Fall network lineups take nostalgic turn

With scores of new shows premiering over the next few weeks, the fall television season redefines eclectic: Fairy tale themes! Unlikely roommates! Witches and ghosts! Hilarious parents! High-tech paranoia! Dinosaurs!

Yet winding through it all is a curious sense of nostalgia, as if writers and network execs were sharing a collective Facebookian desire to resurrect old relationships, to reconnect viewers with the people we once knew and the people we once were.

Certainly the midlife career renaissance continues, at least among white males between ages 50 and 70.

Following in the footsteps of Ed O’Neill and Craig T. Nelson, Tim Allen returns to active duty as a comedic paterfamilias, this time in ABC’s “Last Man Standing” (premieres Oct. 11, 8 p.m.).

Ted Danson, who has illuminated cable in the past few years on “Damages,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “Bored to Death,” has decided to go not just network, but network franchise, joining “CSI” (returns Wednesday, 10 p.m., CBS) to replace Laurence Fishburne.

And a season after his “Boston Legal” spouse, William Shatner, came and went with “$#*! My Dad Says,” James Spader returns to TV, replacing Steve Carell on “The Office” (returns Thursday, 9 p.m., NBC).

The biggest reunion buzz surrounds Sarah Michelle Gellar, who helped save and change the world with “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” After years away from the small screen, she’s making up for lost time by doing double duty in CW’s twin-themed mystery-thriller-soap “Ringer” (premiered Tuesday, 10 p.m.).

Entire shows of yesteryear are returning as well. Figuring that if “Hawaii Five-O” can do it, anyone can do it, ABC has straight-up remade “Charlie’s Angels” (premiering Thursday, 8 p.m.) while NBC attempts to Americanize the British hit “Prime Suspect,” starring Maria Bello (Thursday, 10 p.m.).

Other, more diffuse apparitions of television past abound. If you squint just a little you can find “Charmed” in CW’s “The Secret Circle” (premiered Thursday, 10 p.m.), “Dallas” in ABC’s “Revenge” (premieres Wednesday, 10 p.m.) and “Laverne & Shirley” meets “Kate & Allie” in CBS’ “2 Broke Girls” (Monday, 8:30 p.m.).

Not to be outdone, yesteryear itself is also making an appearance. ABC and NBC deliver glamorized, stylized versions of the 1960s with “Pan Am” (premieres Sept. 25, 10 p.m.) and “The Playboy Club” (Monday, 10 p.m.).

If the ’60s aren’t quite “long, long time ago” enough for you, ABC’s “Once Upon a Time” (premieres Oct. 23, 8 p.m.) and NBC’s “Grimm” (Oct. 21, 9 p.m.) bridge the worlds between ancient and modern, adult and child.

And Fox’s “Terra Nova” (preview Sept. 26, premiere Oct. 3, 8 p.m.), bearing the ultimate Golden Age imprint of Steven Spielberg, envisions the world as it was 85 million years ago. Now that’s nostalgia.

Some of this is simply a combination of business and chance. Every year, an icon or two returns from the world of film or self-industry-imposed retirement to much hue and cry – Betty White, anyone?

Likewise, there’s a remake or two in the mix every season, and certainly the huge cultural footprint the ’60s period drama “Mad Men” has managed to leave despite its consistently small audience makes it perfect network knockoff fodder.

Yet there seems to be something at work beyond the usual pattern of reuse and recycle. Trapped as we are in the sucking, pestilent swamp of political and economic woes, it is understandable that Americans would long for that elusive Simpler Time when traveling by air was an adventure and realistic-looking dinosaurs were revolutionary.

Only CBS’ “Person of Interest” (premieres Thursday, 9 p.m.) takes on current events directly. Apparently, in the eyes of the networks, we can’t handle the truth. Or maybe they feel that things are complicated enough.

What could be more familiar and soothing than the return of Sarah Michelle Gellar, a Tim Allen sitcom or a “Charlie’s Angels” reboot?