ABC Entertainment and Disney’s joint TCA presentations began with a reminder from Kevin Brockman, EVP of global communications: it’s National Admit You Are Happy Month.

We didn’t need any reminders during a day that featured visits from Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy, headlining The Muppets, perhaps the most notable of the five new shows introduced, alongside Tyra Banks’ new syndicated daytime lifestyle show, FABLife, the FBI terrorist drama and star vehicle for international sensation Priyanka Chopra, Quantico, the dark and intense Bonnie and Clyde-like Wicked City and the Friday night sitcom Dr. Ken.

They were joined by ABC stalwarts The Goldbergs and the entire #TGIT crew, featuring the Shonda Rhimes block of entertainment that includes Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal and How to Get Away With Murder.

FABLife is a return to the day time talk show format for model turned star turned businesswoman Tyra Banks, joined by expert “lifestylists” Leah Ashley (DIY), Joe Zee (fashion), Chrissy Teigen (food) and Lauren Makk (home and interior design).

The hour-long show, infused with a love of all things yellow, seeks to innovate daytime talk shows the same way that primetime has been taking risks. Banks grew up on daytime TV, but believes there isn’t enough innovation to the format.

“There is no daytime show that has different pillars to it…It’s time,” Banks said. “So if it’s done before, we’re like, uhh, make it different. And I think people deserve that in daytime. I think a lot of the times people feel that they have you to, like, talk down to these people that are watching daytime. And they’re savvy, and they deserve to be entertained and enlightened and, you know, taught. And it doesn’t have to be the same old, same old.”

When a critic asked, “Is your show for men?” Makk responded, pointing to Teigen: “Hey, you don’t want to look at this every day?” On cue, Teigen posed provocatively.

“So we want everybody to watch our show. But, of course, we know the business side of daytime television, and where it skews, and from age to sex,” Banks said. “I definitely think it’s going be a show that men will like. It’s not just going to be totally female-skewing. I think it’s important, from a business perspective, not to alienate men. However, they are not our primary audience.”

FABLife premieres Monday, Sept. 14 at 9 a.m. on ABC affiliates.

With The Muppets, ABC hopes to cash in on the omnipresent wave of nostalgia sweeping through pop culture, and also introduce the Muppets to a brand new audience in the form of a mockumentary based around the fictional talk show Up Late With Miss Piggy.

“The goal here is to be exactly the same and completely different,” writer and executive producer Bill Prady said. “So that is what we are trying to do. It is to very much honor, I think, more rigorously that has been done to stay with The Muppet Show. But at the same time, do something that is contemporary and works on television now. It’s sort of an origin story that started in the past. That’s how it feels.”

“Anybody who hasn’t seen The Muppets in the past will see this whole new world and it will feel fresh and original and new to them. And anybody who has grown up with it, as we all did, will have that nostalgic feel but also have their minds blown by the new way we’re doing the show,” Prady said.

The Muppet Show began as a parody of variety shows; The Muppets is not a variety show, but instead a behind-the-scenes look at Miss Piggy’s talk show, featuring big celebrities every week, including Reese Witherspoon and Imagine Dragons.

Given the synergy of properties across Disney with Marvel, Star Wars and their other properties, the subject of whether we might see mice or ducks on the show came up. “Well, we like mice. We have rats in The Muppets, you know. We’re filled with vermin…You know, Mick and Don,” Kermit said, referencing the venerable Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. Kermit wouldn’t go any further in teasing the crossover potential.

In the age of computer generated everything, writer and executive producer Bob Kushell thinks the world wants something tangible like the Muppets. “You can touch me. If I give you permission,” Miss Piggy said.

“We’ve landed in the right place, and that’s what important,” Kermit said.

Prady stresses the show will “try not to be a thing of the moment.” Instead they’re aiming for longevity. Thankfully, as Miss Piggy said, “Moi is timeless.”

The Muppets premieres Tuesday, Sept. 22 at 8 p.m. on ABC.

Continuing in the footsteps of diverse ABC ensembles like How to Get Away With Murder, Fresh Off the Boat and Black-ish, Quantico finds Bollywood superstar Priyanka Chopra as “Jason Bourne in female form,” according to the star.

“I went to school in America, I never saw anybody who looked like me on TV, and this was an opportunity for me to change that. And to their credit, I think ABC is the biggest network in terms of taking diversity forward on television, and Quantico is a testament to that,” Chopra said. It’s also a testament to serialized storylines, with a central mystery wrapped around the entire season (and any subsequent seasons would focus on a different event and driving force). The show has structural similarities to How to Get Away With Murder, with dueling present and future timelines, though creator and EP Joshua Safran alludes to LOST in the show’s DNA moreso than Rhimes’ show.

ABC’s Wicked City has more than a little DNA from anthology shows like American Horror Story, American Crime and True Detective. Its first season, premiering Tuesday, Oct. 27 at 10 p.m., is set in Los Angeles in 1980 on the Sunset Trip, when LA is not only the murder capital of the world, but the serial killer capital of the world. The show follows a Bonnie and Clyde-like romance between Gossip Girl star Ed Westwick and Parenthood alum Erika Christensen.

“We will be doing one case per season. And some of our characters will find their stories ending in this season, and some of our characters will be moving on to another time and another place and another case,” said Steven Baigelman, Wicked City’s creator and executive producer.

The series is a “commentary on the time,” one in which punk is invading rock ‘n’ roll, MTV has just begun, and the fun of the time has yet to meet consequences.

The violence from the series, much of it perpetuated against women, came under a lot of scrutiny. “It’s very, very important for us to not do violence porn,” Baigelman said. The show features “strong women” and “empowered women,” “and that’s very important to us.” Baigelman continued, “We are doing a show about people and their relationships, and we are that kind of a show hidden inside of a procedural.”

In the preview clip, star Jeremy Sisto hailed Wicked City as “bold,” stating that the network was “taking a chance, a risk” on this show. We won’t know if it pays off until Oct. 27.

On the other end of the spectrum is Dr. Ken, a family and workplace sitcom based loosely on the life of star Ken Jeong that will be paired with Tim Allen’s Last Man Standing on Friday nights.

A practicing doctor, Jeong, famously, parlayed a role in Knocked Up into a scene stealing performance in The Hangover trilogy and the rest was history.I feel like this is possibly a timeline where ‘What if The Hangover never happened, and what if Community’or Knocked Up never [happened]. ‘What would his life be?’”

But more than his own life, the show is “all about the story. All about the characters,” Jeong said. “I think this is more as an ensemble show, with the specificity of being based on my life.”

Jeong sees himself as the building block more than the star, repeating the Three Musketeers “all for one, one for all” mantra.

Jeong got introspective about his incredible career. “The last six years have just been this amazing bonus. I was happy being the doctor in Knocked Up, much less what happened after The Hangover, which just changed my life from black and white to technicolor,” he said. “I have this amazing opportunity to do this,” Jeong said. “I’m not going to let it go; I’m going to do everything to keep it afloat.”

Speaking of keeping shows afloat, news of more Community surfaced earlier in the day, and Jeong addressed the rumors. “As always with that show, I’m completely in the dark,” Jeong said. “I would love to do a movie. If it wasn’t for Community, I just wouldn’t be here to lead my own show…But fingers crossed for a movie at this point.”

ABC similarly has their fingers crossed that the old-school multi-camera sitcom will find an audience when it premieres Friday, Oct. 2 at 8:30 p.m.

Day one of ABC’s two-day TCA romp ended with the money makers: Shondaland’s #TGIT, featuring Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal and How to Get Away With Murder.

With The Catch coming midseason, Shondaland will have four shows on the air, and given their success, might have more on the horizon. As such, Shonda Rhimes’ presence may be extended beyond the #TGIT brand. Asked if she was concerned about that, “I don’t have anything to do with the marketing, and I don’t have anything to do with the scheduling. So I don’t spend any time worrying about it.”

During Paul Lee’s session, he believed Grey’s Anatomy could last for years to come. When asked about this, Rhimes said, “I agree with everything that Paul Lee says.” Star Ellen Pompeo put it a little differently, “I almost view it like a boxer. I mean, no one can really knock us out of the ring,” she said. “I just want to keep going and just you know, it’s an endurance thing now. I just feel like someone has to come and knock me out.”

Don’t bet on that happening anytime soon to the Shondaland empire and ABC.

Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal and How to Get Away With Murder premiere Thursday, Sept. 24 back-to-back-to-back starting at 8 p.m.

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