Daily Best Bets

1) “American Masters,” 9-11 p.m., PBS. Bella Abzug (shown here) reached Congress at full-speed. She “came there with a sledge hammer,” says former Rep. Charles Rangel. By her own account, she “always had a decent sense of outrage”; by a friend’s account, she “had an ego the size of Montana.” Alternately screaming at and charming her aides, she pushed key legislation involving equal opportunity. Here’s an excellent profile of a bigger-than-life personality. Read more…

1) Pro football season-opener, 8:15 p.m. ET, NBC. With most scripted shows sidelined by the strikes, NFL games should soar. The season starts now, with a preview at 7 p.m. and then the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs (shown here) hosting the Detroit Lions, who had a 9-8 record last year. The rest of the teams start Sunday afternoon (CBS and Fox), Sunday night (NBC) and Monday (ABC and ESPN). Read more…

1) “MasterChef,” 8 and 9 p.m., Fox. Americans (well, some Americans) really like big walls. Here’s one that’s eight feet high, 55 feet long and forbidding. On each side is half of a chef duo; partners try to create dishes that look and taste the same. It’s a fun concept, bringing surprising success and occasional flubs. That’s at 9 p.m., after a fairly uneventful hour involving barbecues (shown here). By the end of the night, the field has been trimmed from nine to six. Read more…

1) “Inside the NFL” season-opener, 8 p.m., CW. It was 30 years ago that Fox created a fresh, fun football studio show, with .Howie Long and Terry Bradshaw at the core. Those two are still there, but now Long’s son gets a turn. Chris Long (shown here) had an 11-year pro career as defensive end, including two Super Bowl wins and a Walter Peyton award (the year he gave his entire pay to charity). He joins Ryan Clark, Chad Johnson, Jay Cutler and Channing Crowder. Read more…

1) “Secrets of Penthouse,” 9-11 p.m., A&E; rerunning 7-9 p.m. Tuesday, with the second half 9-11. Bob Guccione (shown here) was an American artist, living in London with his wife and four kids, when he launched the explicit Penthouse magazine. It reportedly made him worth $300 million … which he promptly blew on bad investments. This intriguing (if repetitive) film has some people who praise his charm and others who discuss a bad dad and runaway ego. Read more…

1) “Unforgotten” (shown here) season-opener, 9 p.m., PBS. Last season ended with the death of Cassie Stuart, the intense leader of this cold-case unit. Now Jessica James takes over – but gets a sharp jolt in her own life, less than an hour before work begins. She’s in a funk and a fog as Sunny Kahn, the No,. 2 detective, tries to forge ahead. Both are needed, in a compelling, six-week story with vivid characters. Read more…

1) College football. The first full Saturday of the season is stuffed with games, none of them pitting two nationally ranked teams. That starts at noon ET and continues into primetime, with 7:30 p.m. games on NBC (West Virginia at Penn State, which is ranked No. 7) … ABC (North Carolina, shown here, No. 21, at South Carolina) … and CBS (Texas Tech at Wyoming). There’s much more, plus baseball on Fox. Read more…

1) “Family Law” season-finale, 8 and 9 p.m., CW. For two seasons, this Canadian drama has offered a pleasantly adequate blend of court cases (some of them lightweight) and lawyers’ personal dramas (some quite serious). Tonight’s first hour finds a Britney Spears-type star fighting a conservatorship. The second has Abby (Jewel Staite, foreground) trying to help her half-sister (right) get legal status as a baby’s parent; and as her probation ends, Abby ponders leaving the firm her dad (left) runs. Read more…

1) Football, 8 p.m. ET, Fox. Tonight starts the first full weekend of the college season … which makes it sort of the start of the fall TV season. With most of the new, scripted shows blocked strikes, networks depend on sports. This weekend has primetime college games Saturday on ABC, CBS and NBC … and even Sunday on ABC. Today’s game has Nebraska (shown here, 4-8 last season) at Minnesota, which went 9-4, including a Pinstripe Bowl win. Read more…

1) “Archer” season-openers, 10 and 10:30 p.m., FXX; rerunning hourly until 3:30 a.m. The 14th and final season of this animated action-comedy finds Sterling Archer still convinced he’s the world’s greatest spy. In this two-parter, however, he’s working with a woman who matches him in skill, beauty and ego. (They’re shown here.) Meanwhile, Lana is the boss, worrying about budgets, human-resource issues and a skeleton in the office wall. That result is erratic, but entertaining. Read more…