TVSquad

The networks have had a quiet summer, quietly introducing scripted bomb after scripted bomb, so they're certainly ready to jump into the new fall season. And It looks to be an interesting one. ABC is scheduling a two-hour block of new comedies on Wednesdays as the sitcom tries to make a comeback.

Even more risky is NBC handing 10:00 to Jay Leno every night of the week. Everyone's waiting to see how that one plays out. FOX is banking on huge positive buzz for Glee to make it a hit, while ABC is hoping FlashForward can pick up where Lost is leaving off when it wraps its run this season.

To help you with it all, TV Squad has put together a handy calendar of all the premieres so you can schedule responsibly in this busy time of TV watching. Some nights have as many as twelve premieres scheduled, so you might need to invest in a few more DVRs to catch all your favorites; Monday's still look grim. Bookmark this page and you'll have it handy to help see you through.

Some shows are known for amazing acting, and some for stellar writing. In Treatment falls into the latter category, though the acting was top-notch, as well. Still, in essence the show was a one-room nightly play. It was simply dialogue between two to four actors. And It was riveting.

Davey Holmes won a Writers Guild Award for his work on that series. He was nominated for Pushing Daisies, a series with a completely different tone, and yet equally brilliant writing. He's also written for Damages and is involved in the forthcoming Happy Town for ABC.

Based on the strength of his script, Holmes has secured a pilot commitment from FOX for Worthy, a proposed series that would put the network dramatically into politics. The series follows a straight-arrow Arizona politician, named Worthy, who finds himself in trouble after he's in a hit-and-run and winds up blackmailed by the mob.

That's got to be one of the worst things that can happen to a television actor. You get cast in a pilot. Things go well. Even better, the pilot gets picked up. You're going to series! Then you get the phone call. "We're recasting. It's not the series, it's you." And just like that, the show goes on without you.

Dean Winters is the latest victim, losing a lead role at that. ABC has cast Steven Weber in Happy Town, replacing Winters as John Haplin, one of the most powerful men in a town named after his family. It's an interesting replacement because Winters and Weber tend to put different spins on the same kind of guy. Weber can nail rich, powerful and important better than Winters, while the latter does intense and brooding, but much more street level.

I roll my eyes a bit when a network has to go back about 20 years for a reference that ties into a new show. From the network that gave you Twin Peaks, comes a new town: Haplin, Minnesota. Hey, this show's about a town too! This one is also a mystery, about someone called "The Magic Man," who kidnapped several children years earlier and now might be back and behind a murder and another kidnapping. This has Amy Acker and Dean Winters in it, so I'm definitely going to check it out.

It looks like ABC is prepping Flash Forward to eventually succeed Lost, which is slated to end next season. Flash Forward, a mythology-laden show based on a Robert J. Sawyer novel, is only one of six new dramas the network has ordered for next fall.

Continuing its trend of green lighting quirky, high-concept shows, ABC is moving ahead with V, a revamp of the 1980s sci-fi series/miniseries, and Eastwick, a character-centric drama based on the John Updike novel and the Jack Nicholson movie, The Witches of Eastwick. Actor Paul Gross will play the Nicholson role on Eastwick.

It helps when the series you create (or at least adapt for American audiences) becomes successful right from the start. Now the creators of the American version of Life on Mars, Josh Appelbaum, Andre Nemec and Scott Rosenberg, are creating a new series for ABC called Happy Town in the vein of ABC's cult drama Twin Peaks.

While I'm sure Mrssrs. Appelbaum, Nemec and Rosenberg are very good at what they do, I don't think they have the mind-set to emulate the strange workings of that of David Lynch. It's likely that there will be superficial similarities but I don't think the comparison to Twin Peaks will work. However, I could be wrong.

I've enjoyed Life on Mars since its inception and will give the trio the benefit of the doubt, particularly since their previous original series October Road lasted two seasons when it's tough to last past one. Hopefully they will show as interesting a story with their original creation as they did with their adaptation.