Last night's thrilling Game 6 was just fantastic for baseball fans, but has produced headaches of epic proportions for the schedulers at the TV networks.

Having wreaked havoc on the schedules at Fox for a couple of weeks already, the imminent championship-deciding Game 7 tonight may also prompt some gnashing of teeth elsewhere.

Game 7 means that Fox will have to reschedule 'Fringe' and 'Kitchen Nightmares,' but they've had a few days in which to consider their options. And 'Fringe' fans are already used to setting their DVRs to catch new episodes as the series is regularly bounced around the Fox schedule anyway. But what about 'Grimm?'

Fans of Ken Burns' 'Baseball' documentary should get their DVRs ready tonight, as PBS airs the first part of the four-hour, two-part follow-up to that landmark 1994 series. Called 'Baseball: The Tenth Inning,' Burns and co-producer Lynn Novick take a look at the historic and changing baseball landscape from 1993 to the present.

Every major issue from this time period will be explored: the 1994 strike, steroids, 'Moneyball,' the shattering of home run records by Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds, the rise of the Yankees and Red Sox, the increased number of Latin players in the game, and the impact of Japanese stars like Ichiro Suzuki.

Bonds, as you'd expect, is the main character in this drama, and steroids are one of the biggest topics. When Burns and Novick presented the program to the TCA press tour in August, I sat with them to talk about the documentary and how tough it is to boil down an era that has alreday been covered and dissected more than any in the sport's history into four compelling hours. Let's just say that fans of the A's, Rays and Twins aren't going to be very happy.

I don't think I did one of these lists last year, and I have no idea why. The election all by itself would have generated a pretty fun best/worst list. Maybe we were all suffering from information overload, and were just exhausted. Not sure.

But 2009 had a lot of interesting TV, too, just not all in one category. As I've done in the past, I'll dispense with the usual "best show" and "worst show" lists and just make up categories:

GOODNESS

Best comeback from a shaky first season: Parks and Recreation. As I mentioned in my "return of the sitcom" story, Parks and Rec has made the biggest improvement from first season to second since... well, since The Office. It's no coincidence; Greg Daniels and Mike Schur's Office experience taught them that patience would be rewarded, both on the part of the writers and the viewers.

(S02E10) So this was the inevitable flashback episode of The Mentalist. We've had flashbacks before, of course, but we knew we were going to get one where we learn how Patrick Jane became who he is. An episode where we see a teen Jane scamming people by making them think he could read their minds (though he's more talented than that and really can figure things out, just not in a mystical way). The kid playing young Jane was pretty much spot on doing a young Simon Baker.

Too bad the present-day mystery wasn't that interesting.

This is a picture of FOX News host Sean Hannity at the Yankees/Phillies game the other night (congratulations Yankees, blah, blah, etc). Ordinarily this wouldn't be a big deal, but it's who's taking the picture that makes it interesting. It's...Keith Olbermann! And Hannity is taking a picture of him, as the photo shows. No, they're not going to use the photos in some court case against each other, they actually get along (well, at the ball game anyway -- America's pastime!).

[via TV Newser]

Considering the incredible overnight ratings that Fox got for Game Six of the World Series, you might think I'm crazy to suggest that the network would be rooting for the New York Yankees last night to beat the Philadelphia Phillies, but I have evidence. All through the game, Fox was promoting Fringe and Bones, urging viewers to tune in tomorrow night -- tonight -- for new episodes. Why would the network be sending that message when there was a possibility of a Game Seven?

The World Series is just around the corner and Fox has done something to make the coverage a bit more interesting. No, they have dictated that the umpires be replaced with androids, although after the screw-ups from Game Four of the ALCS, that might not be a bad suggestion. Fox Sports has added White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen to the pre and post-game analysis.

Aside from being a World Series winner, Ozzie is a character. He's funny, audacious, occasionally inappropriate, but highly knowledgeable about baseball and entertaining. He won't hold back what he thinks and if you want to hear real inside baseball talk, that's what Ozzie will deliver.

• At 7:30, FOX has Baseball Playoffs, the Yankees vs. the Angels.
• At 8, ABC has the season finale of Shark Tank, followed by new episodes of Dancing with the Stars and The Forgotten.
• CBS has a new NCIS at 8, then new episodes of NCIS: Los Angeles and The Good Wife.
• NBC has a new, two-hour Biggest Loser at 8, followed by a new Jay Leno Show.
• The CW has new episodes of 90210 and Melrose Place.
• PBS has a new Nova at 8, then a new Frontline.
• TCM has Mr. Sardonicus at 8.
• At 9, Discovery has a new Dirty Jobs, followed by a new Ghost Lab.
• BBC America has a new Dragon's Den at 9.
• IFC has another installment of Monty Python: Almost The Truth (The Lawyer's Cut) at 9.
• At 10, FX has a new Sons of Anarchy.
• Food Network has a new Chopped at 10.
• ESPN has a new World Series of Poker at 10.
• Syfy has a new ECW at 10.
• Bravo has a new Flipping Out at 10.
• Travel Channel has a new Bizarre World at 10.
• Also at 10: MTV has a new episode of The Hills, followed by a new episode of The City.

Check your local TV listings for more.

After the jump, the late night talk shows.

Yes, it's true. The Jews do control the media. Okay, maybe not in the purest sense of the word, but they exhibit enough influence on the medium to move the time of the Yankees versus Red Sox game from 8 PM to 1 in the afternoon on September 27. This was done to accommodate the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.

Considering that Rep. Anthony Weiner, the man who wrote the letter to the Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig, is a Congressman from New York, I can see an ulterior motive in his suggestion of the move. Undoubtedly the Congressman didn't want to miss a second of his favorite team against their arch rivals (and I doubt he's a Red Sox fan).

A serious bullet has been dodged. This conflict could have led to potential civil war within many Jewish households on the East Coast. Thank you for your consideration Congressman, and thank you MLB.

Vogue editor (and Devil Wears Prada subject) Anna Wintour was on The Late Show last night. She came out in her trademark sunglasses but didn't wear them for the interview (that would have been fantastic). After talking to Dave about her work and a new documentary about her, he talked to her about playing baseball with the next guest Mark Texiera. Sadly, she didn't want to. It would have been great to see Wintour shagging flies.

• At 7:30, Nickelodeon has two new episodes of Penguins of Madagascar, then the series premiere of Glenn Martin, DDS.
• At 8, ABC has a new Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, followed by a new Dating in the Dark.
  
• NBC has a new Great American Road Trip at 8.
• ABC Family has a new Secret Life of the American Teenager at 8, then a new Make It or Break It.
• ESPN has Pre-Season Football at 8, the Giants vs. the Panthers.
• ESPN2 has Little League Baseball at 8.
• BBC America has a new Top Gear at 8.
• At 9, TLC has a new Jon & Kate Plus 8.
• TNT has a new episode of The Closer at 9, then a new Raising the Bar.
• USA has a new Monday Night RAW at 9.
• At 10, NBC has a new Dateline.
• Showtime has a new Weeds at 10, followed by a new Nurse Jackie.
• TLC has a new Cake Boss at 10.
• Food Network has a new Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives at 10.
• Also at 10: Travel Channel has a new Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations.

Check your local TV listings for more.

After the jump, the late night talk shows.

At today's TCA session for his new documentary series on the national parks, Ken Burns was asked if he was working on a "tenth inning" addition to his iconic Baseball series, which ended in 1992. As he is wont to do, Burns took about five or so minutes to answer that question. What it boils down to is that, yes, a tenth inning is coming, scheduled to air sometime in 2010.

As one of our commenters below pointed out, this was announced awhile ago. But it was good to hear Burns talk a little about what they're going to explore in the new episode. So much has gone on in the last seventeen years, from exploding economics, new stadia, steroids, HGH, labor strife, and steroids (yes, I said steroids twice), that a tenth inning was inevitable. Unlike some of Burns' other series, which only go up to a point in history because anything after that would seem redundant -- the national parks doc, for instance, will only cover until 1980 -- Baseball was aching for an update.

Oh, and by the way, Burns' euphemism for the steroids issue was "exploring human frailties." Can't really reconcile Roger Clemens shooting 'roids into his butt with being frail, but whatever.

I'm proud to live in a country where a guy who imitates the batting stances of major league baseball players can get gigs. Gar Ryness, The Batting Stance Guy, has signed a deal with Fox Sports Network do create content for regional coverage of ball games. He's also going to be on Kansas City Royals telecasts.

Here's a clip of his recent appearance on The Late Show. He's a very funny guy as well as doing great batting stances (his Kevin Youklis is better than his Manny Ramirez).

[via TV Barn]

Did anyone die at the All-Star Game last night? I ask because there was a mysterious figure sitting behind home plate last night watching over the game. I'm not sure why he was there, but good for him for having connections that got him such great seats.

General Motors has made a lot of dumb decisions in their day, and three-quarters of them are still being sold to gullible car-buyers across the globe.

However, one of their biggest, boneheaded moves doesn't involve a car at all. The soon-to-be-former car manufacturing giant has announced that it's ending its 22-year run as primary sponsor for PBS filmmaker Ken Burns, and it just might end Burns' career in television as we know it.