Thank God I'm Here

Wow, I went away for a week, and it took me three times to get the password to get into Blogger correct.

For all who haven't been able to make a TV decision over the past week because of my quasi-vacation, both of you can rest easy now. Hopefully, you were able to catch the season premieres of "The Sopranos" and "The Shield" as well as other favorites.

I realized after I left that I failed to plug The Masters all weekend, so I hope no one missed the golf tournament on account of this blog.

Anyway, the title of today's posting isn't so much that I'm happy to be back at work as it refers to the new NBC comedy show "Thank God You're Here" (NBC, 9 p.m.) Hosted by David Alan Grier ("In Living Color") and Dave Foley ("Kids In The Hall"), the show involves improvisational sketch comedy.

With pretty big names like Bryan Cranston, Jason Alexander and others, the guest comic is introduced in the comedy sketch with the line "Thank God You're Here." The comic has little clue as to his/her role in the sketch, so they have to hit the ground running. At the end of the night, Foley gives the winning comic a trophy for the best sketch. The show is getting a brief tryout in the "Heroes" timeslot on Monday before moving to Wednesdays in place of "Friday Night Lights."

MONDAY'S BEST BETS: TV's current longest-running sitcom, "The King of Queens" (CBS, 9:30 p.m.) celebrates its 200th episode tonight as the show winds down with its final few episodes before disappearing into the world of syndication permanently. It anchors a night of first-run broadcasts with "How I Met Your Mother," "New Adventures of Old Christine" and "2 1/2 Men," as well as a new "CSI: Miami" at 10 p.m.

"24" (Fox, 9 p.m.) also airs tonight. I'm trying to lay off the criticism of this show, I really am, but even most critics and die-hard fans are finding the plots to be wearing thin. Take last week. They go to all of the trouble to wake Pres. Palmer out of a coma to stop a nuclear strike; after a tense session that involves a challenge to his Presidency, which he wins, Palmer decides to go ahead with the strike anyway. Say what?!? (Never mind the fact that 10 minutes out of a coma, Palmer is able to resume his duties. My mom was once in a coma and it took her a month to get out of bed. Guess she was just lolly-gagging).

The other thing that struck me about last week's episode was that the Russian terrorist CUTS OFF HIS OWN ARM to get rid of the bug that CTU has implanted in his arm. He manages to do said act in about five minutes, then starts running around an amusement park. He does said action in order to help the other terrorists in his gang. But five minutes and countless pints of blood later, he GIVES UP the other terrorist. One would have thought he might have betrayed the other terrorist before cutting his arm off, but hey, that's just me. (BTW, my dad had his leg amputated last year and it took longer than five minutes. And my father, the big wuss, needed anaesthesia and was laid up for several weeks afterward. Evidently, my parents would make lousy "24" characters.)

Reality TV strikes in a big way on ABC, first with "Dancing With the Stars" at 8 p.m., followed by the new series of "The Bachelor" at 9:30 p.m.

"The Riches" (FX, 10 p.m.) is also new, though I have to admit, I gave up on this series last week.