On "Law & Order," the mother ship of a franchise that enters its 17th season Friday at 10 p.m., Dennis Farina is out as the partner of Jesse L. Martin's character, Detective Ed Green. Last season they killed off the assistant district attorney played by Annie Parisse.

Milena Govich is Green's new colleagu e, Detective Nina Cassady, or, as she is known around the 27th Precinct, Detective Beauty Queen. The first order to Cassady from the boss of the homicide squad, S. Epatha Merkerson as Lt. Anita Van Buren: "Shut up, watch and learn."

Alana De La Garza, last seen as David Caruso's bride, who was shot to death by a sniper on "CSI: Miami," succeeds Parisse as the ADA working with Sam Waterston's Jack McCoy. De La Garza as Connie Rubirosa introduces herself in that role by stating she's made straight A's since the first grade.

"Law & Order," shuffled off to Fridays at 10 p.m., a Death Valley time slot, appears to be on life support, judging by this season's first episode about paparazzi run amok. It's weak.

Gone is Annabella Sciorra, who last season was partnered with Chris Noth's Detective Mike Logan. They had zero chemistry. Her replacement is Julianne Nicholson as Detective Megan Wheeler.

The detective teams of Noth, Wheeler, Vincent D'Onofrio and Kathryn Erbe get a new boss in Eric Bogosian, who takes the place of Jamey Sheridan's Capt. James Deakins.

Bogosian is a strong presence, an actor of power, who knocked heads right off the bat with D'Onofrio's Detective Robert Goren in the season-opening episode about how best to track down a serial killer. The series is better with Bogosian aboard as Capt. Daniel Ross.

With Mariska Hargitay out on maternity leave for the next six or seven episodes, Connie Nielson steps in to play Dani Beck, who's partners with Christopher Meloni (Detective Elliot Stabler).

Look for Jerry Lewis to do a guest turn as the homeless uncle of the detective played by Richard Belzer. We finally get to know the real Detective John Munch.

"Courtney decided that he had taken his character as far as it could go. His contract was up, and so he left. Annabella's leaving was a mutual decision between star and producer. Annie came to us and said she'd like to leave because working in television meant she's had to pass on movie projects. She gave us plenty of notice."

In the new season, smart, sophisticated Bree (Marcia Cross) continues to act dumb by falling for men who are losers. She's about to marry a dentist played by Kyle Mac-Lachlan despite the fact his neighbor warns her that Orson (MacLachlan) killed his wife and hid the body who knows where. "But this marriage feels so right," says the suddenly dense Bree.

The producers have cranked up the funny stuff with Gaby (Eva Longoria) a hoot as she's forced to wait on her maid, Xiao-Mei, who's the surrogate mother of the Gaby-Carlos baby. She wants a foot massage, Gaby.

Longoria's comedy is a good thing about this season. What's bad is watching Lynette (Felicity Huffman) put up with the crass woman who's the mother of her husband's love child. Lynette welcomes her into her home. What sane wife would do that?

There's promise of blockbuster events up ahead such as a hostage crisis in a supermarket. "Desperate Housewives" is a series desperately seeking to revive the spark of season No. 2. I'm getting the impression this show is a flash in the pan.

"Gilmore Girls," The CW, Tuesdays, 8 p.m., season premiere this Tuesday - As what will likely be the last season of this transplant from The WB opens, the engagement of Lorelai (Virginian Lauren Graham) and Luke (Scott Patterson) is kaput after Lorelai slept with Christopher (David Sutcliffe).

Rory (Alexis Bledel, below right with Graham) misses her beau so much that she's thinking of flying off to London, where he's working for the summer. Mom Lorelai encourages her. Bledel is blossoming into a beauty.

David Rosenthal takes over from the show's creator, Amy-Sherman Palladino, who couldn't get together on a deal with The CW to stay on. Because she and her husband, Daniel, no longer write the scripts, the show's dialogue falls a bit differently on the air - less rushed, less frantic, which is too bad because that fast talk made the show unique.

"Lost," ABC, Wednesdays, 9 p.m., season premiere Oct. 4 - The producers promise that the soap opera of Kate (Evangeline Lilly) playing Jack (Matthew Fox) against Sawyer (Josh Holloway) will be resolved soon after the new season starts.

The cast gets three new faces (Elizabeth Mitchell, Rodrigo Santoro and Kiele Sanchez), but how they will fit in among the castaways is a deep, dark secret.

"Lost" will air for six episodes, then stop as ABC brings on a new drama, "Day Break," starring Taye Diggs, on Nov. 15. In February, "Lost" returns for 16 shows without interruption.

"We'll have Chris staying in the neighborhood a lot more. He'll still be seen in school (Chris runs for president of his eighth-grade class at Corleone Junior High), but we'll be getting uncles and others of the family into the show. We'll explore Chris' emerging sexuality just a little bit."

Chris on his first date asks a girl to the movies to see "Footlose," but, alas, she stands him up. How could she resist his $5-a-bottle cologne?

Playing it slightly over the top, she's a welcome addition to the cast, which also includes Jackee Harry and Antonio Fargas, forever famous as Huggy Bear on TV's "Starsky and Hutch," who runs the grocery where Chris works after school. This is a show of smart, snappy dialogue.

The game plan for 2006-07 is to give viewers the best of both worlds lived in by young Chris (Tyler James Williams), said co-executive producer Ali LeRoi. "We'll try to deal with small things and concentrate on good solid storytelling."

You get all of this in the new season plus the finally-out-in-the-open romance of Gil (William Petersen) and Sara (Jorja Fox) on "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation." Said Fox, "As the season begins only Grissom, Sara and the audience know that their affair is taking place."

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