Tonight on the Tube: FlashForward, Fringe & Grey’s Anatomy

News & Notes

Tonight, ABC has the series premiere of FlashForward and the sixth season premiere of Grey’s Anatomy and CBS has the 10th season premiere of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and the second season premiere of The Mentalist.

Over on cable, Animal Planet has the first season finale of Animal Armageddon and truTV has the eighth season finale of Speeders.

Premiering Next Thursday: ABC has Private Practice.

Scheduled to be on TV Talk with Shaun OMac today at about 4:00 p.m. PT. The show starts at 3:00 p.m. PT and runs two hours. You can listen live or find it at iTunes later on.

Sorry for the lateness of today’s picks. I should know better than to lay down after I get home from work before finishing the daily post, as it almost always leads to sleeping.

Prime Picks

FlashForward (ABC): Series Premiere. Everyone on earth blackout for two minutes and 17 seconds and when they come too they realize they’ve all seen something during this timeout. What they saw was a glimpse of the future, some six months away. How did this happen? Is this really their future they saw? Is it inevitable? Can it be changed? This is my favorite of all the new shows this fall. It left me wishing I could watch the next episode immediately. I wan to know what happens next. The cast is great and it will be fun to follow the overall mystery and the individual mini mysteries as the series goes on. I can’t wait for next week already.

Grey’s Anatomy (ABC): Season Premiere. Everyone has to deal with the loss of a colleague. Runs two hours. I’ve seem the first hour of this two-hour premiere and it is really good, even if it tries a bit too hard to make sure you know that you should be sad right now. What is truly sad, is that the off screen stuff continues to mess with the on screen stuff. Makes me wonder where this series would have gone without it.

Solid Selections

Bones (FOX): New. Booth and Brennan are on the case of a man that was killed for what was in his briefcase.

Fringe (FOX): New. A construction worker has gone missing after falling into a tunnel full of human remains. Walter is using frogs in his simulation of traveling between realities.

The Mentalist (CBS): Season Premiere. Another team has been assigned the Red John case to the shock of Lisbon and Jane. Starts a minute after the hour and runs 59 minutes. Have really been looking forward to the return of this show, which was the one breakout hit of last season’s new crop of shows.

Other Options

• Ace of Cakes (Food Network): New. The gang makes a cake for the Philadelphia Mummers Parade. A repeat episode follows. Both play again later.
• Community (NBC): New. Jeff attempts to become Britta’s partner on a class project, but it doesn’t go well. Starts a minutes after the half hour and runs 29 minutes.
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (CBS): New. A famous young actress has died in a mysterious car crash and Sara Sidle is back in the lab to help with the case. Runs 61 minutes.
• It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (FX): New. The gang heads out on the road to visit the Grand Canyon. Runs 31 minutes. A repeat episode follows. Both play again later. As I said last week, this show is always hit or miss for me, but this week falls into the former category instead of the latter.
• The Office (NBC): New. Michael is feeling insecure after he gets a request from Jim. Pam is working on the guest list for the wedding. Dwight and Toby attempt to investigate a workers’ comp claim. Runs 31 minutes.
• Parks and Recreation (NBC): New. Someone has planted marijuana in the community garden. Ann goes on a date with Mark after getting Leslie’s permission. Runs 30 minutes.
• Skins (BBC America): New. Effy wants to figure out her feelings for Freddie, but finds him with Katie. Plays again later.
• SNL Weekend Update Thursday (NBC): New. Seth Meyers and company deliver humorous takes on recent political and pop culture happenings. Runs 30 minutes.
• Supernatural (The CW): New. Sam is contemplating giving up on hunting. Dean and Castiel are searching for Raphael.
• The Vampire Diaries (The CW): New. Tyler tries to embarrass Stefan. Elena wants to have Bonnie and Stefan over for dinner. The town is rocked by a shocking act of violence.

Sports Notes

• ESPN has Thursday Night College Football with Mississippi at South Carolina.
• Golf Channel has first round coverage of The Tour Championship.

Late Night

• Monk (USA): Repeat. Last Friday’s episode, “Mr. Monk and the Critic,” replays.

TV Marathons

Bravo has nine episodes of The Real Housewives of Atlanta.
Discovery Channel has six episodes of Wrecks to Riches.
History has five episodes of Gangland that play two times today.
Oxygen has episodes of Snapped all day.
Spike has nine hours of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episodes.
Syfy has 16 episodes of Tales from the Darkside early.
USA has six episodes of NCIS tonight.