By ROB OWEN, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

At a time when NBC seems more interested in debuting various forms of dreadful TV -- "Superstars of Dance," "Kath and Kim," the new "Knight Rider" -- the network's superior drama series "Kings" seems like an alien invader from Showtime.

In case you're ever playing a game of TV analogies: "Ashes to Ashes" is to "Life on Mars" as "The Bionic Woman" is to "The Six Million Dollar Man."

On TV, the next month may feel more like fall than spring.
Due to last winter's writers' strike, networks are only now debuting some of their most promising series for the 2008-09 TV season. It's also a time for returning critical favorites, including "Breaking Bad" and "The Tudors."
Here are some of the programs you can expect to see:

There's nothing in ABC's "Castle" viewers haven't seen a million times before, but the cast elevates the pedestrian material.

"Murder, She Wrote" is among the past TV staples that "Castle" brings to mind. Actor Nathan Fillion, who stars as novelist Richard Castle, seems prepared and willing to be TV's next Angela Lansbury.

Because nothing lasts forever, every now and then there's an upheaval in late-night television. The last seismic shift came in 1992 when Johnny Carson retired from "The Tonight Show" to be replaced by Jay Leno. That led David Letterman, then the host of "Late Night" on NBC, to jump ship for a rival show on CBS.

Cable network Current TV, created in 2005 as a youth-skewing channel that welcomes viewer contributions, has evolved. Back when it launched, the network's schedule was divvied up into short programming "pods," some running less than a minute; none more than 15 minutes. Much of the network's programming was submitted by its viewers.

Joss Whedon's return to television has been plagued by problems -- production shutdowns, a replacement first episode and a lousy Friday-night time slot -- but none of that will matter to fans of Whedon's past work ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Firefly") if "Dollhouse" turns out to be fantastic.
So, is it?

Whatever the reaction to the series, the "Dollhouse" set is a marvel.

A tearjerker in the best possible sense, HBO's "Taking Chance" tells a simple story with reverence and sensitivity.