LITTLE ROCK — This week winds down the frenetic fall-season debut of new TV shows.
No new series arrive today and only a couple premiere later in the week. Be sure to study each day’s daily TV listings in order to have your recording devices primed and ready.
Here’s a quick overview of the new shows (boldface) and old shows with new episodes this week.
Today:
6 p.m. - America’s Funniest Home Videos (ABC).
6:30 p.m. - 60 Minutes (CBS).
7 p.m. - Extreme Makeover Home Edition (ABC); The Simpsons (Fox).
7:30 p.m. - Amazing Race (CBS); The Cleveland Show (Fox).
8 p.m. - Desperate Housewives (ABC); Family Guy (Fox).
9 p.m. - Brothers & Sisters (ABC); Undercover Boss (CBS).
Tuesday:
7 p.m. - No Ordinary Family (ABC); The Good Wife (CBS).
Wednesday:
9 p.m. Law & Order: Los Angeles (NBC).
Cable reminders:
For those with premium cable, don’t forget that Dexter’s new season begins at 8 p.m. today onShowtime. Hide the kiddies. It’s as gory as ever, but still meaty adult drama.
Dexter’s wife (Julie Benz) was found dead in the bathtub at the end of last season and Dexter suddenly finds himself the single father of three. How will he juggle that with his need to slice and dice bad guys? I’ve seen the first three episodes and fans will not be disappointed.
If you miss the 38-yearold Benz, catch her new series No Ordinary Family (see above). At least on ABC she won’t end up bled out by a serial killer. In fact, she gets superpowers! More on that new series in Tuesday’s column.
Also returning today are HBO’s Bored to Death at 9 p.m. and Eastbound & Down at 9:30.
The former is about a writer (Jonathan Ames) with writer’s block who moonlights as a private eye. Adopted Arkansan Ted Danson co-stars.
The latter is a comedy about a washed-up professional baseball pitcher (Danny McBride). In this second season he makes a fresh start in Mexico.
How desperate?
Do you still watch Desperate Housewives? I don’t.
Somewhere along the way the series “jumped the shark” for me. I think maybe it was the tornado episode that aired Dec. 2, 2007. It got huge ratings (20.6 millionwatched), but the disaster wasn’t enough to keep me going.
The tornado happened in the ninth episode of Season 4 of the series that, for its first three years, was the hottest “it” show on TV. The tornado seemed a bit desperate, even for the housewives.
Granted, skipping ahead five years at the end of the fourth season was a nice device to reinvigorate the series, but Wisteria Lanehad lost its luster for me by then.
If you’re still enthralled, the new season has the usual spate of soapy mischief with perhaps a return to some of the original intrigue of Season 1.
Last season’s cliffhanger involved Paul Young (Mark Moses). He’s out of prison, remarried and returned to Wisteria Lane renting Susan and Mike’s house.
Paul will be the source ofthis season’s ongoing mystery. We’ll see what havoc he can wreak.
Meanwhile, the newly single Bree (Marcia Cross) has her hands full with “young” hunky handyman Keith (Brian Austin Green). Fans will recall the 37-year-old Green from his 90210 days.
Finally, Vanessa Williams, now free from duty on Ugly Betty, has signed on as the show’s new vixen, an old college friend of Lynette’s (Felicity Huffman).
How amazing?
Perennial reality competition Emmy king Amazing Race finally lost out last season to Top Chef. Undaunted, the series packs up and hits the road for its 17th season today.
This cycle’s cast of globetrotters includes Miss Kentucky 2009, Miss Oregon 2004, an Internet comedian, a couple of a cappella singers from Princeton University, a recently reunited birth mother and daughter, a bartender and his girlfriend, a choreographer and his best bud, two dating couples, a brace of doctors and a team of beach volleyball partners.
Tonight’s episode, which journeys to Bangladesh, Ghana and the Arctic Circle, is a special 90-minute offering.
The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. E-mail:
Style, Pages 54 on 09/26/2010