LOU GRANT Is FINALLY Available on DVD (Season One, Anyway)

As other acclaimed shows from the 70s and 80s have been released on DVD, fans of Lou Grant have been wondering when their turn will come. The answer is now, at least partially, as Shout! Factory is offering Season One of Lou Grant right now, with Season Two lined up for release in August.

Lou Grant spun off Lou (the character, played by Ed Asner on both shows) from Mary Tyler Moore, where he was the crusty boss in Mary's TV newsroom. Mary Tyler Moore was a half-hour comedy, one of the best TV comedies of all time, and it firmly established its eccentric, lovable characters, three of whom went on shows of their own. It seemed natural for MTM to spawn comedies like Rhoda and Phyllis, but Lou was the only one who got an hour-long drama. He was sent from MTM's Minneapolis to Los Angeles, and from a TV newsroom to a print newspaper, which had been part of MTM's Lou's back story. And for playing Lou, Ed Asner became the only actor to take home Emmy Awards for playing the same character in a comedy and in a drama.

As a newspaper drama, Lou Grant sent reporters Billie Newman (Linda Kelsey) and Joe Rossi (Robert Walden) out to cover topical issues like homelessness, racism, obscenity, teen pregnancy, runaway crime in a high school, and -- in the very first episode -- police corruption and a reporter's too-cozy relationship with the "Cophouse." The Los Angeles Tribune's owner, Mrs. Pynchon, played by the wonderful Nancy Marchand, often came into conflict with Lou and his methods, and even managing editor Charlie Hume, played by Mason Adams, the one who hired Lou, found himself at odds from time to time. It was great stuff, with good acting all-around and terrific individual stories.

When I was in law school, I remember being called for a survey by some group called the Tolono Busy Bees (the voice was definitely a child and I took them to be some kind of service organization for kids, like Scouts, from Tolono, Illinois) while Lou Grant was still new. They asked one question -- what my favorite television show was -- and before the words were even out of the child's mouth, I was jumping in with Lou Grant. I loved it, I loved Ed Asner's performance, and the supporting cast and guest stars were always a delight.

Over its run from 1977 to 1982, when rumor had it CBS unceremoniously canceled the show because of Asner's outspoken political beliefs, Lou Grant won 13 Emmys, a Peabody, two Humanitas prizes, a pair of Golden Globes and three Directors Guild Awards. Ed Asner won two Emmys as Best Actor in a Drama, while Nancy Marchand's performance as the formidable Mrs. Pynchon earned her four Best Supporting Actress Emmys.

Some of the highlights of the first season of Lou Grant include "Cophouse," mentioned above, "Hoax," a bit of a caper involving Lou with a disreputable old friend who claims to have a hot tip; "Nazi," about neo-Nazis in Los Angeles, with Brian Dennehy and Peter Weller in the cast; "Barrio," revealing the newspaper's lack of coverage of important stories if the people involved are Hispanic; "Judge," which earned Barnard Hughes an Emmy for his guest performance as an erratic judge who puts Lou in the clink for contempt of court; "Psych-Out," where Rossi goes undercover to investigate a mental institution; "Housewarming," where Billie looks into domestic violence, with Julie Kavner as a guest star; "Airliner," bringing the news home for Charlie, whose daughter is on a plane experiencing technical problems in the air; "Sports," where the paper looks into rumors of recruiting violations at a local college athletics program; "Hero," posing a mystery about a lifesaver who doesn't want any recognition; "Renewal," a memorable episode with Robert Earl Jones as an elderly man whose building is about to be razed, causing him a great personal loss; "Poison," about a nuclear plant that may be unsafe; and "Physical," the season finale that gives Lou gets a scary diagnosis.

Lou Grant: Season One is now available directly from Shout! Factory as well as Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

THE GOOD WIFE Hits the Fan Again Tonight at 7:30

CBS's The Good Wife has been enjoying a banner season, with many critics calling it the best drama on television. Trouble and intrigue have been brewing for some time inside Lockhart Gardner, the law firm where the "good wife" in question, Alicia Florrick, played by Juliana Margulies, was made partner at the end of Season 4. It's also the law firm where Alicia's ex-lover (the Gardner in Lockhart Gardner) had to fight off charges of bribery and corruption to remain at the top of the food chain. For awhile now, Alicia has been torn between her feelings for Will Gardner, played by Josh Charles, and her loyalty to her family, including two complicated kids and an ethically challenged husband, the newly-elected Governor of Illinois, portrayed by Chris Noth. He's the guy who cheated on her in the huge scandal that started the show back in 2009.

Tension inside the firm, unresolved passion inside and outside the firm, problems with finances and ethics, dicey cases that put Alicia's prowess as a lawyer on the line... Let's just say there was lots of fuel for drama there. Push came to shove in the fifth episode of this fifth season, in an episode appropriately called "Hitting the Fan," when Alicia and a cadre of unhappy junior associates finally walked out on Lockhart Gardner to start their own firm. Since then, as we've seen various characters plot and counterplot, maneuver and manipulate, as everybody fights over turf and some new characters have introduced new complications, things have gone downhill a bit in my estimation. I would send a check to CBS myself if they would put an end to the beyond-annoying pregnant woman (and "ethics adviser") who works for the Governor, the new, mob-connected, somehow untouchable lawyer at Lockhart Gardner who keeps committing "pranks" that are actually felonies, and two old cranks at the firm who continue to stir the pot in ways that would and should get them disbarred. I'd also like to see Kalinda (Archie Panjabi) get more to do than just hop between the sheets and some focus on Cary (Matt Czuchry), Alicia's new partner, who seems to have been sidelined, as well.

There have been some positive developments, however, from bringing back America Ferrera, Nathan Lane and John Noble, to showing different sides of campaign manager Eli Gold (Alan Cumming) and the shifting alliances and divided loyalties Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski) has been playing with.

And I have to say, if I have my objections to the way The Good Wife has followed up on Alicia & Company exiting Lockhart Gardner, it doesn't take anything away from "Hitting the Fan" itself, which was just about as perfect an hour of TV drama as you could wish for.

To help you catch up on The Good Wife, CBS is streaming all ten Season 5 episodes, from "Everything is Ending," the season premiere, to "The Decision Tree" from December 1. You can watch them all in order and decide for yourself if you agree with me on the perfection of "Hitting the Fan" and the annoyance factor in the five episodes since.

CBS is also showing "Hitting the Fan" all by itself at 7:30 pm Central time tonight, a bit earlier than The Good Wife's regular slot. By highlighting this episode, it would seem that CBS recognizes the brilliance of that particular episode. They aren't alone.

TV's Dead List: IRONSIDE, LUCKY 7, WE ARE MEN, WELCOME TO THE FAMILY

ABC's Lucky 7, a limp drama about a group of lottery winners, was the first to get the ax. And then CBS yanked We Are Men, a sad show that featured interesting actors like Tony Shalhoub and Kal Penn doing absolutely nothing interesting. As bets swirled about which show would go over the cliff into TV oblivion next, NBC announced it was canning one cop drama in Ironside and one sitcom in Welcome to the Family.

Something for everyone! Ironside was one of those strange revivals/remakes that pop up from time to time, as somebody inexplicably decides it's time to dig up an old show nobody really misses. I mean, my mom really liked the first Ironside -- she had a thing for Raymond Burr -- but I haven't heard anybody else mention that show since... Well, since it was canceled in 1975. Blair Underwood represented a new take on the old premise of a veteran cop injured by a sniper who leaves the force, acquires a wheelchair and puts together a special team to solve crimes. Underwood is younger and more handsome than Burr was when he played Ironside, not that viewers seemed to care, since they really didn't tune in to find out. And Ironside is off NBC's Wednesday lineup, replaced by a Chicago Fire spinoff called Chicago P.D.

There are so many new family sitcoms this season it's understandable that something like Welcome to the Family got lost in the shuffle. Welcome to the Family had an appealing cast, with Mike O'Malley (Kurt's dad on Glee), complete with the usual baseball cap, Mary McCormack (In Plain Sight), Justina Machado (Six Feet Under) and Ricardo Chavira (Desperate Housewives) as mismatched in-laws. But it wasn't enough to elevate this warmed-over version of Abie's Irish Rose.

So far, no cancellations from Fox or the CW, but Fox has announced a full-season pickup for its hapless cop comedy Brooklyn Nine-Nine and a second 13-episode season for Sleepy Hollow, the supernatural drama that mixes Armageddon with Washington Irving's Headless Horseman. Okay, it actually ignores Washington Irving's Headless Horseman, going full-on Armageddon. Demons! Witches! Blood! Beheadings! Let's just say that this Sleepy Hollow feels much more like a remake of Highlander than anything to do with Irving or his Ichabod Crane. But it's been popular so far, and it'll be around for at least 13 more episodes next year.

Over at ABC, they've ordered a full season of the spy/superhero adventure Marvel's Agents of SHIELD, and CBS has done the same for The Crazy Ones, the Robin Williams ad agency sitcom, as well as Mom, an unfunny mess with Allison Janney as the sassy, trashy mom of a sassy, trashy daughter played by Anna Pharis, and The Millers, an even less funny mess that completely wastes the talents of Beau Bridges and Margo Martindale as the sassy, trashy parents of Will Arnett.

NBC has just one full-season order so far with The Blacklist, a James Spader vehicle about international crime and corruption that isn't afraid to get down and dirty. Spader stars as a megacriminal who turns himself in to work with the FBI -- or at least one pretty young FBI agent played by Megan Boone -- to take down the worst bad guys on the planet. I was on the edge of my seat during the pilot, which was certainly gripping and not afraid to put a child in jeopardy or torture its characters. But I'm afraid I'm not the right viewer for all that gore. Still, The Blacklist has clicked with viewers, and NBC has extended its order for a full season. And if somebody wants to clue me in on what the scoop really is on Elizabeth's husband when that's revealed well, I am curious, I admit.

New Shows: Michael J.Fox vs. Robin Williams in the Battle of the 80s Sitcom Stars

Michael J. Fox is one of those performers who rose above whatever vehicle he was in. I don't think either Family Ties or Spin City would've gone anywhere if they had cast, say, Matthew Broderick in the former or Charlie Sheen in the latter from the get-go. Whatever the show, Fox's intelligence and charm and especially his comic timing made it seem better than it was. But then Parkinson's Disease intruded. He still had America's heart, even if he wasn't doing television or movies anymore. That means great things were expected when he announced he was coming back to NBC with a sitcom built around him, acknowledging his Parkinson's and using it as part of the main character in The Michael J. Fox Show.

Contrast that with Robin Williams, who made his mark on TV as Mork of Mork and Mindy fame, and then went on to big, important movie roles where he was in turn lovable, crazy or really crazy. See: The Dead Poets Society, Mrs. Doubtfire, Good Will Hunting and The Birdcage for warm-and-fuzzy Williams, and The Fisher King, One Hour Photo and Insomnia for the nuts and psychopaths. I'm not sure where to put Popeye, except to note that he was terrific in it, and I totally believed him as a serious actor after that one.

But Williams, too, had off-screen problems, mostly centered around substance abuse and just how out-of-control his comedy stylings could get when he was on a roll. The word "manic" comes to mind. Yes, Williams has always been funny, but sometimes it's not that great to be identified with "crazy" as a matter of course. His new show on CBS isn't backing away from that, however, going with The Crazy Ones as a title.

Both shows are on Thursday night, and last week, they both held the 8 pm (Central) slot. The Michael J. Fox Show came in with a slightly better critical reception than The Crazy Ones, but The Crazy Ones had a better lead-in with The Big Bang Theory and its boffo ratings than MJF got with back-to-back episodes of Parks and Recreation, a much superior show that has much inferior ratings.

So whose comedy emerged supreme? For my money, it's The Crazy Ones. I watched both episodes of The Michael J. Fox Show and the pilot for The Crazy Ones, and I'm surprised to say this, but I liked The Crazy Ones a lot better in terms of character and situation. It also trounced The Michael J. Fox Show in the ratings.

In The Michael J. Fox Show, our hero is a much-beloved news anchor who left his desk due to Parkinson's but has now decided to come back. In The Crazy Ones, our hero is the wackadoodle head of an ad agency who works with his daughter (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and a very attractive subordinate (Mad Men's James Wolk). Neither premise is exactly inspired, but neither is terrible, either.

In The MJF Show, Michael J. Fox is as capable as ever, and Betsy Brandt is strong as his wife. I could take or leave the children, Katie Finneran is annoying as Fox's character's narcissistic sister, and the other supporting characters seem to come from The Comedy Stock Character Handbook instead of a place of creativity or inspiration. Mostly, I don't think I respond all that well to family-based sitcoms anymore, and that's exactly where this show finds its center. Teens, toddlers, underachievers at school, playtime at the park, hijinks ensuing...

Over at Crazy, we're playing with the grown-ups and their job-based hijinks instead. As I watched, I decided that Williams was fine, Gellar seemed uncomfortable, and Wolk was adorable. Plus Kelly Clarkson guested in the pilot as herself, or a version of herself who didn't want to sing the McDonald's jingle unless they sexed it up, and she was a lot of fun. Williams' brand of insanity actually worked when played off Clarkson and Wolk. And I wouldn't underestimate the power of Wolk being adorable. So far, anyway, I'd tune in just to see him sing jingles and fool around with clients.

Next week, these two shows will not be in direct competition, as Sean Hayes' Sean Saves the World moves into the 8 o'clock slot and The Michael J. Fox Show airs at 8:30 on NBC, while The Crazy Ones stays at 8, followed by that old chestnut, Two and a Half Men.

We'll see how the ratings shake out for The Crazy Ones without that Big Bang lead-in, and for The Michael J. Fox Show when it's drafting Sean Hayes' fumes. But for now, anyway, 80s star Robin Williams is leading 80s star Michael J. Fox in the battle for my TV time.

Fall Heats Up: Tons of TV Premieres Tomorrow

Sunday has become a hot night for television, with biggies like The Amazing Race, Breaking Bad, Downton Abbey, The Good Wife, Homeland, Mad Men, Once Upon a Time, Revenge and The Simpsons finding space there. And tomorrow... A whole lot of your favorites are launching their fall seasons.

On ABC, Once Upon a Time comes back, taking us to Neverland in pursuit of little Henry, who was kidnapped at the end of last season. Snow White and Prince Charming (, as well as Evil Queen Regina, Rumplestiltskin, Captain Hook and Emma, Snow and Charming's daughter, are on board for Neverland adventures. Henry's dad, sometimes whileand Belle, the one who goes with the Beast, stayed back in Storybrooke. But everybody should be mixing it up with villainous mermaids and a nasty and dangerous version of Peter Pan as we move into Once Upon a Time, season 3. Look for the special two-hour premiere beginning at 6 Central time on ABC.

Revenge also shows up for its Season 3 premiere on ABC, followed by a new show called Betrayal that is trying to capture the Revenge spirit, maybe with a soupcon of Scandal for good measure.. On Revenge, Emily let the cat out of the bag about really being Amanda at the end of last season, and she's getting married to Daniel as this one starts. Everybody's lives are complicated when Victoria's much-beloved (maybe too beloved?) son Patrick, played by Justin Hartley, shows up. And Betrayal mixes sex, politics, murder and an illicit love affair between a defense lawyer and a prosecutor's wife. They're both married, and who they're married to makes their affair a whole lot more complicated when the two attorneys take opposite sides of a very high-profile murder case.

The Good Wife, season 5

Over on CBS, it's time for The Amazing Race to take off from the starting line for its 23rd season. I'm not making that up. They've raced around the world 23 times now, winning nine Emmys in the Best Reality Competition Program category. The first leg of this season's race will be followed by the season premieres of The Good Wife and The Mentalist, at 8 and 9 Central time respectively. Alicia (Juliana Margulies) is jumping ship from Lockhart/Gardner to create a new firm with Cary and the ill-treated associates. "Everything Is Ending" is the name of the premiere episode, the one that begins the war between Alicia and her Lockhart/Gardner boss, Will, who also happens to be her ex-lover. And what about husband Peter now that he won his election?

Showtime is starting up its espionage thriller Homeland for its third season, showing what happens "during the aftermath of the horrific terror attack that decimated the U.S. intelligence apparatus and prompted a global manhunt for the world's most wanted terrorist, Nick Brody (Damien Lewis). As Carrie (Claire Danes) and Saul (Mandy Patinkin) begin to pick up the pieces of their shattered professional and personal lives, they are swept up in the political and media firestorm surrounding the terror attack and the subsequent search for Brody's whereabouts." The aftermath begins at 8 Central, followed by a new show called Masters of Sex, starring British actor Michael Sheen and American Lizzy Caplan as Masters and Johnson, the trailblazing duo -- he was a fertility expert and she was a twice-divorced single mother -- who became famous for their research into human sexuality starting in the late 50s.

And on HBO, you'll find another new series, this one a comedy called Hello Ladies, about a hapless web designer who moves from England to LA and begins a desperate search for love and romance. Or at least a date. The web designer looking to get it on with the ladies is played Stephen Merchant, Ricky Gervais's frequent collaborator and co-creator of the original British version of The Office, who recently went viral after a lip sync contest on Jimmy Fallon's Late Night. He's tall, he's spindly, he's affable, and he does a heck of a job on Beyonce's "Single Ladies," but the New York Times called his new show "mortifying and melancholy, played out against a tinselly, soft-jazz vision of nighttime Hollywood." If mortifying and melancholy is your thing, Hello Ladies may be just what you're looking for. Merchant's dating games begin at 9:30 pm Central time on HBO.

If your DVR is already overloaded, you'll still need to make room for the 75-minute series finale of Breaking Bad at 8 Central time on AMC. It's all over. Breaking Bad will be broken, one way or the other.

Is Your Favorite Show Coming Back?

As we reach the end of the 2012-13 TV season, the networks have been busy pulling the plug on some shows and offering lifelines to others. If you're confused about what's coming back and what's not, here is a handy list. (And I hope your favorites are all safe in that long "renewed" list.)

CANCELLED/WRAPPED/BUH BYE

1600 Penn (NBC)

30 Rock (NBC)
666 Park Avenue (ABC)
90210 (CW)
Animal Practice (NBC)
Ben and Kate (Fox)
Body of Proof (ABC)
CSI: NY (CBS)
Cult (CW)
Deception (NBC)
Do No Harm (NBC)
Don’t Trust the B in Apt. 23 (ABC)

Emily Owens MD (CW)
Family Tools (ABC)
Fringe (Fox)
Go On (NBC)
Golden Boy (CBS)
Gossip Girl (CW)
Guys with Kids (NBC)
Happy Endings (ABC)
How to Live With Your Parents (For the Rest of Your Life) (ABC)
The Job (CBS)
Last Resort (ABC)
Made in Jersey (CBS)

Malibu Country (ABC)
Mob Doctor (Fox)
Mobbed (Fox)
The New Normal (NBC)
The Office (NBC)
Partners (CBS)
Private Practice (ABC)
Ready for Love (NBC)
Red Widow (ABC)
Rock Center with Brian Williams (NBC)
Rules of Engagement (CBS)
Smash (NBC)
Touch (Fox)
Up All Night (NBC)
Vegas (CBS)
Whitney (NBC)
Zero Hour (ABC)

RENEWED/SAVED/BACK FOR MORE

2 Broke Girls (CBS)
The Amazing Race (CBS)

American Dad (Fox)
American Idol (Fox)
America's Next Top Model (CW)
Arrow (CW)
The Bachelor (and the Bachelorette) (ABC)
Beauty and the Beast (CW)
The Big Bang Theory (CBS)
The Biggest Loser (NBC)
Blue Bloods (CBS)
Bob's Burgers (Fox)
Bones (Fox)
The Carrie Diaries (CW)
Castle (ABC)

Chicago Fire (NBC)
Community (NBC)
Criminal Minds (CBS)
CSI (CBS)
Dancing with the Stars (ABC)
Elementary (CBS)
Family Guy (Fox)
The Following (Fox)
Glee (Fox)
The Good Wife (CBS)
Grey's Anatomy (ABC)
Grimm (NBC)
Hart of Dixie (CW)

Hawaii Five-O (CBS)
How I Met Your Mother (CBS)
Last Man Standing (ABC)
Law & Order SVU (NBC)
The Mentalist (CBS)
The Middle (ABC)
Mike & Molly* (CBS)
The Mindy Project (Fox)
Modern Family (ABC)
Nashville (ABC)
NCIS (CBS)
NCIS: Los Angeles (CBS)
The Neighbors (ABC)
New Girl (Fox)
Nikita* (CW)
Once Upon a Time (ABC)
Parenthood (NBC)
Parks and Recreation (NBC)

Shark Tank (ABC)
Person of Interest (CBS)
Raising Hope (Fox)
Revenge (ABC)
Revolution (NBC)
Scandal (ABC)
The Simpsons (Fox)
Suburgatory (ABC)
Supernatural (CW)
Survivor (CBS)
Two and a Half Men (CBS)
Undercover Boss (CBS)
The Vampire Diaries (CW)
The Voice (NBC)
The X Factor (Fox)

Note that Fox's "The Cleveland Show" is not listed on their Fall 2013 schedule, but it hasn't been officially canceled, either. Others neither here nor there at the moment: "Betty White's Off Their Rockers," "Celebrity Apprentice," "Hannibal" and "Fashion Star," all on NBC.

*"Mike and Molly" has been renewed but won't be back till mid-season, while "Nikita" has been renewed just to come back with six episodes mid-season and finish off the show's story.

AMAZING RACE Casting Call in Bloomington-Normal

Are you the perfect combination of brains and brawn and foreign language skills? Have you always wanted to climb across the top of the Singapore Flyer? Zorb in New Zealand? Look for a needle (or at least a clue) in a field full of Swedish haystacks? Lasso a yak? Perform a bottle dance in Paraguay? Drink buckets of borscht? Ask for directions or find a cab in six different cities where they speak six different languages?

If you answered yes to all of those questions, you might just be what The Amazing Race is looking for. And they're coming to Normal to find you.

You'll need a partner, someone with some connection to you, like friend, lover, ex, co-worker, teammate, family member, etc. And you both have to be over 21 and U.S.. citizens. (Just a hint: "Seeing where this goes" and "testing the relationship" don't seem to work too well as the basis for partnerships on this show.) You can see the eligibility requirements here.

Yodeling in Bavaria on The Amazing Race

And if CBS and The Amazing Race people like you and your partner, if they think you have what it takes to pop on TV, you might be scrambling, running, climbing, ziplining, dancing, cycling, learning, eating, drinking, thinking, swimming, assembling, paddling, solving, and generally challenging yourself all around the world. The one thing you won't be doing much of is sleeping.

There are usually 11 teams of two, with teams eliminated one at a time during most legs of the race. During those legs, they look for clues, finish "roadblocks" and "detour" tasks, and try to avoid last place on an elimination leg. When it's down to three teams, it's a race to the finish line, and the duo that crosses the line first wins a cool million bucks.

The casting festivities are happening near the ISU campus in the apartment complex called The Flats, at 611 Osage Street in Normal. WMBD 31, the Peoria CBS affiliate, is holding this official casting call tomorrow, Saturday, September 29, from 10 am to 2 pm, in conjunction with SAMI. They're asking you to come out and convince them -- in two minutes on camera -- that you belong on The Amazing Race. You'll save time and impress the producers if you download and fill out the video release form before you go.

If you were watching the Emmys, you may've noticed that The Amazing Race just picked up its 8th win in the Outstanding Reality Competition Program category. Season 21 begins on September 30th, so maybe this local casting call is just a way to publicize the new shows. Or maybe they really do want some Normalites in the race, if only to keep putting NORMAL in the Chyron.

Click here for more info on the casting call. Click here to see the CBS site for The Amazing Race.

Almost Here: New Fall Shows on TV

It doesn't feel like fall just yet, but that's not stopping the networks from launching their new fall shows. Next week!

NBC has already sneaked the premieres of two new shows: the Matthew Perry vehicle "Go On," about a support group where the lovely Laura Benanti helps stuck-in-a-rut folks (including Perry's character) move past their blocks, and "The New Normal," a sitcom from "Glee" creator Ryan Murphy, about a gay couple and the surrogate who's having a baby for them. Justin Bartha ("The Hangover") and Andrew Rannells ("The Book of Mormon") play the couple, with Georgia King as the single mom who's having their baby, Bebe Wood as her precocious daughter, and Ellen Barkin as her Type A, meddling mother. And, no, the show is not set in Normal, Illinois, which seems like a no-brainer. We are the new Normal, people!

Both those shows will be bowing on September 11th, with "Go On" at 8  and "New Normal" at 8:30 Central. If you'd like to see the "Go On" pilot now, without waiting till Tuesday, it's available on the NBC site here, while video for "New Normal," including its pilot, are here.

Next up is a sneak peek of "Guys with Kids" at 9 pm on the 12th on NBC. It's a show about, you guessed it, guys with kids, starring Anthony Anderson, Jesse Bradford and Zach Cregger as those guys. Anderson is a stay-at-home dad, Bradford is a single dad, and Cregger is a regular old dad. They call him "working dad" in the video preview. Jimmy Fallon exec-produced "Guys with Kids," and he says it's a show "about cool dads." Well, all righty then.

September 17th brings us "The Mob Doctor," involving a surgeon moonlighting for the mob, where there is apparently a great need for surgery on the sly, at 8 pm Central on Fox, and "Revolution," a dystopic futuristic drama about a world completely without power, at 9 on NBC.

"Partners" starts on September 24 at 7:30 pm on CBS, right after "How I Met Your Mother." The partners in the title are a pair of BFFs (Michael Urie and David Krumholtz) conflicted by Friend #1's boyfriend and Friend #2's girlfriend. It looks... Squicky. But you can judge for yourself by watching the preview video here.

Fox premieres "Ben and Kate" and "The Mindy Project" on Tuesday the 25th.

In "Ben and Kate," Nate Faxon is Ben, while Dakota Johnson (the daughter of Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith) is Kate. They're a mismatched brother and sister; she's practical and smart, while he's a goofball dreamer. What a crazy pair! Don't be surprised if a hot dog makes him lose control while she's all about Crêpes Suzette. Tune in Tuesday the 25th at 7:30 Central.

And then there's "The Mindy Project" at 8:30, after "New Girl." "The Mindy Project" stars Mindy Kaling, famous for being Kelly Kapoor (and writing and producing) on "The Office." It's a highly anticipated show, which is probably why it gets that post-"New Girl" slot. You'll need to buy Kaling as a doctor -- an OB/GYN -- who is as quirky and adorable as Zoey Deschanel. I'm not incredibly thrilled by this idea, but the "New Girl" fans may like it.

It's hard to believe there's room for yet another show with "Vegas" in the title, but CBS is rolling one out at 9 pm Central on the 25th. This new "Vegas" features Dennis Quaid and Michael Chiklis and is inspired by the true story of a cowboy turned sheriff battling the mob in Las Vegas in the 60s. It's not exactly what you would call high concept. But who knows? Maybe viewers are ready to turn back the clock to see Las Vegas, Old Style. You can see a video preview here.

The next night, "Animal Practice," which sort of looks like "House" with pets (Justin Kirk plays a veterinarian who likes animals but hates people) is followed by "Guys with Kids" (see above) in its regular slot. Those two are back to back on NBC at 7 and 7:30 pm on September 26.

They'll be joined by "Neighbors" on ABC at 8:30 Central. "Neighbors" is eccentric, that's for sure, as a family of regular old people move into a gated community filled with aliens. Aliens from the Planet Zabrvon. Who exude green goo out their ears. Jami Gertz is the mom of the earth family. I love Jami Gertz. But this sounds terrible. Sorry, Jami.

Thursday the 27th brings us "Last Resort" at 7 on ABC, with Andre Braugher as the captain of a submarine and Scott Speedman as his second-in-command. After some nuclear weapon shenanigans, the sub and its crew find themselves marooned on an island. Think "Gilligan's Island" meets "The Hunt for Red October."

That's followed by the newest iteration of Sherlock Holmes in "Elementary," this time with Jonny Lee Miller as the sleuth and Lucy Liu as his Dr. Watson. They're living and solving crimes in contemporary New York. Previews look very good, and I think I will be tuning in to see how it goes Thursday, September 27 at 9 pm Central.

"Made in Jersey" pops up on CBS in the No Man's Land known as Friday, with its premiere on the 28th at 8 Central. The plot sounds vaguely like "Legally Blonde" for brunettes, as a Jersey Girl tries to hold her own against snooty colleagues at a law firm in Manhattan. "Legally Blonde" meets "Working Girl," maybe.

ABC adds yet another intriguing show to an already packed Sunday, offering "666 Park Avenue," set in a spooky apartment building on New York's Upper East Side. Terry O'Quinn ("Lost") and Vanessa Williams ("Desperate Housewives" and "Ugly Betty") are the slinky, dark and dangerous owners of the place, while Dave Annable ("Brothers and Sisters") and Rachael Taylor ("Grey's Anatomy") are the sweet young couple who move in to be the new building managers. So... "Rosemary's Baby"? And a little "Dark Shadows"? It airs right after "Revenge" on ABC at 9 pm on Sundays.

That's it for new series in September, but there are also a ton of returning shows, plus, of course, October! Whew. It's not easy keeping up with TV, is it?

U of I's Jon Michael Hill Will Join "Elementary" on CBS This Fall

TV Line is reporting that Jon Michael Hill, who went straight from the University of Illinois Department of Theatre to the Steppenwolf ensemble, has been cast in the new Sherlock Holmes show, "Elementary," set for CBS this fall.

Hill did undergraduate acting work in "King Lear," "A Chorus Line" and "Gint" at Krannert Center, and then, after graduation, he earned a Jeff nomination for "The Tempest" and a Tony nomination for "Superior Donuts" before appearing in "Detroit 1-8-7" and "Eastbound and Down" on the telly.

Although the news about Hill being added to the "Elementary" cast doesn't have a lot of detail, TV Line says he will be "a detective working alongside the pair." Will he be the Lestrade in the mix? I dunno. Nobody else in the cast has that name yet, anyway. Or perhaps he can be Athelney Jones, another Scotland Yard detective who appears in Arthur Conan Doyle's stories. Or perhaps not. Athelney Jones is a way cool name, even if he is "an imbecile," according to Sherlock Holmes, and not as prominent as several other inspectors and detectives in the canon.

In the "Elementary" take on Sherlock, Mr. Holmes is a Brit living now (like, 2012) in New York City, and he returns to sleuthing after a stint in rehab. Jonny Lee Miller, Angelina Jolie's first husband and the guy who alternated with Benedict Cumberbatch as Dr. Frankenstein and his reanimated Creature in the National Theatre's "Frankenstein," plays Sherlock, while Lucy Liu is a feminine Watson. (She's Joan, instead of John. And she is apparently a former doctor now filling in as Holmes's sobriety helper. Or something like that.)

Aidan Quinn's Captain Gregson is also a part of the tableau, and you will see Miller, Liu and Quinn in the long preview CBS has provided to sneak the show. From that preview, the show looks pretty fun, and even though there are a whole lot of Sherlocks running around right now (what with Robert Downey Jr. going Victorian in the movies and that same Benedict Cumberbatch mentioned above playing another modern Holmes for the BBC and PBS), this one looks sufficiently different and Miller is charming and quirky enough (without being quite as snooty or chilly as Cumberbatch) that I think "Elementary" make stake out its own space.

NBC is scheduling "Elementary" in the prime slot at 9 pm Central on Thursday nights, so they appear to have some faith in the show, as well.

"Dallas" Returns, Complete With JR and Bobby

I've watched a lot of daytime soaps in my time, but weirdly enough, the nighttime ones, like "Dallas" and "Knots Landing" and "Dynasty," all huge in the 80s, didn't really catch me.

My biggest memory of "Dallas," actually, was being invited to a law school friend's apartment for a "Who Shot JR?" party on the night CBS had widely advertised for the big reveal of the culprit, but we stopped in Campustown at U of I on the way. I was in McBride's drugstore, and my husband was crossing 6th Street to come in there and meet me, but a car turned left from Green Street and ran right into him in the crosswalk. He wasn't hurt too badly, but he had a major dent in his thigh, meaning he couldn't drive, and we really felt he should go to the hospital to get checked out. Unfortunately, his car -- the only one we had between the two of us -- was an old red Volvo that happened to be stick shift, which I couldn't drive.

So that meant not only did I miss the party, but I had to call the party and grab a couple of other people away, too, as I asked two friends who could drive stick to come to Campustown in their own car and take both their car and our car to the hospital and wait with us.

The friend who was having the party said, "Wow, your husband will do anything to get out of my parties! He's even throwing himself in front of cars now."

Well, it was funny at the time. And I did find out later who shot JR. It was Bing Crosby's daughter. I'm not making that up. Actress Mary Crosby played Kristin Shepard, the sister of JR's wife Sue Ellen (Linda Gray), and she was an all-around bad girl. Kristin didn't make "Dallas," the new generation, now showing on TNT on Wednesday nights. That makes sense, of course, since Kristin was found face-down in a swimming pool on original recipe "Dallas." Not that the soaps haven't resurrected dead people before, but this time, they've let Kristin stay most sincerely dead, bringing along only her son, Christopher, who was a plot point (Infidelity! Who's the daddy? Lies! Blackmail!) way back then.

The new "Dallas" that includes Christopher, who was raised by JR's brother, Bobby Ewing, premiered last Wednesday with two episodes to get the party started. It also got smashing ratings.

I did tune in, and I was surprised to find that I remembered more of the Ewings than I would've expected. Here in the 21st century, JR, played by Larry Hagman, still giving the old dog a twinkle and a lot of panache along with the villainy, started out the episode hanging out in a nursing home, pretending to be catatonic, while his brother Bobby, the good one, full of warmth and charm as embodied by Patrick Duffy, was in charge of Southfork, the family ranch. Sue Ellen, JR's ex, still has the raccoon eyes and messy hair which were her trademarks, and now numerous people seem to be trying to get her to run for governor of Texas. (This means they apparently missed all those episodes of 80s "Dallas" where Sue Ellen was wracked with substance abuse and mental problems that would make her incredibly unfit to be governor of anything, including herself.)

Bobby's old wife, Pam, the one who saw him get out of the shower in the infamous series reset, didn't make the trip to New "Dallas," however. Now he has a wife named Ann (played by Brenda Strong, best known as Sue Ellen Mischke, the braless candy bar heiress on "Seinfeld" and the voice of Mary Alice Young, the ghostly narrator on "Desperate Housewives") who seems sensible and sweet. Bobby also has cancer, which he is hiding from his adopted son, Christopher.

It's Christopher and JR's son, John Ross, who make up the nucleus of the second generation of Ewing plots and counterplots. John Ross (given shifty good looks and a pencil-thin mustache by Josh Henderson) wants to drill, baby, drill on Southfork, but he is stymied by Bobby and Christopher (Jesse Metcalfe, another "Desperate Housewives" refugee), who is all about greener forms of energy. There's also a girl in the middle of the two Ewing boys, one Elena, daughter of the cook, played by Jordana Brewster.

The hitch is that Elena grew up with both boys but was in love with Christopher. Now, however, she is with John Ross, after somebody sent her a break-up email purportedly from Christopher on the eve of their wedding. She's supposed to be smart and a whiz at finding oil and other energy, even though she was stupid enough to buy an email generated from within the nest of snakes known as the Ewing family without texting or calling Christopher to say "WTF, dude???" or, you know, walking over to the other side of the house at Southfork and smacking him personally. But, hey, it's always inconvenient on soap operas to ask too many questions.

In any event, Elena took the email at face value, John Ross swooped in to pick up her pieces, and Christopher now has a new bride, pretty Rebecca (Julie Gonzalo). Rebecca is a lawyer who seems on the up-and-up and totally devoted to her groom, with seems being the operative word.

So far, there has been more focus on the oldsters than I expected. I thought JR and Bobby would merely be a launching pad for the sexy kids with the six-packs. But, no, we're getting good stuff involving JR and his maneuvers and schemes, Bobby and his wife and his cancer and his desire to carry out the wishes of his dead mama, Miss Ellie, and even Sue Ellen and her goofy gubernatorial ambitions. Down the road, it is rumored we will see the return of Cliff Barnes (Ken Kercheval), JR's perennial enemy. I'm hoping for some Ray Krebbs, too. Played by Steve Kanaly, ranch hand Ray was a slice of real life in the posh and wealthy world of the first "Dallas." He could've been killed off in the original series, too, of course. I admit I had only a passing knowledge of the goings-on on the show, and I only just found out that Ray was Bobby's illegitimate half-brother when I was adding the IMDB link to Steve Kanaly. Ah, soaps. Life and death are so easy to serve up.

And what did I think of the scam-packed first two episodes of "Dallas," part deux? I liked them. I paid attention. I was interested enough to read up and figure out where Christopher came from and why John Ross kept taunting him about not being a real Ewing. As always, Larry Hagman and the joyful evil he brings to JR make for some fun viewing. I still don't feel any real connection to a bunch of rich people in Texas, but, hey, their schemes and reversals, backstabbing and comeuppance, are pretty fun. I'm not at all surprised by the ratings. "Dallas" was a powerhouse in its heyday, with its slick production values and handsome cast, its ramped-up plots that throw everybody into bed with everybody else as well as into fights and conspiracies against everybody else, are bringing all that back in fine style. This "Dallas" is very easy to watch and I'm thinking a lot of people are going to get hooked.