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Jerry's kids
Would network TV survive without Bruckheimer? BY JOYCE MILLMAN

All hail Jerry Bruckheimer. The producer will have a record-breaking 10 series in prime time this season. And when you consider some of the other stuff the networks are offering, Jerry's hits (the CSI shows, Without a Trace) look like a freakin' Golden Age. Here's a preview of what's coming up in the 2005-2006 TV season.

ABC
Geena Davis has the title role in COMMANDER IN CHIEF (Tuesdays at 9 pm) as Vice-President Mackenzie Allen, an Independent in a Republican administration who's elevated to the Oval Office after the president dies. Kyle Secor is her First Man; Donald Sutherland is Nathan Templeton, the piggy, sexist, Creationist Republican Speaker of the House who wants her job. First order of business for President Allen: hogtie Speaker Templeton and make him watch Thelma & Louise until he squeals for mercy. LOST (Wednesdays at 9 pm) moves to a later time slot; it leads into the new sci-fi series INVASION (Wednesdays at 10 pm), one of three shows this season in which the world is threatened by extra-terrestrials. This one, set in Florida, stars Eddie Cibrian as a park ranger who begins to suspect that all those hurricanes are a government cover-up. And what about the strange behavior of some of the townsfolk? The creepy vibe is reminiscent of that old guilty pleasure V. The remake of THE NIGHT STALKER (Thursday September 29 at 9 pm), on the other hand, won't remind you of the vintage series starring Darren McGavin, it'll only make you nostalgic for the real thing. Stuart Townsend stars as haunted reporter Carl Kolchak; Gabrielle Union is his Dana Scully-ish colleague. ALIAS (Thursday September 29 at 8 pm) moves to a new night and an earlier time slot. There are perilous, possibly shark-jumping times ahead, what with Jennifer Garner's real-life pregnancy intruding upon the story line. Rachel Nichols joins the cast as a young agent whom Sydney mentors. Translation: someone has to be able to run around in rubber mini-skirts and midriff-baring tops if Garner can't. The new sit-com FREDDIE (Wednesday October 5 at 8:30 pm) finds Freddie Prinze Jr. taking a break from his busy schedule of Scooby-Doo movies. Prinze plays a bachelor chef living with a houseful of Latina relatives. It's painfully bad. Another new sit-com, HOT PROPERTIES (Friday October 7 at 9:30 pm), seeks to fill the Sex and the City void. Gail O'Grady heads this show about four Manhattan single gals/realtors. Evan Handler (Charlotte's husband from SATC) co-stars - what, they couldn't get Chris Noth? DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES (Sundays at 9 pm) opens its second season on September 25.

CBS
The Columbia Bruckcasting System rolls out Superproducer's latest crime drama, CLOSE TO HOME (Tuesday October 4 at 10 pm), which stars Jennifer Finnigan as a suburban prosecutor with a perfect conviction rate. She's also a new mom; her husband is played by Angel alum Christian Kane. As for Bruckheimer's other series, his three flavors of CSI have already made their season bows, COLD CASE (Sundays at 8 pm) returns on September 25, THE AMAZING RACE begins Tuesday September 27 at 9 pm with a two-hour opener, and WITHOUT A TRACE (Thursdays at 10 pm) premieres on September 29. Jennifer Love Hewitt returns to TV in THE GHOST WHISPERER (Friday September 23 at 8 pm), a Medium-ish drama about a woman who uses her psychic abilities to communicate with the dead. Former Chicago Hope stars Mandy Patinkin and Thomas Gibson are FBI behavioral profilers in the new drama CRIMINAL MINDS (Wednesdays at 9 pm). The new sit-com OUT OF PRACTICE (Mondays at 9:30 pm) stars Christopher Gorham as a psychologist in a family of dysfunctional medical doctors. Henry Winkler and Stockard Channing are the parents. CBS's other new sit-com, HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER (Mondays at 8:30 pm), might become a Friends substitute. Josh Radnor's Ted is a single guy who yearns to be married; the story is told in flashback, after Ted has become a husband and father. The terrific supporting cast forms a Mount Rushmore of cult-TV favorites: Alyson Hannigan (Willow from Buffy), Jason Segal (Nick from Freaks and Geeks), and Neil Patrick Harris (the once and forever Doogie Howser). The new sci-fi drama THRESHOLD (Fridays at 9 pm) is another of this season's "It Came from Outer Space and Landed in the Water" series. This one, however, boasts the coolest cast on TV, with Carla Gugino (Karen Sisco) as the lonely think-tank crisis analyst heading the team of weird geniuses - including Brent Spiner (Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation) and Peter Dinklage (the film The Station Agent) - trying to figure out what the aliens want.

NBC
Bruckheimer spreads the wealth around with E-RING (Wednesdays at 9 pm), a drama set in the Pentagon and starring Benjamin Bratt as a straight-shooting major and Dennis Hopper as the least reassuring military man since George C. Scott in Dr. Strangelove. The third new alien-invasion drama, SURFACE (Mondays at 8 pm), finds the world's oceans overrun by sea monsters, which are not nearly as much fun as sea monkeys. The new drama INCONCEIVABLE (Friday September 23 at 10 pm) stars Ming-Na and Angie Harmon as doctors in a fertility clinic. The new sit-com MY NAME IS EARL (Tuesdays at 9 pm) could have been a contender with fresher writing; it may still get there. Jason Lee plays a loser on a quest to undo all the bad he's done in his life. And stumbling NBC will have a ratings monster on its hands with THE APPRENTICE: MARTHA STEWART (Wednesdays at 8 pm). Oh, come on, you know you want to watch!

Fox
The Buffy/Angel cast member resurgence continues: David "Angel" Boreanaz plays an FBI agent partnered with Emily Deschanel's quirky forensic anthropologist/mystery writer in the spooky drama BONES (Tuesdays at 8 pm). The red-hot HOUSE (Tuesdays at 9 pm) is back as a full-fledged hit. Chris O'Donnell and Adam Goldberg play lawyers with emotional disorders in the new drama HEAD CASES (Wednesdays at 9 pm). KILLER INSTINCT (Friday September 23 at 9 pm) stars Johnny Mesner and Kristen Lehman as partners in the San Francisco police's (fictional) Deviant Crime Unit.

UPN
Chris Rock narrates the sitcom EVERYBODY HATES CHRIS (Thursdays at 8 pm), which is inspired by Rock's childhood in Brooklyn in the early '80s. VERONICA MARS (Wednesday September 28 at 9 pm) returns for a second season in a disappointing new time slot opposite Lost. Great way to kill Veronica's momentum, UPN.

WB
And another Buffy/Angel cast member resurfaces: James "Spike" Marsters, back to his natural brown hair color, joins SMALLVILLE (Thursday September 29 at 8 pm) as the evil Brainiac. One request: could Brainiac maybe fall into a vat of peroxide? The mark of Bruckheimer is upon the new drama JUST LEGAL (Mondays at 9 pm), in which Don Johnson ambles out of semi-retirement to play a burnt-out, beach-dwelling defense attorney who takes on a brilliant 19-year-old legal eagle (Jay Baruchel from Undeclared) as his protégé. Sara Gilbert and Molly Stanton play non-identical twins who inherit their parents' lingerie empire in the new sit-com TWINS (Wednesdays at 8:30 pm). The sci-fi drama SUPERNATURAL (Tuesdays at 9 pm) stars WB heartthrobs Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles as brothers on an eerie cross-country trek.

PBS
Martin Scorsese's eagerly awaited documentary BOB DYLAN: NO DIRECTION HOME airs in two parts September 26 and 27. FRONTLINE looks back at "The O.J. Verdict" 10 years later (October 4). Rupert Everett once planned to play a gay superspy named "Bond, Jane Bond." He settles instead for the title role in SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE CASE OF THE SILK STOCKING, which opens the season for Masterpiece Theatre (Sunday October 23 at 9 pm). Holmes, Shirley Holmes?

FX
NIP/TUCK (Tuesdays at 10 pm) is back after a prolonged delay with a 15-episode third season.

Showtime
The new anthology series MASTERS OF HORROR (October, TBA) features original movies from leading creepmeisters including Dario Argento, John Carpenter, Tobe Hooper, and George A. Romero.

HBO
CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM (Sunday September 25 at 10 pm) returns paired with EXTRAS (September 25, at 10:30 pm), the new six-episode series from Ricky Gervais (The Office). Inspired by Curb, Extras features Gervais as a struggling actor who rubs shoulders with the likes of Kate Winslet, Ben Stiller, and Patrick Stewart. And hey, remember that show about the Mafia? THE SOPRANOS finally returns for a sixth season in March (date to be announced).