Monday night network television is lackluster, but we have our Monday Night Football on ESPN.  If I hear mention of the “wild cat” I might have to mute the TV.  Or for those of you into eating or drinking games, this might be your perfect opportunity.

House & Heroes look to be your best bets if you’re going to skip the opening kickoff. Also, Food Network has a new episode of Diners, Drive-ins and Dives which you can record and/or catch later.

8-9pm

1. Heroes (NBC) – 04×05 – Hysterical Blindness
2. House (FOX) – 06×05 – Instant Karma

8:30-11:30pm

1. Monday Night Football: New York Jets at Miami Dolphins (ESPN)

10-10:30pm

1. Diners, Drive-ins and Dives (Food Network) – 07×08 – Barbequed, Baked, and Brined

There are also MLB playoffs and NHL hockey on tonight as well.

The usual Friday night lineup is cranking out some new episodes. I’m not sure I’ll be watching any of them live myself, but will catch them at some point in the near future.

8-9

1. Smallville (The CW) – 09×03 – Rabid
2. Ghost Whisperer (CBS) – 05×03 – Till Death Do Us Start

9-10

1. Stargate Universe (SyFy) – 01×03 – Air (3)
2. Dollhouse (FOX) – 02×02 – Belle Chose

10-11

1. Numb3rs (CBS) – 06×03 – 7 Men Out

Sports wise, you have a few MLB playoff games, Louisiana Tech vs. Nevada (college football) & the final game of the WNBA 2009 Finals featuring the hometown Indiana Fever vs. the Phoenix Mercury.  And if you’ve got the tube on earlier, catch the final live Indy Lights race of the year on Versus.

Thursday night, the best night of Network Television, is on it again.  The largest audience will probably be watching The Office hour long wedding episode.

Here are my top picks for the evening:

8-9

1. Bones (FOX) – 05×04 – The Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
2. Flash Forward (ABC) – 01×03 – 137 Sekunden
3. Community (NBC) – 01×04 – Social Psychology (30 minutes)
4. The Vampire Diaries (The CW) – 01×05 – You’re Undead To Me

9-10

1. Fringe (FOX) – 02×04 – Momentum Deferred
2. Supernatural (The CW) – 05×05 – Fallen Idol
3. The Office (NBC) – 06×04 – Niagara (1) (30 minutes)
4. The Office (NBC) – 06×05 – Niagara (2) (30 minutes)

And don’t forget that we have Nebraska vs. Missouri on ESPN from 9:00PM-midnight (Eastern) and the inaugural UFL (United Football League) game on Versus from 9:00PM-12:30AM (Eastern) featuring California Redwoods (coached by Dennis Green) vs. Las Vegas Locomotives (coached by Jim Fassel).

Monday night network television is lackluster, but we have our Monday Night Football on ESPN.

House & Heroes look to be your best bets if you’re going to skip the opening kickoff. Also, Food Network has a new episode of Diners, Drive-ins and Dives which you can record and/or catch later.

8-9pm

1. Heroes (NBC) – 04×04 – Acceptance
2. House (FOX) – 06×04 – The Tyrant

8:30-11:30pm

1. Monday Night Football: Green Bay at Minnesota (ESPN)

10-10:30pm

1. Diners, Drive-ins and Dives (Food Network) – 07×07 – You Can Say That Again

Stargate Universe starts tonight, replayed at 11PM.

8-9

1. Smallville (The CW) – 09×02 – Metallo
2. Ghost Whisperer (CBS) – 05×02 – See No Evil

9-10

1. Stargate Universe (SyFy) – 01×01 – Air (1)
2. Dollhouse (FOX) – 02×02 – Instinct

10-11

1. Stargate Universe (SyFy) – 01×02 – Air (2)
2. Numb3rs (CBS) – 06×02 – Friendly Fire

NHL hockey was on live in the middle of the day, so you missed that.  The only football game on the list is Pittsburgh vs. Louisville on ESPN2.  The Tigers and White Sox are on ESPN if you want to catch some late season baseball.

Thursday night, the best night of Network Television, is on it again.

Here are my top picks for the evening:

8-9

1. Bones (FOX) – 05×03 – The Plain in the Prodigy
2. Flash Forward (ABC) – 01×02 – White to Play
3. The Vampire Diaries (The CW) – 01×04 – Family Ties

9-10

1. Fringe (FOX) – 02×03 – Fracture
2. Supernatural (The CW) – 05×04 – The End
3. The Office (NBC) – 06×03 – The Promotion (30 minutes)
4. Community (NBC) – 01×03 – Introduction To Film (30 minutes)

And don’t forget that we have Colorado vs. West Virginia on ESPN from 7:30-10:30PM (Eastern) and the NHL season kicks off on Versus with a double header featuring Washington vs. Boston followed by San Jose vs. Colorado.

I’ll say it again, Thursday night is the best night of Network Television.  ABC’s Flash Forward sounds similar to other shows in the recent past, but is worth at least a look at the pilot. If The Vampire Diaries continues down the road I’ve seen so far, that will be off of my list very soon. The Office is always funny & Community deserves a few episodes to lay down the characters a bit. Bones, Fringe & Supernatural are the main staples.

Here are my top picks for the evening:

8-9

1. Bones (FOX) – 05×02 – The Bond In The Boot
2. Flash Forward (ABC) – 01×01 – No More Good Days
3. The Vampire Diaries (The CW) – 01×03 – Friday Night Bites

9-10

1. Fringe (FOX) – 02×02 – Night of Desirable Objects
2. Supernatural (The CW) – 05×03 – Free to Be You and Me
3. The Office (NBC) – 06×02 – The Meeting (30 minutes)
4. Community (NBC) – 01×02 – Spanish 101 (30 minutes)

And don’t forget that we have Mississippi vs. South Carolina on ESPN from 7:30-10:30PM (Eastern)

At 5:18 PM EDT Fall 2009 officially arrived here in Indiana where we were slightly above our average temperature of 76 degrees for the day.  But don’t worry, those highs will quickly be falling by an average of one degree every two and a half days and that glorious three week string of 60-some degree October days will be here before you know it.

Some Fall items to chew on:

• The average first measurable snowfall in Indianapolis occurs on November 19th (right around Thanksgiving most years).
• The earliest first measurable snowfall in Indianapolis occurred on October 18th, 1989.
• The Halloween ZooBoo occurs on October 16-18, 22-25 & 29-30.
• The average high on Halloween is 59 degrees & the average low on Halloween is 39 degrees (bundle up kids).
• The Irvington Halloween Festival is on Halloween this year from 9am to 5pm. (You guys had an awesome website a few years ago…why, oh, why did you go with Blogspot?)
• Halloween occurs on October 31st. (I know you’re thinking, “duh”, but some communities set trick-or-treating for the weekend and/or multiple days, which isn’t an issue this year.)
• Thanksgiving Day is Thursday, November 26th.
• The 2009 Thanksgiving Day NFL Football schedule consists of:
  • Green Bay Packers @ Detroit Lions 12:30 PM on FOX
  • Oakland Raiders @ Dallas Cowboys 4:15 PM on CBS
  • New York Giants @ Denver Broncos 8:20 PM on NFL Network (This is the best game of the day which is unfortunate since the NFL (and Comcast in my case) has their heads up their back sides and hardly anyone has the channel. Not to mention their coverage is horrible and the online viewing option is even worse.)
• But don’t fear, ESPN has us covered with Texas at Texas A&M at 8 PM.

Anyway, enjoy the outdoors while you still can and break out the fire pits, for a month from now it could be snowing around these parts.

Thursday is by far the best night of TV, but I think that it’s really dumb of the networks (FOX & The CW in this case) to put shows with similar audiences up against each other.  There shall be much “time shifting” going on this evening, you can count on that, thus making the “numbers” inaccurate.

Here are my top picks for the evening:

8-9

1. Bones (FOX)     05×01     Harbingers In The Fountain
2. The Vampire Diaries (The CW)     01×02     The Night Of The Comet

9-10

1. Fringe (FOX)     02×01     A New Day in the Old Town
2. Supernatural (The CW)     05×02     Good God, Y’All
3. The Office (NBC)     06×01     Gossip (30 minutes)
4. Community (NBC)     01×01     Pilot (30 minutes)

And don’t forget that we have Georgia Tech vs. Miami on ESPN from 7:30-10:30PM (Eastern)

Running through the 2009 Fall TV Schedule I don’t really see many shows that I’d go out of my way to catch, especially when it comes to the small crop of new shows. Of all the nights, Thursday is clearly the best with 2 or 3 shows that I like being on at the same time.

That said, here’s the rundown of what I might be watching this fall.

Monday Nights

• 8pm: Monday Night Football (ESPN) – Football. Enough said.
• 8pm: Heroes (NBC) – I watched season one but lost track during the shortened season two. If I ever get caught up I’ll watch it.

Tuesday Nights

• 9pm: Scare Tactics (SciFi/SyFy) – Funny show, but not one I have to watch every week.
• 10pm: The Forgotten (ABC) – I might catch the pilot just to see.
• 10pm: Bizarre World (Travel) – Sounds interesting, but for some reason Comcast doesn’t offer the Travel Channel in HD which limits the chances that I’ll remember to watch it.

Wednesday Nights

• 9pm: MythBusters (Discovery) – You have to love MythBusters, but don’t necessarily watch it “live” as it’s on over and over again.
• 9pm: Ghost Hunters (SyFy) – Probably the best of the “ghost shows”, but it’s fine to record and watch later.
• 10pm: Eastwick (ABC) – I’m really unsure about this one, but am willing to at least watch the pilot.  [Update: Now that I see a commercial for Eastwick I'm thinking that's a no-go trashy show. No thanks. That leaves me with no Wednesday night network TV suggestions.]
• 10pm: Destination Truth (SyFy) – OK show & a good combo with Ghost Hunters, but not one I always watch all the way through. It could really be trimmed down to half-hour episodes IMO.
• 10pm: MysteryQuest (History) – New series which the commercials look interesting. Probably something to record and watch later or OnDemand (if they offer it).

Thursday Nights

• 8-9pm: Bones (Fox) – If I’m watching TV live, this will be what’s on.
• 8-9pm: The Vampire Diaries (CW) – Wasn’t impressed with the pilot, but we’ll see.
• 9-10pm: Fringe (Fox) – Interesting sci-fi show with plenty of humor. It’s no X-Files, but it’ll do. Normally I have to watch this one later.
• 9-10pm: Supernatural (CW) – Speaking of the X-Files, this is where many people from that writing/producing crew wound up. Not one for the kids (and neither is Fringe), and one that I’ll have to watch later the majority of the time.
• 9-9:30pm: The Office (NBC) – Normally pretty funny & one that I own the previous seasons.
• 9:30-10pm: 30 Rock (NBC) – Another one that’s normally pretty funny & one that I own the previous seasons.

Friday Nights

• 8-9pm: Smallville (CW) – Tied with Bones for my overall favorite that’s on TV right now. What’s not to love about Superman?
• 9-10pm: Stargate Universe (SyFy) – We’ll see if they can pull it off again.
• 9-10pm: Dollhouse (Fox) – I never finished watching Season 1 and was surprised that it was brought back.  It’s OK and I may get caught up if I have the time.
• 9-10pm: Ghost Adventures (Travel) – The most recent of the trifecta of “ghost shows” that I’ll watch on occasion (the other two being Ghost Hunters & Paranormal State). This one borders on the absurd with them “provoking” and supposedly finding things everywhere they look. Interesting nonetheless.
• 10-11pm: Numb3rs (CBS) – I really like this one, but just haven’t had a chance to watch it for the past few seasons.  I think it’s time to get the DVD’s and catch up.

Saturday Nights

• College Football (Various) – Again, it’s football.

Sunday Nights

• 8-11pm: NFL Football (NBC) – And more football!
• 8-8:30pm: The Simpsons (Fox) – A staple that I haven’t been able to watch many episodes of lately due to Football, then forgetting to turn on the TV Sunday night once football season is over (which isn’t a bad thing I suppose). Time to start recoding these again and skipping the commercials.

Midseason Shows (a.k.a. You may see them, you may not)

• Chuck (NBC) -  Our favorite geek is supposedly coming back midseason.
• Day One (NBC) – Sounds like a new twist on Jericho.
• Past Life (Fox) – Sounds interesting.

Gone For Good (a.k.a. Canceled TV Shows)

• Goode Family, The (ABC) – A summer series by Mike Judge (Beavis & Butt Head, King of the Hill & Office Space).  Your typical Judge humor focused on hippies this time.  I didn’t figure it would last (and ABC probably didn’t either by running it in the summer), but there are rumors flying that it may land somewhere else, which is always the case with cartoons.
• Harper’s Island (CBS) – An OK murder mystery series that went a few episodes too long this summer. I have no idea why anyone thought it’d be back though. The title’s too limiting for it to be an anthology series.
• King of the Hill (Fox) – See Simpsons above.  Funny show that will be missed.
• My Name is Earl (NBC) – This past seasons had many “really not right” moments, but overall it was funny.
• Pushing Daisies (ABC) – By far the best on the list of canceled shows. ABC should have their broadcasting license revoked for ditching this one.
• Reaper (CW) – Funny show that only stuck around two seasons because it was on the CW (the “major” networks would probably have pulled it a few episodes in). This will be in my home library soon.
• Stargate Atlantis (SyFy) – I watched the first two season and lost interest for some reason…like split seasons, not knowing when it was on & having a life.  It was OK, but wasn’t Stargate SG-1 by any stretch.
• Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (Fox) – Season 1 is in my home library and I’ll add season 2 at some point. I’m not surprised to see it go, but thought Dollhouse would be shown the door first. (But of course Dollhouse is probably cheaper to produce than TSCC.)

So there you have it. My extensive list of TV shows (minus a few here and there of course).  Let me know what you think and feel free to leave a message for Blue Shotgun Radio at 317-565-4250.