Chicago as a 'Grey' area?

Chicago narrowly missed out on being the home of Meredith Grey.

Shonda Rhimes, creator of the ABC hit "Grey's Anatomy," thought about setting the medical drama in her hometown, the Windy City, but eventually nixed the idea because of a "certain medical drama" that is already set in Chicago (could she be referring to "ER"?).

"My best friend lives there; I come back there all the time," says Rhimes, a former resident of University Park and a 1987 graduate of Marian Catholic High School in Chicago Heights (also my alma mater; our time there overlapped for one year, but we didn't know each other.).

Chicago's loss was a gain for Seattle, where Grey (Ellen Pompeo) and four other interns are struggling through a grueling internship at the fictional Seattle Grace Hospital.

Though the show has its soapy elements - Grey is in a tangled relationship with one of her superiors, Dr. Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey) - "Grey's Anatomy" is actually a refreshing oasis of intriguing, nuanced characters.

In particular, "Grey's" offers a compelling range of female characters in a TV season in which many of the women on hour-long dramas are lawyers, crime fighters of some kind or crime victims. Then again, "Grey's Anatomy" is one of the few network dramas created and written by a woman.

"I think there are men who can write fantastically for women," Rhimes said, "but a lot of times, women have been modulated to be fantasies, not necessarily in a sexual way, but they're written to be what men would like a woman to be like, not what women are really like."

In the first episode of the new season, intern Cristina Yang (Emmy nominee Sandra Oh) talked with her friend and fellow intern, Grey, about Yang's unexpected pregnancy. "Cristina says, said, `Surgery is my life. I'm too talented [to quit],' Rhimes notes. "People were surprised at that line, but it's only because it was a woman saying it."

Grey has her own personal struggles to deal with. Her mother, a renowned surgeon in her own right, has Alzheimer's disease, and Rhimes says Grey's family problems will come to the fore in the next few episodes of the show.

Rhimes "can understand how people think and feel and also understands the difficulty of how you protect yourself in the world," says "Grey's" executive producer Betsy Beers, who laughingly characterizes Rhimes' worldview for "Grey's" as "not too much hugging, not too much crying. No whiners."

The women of "Grey's" "absolutely screw up sometimes, and they have great days too," Rhimes noted. "They enjoy the competition of the job.

"I wanted these characters to be characters who liked what they did and were unapologetic about it. It's not `Oh, she's powerful, but she's deeply hurt inside,'-" Rhimes says. "And I like the fact that Cristina and Meredith have this friendship, and Cristina is a person who is very competitive - but she's not incapable of having a friendship with another woman. That was really important to me."

More from Shonda Rhimes:

Will Meredith's mother come to the fore in upcoming episodes? "Yes, she will have a much larger role coming up. We originally shot 13 episodes [and not all of those episodes have aired yet], and some of those were going to finish off that [13-episode] season. So four of the first five episodes of this season will be from last season, and we'll be seeing Meredith's mother fairly soon."

On the diversity of the cast: "It's a diverse world. I wanted this hospital to look like the world I live in and work in."

On the medical situations on the show: "It's not a medical solution of the week. We don't do the medical mystery show. It's not about how we solve the problem. I always say, it's not about the patients or how the patients feel about their issues, it's about how the doctors feel about how the patients feel about their issues." [Still, the show has an extensive medical staff and experts on call to help with the medical information and procedures on the show].

Do you have a long-term concept or story for the show? "Yes. I feel like I know what the last scene in the last episode of the show will be. We just have to get there first."

Have you thought about having to add new characters yet? "Not really. Not all interns survive, not all of them make it through these kinds of programs. But we've got such a large group of people already, why would we add anyone yet?"

On casting the leads, Ellen Pompeo [Dr. Meredith Grey] and Patrick Dempsey [Dr. Derek Shepard, a.k.a. Dr. McDreamy]: "I kept saying we need a girl like that girl from 'Moonlight Mile,' and after a while, they were like, 'We think we can get that girl from 'Moonlight Mile.' I spent time with her and got to know her, and then we started casting for the men.

"We brought in a lot of guys [for Shepard]. Ellen wasn't an easy role to cast, but Derek was really not an easy role to cast either. You had to believe he was intelligent, so you can believe he's a brain surgeon. And while you're watching, you'd be like, 'I wish my boyfriend looked like that.' [laughs] But he had to be rugged, not pretty. Handsome, sexy, but not in an obvious way, sexy in a smart way.

"He had to be able to pull off being really witty and you had to believe he'd care about people too. This was not easy to find! Patrick came in and he was just perfect. It was one of those moments when you're like, 'This is why I'm a writer.' There was just great chemistry, they were fun and flirty and it was just right."

The cast as a whole really seems to gel well. "They really do. For me the fun is to put different combinations together and discover things. For instance in the premiere episode for this season, it was the first time we had George and the chief of surgery together. And they had such great comic timing together. Later in the season, Izzie and Dr. Burke have their first real [work together] and their interaction is really dynamic. It's fun to discover that chemistry."

People online are pairing up various combinations of interns and supervising doctors, interns with other interns: "There is this consistent and intense need to pair people up."

Will Izzie and Alex get together, as has been hinted? "I don't like to say. They could get together, it's not something I've planned out or written out. Sometimes it's a matter of seeing how the journey progresses, how it progresses. The relationship between Dr. Burke and Christina came about from watching these two actors and their great banter together back and forth. [With those two characters] there's great humor and pain and pathos watching these two people who don't know how to communicate try to communicate.

I think one thing that may be a factor in the show's success, and its appeal to women, is that it's a show largely about women written by a woman. Not that a man can't write for a woman and vice versa, but so much of the show rings true for me, and that's a factor for a lot of women I talk to. "I hope it's a factor, in a way. I really wanted this show not only to be something other people would watch, but something I would watch. The way women talk, my friends and I, the conversations we have with my best friend or my sister on the phone or my friends out here [in Los Angeles], I want to hear that conversation, in which women aren't victims or afraid to be strong.

"In the episode that just aired, Cristina was talking about what to do about her baby [she's pregnant], and she says, 'Surgery is my life. I'm too talented [to quit].' People were surprised at that line, but it's only because it was a woman saying it. It's how women speak now.

"I think there are men who can write fantastically for women, but a lot of times, women have been modulated to be fantasies, not necessarily in a sexual way, but they're written to be what men would like a woman to be like, not what women are really like. Women can be flawed, nasty, strong, good. The definition of female is as broad as the definition of male. What's revolutionary is that we're letting ourselves be women, not having to represent anything. They're just women trying to make it through the day at work.

"They absolutely screw up sometimes, they have great days too. They enjoy the competition of the job. I wanted these characters to be characters who liked what they did and were unapologetic about it. It's not 'Oh, she's powerful, but she's deeply hurt inside.' I like the fact that Cristina and Meredith have this friendship and Cristina is a person who is very competitive, but she's not incapable of having a friendship with another woman. That was really important to me."

You're from Chicago, right? "Yes, I went to Marian Catholic, I graduated in 1987. I was in the band, I lived in Park Forest South, now it's called University Park. My best friend still lives [in Chicago], I come back there all the time. It was where I wanted to set the show, but there is that certain other medical show that films there."

Rhimes on the show's music, which just came out on a "Grey's Anatomy" soundtrack CD: "I love the music. What Alex [Alexandra Patsavas, who is also the music supervisor for 'The O.C.'] does for us is give us a great pool of music to choose from. Placing the music in the episodes is one of my favorite things to do. It's really fun. Alex introduces us to all these amazing bands. I'm not a music aficionado, but Alex puts us in touch with this great world of music."

Executive producer Betsy Beers on the show's music: "We were incredibly happy to get Alex on the show. She's been with us since the pilot. Very very early on, we knew that the music would be incredibly important. We try to find songs that have not been heard too much and really seem to get into the spirit of the show, songs that sort of say, 'I may be hurt but I don't wear my heart on my sleeve.' The tone of this show is very different from 'The O.C.,' and Alex really got the spirit of it. These are people working at hard jobs and are determined not to let anyone see their pain. The music can underscore the frustration, the emotion, the humor."

CHANGE AHEAD FOR 'EVERWOOD': This fall, the annual shuffling of the TV schedule put fear in the heart of hard-core "Everwood" fans. The WB moved the acclaimed family drama, which just began its fourth season, to Thursdays, where it's up against "CSI" and "The Apprentice" as well as highly touted newbies such as "Reunion" and "Night Stalker."

"We didn't expect [the move] at all, because everyone was so happy with our Monday nighttime slot. It kind of threw us a bit;, we were all a little nervous," said "Everwood's" Emily VanCamp (Amy Abbott), who was in Chicago on Thursday promoting the show. Still, she noted that "we have a pretty strong core audience who have been pretty faithful to the show."

Her co-star, Chris Pratt, who plays her TV brother, Bright Abbott, saw a bit of a silver lining in the move. "Thursday night, that's the night for all the big advertisers, for all the [commercials for] movies for the weekends. That's the spot where the networks bring out the big guns," Pratt said. "So to be considered the big gun could be looked at as a compliment." More from Emily VanCamp and Chris Pratt:

Do you think the show is changing at all this year?

Chris: "When you have the first season of Everwood, the pilot was just awesome, just perfect. There was this 30 episode arc in his head that was his vision. If you see the first couple season on DVD, you can really see how awesome that was. The show totally had its stride, and it's like passing the baton to someone and keep that stride, it's difficult. Because a lot of the stories that kept the show so compelling, you have to stop telling after a while. Ephram and Amy only works as long as it takes to get them together, then its like, 'Now what?' it's like [trying to create] part two of 'Romeo and Juliet.' The [strength] of the show [has been] that it's something that's it's a little atypical of the WB, which is why we have fans outside the typical demographic recognize us. I don't know, I think we're becoming a little more close to what their core audience is used to, and that's definitely a change from what it was in the beginning.

Emily: "There's less John Beasley, for instance, who I think is one of the most amazing characters on the show. I love watching him, I love working with him. And Debra Mooney."

Chris: "The voiceover."

Emily: "The voiceover. We're certainly lacking things that I loved as if I was watching as a viewer. But then we have new characters that are wonderful as well. I think that that's one thing I'd like to see more of, John. … I have every bit of faith, though, that the people behind the show and the passion that all of us actors have, that if we do go off track, we'll get back on. It'll always work out.

"Amy's entering this whole new world of college, and that experience is a frightening, and Ephram's realizing all these things. They're trying to maintain a friendship, which I think happens a lot in relationships that don't turn out particularly well, you try the friendship thing and that can be tough, but it's realistic."

Chris: "Bright will try to become more self aware and try to become a better person."

Emily: "And there's the whole Nina-Jake-Dr. Brown triangle, which is fun. And Tom [Amandes, Dr. Abbott], who's just Tom, who can just be his own storyline and still be the most interesting thing about the show. He doesn't really need anything to play off of, he can just walk around."

Chris: "He's so great."

And there's the fact that your characters' mother has cancer. It's funny, there has been all this tragic stuff on "Everwood," yet it never feels exploitative about the bad things that happen.

Emily: "I was on '[Late Night with] David Letterman' and he summed up the show in this extravagant, funny way. He hit all the key dramatic points and that's how he summed up the show, and it was so funny because it sounded completely melodramatic. If you watch the show though, they do those things very nicely and thoughtfully. You can't just have someone's mother have cancer and not approach that with grace and delicacy, because so many people know someone who's had it or who has experienced it."

Chris: "The day we filmed the episode on Rose's surgery, Tom's own mother went into surgery for cancer, that same day."

Emily: "It's amazing how close to home those things can be, you have to be careful."

But other shows aren't. People on other shows get cancer and get over it in two weeks.

Emily: "They do, yeah, on other shows. There's an integrity that we all really try to maintain on the show. That's something that's really important to us. [To Chris] Would you agree?"

Chris: "Yes, totally."

Emily: "Sarah [Drew] and I are constantly fighting to not take our clothes off. It's like this ongoing battle. Obviously, that stuff sells."

Chris: "Especially on the WB."

Is that coming from the network? The producers?

Emily: "I don't know who that really comes from."

Chris: "It wasn't like that always, was it?"

Emily:"No, it wasn't always like that, but it's just, you know, there are moments, that all the young women [encounter]. Thankfully they brought in someone like Sarah who is just as adamant about that stuff as I am."

Chris: "I'm always fighting to take my clothes off [laughs]."

Emily: "It's all bout maintaining that integrity, that's what holds it all together, I think."

What do you think will happen with Bright and Hannah - are they too different?

Chris: "I've been so lucky to work with Sarah, she's classically trained, she's been on Broadway, she's 25, which you would never know, playing a 16 year old. [As far as Bright and Hannah], it's one of those situations where Bright is the kind of guy who does best when there's someone who's proud of him. Now he's got Hannah, and he wants to make her proud. He wants to do things that would make him character, and himself happy too. He was existing in this world where it was okay for him to do whatever he was doing because he was Bright, 'Oh, that's just Bright, he's funny,' you know? But he was really saved by Hannah, I think."

Where would you like Bright to end up?

Chris: "I bet college wouldn't be right for him, but I'd like to see him do something like become a hero of Everwood again somehow, become a firefighter or EMT, and [have] the community be proud of him somehow. Helping people, but … I don't know if he saw blood, he might be queasy. There's been a lot of stuff written [that implies Bright might not deal well with the sight of blood]."

It looks like Amy has a new love interest in Bright's new roommate, the medical student.

Emily: "Yeah, that's Justin Baldoni, he plays the new love interest. It's kind of interesting at first, there's a misunderstanding and she thinks he's gay. She finds out that he's not, and that turns into something, but Ephram ends up moving in with those two boys, so it's like this weird thing where Ephram sees us and we're together and there's this whole triangle thing.

"I think that politically, Amy starts to get involved with her university, I'm not certain if that's going to happen, but I really hope that that happens. There's conflict with Hannah and Amy, there's all sorts of conflict all the time on 'Everwood.' [laughs]"

Do you have input into your characters?

Emily: "Not particularly, that's what's scary [laughs]."

Chris: "We'll get little tidbits."

Emily: "You never quite know what they're going to throw at you until you get the script. But we have this great executive producer, Mickey Liddell, he's just awesome and easy to talk to and takes everything into consideration. It's really nice to have someone like that you can go to, [someone] who's involved and knows what's going on. And we also talk amongst each other, we're a pretty tight family. I'll talk to Tom [Amandes] about concerns and he'll give me dad-like advice."

Chris: "And we'll stick together. There's something that just recently came up in a script, where Sarah [Drew] was concerned about something, they were going to have us almost being naked together … And then it just turns out that all we had to do was have a conversation with everbody and they totally made everything work out to make her happy."

But isn't the character of Hannah not into premarital sex?

Emily: "I know, that's why we didn't get it. I don't know. Sometimes they forget we're not like a mountainous 'O.C.'- [laughs] 'No wait, this is just actually just 'Everwood.'"

What would be your ultimate wishes for your characters, just your own personal wishes?

Chris: "I wish for Bright to marry Hannah. Marry her, then he can finally get down [laughs]. No, no. Marry her, hang around Everwood and be a fixture of the community, open a sporting-goods store, coach the football team."

Emily: "I think Amy needs to spread her wings and get out of Everwood and see some of the world, put things into perspective. And then come home, and I bet her and Ephram will end up together and have a happy family."

Emily and Chris then told me what happens regarding Rose Abbott's bout with cancer, but I promised not to tell and I won't.

Some random TV quotes and observations:

• Her first week in the reality TV arena, Martha Stewart used the phrase "You just don't fit in" to get rid of "Apprentice" ejectee Jeff.

  This week, however, Matchstick team member Chuck was bounced with "I wish you good luck and goodbye." So did Stewart change her mind about her firing phrase, which had been criticized for being too catty? Hmmm.

  When asked about the disappearance of "You just don't fit in," a spokesman for "The Apprentice: Martha Stewart" said, "Who is to say that is the catchphrase?"

By the way, if you've written off the show, don't. If you're a reality fan, you might just get a kick out of the operatic obnoxiousness of Matchstick's non-stop talker Jim, who has kicked into such high gear that the motormouth contestant can barely speak already.

• Writing on Salon.com, Judd Apatow, the writer/director of "The 40 Year-Old Virgin" confessed his love for reality TV, especially the recently concluded "Rock Star: INXS." He did have one quibble with the "Rock Star" finale, though: "The band seems supercool, they appeared to pick the right guy to win, and then they ended the show with him singing their new single. The only problem was that the new song is terrible. There you had this young guy - so excited to be in this band - and they make him play a song as bad as something you would hear on one of the albums the Doors made after Jim Morrison died."
• The video-game firm Gameloft announced last week that the company is working on a Sims-style game based on "The O.C.," which produced a bit of snickering in the gaming community. As Joystiq.com noted, "What button combination approximates 'Become jealous and totally diss Marissa behind her back while pretending you're not an alcoholic'?"
• Wouldn't it be totally weird if the guy who's locked in Mrs. Applewhite's basement on "Desperate Housewives" was named Desmond?
• Great news: "Veronica Mars" got its best-ever ratings in its season premiere Wednesday, when it was up against "Lost." By the way, thanks to reader Dave Juhl of Naperville, who points out that WPWR-Ch. 50 rebroadcasts each episode of "Veronica Mars" at 9 p.m. Sunday.
• I don't know about you, but when that full-scale riot broke out on "Prison Break" on Monday (and how cool was that episode, by the way?), I was most concerned about the older prisoner's pet cat, which ran off during the melee.
• I was sad to hear that Kathy Griffin and her husband Matt Moline are divorcing. Based on what I saw on her reality show, he seemed like an incredibly nice guy and very supportive of his wife's career in an extremely cutthroat industry. What a shame.
• I'm obsessed with how "The Amazing Race" is filmed. When I saw a bit of the sixth edition of the show being shot here in Chicago, each team had its own sound person and camera person, and from watching the show, I've always assumed that, when the team is driving, the camera person rides up front and the sound guy sits in the back. But given that there are four-person teams on the current Family Edition of the race, I've been wondering where the sound person sits when the team is driving, because the back seat is occupied by three team members. Maybe there isn't a sound person this time around? As I predicted, CBS wouldn't answer questions about how the show is produced or whether there is a sound person hidden somewhere in the car. Oh well.
• There's a long profile of Conan O'Brien in a recent issue of New York magazine, and in it, writer Vanessa Grigoriadis notes that O'Brien resents the attention lavished on "The Daily Show's" Jon Stewart for his "far less complex, toilsome, and popular show." That's Grigoriadis' characterization, and it strikes me as really off-base. Yes, Stewart's show is half the length of O'Brien's, but it's twice as funny.
• The "Battlestar Galactica" cliffhanger Sept. 23 left me completely dying to know what happens next on the show. Aggh, what a cruel cliffhanger! And Tricia Helfer and Grace Park gave outstanding performances in their harrowing scenes as victims of rape and near-rape. In the wake of the brutal attacks on these characters, though, I will be very interested to see if we see some serious emotional consequences for them. The reason I wonder is because the cliffhanger only focused on the consequences for the two Galactica crew members who rescued Park's character, and we still have not seen any follow-through regarding what happened to Kara "Starbuck" Thrace on the creepy body-part harvesting episode, "The Farm."
• On HGTV's upcoming "Bad Baths USA," which premieres Oct. 9, families with world-class ugly bathrooms will get some help from the how-to network. Some of the nasty baths from the show (leopard-print wallpaper - in the bath?) are on display at www.hgtv.com/uglybathroom; you can vote on which is worst starting Wednesday.

1. Speaking of "Rock Star," what band do you think should be featured on the next edition of the CBS show (and I'm betting there will be another version next year)? Of all the rock bands without lead singers, I really can't think of any whose back catalog I'd really want to hear every week (except Nirvana, but I'm not really thinking that's going to happen.) What bands do you nominate?
2. In the new BBC America program "The Robinsons," a character contemplates breaking up with her boyfriend simply because he doesn't like "Fawlty Towers" (personally, I'm in the boyfriend's camp - so sue me). Do you have any "dealbreaker" TV shows? Let's say a potential or actual significant other said he or she had seen one of your all-time favorite shows and disliked it, or even hated it. Would that give you pause?
3. Finally, what are your favorite - and least favorite - new shows of the fall TV season, and why?

• Sunday: "Rome" is on and "Grey's Anatomy" returns, yippee! And check out the terrific backstage drama "Slings & Arrows" on Sundance Channel. Record for later viewing: "Desperate Housewives," "The West Wing."
• Monday: "How I Met Your Mother" is just cuter than a newborn puppy. Charlize Theron guests on the great "Arrested Development." Plus, "Prison Break!"
• Tuesday: "The Amazing Race" family edition, "House," "Boston Legal," "My Name Is Earl," "The Office," "Gilmore Girls" and "Nip/Tuck" are all must-sees. Record the much-hyped "Commander in Chief" for later; it's worth seeing for Donald Sutherland's crafty performance.
• Wednesday: "Lost" is a must, natch, plus "Veronica Mars" returns, yippee!
• Thursday: It's "Everwood's" season premiere (lots of other shows return as well), but the only other must-watch shows here are "Survivor" and "Everybody Hates Chris." Record the live "Will & Grace" season-opener for later.
• Friday: "Threshold," people!
• Saturday: Catch up with all that stuff you recorded earlier in the week. And rest up for next week.

MARTHA'S STRANGE MOMENTS: It was hard to decide which Martha Stewart performance last week was more puzzling.

Given all her television experience, the fact that the low-rated Wednesday premiere of "The Apprentice: Martha Stewart" felt so flat and stilted was strange. Then again, Stewart's always been best suited to the 15-minute chat-show cooking demonstration, so maybe it'll take her some time to ease into the role of starring in an hour-long reality show.

One odd omission from Martha's first "Apprentice" outing was any real explanation of her recent stint in jail. In the opening moments of the NBC program, a brief news clip showing Stewart presumably leaving the courthouse was shown, and in a voice-over, she alluded to "challenges" and "difficult times."

Perhaps a more overt mention of Stewart's conviction was nixed by the media magnate herself, because, as she told David Letterman on Monday, she "doesn't feel guilty."

What a jaw-dropping statement that was. At first, Stewart herself tried to avoid Letterman's pointed question about her trial and conviction. At one point this savvy business titan hinted that she couldn't quite remember what her conviction was for.

"Why did you go to jail -- what were you convicted of?" Letterman asked.

"I don't know," she said with a shrug. "I don't have a long memory for bad things, so I'm trying very hard to put it out of my mind and get on with the future."

Later she confirmed that she was not convicted of insider trading: "It was about, I think, obstruction of justice."

She thinks?

Letterman appeared mystified by Stewart's repeated insistence that she had put the whole thing behind her and never felt "down" or "depressed" about her conviction or prison time.

"But how can you not let yourself get depressed? What do you do? It's a chemical reaction that kicks in," Letterman said.

"But I have other good chemicals too," Stewart chirped.

Letterman didn't give up.

"Your composure and presentation here this evening … seems to be happy, unflappable, cheerful, positive, and you said that the worst part of this was that you were horrified and concerned not so much for yourself but your family and everyone else. … Is that the worst it got for you in all this?"

"Yeah, because, you know, you're worried about the people you're taking care of," Stewart answered.

"What about concerns for your well-being, physically and mentally? This is, you know, not a day in traffic court," Letterman said.

"I'm really strong, Dave. And I can take care of myself," Stewart answered.

Perhaps what got her through those experiences is the fact that, as she told Letterman and his audience a minute later, she "doesn't feel guilty."

Though she whispered the word "guilty," it was obvious what Stewart said. Not only was her lack of remorse off-putting, you'd have to think it made her lawyers cringe.

As she told Letterman, her conviction is currently under appeal, and one has to wonder at the wisdom of saying that she felt she "had an unfair trial" -- on national television, no less - before that appeals process concludes.

"I can feel good," she stated as her appearance on Letterman came to a close.

Well, at least she can.

• Tuesday, Sept. 13: Hugh Laurie. Maybe you've heard of him? He's just about to win an Emmy as the cranky doctor on "House," which returns tonight. And -- don't call it a comeback -- but LL Cool J is in the, er, house as a Death Row prisoner with a strange medical problem. Also on tap: "Gilmore Girls." Does Luke say yes? I've seen the season premiere, but I'm not telling.
• Wednesday, Sept. 14: Shout it with me: Marty! Marty! Marty! If Chicago's own Marty Casey doesn't win "Rock Star: INXS" (next week is the finale), especially after he debuted his great original song, "Trees," last week, I'm just going to resign from the human race. You have been warned.
• Thursday, Sept. 15: You say you're not going to get sucked in this time, but then you do: "Survivor" is back, and they're stuck in the Guatemalan jungle, not some beach (thank goodness). Be sure to record the guilty pleasures "Reunion" and "The O.C." on Fox as well.
• Friday, Sept. 16: Nerd heaven: A two-hour premiere of the excellent CBS alien-invasion series "Threshold" ("Star Trek's" Brent Spiner is one of the leads) plus, on Sci Fi, there's a new "Battlestar Galactica" and a two-hour "Stargate SG-1" summer finale.
• Saturday, Sept. 17: Time to print out your Emmy ballot in anticipation of Sunday's big awardsfest and pop in those "Nip/Tuck" DVDs in anticipation of the FX show's Sept. 20 return.
• Sunday, Sept. 18: Yes, the first hour dragged a bit, but now HBO's "Rome" has hit its stride, and it is sensational. Not only does it boast an "O.C." worthy villainess in the lovely (and sex-crazed) Atia, it's also got the best mismatched-buddy relationship since the first "Lethal Weapon" movie. Roman soldier Titus Pullo (the terrific Ray Stevenson) just wants to pillage all night and party every day; uptight centurion Lucius Voreno - not so much ("When's the last time you had a woman who wasn't crying or demanding payment?" Voreno snaps at Pullo). Add in the lavish sets and the magisterial English actor Ciaran Hinds as Julius Caesar, and you've got a classic toga chronicle. Plus, for sheer train-wreck fascination, on Sundays you can't beat "Breaking Bonaduce" on VH1.
• Monday, Sept. 19: The new CBS sitcom "How I Met Your Mother" actually gives one hope for the genre. Seriously. And do I need to tell you to watch "Prison Break"? If you haven't, here's the 4-second summary: A guy commits a crime to get sent to prison so he can spring his wrongly convicted brother, who's on Death Row. The guy has the plans to the prison tattooed on his body. On the outside, his brother's ex-girlfriend, a lawyer is unraveling the conspiracy that got Death Row guy sent to jail.