This is a quick post to spread the word that the January 28, 2011 winter return of Smallville and Supernatural has been delayed a week, because the CW decided to air encores of tonight’s (Jan. 27) returns of The Vampire Diaries and Nikita. It seems that it’s an effort to allow viewers who for some reason choose to watch the dumbass Idol instead of what they were watching in the fall which ended in the typical midseason cliffhanger (I never understood how viewers don’t watch the conclusion of something, it makes no sense). [EDIT: 1/27/11 9:42pm] Turns out, the reason is that the Thursday night shows are pre-empted in the Chicago and Baltimore markets, therefore the re-air is technically for them.   So, it’ll help them watch it with a second chance airing. Why Friday, though? Especially since they were originally gonna re-air next Wednesday (then again, that’s a stronger Idol day, so never mind). Probably also in terms of getting a second sampling of viewers for the highly promoted series.

Plus, wasn’t Idol supposed to die when that Simon dude left? Why are you people still watching it?

I updated the Countdown Timer to reflect the new dates. So, FEBRUARY 4th

CW Delays Smallville and Supernatural Returns – TVByTheNumbers

Now I watch quite a bit of TV so this was a VERY hard list to come up with. I found myself putting in some shows that may not actually be more favorable over others but I have to give props if they had an impressive year. I’ll try to keep summaries to a minimum but there are gonna be spoilers to give a little on why one such show was awesome last year.

12- Cougar Town – Title withstanding, the ABC show has really came into its own and improved significantly, and we’ve seen less of Barb, so that alone is a major improvement. 2nd season airs Wed. 9:30PM, ’til February, then returns again in April.

11- The Vampire Diaries – Yeah, it’s a bit on the soapy teen side, but it still has more sex and violence (at least what can be on broadcast, so no nudity, but that’s okay) than a certain (non)-vampire movie franchise (note, I’m basing that on the 1st movie). Plus, the introduction of werewolves, bringing in more witches, and the arrival of Katherine, the vampire who turned Damon and Stefan and who Elena looks like. The writing is much stronger and the storylines now are really making it a bit of a surprising drama series that I find very much worth watching. The 2nd half of its 2nd season returns January 27th at 8PM on the CW.

10- Modern Family – What’s not to love about this one of a kind comedy where you have a father who married a younger Colombian woman with a son, and a daughter with a man-child of a husband and three kids, and a gay son who adopted a Vietnamese baby with his partner. Add in a doc-style therapy narration and you have a unique comedy that not only does extremely well in demo, but it actually won an Emmy too for a comedy and get this, it’s actually funny. This ABC series 2nd season airs Wed. at 9PM.

9- Eureka – The Syfy series saw some real creative genius last year when Carter, Allison, Henry, Jo, and Fargo had traveled back to the past and arrived back to the present with a man named Trevor Grant joining, to find a very different Eureka (Jo and Zane never dated, Tess never left, Henry is married, Allison’s autistic son was surprisingly no longer autistic, and, Fargo is in charge of GD). Playing with time can be a tricky thing, but this show excelled (although I’m still not sure how a kid would no longer be autistic), but it was still a fun show to watch, and I look forward to more. Return TBD.

8- Sanctuary – This little Syfy gem may not get the press that the now canceled SGU and Caprica got, but it certainly tops my list from the net. And last year it got even better, picking up after the the Big Bertha storyline, Magnus and her team look for Hollow Earth, and the last ep of the year was a big “WTF” moment that still has me in shock. I look forward to its return this spring to finish out its 3rd season, and hope for renewal of such an underrated series.

7- Fringe – This FOX series, now in its 3rd season, is moving to Fridays, so spread the word ’cause this series must continue. The 3rd season opened us up more to the alternate universe with the first half switching between the ‘Fringe’-world we know and the alternate one, having our Olivia “over there” and Fauxlivia (the “over there” Olivia) “over here.” The once X-Files-esque show is going more in mythology and the deepness of it is a hard sell to average viewers, which is a shame, because this has been a truly great year. 3rd Season returns January 21 at 9PM on FOX (with an episode titled, get this, “Firefly”)

6- Bones – Oh last year saw the 100th episode with Booth telling Brennan he loved her and she rejecting him and then the last ep of the year in which Brennan saw herself in a victim and realized she made a mistake and her putting her heart out there, but because of, eh, Hanna, Booth then rejected her. I say, give the Emmy to Emily Deschanel, please. Oh, and Hodgins and Angela got married in jail and are now expecting. Really looking forward to the aftermath of Brennan’s tearjerking moment, plus, there are spoilers out there that a supporting character (possibly one of the squinterns) is gonna say hello to a bullet. 6th season returns January 20 at 9PM on FOX (yes, 9PM now, not 8PM, 9PM, don’t forget it).

5- How I Met Your Mother – The closest thing to a Friends replacement, this CBS comedy is now in its 6th season and isn’t slowing down. Any show that can take what should be a simple story to kids on how their parents met and make it into a non-stop force of comedy for 6 years running is a masterpiece. Now if only Neil Patrick Harris can get that Emmy for this series he so DESERVES, and maybe little more love for Jason Segel and Alyson Hannigan this year? Oh, and let’s not forget that almost a year ago was the 100th episode, with the wonderful musical number “Girls Vs. Suits.” This CBS series 6th season airs Mondays 8PM.

4- Smallville – Hey, it’s in its 10th and final season and they are giving us one hell of a season. The 10th season is now getting more into the Superman mythology, even that scene with the ‘Superman Returns’ costume in the Fortress of Solitude gave me goosebumps (got them again just thinking about that scene). And let’s not forget the wonderful 200th episode where James Marsters returned as Brainiac and Clark and Lois’s floaty dance at the end, it’s just, well, super. 10th season returns, with only 11 episodes left, of this epic series, on January 28 at 8PM on the CW.

3- Chuck – This spy-action comedy series is very much adored by its close-knit of fans, and that dedication has helped bring this series into its now 4th season. But, hope for a 5th dwindles unless ratings can spike, and last year saw a massive amount of what they call stunt casting, but, though it didn’t hurt, Linda Hamilton, Lou Ferrigno, Summer Glau, Robert Englund, and Timothy Dalton didn’t help ratings either. 4th season returns January 17 at 8PM on NBC.

2- True Blood – Well, duh, my #2 show in general is the HBO hit with vampires, werewolves, and now fairies. Going into a 4th season this year, we should see more witches and, from what I hear, more vampire politics. The sex and gore didn’t stop in the 3rd season (the disturbing head twist sex scene between Bill and Lorena and Russell ripping the spinal column of a news anchor on live TV, great stuff.) 4th season airs this summer on HBO.

1- Supernatural – Not a surprise, it’s always been my most favorite show since it premiered. With a great mix of drama, action, and comedy, strong characters, excellent writing, we haven’t had a show this strong since Buffy. Last year we got the 100th episode, a showdown with Lucifer, and more crazy “WTF” moments (“fairies”?), a great Bobby episode, and you also had Castiel watching porn, I never laughed so hard in my life. Kidding aside, it’s still a strong serious show, and now that Sam has his soul back, with the unreliable “patch” from Death, what’s next for our favorite demon hunters? 6th season returns January 28th at 9PM on the CW.

BEST NEW SERIES from LAST YEAR:
Haven (Syfy) – The series will return for a 2nd season this summer (yay!) and is actually a quite intriguing show, much better than the highest rated scripted show on Syfy, Warehouse 13, which is good too, but I like Haven more. Taking place in a small town in Maine, it follows an FBI agent who found herself trying to unlock the mystery of the Troubles and a mysterious picture in an old newspaper of a woman that she believed to be her mother. It’s got a great cast, and when we last saw it, Audrey got more clues to her mother, that it might not have been her mother, but her! Plus Duke’s hunt to find out who is supposed to kill him, bringing in the mystery of the maze tattoo. Oh, and this is loosely based on the Stephen King novella ‘The Colorado Kid.’

Shows I Wish Weren’t Canceled:
My Boys – The highly underrated TBS comedy was a pleasant surprise to me. I started watching it when it was halfway through its 1st season since someone recommended it, and I’m glad I did. It was a smart and funny show, with a great ensemble.

Party Down – The Starz comedy by Rob Thomas (not the singer, the guy who gave us the wonderful Veronica Mars) was about actors, writers, comedians who work at a catering company called Party Down in order to pay the bills as their dream jobs aren’t going well.

Heroes – Yeah, ratings were low, blah, blah, but all I really wanted was some shorter season to tie up loose ends, as the last episode ended with a HUGE cliffhanger, Claire showing her regeneration ability on camera for everyone to see.

Stargate Universe – after a rocky start, the show really improved. It was canceled last year, but the remaining 10 eps of its 2nd season will air this year, and I believe I heard there’s a cliffhanger (of course).

Dollhouse – Of course I’m gonna have this on here. Those few eps last year were among the strongest. Guess it’s a good thing Joss Whedon pretty much knew the chances of renewal were slim, and the last episode at least had an ending, while Heroes did not.

NEW SHOWS this year:
The Cape (special premiere on January 9th at 9PM on NBC, regular time slot begins January 17 at 9PM) – Summer Glau returns to TV! NBC is promoting this more heavily than their other new shows, and it does seem interesting, but is it too soon after the fall of Heroes?

Mr. Sunshine (premieres February 9 at 9:30PM on ABC) – Chandler Bing! Yes, Matthew Perry is back on TV, 2nd time after the end of Friends and with a sweet timeslot after the super hit Modern Family. Though, that means Chandler is being mean to Monica, being it’s bumping Cougar Town for a little bit.

Camelot – Starz isn’t slowing down in an effort to go up against HBO and Showtime, and this further proves it. A retelling (yes, another) of the Arthurian legend, this version will primarily be using Thomas Mallory’s 15th century work, “Le Morte d’Arthur”, along with other Arthurian legends as its source. Premieres April 1.

RETURNING Shows looking forward to:
Primeval – It came back on New Year’s, after over a year since the 3rd season and news of a cancellation, the show was brought back with a deal of 13 episodes spread between two seasons. BBC America is currently showing this wonderful British series on Saturday nights for us in America.

Torchwood – The 4th season of this British show, which was missing last year, returns this year, now on Starz (for us). The series will take a slightly different direction as Captain Jack and Gwen Cooper will travel across the pond, as the series will now have US financing (thanks to Starz) along with continuing BBC love. The 4th series adds Americans Bill Pullman and Mekhi Phifer to the cast, as well as some big guns in writing, with former Buffy writer Jane Espenson, X-Files & Supernatural writer John Shiban, and House writer Doris Egan adding their magic touches to the season along with creator Russell T. Davies and John Fay returning. This will be one series not to miss.

—-

I don’t have much to say in terms of music and movies (I didn’t purchase that many CDs last year, getting only CDs from bands I like enough to get the day they come out (which is VERY few) and I don’t go to the movies, it’s been 2 years almost since I’ve last been.

But, going by albums released last year, I actually purchased 5 total CDs, and only 3 of them were new releases (Godsmack ‘The Oracle’, Disturbed ‘Asylum’, and Apocalyptica ’7th Symphony.’) So I guess there’s my top 3, but Apocalyptica would be my favorite of the three.

And, I saw newer movies in other ways (Netflix). So, movies that came out at the end of 2010, of course I haven’t seen yet, but for those available to rent and buy (I believe I only bought 2 movies – ‘Legion’ and ‘Kick-Ass’) but I’ve also eventually saw ‘Daybreakers,’ ‘Death at a Funeral’, ‘Alice in Wonderland’, ‘The Grown-Ups’, ‘Sorcerer’s Apprentice,’ ‘Hot Tub Time Machine,’ ‘The Losers,’ and ‘When in Rome.’ And when they are available to rent or when popularity dies down, I look forward to check out ‘Skyline,’ ‘Toy Story 3,’ ‘Inception,’ and hopefully in about 4-5 months, ‘Little Fockers,’ ‘Yogi Bear,’ ‘Tangled,’ and I kind of want to see ‘Gulliver’s Travels.’ Unfortunately, I haven’t seen them, so I can’t say anything about them other than that they look good from previews.

Anyway, of the ones I saw, I think people were too negative about ‘Sorcerer’s Apprentice’ ’cause I thought it was entertaining (even though there were some amounts of lameness, I mean seriously, Prime Merlinean?) ‘Hot Tub Time Machine’ wasn’t as funny as I thought it would be, but it was still funny, but ‘Death at a Funeral’ was HILARIOUS. ‘Legion’ wasn’t as good as I would have hoped, but ‘Daybreakers’ was actually pretty good (not the best vampire film, but is a better movie than the shit a certain studio is selling as vampire films (you know what I’m talking about). ‘Alice in Wonderland’ was, eh, okay, but eh, was a waste of my time, ‘The Losers’ was pretty awesome, and ‘The Grown-Ups’ was pretty funny (not the funniest Adam Sandler movie, but good). And ‘Kick-Ass,’ well, it KICKED-ASS.

As for what to look forward to in 2011 as far as music and movies:

MOVIES:
‘Cabin in the Woods‘ – Joss Whedon, need I say more

‘Super’ – limited April 1 – Rainn Wilson stars as a man who decides to become a superhero, even having a crazy sidekick played by Ellen Page. Nathan Fillion, Liv Tyler, and Kevin Bacon also star.

‘Super 8′ – June 10- not much is really known, but it’s Steven Spielberg and JJ Abrams working together on this, super secret movie.

‘Thor’ – May 6 – the kickoff of the summer blockbusters starts with a Marvel superhero. The movie looks good, and as much as I tend to prefer DC over Marvel, I’d be more inclined to check this out over ‘the Green Lantern,’ though I kind of want to see that too.

‘Your Highness’ – April 8 – It’s a spoofy movie on the whole like medieval prince/princess/dragons stuff which stars Danny McBride, James Franco, Zooey Deschanel, and Natalie Portman.

MUSIC:
One confirmed album I’m looking forward to: Within Temptation‘s 5th album ‘The Unforgiving.’ A concept album based on a comic book series by Steven O’Connell. Set for release in March.

Anything else is up in the air as the year just started, but Lacuna Coil are writing (stated on their Facebook page) and Tantric is also working on a new album (also mentioned on their Facebook page, but vaguely).

AND, let’s not forget VIDEO GAMES:::
First, ‘Mass Effect 2′ comes to the PS3, which is the console I have, so that means, if/when I get it, I can finally play it.

And on 11/1/11 we get the third ‘Uncharted’ game, ‘Drake’s Deception,’ which is available only for the PS3. HAHA, take that Xbox owners!

Many, many, many TV-related sites have all their ‘Returning TV’ lists as well as ‘New TV’ lists; an all in one guide to this fall TV season (I’ve done a ‘new series to watch list’ after the upfronts, in two parts: Part One (ABC/FOX/NBC), Part Two (CBS/CW), in case you’re interested). *Note, I have since decided not to watch a few, since it’s difficult to find time to watch all these shows (unless I got paid, which would be sweet, BTW, as retail sucks), also a few video clips appeared to have expired, I’ll update it when they premiere and I can review them further.

Back to what I’m getting at here.

I watch a ton of TV shows, I counted 19 shows returning this season (3 of which had already returned) just on the broadcast nets alone (ABC/FOX/CBS/NBC/CW). Monday is a big day, with 9-20-10 seeing the returns of How I Met Your Mother (CBS, 6th season), House (FOX, 7th), Chuck (NBC, 4th), in the 8pm hour alone. Of course, I love them all, but I push Chuck more, since Mondays are so blah, Chuck is the fun-fast action-spy-adventure that takes away the Monday blah. Plus, another reason to watch this season: Linda Hamilton (yo, it’s Sarah Connor, dudes), Eric Roberts (who was in Less Than Perfect with Zac Levi, and will be in the upcoming Syfy Sharktopus, and in The Expendables), Olivia Munn, Dolph Lungdren (you know, from Rocky IV, as well as this year’s The Expendables), Lou Ferrigno (The Hulk, dudes), Bronson Pinchot (remember, Balki Bartokomous), Isaiah Mustafa (Old Spice dude), Harry Dean Stanton (Alien), and Timothy Dalton (James Bond #4, I think), phew, that’s a lot of guest stars. Check out a 5 min look at Chuck:

And of course, ABC’s Castle (3rd) comes back that day as well, in the 10pm hour. Tuesday already saw the return of CW’s Life Unexpected (9pm, 2nd) and NBC’s Parenthood (10pm, 2nd), and on 9-21 will be the return of NCIS (8th) at 8pm on CBS (plus the spin-off series 2nd season, which I ended up stop watching). Wednesday, 9-22, is all about the return of ABC’s comedy lineup, including EMMY winning series for Best Comedy, Modern Family (9pm, 2nd), and at 9:30pm Cougar Town (2nd), which will feature guest Jennifer Aniston (cue Friends reunion), and on the serious side, CBS’s Criminal Minds (9pm, 6th) continues to be a powerful night, it’s one crime-procedural that continues to improve itself (like NCIS, this year it’ll have a spin-off series in the midseason). Thursday, we saw the return of CW’s hit The Vampire Diaries (8pm, 2nd), which I like watching, but admit there are lots of room for improvement (it’s not Buffy, that’s for damn sure), and on 9-23, FOX’s Thursday brings us the return of Bones (8pm, 6th) and Fringe (9pm, 3rd).

New paragraph, as September 24th, 2010 is the most important night in television, remember it. The CW has it’s most powerful night (sorry for using the word ‘powerful’ again), but it really is. 8pm start it off with the TENTH (yes, 10th) and FINAL season of one of the most beloved series from the WB era that transitioned to the CW (it’s 5 on WB and now 5 on CW, kind of like Stargate SG-1, which had 5 on Showtime and 5 on what was the Sci-Fi Channel (now Syfy). Smallville is monumental, because, knowing it’s the last, means they can pull out all the stops and close the series that’ll give it justice. Also, it will beat SG-1 in terms of having the most produced episodes for a sci-fi/fantasy series in the US (they’re still tied in terms of there being 10 seasons). And hey, Clark may (hopefully) now finally FLY. Actually, I believe they said they will finally do that, plus the teaser with the Superman suit (from Superman Returns). Check out this CW official video clip, highlighting Clark through the seasons, it’s just purely awesome:

And then at 9pm, the 6th season of the BEST TV SHOW, Supernatural (sorry for the shouting, it’s just all too exciting). Last season, was all about the impending apocalypse, now, with Sera Gamble now taking the helm as showrunner, it’ll be more about the monsters that go “bump in the night.” The premiere is set a year after the events of the 5th season finale. And thanks to TNT, next week, starting on the night of Sept. 23 at midnight and ending at 8pm the next day, a beautiful 20 hour Supernatural marathon. Catch a few, including the end of the 5th, and watch the premiere of season 6 on the CW at 9pm (might as well watch Smallville before it, the marathon does end at 8pm, so why not?). Check out this preview clip from the CW:

And then there is Sunday, which has FOX’s ‘Animation Domination,’ with the 22nd season premiere of The Simpsons, plus returns of Cleveland Show, Family Guy and American Dad.

Obviously, the series I like the most are highlighted by embedding video clips, but I also push FOX’s Thursday with Bones and Fringe as well as Criminal Minds on Wednesday, and just to pick one series on Tuesday, my favorite is Parenthood (Lauren Graham, come on Emmy people, recognize brilliance), and my fave Sunday is Family Guy, but I want to keep this post from getting too long. Too many video clips can be annoying.

And, remember, this is just broadcast, there are a few cable ones too, but I won’t get into that now.

It’s a very important question. In all seriousness, CBS’s CSI has lost itself (I mean, it’s had 10 years, saw several major character send-offs (such as Warren’s death, Grissom leaving, and those pretty much signaled that it wasn’t gonna be the same), bringing Morpheus in to fill-in the bug-man’s shoes, and last season, stupidly airing a milestone 200th episode against the last episode of ER (losing to it, BTW, but not by much. And also, I don’t even remember what happened in the 200th episode, it sucked ass). And then there’s ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy, which seems to have a lot of drama outside the show (how many times have there been rumors that Katherine Heigl was leaving?). With the soap-ish doctor’s sleeping around, stupid nicknames, and the ghost of a dead fiance, it seems more like a series that should air in the daytime. And let’s fact it, NBC’s Thursday comedies died five years ago with the end of Friends, ever since, they couldn’t bounce back. (Okay, it was definitely done a few years back when Will & Grace ended, which was the last good sitcom NBC had, other than the just as good My Name Is Earl, which they chose to cancel).

When it comes to the competitive Thursday 9PM slot, CSI and Grey’s is what people may think of more, along with The Office and Emmy winning (really?) series 30 Rock. They get higher ratings, doesn’t mean they are better. In fact, they’re not. With FOX having an X-Files-esque show by JJ Abrams (the dude behind Lost, and he also directed the Star Trek movie) called Fringe (which saw a major ratings drop last night) that could be above everyone’s head. But the best series, not just for that night, but on all of TV, is the one and only Supernatural.

I praise the show for a reason. Their seasons of obvious arcs, that sort of work like how Buffy was (1st season, episodic, less arc-y, while introducing the overall general arc, while each season after had a specific “big bad”, while having a few individuals to give a little break from all the madness, before having the most bad-ass season finales). In a way, those two shows are somewhat similar, Buffy‘s finales had the death of the Master, Buffy killing Angel, Blowing up the high school, Buffy dying, Willow going evil, and sinking the whole town of Sunnydale into itself to sort of “plug” the hellmouth. The only season not with a high-note ending, would’ve been the 4th, which ended with the first Slayer trying to kill them all in their sleep. With Supernatural, first the Winchesters (dad included) are involved in a major car crash, 2nd open the Devil’s gate (oops), Dean dies (see, another similarity, a major character death, dealing with an awesome next season premiere with same character coming back from the dead), and, oh yeah, killing Lillith which releases Lucifer (oops again). So now, we have an apocalypse.

Doesn’t mean we can’t have a little fun.

Another thing Buffy had, a few key episodes that stood out. The 4th season’s “Hush” was mostly without dialogue, and of course, the 6th season’s “Once More with Feeling,” the musical. Supernatural had some interesting filmed specimens. Take the 4th season’s “Monster Movie,” filmed like an old horror movie, and completely in black and white. Last night, “Changing Channels,” saw the return of the Trickster (previously in 2nd season’s “Tall Tales,” and 3rd season’s “Mystery Spot”) as he traps the Winchesters into, well, TV Land.

The episode started, with a teaser, as a 70′s-ish TV sitcom (light in tone, laugh track, and cheesy dialogue), going the opening credits, complete with a theme song (again, like that of a 70s or even 80 sitcom), and then showing the case that lead them to getting sucked into the TV-verse, first, inside a Grey’s Anatomy-like medical drama, there was even a character that was a ghost in someone’s mind (sound familiar, it should, it’s like Denny and Izzy on Grey’s, hey, wasn’t Denny played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan, AKA Papa Winchester? Yep, nice little nod, love the inside jokes), then they were in a Japanese game show, called ‘Nutcracker’ (for a reason, poor Sam). Next, there was a commercial spoof (after they realized they need to play the parts their given), and, the funny part, it’s a Herpes commercial (poor Sam). Another highlight, CSI spoof (hey, isn’t that another series Supernatural competes against. Yep, just talked about it earlier in the post, hmm). Of course, this version of CSI pokes close toward the Miami from what I understand, with the whole sunglasses bit, but all CSI when you have some lame lines (“Jackpot” in a douchery way). But the funniest, oh, I laughed my ass off, Knight Rider. It’s just too good.

Of course, we touch on the whole Apocalypse, because a revelation is made about the Trickster. If you have been watching the series, and didn’t catch last night’s episode, turn away now, as here’s the big twist – ***Begin spoiler*** (as it turns out, the Trickster, is actually the Archangel Gabriel). ***End spoiler.

So, with awesome characters (Castiel has definitely grown on me, I wasn’t sure about having angels in the story, but it’s working), awesome plots, awesome music, and awesome, everything, I still have to wonder, why aren’t more people watching?

Supernatural Skillfully Skewers the Competition – TV.Com

Oh, and back to the opening credits:

My Thursdays are now complete (though CSI doesn’t come back ’til next week, I have to drop that show in my long list of shows, since my DVR only records two shows at once (like they all do) and I have, currently, 3 shows in the 9pm hours as it is). Tonight, is the season five premiere of Bones at 8/7c, and the second season premiere of Fringe at 9/8c on FOX. Along with giving the CW’s The Vampire Diaries and 2nd try at 8/7c and continuing the love I have for the best show on air, the CW’s Supernatural at 9/8c, which tonight will see the return of Ellen and Jo (The 4400‘s Samantha Ferris and Veronica Mars‘ Alona Tol), my Thursdays are pretty full now, and the rest of the fall doesn’t come back until next week. Luckily, I have my DVR and DVD Recorder (DVR records 2, DVD-R can take one more, usually FOX shows given I have to go over-the-air for it).

But tonight is now about the premiere of FOX’s new Thursday night lineup, where Bones picks up about 6 weeks after Booth’s brain surgery (remove a tumor), with him trying to get back into the game. Guest stars Cindy Lauper as a psychic who led Booth and Brennan to a grave of 11 bodies. And on Fringe, Olivia returns to the alternate reality she traveled to in the first season finale where she met Massive Dynamic’s founder William Bell, and Peter tries to find information about her visit, while Walter prepares custard for his son’s birthday.

Oh, and NBC has a new comedy, Community, which might be worth checking out. It premieres tonight as well at 9:30/8:30c, but will move to the 8/7c timeslot in October.

Tonight is the series premiere of CW’s anticipated vampire drama, The Vampire Diaries, and the fifth season premiere of Supernatural. Next week FOX returns with a fifth season of Bones and second season of Fringe, also NBC’s comedy lineup, including new series Community. Rounding out, ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy and CBS’s CSI return as well, proving Thursday is still a top draw in the week.

BUT TONIGHT is the night Supernatural (9/8c) returns for its monumental fifth season. When the fourth season ended, Sam had killed Lillith, breaking the 66th and final seal required for Lucifer to rise. And to help get psyched for tonight’s return, here are a few YouTube clips, starting with a Season 4 recap:

And the official Trailer #1:

And here’s a fan video made by JessicaRae (Supernatural Selection):

and here’s a clip of one of my favorite scenes from season 4, from the episode ‘Yellow Fever’ (which was downright hilarious, as we fans know, one of the greatest things about this show is having an overall heavy, dark, and serious arc, but giving us some breathers in the middle the still fit within the boundaries of the series, if that makes any sense):

Don’t miss the season premiere of Supernatural, tonight at 9/8c on the CW. Oh, and I guess it wouldn’t hurt to check out the new series, Vampire Diaries, which is on right before it (I’m just bothered by the idea of a vampire writing in a diary as seen in the previews. Same reason Twilight bothers me, since real vamps don’t sparkle). But it has vampires, so I’ll check it out.

Thursday Night 2009 Epic 9PM Battle – TV By the Numbers