[IMG:L]On almost any given night in September and some in October, you can channel-surf your way onto a season or series premiere — but we’ve picked a week’s worth of premiere nights that you can safely devote to the couch.
Thursday, September 17
Premiere Highlights: Fringe, The Office, Community
It’s been a long wait, but NBC’s Thursday lineup, kicking off Sept. 17, is finally must-see TV again. The Office is still one of TV’s best shows, with no shark-jumping in sight despite all the Jim/Pam lovey-doveyness (speaking of, their wedding episode airs Oct. 8); Parks and Recreation started to get good in its rookie season right after everyone gave up on it; Community is the most promising new fall comedy; and SNL: Weekend Update Thursday will be a better-than-average placeholder until 30 Rock returns in mid-October. Also premiering on the first big night of openers: the soon-to-be-addictive Fringe and the lovely Bones on Fox; It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, the best show you’re not watching, on FX; and the umpteenth Survivor, still TiVo-able after all these years.
KEEP READING: Coming Soon: The Best TV Reunion in Years
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Sunday, September 20
Premiere Highlight: Curb Your Enthusiasm
When shows are as great as Curb, the networks run off their schedules; if Larry David needs an extra year for his neurosis to inspire more comedic genius, HBO won’t complain — and neither can we. This season, Curb’s seventh, promises to be the series’ most ambitious yet: The entire Seinfeld cast is back together! Jerry Seinfeld, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jason Alexander and Michael Richards (who has been justifiably MIA since his racial outburst in 2006) quasi-reunite as their Seinfeld characters during a multi-episode flashback arc. And its new sibling show, the “noir-otic” comedy Bored to Death, also premiering tonight, has generated enough buzz to warrant our excitement.
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Monday, September 21
Premiere Highlights: House, Dancing with the Stars, Heroes, Two and a Half Men
There’s something for everyone during this night’s massive list of premieres: For drama lovers, it doesn’t get much bigger than the return of House; for the sci-fi set, Heroes is back and has nowhere to go but up; for comedy seekers, the night is set with the perennial ratings champ Two and a Half Men, the ever growing How I Met Your Mother, the sneaky-good geekcom The Big Bang Theory, and the new Jenna Elfman vehicle Accidentally on Purpose; for reality-competition nuts and fans of sorta-celebs, the new season of Dancing with the Stars is a can’t-miss; and for procedural junkies, southeast division, there’s CSI: Miami. And for anyone else who wants to give ABC’s Castle another try, tonight’s the night.
KEEP READING: The Return of Monica Geller
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Wednesday, September 23
Premiere Highlights: Mercy, Modern Family, Cougar Town
ABC hasn’t offered much in the way of comedy over the years, but that appears to be changing effective Sept. 23. There are high hopes for both Cougar Town, the self-explanatorily-titled show (or so it seems) that brings Courteney Cox back to sitcomland, and the already well-received mockumentary Modern Family. (Slightly less certain for ABC is the small-screen adaptation Eastwick, also kicking off tonight.) NBC, meanwhile, launches the first of its post-ER hospital dramas, Mercy (the other, Trauma, premieres Sept. 27). The night’s big-time returnees include The New Adventures of Old Christine, Criminal Minds, Law & Order: SVU and CSI: NY.
KEEP READING: The Next ‘Lost’ (Or So ABC Hopes)
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Thursday, September 24
Premiere Highlight: FlashForward
Behold, fall’s great hope and ABC’s not-so-secret weapon to keep Lost viewers off the ledge when that show ends in 2010. FlashForward has so much hype that it can almost only be a letdown, but the premise is tantalizing (and hopefully not too ambitious): A mysterious event causes every person in the world to simultaneously catch a brief glimpse of their lives six months down the road. Following the momentary “flashforward,” pandemonium and questions set in, with British actor Joseph Fiennes (Shakespeare in Love) leading the search for answers.
KEEP READING: Fall’s Biggest Premiere Night?
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Sunday, September 27
Premiere Highlights: The Amazing Race, The Cleveland Show, Family Guy, Desperate Housewives, Dexter
Probably the biggest single night of premieres, Sept. 27 features the returns or debuts of pretty much every Sunday show. At the forefront is The Cleveland Show, something of an animated-blackface spinoff of Family Guy (which premieres immediately following Cleveland) that’s sure to spark a wee bit of controversy; interestingly, it means that Seth MacFarlane now boasts three shows (lest we forget American Dad) on Fox’s Sunday-night block. Veteran TV watchers, however, needn’t take a chance on a newer, edgier show if they don’t want to: Ratings giants Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, The Amazing Race, Desperate Housewives, Cold Case and Brothers & Sisters all return tonight, while Showtime will poach plenty of network-TV viewers with Dexter’s highly anticipated season 4 premiere.
KEEP READING: “That’s a Deal-Breaker, Ladies!”
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Thursday, October 15
Premiere Highlight: 30 Rock
As is the case almost every year, the best sitcom, 30 Rock, is saved for last. Defying the TV tradition of aging poorly, Tina Fey’s Emmy-winning series is coming off another top-notch season, its third, with no sign of (our laughs) slowing down in season 4: Jack (Alec Baldwin) and Kenneth (Jack McBrayer) will square off in earnest for the first time since that high-stakes poker match in season 1 — because of a page strike! Liz (Fey), meanwhile, looks to keep capitalizing on her catchphrase “That’s a deal-breaker, ladies!” Of course, those tidbits from the notoriously tight-lipped show don’t even scratch the surface of the craziness that’ll transpire this season.
