After The Fall
The creator of Alias strands 48 plane crash survivors on a tropical island.
Stranger Than Fiction
The oddest new reality concepts
Wife Sentence
In ABC’s Desperate Housewives, Felicity Huffman plays a woman spied on by her neighbor’s ghost.
TV pilot about TV pilots.
Trio’s first series: Pilot Season, an improv comedy that examines the television industry from the inside.
Cop-Show Showdown
The upstart CSI: NY squares off against Law & Order.
Dying is Easy, Comedy Is Hard
Drea de Matteo brings her Jersey-girl moxie to Joey, the season’s most anticipated new sitcom.
What are you looking forward to this fall?
Ask a cable guy.
Derek Jordan, Time Warner Cable technician
Taste: Sitcoms like Everybody Loves Raymond. I have two jobs. At home, I just want to relax.
Looking Forward To: Father of the Pride, with John Goodman and Cheryl Hines. The trailer for Lost reminded me of Cast Away, and that can’t be a bad thing. Plus, there’s a lot of good boxing coming up on pay-per-view!
Wish List: I was big-time into Soul Food, which dealt with real family issues. So more prime-time African-American drama. And maybe a Latino show on UPN.
Best of the Rest
SeptemberThe Apprentice 2
A.k.a. Guilty Pleasure 2, starring Donald Trump, his ego, and a new cast of greedhounds.
NBC, September 9, 8:30 p.m.
Jack & Bobby
Christine Lahti raises two teenage boys, one of whom will become president.
The WB, September 12, 9 p.m.
The Wire
The third season of HBO’s sleeper cop show features the writing of novelist-screenwriter Richard Price.
HBO, September 19, 9 p.m.
Family Bonds
HBO’s latest smart reality offering: a documentary soap about a family of bail bondsmen. Think Sopranos lite.
HBO, September 19, 10 p.m.
OctoberLife As We Know It
ABC’s teen drama produced by Jeff Judah and Gabe Sachs, who hail from the late lamented Freaks and Geeks.
ABC, October 7, 9 p.m.
The West Wing
With Jimmy Smits as an ambitious Houston congressman rumored to pose a threat to Martin Sheen’s President Josiah Bartlet.
NBC, October 20, 9 p.m.
The Office Christmas Special
A two-hour wrapup of the poignant, acidly funny British comedy, with satisfying closure for the ultra-fans who’ve worn out their DVDs.
BBC America, October 21, 9 p.m.
NovemberArrested Development
The witty critics’ darling continues to scavenge for viewers who aren’t critics.
Fox, November 7, 8:30 p.m.
Huff
Hank Azaria as a conflicted shrink, in an offbeat comedy that’s a little bit Six Feet Under, a little bit Thirtysomething.
Showtime, November 7, 10 p.m.