Yes, once again, it’s pilot season: the time when the broadcast networks put all of the potential projects for the 2011 – 2012 season on the table, take a cold, hard look at what’s available to them, and decide which ones have the most potential for success come the fall…or spring, depending on how much or how little confidence they end up having in the final product.

Critics everywhere should be throwing parades in honor of TV Guide’s Natalie Abrams, who has done the heavy lifting for the rest of us and offered up The Complete Pilot Report, listing off all of the pilots currently in the running for ABC, CBS, The CW, Fox, and NBC, along with their creators, their premises, and the actors currently attached to them as of this writing.

Having taken a gander at Abrams’ decidedly comprehensive list, here’s our list of the 20 shows we’d most like to see turn up come the kickoff of the Fall 2011 season:

1. Alcatraz (Fox): A cop (Sarah Jones) and a team of FBI agents track down a group of missing Alcatraz prisoners and guards who reappear in the present day after disappearing 30 years earlier. J.J. Abrams will executive-produce and Liz Sarnoff (“Lost”) will be the showrunner. Jorge Garcia, Sam Neill, Jonny Coyne, Jason Butler Harner, Parminder Nagra, Santiago Cabrera and Robert Forster also star.

2. Awakening (The CW): Two sisters (Lucy Griffiths and Meredith Hagner) face off during a zombie uprising. William Laurin, Glenn Davis, Howard T. Owens, Carolyn Bernstein and Todd Cohen will executive-produce.

3. Brave New World (NBC): The project centers on a group of characters at Pilgrim Village, a theme park that recreates 1637 New England. Peter Tolan (“Rescue Me”) wrote the pilot and will executive-produce with Michael Wimer (“2012”). Ed Begley Jr., Nick Braun, Will Greenberg, Jazz Raycole, Robbie Benson and Anna Popplewell will star.

4. The Council of Dads (Fox): Based on the non-fiction book by Bruce Feiler, a man who learns he’s dying enlists five men to help his wife raise their two children. The project comes from “Rescue Me” creator Peter Tolan. Kyle Bornheimer, Diane Farr, Patrick Breen and Ken Howard will star.

5. Hail Mary (CBS): An Atlanta-set P.I. drama tells the story of a suburban single mom (Minnie Driver) who teams up with a street hustler (Brandon T. Jackson) to solve crimes. Jeff Wadlow will write and executive-produce with Joel Silver and “The L Word” creator Ilene Chaiken. Enrique Murciano and Stephen Tobolowsky will also star.

6. How to Be a Gentleman (CBS): An uptight guy (David Hornsby) learns to live his life with the help of an old high school friend. The project comes from Hornsby (“It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”). Dave Foley, Nancy Lenehan and Rhys Darby will also star.

7. Little in Common (Fox): This project revolves around families whose children play Little League together. “Veronica Mars”‘ Rob Thomas will write and executive-produce. Rob Corddry, Paula Marshall, Kevin Hart and Gabrielle Union star.

8. Pan Am (ABC) – The stewardesses and pilots of the titular airline are the stars of this soap set in the Jet Age of the 1960s. Jack Orman (“ER”) wrote the pilot and will executive-produce with Nancy Hult Ganis and Tommy Schlamme (“The West Wing”). Christina Ricci, Margot Robbie, Karine Vanasse and Michael Mosley will star.

9. Person of Interest (CBS): A presumed-dead CIA agent (Jim Caviezel) is recruited by a billionaire (Michael Emerson) to catch violent criminals in New York City. “Memento”‘s Jonathan Nolan and J.J. Abrams will executive-produce. Taraji P. Henson will also star.

10. Playboy (NBC) – At the Playboy Club in Chicago in 1963, “bunnies” (incuding Amber Heard and Naturi Naughton) flirt with danger. Chad Hodge and “Apollo 13″‘s Brian Grazer will executive-produce. Jeff Hephner, Laura Benanti, Jenna Dewan-Tatum, Leah Renee, David Krumholtz and Wes Ramsey also star.

11. Reconstruction (NBC) – In the aftermath of the Civil War, a soldier (Martin Henderson) crosses the country and settles in a complicated town where he is welcomed as its savior — whether he likes it or not. “St. Elsewhere” co-creator Josh Brand wrote the pilot. Bill Sage, Claire Wellin, Emma Bell and Rachelle Lefevre will also star.

12. REM (NBC): A police detective (Jason Isaacs) who’s involved in a traumatic car accident wakes up in two fractured realities. The project comes from Kyle Killen, creator of Fox’s short-lived “Lone Star,” and “24”‘s Howard Gordon will also executive-produce.

13. Ringer (CBS): A troubled young woman on the run (Sarah Michelle Gellar) hides out by living the life of her wealthy twin sister. One problem: Her sibling has a bounty on her head as well. Eric Carmelo and Nicole Snyder (“Supernatural”) will executive-produce. Nestor Carbonell, Tara Summers, Mike Colter and Ioan Gruffudd will also star.

14. The River (ABC): When a famed adventurer and TV personality (Bruce Greenwood) goes missing in the Amazon, his family (among them, Joe Anderson) tries to find him. Project comes from the team behind “Paranormal Activity.” Oren Peli and Jason Blum will executive-produce. Eloise Mumford will also star.

15. Secret Circle (The CW): Based on the three-book series from “The Vampire Diaries” author L.J. Smith, a young witch (Britt Robertson) is the key to a battle between good and evil. “Diaries”‘ Kevin Williamson will executive-produce.

16. 17th Precinct (NBC): “Battlestar Galactica” executive producer Ron Moore created this supernatural police drama set in the fictional town of Excelsior. “Battlestar” vets Jamie Bamber, James Callis and Tricia Helfer, along with Eamonn Walker, Matt Long and Stockard Channing, will star.

17. Smothered (ABC): A young couple struggles to deal with their respective parents in this sitcom from “Friends” writers Andrew Reich and Ted Cohen, who based it on their real-life experiences. Kyle Howard, Marcia Gay Harden, John C. McGinley and Julie White star.

18. Untitled Emily Spivey Project (NBC): The project is an irreverent look at parenthood from the perspectives of an acerbic working mother, her stay-at-home husband and her outspoken parents. “Parks and Recreation” writer Emily Spivey wrote the pilot and will produce with “Saturday Night Live”‘s Lorne Michaels.

19. Vince Uncensored (CBS): A man tries to take a more honest approach to his life, work and family after a life-changing experience. Phoef Sutton (“Cheers”) and Conan O’Brien will executive-produce.

20. Wonder Woman (NBC) – In this reboot of the 1970s series, vigilante superhero Wonder Woman (Adrianne Palicki) juggles two other identities, Diana Themyscira, a shrewd corporate executive and Diana Prince, an assistant at Themyscira Industries. “Ally McBeal”‘s David E. Kelley wrote the pilot and will executive-produce. Elizabeth Hurley, Tracie Thoms, Pedro Pascal and Cary Elwes also star.

Be sure to check out all of TV Guide’s list, then pop back ’round and let us know if you’d like to see any of the other pilots come to fruition!

At the conclusion of Season Four, plastic surgeons Drs. McNamara (Dylan Walsh) and Troy (Julian McMahon) had packed up their scalpels and headed for sunny Beverly Hills – after all, what better place for two amoral surgeons than Hollywood – so Season Five is something of a new start for the offices of McNamara/Troy. At season’s start, however, business isn’t so hot, so they agree to join a crappy TV series called “Hearts ‘N Scalpels” as technical advisors who will also briefly appear onscreen during the surgery sequences. At first, Christian is certain that this is his ticket to fame, while Sean is reluctant about the entire affair, but the tables quickly turn when the camera favors Sean, and Christian sulks away to soothe his bruised ego in all manner of seedy ways. Sean becomes the toast of the town, begins dating the show’s leading lady, Kate (Paula Marshall), and becomes party buds with the vacuous leading man, Aidan (Bradley Cooper). Then Sean’s ex Julia (Joely Richardson) shows up with kids Annie and Connor in tow, and mama’s got a new brand new bag: a girlfriend, Olivia, played by none other than Portia de Rossi! Olivia’s got a kid, too: Eden (Annalynne McCord, “90210”), a twisted little teen who sets her sights on destroying everything in her path. But an even greater evil lurks in the shadows, waiting to pounce, and perhaps there are worse things waiting in Hollywood than an attention-starved teenager.

Oddly, when this batch of episodes played on FX, I really didn’t care for them and saw a show struggling for air. If you felt at all the same, I urge you to give this set a spin, because I saw the season in a whole new light this time around and actually found myself having a lot of fun with the series, something I hadn’t really done in a couple years. As far as the whole “Season Five, Part One” thing goes, the series is gearing up another round of eight episodes which technically will finish up Season Five, although creator Ryan Murphy has said that the labeling is more of an internal thing, and that the new episodes probably won’t have much to do with what’s on this set. In other words, just think of this as Season Five and be done with it.

Click to buy “Nip/Tuck: Season Five, Part One”

The guy did his time at “Saturday Night Live,” even writing a book about the experiences he suffered through as a featured player on the show (Gasping for Airtime: Two Years in the Trenches of Saturday Night Live). He survived the experience of playing a redneck’s brother on “The Jeff Foxworthy Show,” earned a memorably sleazy supporting role in “Jerry Maguire” which almost certainly was what led him to the starring role in the short-lived but fondly-remembered Fox sitcom, “Action.” Great show, but you can’t really call a 13-episode run a hit. And since then, Mohr’s career has mostly been an ongoing series of voiceover work, small film roles, one-off guest spots on various TV series, and…well, okay, yeah, he was a regular on “Ghost Whisperer” for the better part of two years, but serving as third fiddle to Jennifer Love Hewitt’s breasts is hardly playing to the guy’s strengths as a comedian.

Please.

Don’t make Jay Mohr beg.

Just make “Gary Unmarried” a hit.

If there’s one thing that “Gary Unmarried” has going for it, it’s that it has a very pedestrian premise. That adjective might be considered a criticism by most critics, but as I use the word here, what I’m trying to express is that it’s not going to challenge middle America…and that means it has a very significant chance of success.

Gary Brooks is a painting contractor who’s recently become single and is still adapting to the process of dating while having joint custody of his children, Louise (Kathryn Newton) and Todd (Ryan Malgarini). He also hasn’t yet gotten the hang of interacting with his obnoxiously health-conscious ex-wife, Alison (Paula Marshall), when she drops the kids off at his place, so you can imagine about how well he deals with it when he finds out that not only is she getting engaged, but that someone is Dr. Walter Krandall, the marriage counselor who failed to save their marriage. It’s one of those happy sitcom coincidences, then, that Gary decides to step into his first post-divorce relationship – with the uber-cute Vanessa (Jaime King), who’s one of his clients – immediately before he finds out about Alison’s new beau.

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I should admit that one of the major non-Mohr reasons I enjoyed the original pilot for “Gary Unmarried” was the show had gifted him with a great comedic nemesis, casting Larry Miller to play Dr. Krandall. Alas, for reasons which are not currently available to me, Mr. Miller is no longer affiliated with the series, but the good news is that the producers have replaced him with someone who’s often just as funny: Ed Begley, Jr. He’s not really utilized that well in the revised pilot, but with Begley, you know the potential’s there.

I kind of glossed over the kids a moment ago, so let me offer a bit more description about them. Louise would be best described as a female version of Alex P. Keaton if he’d been a raving liberal; she has posters of Al Gore and Mahatma Gandhi, and the only image adorning her walls that Gary describes as normal – “that one picture of that guy from ‘Entourage'” – turns out to be Che Guavara. Todd, meanwhile, is more successful at interacting with people on Second Life than he is in real life, which thoroughly confuses Gary. (“We didn’t have anything like that when I was a kid. We had…outside.”) Also in the kid mix is Parker, Vanessa’s son, whose existence is only revealed to Gary because she’s in the neighborhood and Parker needs to use the bathroom…and in another remarkable coincidence, they swing by at the very moment that Gary, Alison, and Dr. Kendall are talking out their issues.

Oh, right, I almost forgot we’re also introduced to Dennis Lopez (Al Madgrial), Gary’s right-hand man within his contracting business, who can’t believe his buddy is more interested in diving back into a relationship when he has the option to be a swinging single. It’s hard to tell if that’s going to be an ongoing trait, however, since we only meet for him for, like, 30 seconds, but Madrigal still deserves kudos, if only for scoring a new sitcom so quickly after the disaster that was “Welcome to the Captain.” (That show had “career-killer” written all over it.)

It’s true: “Gary Unmarried” is unequivocally mainstream, designed to appeal to the same folks who’ve been tuning in to “Two and a Half Men” for all these years. (Again, not an insult, just a statement of demographic.) In fact, it’s so stylistically reminiscent of that show that I really can’t understand why CBS didn’t put it in the Monday-at-9:30 timeslot that now houses “Worst Week.” Tough call as to whether it’ll work as well in its current pairing, “The New Adventures of Old Christine,” but for Jay Mohr’s sake, let’s hope so.