Cable refuses to surrender the fall TV season to the major networks

Used to be cable channels would thrive like grasshoppers by feasting off summer reruns on the major broadcast networks, only to scurry for cover come the fall harvest of new network TV shows.

Not anymore.

Emboldened by the breakout summer of last year, cable channels are seizing the fall TV season as their own like never before. And have they ever picked the right tough guy to help hold their turf.

Cable's new confrontational attitude is epitomized by Michael Chiklis' rogue cop Vic Mackey as he brings "The Shield" to what looks to be a dramatic climax in its seventh and final season, running at 9 p.m. Tuesdays on FX. Through most of its first six years, "The Shield" debuted at midseason and ran through winter or spring, but now it's primed to take on the top competition of the fall TV season.

Mackey is trying to keep his badge as a Los Angeles detective and tie off some loose ends from past seasons, including the as-yet-unavenged murder of Kenneth Johnson's Lemonhead at the hands of their fellow colleague, Walton Goggins' Shane Vendrell, all the while keeping his family out of the crossfire of a potential gang war he's fomenting.

Having enjoyed season-long guest-stars like Glenn Close and Forest Whitaker, "The Shield" is going out by delving into old conflicts rather than introduce anything new. "Everything we do to get out of this (stuff) just drags us down deeper," says David Rees Snell's Ronnie Gardocki in next week's episode, "Money Shot." However it ends, don't expect "The Shield" to go out in silence like "The Sopranos."

Teamed with FX's equally tough-minded, if slightly more ridiculous new biker series, "Sons of Anarchy," at 9 p.m. Wednesdays, they're going to make it very hard for viewers to go back to the same old "Law & Order: SVU" or "CSI: NY," much less the wimpy "Eli Stone," "Dirty Sexy Money" or - pause here for snickers - "Lipstick Jungle."

"Sons" stars Ron Perlman as the head of the biker gang and Katey Sagal as his moll, with Charlie Hunnam as the younger Jax, the focal point of the series. Yet it also finds room for a grizzled Mitch Pileggi of "The X-Files" and a downright skanky Drea de Matteo, better known as Adriana from "The Sopranos."

In actual fact, it's no more revolutionary than, say, a Russ Meyer film, which means it's more exploitational than actually insurgent, but that's still enough to make it daring series TV.

Notice too how FX is running them at 9, after its big brother Fox network goes to local news, which will also be true of its comedy "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" when it returns next Thursday. They're all timed to do maximum damage to the network competition, without disrupting Fox.

Premium-cable HBO and Showtime have never been shy about competing with the networks, and the same is true this fall, as HBO adds Alan Ball's new vampire series, "True Blood," to the established "Entourage" on Sundays, when it will also toss in "Little Britain" and "The Life & Times of Tim" in late night later this month.

Showtime will bring back "Dexter" and "Californication" as well on Sunday, the biggest viewing night of the week, so ABC's "Desperate Housewives" can only get more desperate.

Keep in mind, it's not just the subscription cable channels that are taking on the networks this fall. TNT has already introduced the Steven Bochco legal series "Raising the Bar" and teamed it with "The Closer" on Mondays, when A&E is still playing out the summer run of "The Cleaner" with Benjamin Bratt.

Bravo's "Project Runway" is back and in the middle of prime time at 8 p.m. Wednesdays. USA will bring back Debra Messing as "The Starter Wife" becomes a full-fledged series on Fridays in October, when the Sundance Channel will begin another run of "Iconoclasts" on Thursdays. There doesn't figure to be a safe night of programming all week on the broadcast networks this fall - except for Saturdays. Nobody wants to waste a show on that night with its measly viewership ratings.

Burpies, ready, begin!

To quote Woody Allen, those who can't do teach, and those who can't teach teach gym. So by extension those who aren't funny, namely the dour Christopher Meloni of "Law & Order: SVU," star in the comedy "Gym Teacher: The Movie" at 7 p.m. Friday on Nickelodeon. Amy Sedaris and David Alan Grier do what they can to provide some real laughs.

Hear the world

WBEZ 91.5-FM "Radio M" host Tony Sarabia looks ahead to Chicago's upcoming World Music Festival with a preview program at 8 p.m. Friday at the Victory Gardens Biograph Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago. It includes Indian classical music, a hybrid of spaghetti Western and gypsy jazz and a pan-Atlantic mixture of music from Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Spain and Peru. Admission is $15, $12 for Chicago Public Radio members. "Radio M" airs at 9 p.m. Fridays on 'BEZ.

Drowning in Phelps

When are we finally going to be done with Michael Phelps? At least not until he plays host to the season premiere of NBC's "Saturday Night Live" at 10:30 p.m. on WMAQ Channel 5. Dying is easy, comedy is hard, and it's sink or swim for the Olympic star. Lil Wayne is the musical guest.

V is for convoluted

Fresh from "The Matrix" trilogy, the Wachowski brothers wrote the script for the movie version of the novel "V for Vendetta," and it's a convoluted mess, a comic-book version of Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri's post-Marxist manifesto "Empire." Still, even with a shaved head Natalie Portman is fetching. It's at 7 p.m. Saturday on FX.