TV This Week: The new season is in full swing.
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Click here to download TV listings for the week of Sept. 27 - Oct. 3 in PDF format
Prime choices for the week of Sept. 27 - Oct.3
SUNDAY
Fox’s Sunday night animation block returns in full force with the season premieres of ‘The Simpsons,’ ‘Family Guy’ and ‘American Dad,’ plus the debut of the ‘Family Guy’ spinoff ‘The Cleveland Show’ (below). That’s three Seth MacFarlane shows to Matt Groening’s one, in case you were counting. (Fox, 8:30 p.m.)
MONDAY
‘Trauma,’ a new medical action-drama set in San Francisco, follows EMTs and other first responders as they make their life-saving rounds. So how many episodes in before our heroes are dispatched to the scene of a runaway cable car accident? You know it’s gonna happen. With Derek Luke and Kevin Rankin. (NBC, 9 p.m.)
TUESDAY
Josie Bissett, one of the original series’ original cast members, visits the revamped ‘Melrose Place’ in the guise of her former character, the conniving Jane Mancini. Her mission? Why, blackmail, of course. (KTLA, 9 p.m.) WEDNESDAY
He’ll always be ‘Frasier’ to us: After the failure of his Fox vehicle ‘Back to You,’ Kelsey Grammer (above) takes another stab at prime time with ‘Hank,’ playing a down-on-his-luck businessman trying to reconnect with his wife and kids. Maybe the single-name sitcom is the way to go, Kelsey. (ABC, 8 p.m.) THURSDAY
With a handful of Grammy Awards and a rock opera based on their 2004 album ‘American Idiot’ just coming on line, it would appear that veteran Bay Area punk-rockers Green Day have achieved something approaching respectability. Get to know frontman Billie Joe Armstrong and the boys as ‘Biography’ takes you to the band’s rough-and-tumble roots. (Biography, 7 p.m.) FRIDAY
It’s no ‘Star Wars,’ or even ‘Star Trek,’ but 15 years after the 1994 sci-fi adventure ‘Stargate’ -- which has already spawned the TV spinoffs ‘Stargate SG-1’ and ‘Stargate Atlantis’ -- the franchise soldiers on with the debut of ‘Stargate Universe’ (above). Robert Carlyle and Lou Diamond Phillips star. (SyFy, 9 p.m.) SATURDAY
The venerable concert series ‘Austin City Limits’ launches its 35th season with a performance by the jam-happy Dave Matthews Band. To make the experience all the more authentic, gather some friends for a quick game of Hacky Sack before the show gets underway. (KLCS, 11 p.m.) DOCUMENTARYKen Burns’ ‘National Parks’ Filmmaker Ken Burns (‘The Civil War,’ ‘Jazz’) takes a walk on the wild side with his new six-part, six-night documentary miniseries event ‘The National Parks: America’s Best Idea.’ Learn about the fascinating history of our parks system, and ‘ooh’ and ‘ah’ over the picture-postcard visuals. Frankly, we could have used Burns’ miniseries a month or two earlier, seeing as how we couldn’t afford to take a real vacation this summer. (KCET, 8 p.m. Sunday through Friday)
FAMILIAR FACE Drea de Matteo joins ‘Desperate Housewives’ She didn’t survive ‘The Sopranos’ -- and barely survived the ‘Friends’ spinoff ‘Joey’ before recovering nicely with a stint on the biker drama ‘Sons of Anarchy’ -- but now Drea de Matteo is headed to Wisteria Lane for the season premiere of ‘Desperate Housewives.’ I guess you can’t keep a good woman down. One more time, for old times’ sake: ‘Christ-uh-fah!’ (ABC, 9 p.m. Sunday)
JUST FOR LAUGHS Seann William Scott, left, and Paul Rudd are ‘Role Models.’ That’s not a misprint but rather the title of this hit-and-miss 2008 comedy. In fact, they’re a modern-day Goofus and Gallant, only both are like the former and neither resembles the latter. Pint-sized powerhouse Bobb’e J. Thompson and ‘Superbad’s’ Christopher Mintz-Plasse also star. (Cinemax, 10 p.m. Saturday)