Laurel’s TV Picks

Best Bets

Season premiere of Ugly Betty (ABC, 7pm)
Season premiere of My Name is Earl (NBC, 7pm - 8pm)
Season premiere of Grey’s Anatomy (ABC, 8pm)
Seaosn premiere of CSI (CBS, 8pm)
Season premiere of The Office (NBC, 8pm - 9:01pm)
Seaosn premiere of Without A Trace (CBS, 9pm)
New Mad Men (AMC, 9pm, 10pm, 1:30am)

News & Notes

Thanks to TV Picks reader Kara who sent me a gift from my Amazon.com wishlist! That was very cool of you.

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The 30 Rock and Supernatural season premieres air a week from tonight; Scrubs doesn’t return until October 25th.

Primetime Grid

Primetime

Season premiere of Ugly Betty (ABC, 7pm). Hooray, Betty’s back! Alas, Betty is going through some tough times here (as you might imagine). And with all that’s happened, she’s in denial about something (and not what you might think). Meanwhile, Wilhelmina schemes (of course). Guest stars include: Lorraine Toussaint, Illeana Douglas, and Kurt Fuller.

Special hour-long season premiere of My Name Is Earl (NBC, 7pm). We join Earl as he begins his prison sentence. Earl tries to adapt to prison life in a number of (humorous) ways. He also asks Joy to do him a favor while he’s away: take care of Randy. Yes, in this episode we learn just how inept Randy is at pretty much everything, without Earl there to help him. I’ve seen this episode and it was quite funny. And now I have the song “Save Earl” stuck in my head, thanks to the commercials.

Clark faces off against Bizarro in the seaosn premiere of Smallville (CW, 7pm). And a mysterious girl shows up (who just happens to be Clark’s cousin Kara . . . ).

Supposedly tonight’s new episode of Survivor: China (CBS, 7pm) will contain “one of the most physical and dirtiest challenges in Survivor history.”

Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares (BBC America, 7pm and 10pm, 8pm and 11pm). This show is a lot better (in my humble opinion) than the U.S. version now airing on FOX. I’m just saying, is all.

Everyone races to find Sara on the season premiere of CSI (CBS, 8pm). This is part two of a two-part episode that began in last season’s finale. Jessica Collins (of The Nine) guest stars.

The seaosn premiere of Grey’s Anatomy (ABC, 8pm - 9:01pm) opens as Meredith and company start their first day of residents. Things are tricky enough, but further complicating matters is the fact that one of the interns they get to boss around is Meredith’s half sister and the other is one of their own. Richard returns as chief of surgery and Bailey isn’t quite sure where she fits in now that “her interns” are residents. Chyler Leigh joins the cast as Meredith’s half-sister Lexie. Kate Walsh and Isaiah Washington have left the series (you may have heard a little something about that). DVR/VCR Alert: Runs one minute over.

Special hour-long season premiere of The Office (NBC, 8pm - 9:01pm). Michael thinks the office is cursed. His response? Sponsor a 5K race. Well, I guess he could’ve responded in far worse ways (as anyone who watches the show knows). There is also, as you might expect, relationship drama. DVR/VCR Alert: Runs one minute over.

Rebroadcast of the series premiere of Reaper (CW, 8pm). In case you missed it the first time around and want to catch it. Kevin and I both enjoyed the pilot, though as I said in my review on Tuesday, we liked Chuck and some other new shows more.

The adopted son of a celebrity couple is kidnapped in the season premiere of Without A Trace (CBS, 9pm). This show is strong as ever and I’m happy to see the show return to this timeslot. Guest stars include: James Marsters (of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel), Brian Bloom (the original “Dusty” on As The World Turns), and Nick Wechsler (of Roswell).

Stanley Tucci continues to be a tough boss in the season premiere of ER (NBC, 9:01pm). DVR/VCR Alert: Starts at 9:01pm. There’s an explosion at an anti-war rally and the patients wind up at County General.

Dylan McDermott, Michael Vartan, Christopher Titus, and Joshua Malina star in the series premiere of Big Shots (ABC, 9:01pm). DVR/VCR Alert: Starts at 9:01pm. I wanted to like this show as this is a good cast. You may know McDermott from The Practice, Vartan from Alias, Titus from Titus, and Malina from The West Wing and Sports Night.

In this show, they play friends who are all competitive CEOs who don’t seem to do very well with the opposite sex. Possibly because they’re big jerks– I’m just saying, is all. My fellow Vidiots at TeeVee don’t like the show either.

It amuses me that the roster of supporting players includes both Paige Turco and Wendy Moniz as they both once played “Dinah Marler” on Guiding Light, but then that might just be me. Peyton List and Nia Long are also in the cast, they both also got their big breaks on soaps (List as “Lucy Montgomery” on As The World Turns, Long as “Kat” on Guiding Light).

I guess they were hoping to do the male equivalent of Desperate Housewives here, but I just found myself mostly hating these guys. Vartan gets the most likeable character, but if you stop and think about it, he’s not exactly a boy scout here. They cheat, they gripe about their wives and mistresses, and it really seems like a big waste of talent.

Rob Thomas (creator of Veronica Mars and Cupid) has now joined the show as a consulting producer; I’m hoping he can help them right this ship. With this cast, there’s potential here, the pilot just wasn’t very good.

Don loses an account and Roger tries to cheer him up on a new episode of Mad Men (AMC, 9pm, 10pm, 1:30am).

Two new episodes of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (FX, 9pm, 9:30pm): “The Aluminum Monster vs. Fatty McGoo” and “The Gang Solves the North Korea Situation”.

New episode of Tim Gunn’s Guide to Style (Bravo, 9pm and 11pm).

Late Night

Ken Burns on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (Comedy Central, 10pm and midnight).

David Schwartz on The Colbert Report (Comedy Central, 10:30pm and 12:30am).

Stupid Human Tricks, Whoopi Goldberg, Melissa Etheridge on The Late Show with David Letterman (CBS, 10:35pm).

Ben Stiller, Tony Snow, Raul Midon on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (NBC, 10:35pm).

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Ed Helms, Bjork on Late Night with Conan O’Brien (NBC, 11:37pm).

Jennifer Love Hewitt, Oliver Hudson, Cary Brothers on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (CBS, 11:37pm).

Danny DeVito, Mario Batali, Frankie Valli on Jimmy Kimmel Live (ABC, check your local listings).

Perez Hilton, Mystery Jets on Last Call with Carson Daly (NBC, check your local listings).

Friday Daytime

Guests are Sally Field (of Brothers & Sisters), Molly Sims (of Las Vegas), Melissa Etheridge; with Pat Sajak (of Wheel of Fortune) filling in for Regis on Live with Regis and Kelly (syndicated, check your local listings).

Jason Lee (of My Name Is Earl), Diane Sawyer (of Good Morning America) on The View (ABC, check your local listings).

Ben Stiller, a tour of Slash’s house, Will.I.Am, hip hop violinist (!) Paul Dateh, on The Ellen DeGeneres Show (syndicated, check your local listings).

Jennifer Garner (of Alias), wedding trends, Chaka Khan on Martha (syndicated, check your local listings).

Patricia Wettig (of Brothers & Sisters, thirtysomething), four sisters who are all pregnant get a big surprise, and President Clinton talks about his new mission on The Rachael Ray Show (syndicated, check your local listings).

Ciara, NASCAR racer Jimmie Johnson on The Tyra Banks Show (syndicated, check your local listings).

“Born in the Wrong Body” on Oprah (syndicated, check your local listings). What if your seven year old daughter told you she was really a boy? New show with stories on what it’s like facing the world transgendered.