Boss (Starz, Friday) — Series premiere. Between this new drama and “Magic City,” Starz is making a serious play for my attention. Kelsey Grammer stars as the mayor of Chicago and the chief operator of its powerful political machine, and if that doesn’t sound enticing to you, read this:

He controls the necessary votes on the city council. He gets to more or less handpick who will win the gubernatorial primary. He is a gifted orator (as you would expect any Kelsey Grammer character to be), a smooth deal maker and, when he needs to be, a terrifying bully.

He is at the height of his powers.

He will be dead in less than five years.

That’s not the tagline; that’s from a review.

American Masters: Pearl Jam Twenty (PBS, Friday) — If you didn’t see Cameron Crowe’s documentary in theaters and you like Pearl Jam, then this is probably worth recording tonight. Starts at 9:00 Eastern. (Trailer at the bottom of this post.)

World Series (Fox, Saturday & Sunday) — The series moves to Texas for Games 3 and 4. “New Girl” star Zooey Deschanel will sing the National Anthem before Sunday’s game — but will it be better or worse than her sister Emily can sing it?

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This is a touching tribute. I know that all of us were saddened by ABC’s cancellation of “Hank” after just five episodes, even after all the great reviews it got. But at least we’ll always have the memories. *sniff* We’ll. Always. Have. The memories.

[SlapClap via Videogum]

As Matt predicted, Hank is right on schedule for being cancelled.  First THR says it’s “Wednesday’s lowest-rated program on a major broadcast network and has failed to improve.”  Now this:

ABC has decided to give viewers a double dose of “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown,” airing a half-hour version of the holiday classic on Wednesday, Oct. 28 at 8 p.m. in place of the struggling Kelsey Grammer sitcom “Hank.” [thewrap]

I think a cool “viral marketing” campaign ABC should do is preempt every episode of Hank from now on with a rerun of an old show.  I know this isn’t actually viral marketing, but shhhh, ABC might not know that.  If we present this viral idea to ABC in a powerpoint presentation with lots of graphs and pictures of people snowboarding, they might go for it.

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Oh, hey! Kelsey Grammer’s in a new sitcom called “Hank,” everybody! He’s so talented! And ABC has recently created terrific comedies like “Modern Family” and “Better Off Ted,” so this sounds promising. Let’s take a look at the reviews…

• “Lazy, predictable and spectacularly tone-deaf.” [Star-Ledger]
• “Breezily ungrounded… comes across as empty condescension.” [Miami Herald]
• “In “Hank,” pompous comes off as merely pitiful. Or it would, if you could waste even a moment feeling sorry for anyone but the viewers, for whom the laugh track’s likely to serve as a bitter reminder that somewhere, someone else is having a good time.” [Philadelphia Daily News]
• “One of this fall’s absolute worst new shows… the sort of lame, predictable set-up, joke, set-up, joke that nearly killed the traditional sitcom… unbelievably bad. ” [Deseret News]
• They made two versions of the pilot episode of “Hank,” both of which leave unfunny whiffs of doom in their wake. I nevertheless remain clinically fascinated by the show’s lameness… “Hank” is less of a sitcom than a show about sitcom assembly. It belongs in a diagram about sitcoms.” [Washington Post]
• “A moronic and ghastly effort that suffocates under the cloying and annoying blanket of a laugh track so disturbing it should be destroyed. As should the show.” [SF Chronicle]
• “I had to down two Red Bulls to get through the 22 minutes of torturously unfunny dialogue… One of the worst new (or old) comedies of this or many other seasons.” [NY Post]

Doctors have also determined that watching “Hank” gives you brain cancer. And superAIDS. Maybe I’ll just stick to last night’s “Sons of Anarchy” on my DVR. Or, you know, gouging my eyes out.