Season’s Shows Entitled to Some Respect

Cynics suggest that this fall’s crop of new series tends to be packed with dull, generic, interchangeable titles that, when viewed as a whole, may make it difficult for the average viewer to distinguish one from another.

As a service to our loyal readers, what follows is a guide to the season’s muddled prime-time monikers that could result in the “Time of Your Life.” So at the risk of being the “Odd Man Out” with producers, I implore you to be an “Angel” and “Work With Me.”

“Oh Grow Up,” I hear you saying. After all, television is just a “Wasteland,” a veritable “Harsh Realm” filled with fearsome “Freaks and Geeks,” to say nothing of “Snoops” named “Jack & Jill.”

This being our “Third Watch,” and after consulting such “Grown Ups” as “Mike O’Malley” and “The Parkers,” who could end up living in “Roswell,” we’ve concluded “Once and Again” (or should we say “Now and Again”?) that it all boils down to “Love & Money.”

In other words, no “Safe Harbor” exists for any “Ladies Man” likely to go “Stark Raving Mad” concocting such torturous titles as “Ryan Caulfield: Year One.”

Ah, but then came the consumer, “Cold Feet” and all. After climbing “Mission Hill,” visiting the president in “The West Wing” and rocking with “Shasta McNasty” along “The Strip,” your remarkably “Popular” decision was to take “Action” and actually read this slightly askew survey.

The bottom line? Have mercy on the whole lot of producers and network execs charged with stamping these shows in the face of formidable competition from cable and the Internet. Hey, you think it’s easy coming up with the dandy designations “Judging Amy,” “WWF Smackdown!,” “Family Law” or “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”?

C’mon . . . “Get Real.”