'Prison Break', 'Gossip Girl' come back early

The formal start of the TV season isn't until late September after the Emmy Awards, but Fox and the CW get a jump on things next week with a Labor Day launch. Fox's "Prison Break" airs a two-hour season premiere at 7 p.m. Monday on WFLD Channel 32, and the CW brings back "Gossip Girl" at 7 p.m. Monday on WGN Channel 9, followed by "One Tree Hill" at 8. WWME Channel 23 adds "Batman" reruns at 7 p.m. weekdays, and WMEU Channel 48 starts running "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" at 5 p.m., "The Bob Newhart Show" at 5:30 and "The Dick Van Dyke Show" at 6:30.

Band width

Hersey High School's band is featured on classical WFMT 98.7-FM's "Introductions" at 11 a.m. Saturday. The hourlong program devotes itself to pre-college musicians.

GOParty time!

In the interest of fairness, the major TV networks will cover next week's Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., much as they covered the Democrats this week in Denver. PBS will be the only broadcast network to offer gavel-to-gavel prime-time coverage, starting at 7 p.m. Monday on WTTW Channel 11. The other major broadcast networks will peek in at 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, but otherwise will farm out much of the coverage to their cable news siblings.

Lost wager

How does anyone mess up a movie involving Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Martin Scorsese? Just add Sharon Stone. She earned an Oscar nomination for "Casino," but it's a wonder how. She just drags the movie down until it seems to go on forever - and it should seem even longer with the ads when it runs at 7 p.m. Saturday on Bravo.