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Rich people and their foibles do make for compelling soap material - at least the creators of Dirty Sexy Money (ABC) hope so. Peter Krause (Six Feet Under) plays a lawyer who inherits his late father's task of babysitting the Darlings of New York, a quirky and rich family, while trying to solve Dad's murder. What gives this show potential is the insanity of the Darling clan - family members include a doting patriarch (Donald Sutherland) and matriarch (Jill Clayburgh), an aspiring politician with skeletons in his closet, a substance-addled son, and a foul-mouthed reverend, among others.

It's got to be tough to be the CEO of a company and have to cope with extramarital affairs, dysfunctional wives, and corporate politics. Hey, life could be worse. While Big Shots (ABC) wants us to empathize with its beleaguered wannabe alpha males ("Men, we're the new women"), some of them (Dylan McDermott included) are too callous for us to care. I liked this show a lot better when it was called Desperate Housewives.

Grey's Anatomy fans may be delighted that Addison Forbes Montgomery (Kate Walsh) is getting her own Private Practice (ABC). The Grey's connection alone should ensure that this program gets a chance to show the doctor in a new environment (the quirky Oceanside Wellness Group in Santa Monica) and in a new relationship. Walsh also has Amy Brenneman, Taye Diggs, and Tim Daly by her side.

Cops and Robbers
It's amazing that studios keep cranking out police shows, always trying to give us a new spin on the boys in blue.

Life (NBC) does offer something fresh: A cop who's been falsely incarcerated for 12 years actually returns to the job he loves. Charlie Crews (Damian Lewis) has to cope with digs from fellow cops and deal with his moody partner (Sarah Shahi) while he adjusts to life with cell phones, digital cameras, and the Internet. His method of extracting information is unorthodox but quite compelling, yet there is a certain grittiness here that seems better suited for a cable show. Still, it could click in prime time.

Speaking of gritty, K-Ville (Fox) is all about it. In post-Katrina New Orleans, Marlin Boulet (The Shield's Anthony Anderson) is trying to keep the peace, cope with a shady new partner, and keep his wife and daughter in the waterlogged city. While New Orleans is used as an effective backdrop, it does not seem to be much more than that yet. K-Ville could be any number of other police dramas. However, I feel guilty saying that about a show that may be benefiting New Orleans financially.

If you want slightly less grit, there's Women's Murder Club (ABC). Inspired by James Patterson's best-selling novels, the series follows four women in the Bay Area - a detective (Law & Order's Angie Harmon), a district attorney, a medical examiner, and a reporter - who team up to solve murder cases. Of course, the camaraderie and interaction are more important than the cases, but the quality of the stories will determine whether this comes alive or is DOA.

Are You Having a Laugh?
Sitcoms have been struggling since Frasier, Friends, and Seinfeld signed off the air during the course of the last decade, and canned laughter has lost its appeal for many viewers.

While The Big Bang Theory (CBS) does offer some fresh one-liners - like "We've already watched Battlestar Galactica Season Two" and "Not with commentary!" - it plays on expected stereotypes, in this case, two socially challenged brainiacs who become intertwined with their new neighbor, a slightly ditzy server at the Cheesecake Factory. While romantic promise is there, you're just waiting for the pocket-protector jokes to surface.

Back to You (Fox) is equally mediocre. Anchorman Kelsey Grammer gets demoted and transferred back to his old Colorado station after freaking out at a coworker while on the air in Los Angeles, and his old coanchor (Patricia Heaton) has a grudge against him. Some peppy one-liners are marred by a lack of real chemistry between the stars. There is a big revelation in the pilot that may keep viewers watching, but for how long is yet to be seen.

Samantha Who? (ABC) is undoubtedly the best new comedy of the season, and it needs no laugh track. Christina Applegate plays an amnesia victim who can't remember that she was a shallow, unfaithful club girl with vapid family and friends. Shocked at her former life, Sam quickly decides that her new blank slate of a life has advantages, one of them being that she can change who she was. And in this role, the endearing Applegate can continue to buck her old Kelly Bundy image.

Less interesting is our final comedic entry. I will say this: Since we live in such a one-car, one-person world, I am impressed that someone would even come up with a show called Carpoolers (ABC), let alone set it in L.A., where there are none. That is certainly one of the show's defining visual gags. The breakdown is simple: Four (mostly) married men ranging in age from 20-something to 40-something share a ride to work, battle for parking, and give each other advice on love and life. Unfortunately, it's running on cruise control.

Flights of Fantasy
It feels like the sky is falling lately, and sci-fi and fantasy certainly reflect that. But this year's crop of escapism is not too gratifying.

The Bionic Woman was a fun, if goofy, '70s show in which Jaime Sommers, the survivor of a near-fatal accident, got souped up with bionic enhancements that gave her super strength, reflexes, and speed. She became a champion of justice for the U.S. government. This time out, in NBC's Bionic Woman, Jaime's a bit more ticked that her body was altered without her consent, and her reluctance to make nice with the feds is augmented by the presence of another bionic woman, who has a governmental grudge of her own. Time will tell whether this is top-notch sci-fi or more clichéd schlock.

Chuck (NBC) is the epitome of escapist dreck. An aimless electronics-store clerk accidentally views an e-mailed video file containing thousands of subliminally encoded images related to defense secrets, and now they're implanted in his brain. Naturally, the secret keepers want to get hold of him, as he is unintentionally decoding these seemingly random images. This kind of espionage parody was more fun in the '80s movie Gotcha!.

In Journeyman (NBC), a San Francisco reporter finds himself jumping back in time in the Bay Area, presumably to help rewrite history and change people's lives for the better. He also bumps into his deceased ex-fiancée, whom he still pines for. The fact that his trips cost him a day or two in the present is extremely irritating to his wife and his boss. I know I've already used this joke, but, frankly, I liked this concept better when it was called Quantum Leap.

The immortal cop of New Amsterdam (Fox) has been on earth for 400 years, waiting to find his soul mate, at which time he can become mortal. That's a depressing commentary on modern love. While the protagonist is classy, cultured, and a great puzzle solver, he's also too understated for my taste. I liked this concept better when it was more action oriented and called Highlander. (I can't help myself.)

The vampiric PI of Moonlight (CBS) doesn't want to chomp on people's necks to feed, so he makes sure he requisitions his blood supply in other ways. He also wants to help people who have no one else to turn to, as if he's an undead Equalizer. It's kind of cool when a bloodsucker is on our side, but I liked this concept better when it was more goth-friendly and called Forever Knight. (Seriously, someone stop me.)

Out in Left Field
Some shows don't quite fit into an easy category, as is the case with the following two debuts.

With executive producer and guest star Hugh Jackman, Viva Laughlin (CBS) could be this season's dark-horse contender. I find casinos gaudy and boring and reeking of desperation, but I got involved in this tale, which is about a budding casino owner who wants to take on the Vegas kings by opening his own place in Laughlin, Nevada. When his main backer pulls out and winds up dead in his office, he's got a load of woes. The idea of a drama with musical numbers didn't fly well when it was Cop Rock, but Jackman could pull it off. Seeing his sly, sleazy character swagger through a casino singing "Sympathy for the Devil" is pretty hip.

An even quirkier series is Pushing Daisies (ABC), from director Barry Sonnenfeld (TheAddams Family) and writer-producer Bryan Fuller (Heroes), which plays like a colorful Tim Burton fairy tale. Piemaker Ned can bring the dead back to life with one touch, but if he touches them again, they'll die permanently. And if they're alive for more than a minute, someone else must take their place. (Stay with me here.) Ned has a good racket with a PI - he briefly reanimates corpses in morgues in order to find out who killed them, and then he and the PI collect reward money. When he resurrects his childhood sweetheart, he wants her around, but naturally they can never be intimate in any way. This show looks cool, and the premise is enjoyably weird, but I don't know what the point is. Stay tuned.

So there you have it, boob-tube addicts — the beginnings of the 2007–08 TV season. I like to think that I have a good knack for identifying hits, since I knew Desperate Housewives, Lost, My Name Is Earl, and Heroes were special. Then again, when I worked in Hollywood, I skimmed through a script for Beverly Hills High, which later became 90210, and I thought, No one will watch this.