It’s an all-out serial blitz

WELCOME back, my friends, to the show that never ends. Except that sometimes it does.

The serial, you may have heard, is the order of the day, and, indeed, nearly every new series, drama and comedy alike is invested in the long arc. Careful viewers will have seen it creeping up for quite a while -- “Felicity” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “ER,” just as examples, were all continuing stories in their way. The difference with many of the new season’s shows, in the world remade by “24,” is that they posit a mystery whose solution won’t be revealed until late in the season. Which means, given the casualty rate in network television, that you will never know how some of these stories were supposed to end.

The pandemic known as “Lost” is also key -- its central idea of bringing together a crowd of people and cutting them off, physically or virtually, from the rest of society, is most clearly behind the post-apocalypse drama “Jericho,” the post-traumatic-stress drama “The Nine” and the post-human drama “Heroes.” But most of the dramas and some of the comedies employ large ensembles, and many deal specifically with the ways that people are thrown together and how they connect or don’t. It’s a relief from police procedurals, anyway.

As in years past, producers seem to be listening in on one another’s lines -- many series come with a twin.

A rundown of coming series, based on the look of their pilots:

**

Monday

The Class

8 p.m., CBS

David Crane of “Friends” fame casts his net toward a new generation of urban, white twentysomethings with this fragmented ensemble comedy -- all the characters had been in the same third-grade class but meet again at a reunion whose only purpose is to get them to meet again. Some are happy, some are sad, some are confused, some are less confused. Some are funny, some not.

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip

10 p.m., NBC

The backstage-at-a-sketch-comedy show that isn’t “30 Rock” from Aaron Sorkin, the man who brought you “Sports Night” and “The West Wing” and from whose house style this departs not at all. Big sets, fast talk and a fascination with the life of a workplace are again at the heart of things. Bradley Whitford, making the leap from “West Wing,” is paired with Matthew Perry as a producer-writer team hired to adrenalize a moribund “SNL”-lookalike. Timothy Busfield, Amanda Peet and D.L. Hughley are here too, making themselves fun to watch.

**

Tuesday

Smith

10 p.m., CBS

The heist series that isn’t “Knights of Prosperity.” Ray Liotta stars as a master thief with a family at home that includes Virginia Madsen and a gang on the road that includes Simon Baker (who was “The Guardian”), Jonny Lee Miller (from “Trainspotting”) and Amy Smart (“Crank”) The money’s on the screen in the impressively cinematic, suspenseful pilot -- and the question that inevitably follows is whether they can keep it up.

**

Wednesday

Jericho

8 p.m., CBS

The people of a small town in Kansas find themselves cut off from the world when a mushroom cloud appears on the horizon and the radios go out. (That Emergency Broadcast System they’ve been testing your whole life? Not so good, apparently.) Gerald McRaney, who was “Major Dad,” is now Mayor Dad, trying to keep the citizenry from going all Lord of the Flies. Skeet Ulrich is his prodigal son now stuck at home, though with a lot of good-looking women around to keep the apocalypse interesting.

Kidnapped

10 p.m., NBC

The missing person show that isn’t “Vanished” (already underway on Fox), set in something that seems closer to the real world. (While there is undoubtedly more here than meets the eye, there is certainly less “more than meets eye” than in some of the season’s other mysteries.) An excellent cast, including Timothy Hutton (the rich man whose son is abducted), Dana Delaney (his socialite philanthropist wife), Delroy Lindo (federal agent) and Mykelti Williamson (bodyguard), keeps things lively. Ricky Jay also shows his face.

**

Thursday

Shark

10 p.m., CBS

James Woods is a hot-shot, self-loving defense attorney who, for his sins -- freeing the guilty -- agrees to train and head a team of special prosecutors in the fictional city of Los Angeles. (Includes Latino mayor.) One could conceivably call it a cross between “My Name Is Earl,” “House” and whatever other lawyer show you’d care to name. Woods is his usual self.

Six Degrees

10 p.m., ABC

That a stranger is just a friend (or an enemy) you haven’t met yet is the theme of this ode to coincidence, in which half a dozen New Yorkers -- including indie film stalwarts Campbell Scott and Hope Davis -- go around and around in the big sleepless city intersecting with Dickensian frequency. The feeling is that things happened because they were meant to happen, because they happened. Love, danger and redemption are on the menu in equal parts.

**

Sunday, Sept. 24

Brothers & Sisters

10 p.m., ABC

Noted playwright Jon Robin Baitz created this semi-soapy family drama, whose deeper resemblances to “Knots Landing” and “Falcon Crest” and such are possibly not intentional. Sally Field and Calista Flockhart (as, of all things, a conservative radio show host) are ectomorphically apt as feuding mother and daughter, smiling through gritted teeth; Rachel Griffiths gets to be the plucky, sensible one. Balthazar Getty is one brother of three. Ron Rifkin plays a trusted family advisor not to be trusted.

**

Monday, Sept. 25

Heroes

9 p.m., NBC

A cleverly naturalistic approach to a superhero story, or “X-Men” (well executed) on a TV budget. Ordinary people suddenly find they have special powers -- this one can fly, that one can warp space-time, this one sees the future, that one can read your thoughts -- in a series Sci Fi Channel partisans might see as something of a retread of “The 4400.” Our government appears to be involved, not necessarily in a good way.

Runaway

9 p.m., CW

“Everwood” meets “Prison Break” -- a family drama in which everyone might be killed. Donnie Wahlberg, framed for a crime he did not commit, lights out for the territories with his wife and kids to live in a new town under a new name while he tries to crack the code that will save him. Created by Darren Star, far from his “Sex and the City” but a little closer to his “Beverly Hills, 90210” -- this show comes with equipped with high school.

**

Tuesday, Sept. 26

Help Me Help You

9:30 p.m., ABC

Ted Danson, hair ever whiter but jaw just as firmly sculpted, crosses two of his TV jobs (bartender, doctor) and comes out a psychiatrist in this one-camera comedy that will remind no one of “The Bob Newhart Show,” or at least not for long. A kinder, gentler, wackier “Huff,” perhaps? Group therapy takes up much of the half-hour, Danson’s own problems (marriage over, daughter dating a man nearly his own age) the rest.

**

Thursday, Sept. 28

Ugly Betty

8 p.m., ABC

America Ferrera (“Real Women Have Curves”) plays the title character in this colorful urban fairy tale adapted from a Colombian telenovela -- already remade in Israel, Germany, India and Mexico -- about an eager but, let’s say, not conventionally attractive young woman who becomes assistant to the callow playboy editor of a fashion magazine. Ashley Jensen, from the Ricky Gervais series “Extras,” is a fairy godmother figure, Vanessa Williams the evil queen and Eric Mabius the prince charming. Executive producer Salma Hayek has a repeating cameo, in a nurse’s outfit.

**

Sunday, Oct. 1

The Game

8:30 p.m., CW

The gridiron series that isn’t “Friday Night Lights.” Personable Tia Mowry is spun off from “Girlfriends” into a three-camera American sitcom version of “Footballer’s Wives,” or if you prefer, a classic newlywed comedy set against the backdrop of sports -- except for the being married part. In the traditional way of these things, Mowry can’t cook (not even cold cereal). But she is going to medical school. Pooch Hall is her cohabiting football-player boyfriend (not husband).

**

Tuesday, Oct. 3

Friday Night Lights

8 p.m., NBC

The gridiron series that isn’t “The Game.” Small-town Texas high school football gets a high-gloss glamour makeover in a show inspired by the book and movie of the same name. Likable Kyle Chandler is the new head coach under pressure to deliver wins. Connie Britton, quasi-reprising the role she played in the film, is his wife, and they are easy to like. But it’s USC football announcers Pete Arbogast and Paul McDonald, delivering the color, who keep it real.

**

Wednesday, Oct. 4

The Nine

10 p.m., ABC

Impressively mysterious yet staunchly realistic serial in which the unanswered question is: What happened to the eponymous main characters during the 52 hours they were held hostage during a bank robbery gone bad? Nobody’s talking, everyone’s bonded. Flashbacks and the fullness of time will tell their story, if enough of you watch. Tim Daly, Chi McBride and Scott Wolf are among those whose lives were forever changed.

Wednesday, Oct. 11

**

30 Rock

8 p.m., NBC

The backstage-at-a-sketch-comedy series that isn’t “Studio 60 etc.,” written by and starring actual “Saturday Night Live” alumna Tina Fey and named for the actual New York address of actually named NBC. Produced by Lorne Michaels and featuring former “SNL” player Tracy Morgan (as not exactly himself) and frequent “SNL” guest host Alec Baldwin, brilliant as a network executive who gained his position by inventing an oven. Of the two shows, this is the avowed comedy and yet somehow the more lifelike.

Twenty Good Years

8:30 p.m., NBC

John Lithgow and Jeffrey Tambor star in an optimistically titled, geriatrically old-school, odd-couple sitcom about a pair of lifelong pals hitting 60 -- Lithgow an impulsive surgeon bathed in self-regard, Tambor an indecisive judge -- who vow to seize however many days they have left. (Twenty times 365 equals 7,300, and add four for leap years.) See them in their bathing suits!

**

Tuesday, Oct. 17

The Knights of Prosperity

9 p.m., ABC

The heist show that isn’t “Smith.” In this bumptious redistribution-of-wealth comedy, Donal Logue (“Grounded for Life”) plays a janitor gathering a pack of fellow tired-of-working stiffs to rob the Park Avenue apartment of Mick Jagger. (Jagger appears in the pilot as himself, showing off his hat collection and kicking soccer balls at his houseboy, though continued participation is in question.)

**

Wednesday, Nov. 15

Day Break

9 p.m., ABC

Brett Hopper (Taye Diggs) is a detective who wakes up every morning inside the Bill Murray movie “Groundhog Day,” reliving the day to get one step closer to preventing the murder of which he’s been accused. Just why this should be happening is not in the least clear.

**

Premieres TBA

Big Day

ABC

Applies the “24” more-or-less-real-time-strung-out-for-a-season formula to a traditional wedding comedy in which questions usually ironed out far in advance -- from the catering to the choice of groom -- are raised at the last minute. Object: hilarity, of course. Wendie Malick is the controlling mother of the bride, with Josh Cooke and Marla Sokoloff the potentially happy couple.

Notes from the Underbelly

ABC

Yuppies having babies. Director Barry Sonnenfeld brings a modicum of sparkle to a subject one finds fascinating or dreadful, depending on one’s own involvement with the process -- which the show itself does acknowledge. Rachel Harris and Michael Weaver are the pregnant protagonists, wondering to just what degree their lives will be destroyed by their impending bundle of joy; Jennifer Westfeldt provides caustic correctives.

*

robert.lloyd@latimes.com

Lloyd is a Times TV critic.