Several freshman shows from last season are being remodeled and relaunched this fall, and some long-serving veterans are getting a tuneup as well. Here’s a rundown of the changes that will be made to notable veteran shows and to members of last year’s freshman class:
“Chuck” (returns Sept. 29 on NBC): One of my main quibbles with this otherwise charmingly goofy adventure show was that I couldn’t see a way around this problem: What if the spy secrets that had been accidentally downloaded into the hapless Chuck Bartowski’s brain became outdated? That issue will be addressed head-on, as it were, in Season 2, creator Josh Schwartz said in July at the Television Critic Association’s press tour. “We actually play with this going right into the first episode this season … this idea of when the government rebuilds the [espionage-related] Intersect computer, Chuck will become expendable and it will be left to Casey, Adam Baldwin’s [secret agent] character, to ‘disappear’ him, as they say in the NSA.” That arc will play out all season, as will a romantic story line featuring the charmingly nerdy Chuck and his CIA handler, Sarah Walker (Yvonne Strahovski).
“CSI” (returns Oct. 9 on CBS): In the ninth episode of the season, Laurence Fishburne will make his first appearance. Fishburne is the new lead on the show, replacing William Petersen, who’s leaving after episode 10. Fishburne will play a criminologist who is consulted by the “CSI” techs and eventually joins their team. The new character, who is as yet unnamed, thinks he may have criminal tendencies himself. He is “trying to use the world of solving murders and violent killers to understand his own soul,” executive producer Naren Shankar said in a July interview.
“Desperate Housewives” (returns Sept. 28 on ABC): The show’s fourth-season finale ended with a jump five years into the future, a move that creator Marc Cherry said was driven by the show’s overly Byzantine plots. Soap-opera entanglements tend “to build up and … I wanted to get back to where we were that very first season, where it’s just the problems of some ordinary women and they were small and relatable,” Cherry said in July at a TCA panel.
“Dexter” (returns Sept. 28 on Showtime): Jimmy Smits joins the addictive drama as Miami district attorney Miguel Prado. “He and Dexter set something in motion neither can pull back,” executive producer Clyde Phillips said at a July Comic-Con panel. “It’s a pretty loaded friendship,” Michael C. Hall, who plays Dexter, added.
“Dirty Sexy Money” (returns Oct. 1 on ABC): More dirt, more sex, more money. That’s what the show’s cast and producers promised at a July TCA panel. “While I enjoy the ambivalence of, ‘What world am I in and how can I maintain my integrity?’ I think that we need to see Nick give into some more temptation,” said Peter Krause, who plays Nick George, an attorney for New York’s super-wealthy Darling clan. Lucy Liu also joins the cast as a crafty woman who works her way into the Darlings’ inner circle.
“Eli Stone” (returns Oct. 14 on ABC): Last season, lawyer Eli Stone (Jonny Lee Miller), was having mysterious visions, but he didn’t know if they were the result of an aneurysm or the consequence of being a prophet. This season, “The first episode addresses head-on the big questions at the end of last year: Is Eli alive or dead? Is the aneurysm in or out? Is he having visions or not? You’re going to get answers to all those questions. … The visions in the premiere are completely unlike any of the visions that we had last year — even the musical numbers are completely different and it sets the tone of ‘expect the unexpected,'” executive producer Marc Guggenheim said in a July interview. Finally, the show has had a couple of casting coups: Katie Holmes guest stars in the second episode of the season — she’ll play an attorney — and Sigourney Weaver guest stars as a therapist treating Eli.
“Heroes” (returns Sept. 22 on NBC): Reeling from a poorly received second season, which was shortened by the writers strike, “Heroes” creator Tim Kring attempted to make amends by screening the first episode of Season 3 at July’s Comic-Con. To read my long (and spoilery) review of the season premiere, go here: featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/enterta inment(underscore)tv/heroes/index.html. The short (and non-spoilery) version: The episode is a reasonable re-introduction to where the show left off; Hiro and Ando meet a speedy new character, and Sylar seems suitably creepy again.
“Life” (returns Sept. 29 on NBC): Donal Logue (“Grounded for Life”) has joined the cast as Capt. Brian Tidwell, Detective Charlie Crews’ new boss. Tidwell brings a “brash, no-nonsense, New York sensibility into a department that is very much Los Angeles,” executive producer Rand Ravich told critics at TCA in July. As for the conspiracy Crews was investigating — he was unjustly imprisoned for murders he didn’t commit — Ravich says that will be part of the new season. Last season, “we found the guy who did the actual killing, but that will just be the tip of the iceberg. The people who put [the killer] into play, the larger forces at work, are still out there,” Ravich said. A programming note: “Life” airs twice a week when it returns, on Mondays and Fridays — but only for two weeks. Those dates are Sept. 29, Oct. 3, Oct. 6 and Oct. 10. Then the show airs only on Fridays.
“Private Practice” (returns Oct. 1 on ABC): Creator Shonda Rhimes told critics at TCA that the show, a spinoff of “Grey’s Anatomy” that centers on Dr. Addison Montgomery (Kate Walsh), would begin to focus more on medical issues and ethical dilemmas. “There is surgery in it, because Addison is a surgeon, and she gets back to doing that.” ABC president Stephen McPherson said at a separate TCA session he was in favor of those changes. “I think when it just became kind of a soap opera about those people’s lives, there was a lot of talking, a lot of time in the coffee room taking about the angst, that’s not that show,” he said.
“Pushing Daisies” (returns Oct. 1 on ABC): ABC wanted this fanciful fantasy to be more grounded in its second season, while creator Bryan Fuller didn’t want to change “the fundamental DNA of the show” too much, Fuller told USA Today. To address production woes, which had the show running behind schedule and over budget, the number of scenes per episode have been trimmed, but Fuller told USA Today that the show’s blend of whimsy and crime-solving remains intact.
“Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” (returns Sept. 8 on Fox): Executive producer John Wirth said at a TCA panel that the show would be less serialized this year. “We backed off that a little bit this year,” John Wirth said. Executive producer Josh Friedman agreed: “Sometimes the show got overly complicated, and … I think that maybe we lost some people.”
Here’s a quick list of scripted shows that have moved to new nights:
*”Boston Legal” (returns Sept. 22 on ABC for its final season) now airs on Mondays.
*”Without a Trace” (returns Sept. 23 on CBS) now airs on Tuesdays.
*”The New Adventures of Old Christine” (returns Sept. 24 on CBS) now airs on Wednesdays.
*”Lipstick Jungle” (returns Sept. 24 on NBC) now airs on Wednesdays.
*”Bones” (returns Wednesday with a 2-hour episode on Fox) now airs on Wednesdays.
*”The Unit” (returns Sept. 28 on CBS) now airs on Sundays.
*”24″ will return on Mondays on Fox, but not until January.
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moryan@tribune.com
