TVSquad

Thank God summer is almost over! Not because it was so hot, or that vacation driving pushed the price of a gallon of gas above three dollars, or that I used my air conditioner so much that the graph of electric usage took up two pages of my monthly bill. No, I'm glad summer is almost over because I'm tired of watching America's Got Talented Dancing With the Stars Who Want to be Supernovas while the Last Comic Stands With The One. In other words, bring on the new television season, dammit! So, without further ado, here are my five fall picks for the 2005-2006 season.

1. More season finales, less series finales: Over the last three seasons a number of good television shows left the airwaves for a life in syndication and DVD box sets. I'm talking about shows like Friends, Frasier, Everybody Loves Raymond, West Wing, Alias, Malcolm in the Middle, Arrested Development, Will & Grace and of course Joey. This left plenty of open slots in network schedules that had to be filled. Sometimes a network like ABC got lucky and hit with the right shows at the right time. Other times you had networks like NBC struggling to find its place after losing many of its most popular shows (and revenue generators). Hopefully with this season things will calm down a bit. We know that The Sopranos is definitely leaving this season, and shows like 7th Heaven, The Shield and Gilmore Girls may hang it up come April or May, but I hope that's all the attrition we'll see.

2. The return of Scrubs and The Office: Gosh darn it to heck I miss these shows, which are two of the finest comedies I've seen in a long time. Since the producers of Scrubs didn't know what would happen at the end of last season they went a tad crazy with some of the elements of the show; yet, they injected a good dose of seriousness as well. Let's hope they can continue the pattern. And The Office? Well, probably one of the best shows on television today. I was introduced to the series during its booze cruise episode (which is when many other people jumped on the bandwagon as well it seems) and never left. I'm looking forward to seeing how the Jim and Pam relationship works itself out during the new season.

3. Joe Hackett and Dr. Phlox on the same program? Wow!: Out of all the new shows premiering this fall, only two really have me excited. One is Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and the other is The Nine. While I am a big fan of Aaron Sorkin, I am actually looking forward to The Nine more than Studio 60. I've only seen a preview of the show, but what I saw looked extremely interesting. Plus, after having The Fugitive and Eyes abruptly ripped out from under him, it would be nice to see Tim Daly have another show that has some sort of lasting power. And, how could it fail with John Billingsley (Dr. Phlox of Star Trek:Enterprise) in the cast (well, Scott Wolf and Chi McBride probably won't hurt the show's chances either.).

4. The return of Aaron Sorkin (and Matthew Perry, too): As mentioned above, I am eagerly awaiting the premiere of Aaron Sorkin's new project Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Not only because I thought his years on The West Wing were terrific and I've been waiting for something else he could sink his teeth into, but also because it marks the return of Matthew Perry to the network that made him a star. I've seen a bit of the pilot and you can see a some of Chandler Bing in Matthew's character on Studio 60. I'm curious to see how much of Chandler will be there and how much of the more serious persona he displayed on episodes of The West Wing will show up. I'm also interested in seeing how such a cast of fairly big name stars (Bradley Whitford, Amanda Peet, Steven Weber and D.L. Hughley, among others) will work together. By the way, with Steven Weber on this show, and Tim Daly on The Nine, it looks like the Hackett brothers from the NBC comedy Wings have returned to primetime!

5. ER (yes, I said ER): I almost gave up on ER last season. With the departure of Noah Wyle's Dr. John Carter, the addition of Kristen Johnston and John Leguizamo as harsh, unlikeable characters, and the shift of the show to more character driven episodes (to compete with Grey's Anatomy perhaps) it just didn't resemble the show I had been watching for the last decade. Then, Abby got pregnant. Somewhere, deep down the darkest tunnel, there was hope that our dear Dr. Lockhart would actually feel happiness after several years of misery. Suddenly, I was brought back into the fold. When they jettisoned Johnston and Leguizamo, and began to tile up a bunch of loose plotlines, I saw a glimmer of the show that ER once was. Now that John Stamos is being added to the cast I am interested to see how this season will turn out.

Honorable Mentions

The Shield and Battlestar Galactica: When we last left Detective Vic Mackey of The Shield he was a bit miffed at the death of fellow police offer Lem Lemansky. Little did he know that another fellow police officer, Shane Vendrell, killed him to protect his own rear end. In this upcoming season the hunt will be on for Lem's killer. And, if Vic finds out it was Shane there's probably going to be a bit of hell to pay. So, I am looking forward to the next installment of The Shield.

I'm also ready for the next season of Battlestar Galactica. With the focus of the show more on the survival of the population of New Caprica after its invasion by Cylons, a whole new dynamic will appear. The last two seasons of the show have been fantastic and have really changed the way people look at science fiction programs. Here's hoping that they can keep the momentum going this season.