TV Premieres This Week

The new TV season explodes this week. Get ready. All times in CST.
And I'll try to note the must watch shows out there. I've had a pretty good track record with my picks to watch (at least for me). Others, I'll just recommend you watch to see if they end up being any good.

Sunday, 9/17
Cartoon Network [adult swim] notables tonight. Sorry I don't have the times on me (the beauty of a DVR-- it just records it for me):
Robot Chicken Season 2 Part 2 premieres. Toy doing naughty things.
Squidbillies Season 2. Funny for a while, but I stopped watching after a few eps.
Korgath of Barbaria Series premiere. A near-future barbarian who spends a great deal of time drinking.

Monday, 9/18
The Class Series Premiere; CBS, 7:00
This comedy has enjoyed good buzz. It's one of TV Guide's Matt Roush's favorite shows, and he hasn't steered me wrong much. Must watch.

How I Met Your Mother, CBS, 7:30; Two and a Half Men, CBS 8:00; New Adventures of Old Christine, CBS 8:30; CSI: Miami. Season Premieres.

Wife Swap, ABC, 7:00 and another new ep at 8:00. Season Premiere.

CW Preview Special CW, 8:00 pm. Check out the new season of old WB & UPN shows-- and two new series.

Deal or No Deal, 7-9 pm NBC. Season Premiere.

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, 9-10 NBC. Series Premiere.
Created by Aaron Sorkin. Let's see: Sports Night-- great. West Wing (until he got canned)-- great. This show is one of the ones I'm most looking forward to. Must Watch.

Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Guest/: Jason Lee

Tuesday, 9/19
Boston Legal, ABC, 9 pm. Season Premiere.
Guest star: Michael J. Fox, who was great last year.

NCIS, CBS 7-8 & The Unit, CBS 8-9 Season Premieres.

Smith; CBS, 9-10 Series Premiere.
The Ray Liotta/ Virginia Madsen series about a high-end thief. Must Watch.

Law & Order: Criminal Intent, NBC 8-9; Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, NBC 9-10. Season Premieres.

Wednesday, 9/20

Jericho, CBS, 7-8. Series Premiere
A man returns to his hometown amid a mystery. Then a mushroom cloud appears on the horizon, and the town is cut-off from civilization. Must Watch.

Criminal Minds; CBS, 8-9 and CSI: NY; CBS 9-10. Season Premieres.

Biggest Loser; NBC 7-9. Season Premiere.

Kidnapped; NBC, 9-10. Series Premiere.
A wealthy son is kidnapped. The FBI is brought in, but the parents hire an anti-social "retrieval expert". I'm sure it's better than FOX's similar Vanished, but I'm not sure if it'll be great. A half-hearted Watch.

America's Next Top Model; CW, 7-9.
Has anyone ever heard of the previous winners? I don't give two craps about modeling, but you think I would have heard about the winners by now...

Tonight Show. Steve Carell discusses the new Office season.

Thursday, 9/21

Grey's Anatomy, ABC, 7-8 (recap) & 8-9 (season premiere).
Let the bloodbath begin: Grey's vs. CSI

Six Degrees, ABC, 9:01-10. Series Premiere.
Six strangers meet through a series of random events. Kinda Watch.

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation; CBS 8-9. Season Premiere.

Shark; CBS 9-10
James Woods stars in this series about a House-ian prosecutor who mentors young DA's. There's some buzz about this one, so I'll give it a Watch.

My Name is Earl; NBC 7- 7:30. season premiere.
The second season kicks off. Slight changes include more story arcs-- and Earl will not accomplish his task each episode, and may instead take a few episode to cross something off the list.

The Office; NBC 7:30-8. Season premiere.
Michael accidentally outs a gay employee. The Jim/Pam situation is addressed. And sometime this season, the riotous Ed Helms (The Daily Show) joins the company.

ER; NBC 9-10. Season Premieres.
This show is still on? I guess some big sh** went down in the 12th season finale, and this 13th season picks up the pieces. Some people are kidnapped, a pregnant woman is knocked out and bleeding, someone got shot, and John Stamos finally becomes a series regular.

Conan O'Brien, NBC. John Krasinski shows up to discuss The Office.

Friday, 9/22
Ghost Whisperer, CBS 7-8; Close to Home, CBS 8-9; Numb3rs, CBS 9-10, season premieres.

Friday Night Smackdown!, CW, 7-9:00; season premiere.

Law & Order, NBC, 9-10; 59th season premiere.

Conan O'Brien, NBC; Jason Lee discusses My Name is Earl.

Saturday, 9/23
I'd never recommend the horrible crap that was Saturday Night Live from last year (I watched Dane Cook, Jason Lee, and Steve Carell nearly destroy their careers in that wasteland), but the repeat from February NBC is airing was considered a high point with Steve Martin as host and Prince as musical guest. I'll be watching it-- very cautiously.

Sunday, 9/24
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, ABC 6-8.
The fourth season opens.

Desperate Housewives (ABC, 8-9) looks to pull out the horrible tailspin it was in last year. I think they'll put it off.

Brothers & Sisters, ABC, 9:01-10.
New show with tons of great actors. The show had great buzz, then the pilot was pretty much scrapped to accomodate acting changes. There's been lots of bad buzz since, but I think this is a Must Watch-- at least the first half-dozen episodes.

Cold Case, CBS 8-9, and Without a Trace, CBS 9-10 season premieres.

12 oz Mouse, Cartoon Network [adult swim], 11:45.
A new season of the show I just didn't get-- but has a rabid fanbase (as does most [adult swim] shows).

I hope to explain how I can watch so much (no, I'm NOT watching all the things I post here) in the near future. But since the new season is on top of us already, let me just say one word: record. Watching TV live is not the way to maximize your time. Use the "r" in VCR or DVD-R and record your shows to fast forward through the commercials and watch on your schedule.

Even better: get a DVR. Screw High Def, the DVR technology is the best television invention since color.

And finally: Sorry for the delay between posts. It's been a busy few weeks. Hopefully, I'll get back in the swing of things.

And finally Pt 2: I didn't have time to proofread this post, so please forgive any eggregious spelling/grammer mistakes. I'll try harder next time...