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Reruns of "Fantasy Island" and "Wonder Woman," a pet show with a dog named Jack as co-host, and a morning show featuring lots of coffee and chat.This is the brave, new future of cable TV?Well, part of it, if you believe what Rupert Murdoch and Fox say about their new cable channel, fX, which arrives today. With 18 million viewer households, it's the largest launch ever for a basic cable channel.Fox calls it a "fresh, new approach to television." But there's not much evidence of that in the preview material Fox made available.

Midseason used to be a time for networks to put on series that weren't good enough to make the fall lineup. The thinking was: The money has been spent to make these episodes, so let's try to get something out of them by plugging them for shows that have bombed. But thanks to cable and huge changes in the way that people access and watch TV, midseason is in many ways now the best season for TV viewing. This is especially true when it comes to drama, the genre that network television has by and large abandoned to cable, PBS and now Web operations like Netflix because it has been deemed too expensive and risky for efficient (read: cheap)

A few years ago, it looked like Court TV was all about courtrooms, FX Network was for tough guys, and AMC ran only movies. In the coming months, however, cable TV viewers will start to see things change. Court TV has just become TruTV. FX ads will explain "There is no box" that its shows fit into. And AMC will launch its third original scripted program. As cable TV has exploded into hundreds of channels, networks must grow increasingly sophisticated to stand out amid the competition and maintain their double-digit annual growth.

I don't like Charlie Sheen, and I thought the online mania over him last year after he was fired by CBS was a sign from God that American culture was in a very bad place and needed divine intervention to be saved. Given the political landscape these days, I'm not feeling any better about American culture, but I like Sheen's new FX sitcom "Anger Management"  a lot more than I thought I would. "Not only do I like it, as in, "Gee, that was a lot more fun to watch than 95 percent of the braindead network sitcoms I screen," I am impressed by it, as in, "Yikes, this thing actually looks like it might have something to say about American life today.

New York -- Patty Hewes frightens Glenn Close. No wonder: Hewes is an ice-eyed trial lawyer and serpentine liar who disdains white-collar violence in favor of open sadism. She never settles for $100 million, in other words, when she can put everyone through hell for a nickel more. But Close is Patty Hewes, the central character in Damages, a cloak-and-dagger legal thriller that begins Tuesday on FX. In 40 years in theater and movies, Close has appeared as Norma Desmond, Cruella de Vil and Alex Forrest, the Medusa-haired bunny boiler of Fatal Attraction.

Michael Chiklis (above) stars as corrupt cop Vic Mackey in the fifth-season premiere of The Shield (10 p.m.-11 p.m., FX).

Merrill Lynch leads in munisMerrill Lynch & Co. ranked first among municipal bond underwriters in 1993 as the federal government investigated the industry's sales practices.Merrill managed 458 bond issues totaling $34.8 billion this year, according to preliminary figures from Securities Data Co./Bond Buyer. Those issues accounted for 12.3 percent of the total $284 billion of municipal bonds sold through Thursday. Merrill overtook Goldman, Sachs & Co., which ranked first among municipal underwriters last year.

One of the most oft-asked questions of a film critic, especially this summer, is, "How does this stuff get made?" "This stuff," of course, refers to the dreck that regularly opens at the googol-plex every Friday. How it gets made is chronicled with vicious, mean-spirited, hilarious cynicism in "Action," a failed Fox comedy series that started rebroadcast on the FX Networks cable channel June 20. The first eight episodes of the show, which stars Jay Mohr as a rapacious movie producer and Illeana Douglas as a prostitute-turned-development-executive, chronicled the greed, lust and narcissism that fuel the movie business.

Damages gets an all-day marathon today; its season finale airs Tuesday. While the intricately plotted legal thriller starring Glenn Close and Ted Danson has garnered a passionate following, the viewership has not been as sizable as FX had hoped, putting the show's return in doubt. But network executives promise there will be a satisfying conclusion. And one factor that could persuade FX to give the program a second shot: the possibility that the drama will rack up some major awards. (8 a.m.-8 p.m., FX)

During this most holy of college basketball weeks, Fox is stealing some of CBS' thunder with a former hoopster turned baseball man.The network is expected to announce today that Dave Winfield has been signed as a studio analyst for the network's baseball coverage, which begins in early June with a weekly game.Winfield, who played baseball, basketball and football at the University of Minnesota, played for a host of major-league teams, most notably the New York Yankees, and most recently with the Cleveland Indians, from whom he retired after last season.

Plan your schedule with our list of everything going on this week. MOVIES OPENING (Friday) Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star Contagion Creature Life, Above All Warrior NOTABLE TV Monday: O's v. Yankees (1:05 p.m; MASN) When Pop Culture Saved America (special; 8 p.m.; Bio) Real Housewives of Beverly Hills (season premiere; 9 p.m.; Bravo) Patton Oswalt: Finest Hour (special; 9 p.m.; Showtime)  The Glades (season finale; 10 p.m.; A&E)

LOS ANGELES - There's big news from the Television Critics Association press tour regarding Damages: Ted Danson will be back as Arthur Frobisher on the FX show. His performance in Season 1 as the arrogant capitalist was one of the high points of the show, so that's great news. As to whether Frobisher survived being shot at the end of Season 1, well, that's not clear. FX president and general manager John Landgraf said during his remarks that Frobisher did survive, but the Damages creators would only say that because the series moves backward and forward in time, it's possible that we'll see Frobisher in a flashback when the show returns early next year.

A few years ago, it looked like Court TV was all about courtrooms, FX Network was for tough guys, and AMC ran only movies. In the coming months, however, cable TV viewers will start to see things change. Court TV has just become TruTV. FX ads will explain "There is no box" that its shows fit into. And AMC will launch its third original scripted program. As cable TV has exploded into hundreds of channels, networks must grow increasingly sophisticated to stand out amid the competition and maintain their double-digit annual growth.

Damages gets an all-day marathon today; its season finale airs Tuesday. While the intricately plotted legal thriller starring Glenn Close and Ted Danson has garnered a passionate following, the viewership has not been as sizable as FX had hoped, putting the show's return in doubt. But network executives promise there will be a satisfying conclusion. And one factor that could persuade FX to give the program a second shot: the possibility that the drama will rack up some major awards. (8 a.m.-8 p.m., FX)

On September 7, 2007, in Warfordsburg, PA, "Dink". Dink was born March 4, 1950 in Baltimore, MD. Surviving is his son Brian K. Holmes and daughter Nicole D. Jenkins and grandson Nicolas D. Linthicum, daughter-in-law Jo-Jo and son-in-law Brian. Services were private.

New York -- Patty Hewes frightens Glenn Close. No wonder: Hewes is an ice-eyed trial lawyer and serpentine liar who disdains white-collar violence in favor of open sadism. She never settles for $100 million, in other words, when she can put everyone through hell for a nickel more. But Close is Patty Hewes, the central character in Damages, a cloak-and-dagger legal thriller that begins Tuesday on FX. In 40 years in theater and movies, Close has appeared as Norma Desmond, Cruella de Vil and Alex Forrest, the Medusa-haired bunny boiler of Fatal Attraction.

Plan your schedule with our list of everything going on this week. MOVIES OPENING (Friday) Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star Contagion Creature Life, Above All Warrior NOTABLE TV Monday: O's v. Yankees (1:05 p.m; MASN) When Pop Culture Saved America (special; 8 p.m.; Bio) Real Housewives of Beverly Hills (season premiere; 9 p.m.; Bravo) Patton Oswalt: Finest Hour (special; 9 p.m.; Showtime)  The Glades (season finale; 10 p.m.; A&E)

Not long ago, if a network or cable channel scheduled the premiere of a new TV series in winter -- rather than the fall -- it was tantamount to a kiss of death. But these days, TV executives frequently save their top-draw fare -- think Fox's American Idol and 24 -- for what's being called television's "second season." The strategy, which was pioneered by HBO and honed in recent years by Fox, is a direct response to the revved-up, all-year-round competition catalyzed by aggressive cable programming and the demands of an audience armed with new digital viewing options such as TiVo.

Mom is a heroin addict fresh out of prison chugging codeine cough syrup in hopes of staving off the shakes. Dad is a con man without a hint of a conscience who gives new meaning to the term "identity thief." And then there are the three children, the youngest of whom is a brilliant 12-year-old boy who draws beautifully, dresses in his sister's clothes and is a world-class pickpocket. Say hello to the new-millennium, all-American family -- prime-time cable television style. In this case, it's the Malloys, of the new FX series The Riches, which premieres tonight.

Not long ago, if a network or cable channel scheduled the premiere of a new TV series in winter -- rather than the fall -- it was tantamount to a kiss of death. But these days, TV executives frequently save their top-draw fare -- think Fox's American Idol and 24 -- for what's being called television's "second season." The strategy, which was pioneered by HBO and honed in recent years by Fox, is a direct response to the revved-up, all-year-round competition catalyzed by aggressive cable programming and the demands of an audience armed with new digital viewing options such as TiVo.