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SITCOMS Frasier and Wings have been farmed out to Tuesdays, but mad about you (NBC, Sept. 22, 8-8:30 p.m.) and Seinfeld (NBC, Sept. 22, 9-9:30 p.m.) remain as the anchors of NBC's Thursday lineup. Mad's third-season premiere finds Paul (Paul Reiser) and Jamie (Helen Hunt) attempting one last summer getaway-until their car gets towed away with Murray the Dog in the backseat. Meanwhile, the Seinfeld gang moves in fancy circles, with Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld) dating Miss Rhode Island (Marguerite MacIntyre), George (Jason Alexander) doling out advice to fellow Yankees employees Buck Showalter and Danny Tartabull, and Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) landing a new job as assistant to a Maurice Tempelsman-like millionaire (Ian Abercrombie). Hmmm, might JFK Jr. come back into her life? SCI-FI I don't know much about Star Trek-like, zip-but my Trekkie friends tell me Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (syndicated, check local listings) sucks. But since The Next Generation's gone, you geeks are stuck with it. At least until the next Trek movie, Generations, opens in November and the new Trek series, Voyager, debuts in January. Anyway, the press release says that in the third- season premiere of Deep Space Nine, Sisko (Avery Brooks-hey, I used to watch him on Spenser: For Hire!) ''takes his officers into the Gamma Quadrant on a dangerous mission to find the mysterious leaders of the Dominion.'' Whatever the hell that means.
NEW SERIES Last season's TV-movie pilot of Due South (CBS, Sept. 22, 8-9 p.m.) drew strong reviews and ratings. Still, it remains to be seen whether it can sustain its one-joke premise weekly. The joke is a good one-a transplanted Canadian Mountie (Paul Gross) continually flabbergasts his crass Chicago-cop partner (David Marciano) with his kindness to purse snatchers, stool pigeons, and slumlords. Yet South's first hour-long episode already feels padded with two prolonged chase scenes (though the one with a horse and buggy is a kick). The show does provide an interesting lesson in TV economics: South mostly shoots north of the border, with Toronto doubling for the more expensive Chicago.
REVIVALS Ever since Baywatch went from NBC flop to syndicated smash, producers have tried to give other canceled shows a shot at life after network death. The latest experiments include two unconventional cop shows. The distaff 1993 ABC series Sirens (syndicated, check local listings) returns with two of its original leads, Adrienne-Joi Johnson and Liza Snyder, and newcomer Jayne Heitmeyer replacing the similarly named Jayne Brook. The hopefully titled Forever Knight (syndicated, check local listings) rejuvenates vampire police officer Nick Knight (not to be confused with Nick at Nite), played by Welshman Geraint Wyn Davies. Knight was the highest-rated show on CBS' Crimetime After Primetime, but that franchise has been scrapped to make room for another member of the walking undead, Tom Snyder.
TALK SHOWS Four months after its trip to New York, The Tonight Show With Jay Leno (NBC, weeknights, 11:35 p.m.-12:35 a.m.) heads to Las Vegas on Sept. 19 for a week of shows from the MGM Grand. When he returns to Burbank, Leno will have a new set. Then all he'll need is a new haircut, a new wardrobe, and-most important- new writers. Leno's show is actually less entertaining than its NBC ''Night Shift'' companions, Late Night With Conan O'brien (NBC, weeknights, 12:35-1:35 a.m.) and Later With Greg Kinnear (NBC, weeknights, 1:35-2:05 a.m.). In his second year on the air, O'Brien is growing less jittery and more watchable. Not funny, but watchable. Kinda like Mike Douglas. And Kinnear's a dream. He can even coax a lively interview out of a seemingly weak guest like Danny Aiello. Kinda like Bob Costas.
