Summer TV programming used to be a wasteland of reruns, reruns and more reruns. Seasons ran from September to May, and that's the way it was and we liked it! OK, we didn't really like it, but it got all the kids outside for the summer. But no more of that nonsense. We'll keep 'em glued to the tube year-round now.

Cable networks have been launching new and returning shows in the summer, and it makes sense, because they don't have the tough competition from the broadcast networks. Along with that, though, are seriously competitive timeslots, especially Tuesday at 10PM. If we didn't know better, we'd think it was Thursday at 9PM. You know, 'Grey's Anatomy,' 'The Office,' 'CSI,' 'Fringe,' and 'Supernatural,' among others. That's some serious competition.

Since summer is the time for beaches, parades, cookouts, and fireworks, and I hate beaches, parades, cookouts, and fireworks, it's TV time! That's especially true since there are more original shows on summer now than there used to be. Here are the five shows I'm looking forward to the most. And none of them are reality shows.

1. 'Mad Men.' To use a popular phrase, duh. Of course this is number one on my list. It's still weird to me that the best drama on television is a summer show. I don't know why this is still surprising, since we're not living in 1980 anymore and summer in a real TV season now and not just a place for repeats, reality shows, and shows that need to be burned off.

Maybe it's best that this show airs in the summer. It has a little more breathing room than it would have if it debuted in October.

Your assignment: say that headline five times fast.

TV used to be a lot easier. We'd have TV from, say, September until May, and then the reruns would kick in. Sure, there have always been summer shows, but now it seems that the months of June, July, and August form a major TV season themselves. In fact, some of the best shows on TV right now actually start in the summer, not the fall. 'Mad Men' immediately comes to mind.

There are a lot of good shows on Syfy too, and they've announced when they're going to debut this summer.

We've talked about ABC's new mystery series 'Happy Town;' it'sabout a small town plagued by the return of someone or something evil that starts terrorizing again - it stars Sam Neill, Amy Acker, and Steven Weber. Now you have a chance to see the first episode before it premieres on ABC April 28. There's a new site up and it's pretty simple: if they get 50,000 "demands" by April 21 they'll show the first episode online.

The site doesn't exactly make it clear, but I think that it's 50,000 demands in a metro area. You have to sign up for the site (e-mail, age, gender, where you live, etc) to get all of the details.

Is 50,000 a lot on the web? It seems to me that they can hit this rather easily, but maybe that's the whole idea. The site gets some attention, the show gets attention, and fans can see the first episode of the show before it airs.

ABC Family has a new show this summer called 'Pretty Little Liars.' It's about four friends who reunite in their hometown a year after their other friend Allison goes missing. They start getting all-knowing text messages from someone with the name "A."

This is just a quick teaser trailer, but it looks like a mix of 'Gossip Girl,' 'Harper's Island,' and all those shows and movies where really attractive people wear great clothes and have unprotected sex while something mysterious happens. It's based on a series of novels, including Pretty Girls: Flawless and Pretty Girls: Wicked and stars Lucy Hale, Laura Leighton, Troian Bellisario, Nia Peeples, and Ashley Benson.

[via TV Tattle]

When I first heard about this show, I could have sworn I had heard something about it before, only with another star attached to it and not Virginia Madsen. Turns out there was another version of 'Scoundrels' that ABC attempted, a couple of years ago, only it had Catherine O'Hara in the lead role and it was called 'Good Behavior.'

'Scoundrels' is based on a New Zealand show, 'Outrageous Fortune,' and Madsen will star as the mother/head of a family of crooks who decides that they all need to go straight after the dad is put in prison. I'm going to assume that things don't go smoothly and their criminal pasts will catch up to them in some way. But this sounds like it could be a fun show, sort of like 'The Riches' and maybe a hint of the USA show 'Cover Me' (which I really liked - it was canceled way too early).

This won't be a permanent series though. Right now it's going to be an eight episode summer show.

Summer used to be a wasteland for TV, but now we see more and more shows debuting during the summer or having summer-only runs. Sometimes they're great, usually they're just reality shows. I haven't heard much about ABC's Defying Gravity (premiering August 2), other than it's about astronauts and from the producers of Grey's Anatomy. I hope it's more space/action-oriented than soap-oriented. I don't want to see a character named "McSpacey." It's stars Ron Livingston, Malik Yoba, and Laura Harris.

When I first heard that there was a show coming up called The Philanthropist (which isn't an easy word to type out, by the way), I thought it was another reality show. Maybe something where a contestants compete to see who wins more money for charity or something. But it actually stars James Purefoy as a rich guy who goes around the world helping people. It also stars Jesse L. Martin and Neve Campbell. Here's a scene from the pilot. It starts June 24.

It's amazing how many new shows are on during the summer now. Who needs the outdoors? Let us know which show you're most looking forward to watching this summer (I didn't include shows that have already premiered, such as Burn Notice, So You Think You Can Dance, and The Listener). A poll can only be so long, so if you're show isn't listed let us know in the comments.

We first told you about this new Sci-Fi (damnit, SYFY!) show a couple of years ago, and here's a clip from Warehouse 13, which premieres in July. It shows one of the agents as he's notified of his new assignment. Here's an even more extensive trailer for the show that gives a better feel for what the show is all about.

It looks a lot like The X-Files (man and woman team, mysterious happenings, mysterious boss), only with more humor. I sense some Bones and Eureka in it too.

With all this news from ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, and The CW about their new fall schedules, we can't forget what's happening on cable. TNT and TBS have announced some new shows of their own. Some might say that these shows are even more promising than what the other networks have to offer this fall. In fact, one of them has me more excited than Richard Simmons in a tank top factory.

Besides returning shows like The Closer (June 8), Raising The Bar (June 8), Saving Grace (June 16), and Leverage (July 15), TNT also has the following new shows.

Two new summer shows debuted at 10pm last night, one on CBS and one on NBC (ABC had the first game of the Celtics/Lakers battle). And it turns out that more viewers wanted to see people swing than see people scream.

The first episode of the CBS series Swingtown, which depicts various neighbors in the 70s drinking, smoking, exchanging partners, and wearing bad clothes, beat the first episode of the new NBC series Fear Itself, a horror anthology series. Swingtown grabbed 8.6 million viewers while Fear Itself managed to get 5.2 million viewers. For the night, ABC won with the NBA game.

I'm rather embarrassed to say that I completely forgot that either of them was on. My night consisted of watching the Red Sox/Rays game (lots of fights and weirdness) and then reading a book until Letterman came on at 11:35. What did everyone think of either or both of these shows?

This summer, A&E will launch its first scripted drama series in six years. The Cleaner stars Benjamin Bratt (Law and Order, Miss Congeniality), Amy Price-Francis (Californication), Grace Park (Battlestar Galactica), Kevin Michael Richardson (Knights of Prosperity), Esteban Powell (Dazed and Confused, Powder), Brett DelBuono (Balls of Fury) and Liliana Mumy (Cheaper by the Dozen).

Bratt will play William Banks, a recovered drug addict who helps others kick their habits. After hitting rock-bottom because of his own problems with addiction, Banks makes a deal with God when his daughter is born. He vows to help others. However, his means of intervention are unconventional and unrelenting to say the least. In the series premiere, Banks helps high school meth addict Zach, a once-promising young athlete. Along the way, Banks discovers the cause of Zach's addiction, a fracture in the family after Zach's father died. He also uncovers a drug-fencing operation.

The Cleaner premieres Tuesday July 15th at 10 p.m. ET. Will you be watching?

The half dozen things that TV Squad readers - and TV fans in general - will be talking about this week. A new feature every Monday.

1. The Lost season finale. Spoiler: they're all robots! (Thursday at 9 on ABC)
2. The Sex and the City movie. I don't see why this show needs a new movie (on the big screen anyway), but I'm sure there will be a bunch of people who go see it. Warning: movie theaters don't sell martinis so you'll have to wait until after the movie. (Starts this Friday)
3. Battlestar Galactica. Yup, some of the biggies still have new episodes (Friday at 10 on Sci-Fi).
4. The new reality shows from Denise Richards and Dina Lohan. I started to cry a little when I wrote that sentence. (Starts tonight on E!)
5. TV fans in a holding pattern. We're in that weird time of year, after most of the season finales have aired, and we're waiting for the new summer shows (Burn Notice, Mad Men, Californication, Law and Order: CI, etc) to start. Go outside and eat a salad, or whatever it is that healthy, TV-less people supposedly do.
6. Moment of Truth returns. This was the #1 new show last season. And it's all your fault. (Returns tomorrow at 8 on FOX)

ABC has started production on their new summer reality series Wipeout. The show features 24 thrill-seeking contestants who will race in the world's largest extreme obstacle course. According to the press release, the course was designed to create the "most spills, face plants and wipeouts ever seen on television." I can't help but wonder if anyone at ABC has seen MTV's Jackass. Just a thought.

The obstacles and contestants change every week. Some of the obstacles are "Dizzy Dummy," "Dirty Balls," (there's a bad joke in there somewhere), and the "Dreadmill" which gets contestants to jump hurdles on a 40-foot long treadmill moving at "warpspeed" (ABC's words, not mine).

Here's something of interest: John Henson (Talk Soup) will be co-hosting with John Anderson of SportsCenter. Henson is reason enough for me to give this show at least one go-round. What about you? Will you tune in to Wipeout?

Wipeout is slated to premiere on Tuesday June 24th at 8:00 p.m. ET / PT on ABC.