Fall TV Preview Issue

It's September and that means the new TV season is just about here. Usually this means I am excited about two things; 1) all the new shows to check out, and 2) the special editions of the TV Guide with the Fall Previews. But as I blogged back in November 2006, the Canadian edition of TV Guide ceased publication, so, there will be no TV Guide Fall Preview issues this year. So instead, I picked up the TV Week Fall Preview issue. Although it has a listing of new shows etc, it really doesn't seem the same... it's just not the TV Guide tradition I am used to for the past 20 years.
Enough of my disappointment in the folding of TV Guide... let's get to the new shows.
This issue of TV Week lists 45 new shows, and these are the shows I will be tuning in to and checking out this fall (I'll give each show a rating out of 5 for how much I am looking forward to it - 5 being the ones I am most excited about):

CHUCK (5) - A nerdy computer geek accidentally downloads a secret government computer program concealing all the agency's intel within coded images, giving him instant recall of classified info and a unique ability to connect the dots to thwart all manner of terrorist threats. While keeping his busy day job at the "Nerd Herd" within a big-box electronics store, Chuck covertly assists his feuding NSA/CIA handlers.

THE BIG BANG THEORY (3) - In this geeky sitcom, a pair of brilliant nerds can tackle the toughest mathematical equations, but are completely stymied by their sexy - and not particularly smart - new neighbor.

SAMANTHA WHO (3) - After emerging from an eight-day coma following a car accident, Samantha Newly has total amnesia - and is horrified to discover what a nasty piece of work she it. This comedy follows her not-always-successful attempts to repair the mistakes of the past while learning about the rotten person she used to be.

JOURNEYMAN (2) - A San Francisco newspaper reporter mysteriously stars travelling back in time (but only within the confines of his lifetime), and discovers he must alter events in the past to effect changes in the present. Along the way, he reconnects with his estranged former flame, which complicates his rocky relationship with his wife, who doesn't buy the time-travelling excuse to explain his frequent disappearances.

CARPOOLERS (4) - A quartet of male suburban neighbours band over java and a lame Air Supply songs during their morning commute to work.

REAPER (5) - On his 21st birthday, a chronic underachiever discovers his parents sold his soul to the devil when he was just a baby, and now he must work for Lucifer as a sort of bounty hunter, tracking down evil souls who have escaped from Hell with the help of his wisecracking slacker buddy.

BACK TO YOU (1) - After an on-air meltdown derails his career, pompous LA anchorman Chuck Darling returns to the mid-level Pittsburgh station he abandoned 10 years earlier, where he wasn't exactly beloved by caustic co-anchor Kelly Carr, and the sparks fly in this workplace sitcom.

PUSHING DAISIES (5) - In this quirky comedy with a procedural crime twist, a shy pie-maker has the power to bring the dead back to life with a single touch - then sends them back to the great beyond with a second - a skill that he lends to a PI by briefly reviving murder victims so they can recall who killed them. But when he re-encounters his long-lost love (unfortunately, at her funeral), the gift of life he gives her will only last if they never touch.

BIONIC WOMAN (3.5) - Less a remake than reinvention of the cheesy 1970's superhero series, grad student/bartender Jamie Sommers is almost killed in a horrific car crash, but is then rebuilt with top-secret technology that requires she and her awesome new powers to be at the disposal of a shadowy government agency. But all bets are off when she meets her bionic predecessor, who's broken away and gone rouge.

MOONLIGHT (1) - Mick St. John is a Los Angeles PI with a secret - he's actually a vampire, but chooses to use his dark powers to help the living.

There is also a mid season replacement show I am excited about called THE IT CROWD, which is a remake of the hit Britcom following computer nerds as they keep the bits and bytes flowing at a major corporation. I have been watching the original British episodes on Tech TV and its one of the funniest new shows I have seen in a long time. Hopefully the American remake is as good.