Best New TV Shows of the Fall Season

The new fall television season is upon us and several new shows have presented pilots of excellent quality that you may want to check out. Oftentimes the pilot is great and the series doesn’t follow through, but these shows have the potential to last.

“Vegas,” at 10 p.m. Tuesday on CBS stars Dennis Quaid as a Las Vegas cowboy who is recruited by the mayor to become the new sheriff as a Chicago gangster, played by Michael Chiklis, makes a move to Las Vegas in 1960. So it’s a terrific period piece like “Mad Men." And it’s a cross between “Gunsmoke,” “The Untouchables,” and a Sheriff Joe Arpaio reality show.

“Elementary,” at 10 p.m. Thursday on CBS is an excellent modern take on the cases of Sherlock Holmes, with the detective now living in New York City. His sidekick is a woman, Mrs. Watson, played by Lucy Liu. It has solid production values and a talented lead actor.

“666 Park Avenue,” at 10 p.m. Sunday on ABC is great horror drama, a cross between “The Shining,” and “Rosemary’s Baby." It’s a crazy fun story of a couple becoming managers of a New York City apartment building that is not only haunted, but populated by very evil people. If you like “American Horror Story,” this show’s for you.

“Animal Practice,” at 8 p.m. Wednesday on NBC is the best new half-hour situation comedy. It stars the very funny Justin Kirk from the show “Weeds,” who’s just one of the very eccentric veterinarians who work at an animal hospital. It’s loaded with animal sight gags involving cats, dogs, tigers, tortoises, snakes, and penguins.

Cornell Christianson has been a television producer-writer at Paramount and Twentieth Century-Fox whose credits include the award-winning series “The Paper Chase” starring John Houseman. His screenplay “Tarot” recently earned Second Place in a prestigious screenplay contest, beating over 1,000 screenplays.