40 Fall TV Shows We're Psyched About

Monday, 8-8:30 p.m., CBS
The warlock has left the building. With the spectacular, bridge-burning, jumping-down-?the-inflatable-?emergency-slide exit of Charlie Sheen from Two and a Half Men, the show's raunchy, hedonistic playboy is gone — and with him, the show's primary source of bawdy jokes. Now a younger, hipper, prettier model is here. But can he be funnier, too? Five years after That '70s Show, Ashton Kutcher returns to sitcom TV as Walden Schmidt, a brokenhearted Internet billionaire who has no game with the ladies. Schmidt presumably takes over the now-deceased Charlie Harper's Malibu pad, thrusting Alan (Jon Cryer) into the unfamiliar role of giving love lessons. ''I'm a terrible mentor,'' Cryer says, ''and that's where a lot of the fun of the show comes from.'' Sept. 19

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Thursday, 8-8:30 p.m., CBS
Even the superbrained characters on Big Bang will have trouble making sense of May's awkward cliff-hanger, in which Raj (Kunal Nayyar) and Penny (Kaley Cuoco) woke up together after a drunken night. Things will become even more complicated in season 5 as Penny struggles with lingering feelings for Leonard (Johnny Galecki), while he tries to sustain a bicontinental relationship with Priya (Aarti Mann). ''He might end up with two women and no sex whatsoever,'' Galecki jokes. Sheldon (Jim Parsons) will continue his pleasantly odd relationship with Amy (Mayim Bialik); Howard (Simon Helberg) and Bernadette (Melissa Rauch) will plan their nuptials, though trouble looms. Says exec producer Bill Prady, ''The question is, Which is the greatest problem for Howard: that Bernadette doesn't get along with his mother, or that she does?'' Sept. 22

Thursday, 9-10 p.m., CBS
Person of Interest follows eccentric gazillionaire Finch (Lost's Michael Emerson) and operative-turned-homeless guy Reese (The Prisoner's Jim Caviezel), who team up to prevent crimes by using cutting-edge surveillance technology. The idea is that sometime after 9/11 Finch ?created a pattern-recognition system that collects information — through computers, cell phones, and cameras on the street — to predict who will become involved in violent crimes. Years later he hires Reese, a presumed-dead CIA agent, to help him stop those crimes before they occur. There's just one problem: Homicide detective Carter (Date Night's Taraji P. Henson) is also tracking Reese. Meanwhile, Reese is starting to investigate Finch's past. And Finch? He's got his eye on everyone. ''This story is about that fine line between paranoia and protection,'' says J.J. Abrams, coexec producer along with Jonathan Nolan (The Dark Knight). ''9/11 changed the way we looked at 'the others.' Now everyone's a suspect.'' Sept. 22

Sunday, 10-11 p.m., Showtime
A long-held prisoner of war (Life's Damien Lewis) returns home from Iraq hailed as a hero — but one globe-trotting CIA analyst (Claire Danes) thinks he may, in fact, be a secret terrorist. Of course, she's also a pill-popping, bed-hopping renegade with credibility issues of her own. ''It's one of the incredible, well-drawn ironies of the show,'' says Danes. ''They were both traumatized in different ways in Iraq and are intensely lonely.'' Might things get romantic? ''Great question,'' teases exec producer Howard Gordon (24), who recognizes the show's potential for controversy. ''We don't want to be offensive'' toward soldiers returning from the real war, explains Gordon, ''but we do want to dramatize the complexities of our world.'' Oct. 2

Wednesday, 8-8:30 p.m., NBC
Does changing a baby have to change you? Can you still find time for a pub crawl while the little one is learning to crawl? These questions and more will be tackled with big laughs (and dark circles under the eyes) by NBC's Up All Night. Featuring Christina Applegate as new mom Reagan — whose husband, Chris (Will Arnett), agrees to play stay-at-home dad (and some videogames) while she returns to her job as producer of a daytime talk show hosted by the high-maintenance Ava (Maya Rudolph) — the show explores the modern-day phenomenon of later-in-life first-time parenthood. ''It's not a show about a baby — it's a show about a couple with a baby and how it informs their life,'' explains ?series creator Emily Spivey, whose fellow exec producer is Saturday Night Live guru Lorne Michaels. ''It's not going to be Full House with a bunch of close-ups of babies going, 'Oh, man!' Anybody at any life stage can understand what it's like when you're having to reevaluate who you are because of the circumstances you're in. I'm hoping it'll have a wide appeal just for that.'' Sept. 14

Monday, 8:30-9 p.m., CBS
Exec producer Michael Patrick King (Sex and the City) describes the new buddy comedy he's co-writing with comedian Whitney Cummings as ''Laverne & Shirley on crack.'' True, it's a sitcom starring a brunette and a blonde — the former is Max (Kat Dennings), a streetwise waitress, and the latter is Caroline (Beth Behrs), a bankrupt ex-heiress who works with Max in a Brooklyn diner and becomes her roommate — but these New York ladies are, perhaps, a wee bit tougher than their Milwaukee predecessors. Trying to raise enough cash to start their own business, they hand out flyers while dressed as King Tut, help a hoarder organize her apartment, and curse out anyone who stands in their way. ''We get to be crass,'' enthuses Dennings. ''We get all the jokes the guys normally get. Looking cute is not what we're there for.'' Sept. 19

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Wednesday, 10-11 p.m., FX
The Harmon family — husband Ben (Dylan McDermott), wife Vivien (Connie Britton), and daughter Violet (Taissa Farmiga) — moves into an old Los Angeles house with a creepy neighbor (Jessica Lange) and an even creepier basement. While it sounds like the beginnings of a fairly standard scary movie, it doesn't even begin to describe how capital-C crazy this Story, created by Glee's Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk, becomes. ''There's no place for the word typical anywhere,'' says Britton (Friday Night Lights). ''That's the thing about this show — it sort of defies explanation.'' When Story isn't trying to scare the pants off you, it likes to showcase its characters without pants: Vivien has sex with a man in rubber fetish suit, and Ben pleasures himself while being spied on by a badly burned man (True Blood's Denis O'Hare) — who, by the way, warns Ben that the house drove him to commit murder. Says McDermott (The Practice), ''Some actors were really afraid of the sexuality [on the show]. It didn't really bother me because I felt like if you're going to do this you've got to go all the way.'' Oct. 5

Monday, 10-11 p.m., ABC
The ''I love you'' uttered by Castle (Nathan Fillion) to Beckett (Stana Katic) ?as she lay injured from a gunshot in last season's finale will help usher in a new chapter for the will-they-or-won't-they couple. ''The premiere episode is layered with many reveals that will help dictate the relationship between Castle and Beckett this year,'' exec producer Laurie Zaks says. While mum on the specifics, Fillion teases that the result will be ''enough to keep people interested...without going too far that you can never go back.'' On the crime-fighting front, season 4 will see the return of the 3XK killer, a Halloween-themed episode, and the arrival of a new no-nonsense captain (24's Penny Johnson Jerald), whose tough management style doesn't sit well with, basically, anyone. ''Castle's not used to being unliked,'' says Fillion. ''He's certainly going to take it personal.'' Sept. 19

Thursday, 8-8:30 p.m., NBC
Get ready for some new big men on campus in season 3: Ex-con/biology professor Marshall Kane (The Wire's Michael K. Williams) will lock horns with Jeff (Joel McHale), and is ''the opposite of the Community tradition of professors,'' says creator Dan Harmon. ''He is all too qualified to teach the class he's teaching — and all too intense.'' Vice Dean Laybourne (John Goodman), who lords over the Air Conditioning Repair Annex, will be a ''brute, omnipotent, impersonal cosmic force'' who has Dean Pelton (Jim Rash) under his thumb. Troy (Donald Glover) gets an apartment with Abed (Danny Pudi); Annie (Alison Brie) gets a type A rival; and Chang (Ken Jeong) gets a new job...as a security guard. What kind of a guard is he? ''Not the kind that makes the campus more secure,'' says Harmon. ''The kind that makes it a more dangerous place to be.'' Sept. 22

Sunday, 9-10 p.m., Showtime
A year has passed since Lumen (Julia Stiles) left Dexter (Michael C. Hall) holding the metaphorical bag of body parts. How's he doing now? ''Last season Dexter went down a very dark path, and we're trying to find our way back to the Dexter we knew in season 1 but also absorb what we learned along the way,'' notes exec producer Scott Buck. The revitalized serial killer, who's on a ''spiritual search,'' will cross paths with a captivating religious-studies professor (Edward James Olmos) who's linked to a series of horrific murders. ''From the moment he enters the screen, we know that this person is going to have a very significant presence on Dexter,'' says Buck, ''particularly with where his head is at this year.'' Oct. 2

Friday, 8-9 p.m., NBC
With the much-loved spy series coming to a close after five seasons, co-creator Chris Fedak insists this last batch of episodes will be satisfying and surprising. ''There's going to be new stuff this season,'' teases Fedak. ''It's going to change the Chuck world. But it's also a big love letter to the fans and hopefully an epic finale.'' The premiere, featuring guest villains Mark Hamill (Star Wars) and Craig Kilborn (Old School), will pick up after May's game changer, in which Chuck (Zachary Levi) started his own spy agency and Morgan (Joshua Gomez) was turned into a superagent by the Intersect. ''It's neat to watch Morgan have fun with the Intersect ?because unlike Chuck, he's stoked to have superpowers,'' says Fedak. ''For Chuck, he has to be like Sarah Walker [Yvonne Strahovski] in season 1. He's the handler.'' That's not to say everything will be rosy for the team, warns Fedak: ''They may find themselves working with people who are a little more shady than they're used to.'' Oct. 21

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Thursday, 8-9 p.m., The CW
As season 3 begins, Jeremy (Steven R. McQueen) has yet to figure out why the ghosts of his dead ex-girlfriends are haunting him. Tyler (Michael Trevino) and Caroline (Candice Accola) are on their way to becoming a supernatural Romeo and Juliet — mostly because exec producers Julie Plec and Kevin Williamson ''want to see some hot werewolf/vampire sex,'' Plec admits. Elena (Nina Dobrev) and Damon (Ian Somerhalder) are still searching for Stefan (Paul Wesley), who's reluctantly on the road with Klaus (Joseph Morgan) piling up a body count. It's not until the third episode that brooding Stefan becomes a guilt-free ripper, which Wesley embraces. ''Because Stefan doesn't have the sarcasm, people assume he's less of a threat. There's a lot of hidden darkness people will be pleased and surprised to see,'' he says, adding with a laugh, ''I'm kind of sick of always doing the right thing.'' Sept. 15

Friday, 9-10 p.m., Fox
A season-long conflict between two parallel Earths that seemed destined for mutually assured destruction concluded with Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson) traveling through time to save both worlds...and then mysteriously disappearing. So, what if Peter never existed? That's the high-concept idea that launches the season, with episodes exploring how Peter's demented daddy, Walter Bishop (John Noble), colleague/lover Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv), and the entire Fringe world(s) would be different. For example: ''No Peter, no baby,'' says exec producer Jeff Pinkner, referring to the son Peter had with the ''over there'' Olivia. ''Peter was a humanizing influence on Walter,'' says Noble. ''Without him, Walter is...well, nuts.'' Look for episodes to revisit old cases and other elements of Fringe mythology, like shape-shifters, from a ''no Peter'' perspective. But don't worry, Jackson fans: ''You're going to see him, but perhaps not in the way you're anticipating,'' says exec producer J.H. Wyman. Meanwhile, the producers believe viewers ''are invested in what happens this season,'' says Wyman. That said, Pinkner adds, ''the season is a love letter to the show and fans, but new viewers can follow too.'' Sept. 23

Wednesday, 9:30-10 p.m., Fox
Childhood friends Annie and Nikki (My Name Is Earl's Jaime Pressly and Tony winner Katie Finneran) — who weren't exactly popular in high school — are bewildered by the pair of queen bees they somehow spawned. ''Any mother, if they're being totally honest, has said, 'I don't like this,''' explains creator Sherry Bilsing-Graham. Adds Pressly, ''Sometimes parenthood is the most amazing thing, and sometimes you want to crawl under the bed.'' More daunting than parenting teenage girls? A high-profile time slot following Simon Cowell's The X Factor. ''There are some things that have been done to the pilot to make us all more confident,'' says Pressly, referring to reshoots that included making Annie's musician ex, Matt (Eric Sheffer Stevens), less pathetic (he now opens for Sheryl Crow instead of playing in ?a band with high schoolers). ''But are you kidding me? Hell, yeah, we feel pressure.'' Nov. 30

Monday, 9-10 p.m., The CW
What do you get when you mix Gilmore Girls with equal parts Doc Hollywood and Sweet Home Alabama? That'd be The CW's Hart of Dixie, which follows brusque young doctor Zoe Hart (Rachel Bilson) as she leaves NYC behind for life in the slower lane of picturesque Bluebell, Alabama. Once there, Zoe inherits a practice from a mysterious doctor; clashes with her local patients on a weekly basis; and flirts with the dashing George (Scott Porter), who happens to be engaged to her nemesis Lemon (Jaime King). ''It's a third medical, a third fish-out-of-water, and a third romantic comedy,'' explains exec producer Len Goldstein. Adds Bilson: ''It's not often that you come across such a strong female role, and the fact that she has a funny bone — there's comedy in it! — was appealing to me.'' Sept. 26

Monday, 8-8:30 p.m., CBS
Marshall (Jason Segel) and Lily's (Alyson Hannigan) journey into parenthood will, like their season 1 engagement, be the catalyst for Ted's (Josh Radnor) renewed commitment to searching for love in the show's seventh season, according to creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas. ''He thinks he needs to get back out there and find the right woman. He needs to catch up with his friends,'' explains Thomas. Robin (Cobie Smulders)? may get her own crack at love when Kal Penn (fresh off a stint at the White House) pops up for a multi-?episode arc. Viewers who were left wondering how Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) ended up at the altar with a yet-to-be-identified bride will get some answers, but Harris has his own ideas for the season. ''I'd either like to see [Barney] come to terms with his inner demons...or bang all of the Pussycat Dolls at the same time,'' he jokes. ''Maybe that can all happen in the same episode.'' Sept. 19

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Monday, 10-11 p.m., NBC
When creator Chad Hodge began work on the '60s-era drama about Hugh Hefner's private Chicago club at the center of the country's sexual revolution, he set out to create Disneyland — but with booze and Bunnies: ''It was this fantasy world, and I wanted the show to feel like that.'' (Not surprisingly, the show has already gotten some conservative critics hot and bothered, including a Utah affiliate that dropped Playboy, calling the material ''objectionable.'' A different regional affiliate picked it up.) The team worked closely with Playboy ?Enterprises to keep the details authentic — right down to the famous Bunny outfits — but serves up its own story, which follows Nick Dalton (Eddie Cibrian), an attorney and club key holder who gets entangled with a novice Bunny, Maureen (Amber Heard), after she accidentally kills a Mob boss. ''Men want to be him and girls want to be with him,'' says ?Cibrian. ''But he's got a dark past.'' Sept. 19

Monday, 8-9 p.m., Fox
Terra Nova opens in 2149 amid a Chicago landscape blighted by pollution and the destructive effects of global warming. Residents must wear masks to breathe, and the sight of an orange can set a family like the Shannons — Jim and Elisabeth (Life on Mars' Jason O'Mara and British actress Shelley Conn) and their children, Josh (Landon Liboiron), Maddy (Naomi Scott), and Zoe (Alana Mansour) — alight with glee. Things are bleak. But the recent discovery of a fracture in time has prompted a series of ''Pilgrimages'' filled with brave (or perhaps foolhardy) folk who embark on a one-way trip to Terra Nova, a settlement on prehistoric, Cretaceous-period Earth where they can literally start fresh. Desperate, the Shannons decide to go. Jim, a former police officer, hasn't seen his brood in two years, since he was jailed when population-control officers learned about his third child, a no-no in dystopian Chicago. (''A Family Is Four!'' trumpet the government's population-control propaganda billboards.) The Shannons come under the cagey leadership of Commander Nathaniel Taylor (played by grizzled Avatar baddie Stephen Lang, who was handpicked by executive producer Steven Spielberg), the inaugural resident. There's also a rogue group of residents called the Sixers that keeps attacking the settlers for unknown reasons, not to mention those pesky dinosaurs, which hover just outside the camp's not-quite-impenetrable barrier fence. ''If the Shannons can survive,'' says exec producer Brannon Braga, ''maybe humanity has a chance by extension. That notion mirrors what the whole show is about, which is second chances. Humanity has been given a second chance to do things right.'' Sept. 26

Wednesday, 8-9:30 p.m., Fox
Oh, Simon Cowell, how we've missed you. In the year and a half since he's been off our TV screens, the king of withering critiques has been replaced by American Idol's lovey-dovey judging trio and The Voice's happily bickering mentors. But with the Stateside debut of his British smash The X Factor, Cowell is not only trotting out the tartness (''That was like running over 25 cats on the freeway,'' goes one vocal assessment), he's also reuniting with his former tablemate Paula Abdul, who left Idol a year before Cowell called it quits in 2010. The judges on X Factor — a singing competition that features both solo and group acts and no upper age limit — each serve as mentor to a team of contestants. So, as with The Voice, Cowell and Abdul — along with Nicole Scherzinger (who stepped in for singer and U.K. X Factor judge Cheryl Cole partway through filming) and record mogul Antonio ''L.A.'' Reid — will be competing against one another as mentors. Which means the pair who loved to hate each other for eight seasons will have even more to fight about. Sept. 21

Sunday, 9-10 p.m., HBO
The series' second season picks up on Valentine's Day in 1921. As Nucky's (Steve Buscemi) closest allies conspire against him, the ladies are taking a more active role in gentlemanly affairs. A new female prosecutor, Esther Randolph (Julianne Nicholson) — who's based on Mabel Walker Willebrandt, the real-life assistant attorney general in 1921 — gets busy hunting down bootleggers. Margaret (Kelly Macdonald) and her children have moved in with Nucky, whose bad behavior might be rubbing off on her son, Teddy. Yet she's still warming to her role as Nucky's partner in crime. Lucy (Paz de la Huerta), who announced last season that she's pregnant, now has blackmail power over Agent Van Alden (Michael Shannon), though in her condition, she may feel too vulnerable to use it. Angela (Aleksa Palladino) is getting to know Jimmy's (Michael Pitt) inner circle better, and Jimmy's mom, Gillian (Gretchen Mol), is pushing her son even harder to overthrow Nucky. ''Gillian would love ?to see Jimmy take Atlantic City,'' says Mol, laughing. ''She could be queen and he could be the prince!'' That blood loyalty could put these ladies in danger. ''How far would you go to protect your family?'' asks the show's creator and exec producer Terence Winter. ''That's the big theme.'' As the New Woman era gives way to the age of the party-girl flapper, no one's quite so innocent anymore. Delving into these characters' hardscrabble pasts — Margaret's reasons for leaving Ireland will be revealed, as will the origin of Gillian's strange relationship with Jimmy and Angela — ?Boardwalk will show how the women became such ruthless defenders of the gangsters they hold dear. Sept. 25

Sunday, 9-10 p.m., CBS
After the steamy and long-awaited hookup between Alicia (Julianna Margulies) and her boss Will (Josh Charles) in last season's finale, the Good Wife universe is in the midst of change at the beginning of season 3. ''So much has transpired in very subtle ways,'' explains Margulies. ''[The premiere episode] is called 'The New Day,' and that's what it feels like.'' But the title doesn't apply only to what's going on with Alicia — it's a fresh start for new state's attorney Peter (Chris Noth), new Lockhart Gardner employee Eli (Alan Cumming), and an old flame of Will's named Celeste (House's Lisa Edelstein), who arrives to stir up trouble. ''There was a sense from the last scene of the last season that there was going to be a new chapter in Alicia's life,'' says Robert King, who co-created the series with his wife, Michelle. ''This season is finding out what that new chapter is.'' Sept. 25

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Sunday, 10-11 p.m., ABC
Pan Am is based on one woman's actual experiences. From 1968 to '75, exec producer Nancy Hult Ganis worked as a stewardess for the airline, and some of the show's key story lines — including the Pan Am flight team's rescue of Cubans in a stealth mission — are taken from real life. The show's central premise? Laura Cameron (Margot Robbie) runs out on her fiancé the day of her wedding and enrolls as a Pan Am stewardess like her sister, Kate (Kelli Garner). Meanwhile, Kate's been tasked by the government to assist with espionage — primarily because Pan Am was responsible for flying many of the world's power players. Also on board with the Cameron girls are Maggie (Christina Ricci) and French-born Colette (Karine Vanasse). Flying these ladies all over the world are the arrogant Dean (Mike Vogel, who replaced Jonah Lotan from the pilot) and Ted (Michael Mosley). Future plotlines will lean heavily on the political turmoil happening in 1963, including the assassination of JFK, which creator Jack Orman says the show will address this season. Viewers can expect the ladies to take a trip to Jakarta in the second episode, as well as the possibility of romance between Laura and Ted. (One thing they won't see the main cast doing: smoking cigarettes. The Disney-owned network nixed the nicotine.) But more than anything, producers hope that each week viewers feel like they've taken a first-class international trip — all without leaving their couch. "If we're successful," says Orman, "there will be a lot of people starting to demand better air travel." Sept. 25

Thursday, 9-9:30 p.m., NBC
As everybody knows, star Steve Carell exited the show, leaving a Dundie-size hole in our hearts. Stepping into that hole is Robert California, the new CEO of Dunder Mifflin, played by the singular James Spader. As introduced in the season 7 finale, Robert has oddly persuasive, Jedi-like powers. Unlike Kathy Bates, who showed up occasionally as the company's CEO last season, Spader will appear in 15 episodes and spend far more time wreaking havoc inside the Scranton branch (challenging the manager to double sales, for starters). While producers are keeping mum on who will get the manager post, don't expect an outsider to take the gig anytime soon. ''No one else has been hired to be a regular character on the show except myself,'' says Spader. ''They didn't just want to bring in a new Michael Scott.'' Fans should still watch because ''we're the same Office, but we're taking advantage of this great new talent and throwing him into the mix,'' says exec producer and costar Paul Lieberstein (Toby), who reveals that the season also features the warehouse staff winning the lottery and quitting, and Pam (Jenna Fischer) and Jim (John Krasinski) having a second baby (to accommodate Fischer's real-life pregnancy). As for Robert, the character is an enigma not only to viewers but to Spader as well. ''What I know most about him is that I don't know a great deal about him, and I've been urging [the writers] to continue that,'' Spader says. ''He's a strange guy, and his enigmatic qualities are a good thing.'' Sept. 22

Thursday, 9-10 p.m., ABC
After a chilling season that found the doctors of Seattle Grace broken and leaning on one another post-mass shooting, Grey's creator Shonda Rhimes promises that ''everyone's standing on their own two feet this season.'' In a word: independence! ''Our residents are in their fifth year, and they're going to be alone in the ORs,'' Rhimes explains. ''Part of it is about that, part of it is about them just growing up.'' Right away Cristina (Sandra Oh) makes her decision about whether to keep her baby, and Kepner (Sarah Drew) has trouble as the new chief resident, which balances the drama with some laughs. Rocky times are ahead for star couple Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) and Derek (Patrick Dempsey) after he left her — and adopted baby Zola — in the season 7 finale. ''People think that two people split up and that's the end of them. And it's not,'' Rhimes insists. ''This is just a hard patch — a really hard patch.'' Sept. 22

Thursday, 10-10:30 p.m., FX
To play Mac this season, Rob McElhenney gained 50 pounds, just because he thought it would be funny. ''In sitcoms, people get better-looking as years go by,'' explains the exec producer and star. On Sunny, ''we want to take the glamour out of entertainment.'' Lots of ugly stuff will happen in season 7: Dee (Kaitlin Olson) holds a (fake) funeral for a baby; Dennis (Glenn Howerton) goes sociopathic at his high school reunion; and Frank (Danny DeVito) pulls a Pretty Woman. Says Howerton, also an exec producer: ''She's not so much a hooker with a heart of gold as a hooker who bangs dudes and smokes crack.'' Sept. 15

Tuesday, 9-10 p.m., The CW
Inspired by movies like Blood Simple, producers Eric Charmelo and Nicole Snyder (Supernatural) wanted to create a neo-noir saga with a trippy twin twist. ''There's something really compelling and creepy about twins that's ripe for conflict and drama,'' explains Snyder. To that end, Sarah Michelle Gellar plays Bridget, an ex-stripper hiding from an FBI agent (Nestor Carbonell) and a mobster by posing as her wealthy identical sister, Siobhan, whom she believes to be dead. (She's not.) Bridget must avoid assassination by someone who wants Siobhan dead while also managing relationships with Siobhan's husband (Ioan Gruffudd), lover (Kristoffer Polaha), and more. How does Gellar keep it all straight? With this maxim: ''Bridget is driven by redemption; Siobhan is driven by revenge.'' Sept. 13

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Tuesday, 10P.M., FX
After 14 months in the slammer, our favorite gunrunning motorcycle club was reunited on the outside in the Sept. 6 season 4 premiere. Jax (Charlie Hunnam) emerged with a deeper commitment to his family with Tara (Maggie Siff), while Clay (Ron Perlman) — still struggling with the chronic arthritis in his hands — feels like his time as leader is running out. Both want to bank big money. ''What it does to Clay's outlook on the club's ability to become independent so that they're not beholden to anybody is rather ruthless,'' Perlman says. ''There's an insanity to it almost in terms of its urgency.'' He'll make a business decision that divides the club and paves the way for Machete's Danny Trejo and The Shield's Benito Martinez to recur as new allies starting in episode 2 — SAMCRO will supply guns to a Mexican drug cartel and mule cocaine. Expect some glorious violence. Says creator Kurt Sutter, ''I try to parcel it up in reasonable doses so people aren't running screaming from their sofas.''

Tuesday, 8-9 p.m., Fox
After a turbulent summer — Chris Colfer and Lea Michele are out! Wait, they're getting a spin-off! No, they're staying on the show! — the kids at McKinley are getting back to singing, dancing, and dominating the charts. Joining the ranks in season 3 are all 700 Glee Project winners, a love interest for Mercedes (Friday Night Lights' LaMarcus Tinker), and a wealthy student named Sugar (HawthoRNe's Vanessa Lengies). The performances have been so extreme, Colfer says he's gone to the hospital five times already. ''Last week, we were filming a number where the kids try to recruit new members for their club, so we performed for the student body,'' he explains. ''I started exotic dancing on a table and hurt my foot. It was crazy.'' Sept. 20

Tuesday, 9-9:30 p.m., Fox
Indie-film darling Zooey Deschanel will tickle your TV as Jess, a charming and freshly jilted teacher who moves in with three random guys, Nick (Jake Johnson), Schmidt (Max Greenfield), and Coach (Happy Endings regular Damon Wayans Jr., who'll be replaced in episode 2 by Lamorne Morris' Winston). ''She's trying to connect with these guys, and her version of guys is Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra in sailor suits,'' notes Deschanel. ''She has a completely different idea of men than what they actually are.'' Adds creator Liz Meriwether: ''This show is about four weirdos living together.... Each is at a moment where they're rebuilding their life or choosing a path. It is that mid- to late-20s moment where you're like, 'Oh, s---. This isn't cute anymore.''' Sept. 20

Tuesday, 9-10:30 P.M., Fox
Hope is all about chaotic charm: The nutty comedy revolves around the down-on-their-luck Chance family — Virginia (Martha Plimpton) and Burt (Garret Dillahunt); their son, Jimmy (Lucas Neff); Maw Maw (Cloris Leachman); and Jimmy's 18-month-old daughter, Hope (played by 18-month-old twins Baylie and Rylie Cregut). ''Somebody said it's twisted,'' says Leachman of Hope's humor, which she affectionately refers to as ''so stupid'' repeatedly. ''But I find the show has a true, honest sincerity, a realness that touches you. [It's] as funny and cuckoo and twisted as it can be.'' The focus of season 2 will be on ''expanding the universe,'' says Neff. ''We're going to Vegas!'' Adds Shannon Woodward, who plays Jimmy's love interest, grocery-store clerk Sabrina: ''Yeah, everybody else goes to Hawaii; naturally we go to Vegas. I thought it was going to be Orlando, but they really stepped it up.'' The Sin City episode will be filmed on location and centers on the wedding of guest star Amy Sedaris, who reprises her role as Cousin Delilah. Also ahead: Burt will be kidnapped; some ''pretty massive secrets'' about Sabrina will come to light, says Woodward; and YouTube sensation Greyson Chance will play young Jimmy in three flashback episodes. Speaking of flashbacks, creator Greg Garcia plans to use even more of the technique to offer up characters' backstories — especially Maw Maw's. ''We really enjoy having Maw Maw lucid in the flashbacks, so we want to do more of that," says Garcia. "We found later in the season with her character that we don't have to have her bats--- crazy. We can use Cloris in a better way.'' Sept. 20

Thursday, 8:30-9 p.m., NBC
Caught in a political pickle, Leslie makes a big decision about whether to run for office or date her supervisor, Ben (Adam Scott). ''She attacks the problem from every angle and comes to this conclusion that there's no way to have a relationship and to follow her dream of running for office,'' reveals exec producer Mike Schur. ''The first half of the year is about her living with that decision and trying to imagine the road not taken.'' Also coming up in season 4: Ann (Rashida Jones) asks Chris (Rob Lowe) to manage a project that spirals out of control; new Entertainment 720 mogul Tom (Aziz Ansari) changes up his wardrobe (think jaunty yachting caps); and Ron (Nick Offerman) not only encounters ex-wife ?Tammy 1 (Patricia Clarkson), he teaches a scout troop survival strategies in the wilderness. Hints Schur, ''It is not fun and games for the kids.'' Sept. 22

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Thursday, 9-10 p.m., The CW
In this twisty tale from Vampire Diaries exec producer Kevin Williamson, newly orphaned Cassie (Britt Robertson) learns she's a teen witch who must reluctantly bind powers with five classmates and uncover what happened to their parents 16 years ago — when many of them, also witches, died — so they can protect themselves. Naturally, there's forbidden love: Cassie and already-attached Adam (Thomas Dekker) are ''written in the stars,'' though Robertson cautions, ''that doesn't mean exactly what you may think.'' And two parents (Natasha Henstridge and Queer as Folk's Gale Harold) have an agenda that will get a little bloody. ''This is how I want to see this man,'' Williamson says of Harold. ''I want to see him be devilish and delicious again.'' Sept. 15

Monday, 8-10 p.m., ABC
It's not so easy finding semi-coordinated stars who can raise eyebrows after 12 seasons, but the producers think they've done it with this cast, which includes Chaz Bono, Elisabetta Canalis (a.k.a. George Clooney's ex), David Arquette, Nancy Grace, and Rob Kardashian. ''It's quite difficult to do after casting 120 people over the years, but we found a lot of strong characters this year,'' promises exec producer Conrad Green. In addition to theme weeks that pay tribute to the '80s, Broadway musicals, and Halloween, the producers plan to revamp the stage to allow for more fans to ogle pros up close. ''It will feel like an amphitheater,'' says Green. ''More dramatic!'' Sept. 19

Wednesday, 9-9:30 p.m., ABC
In the season 3 opener, the families get down and dirty...on a dude ranch! ''Mitchell [Jesse Tyler Ferguson] and Cameron [Eric Stonestreet] explore their inner dude as a way of convincing themselves that they're ready to [adopt] a boy, and the dude-ranch experience leaves them less than convinced,'' explains exec producer Christopher Lloyd. Also ahead for the extended Pritchett clan: Manny (Rico Rodriguez) runs afoul of the law, causing problems for Jay (Ed O'Neill) and Gloria (Sofia Vergara); Claire (Julie Bowen) drags Mitch and Cam out for a wild night but ends up on an ''accidental date''; and Phil (Ty Burrell) reconnects with his inventor past by working on his scalp-massaging helmet. ''It has a tendency to pull your hair into it,'' notes Lloyd. ''Phil gets into a wrestling match with it at one point.'' Sept. 21

Sunday, 9-10 p.m., AMC
''We've got some crazy stuff happening,'' says star Andrew Lincoln — and no, he's not talking about all of the behind-the-scenes drama that went on this summer. ''It took us six episodes [last year] to get to know this crew of people. Now we can really pick up speed with the second season.'' With original exec producer Frank Darabont gone — he ?left in July and was replaced by his No. 2, Glen Mazzara — the zombie apocalypse drama starts up where the finale left off, with Lincoln's Rick Grimes & Co. speeding away from the explosion at the CDC. Whoever survives will end up on the farm of Hershel Greene (played by Scott Wilson), a familiar name to fans of the Walking Dead comic-book series. Lincoln also has some reassuring words for viewers who are worried Dead might suffer creatively in the post-Darabont era. ''The scripts are sooo good,'' he insists. ''They're amazing.'' They'd bloody better be! Oct. 16

Sunday, 8-9 p.m., ABC
When describing the fairy-tale drama to friends, star Ginnifer Goodwin often asks, ''Were you a fan of Lost?'' ''The ? storytelling is very similar,'' explains Goodwin. ''You're presented with the puzzle pieces of these people's lives, and you're empowered as an audience to put them all together.'' In Once, a group of fairy-tale characters have been trapped in a Maine town and cursed into forgetting their true identities, including Goodwin as Snow White and Jennifer Morrison as Emma, who may be Snow's long-lost daughter and who holds the key to unlocking the curse. Once will also flash back to their lives in fairy-tale land to answer questions like ''Why did the Evil Queen become evil?'' and ?present surreal mash-ups of classic characters that could only be made by a Disney-owned studio. Teases exec producer Edward Kitsis, ''There's a 'war council' scene that includes Grumpy, Pinocchio, the Blue Fairy, Snow White, and Prince Charming.'' Oct. 23

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Sunday, 8:30-9 p.m., Fox
The first job Jonah Hill ever wanted was to write for The Simpsons. ''Usually a kid wants to be a fireman, not a staff writer on a prime-time animated series,'' he laughs. Perhaps that precociousness explains how Hill wound up co-creating Allen Gregory, a show about a prepubescent intellectual Hill describes as ''a 7-year-old Truman Capote.'' Raised in the lap of luxury, Allen Gregory De Longpre is forced to attend public school after one of his two dads makes bad investments. Hill, who also voices Allen, sums up the show's fish-out-of-water premise: ''The first day of school he sits down at lunch with his Louis Vuitton picnic basket, pulls out some sushi and a bottle of pinot grigio, and asks the kids if they caught Charlie Rose.'' Oct. 30

Wednesday, 10-11 p.m., CBS
Wouldn't it be fabulous if the new guy who joined the graveyard shift were a great crime-scene investigator and a terrific husband and father? That's exactly what the producers asked themselves when thinking about how to replace Laurence Fishburne's brooding Raymond Langston. Enter Ted Danson, who will be taking the role of D.B. Russell, an affable anti-geek who was raised in a counterculture environment and now has a loving wife and four kids of his own. ''We didn't want him to be Grissom. We didn't want him to be Langston,'' explains exec producer Carol Mendelsohn. ''So we started to think how we never had a character who actually found balance between his job and family.'' The new gig got hardcore real quick for the Bored to Death star (he'll remain on the HBO show). ''They sent me to Vegas, and I drove around with the real-deal CSI guys,'' says Danson. ''I went to the coroner's office and saw an autopsy. They were holding somebody's skullcap while they weighed his brain. I still have to take my eyes out and wash them at night.'' Sept. 21

Thursday, 10-11 p.m., NBC
Maria Bello was the first choice to play Jane Timoney, a straight-talking New York City homicide detective who must deal with hostility from both perps and her XY-chromosome-possessing colleagues while simultaneously trying to have a romantic life (and quit smoking). ''She has no filter,'' says Bello of her character. ''She isn't trying to get acclaim — she is just trying to win.'' Prime Suspect is a reworking of the much-loved, Emmy-lauded, Helen Mirren-starring British TV show whose first miniseries-length tale was broadcast here by PBS way back in 1992. The good news for fans of the original is that this adaptation is being shepherded by one of their own, executive producer and pilot writer Alexandra Cunningham. Cunningham spent six seasons working on Desperate Housewives, but prior to that she was a writer on NYPD Blue, and she is a huge fan of the original Prime Suspect. The new show, which will face off against CBS' hit The Mentalist, will be more of an American-style procedural. Whereas Mirren's Tennison took an entire miniseries to solve a crime, Bello's Jane will wrap up her cases in a single episode. And then there is the small matter of the jaunty hat Bello wears on the show, which, oddly, angered many journalists at the recent Television Critics Association press tour. ''It really made me laugh,'' snorts Bello, who fielded several questions about the ''distracting'' hat at TCA. ''So many iconic detectives had some sort of a hat. But suddenly I have one and it's, like, a controversy! ? I mean, it's not in every scene. She's not ?f---ing with a hat on. To be honest, I could give a s---." Boys, consider yourselves warned. Sept. 22

Thursday, 9-10 p.m., Fox
Fans knew star Emily Deschanel was pregnant in real life, but few expected producers to write it into the show as a way to work around the Moonlighting curse. When Bones returns for an abbreviated seventh season — six episodes in the fall and seven in the spring, after it lends its time slot to spin-off The Finder — Brennan (Deschanel) will be in her second trimester, and she and Booth (David Boreanaz) will have yet to move in together. ''This won't be easy,'' warns exec producer Stephen Nathan. ''Their relationship is still as contentious as it's always been.'' Also unchanged: ''We are still primarily a crime show,'' he promises. ''We still have revolting murders, and Booth and Brennan are still catching the bad guys. So much of the fun comes from the fact that now she's pregnant doing this.'' Nov. 3

For more fall shows coverage, pick up our Fall TV Preview on stands now.