1) “NCIS: Origins” debut, 9 p.m., CBS. In “NCIS,” Gibbs (Mark Harmon) was a skilled agent with a past marked by deaths and divorces. Now Harmon narrates this prequel. It’s 1991 and Gibbs (Austin Stowell), widowed and stoic, has just arrived. His first case is dark and compelling, but high-energy colleagues (two are shown here) keep this entertaining. Read more…
1) “Tracker” season-opener, 8 p.m., CBS. In its first season, this jumped to No. 1 in the Nielsen ratings. Now it makes new-season changes: Velma is helping Reeme start her law office; Colter (Justin Hartley, shown here) obsesses on a long-running case. That takes time, so the case-of-the-week – an interesting one – is solved quickly. It’s a fairly good start to a promising season. Read more…
1) “NCIS: Origins” debut, 9-11 p.m. today, CBS. In 1991, Leroy Gibbs starts work at what will become NCIS. He’s a stoic guy whose wife and daughter were killed, but his boss Mike Franks (shown here) sees potential. The first case – a good one — is dark and intense; so is Gibbs (Austin Stowell), but he’s surrounded by high-energy colleagues. Mark Harmon narrates as older Gibbs. Read more…
1) “Saturday Night Live,” 11:29 p.m., NBC. Two generations of singers combine: Ariana Grande (shown here), 31, hosts; Stevie Nicks, 76, is music guest. It’s odd that Grande — with six No. 1 albums — isn’t singing, but she’s also a comedy actress. She did 92 Nickelodeon episodes, plus musicals on Broadway, on TV and in the upcoming “Wicked” movies. Read more…
1) “NCIS,” 9 p.m., CBS. Three days before a prequel debuts, here’s the final episode (shown here) with Mark Harmon as Gibbs. That was in October of 2021, when he headed to Alaska. We’ll get a partial glimpse of him in the excellent “NCIS: Origins” opener, from 9-11 p.m. Monday. After that, he’s strictly the narrator. Read more…
1) “Matlock” and “Elsbeth” reruns, 9 and 10 p.m., CBS. In the old days, CBS had Angela Lansbury solving murders. Now it doubles up – two terrific shows with folksy women outsmarting the bad guys. For “Matlock,” this is the third run of the pilot film, with a clever twist at the end; for “Elsbeth,” it’s the season-finale (shown here), complete with an offbeat fashion show. Read more…
As the new TV season chugs along, something has been missing.
Something big, actually. CBS, the ratings leader, has held back its shows.
Now they arrive in one burst, in what the network calls “Premiere Week.” From Oct. 13-19 (three weeks later than usual), it will debut two shows (including “Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage,” shown here), have the second episode of one and the season-openers of nine more. Three more shows arrive a week later.
And mostly, this is a good batch. Read more…
After living with his dad’s show for more than half his life, Sean Harmon had
an epiphany: Hey, this really needs a prequel.
Now it has one: “NCIS: Origins” (shown here) airs its intense opener from 9-11 p.m. Oct. 14 on CBS, then settles in at 10 p.m. Mondays.
The idea came, Harmon recalled, as “a lightning bolt moment, when we were shooting episode 400 of ‘NCIS.’”
That one – which aired in November of 2020 – flashed aback to when Leroy Jethro Gibbs was a young widower, joining what would become the NCIS. Mark Harmon was in his 18th season as Gibbs and Sean (his son) had his seventh episode as young Gibbs. He was playing, he said, “a guy who’s got something broken inside, … at risk of going down a much darker path.” Read more…
1) “Abbott Elementary” (shown here) season-opener, 9:30 p.m, ABC. Stranded between a reality show (“Golden Bachelorette”) and a news report, this is a lonely comedy island. It deserves more; in each of its first three seasons, it was the only broadcast show nominated for the best-comedy-series Emmy. Now the school year starts amid some nearby construction chaos. Read more…
Our screens used to be populated by quietly heroic loners.
There was Shane and Paladin and Johnny Yuma and more, including The Man With No Name. They roamed the Old West, sometimes saving people.
They vanished in the age of anti-heroes, but sometimes re-appear. The key show is “Tracker” (shown here) which returns at 8 p.m. Sunday (Oct. 13), to launch CBS’ belated fall season. Read more…
