A Woman on the Prowl, Mixed Feelings in Tow

Television Review

From Iraq Hellfire to Hospital Halls, TV Nurses Wage a Battle for Respect

By GINIA BELLAFANTE

“Mercy,” which begins Wednesday on NBC, is the latest in a series of medical dramas to focus on the nurses for a change.

• Video: 'Mercy'

Television Review

‘I’m the Cool Dad’ and Other Debatable Dispatches From the Home Front

By GINIA BELLAFANTE

“Modern Family,” about three families in a nameless suburbia, is the best new half-hour of funny television in a season rife with half-hours of funny television.

• Video: 'Modern Family'

Dancers and Doctors Dominate Ratings

By BENJAMIN TOFF; Compiled by DAVE ITZKOFF

The debut of ABC’s ninth edition of “Dancing With the Stars” attracted 17.5 million viewers on Monday, the largest audience of the night, according to Nielsen’s estimates.

For a President in the Big Apple, a Heart-Shaped Potato

By HELENE COOPER

President Obama continued his media blitz on Monday, as he sat down with the “Late Show” host David Letterman.

Television Review

First Comes the Scandal, Then Survival

By ALESSANDRA STANLEY

In “The Good Wife,” beginning Tuesday on CBS, Julianna Margulies plays another woman in a good suit and pearls whose life blows up when her husband is caught misbehaving.

• Video: 'The Good Wife'

Niche Series (and Dickens) Tightening Emmys Grip

By EDWARD WYATT

The gulf continues to grow between series that seek niche audiences, usually on cable channels, and the broad-based entertainment that fills the broadcast network schedules.

• Slide Shows: The Red Carpet | The Ceremony
• List of Emmy Winners

Television Review

Working Under Cover in the California Sun

By MIKE HALE

“NCIS: Los Angeles,” beginning Tuesday on CBS, doesn’t yet have the charm of its predecessor, but it’s already a better-than-average cop show, well paced, with believable dialogue.

• Video: 'NCIS: Los Angeles'

Television Review

Amateur Detectives Meet Unidentified Victims

By MIKE HALE

“The Forgotten,” beginning Wednesday on ABC, is a typical procedural with two wrinkles: the nameless victims tell their own stories and the investigative team consists of civilians.

• Video: 'The Forgotten'

Well

In TV Series, Some Reality on Weight

By TARA PARKER-POPE

A new dramatic series is challenging the conventional notions about dieting and willpower.

• Post a Comment

Familiarity and a Few Surprises at the Emmys

By EDWARD WYATT

The expected coronation of “30 Rock” and “Mad Men” as the winners of every category did not quite come to pass.

• Slide Shows: The Red Carpet | The Ceremony
• List of Emmy Winners

Television Review

Television Thanks You for Watching

By MIKE HALE

Entertainment industry awards shows are always self-referential, but this one may have set a new negative standard.

The TV Watch

For President, Five Programs, One Message

By ALESSANDRA STANLEY

The president’s talk-show grand slam was a remarkable — and remarkably overt — display of media management.

• Obama Insists That Insurance Will Be Affordable

Television Review

Older Woman, Younger Man and Baby Makes Three

By MIKE HALE

With its bland jokes, its lack of topicality, its Jenna Elfman, “Accidentally on Purpose,” beginning Monday on CBS, feels as if it could have been on any time in the last two decades.

Letterman Takes Turn Toward the Political

By BILL CARTER

David Letterman, the star of the “Late Show,” evens the score with his rival, Jay Leno, by booking President Obama on Monday night.

• Times Topics: David Letterman

Dance Review

Personal Stories, Hipped and Hopped

By GIA KOURLAS

Members of the Groovaloos, a dance troupe that won NBC’s competition show “Superstars of Dance,” shared both their moves and their life stories at the Joyce Theater.

Advertising

Pointed Political Debate, Minus All the Shouting

By ELIZABETH JENSEN

The producers of Intelligence Squared U.S. hope they can seize the political spotlight with live “Oxford style” debates on polarizing topics.

• Accounts, People & Miscellany

Doubts Fade and Couric Is Energized

By BRIAN STELTER

With her contract expiring in 2011, Katie Couric is again fielding questions about what’s next, but now without suggestions of an early exit.

• Times Topics: Katie Couric

Film Finds Hope Living Amid Newark’s Troubles

By RICHARD G. JONES

“Brick City,” a five-part documentary about Newark that begins Monday night on the Sundance Channel, explores Mayor Cory Booker’s plans to revitalize the city.

Plot Lines for Hard Times

By ALESSANDRA STANLEY

The recession runs through many of the new fall television series, but it’s like background noise.

• Video: Scenes from the New Season

Success Softens the Show Runner

By EDWARD WYATT

Long considered a piercingly funny but volatile writer and producer, Chuck Lorre, creator of CBS’s “Two and a Half Men,” thrived as he embraced stability within his life and his projects.

• Video: 'Two and a Half Men' | 'Big Bang Theory'

A Reality Show From an Unreal World

By BRIAN STELTER

Although it has all the trappings of a family reality show, “Modern Family” is actually a documentary-style sitcom that merely borrows from the look of reality shows.

• Slide Show: Making a Mockery of Reality
• Video: 'Modern Family'

Faces to Watch

By GINIA BELLAFANTE

A few actors and their performances cut through the clutter of the new television season.

• Slide Show: Breakout Stars of the Fall

Breathing Life (and Death) Into Friday Night

By JOHN ANDERSON

CBS’s “Ghost Whisperer,” which is entering its fifth season despite little acclaim and modest ratings, may have resurrected Friday as an evening of major offerings from the networks.

Reinventing TV as Viewers Reinvent Life

By MEGAN ANGELO

This year when network executives turned to research to discern what recession-battered viewers wanted, they discovered something surprising.

Nightmares and Wack Jobs, All in Webland

By MIKE HALE

Web video continues to look and smell like television — and in more than a few cases it’s just failed pilots chopped up into four- or five-minute chunks.

Cougars, Crime and Witchcraft

By BILL CARTER

A roundup of series and specials running this fall.

• Slide Show: The New Television Season

ArtsBeat Blog

The TV Calendar: Premieres for New and Returning Shows

By JEREMY EGNER

A schedule of the series launching new seasons this fall.

Music Review | 'VH1 Divas'

Making Noise, Joyful or Otherwise

By JON CARAMANICA

While there was tremendous talent at this year’s incarnation of “VH1 Divas,” with a loopy, manic Paula Abdul as host, there wasn’t much noise.

• ArtsBeat: Watch Paula as Ellen

Procedural Goes Bicoastal and Jazzes Up the Genre

By BRIAN STELTER

“NCIS: Los Angeles,” which has its premiere on Tuesday, is yet another crime procedural on CBS, but the producers have managed to jazz up the genre.

• Video Excerpt

Television Review

For Every Action, an Unequal Reaction

By ALESSANDRA STANLEY

“Bored to Death,” a new series, and the returning “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” which each begin new seasons on Sunday on HBO, are equally funny in mirror-opposite ways.

Television Review

Independent Protégée and Needy Starmaker

By GINIA BELLAFANTE

“Georgia O’Keeffe” is a strained portrait of the painter’s marriage to her promoter and mentor, the photographer Alfred Stieglitz.

• Art Review: Georgia O’Keeffe at the Whitney