Fall season spins off with old and new
The fall TV season begins in earnest this week, with the return of many shows and some pretty high-powered launches of new fare. Chuck Lorre has created a spin-off of the CBS hit “The Big Bang Theory,” called “Young Sheldon.” Jim Parsons narrates at least
SUNDAY, SEPT. 24
The 50th season of “60 Minutes” premieres on CBS at 7:30 p.m. “Who Shot Biggie & Tupac?” Those questions have haunted the music world since the deaths of the two icons. Fox explores the question in a twohour special at 8 p.m. Soledad O’Brien and Ice-T will anchor the special.
After six seasons, MTV ’s“Teen Wolf” howls for the last time tonight at 8. The show has been smart and entertaining ever since it was a pup in 2011. Developed by Jeff Davis, it made stars out of Tyler
Posey, Dylan O’Brien, Colton Haynes and Tyler Hoechlin, among other cast members. The “teens” are long in the fang now and no doubt ready to move on to other projects. Many eyes are on CBS for the premiere of “Star
Trek: Discovery” at 8:30 p.m. It’s the first “Star Trek” series for TV since “Star Trek: Enterprise,” which ended in 2005. The new show is set 10 years before the original “Star Trek” and stars Sonequa Martin-Green, Terry Serpico, Maulik Pancholy,
James Frain, Sam Vartholomeos, Doug Jones and Michelle Yeoh. The premiere will air on TV and on
CBS All Access, on-demand. After the premiere, the first season’s other episodes will be available only on CBS All Access, just like “The Good Fight,” which is a spin-off of “The Good Wife.”
The first season of the new “Trek” show is in two chapters. The first will end in November, with the second chapter starting in January. Yes, watching television used to be easy. I get that this drives some viewers nuts, having a taste of a show on broadcast and then having to sign up for all access to keep watching. But, in truth, CBS is smart to be this aggressive about establishing a streaming platform. Fact is, broadcast as we’ve known it for decades simply has to adapt to the times.
E airs “Keeping Up With the Kardashians: 10 Year Anniversary Special” at 9 p.m. Relive your favorite moments in the 90-minute special. Give me a minute. I’m trying to think of mine. I know it’s in here somewhere.
MONDAY, SEPT. 25
The 11th season of “The Big Bang Theory” blasts off at 8 p.m. on CBS, serving as a walk-up to its prequel spin-off, “Young Sheldon,” at 8:30 p.m. The new show is sweet natured, with young Iain
Armitage starring as the nerd in the making. He’s not as comically annoying as the adult Sheldon will become, but overall, the show is more of a feelgood, family-focused sitcom than “Big Bang.” Zoe
Perry has a tough job because fans of the original show already have a sense of Sheldon’s mother from Laurie Metcalf’s guest appearances as the older Mary Cooper. Perry does a great job of suggesting Metcalf’s voice while making the character her own.
The new show will be followed by the season premiere of the CBS ratings hit “Kevin Can Wait ”at 9 p.m., followed, in turn, by the premiere of “Me,
Myself and I” at 9:30. The show is kind of a halfhour sitcom version of “This Is Us,” in that it is set in different times with the focus in this case on one person, played by John Larroquette as older Alex Riley, Bobby Moynihan as adult Alex and Jack
Dylan Grazer as Alex as a kid.
It’s a lot to pack into 20 minutes or so, and one hurdle is that you have to buy into the idea that three actors who look nothing like one another are playing the same person at different ages of his life. May take more than one episode to get there. Some other premieres tonight: ABC ’s“The Good
Doctor,” starring Freddie Highmore ,of“Bates Motel” fame, playing a doctor who is on the autism spectrum and has savant syndrome. It’s a medical drama, set in San Jose because if you set shows in Silicon Valley, people will automatically think they’re going to be hip. The show premieres at 10:01 p.m. NBC premieres “The Brave” at 10 p.m., starring Mike Vogel (“Under the Dome”) in a drama about a team of undercover military operatives. Filmmaker Maxim Pozdorovkin takes viewers inside the volunteer-run free clinic in South Philadelphia called Puentes de Salud in the film “Clinica de Migrantes,” an HBO special broadcast at 9 p.m. Some season premieres and departures: “So You Think You Can Dance” waltzes off Fox to end its 14th season at 8 p.m.
Season 13 of “The Voice” may be lucky for someone on NBC at 8 p.m. The show begins its season with the blind auditions phase.
Season four of “Scorpion” returns on CBS at 10 p.m.
The second season of TBS ’“People of Earth” wraps at 10:30 p.m.
“Penn & Teller: Fool Us” airs a new episode on The CW at a special night and time at 9 p.m.
Comedy Central airs “The Opposition With Jordan Klepper” at 11:30 p.m.
Acorn TV offers series one and two of “Grandma’s House ,”a BBC2 sitcom starring Simon Amstell as a TV personality looking to do something more meaningful with his life. The show has been compared to “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” Also added to Acorn’s offerings today are episodes five and six of the Australian legal drama “Newton’s Law.” Go to www.acorn.tv.