Though the calendar says it’s not quite autumn yet, TV execs are busy promoting their new fall slate of programs which they hope will make your DVR must-see list. And while some programs -- such as “Lost [1],” “Medium [2]” and “The New Adventures of Old Christine [3]” – will not premiere new episodes until 2008, many others are following the more traditional fall premiere schedule. 

 

Here at Mommy Track’d, we’re highlighting new and returning shows that feature working moms. Some are brand spankin’ new programs we haven’t yet seen, while others are returning programs for whom we hold high hopes for strong storylines (*ahem* “Grey’s Anatomy” *cough* more Miranda Bailey):

 

Sundays

 

Tell Me You Love Me [4] -- Currently airing its freshman season, 9-10 p.m., Sundays on HBO.

Surely you’ve heard about the new HBO drama, “Tell Me You Love Me” which is generating headlines for its graphic sex scenes. It focuses on four couples at various stages of their lives and what their sexual relationships have to say about the emotional health of each pair. Included among the quartet is a career-oriented couple in their 30s struggling with infertility and a couple in their 40s who cannot seem to get beyond their work and family obligations with their two children in order to make room for a sex life. The sole mother on the show is Katie (Ally Walker) who works part-time from home as a graphic designer and whose husband, a loving and involved dad, is disinterested in sex. HBO’s web site says of Katie, “She’s put her children and her marriage before her own needs.” The pilot episode was uncomfortable, illuminating and addicting.

 

Desperate Housewives [5] – Season four premieres on Sept. 30, 9-10 p.m., Sundays on ABC.

During the three seasons we’ve been watching the ladies of Wisteria Lane, Lynette Scavo (Emmy-nominated Felicity Huffman) has been on an on-again, off-again career track. First she was a formerly high-powered advertising exec who hated being an at-home mom to four. Then she returned to the advertising world and dealt, with varying success, with child care issues. Months later, she quit the corporate life in order to help her husband Tom (Doug Savant) pursue his dream of starting a family restaurant. At the end of last season, Lynette and Tom were awkwardly starting to get a handle on running Scavos’ when she learned she has lymphoma. This season, Lynette will try to best cancer while snagging awesome restaurant reviews.

To catch up on last season’s episodes, visit the ABC [6] web site.

 

Brothers & Sisters [7] -- Season two premieres on Sept. 30, 10-11 p.m., Sundays on ABC.

Working mom Sarah Whedon [8] (Emmy-nominated Rachel Griffiths [8]) is the CEO of her family’s produce company and not only struggles with being home in time to see her two children before they’re put to bed by their at-home dad and part-time music teacher, but, as season two begins, she’ll have to figure out how to navigate the minefield of an estranged marriage after learning that her husband kissed her half-sister.

ABC’s web site [9] has video of season one online.

 

 

Tuesdays

 

 

Cashmere Mafia [10] – Premiere season starts on Dec. 4, 9-10 p.m., Tuesdays on ABC.

 

This new drama features a four-pack of successful, career-oriented women who take on

Manhattan , spearheaded by Lucy Liu (“Ally McBeal”). The ABC web site touts “Cashmere Mafia” as a program about “relatable women who support each other through rocky marriages, rival colleagues, kids’ recitals and the hunt for the perfect loft.” In the web site’s promotional videos, the four leading actresses discuss how the show portrays real working women as some struggle simultaneously with child care and climbing the corporate ladder.

 

Nip/Tuck [11] – Season five premieres on Oct. 30, 10-11 p.m., Tuesdays on FX.

 

During the first four seasons of the edgy plastic surgery drama “Nip/Tuck [12],” Julia McNamara (Joely Richardson) has, like Lynette Scavo, had an on-again/off-again career track, as she raises a teenager, a grade schooler and a baby with disabilities. Her character [13] has vacillated between feeling rage toward her now-estranged successful plastic surgeon husband for his blossoming career while she spent years as an at-home mom who once aspired to become a surgeon herself, to taking her professional life back by returning to medical school and launching a spa for recovering surgical patients. The show’s catch-line, “Tell me what you don’t like about yourself,” is a question to which Julia McNamara’s answer remains unclear.

 

Wednesdays

 

 

Back to You [14] – Premiere season starts on Sept. 19, 8-8:30 p.m., Wednesdays on Fox.

Though media coverage of this new sitcom about a Pittsburgh TV news station portrays “Back to You” as a star vehicle for Emmy winner Kelsey Grammer, there’s an unexpected working mom twist in the storyline. Emmy winner Patricia Heaton is the tough-as-nails TV journalist and single mom Kelly Carr, paired with Grammer’s anchorman Chuck Darling, her ex-boyfriend.

 

Private Practice [15] – Premiere season starts on Sept. 26, 9-10 p.m., Wednesdays on ABC.

 

When last we left the “Grey’s Anatomy” character Dr. Addison Montgomery Shepherd (Kate Walsh), she’d recently learned, with great irony, that while she’s greatly respected for her work as an ob/gyn, she herself is infertile. During the season premiere of “Grey’s,” her character will leave Seattle Grace and take refuge at a Los Angeles health center where she’ll work with her college buddy, a newly divorced mom Dr. Naomi Bennett (Audra McDonald). How much emphasis show creator and single mom herself, Shonda Rhimes, will place on Dr. Bennett’s new single mom status is an open question.

 

Thursdays

 

 

Grey’s Anatomy [16] – Season four premieres on Sept. 27, 9-10 p.m., Thursdays on ABC.

Season three of the mega-hit “Grey’s Anatomy” concluded with newly-betrothed chief resident Callie Torres (Sara Ramirez) announcing she wanted to have a baby, even though she just earned a highly-coveted promotion. Meanwhile, Dr. Miranda Bailey (Emmy-nominated Chandra Wilson), who competed with Torres for the promotion, spent the season being penalized professionally for becoming a mother. Mommy Track’d hopes that “Grey’s” will continue to fearlessly explore the realities of working motherhood [16], particularly in the high-pressured world of medicine, and give a bit more screen time to Dr. Bailey [16].

To watch last season’s episodes online, go to the ABC [17] web site.

 

Fridays

 

 

Friday Night Lights [18] – Season two premieres on Oct. 5, 9-10 p.m., Fridays on NBC.

 

Yeah, yeah. It’s that football show. But “Friday Night Lights” is more than just a show about touchdowns and field goals. One the drama’s crucial characters is Tami Taylor (Connie Britton [19]) -- wife of

Texas high school football coach Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler) -- a high school guidance counselor and mom of a teenager. “Friday Night Lights’” freshman season ended with the coach accepting a collegiate job in another town, while his wife, who just learned she was pregnant, insisted that she would stay in the family’s home in the small

Texas town until their daughter finished high school, despite her husband’s objections. This season will commence just as she’s about to give birth while she and her husband are living in two different communities.

You can play catch-up at the NBC [20] web site which has videos of all the season one episodes.