Monday marked the start of network TV "upfront" presentations, where the new season's schedule is unveiled. It's when you learn what new shows are coming and what old ones are getting the axe.

(NOTE: I've not seen any of the pilots, wasn't at the presentation, and have no knowledge of any of this other than things I read on and linked from the TV Barn web site. I'm going to mock them just the same.)

NBC got to go first this year, undoubtedly reveling in the fact that they get one more year of Friends. Among the shows getting the axe were the Latino Sopranos-knock off Kingpin, Watching Ellie, and Just Shoot Me, which I think I forgot was even still on the air.

New shows include a Whoopi Goldberg sitcom that was described as being in the vein of Norman Lear. Which is fine, until you realize that Lear's last bona fide hit was in 1976. I'm looking forward to the renewed frank discussion of liberal causes in sitcom form, because there's not enough left-leaning talk on TV nowadays.

There's also a sitcom pairing John Laroquette and Christine Baranski, which makes one hope they lay in a good supply of scenery for them to chew. Both this show and Whoopi's will air on Tuesday, trying to help Frasier end gracefully. Of course, to have done that right Frasier would have had to have gone off the air in 2001.

Seriously, though, how pissed off do the Frasier people have to be that they have to share their final season with Friends? Now they'll just be a footnote to the end of the next TV season, a quiet clutch of people sipping lattes while the cool kids get the big bash in a trendy New York hot spot.

(Oh, Good Morning, Miami and L&O:SVU will also move to Tuesday.)

The third new sitcom is a US version of the racy British show Coupling, which stars a sexy sextet of people we've never heard of. Kind of like Union Station meets Men Behaving Badly. There is apparently a second-most sexy sextet out there, as the show's already been re-cast once. Expect the original hotties to wind up on the WB as student teachers on Smallville or something.

Three new dramas will air as well. One is Rob Lowe's golden parachute for leaving The West Wing, They Lyon's Den, where Lowe plays a crusading Washington attorney from a politically connected family. Shows whose titles play on a character's name always do so well, don't they? Remember The Wright Verdicts? No? See. Seriously, though, I expect this show to merge with Mr. Sterling some time over the holidays without anyone noticing.

(Actually, Mr. Sterling isn't to be found on the schedule anywhere. Perhaps it'll be a mid-season switcheroo instead of a melding.)

Also on the drama front are Vegas, starring James Caan as a casino security director. It's like they put Law & Order, CSI, and Lucky in a blender. Then there's the aptly-named Miss Match starring, I kid you not, Alicia Silverstone and Ryan O'Neil as daughter and father. She's a divorce attorney by day, high-priced yenta by night. He's, well, her dad.

Two shows return that make members of the Blogalicious community happy. Boomtown, a fave of Chris Rosenberg, will return, as will Ed, a personal fave. Oddly enough, Ed returns to Wednesday at 8 after having some success on Friday at 9. The now-Jane Pauleyless Dateline will take that spot, just after the aforementioned Miss Match.

The other notable news is that we're going to get at least 3 more years of ER, meaning that there's enough time to change the entire cast twice. Except for Noah Wylie and Laura Innes, who have now learned the drawback to signing a contract in blood.

Thinking positively, though, I've read that Parminder Nagra, the star of Bend it Like Beckham, is going to appear on the show next season as a med student. Which would be promising, until you realize that the med student played by Omar Epps killed himself, while Kellie Martin's Lucy Knight got slashed to death. Uh oh.