What’s left to watch on network TV?

SOMETHING UNUSUAL HAPPENED AT THIS summer’s Television Critics Association press tour, an event where networks hype their upcoming slates to the media. During Fox’s presentation, journalists voiced concerns about Almost Family, a new drama that recalls several real cases of fertility fraud. The show opens with the revelation that a doctor (Timothy Hutton) has inseminated dozens of women with his own sperm, without their knowledge. Critics who had seen the show detected an incongruously breezy tone for a story of what several described as a medical rape. Seemingly caught off guard, creators Jason Katims and Annie Weisman promised to address Hutton’s character. But they also insisted his actions were beside the point; the salient theme, they said, was family.

I don’t think the show’s creators intended to make light of rape. Yet at a time when such story lines invite close scrutiny—and for good reason—Fox’s apparent failure to foresee