Fall TV season emphasizes the tried-and-true: retreads, spinoffs and Leno

What can you say about a fall TV season most distinguished by the leap to prime-time by Jay Leno?

Not exactly a fresh face after 17 years as host of "The Tonight Show," Leno has the most-anticipated, most talked-about new show on the networks' fall slate. Well, at least anticipated and talked about within the media sphere, where speculation rages over whether NBC can get away with stripping a talk-comedy hour every weeknight - instead of more ambitious, pricey episodic fare - in those five prime-time hours.

Is NBC, which continues to struggle in fourth place among viewers, throwing in the towel as it hands Leno nearly one-quarter of its prime-time real estate?

Meanwhile, what kind of advantage, if any, will NBC rivals enjoy going up against "The Jay Leno Show" (arriving Monday, Sept. 14 at 9 p.m.) with their sex-crime-blood-and-guts dramas, including newcomers "The Good Wife" on CBS and ABC's "Eastwick" and "The Forgotten"?

Those are a few of the talking points for the new season - among those who are talking.

But do the networks have viewers talking yet? Just how excited is the TV audience about any of the 21 series debuting between now and early October on the five major networks?

In many cases, network bosses seem backward-looking this fall.

The CW is reviving "Melrose Place," the frothy L.A. soap that, in its initial conception, aired on Fox through the 1990s. The newfangled "Melrose Place," which premieres Tuesday, Sept. 8, is the first Fall '09 show out of the gate.

There will also be spinoffs of current series.

CBS' undercover hit, "NCIS," will spawn "NCIS: Los Angeles," starring Chris O'Donnell and LL Cool J as undercover agents fighting crime at the other end of the country from the Washington-based original.

Fox's animated "Cleveland Show" follows longtime pal Cleveland Brown from the "Family Guy" fold as he starts a new life in the Virginia town where he grew up.

Other new shows just feel like spinoffs, thanks to their familiarity.

ABC's "The Forgotten" is a drama about a team of dedicated amateurs who take up cases the police have abandoned, tracking down the identities of anonymous victims while solving the murders of these John and Jane Does. Think: "Without a Trace" mixed with "Cold Case," plus a corpse.

NBC's "Trauma" blends action and medicine to tell the wild-and-woolly story of first-responder paramedics in San Francisco - a sort of al fresco "ER." Also on NBC, "Mercy" is a hospital drama told from the nurses' point of view (think: Showtime's "Nurse Jackie," plus a dash of TNT's "Hawthorne"). And CBS is prescribing yet more medicine with "Three Rivers."

The CW taps into the vampire craze, though anemically, with its high-school soap, "The Vampire Diaries."

And ABC evokes the devilish hero of "The Witches of Eastwick" (adapted from the novel by John Updike and 1987 hit film that starred Cher, Susan Sarandon, Michelle Pfeiffer and Jack Nicholson) for its racy new supernatural drama "Eastwick."

The halls of justice haven't been vacated.

One of the most promising fall series is CBS' "The Good Wife." It stars Julianna Margulies as a wife and mother forced to resume her long-ago career as an attorney when her politician hubby, played by Chris Noth, is jailed for corruption and philandering.

The fall's funniest pilot is "Community," a sort of classroom version of companion NBC comedy "The Office." Here, a variety of losers (played by Chevy Chase, John Oliver and Joel McHale of "The Soup," among others) enroll at a second-rate community college for any number of reasons, none of them connected with higher education.

ABC's "Modern Family" taps variations on a contemporary domestic theme. Crisscrossing with one another, the three main households share the same comfortable upper-middle-class neighborhood. But there the resemblance ends and the laughs begin.

On Fox, "Brothers" is a pleasant surprise. Sharp writing, a plausibly at-odds family dynamic and an excellent cast score a touchdown for this project built around former football pro Michael Strahan.

Fox's charming hybrid of "High School Musical" and its own "American Idol" is called "Glee." Created by Mount Prospect native Ian Brennan, this one-hour musical comedy is set at a high school where the glee club struggles for respect and even survival. This turns out to be a challenge on a campus where everybody else seems Looney Tunes.

ABC's "FlashForward" has a streak of looniness, too. The premise of this promising paranormal thriller: Everyone around the world simultaneously suffers a 2-minute-17-second blackout, then recovers with visions of what may or may not await them in the future.

What else does the future hold for viewers this fall?

Familiar stars from past sitcoms will be starring in new sitcoms.

Patricia Heaton (of "Everybody Loves Raymond") stars in "The Middle," where she plays a frazzled wife and working mother who is middle-aged, middle class and Midwestern. The show's slyest, most poignantly telling joke: Frankie Heck (Heaton's character) has the unenviable job of selling cars at her town's sole surviving dealership.

Also part of ABC's new four-pack of Wednesday night sitcoms: Kelsey Grammer is back on "Hank." He plays a Manhattan corporate boss who is forced from his job and moves his family to his hometown in Virginia.

Another part of this Wednesday block returns Courteney Cox to comedy in "Cougar Town." Here, the "Friends" alumna plays a lovely but recently divorced mother of a teen who wrestles with the double standards for aging women and men. Yes, she's a budding cougar (slang for an "older," liberated women who dates younger men), even as she looks askance at her 40-ish sisters who embrace a rob-the-cradle dating lifestyle.

The cougar theme is far less successfully depicted in CBS' "Accidentally on Purpose." Former "Dharma & Greg" star Jenna Elfman plays a woman in her late 30s who has a one-night stand with a guy who is cute but barely adult. A pregnancy and much forced hilarity result.

The CW's "The Beautiful Life: TBL" is set in the modeling world of New York City, where an Iowa farm boy is discovered while vacationing with his parents. It's flashy, fffffabulous and suitably silly. But is it good enough (or campy-bad enough) to draw a loyal viewership?

Can broadcast networks launch any kind of solid, sustainable hit anymore in the scripted realm?

Observers of the TV scene forlornly wait for a new game-changing hit such as "Lost" or "Desperate Housewives" five long years ago. In the meantime, NBC is striking its own blow for the future of prime-time: repurposing Jay Leno.

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