Proving the first law of television, two of the best new series, Pushing Daisies and Kid Nation, are on at the same time, and the only decent new nighttime soap, Cane, faces the lovably quirky veteran Boston Legal.
Ken Burns' blockbuster PBS documentary about World War II may be the most anticipated fall show. At 14 hours, it will last longer than most new network series.
Little CW has two of the best new shows, while Fox has basically given up for fall, with only one new drama and one new comedy, both uninspired. ABC has thrown so many new series at the wall, it may have wound up with the best one.
Pushing Daisies ABC. Wednesdays, 8 p.m. From Bryan Fuller, who created Fox's darling ratings dud Wonderfalls, comes this story of a man who can raise the dead. It's flat-out delightful.
Produced with a heightened palette, it looks like nothing else on TV, and, as the story of two lovers who must never touch, it unspools like nothing else on TV.
Chi McBride and Kristin Chenoweth have supporting roles, as Olive Snood and Emerson Cod, and Swoosie Kurtz and Ellen Greene play former synchronized-swimming champs, the Darling Mermaid Darlings, who are also the eccentric aunts of one of the lead characters. One of them wears an eye patch.
Interested yet?
Reaper CW. Tuesdays, 9 p.m. Ray Wise, once the father of Twin Peaks' Laura Palmer, plays the devil, so things are off to a good start in this spoof, heavy on special effects, about a regular guy with very special duties.
Slacker Sam's in sales, at one of those giant home stores, when he learns that he must help Satan round up hell's escapees, using a different mundane device from his emporium each week. In the pilot, it's a Dirt Devil. Sam's buddy, "Sock" Wysocki, is no help at all, but he sure is funny.
