The weather is cooling, the sun seems to be heading back behind the clouds, and the rains appear to be on their way. What does this mean for most of us? Yes, the fall TV season is about to commence.
This year the fall television season is set to kick off a bit early with the début tonight of Prison Break, one of the more lauded new shows of the fall TV season. Globe and Mail television columnist John Doyle writes …

Prison Break (Fox, Global, starts Monday) is about a guy who goes to prison to get his brother out. He’s got the blueprint of the prison’s design tattooed on his body. That’s the gist. Fast-paced, kinetic, moody and filled with characters either brutal or beatific, it grabs you by the throat and takes you on a wild ride. Michael (Wentworth Miller) is the hero. His brother, Lincoln (Dominic Purcell), is on death row and scheduled to die in a few months. As Michael sees it, Lincoln has been framed for the murder of the brother of the vice-president of the United States. There’s been a cover-up and, in some way, the Catholic Church is involved. The prison setting is dangerous and filled with foreboding. The warden (played by Stacy Keach, who did time in prison in England in the 1980s) is well-meaning but wary of Michael and Lincoln. Heavily promoted by Fox, the series gets a jump-start by launching this week. With little else new to watch, it could get viewers instantly hooked.

John Crook, reporting for zap2it.com, provides some background on Prison Break. USA Today’s Bill Keveney also weighs in on tonight’s début of Prison Break, as does USA Today critic Robert Bianco, who says “check it out”.
Meanwhile, The Vancouver Sun’s Alex Strachan says, “a breakneck-paced thriller about a prison break will make the weeks fly by before a new season of 24 débuts in January … Prison Break is a fast-paced, rousingly good entertainment — a rock ’n roll roller-coaster ride that hurtles along the tracks like a runaway train.” Strachan awards Prison Break an A- rating.
The fact that first-rate actors Peter Stormare (Minority Report, Chocolat) and Robyn Tunney (The Craft, The Secret Lives of Dentists) have opted to set aside their movie careers in order to star in Prison Break speaks volumes about its probable quality. The series débuts tonight at 8 p.m. on your local Global TV outlet (BCTV locally), with a 2-hour season première.
Update: Following a week of fun and frolic, VanRamblings finally got around to watching the 2-hour season première of Prison Break. Our assessment, overall: comme çi, comme ça. Although the actors’ performances are across-the-board solid and praiseworthy, the writing is at best pedestrian, the production values (camera work, cinematography) second rate, and the story line cheesy and requiring of such a level of suspension of disbelief as to pull you out of the narrative. The good thing? We won’t be adding Prison Break to our regular television viewing this upcoming fall TV season, allowing us time instead this autumn to pine away for lost love, now found.

It’s ‘Happy Days’ again on ABC

To mark the 30th anniversary of one of its most-loved sitcoms, ABC is holding a reunion for the Happy Days cast — even Chuck will be returning.
The reunion show, set for later this season, will bring together nearly all of the core cast from the long-running show, including Ron Howard, Henry Winkler, Tom Bosley, Marion Ross, Anson Williams, Don Most, and Erin Moran. Gavin O’Herlihy and Randolph Roberts, who played Richie’s older brother Chuck during the show’s first two seasons, will be on hand, as will series creator Garry Marshall.
Whether Marshall will explain what happened to Chuck — who was never heard from, seen, nor even mentioned after the show’s second season — remains to be seen. In addition to the original cast, Scott ‘Chachi’ Baio, Ted ‘Roger Phillips’ McGinley, Penny ‘Laverne’ Marshall, Cindy ‘Shirley’ Williams, Pat ‘Arnold’ Morita, and others who played recurring or regular roles during the 11-year run of Happy Days will also appear on the special.
Final ‘Jeopardy’ for all-time champ

Want to know the fate of all-time Jeopardy! champ Ken Jennings? If not, look away now. For those still reading, several sources are reporting Jennings has finally lost, following a record-breaking run that stretched over parts of two seasons and saw the Utah software engineer rack up seven-figure winnings. Jeopardy! tapes its shows weeks in advance, so Jennings’ final episode will likely air in October.
News of the Jennings loss, in his 75th game, was first reported on a blog called Kottke.org (highlight the blacked-out portion to read the contents), the tip coming from someone in the Jeopardy! audience last Tuesday. The trade magazine TV Week confirmed with sources close to the show that Jennings was indeed done. A spokesperson for Sony Pictures TV, which produces the long-running game show, said show officials “have never disclosed whether a contestant has won or lost before a show has aired.”
Jennings’ total prize money to date exceeds $1.7 million. He reportedly leaves the show with more than $2.5 million in total winnings.

SCRUBBING IN: Former ER star Julianna Margulies will check into a different hospital for a November sweeps guest role on Scrubs. Tom Cavanagh (Ed) will also appear on the show, reprising his role as J.D.’s (Zach Braff) older brother for two episodes scheduled for October. Margulies, a six-time Emmy nominee for playing nurse Carol Hathaway on ER (she won the award for best supporting actress in a drama in 1995), will play a malpractice lawyer who catches J.D.’s eye.

FOX MAKES ROOM FOR LEGUIZAMO: Emmy winner John Leguizamo is working with FOX to develop a comedy based on his life. The show would follow Leguizamo as he juggles his responsibilities as a husband and father with the demands of his career. It’s said to be cut from similar cloth as the old Danny Thomas show Make Room For Daddy. The project has a script commitment from the network. Leguizamo will star in and executive produce the show with writer Peter Murrieta (Greetings from Tucson), according to The Hollywood Reporter.
FOX’S NEXT GREAT CHAMP A CHUMP: The series première of FOX’s The Next Great Champ met with a resounding thud as the reality entry finished a distant fourth place in both households and adults 18-49 in the 9:00 / 8:00c hour (3.5/6). CBS took Tuesday top honours with a repeat of Navy N.C.I.S. and new episodes of Big Brother 5 and The Amazing Race 5 (7.0/11). NBC was second (5.6/10), followed by ABC (4.6/8).
CBS ANNOUNCES ORIGINAL SUNDAY MOVIE SCHEDULE: Kirstie Alley, Peter Falk, Anne Heche, Rosie O’Donnell, Christina Applegate, Diane Keaton, Jack Palance, Faye Dunaway and Ellen Burstyn are just a few of the stars set to appear this season on CBS’ Sunday original movie franchise, the only regularly scheduled one of its kind on television today. The Futon Critic has published the full list of CBS’ original Sunday night movies.

This week, VanRamblings’ regular Wednesday television feature presents the American fall 2004 TV network grids. Last week, VanRamblings pubished the fall 2004 television season première schedule, available here. VanRamblings continues to update the season première schedule as new information becomes available, so it’s probably worth your while to check out the revised and updated première schedule from time to time.
Tonight, though, please find below the American nightly prime-time network grids. As of the date of publication, the bracketed information indicates the series première date. This information is subject to change.
SUNDAY


MONDAY


TUESDAY


WEDNESDAY


THURSDAY


FRIDAY


SATURDAY


That’s it for this week. TV links available below and to your left.