New TV Shows I'll Be Watching This Fall

In a previous article I mentioned that there wasn't a whole lot about this Fall's lineup of new TV shows that really excited me. Not in comparison to last Fall, at least. Last Fall there were seven or eight new shows that I was really looking forward to viewing. Not all of them lasted the entire year, some got canceled at the end of the season, but I enjoyed watching all of them while they lasted.

This Fall, for some reason, my views on good television just don't seem to mesh with the views of TV execs who green-light new shows. That isn't to say there aren't any programs I'm excited about, just not as many. In fact, I'm probably more interested in the shows I'm excited about this season than I was last season.

In no particular order, here are the shows I'll be keeping an eye out for when September and October roll around:

"New Amsterdam" - This is the story of New York City detective John Amsterdam (played by Nikolaj Coster Waldau, who is a relative unknown to American audiences, but did have smaller roles in the tennis movie "Wimbledon" and the war movie "Black Hawk Down"). Amsterdam is brilliant, reckless, intuitive... everything you'd want from a detective. He also holds a secret - he's more than 400 years old! In 1620, Amsterdam (then a Dutch soldier) saved the life of a Native American girl about to be slaughtered. The girl, in thanks, placed a spell of immortality on Amsterdam, that Amsterdam will not age until he finds his true love. 400 years later, that has still not happened.

"Back To You" - I've long been a fan of Kelsey Grammer, from his days on "Cheers" and "Frasier," and this show, where Grammer stars (along with Patricia Heaton from "Everybody Loves Raymond") as a TV show anchor with great chemistry on air, but not so good chemistry off the air. I love behind-the-scenes kind of shows, suck as the short-lived "Sports Night" and last season's flop "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," and a show behind the scenes of a TV news program, not to mention getting to see the two stars, promises a lot of good times.