Don Draper

Finally, Baltimore gets a chance to look good on prime time TV - and it's on the most stylish and honored drama on television no less. It's the Baltimore of the 1960s, unfortunately, not Baltimore today. But nevertheless, Baltimore is featured prominently in the Aug. 16 premiere episode of Season 3 of AMC's Mad Men, last year's winner of the Emmy as the best drama on television. And what viewers will see of the city - from Haussner's restaurant to the Belvedere Hotel - makes Baltimore look like a first-rate East Coast urban center with good hotels, restaurants, night life and thriving businesses.

The Starter Wife, a hit cable miniseries that garnered 10 Emmy nominations, arrives tonight as a weekly series on USA. Debra Messing reprises her role as Molly Kagan, ex-wife of a show-biz mogul forced to navigate the shark-infested straits of Hollywood with only a little help from a few select friends and a 7-year-old daughter. One of the friends is played by the divine Judy Davis, who won an Emmy for her work in the miniseries and, happily, has signed on for the season. (9 tonight, USA)

WELCOME BACK Real Time with Bill Maher returns to HBO tonight just in time for one of the country's most daring political comedians to share his thoughts on the Democratic and Republican conventions. No one on mainstream TV goes where Maher does, and the medium is better for it. Maher's show will air weekly through the November election. No preview available. (11 tonight, HBO) GET MAD ON SUNDAY Mad Men is on a terrific run. The past two episodes ended in scenes set in the home of Madison Avenue ad man Don Draper (Jon Hamm)

Advertising executive Don Draper (Jon Hamm) is having health concerns and a sudden problem in bed. His strikingly beautiful wife, Betty Draper (January Jones), meanwhile, is feeling feminist Betty Friedan's "nameless aching discontent" worse than ever in their suburban Connecticut life, and has taken up horseback riding and flirting with strangers to try and fill the void. Copywriter Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss) has a most unwelcome office mate, as well as a host of problems in her new role as unwed mother.