During last night's second season premiere of 'Tabatha's Salon Takeover,' the staff at a Chicago hair salon stood motionless and mostly dumbstruck as Tabatha Coffey forced their boss to pour $50 worth of hair products down the drain -- literally. Soon, the staff shed tears when, under Coffey's direction, they had to move a bunch of junk from the salon's basement to the home of Orbit Salon owner Eddie Cheung, an avowed "product junkie." By then, they knew that Tabatha had officially taken over.

Cast in the mold of Fox's Gordon Ramsay series, 'Kitchen Nightmares,' 'Tabatha's Salon Takeover' posits Coffey as a drill sergeant disciplinarian whose main goal is to chastise, reprimand and tell it like it is (brutally, of course).

Yet a visit to Coffey's own salon, Industrie Hair Gurus, yields a much different picture. Inside her Ridgewood, New Jersey locale, Coffey appears warm, approachable and miles away from the hard-driving persona hyped up on the show. The only request she makes of her staff is a reasonable one -- to cut a pesky tag off the back of her shirt as she snips and combs. "I'm tough, I'm talented, I'm taking over," says a stone-faced Coffey at the beginning of each episode.

I'm overly excited about the news that The Rachel Zoe Project has been picked up for a second season on Bravo. I got hooked on the first season this fall, and have grown to love that pixie stylist and her dysfunctional assistants.

If you haven't watched the show, it follows the crazy life of Rachel Zoe, an L.A.-based stylist to celebs like Debra Messing and Molly Sims. She makes the stars look good on the red carpet, on magazine covers, and at fashion shows, and mixes with all sorts of interesting people, like designers Marc Jacobs and Michael Kors.

But all the fun really happens inside Rachel's studio, where she tries to keep everybody happy, including hubby Rodger, and squabbling assistants Taylor Jacobson and Brad Goreski. Those two are as opposite as they come, but that's what makes it fun for the rest of us.

'Life on Mars'
(10PM, ABC) series premiere
Imagine life before cell phones, the Internet and 'CSI'-type forensics ... that's where detective Sam Tyler finds himself after he's hit by a car in modern-day New York City.

Tyler awakens in 1973 NYC, with a different boss (Harvey Keitel), new cop cohorts (including 'The Sopranos' Michael Imperioli) and no idea why he's ended up back in time, though there are striking similarities between the bad guy he was pursuing in 2008 and the one he's investigating in 1973.

Is Sam actually in a coma? Is he dead, and 1973 is his afterlife? All questions that will be answered, assuming network execs let him live long enough to make it back to the future.

'The Cho Show'
(11PM, VH1) series premiere
Sassy comedienne Margaret Cho's last TV venture -- the 1994 ABC sitcom 'All-American Girl' -- ended with a quick cancellation and charges by some in the Korean-American community that she'd helped perpetuate negative stereotypes.

And that explains why the star is hesitant about accepting a Korean of the Year award in tonight's opener of her new series, a mix of reality and scripted bits that sheds light on her career and her hilarious relationship with her parents.

Cho's 'rents are happy she's been recognized with the honor, but in the face of such a potentially stressful event, the funny lady turns her attention to a more pressing matter: What will she wear?

Well, she's making over America one salon at a time. The former Shear Genius contestant will be saving America's hair stylists in Tabatha's Salon Takeover. She'll visit salons on both coasts that are in dire need of her direction. Coffey has just a week to work her magic.

This is the "hair version" of Kitchen Nightmares. The press release goes on to say that her comments are mean and jarring. The salon owners and employees probably won't like her at first. But they'll realize that it's her passion and intensity that "drives her sincere quest to turn these salons around." After one week with Coffey, who started as a salon assistant when she was 14-years-old, we'll see dramatic results. Coffey will also recommend people to be fired and tell some of the better stylists that they should raise their rates. Kitchen Nightmares, right? I'm not saying I wouldn't give this a try though. I like Kitchen Nightmares.

Tabatha's Salon Takeover premieres Thursday August 21st at 10 p.m. ET on Bravo.