All year we've been hearing about the new fall shows involving Star Trek alumni, and several of them will be premiering in the next couple of weeks — along with several returning shows with new cast members from the Trekverse.

Tonight (Wednesday, September 19) Kelsey Grammer ("Bateson") stars in the highly anticipated new sitcom Back to You. Grammer plays a news anchor whose meteoric career suddenly comes crashing down, forcing him to return to his old station in Pittsburgh. There he re-teams with his former co-anchor, played by Patricia Heaton, who is an "ex" in more ways than one — so naturally, sparks fly and hilarity ensues. Back to You, boasting some of the strongest creative talent in TV comedy such as James Burrows, airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on Fox.

(All times shown here will be Eastern and Pacific, though we hate to discriminate against the other time zones ... in all cases, please check your local listings.) Continuing in premiere-date order...

On Sunday, Sept 23, at 9 p.m. on Fox, Family Guy debuts its new season with an hour-long spoof of "Star Wars." Family Guy was created by and features the voice talent of Seth MacFarlane, who made two cameos in Star Trek: Enterprise. Former Enterprise writer/producer David A. Goodman is an executive producer.

Immediately afterwards at 10:00 on CBS, Shark returns for its second season with Jeri Ryan's character, Jessica Devlin, in a new role. After losing re-election as district attorney to Shatner impersonator Kevin Pollak, Jessica joins the legal team of James Woods' character. No word yet how the writers of the show will deal with Ryan's pregnancy, which will inevitably impact her appearance before the season wraps (she is due in March). We expect she will be seen sitting behind a desk in many of her scenes.

Then on Monday, Sept. 24, the second season of the immensely popular Heroes commences, on NBC at 9:00. Where do we begin here? George Takei will be returning as "Kaito Nakamura" in the premiere episode "Four Months Later," and then Dominic Keating joins the cast in the second episode, "Lizards" airing October 1, as an Irish mobster. Nichelle Nichols comes on in the fourth episode (Oct. 15) as "Nana," a New Orleans matriarch related to two young heroes. And of course, there's Zachary Quinto, a new member of the Star Trek family, returning as the villain "Sylar." There's also word that Malcolm McDowell will be back, even though his character was killed, as the show explores the backstories of the old-guard heroes. Must-see TV if there ever was!

Just prior to Heroes at 8:30, you may want to check out a new Monday-night sitcom on CBS: The Big Bang Theory, about a couple of brilliant, socially inept nerds whose new neighbor is a brilliantly hot chick. There's no direct Star Trek connection that we know of, but there will be Star Trek references. In the pilot, the guys accidentally reveal to the girl that they regularly have friends over to play "Klingon Boggle." "It's like regular Boggle, but ... in Klingon. That's probably enough about us," says one of the nerds. It's also directed by James Burrows. You can download that pilot for free right now at iTunes. We're not sure, but we suspect the title of this show has little to do with the creation of the universe.

Tuesday night, Sept. 25, Reaper premieres at 9:00 on The CW. The one-hour comedy about a slacker who learns his parents sold his soul to Satan and now must work as a bounty hunter to bring escapees back to Hell co-stars Ray Wise ("Liko," "Arturis") as the aforementioned Prince of Darkness. Reaper was screened at Comic-Con and Dragon*Con and got great responses.

The season premiere of Boston Legal will overlap with Reaper because it's running 90 minutes to introduce John Larroquette ("Maltz") to the cast. Larroquette plays "Carl Sack," a nemesis of Denny Crane (William Shatner) from the law firm's New York office who relocates to Boston. Unfortunately Rene Auberjonois is no longer a regular on Boston Legal, after a much-publicized reshuffling of the cast, but he reportedly will be back on occasion to reprise his role as "Paul Lewiston." This Tuesday's episode begins at 9:30, but then it goes back to its regular 10 p.m. timeslot on ABC.

Bionic Woman, an update of the 1970s Six Million Dollar Man spin-off, premieres Wednesday night, Sept. 26, at 9:00 on NBC, with Mark Sheppard ("Leucon") in the cast. The show was created by David Eick, Ronald D. Moore's partner on Battlestar Galactica. Everyone who remembers the original, please raise their hand. Yes, we thought there would be a few.

Immediately afterwards, Bryan Singer's Dirty Sexy Money will keep ABC's 10:00 timeslot warm until Lost returns in January. Singer, who cameoed in "Star Trek Nemesis," is executive producer of the comedy-drama about an idealistic lawyer forced to serve a wealthy family whose demands are not always legal.

On Sunday, Sept. 30, Desperate Housewives returns for its fourth season with Teri Hatcher ("Lt. Robinson") as one of Wisteria Lane's leading ladies. That's at 9:00 on ABC. At 9:30 over on Fox, Seth MacFarlane's American Dad premieres its third season with Patrick Stewart in the recurring voice role of "CIA Director Bullock." Besides MacFarlane himself, the principal cast includes Wendy Schaal ("Charlene") and Scott Grimes (who performed in but was edited out of "Evolution").

One of the most talked-about new shows this Fall comes from the former Star Trek: Voyager writer/producer Bryan Fuller (we will do a bio soon, promise!) and premieres Wednesday, October 3, at 8 p.m. on ABC. Pushing Daisies is a "fairy tale" about a piemaker who discovers he has the power to bring people back from the dead, but with severe stipulations. It's a distinctively original mix of elements, combining murder mystery procedural, soap opera and romance with a whimsical visual style. It was a big hit at Comic-Con, and critics are universally raving about it. Fuller, who worked on Heroes in its first season, created Daisies and has been doing most of the writing; Barry Sonnenfeld ("The Addams Family") directed the pilot. Sunday's Los Angeles Times Calendar section published a feature about Fuller and the show, with photo galleries, which you can see at this LATimes.com link.

Also that Wednesday night, Sarah Silverman ("Rain Robinson") debuts the second season of her audacious break-out hit The Sarah Silverman Program on Comedy Central at 10:30, right after the season premiere of South Park. Tucker Smallwood ("Xindi-Humanoid," etc.) reportedly will recur in the role of "God." (Please note this is not family fare!!) Silverman's "Future's End" castmate Ed Begley Jr. ("Henry Starling") has already premiered the second season of Living With Ed, a domestic reality show revolving around environmental themes co-starring his wife Rachelle. Look for that Monday nights on cable network HGTV.

Finally, another new show which features the talents of Robert Duncan McNeill and Tim Russ will premiere relatively late, on October 15. Samantha Who? — which has undergone several name changes ("Sam I Am," "Samantha Be Good") — is a sitcom about a woman (Christina Applegate in the title role) "who wakes up with amnesia and doesn't know who she is and has to put the pieces of her life back together, and turns out she wasn't a very nice person in her old life, and so she wants to redeem herself," explained McNeill, who directed the pilot, at the Grand Slam convention last April. McNeill helped cast Russ in the principal role of "Frank," the doorman at Samantha's building. The show is scheduled on ABC for Monday nights at 9:30 — which, unfortunately, is opposite Heroes (time for a dual-tuner TiVo!).

Some of the other new and returning shows we're waiting for won't debut until January or February: Lost; 24 with new cast member John Billingsley; The Sarah Connor Chronicles with Thomas Dekker; and the final season of Battlestar Galactica — which will be preceded by a two-hour movie starring Michelle Forbes airing November 24. This prequel special, titled "Battlestar Galactica: Razor," tells the story of the Battlestar Pegasus prior to its fateful encounter with Galactica.