Returning shows hope to shake up viewers

"Desperate Housewives"
One of the most surprising spring finales came from "Desperate Housewives," which leapt forward five years in the closing moments, suddenly finding Susan with a new guy (Gale Harold, of "Queer As Folk"), Gabby with children, Bree back with Orson and running a successful business, and Lynette still fighting an apparently losing battle with her own troublemaking brats.

The five-year jump is sticking in the fall; this is no temporary glitch in the space-time continuum. Susan's now-former husband Mike will still be around, though not with Susan. While the changes may be jarring for viewers, jumping forward could be a smart choice. "Housewives" doesn't rely on tightly respected realism; it's a cartoon, and when you run out of cartoon scenarios, you need new ones, and you get them however you can.

"House"
Last season marked big changes on "House" as Cameron, Chase and Foreman moved on to new roles and House picked up new assistants through a too-long but mostly interesting "Apprentice"-style process. (He also got Foreman back in the end.) But by the close of the season, Amber, one of the candidates who wasn't chosen, played the biggest part in the devastating finale.

FOX Hey, House, did you wash your hands first?

Amber, who had become Wilson's girlfriend after flunking out with House for being too much like him, was killed by a fatal combination of flu medicine and trauma-induced kidney failure after she came to rescue a drunk House from a bar and they wound up in a bus crash. Wilson, House's best friend — perhaps his only real friend — will presumably take some time to forgive House for his part in setting up the circumstances that led to her death. Previews suggest that the freeze-out is not total: House and Wilson are talking, but Wilson is threatening to pack up and leave the hospital, if not the state.

Meanwhile, Thirteen learned at the end of the season that she has the gene for Huntington's Disease, the same debilitating disorder that killed her mother, so viewers can expect fallout from that. Showrunner David Shore has also promised a new character: a private detective who will help House with the breaking and entering into patient's homes that he enjoys so much. As for Cameron and Chase, who showed up erratically last season in frustratingly fleeting ways, Shore told the Star-Ledger in an interview this summer that he's still working on ways to use them better. Hopefully, no more bus accidents.

"How I Met Your Mother"
In the conventional sense, the big cliffhanger of the season finale was Ted's proposal to maybe-mother, maybe-not Stella (Sarah Chalke). She's got to say yes, or no, or maybe, so the ramifications of the proposal presumably reverberate in the early episodes.

Eric Mccandless / FOX Will "How I Met Your Mother" let Barney find true love?

More intriguing, however, was the moment when Barney, laid up after an accident, implied with a jarringly warm gaze that he has realized that he may be in love with Robin — the only woman he has ever treated as a "bro." In a great example of a show being limber and smart enough to capitalize on chemistry it didn't anticipate, the show will be challenged to give Barney a new dimension without messing with any of the existing, awesome ones.

Regis Philbin is already confirmed for a guest appearance, and Chalke will be around for at least the first handful of episodes. Nobody seems to know for sure whether she's the mother, and hints drop in all directions. Producer Craig Thomas also recently confirmed that this season will find Robin moving in with Ted for at least some period of time. How that will be accomplished remains to be seen, but with Jason Segel ("Forgetting Sarah Marshall") and Neil Patrick Harris ("Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog") having had very big summers, the show comes back with some natural buzz that will perhaps allow it to take its rightful place well ahead of "Two And A Half Men" in the national consciousness.

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