In the midst of the plight facing our nation, I found great humor in the Fall Preview issue of everyone’s favorite TV weekly. I hung up the keyboard as a newspaper TV critic more than 15 years ago, but I watch with great amusement as the roster of new shows makes its way to the consumer each Fall. This year is a special one. No, not in programming, but in the rapid countdown to oblivion facing commercial TV, and the end of a business that perpetuates itself with planned obsolescence.

As I leaf through the guide, I note the return of Angie Harmon and Holly Robinson Peete. Both are/were married to pro football players, now well past their prime. The football players, that is. I never was clear why Harmon left “Law and Order,” but she’s back and NBC has her. Peete is on UPN on a show about wingwomen. Seriously. Those are women who take guys out on dates in an effort for them (the guys, that is) to meet other women. Difficult to explain, but I did see wingwomen as a theme on a “CSI Miami” episode. TV can be educational.

Michael Rappaport who was in a bunch of Woody Allen movies and the underrated film, “Beautiful Girls,” as well as “Cop Land,” is in a show called “The War at Home.” Bow wow. There’s also a show called “Kitchen Confidential,” based on the book of the same name. The book was written by Anthony Bourdain (a fav in our house) of Food TV and Travel Channel fame. Sadly, the show is a wobbler, probably only marginally better than Emeril’s ill-fated sitcom.

Neil Patrick Harris, who was a teen star as “Doogie Howser” has a new sitcom called “How I Met Your Mother.” Harris, who was outstanding in “Harold and Kumar go to White Castle”, seemed destined for more outrageous things than a tame comedy. His former Doogie Howser co-star Max Casella was brave enough to step out and take a role on “Sopranos” as a murderous sidekick to Paulie Walnuts. (as well as Tony’s latest driver).

Personally, I am rooting for a new show called “Out of Practice.” It’s on CBS at 9:30 p.m. on Monday (I think that makes it a lead-in to “CSI: Miami”). It stars Henry Winkler who not only is funny, but one of the most level-headed, self-effacing talents in Hollywood. And how can you not love his role as Coach Klein in “Waterboy?” I am hoping he has a hit on his hands.

But what did I know? I panned “Cheers” as the worst TV show on NBC the year it launched. You never can tell.

More grist for the IM mill. My belief is that we will see a number of these independent affinity communities spring up because of the success of myspace.com. I also see that they will use an IM platform based on the open standard (XMPP) that was brought into the public spotlight by Google with its Google Talk program. Will that put pressure on AOL, Yahoo! and MSN to open up their IM clients?