This year's TV heroes

Network TV tends to follow success, so it's looking for a few more heroes. Make that Heroes. And Ugly Bettys. And Sharks.

In a season with few real breakout hits -- nothing resembling the way Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives or Lost shook up previous seasons -- Heroes, Betty and Shark were the only new entries that could be considered more than cult successes. Some quality stuff debuted -- Friday Night Lights, 30 Rock, Men in Trees, Jericho -- but most of them struggled, and Jericho isn't even coming back. CBS introduced four new series last fall; only one of them will be around next fall.

Veteran series also faltered, with Fox's 24 and American Idol off in quality and ratings, and NBC's Law & Order barely escaping the cancellation ax. Serial dramas -- all the rage last fall as networks tried to duplicate the successes of Lost and 24 -- put too many demands on viewers' time, although much-praised shows such as NBC's Kidnapped and CBS' Smith barely got a chance to catch viewers' attention in the first place.

As the networks announced their 2007-08 schedules last week, earnest family dramas along the lines of the just-bowed-out 7th Heaven were missing, replaced by throwbacks to glitzy '80s soaps. Sitcoms about families are also starting to become extinct, with The King of Queens saying goodbye and According to Jim in limbo. Next season, expect the offbeat, the ironic, the supernatural -- shows that follow in the footsteps of what got attention this year.

Here's a look at what worked and what didn't this season:

Five reasons this is a great job

1. Friday Night Lights, NBC:Initially, it looked like a watered-down version of the movie and book. But somewhere along the line, the writers started coming up with compelling story lines about small-town life, and the actors rose to the challenge of plots about teen sex, steroids, absentee fathers and overcoming handicaps. The acting is uniformly the best on television, but especially noteworthy are Connie Britton as independent-but-supportive coach's wife Tami Taylor and Scott Porter as Jason Street, the self-pitying but defiant quarterback.

2. The Sopranos, HBO: I haven't always been in line with the "best-show-ever" worship heaped on this series (it isn't even the best show on HBO -- The Wire is). But as its final episodes air, it's as good as it's ever been, with creator David Chase still able to stun you (Tony kills Christopher and then lies to everyone about it!) while examining the themes that fascinate him: death, aging, money, sex, loyalty, family. It's not the best series ever -- but it might be the most ambitious.

3. Heroes, NBC, andSmallville, CW: In a season with so many failed serial dramas, these two comic-book-inspired series have managed to be prime examples of long-form storytelling, the one area where TV can always whip movies. Both are about people grappling with unexpected changes within themselves, what it means to be a hero and what it means simply to grow up. I still give the edge to Smallville, which has steadily built the Clark Kent-vs.-Lex Luthor mythology during its seven-year run, but Heroes' first season was a cracking-good tale.

4. 30 Rock, NBC,and Slings & Arrows, Sundance Channel: Both series are backstage comedies that avoid the predictable, particularly 30 Rock, which has spared us any births, weddings, deaths or Ross-and-Rachel will-they-or-won't-they relationships and just gone for increasingly surreal laughs. Slings & Arrows, a Canadian import about a troubled Shakespeare troupe that always gets the show to go on, is the kind of obscurity that critics get evangelical about. This season comes out on DVD on July 3, but really, start from the beginning, especially if you care anything about theater.

5. Planet Earth, Discovery Channel: Just when you think you've seen all the nature shows you can handle, along comes this astonishing, just-made-for-high-def entry, an 11-hour series that features a different world habitat in every episode. Painstakingly filmed, with cinematography that makes a shark attacking a sea lion look like one of the most beautiful paintings you've ever seen, it immediately rendered other wildlife series anachronistic. It's also on DVD, in its original BBC version -- which is even better.

Honorable mentions: The Office, NBC; Rome, HBO; Battlestar Galactica, Sci-Fi Channel; How I Met Your Mother, CBS; The Riches and The Shield, FX; Jericho, CBS; Supernatural, CW

Five reasons this job is still work

1. Old friends who disappoint you. What the heck happened to 24 this year? Jack (Kiefer Sutherland) disappearing from one episode for nearly 25 minutes? Chloe (Mary Lynn Rajskub) turning into the whiny middle of an office love triangle? Audrey returning in a kidnapping plotline because her ABC series got canceled? Former President Logan and his crazy wife returning, just so she can stab him right before they disappear from the plot again? Jack's dad and brother, whom we'd never heard about in five previous seasons, both being evil? I thought some of my other longtime faves -- Gilmore Girls, Veronica Mars, Scrubs -- were a little off, but they were nowhere near as wide of the mark as 24's worst season.

2.American Idol. Not saying it's the worst series on the air, although the final contestants were so dull that they made you miss Sanjaya Malakar's off-key antics. Just saying that if I weren't doing this job, I wouldn't watch this show. And it's even worse if you live with someone who can't stand it.

3. Anna Nicole mania. Is the mysterious death of a small-town girl who becomes famous a legitimate story? Yes. Does it deserve to dominate every half-hour of cable news as every piece of minutiae is detailed? No. And considering that it was a sleazy reality series that made Anna Nicole Smith really famous, the whole thing is a sad statement on the ways we waste our time.

4. New friends who disappoint you. Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip started with the best premiere of the fall -- vibrantly directed by Thomas Schlamme, eloquently written by Aaron Sorkin, well-acted by its cast. But Sorkin's soap-box tendencies quickly showed themselves, and they were at their worst as the show became preachy, self-important and self-righteous. Given time, the show could have redeemed itself, but it turned too many people off too quickly to have a chance.

5. May sweeps. As a reader recently wrote, remember when shows just ended their seasons? Now it's practically impossible to get through May without viewing a slew of weddings, births, deaths and cliffhangers. I think I've seen more TV weddings this month than I've been to real weddings in my entire life. Once upon a time, these big events were more rare and more fun; now they've become tiresome cliches.

Guilty pleasures

Two and a Half Men, CBS; Boston Legal, ABC; David Caruso in CSI: Miami, CBS; The Soup, E!; Best Week Ever and countdown shows, VH1; just about anything on Food Network

Five great performances

1. Connie Britton, Friday Night Lights. Britton, who has no children in real life, is passionately convincing as Tami Taylor, the coach's wife who refuses to stay in the background -- and as school counselor has had as much effect on her small town as her husband has. Britton and Aimee Teegarden, who plays her teenage daughter, Julie, had the TV scene of the year when Tami tries to talk Julie out of a plan to have sex -- and Julie blithely doesn't listen, much to Tami's anguish.

2. Sally Field, Brothers & Sisters. If the name of the show is Brothers & Sisters, how come the best character is the mom? Every time I argue with a fan about how self-conscious this show's writing is, they come back with, "Yeah, but I love Sally Field." And as Nora Walker, the matriarch and anchor of a seriously dysfunctional family, she's been a balancing influence, a warm adviser, a person who won't take any guff and someone who's empathetic enough to feel the pain of people who have done her wrong.

3. Minnie Driver, The Riches. Once saddled with loyal-girlfriend roles in movies like Good Will Hunting and Grosse Pointe Blank, Driver has found her inner lioness as Dahlia Malloy, the fiercely protective, pill-popping mother in a family of con artists. To be fair, Driver gets a big boost from co-star Eddie Izzard, who plays Dahlia's twist-talking husband, but Driver's toughness is the real revelation here.

4. Mark Indelicato, Ugly Betty. True, America Ferrera is deservedly this show's breakout star, and she does a great job of putting across Betty's can't-be-defeated spunk. But I have to give props to Indelicato for his performance as Justin, Betty's fashion- and theater-obsessed nephew. The role may be a stereotype (most roles on Betty are), but 12-year-old Indelicato pulls it off with panache, and his re-creation of the plot of Hairspray on a stalled subway train was one of this season's highlights.

5. Michael Emerson, Lost. As bug-eyed Ben, the leader of "The Others," Emerson has been increasingly slippery and creepy as the season goes on. Sure, Ben's motives are murky -- why couldn't he just ask for spinal surgery, instead of coercing it out of survivor leader Jack? -- and he's at the center of a drama that often doesn't seem to know where it's going. But Emerson's cool-voiced portrayal of a crazy person keeps Lost's unsettling elements alive.

R.I.P.

Show division

These 2006-07 series won't be around for 2007-08. Some left voluntarily. Most didn't. Except where noted, all lasted less than a season -- especially-short runs are also noted.

ABC

Day Break

George Lopez (six seasons)

In Case of Emergency

Knights of Prosperity

Six Degrees

The Nine

What About Brian (two seasons)

CBS

Close to Home (two seasons)

Jericho (one full season, cliffhanger ending)

Smith (three episodes)

The Class (one full season)

The King of Queens (nine seasons)

3 Lbs. (three episodes)

CW

All of Us (two seasons)

Gilmore Girls (seven seasons)

Reba (six seasons)

Runaway

7th Heaven (11 seasons)

Veronica Mars (three seasons)

Fox

Drive

Happy Hour (two episodes)

Standoff

The O.C. (four seasons)

The Wedding Bells

The Winner

Vanished

NBC

Crossing Jordan (six seasons)

Twenty Good Years

Identity

Kidnapped

Raines

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip

The Black Donnellys

The Real Wedding Crashers

R.I.P.

Character division

More than a dozen regular or recurring characters were killed off during this season, continuing a trend that is quickly becoming stale. Here are five that were actually shocking.

1. Christopher Moltisanti (Michael Imperioli), The Sopranos (suffocated by Tony Soprano after a car wreck -- Tony leads everyone to believe that the wreck killed Christopher)

2. William Walker (Tom Skerritt), Brothers & Sisters (heart attack/drowning in first episode, setting into motion the events of the entire season)

3. Nora Huntington (Kiersten Warren), Desperate Housewives (shot during hostage situation in supermarket in "Bang," arguably the best episode in the series' history)

4. Johnston Green (Gerald McRaney, Jericho (beloved former mayor shot during battle with people from "enemy" town New Bern)

5. Sheriff Don Lamb (former Euless resident Michael Muhney), Veronica Mars (clubbed on the head while investigating break-in)