Monday

• Heroes (NBC, 8pm) Season Premiere - I just couldn’t take it anymore so I have no idea what they’re up to and I’d like to keep it that way.
• House (Fox, 8pm) Season Premiere – I am not entirely sure why I still watch this show, every episode they almost kill someone until they save them and House is an ass, but now I just need to see if he’s an insane ass.
• Dancing with the Stars/Castle (ABC, 8/10pm) Season Premiere – I don’t watch the dance but I am taken in by Fillion on Castle.
• How I Met Your Mother/Accidentally on Purpose/Two and a Half Men/The Big Bang Theory/CSI: Miami (CBS, 8-11pm) Season/Series Premiere – Accidentally is supposed to be a stinker but Mother and Big Bang are pretty consistently funny, and I never watch Caruso on CSI.
• Brick City (Sund, 10pm) Series Premiere – First of a five-part series on Newark NJ.
• Misadventures (Trav, 10pm) Series Premiere – First Brazil and then Burma.

Tuesday

• NCIS/NCIS: Los Angeles/The Good Wife (CBS, 8-11pm; GW repeats Sat 9pm) Season/Series Premieres – First the original which I’ve honestly never see, then LL Cool J and Chris O’Donnell head up the latest spinoff, does this mean CSI: L&O: NCIS: Boston is next? But wait, Wife is supposed to be a great mix of drama and cases.
• The Forgotten (ABC, 10pm) Series Premiere – Christian Slater heads up volunteers helping to fight crime.
• The Naughty Kitchen with Chef Blythe Beck (Oxy, 10pm) Series Premiere – More reality fare on the menu as they follow a chef and her team.
• Table for 12 (TLC, 10/10:30pm) Season Premiere - I think this is the one with more kids and no tabloid divorce.

Wednesday

• The New Adventures of Old Christine/Gary Unmarried/Criminal Minds/CSI: NY (CBS, 8-11pm) Season Premieres - First some laughs and then some murder, not to give anything away.
• Mercy/L&O: SVU (NBC, 8-10pm; Mercy repeats Sat 9pm) Series/Season Premiere - The lives of three nurses and then back to the special victims.
• Modern Family/Cougar Town/Eastwick (ABC, 9-11pm; MF/CT repeat Fri 9pm) Series Premieres – With this chunk of new shows let’s hope for a winner, rumor has it Family is the best on this block.

Thursday

• CSI/The Mentalist (CBS, 9/10pm) Season Premiere – I’ll pass on CSI but I do like Baker’s charms.
• Flash Forward/Grey’s Anatomy (ABC, 8/9pm; FF repeats Fri 8pm) Series/Season Premiere – First the blackout that is the premise for at least one season and then George is out and Izzie is in, except for the break Heigl takes to shoot her movie, would that be at the same time Mer is out maternity leave, damn me for still watching this show.

Friday

• Brothers/Dollhouse (Fox, 8/9pm; Brothers repeats Sun 7pm) Series/Season Premiere – This new show isn’t supposed to be all that but tune in to see what the latest capers Echo and the crew get into.
• Smallville (CW, 8pm) Season Premiere – Clark continues.
• Ghost Whisperer/Medium/Numb3rs (CBS, 8pm) Season Premieres - Don’t tune into the two visions shows but do tend to catch the crime math.
• L&O (NBC, 8pm) Season Premiere - And the longest running drama series is back.

Saturday

• 48 Hours Mystery (CBS, 10pm) Season Premiere – I’m not even sure why it’s 2 days.
• Saturday Night Live (NBC, 11:30pm) Season Premiere – Megan Fox hosts with U2 in the musical guest spot.

Sunday

• Extreme Makeover: Home Edition/Desperate Housewives/Brothers & Sisters (ABC, 7/9/10pm) Season Premiere – Construction, soapy drama, whiny drama.
• The Simpsons/The Cleveland Show/Family Guy/American Dad (Fox, 8pm) Season/Series Premiere – Animation all night long.
• 60 Minutes/The Amazing Race/Cold Case (CBS, 7/8/10pm) Season Premieres -  News, racing, and an old crime set to old music.
• Dexter/Californication (Show, 9/10pm) Season Premieres - I don’t get this channel but make someone else save Dexter for me, what will the season bring.
• My Fair Wedding (WE, 10pm) Season Premiere – Something about a wedding.

Repeat times noted for new series on traditional network channels, please always consult your current local listings.

This year the casualty was Heroes, but I was thinking of the others… Not counting shows that didn’t make it a season here are some that lost their sheen:

• Cold Case – The procedural wasn’t a bad show, but as I was trying to cut back this wasn’t a keeper.
• Criminal Minds – I still catch this brutal-killer-of-the-week procedural with special-fbi-behavioral-unit in reruns, but it doesn’t make the main lineup.
• Desperate Housewives – The first year this soapy drama entertained me but with the sophomore slump it lost me.
• Heroes – I finally gave this up, as the characters and situations became more ridiculous it actually pained me to watch.
• King of the Hill – I still find this show amusing but as the years drag on it just stopped hitting the tivo.
• Prison Break – I did love the first season, but the delight collapsed once they escaped from prison and though I stuck through the entire second season I was mostly yelling at the tv about how stupid it had become before I gave it up.
• Without a Trace – Another procedural that isn’t bad but just didn’t keep me keeping it.
• The Simpsons – Also amusing but after a decade I’m more than happy to catch the occasional rerun.
• Smallville – I loved the complexity of Lex Luthor and Clark Kent’s early relationship, but the freak of the week lost me.
• Survivor – This had a good dynamic but easy enough to drop with a new season of folks each year.

And an almost dishonorable mention to American Idol and Law & Order, both of which have been dropped and picked up again and dropped and picked up…

• Chuck/Heroes/My Own Worst Enemy (NBC, 8/9/10pm) Season Finales - Heroes is noted as fall finale and Enemy is leaving for good.
• Terminator (Fox, 8pm) Season Finale – Will anyone be terminated?
• I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown (ABC, 8pm) – Lucy and Linus’ brother ReRun kicks it up a notch for the holidays.
• Drama High (ABC, 9pm) – The making of high school musical, sorry that’s not the high school musical, it’s some high school putting on the Wiz.
• Intervention (A&E, 9pm) Season Premiere – This series kicks off following a 50 year old woman who suffers seizures if she tries to stop drinking.

Tuesday

• The Biggest Loser (NBC, 8pm) Season Finale – It’s always heartwarming to see how far they’ve come, if you like that sort of thing.
• Momma’s Boys (NBC, 10pm) Series Finale – 32 women, 3 bachelors, and yes 3 moms who help out the selection.

Wednesday

• A Muppets Christmas (NBC, 8pm) – Will the muppets get the letters to Santa?
• Life (NBC, 9pm) Season Finale - Zen principals might not be enough to solve crime, save your friends, and get justice in corrupt conspiracies?

Thursday

• Million Dollar Password (CBS, 8pm) Season Premiere – Can Aisha Tyler kick William Shatner out of the spotlight.

Friday

• Greatest Holiday Moments (NBC, 8pm) - A countdown of tv and film moments.

Saturday

• WWE Tribute to the Troops (NBC, 9pm) – Wrestlers can bring up anyone’s spirits.

Sunday

• The Shift (Inves, 10pm) Series Premiere – A docuseries that follows homicide detectives.

Monday 

• 8pm: NBC – Chuck (CBS – The Big Bang Theory/How I Met Your Mother) (CW – Gossip Girl)
• 9pm: NBC – Heroes (CBS – 2 1/2 Men/ABC – Samantha Who?)

Tuesday

• 8pm: Fox – House
• 9pm: CBS – The Mentalist (CW – Privileged)
• 10pm: NBC – Eli Stone (NBC – L&O: SVU)

Wednesday 

• 8pm: Fox - Bones (ABC – Pushing Daisies) (CBS – The New Adventures of Old Christine/Gary Unmarried)
• 9pm: NBC – Life
• 10pm: ABC – Dirty Sexy Money (NBC – L&O)

Thursday

• 8pm: NBC - My Name is Earl
• 9pm: NBC – The Office/30 Rock (ABC - Grey’s Anatomy)
• 10pm: ABC – Life on Mars

Friday 

• 9pm: CBS – The Ex List (CW – ANTM encore)
• 10pm: CBS - Numb3rs

Saturday

• Nothing

Sunday

• 9pm: CW – Easy Money

But wait there’s more… known midseason and cable picks: Breaking Bad (AMC), Burn Notice (USA), Celebrity Rehab (VH1), The Closer (TNT), Dexter (Show), Eureka (SciFi), Flight of the Conchords (HBO), Greek (Fam), Lost (ABC), Project Runway (Bravo), Reaper (CW), Saving Grace (TNT), Scrubs (ABC), Sons of Anarchy (FX).

The Petrellis and Friends

Well the Petrelli clan is back, apparently future Claire (indestructible) and future uncle Peter (absorbs others’ powers) live in a world where everyone knowing that they’re heroes is a problem, and they all wear a lot of black. So it was future Peter who came back to shoot his brother Nathan (flying man) to shut him up, and then sends Matt (mind reader) off to Africa. Nathan died-ish, and came back a religious nut. Last season’s thought to be dead Niki (split personality super strong Jessica) shows up with a governor who’s calling her Tracy. She’s recruiting Nathan to step back into politics when not using her turning people to ice power. And of course the future was changed, but not necessarily for the better.

The Formula

Hiro (time controller and teleporter) has inherited from his dad Sulu a new sacred duty to protect a secret half of a formula (and his father’s company). Though a new Speedster girl Daphne steals the formula. When Hiro goes to the future to check out what will happen he finds future Hiro getting zapped by future Ando (currently sidekick is ability free) and of course the end of the world. Hiro is torn about bringing Ando with him to track down Daphne but they find her and are on a continued quest to get one of the halves back. If they lose the formula their only hope is to find the person with purity of blood, whatever that means.

The Science

Last year Mohinder (scientist) was hard at work on the antidote to the virus that was stripping the heroes of their powers and even killing them. He was successful, but this season he was tempted to pack it all in. Instead he is talked into helping super annoying Maya (tears of death) and he begins to get more annoying himself. He finds the key ingredient in the abilities and becomes obsessed with being able to give mere mortals abilities of their own. Rather than do scientific testing, he randomly injects himself with the Maya ingredient. After he gets all super powered and spiderman-y, and sleeps with Maya, he crashes like nobody’s crashed before. This does not bode well for the future.

The Villains

Our original villain Sylar (absorbs others’ powers but by killing them) has gone back to his original goal to get Claire’s powers (remember ‘Save the Cheerleader, Save the World’). Turns out Claire is ‘special’ (perhaps pure of blood?) and survived Sylar, but in addition to stealing Claire’s ability he stole the files to the bad ability dudes stuck in Section 5, where Claire’s dad is hanging with present Peter stuck in Veronica Mar’s Weevil’s body. And speaking of VMars, Elle (electro girl) is trying to take down Sylar for killing her dad, but when he tries to kill her she basically explodes and knocks him out, and the power, which lets all of Section 5 out. Oh and did I mention that mama Petrelli is now taking over the organization and getting her son Sylar back in the game. Yes, son.

The one thing we can count on is that good and evil are rarely completely clear, and that someone will always do something stupid, and I’m yet again wondering what that will be. Stay tuned.

Monday

• Heroes (NBC, 8/9pm) Season Premiere – First we countdown, maybe that means they try to explain what the heck has happened in the first two seasons, then what’s normally an engaging but uneven series has some promising buzz as this year we meet the ‘villains’.
• Dancing With the Stars (ABC, 8pm, second rounds Wed/Thurs) Season Premiere – Who will delight America this season and how long can we keep Cloris Leachman in the mix?
• The Big Bang Theory (CBS, 8pm) Season Premiere – This show grew on me throughout last year, as the geeks and their straight woman/hot girl Penny make fun, super misfit Sheldon steals the show.
• How I Met Your Mother (CBS, 8:30pm) Season Premiere – This show has a great ensemble and the Barneyisms are almost worth it alone.
• Two and a Half Men (CBS, 9pm) Season Premiere – They’re back with more odd couple shenanigans.
• Worst Week (CBS, 9:30pm) Series Premiere – Folks are saying this could be funny, but again, not sure about one mishap after another for a whole season.
• Boston Legal (ABC, 10pm) Season Premiere – Is this show still on? Is this show still getting emmy nominations?
• CSI: Miami (CBS, 10pm) Season Premiere – I think someone shot Horatio, can anyone really stand David Caruso?

Tuesday

• Opportunity Knocks (ABC, 8pm) Series Premiere – A game show where families win based on knowledge of each other.
• NCIS (CBS, 8pm) Season Premiere – I admit I’ve never seen this navy investigation show.
• Eureka (SciFi, 9pm) Season Finale – Maybe we find out what happened all those years ago and how their new fixer was involved.
• The Mentalist (CBS, 9pm) Series Premiere – Simon Baker solves crimes after years as a fake celebrity psychic.
• Law & Order: SVU (NBC, 10pm) Season Premiere – Luke Perry won’t do 90210 so catch him in this ep, will he be creepy?
• Without a Trace (CBS, 10pm) Season Premiere – I used to watch this show but no longer catch the FBI’s weekly missing person drama.

Wednesday

• Knight Rider (NBC, 8pm) Series Premiere – Unless there were significant changes from the made for tv movie/pilot this one’s a pass.
• The New Adventures of Old Christine (CBS, 8pm) Season Premiere – I actually like this ridiculous show where JLDreyfuss and her gang are obnoxious but funny.
• Gary Unmarried (CBS, 8:30pm) Series Premiere - Jay Mohr deals with his divorced dad lifestyle.
• David Blaine (ABC, 9pm) – I’m always a little wary of these ‘magicians’ who do something like hang from a wire for days.
• Criminal Minds (CBS, 9pm) Season Premiere – I think we ended last season with an explosion, is all the team coming back?
• CSI: NY (CBS, 10pm) Season Premiere – This one isn’t as annoying as Miami and is a decent procedural.
• Lipstick Jungle (NBC, 10pm) Season Premiere – Of the identical average new chick shows of last season (the other was Cashmere Mafia) this one rolled over to this season, let’s hope they fine tuned things.

Thursday

• Ugly Betty (ABC, 8pm) Season Premiere – I never quite appreciated this campy soap drama.
• My Name is Earl (NBC, 8/8:30pm) Season Premiere – Last season’s coma didn’t quite work, let’s hope this season is back to its white trash misfit make amends roots.
• Survivor: Gabon (CBS, 8pm) Season Premiere – So they’re in Gabon, wherever that is.
• The Office (NBC, 9/9:30pm) Season Premiere – What’s in store this year for Michael and Pam and Dwight and that other main guy?
• Grey’s Anatomy (ABC, 9pm) Season Premiere – Now that we’re over most of the Mer/Der drama let’s get back to the rest of the gang.
• ER (NBC, 10pm) Season Premiere – I recall hearing that this 15th season is the last and they’re trying to get as much of the gang back together as they can, Clooney is a long shot.

Friday

• Presidential Debate (Various, 6pm/pst) – This election season feels like it has been going on forever but now we could really start to get down to it as Jim Lehrer moderates.

Saturday

• Dirty Sexy Money (Soap, 9am) – Catch up on delightful season one with this marathon.
• Chris Rock (HBO, 9pm) – In his Kill the Messenger special we see comedy from a few locations on his tour.
• 48 Hours Mystery (CBS, 10pm) Season Premiere – I don’t know that I’ve ever watched this true-crime series.

Sunday

• 60 Minutes (CBS, 7pm) Season Premiere – The stop watch still ticks.
• Extreme Makeover: Home (ABC, 7/8pm) Season Premiere – I f I read this correctly a single mother of four took in her sister’s 10 children…. I can’t even take care of my plants, she deserves a house.
• The Amazing Race (CBS, 9pm) Season Premiere – I understand this is one of the ‘good’ reality shows.
• The Simpsons/King of the Hill/Family Guy/American Dad (Fox, 8-10pm) Season Premieres – The animation evening continues.
• Desperate Housewives (ABC, 9pm) Season Premiere – As I understand it they’re refreshing things by skipping ahead five years.
• Cold Case (CBS, 9pm) Season Premiere – Another one of those procedurals I didn’t keep up with.
• Dexter (Show, 9pm) Season Premiere – Ok I’m still on season 3 on netflix but this one is addictive.
• Brothers and Sisters (ABC, 10pm) Season Premiere – So if anyone missed it the now making out Rebecca and Justin are not really related, she only thought she was his sister for a while.
• The Unit (CBS, 10pm) Season Premiere – When the team protects the vice and president elects, they could just paste a current candidates head on the actor’s bodies.
• Californication (Show, 10pm) Season Premiere – Too easy to make a David Duchovny joke.
• Little Britain (HBO, 10:30pm) Series Premiere – A fav british sketch show may take a few weeks to get its new american legs.
• The Life & Times of Tim (HBO, 11pm) Series Premiere – Steve Dildarian former ad guy and fun painter creates this new animated series.

• Bones (Fox, Wed 9/3) – Currently my favorite procedural because not only do they have fun cases with an anthropological science twist, but the leads Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz are good on their own but their chemistry is great, and the the quirky supporting cast works so well, I’ll forgive them for the weak wrap-up of last year’s serial killer.
• Chuck (NBC, Mon 9/29) – Seeing Geek Squad Best Buy Nerd Herd Buy More employee, and accidental keeper of government secrets, forced into the spy world as well as the spy world stuck into Chuck’s life creates not only plenty of action but plenty of humor as well as a little potential romance with his CIA handler (the pretty one, not the hilariously stiff Adam Baldwin).
• Gossip Girl (CW, Mon 9/1)/Dirty Sexy Money (ABC, Wed 10/1) – Who can pick between the two trashy campy soaps? Good thing you don’t have to as we catch the richest of rich families, and their lawyer who is trying to help out and not get sucked in, to more trouble each week than most folks do in a lifetime, unless that is you’re a bunch of rich private schoolers, being fashionable and popular and deceptive is such hard work.
• Heroes (NBC, Mon 9/22) – Currently my favorite of the involved conspiracy shows, though it’s been uneven, we have followed our cast favorite regular folks who got special powers like time travel, indestructibility, and mind reading, and have to deal with other heroes, secret organizations, and of course saving the world, this season as they struggle with their own right and wrong actions it looks like they take on some real villains, but typically good and evil aren’t so clear cut.
• Pushing Daisies (ABC, Wed 10/1) – Every aspect of this show was magical and captivating as I somehow fell for two characters who are so sweet and in love normally I couldn’t stand them, but I lament every moment they aren’t able to touch because what brought her back to life would take her from him forever, so in the meantime he and his supporting cast run the pie shop and solve crimes, who better to help out than a guy who brings the dead back to life for a minute.
• 30 Rock (NBC, Thurs 10/30)/The Office (NBC, Thurs 9/25) – Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin just made me laugh a lot last season as they found a good rhythm with Fey running a late night sketch comedy show, her mess of a life, and keeping a crazy supporting cast together while the season finale of the Office made me appreciate how far this show has come from one that I saw more as a placeholder in the lineup to one I tune in for, because just when you think they’ve pushed the wackies too far in one direction they remind you to care.

ABC

New:

• Life on Mars – David E Kelley’s version of BBC series where cop transports back to 1970s
• Opportunity Knocks – Game show where they knock on your door, or something

Returning: 20/20, America’s Funniest Home Videos, Boston Legal (final season), Brothers & Sisters, Eli Stone, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Dancing with the Stars, Desperate Housewives, Dirty Sexy Money, Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice, Pushing Daisies, Samantha Who?, Supernanny, Ugly Betty, Wife Swap
Midseason returns: According to Jim, The Bachelor, Lost, Scrubs (New from NBC)
Noteworthy not returning: Men in Trees, Miss Guided, October Road, Women’s Murder Club

CBS

New:

• Eleventh Hour – Jerry Bruckheimer’s latest, adapting from the british 4 part sci fi series dealing with mysterious cases
• The Ex List – This one is based on an Israeli show where a psychic tells a woman she has already met her true love and so she revisits the exes
• The Mentalist – Simon Baker uses his powers of observation to solve crimes
• Project Gary – Comedy starring Jay Mohr as a recent divorce, and contractor which might explain the ‘project’ part
• Worst Week – This comedy of newly engaged couple is another BBC show made over american style

Returning: 48 Hours, 60 Minutes, Amazing Race, Big Bang Theory, Cold Case, Criminal Minds, CSI, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, Ghost Whisperer, How I Met Your Mother, NCIS, New Adventures of Old Christine, Numb3rs, Survivor, Two and a Half Men, The Unit, Without a Trace
Midseason returns: Rules of Engagement
Noteworthy not returning: Moonlight, Shark

CW

New:

• 90210 – The next generation, as a new brother and sister move and start at West Beverly High, including pop bys by Jennie Garth as Guidance Counselor
• Surviving the Filthy Rich – With Reba’s JoAnna Garcia as nanny to rich kids, based on a book series
• Stylista – New reality from Tyra Banks where folks compete to work at Elle

Noteworthy note: Contracting out Sunday nights to production finance company Media Rights Capital who will be responsible for two dramas and two comedies and selling the ad time.

• FAT City, IM Valentine, Book of Murphy, Surviving Suburbia

Returning: ANTM, Everybody Hates Chris, The Game, Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill, Smallville, Supernatural
Midseason return: Reaper
Noteworthy not returning: Aliens in America, Girlfriends, New Amsterdam

Fox

New:

• Fringe – JJ Abrams latest starring Joshua Jackson teaming up to investigate unexplained phenomena, I wanna say like the x-files
• Do Not Disturb – Comedy starring Jerry O’Connell working at one of NY’s uber hip hotels

Returning: American Dad, America’s Most Wanted, Bones, Cops, Don’t Forget the Lyrics, Family Guy, House, King of the Hill, Kitchen Nightmares, Moment of Truth, Prison Break, Simpsons, Smarter than a 5th Grader, Terminator, Til Death
Midseason return: 24, American Idol, Hell’s Kitchen.
Noteworthy not returning: Back to You

NBC

New:

• Crusoe – As in Robinson…
• Kath & Kim – Molly Shannon and Selma Blair in remake of Australian sitcom about mother and daughter living together again
• Knight Rider – If you caught the ‘hit’ tv movie you’re familiar with this remake
• My Own Worst Enemy – Christian Slater as a gov agent/normal guy whose two lives start to blur
• Thursday Night Live – Special SNL shows leading up to the elections

Returning: The Biggest Loser, Chuck, Dateline, Deal or No Deal, Heroes, E.R. (final season), L&O:SVU, Life, Lipstick Jungle, My Name is Earl, The Office, 30 Rock
Midseason returning: Friday Night Lights, L&O, Medium
Noteworthy not returning: Bionic Woman, Journeyman, Las Vegas

Additional Notes:

Tons of new shows scheduled for after fall, but we’ll chime in later once those become more solid, other than the fact that I should note there’s an Office spinoff scheduled as well as the new Joss Whedon show Dollhouse with Eliza Dushku, scheduled for midseason. I miss the Grr Arg.

And if you want to see the current stab at the schedule you can check it out at TV Guide.

• Bones (Season 1 and 2) - Great chemistry between Bones and Booth and a fun supporting cast as the squints/lab kids help the FBI solve crimes through forensic anthropology, think of it as CSI/Crossing Jordan for the bodies that are just bones.
• Brothers & Sisters (Season 1) – A fun soapy drama about partly dysfunctional and totally loving family with a great cast, although uneven there’s always something interesting going on from matriarch Sally Field to newest Walker Emily Van Camp.
• Grey’s Anatomy (Seasons 1-3) – More soapy fun, and the best was the first season as we first meet our surgical interns and get involved in their work and romance, mostly romance at work,  I’m even ok with the fact that Meredith bugs.
• Heroes (Season 1) – The first season introduces us to our ‘heroes’ as they get their powers and their plotlines bring them together, somewhat uneven as they get rolling but engaging from the start and riveting by the end.
• House (Seasons 1-3) – Crotchety, drug addicted, medical genius is how he’s portrayed and you get to watch him abuse patients and coworkers as he tries to diagnose the undiagnosable patients and somehow pretty entertaining, mostly thanks to Laurie but good surrounding folks for him to play off of.
• Lost (Seasons 1-3) – This show has a faithful following partly because it’s really different and really well done with the interplay of on island action and back story character development, and partly because you really can’t miss an episode for fear of missing some big explanation.
• Prison Break (Season 1 – Season 2 also available) – I recommend this with a warning, I loved the first season fun, watching one guy’s plan to break his brother out of prison, and watching it mostly getting thrown for a loop, but was super annoyed by the second, I have yet to tune into the third.

Maybe you’re more of a 1/2 hour comedy sort of person? How ’bout:

• Girlfriends (Seasons 1-3) – Four sassy mostly professional gals deal with life and love and each other and their one guy pal through their different experiences.
• How I Met Your Mother  (Seasons 1 & 2) – Hopeless romantic Ted tells his tales of love, but its the ensemble cast that makes this work, as theoretically we eventually meet Ted’s true love.
• My Name is Earl (Seasons 1 & 2) – I find Jason Lee kind of endearing in general and enjoy his bad guy turned good, using his lottery winning to fix his karma by righting his wrongs, with the help, or harm, of his misfit friends.
• The New Adventures of Old Christine (Season 1) – Julia Louis-Dreyfus found a great format for her broad humor as she plays a hapless single mom hanging with her family and friends trying to get her act together.
• The Office (Seasons 1-3) - A painful office (based on the British series) at first pained me to think of why I’d want to watch at the end of a day at the office, but its oddball characters and biting humor won me over.
• Scrubs (Seasons 1-6) – Hospital comedy seen through the eyes of goofball JD as he and his buddies treat patients… well it’s kind of like Grey’s Anatomy but shorter and wackier.
• 30 Rock (Season 1) – This show took a little while to find its rhythm but when it does this behind the scenes look at a sketch show gets it super right with Tina Fey at the helm.
• Two and a Half Men (Seasons 1 & 2) – Kind of an Odd Couple, where the guys are brothers and one of them has a kid (at least shared custody), sometimes kind of a crass humor, but pretty good humor nonetheless.

And of course one should recall that I don’t get real cable so my lack of endorsement for certain cable shows, well isn’t really a lack of endorsement.

• Chuck (NBC) – This show isn’t more than it is, a funny action romp, but what it is, it does really well and I find myself looking forward to it each week, it’s not so much about a regular guy being pulled into the spy world as it is the spy world being pulled into the regular guy’s life and the situations with spies and with the regular folks each tend to amuse and entertain.
• Dirty Sexy Money (ABC) – Again, I think folks tend to not give enough credit to a campy drama done well. These characters (and actors) are not only their stereotypes done to excess but also typically a subtle twist, I am entertained by the weekly trouble they get themselves into as well as finding out what who killed Dutch.
• Flight of the Conchords (HBO) – So an HBO show? Yes I was up to date since I was at an HBO watcher’s house when it premiered, and I really can’t do this show justice with a description but the New Zealand comedy satire folk singing duo trying to make it in New York, randomly breaking into music video song stylings is super funny.
• Heroes (NBC) – Well I warmed up to this show over the season last year and though disappointed with the start of this season, found myself yet again drawn into the cast that blurs the line between using their abilities for good or evil and how you can’t tell most of the time which is which as they try to save the world, or not.
• Lost (ABC) – It’s been so long since I’ve seen this that I almost didn’t put it on the list, but it continues to entertain with a formula that seemed impossible telling character stories through past and present, from an island that is as full of mysteries as it is new characters.
• Pushing Daisies (ABC) – The best new show of the year according to many, and I can’t not delight in it myself, I do give special credit for people who try to push things, and their 360 approach to the tone is wonderful, they’ve had some fantastic guest stars and episodic mysteries but managed to keep the right focus on the core cast with the ultimate can’t-be-together couple of Chuck and Ned.
• The Riches (FX) - Another unbelievable premise that just keeps me on the edge of my seat as this Traveler family pretends to be the Riches (folks who were killed in a car accident), and how they continue to keep afloat and keep out of the way of the other Travelers who wish them ill (to say the least) and their internal struggles along the way… it kept me tuned in.
• Samantha Who? (ABC) – This is my favorite new comedy and with the dearth of funny out there I think that’s not only entertaining but important. It’s a combination of Christina Applegate really getting a vehicle that suits her great combination of funny, dorky, attractive, bitchy and sweet in her own special way and of course the writing and the great supporting cast don’t hurt with special shoutouts to Jean Smart and Sookie and surprisingly Barry Watson.
• Saving Grace (TNT) – You know I’m not sure this is actually one of the best shows but Holly Hunter and her screwed up character are like a car wreck you can’t look away from and her struggle with the angel trying to save her and her friends and family… well I just can’t look away.
• 30 Rock (NBC) – This show has edged out my previous vote of funniest show How I Met Your Mother (which I still find quite funny) and it found it’s place as the dysfunctional staff of a late night sketch comedy show spouts hilarity on more levels than I can catch if I’m not paying attention, and has been funny each and every time I sit down to watch.

I also didn’t officially list, but wanted to give a special shout out to two shows that I have adored that ended their run in 2007 Gillmore Girls and Veronica Mars, oh how I do miss these sassy gals.