Fresh out of the box

Welcome, members of the class of Fall TV 2007. Some of you will “make the grade” and go on to long careers enriching both those who have a piece of you and the strangers whose lives you will touch with your thoughtful drama, thrilling action and/or well-observed comedy -- or just by making a lot of cheap commotion. Others will be gone before the term is over, or has barely begun. ¶ But for now, you stand more or less equal. As we look out across your ranks, we see a few superheroic or supernatural beings, many British and Australian actors masquerading as Americans, at least four shows based around same-sex bonding, the usual load of detectives and a surprising lot of rich folk. ¶ Well, privilege is everywhere, and some of you may be here partly because of who you know. But even for the advantaged, it has taken much hard work to arrive at what only looks like the beginning. You have already survived pitch meetings, focus groups, recastings and corporate regime change. We can judge most of you only by your pilots, into which you have naturally put special time and effort, but you are as handsome and varied a group as we have lately seen, and we trust you will apply yourself with equal if not extra vigor to the remainder of your ordered episodes.

Monday

K-Ville

(9 p.m., Fox)

Stands for “Katrinaville.” Anthony Anderson and Cole Hauser are wary new partners on the New Orleans police force, the former an upright 9th-Warder, the latter a man with a dark secret (but only for the first hour). Its pulse beats a little hard for a story set in a place called the Big Easy, but it’s good to see a series that makes time for the poor, especially in a season besotted with the wealthy.

Wednesday

Kid Nation

(8 p.m., CBS)

Forty kids are carted to a desert ghost town to live for 40 days without adults, excepting, of course, all the ones just out of camera range. A little bit “Lord of the Flies,” a little bit “Wild in the Streets” and currently the subject of pre-broadcast concern among children’s advocates and the acting unions. Will they succeed in building a just world where their parents failed? Or just a world without bedtime?

Back to You

(8 p.m., Fox)

Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton star in this sitcom superstar smackdown as reunited local news co-anchors who have something more than work between them. (Will they get their Tracy and Hepburn on? Or even their Grayson and Keel?) Three-camera comfort food.

Kitchen Nightmares

(9 p.m., Fox)

American franchise of a British reality show in which Gordon Ramsay (“Hell’s Kitchen”) makes dysfunctional restaurants function. Ramsay is currently in arbitration with a (since-fired) New York restaurant manager over claims that scenes were faked -- as if reality TV could ever be fake! -- but one notes he’s already won a libel suit against London’s Evening Standard over similar claims. As always, you will believe what you like.

Gossip Girl

(9 p.m., CW)

“Cruel Intentions” makeover (although based on a series of young-adult novels) in which teenage Manhattan socialites preen themselves in the posts of an anonymous blogger (voiced by Kristen Bell). “Dynasty” for the younger set, with Blake Lively and Leighton Meester as the Krystle and Alexis. Josh Schwartz (creator of “The O.C.” and also a co-creator of the new “Chuck”) and Stephanie Savage turned it into TV.

Next Sunday

CW Now

(7 p.m., CW)

Youth-directed entertainment trendcast lets you know what to buy, where to go and who to care about not to feel like a total loser.

Online Nation

(7:30 p.m., CW)

America’s Funniest Viral Videos is the idea and Generation YouTube is declared ready for its close-up as ordinary citizens with Internet access get to parlay 30 seconds of homemade fame into a further 30 seconds. Joy Leslie is the host who has been on real TV; Weblebrities Stevie Ryan (a.k.a. Little Loca), Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal bring the ‘net cred. You supply the cheap content.

Monday, Sept. 24

The Big Bang Theory

(8:30 p.m., CBS)

The other new three-camera comedy this season. Johnny Galecki and Jim Parsons are polymath brainiacs -- or is that brainiac polymaths -- gamely trying out their limited social skills on a new perky-blond neighbor played by Kaley Cuoco.

Chuck

(8 p.m., NBC)

Nifty sci-fi spy comedy in which a slacker working the tech desk at a big-box store (Zachary Levi) is pulled into a life of danger and intrigue after the contents of the National Security Agency mainframes are downloaded into his brain. (See also: “Reaper,” basically the same show, but with demons.) Adam Baldwin (creepy!) and Yvonne Strahovski (nice!) are the intelligence pros who make the action a go-go.

Journeyman

(10 p.m., NBC)

“Slaughterhouse-Five,” “Back to the Future,” “Groundhog Day” and “Wonderfalls” collide in this story of a San Francisco newspaperman (Kevin McKidd) who becomes a helpless traveler in time, possibly charged with keeping the world in order. (It’s vague.) Explaining it to the wife is as difficult as you would expect. The power ballads of many yesteryears tell you when you are.

Tuesday, Sept. 25

Reaper

(9 p.m., CW)

Nifty supernatural comedy in which a slacker working in a big-box store (Bret Harrison) is pulled into a life of danger and intrigue when he is forced to work for the devil (Ray Wise, having fun), retrieving the evil dead escaped from Hell. Tyler Labine, Jack-Blacking admirably, is his best friend. See also: “Chuck,” basically the same show, but with spies. (Also bears a distinct conceptual resemblance to the 1998 Peter Horton series “Brimstone.”)

Cane

(10 p.m., CBS)

Old-school drama of wealth, sex and family, baked in the “Dallas” mold but seasoned con mojo de ajo. Jimmy Smits plays the adopted son of a Florida sugar-and-rum mogul played by Hector Elizondo, who has been given six months to live, unless the ratings are good. Rita Moreno is his adoptive mother, Nestor Carbonell his jealous brother, Polly Walker the rival grower who Carbonell’s character is literally in bed with.

Wednesday, Sept. 26

Private Practice

(9 p.m., ABC)

Addison Forbes Montgomery (Kate Walsh) ditches her incorrigibly mopey “Grey’s Anatomy” colleagues for a beach-side wellness center in sunny Southern California. The stealth pilot launched last season within an episode of “Grey’s” was overeager and sex-mad, but Walsh showed classic comic chemistry with Taye Diggs, as the center’s head, and reliable Tim Daly and Amy Brenneman are here as well.

Bionic Woman

(9 p.m., NBC)

A “Battlestar Galactica” producer remakes another late-’70s sci-fi series in darker, deeper tones. Michelle Ryan is the new Jamie Sommers, getting an unsolicited free upgrade on her body after it’s mostly destroyed in a car crash -- but nothing’s ever really free, is it? “Galactica” regular Katee “Starbuck” Sackhoff is a bad bionic woman, Miguel Ferrer does his creepy boss thing, Isaiah Washington pops up long enough to thumb his nose at ABC.

Dirty Sexy Money

(10 p.m., ABC)

Donald Sutherland is superbly at ease in the role of a tycoon whose large and highly dysfunctional, tabloid-friendly family is looked after by harried lawyer Peter Krause, sticking close to solve the mystery of his own father’s death. Craig Wright’s smart soap feels big and intimate at once. Plus: Jill Clayburgh (Mom), William Baldwin (politician son with a transvestite mistress) and Samaire Armstrong (a daughter bearing just a little resemblance to Paris Hilton, ya think).

Life

(10 p.m., NBC)

Damian Lewis is a Los Angeles police officer, framed for murder and then exonerated, whose 12 years in prison have left him on another plane -- amazed by cellphones (he was in a prison on Mars, apparently), addicted to fresh fruit, compulsively day-seizing, forgetful of social nicety, hypersensitive to the nuances of the troubled. Sarah Shahi is the detective saddled with him as a junior partner, Adam Arkin the ex-CEO/ex-con who handles his settlement millions.

Thursday, Sept. 27

Big Shots

(10 p.m., ABC)

Four junior tycoons (Dylan McDermott, Joshua Malina, Michael Vartan and Christopher Titus) create and share problems -- and get in a little golf -- in a bitter dramedy one might call “Desperate CEOs.” (See “Cashmere Mafia,” for the distaff version.)

Friday, Sept. 28

Moonlight

(9 p.m., CBS)

Joel Silver-plated take on the whole “Buffy”-”Angel” thing, with Alex O’Loughlin as a good-doing vampire P.I. in love with a mere mortal played by Sophia Myles (inasmuch as any TV reporter can be called a mere mortal). Ron Koslow, who created “Beauty and the Beast,” had a hand in this.

Monday, Oct. 1

Aliens in America

(8:30 p.m., CW)

Winning post-post-9/11 teen weirdo comedy with a geopolitical twist, in which a small-town Wisconsin family unwittingly welcomes a Muslim from Pakistan (Adhir Kalyan) as an exchange student. Fear and ignorance: always good for a laugh. Dan Byrd is the social misfit who finds a friend, Lindsey Shaw his blooming sister, Amy Pietz his cautiously accepting mom. There are alpacas in the backyard.

Tuesday, Oct. 2

Cavemen

(8 p.m., ABC)

A sitcom whose premise plays like a parody of a sitcom premise: Cro-Magnons live among us, civilized and misunderstood. Not as strange an idea, on the whole, as the fact that it’s based on an ad campaign for auto insurance. Wilma!

Carpoolers

(8:30 p.m., ABC)

Former Kid in the Hall Bruce McCullough created this comedy about four men with nothing in common but the ride they share to an office park and the fact that they’re all . . . men. (It’s the middle-class version of “Big Shots.”) Jerry O’Connell plays the divorced guy; Fred Goss, Jerry Minor and Tim Peper are fretful, henpecked and newlywed respectively. But sparky Faith Ford (married here to Goss’ character) makes the best impression.

Wednesday, Oct. 3

Pushing Daisies

(8 p.m., ABC)

Bright, modern fairy tale with Orphic overtones from “Wonderfalls” co-creator Bryan Fuller in which piemaker Lee Pace can bring back the dead with a touch, though with certain restrictions. Anna Friel is the old crush he resurrects but can’t touch again, or she’ll pop back across the Styx. Chi McBride is the cop he helps solve murders. Swoosie Kurtz, Ellen Greene and Kristin Chenoweth and narrator Jim Dale bring heavy legit-stage mojo to the supporting cast.

Sunday, Oct. 7

Life Is Wild

(8 p.m., CW)

Park Avenue vet Danny Clarke (D.W. Moffett) hauls his quizzical blended family into the South African bush in search of meaningful activity, self-knowledge and work more fulfilling than declawing pussycats. Sure enough, there are lions and elephants, oh, my, but also hot teens in swimwear. Dude! It’s not so bad, Africa!

Friday, Oct. 12

Women’s Murder Club

(9 p.m., ABC)

Bay Area crime professionals (detective, coroner, reporter, prosecutor, prosecutor’s protégée) female-bond while solving crimes over pizza. “Law & Order” vet Angie Harmon (as the detective) is the big name with the low BMI.

Monday, Oct. 15

Samantha Who?

(9:30 p.m., ABC)

Christina Applegate as Samantha wakes from an eight-day coma with no memory of the horrible, successful person she had been before and a disinclination to become her again. This would have been a Sandra Bullock movie a decade back; 60 years ago it might have starred Irene Dunne. Applegate’s screwball skills are considerable, and Jean Smart is here for her to play against, as her self-regarding mother.

Thursday, Oct. 18

Viva Laughlin

(10 p.m., CBS, preview; begins in its regular time slot Sunday, Oct. 21, at 8 p.m.).

Americanization of the British series aired here as “Viva Blackpool!” in which old pop songs interrupt and further the action, “Pennies From Heaven” style. Lloyd Owen stars as a man whose big dreams -- of building the absolute nicest casino-hotel in all of Laughlin, Nev. -- run him into trouble. Executive producer Hugh Jackman drops in as Owen’s more successful rival; Melanie Griffith wears lingerie.

Friday, Oct. 19

The Next Great

American Band

(8 p.m., Fox)

“American Idol” but with, you know, bands. (Probably no polka bands, though.) Simon Fuller is again the man behind the curtain.

Tuesday, Nov. 27

Cashmere Mafia

(10 p.m., ABC, preview; begins in its regular time slot Dec. 4 at 9 p.m.)

“Big Shots” with two X chromosomes. (Or “Women’s Murder Club” without the murder.) A quartet of businesswomen (Lucy Liu, Frances O’Connor, Miranda Otto, Bonnie Somerville) pick shards of broken glass ceiling from one another’s hair as they deal with fragile male egos and, to quote a network press release, “scheming bitches eager to bring them down.” “Sex and the City” creator Darren Star produces, Kevin Wade (“Working Girl”) writes.

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robert.lloyd@latimes.com