Well, the new Fall TV season kick in tomorrow, more or less, though programs will be premiering in dribs and drabs over the course of the next month or so. But before we get too caught up in these new shows and our returning favorites, we need to take a minute out and pray to the king of prematurely canceled programs.

Dear Sports Night,
We know you provided valuable exposure to some terrific actors in your short run, and for that we thank you. Without you, we might never have seen again Peter Krause, Joshua Malina, Felicity Huffman or that girl who played Natalie. For that we are thankful. We are thankful also that you continue to be available as a DVD box set and we know that while we all do not own it, the ones of us that don't are totally going to follow this link to Amazon right now and at least put you in our shopping carts, because, man, what good writing, directing and all-around story-telling you had, even if only over 45 episodes.

We come to you in supplication at the beginning of this new TV season. We understand that television is a business and as such underperforming shows, no matter how awesome, will be canceled. We accept this, Sports Night, as best we can. But, still, we call upon you and other great shows past, like your nerdy brother Freaks and Geeks and your gleefully retarded cousin, Futurama to help secure our current favorites another full season order.

However, we also understand some shows will be canceled unfairly and that some shows will go inexplicable uncanceled. We pray that you deign to intercede on our behalf and preserve brilliant shows this season, unlike the travesties perpetrated last season on the standouts Reunion, Invasion and Heist. Help us understand that all great TV series go on to play on the big super-station in the sky, regardless of how long their run was and that no matter how many seasons Will & Grace got, it won't ever make in on.

May you please take into yourself this year shows that long ago peaked, such as the absurd E.R., as you did last season when you gave the former heavy-hitter The West Wing, created by your own Aaron Sorkin and Tommy Schlamme, a fittingly excellent final season before sending it off into that good night, even if that night wasn't a Wednesday, like it should've been. And please oversee Sorkin and Schlamme's new TV-related project, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, which looks to have boundless potential. Hopefully it will not meet the same end you did.

Though we are still confused and scared by the cancellation of Arrested Development, we implore you to not forsake us and to preserve other off-beat, single camera comedies with underperforming ratings, like My Name Is Earl and The Office, and please let Scrubs return to the glory of its former episodes (showing now in syndication twice a night on Comedy Central) after a wacky and lacking fifth season.

We understand why people think TV comedy is dead, given that shitty shows such as 'Til Death and Happy Hour and 20 Good Years continue to get heavily promoted, but please preserve last season's new-show gem, How I Met Your Mother. May you keep it strong and inventive and not let its new lead-in damage it. May you also preserve all other quality shows from schedule-shift damage, and aid everyone in finding, should they so wish, their local CW affiliate so they might watch a newly renovated Gilmore Girls and/or Veronica Mars and hopefully not Half and Half.

Sports Night, also let us continue to find excellent programs that we may have missed out on thus-far through the amazing phenomenon of DVD on TV, which brought me, personally, winners in the past year such as House.

And finally, if any shows are taken from us, let them be taken with no unaired episodes in the can.

In the name of the the broadcast network, syndication and the DVD box set, we come to you, praying as we have been taught:
Live from New York, I'm Dan Rydel, here alongside Casey McCall, those stories plus...

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Previous prayers for new TV seasons: Fall 2005, Midseason 2005/6.