fan of the Red Sox and Bruins, which shone through in his ads on ESPN as “The Rick”:

Welcome to the Family will air on NBC this fall on Thursdays.