The family hour makes a comeback

Fall, and the leaves are just yellowing. But inside on the tube, the new season is just blossoming. It's a pretty good season, really – although there's not too much in the way of breakthrough TV.

But at least families are back in force (nearly half of the 34 new shows are family oriented, with an emphasis on multiple generations trying to get along). That said, not all of these programs are really suitable for children.

Then there is a remarkable upsurge in cool filmmaking techniques on nearly all the cop dramas this season. Sharp camera work, sometimes excellent compositions, and inventive visual storytelling are the modus operandi among the 10 new crime shows.

Still, despite the fancy camerawork, I came up short when trying to compile a Top 10 list of the best new shows. So here, then, is my Top Nine, as well as my picks for the biggest waste of entertainment dollars.

1 American Dreams (NBC, Sundays, 8-9 p.m., beginning Sept. 29): So much happened so fast in the early 1960s, we're still reeling. And this family drama puts a human face on those vast and complicated cultural transformations. Two families, one white and one black, struggle to find meaning as the upheaval begins with the death of President Kennedy. In the white family, the teenage daughter just wants to dance on "American Bandstand" (clips from the original are woven throughout), her brother rebels against his father's expectations, and their mother finds out she can think for herself. Racism and integration haunt the black family as the young son wins a scholarship to a white parochial high school. Fine acting, fascinating characters, and excellent writing bode well for the season.

2 Everwood (The WB, Mondays, 9-10 p.m., beginning Sept. 16): The Frog network presents yet another outstanding family drama (with plenty of comic relief). A world-famous neurosurgeon (played with layered, authentic sensitivity by Treat Williams) suddenly loses his wife and finds himself having to face his failures as a father. He moves the family to the one place in the world his wife loved best – a small mountain community in Colorado, and opens a family practice. But the show is really about learning to understand the individuals who are his children – a rebellious teenage son and a broken-hearted little daughter. The children's roles are written with genuine understanding and respect. If the series holds up to the pilot's promise, it's a hit.

3 Push, Nevada (ABC, Thursdays, 9-10 p.m., beginning Sept. 17): Ben Affleck's involvement as producer for this daring, high-energy mystery ensures that something exciting will happen through the season. As weird as "Twin Peaks," but with a much better soul, this interactive mystery (it's a game, too) includes a truly unlikely hero, an IRS accountant named Jim A. Prufrock (as in T.S. Eliot's J. Alfred Prufrock) who investigates the disappearance of a casino fortune. Fabulous visual effects, daring camera work, a surreal array of characters worthy of Fellini, and super-cool writing make this one of the most engaging new series.

4 Hack(CBS, Fridays, 9-10 p.m., beginning Sept. 27): The premise is right out of Dostoyevsky. David Morse plays a disgraced policeman, now driving a cab, who is still making excuses for his criminal behavior. But something in him drives him to expiate his crime by rescuing an assortment of unlovable but upright citizens – albeit using semilegal tricks of the trade. Morse is brilliant. And Andre Braugher, as the cabbie's ex-partner, gives such a layered performance that his character's conscience shines through his apparent hypocrisy. This is an amazing cast; let's hope the writers work out the kinks and give our modern Raskolnikov scripts worthy of the subject.

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