Slate welcomes its favorite TV personalities back from summer vacation.

The start of fall TV season is a bit like a new school year: You get the chance to reunite with people you haven't heard from all summer. Here, Slate writers and editors offer love letters to the TV personalities they're looking forward to seeing again.

Tiki Barber, Football Night in America; The Today Show (NBC) In February, Tiki Barber, the New York Giants' three-time Pro Bowl running back, signed a multimillion dollar contract with NBC. This fall, he can be seen flashing his megawatt smile on the network's Sunday evening football flagship, Football Night in America, and on The Today Show. Just a couple of weeks into the football pundit job, Barber already stands out: Next to his fellow ex-jock analysts Cris Collinsworth * and Jerome Bettis, Barber is practically Noel Coward-esque—sleek, witty, disdainful of the frat boy bluster that flies around pregame show studios. But it is in his capacity as Today's "national correspondent" and occasional fourth-hour co-host that Barber is really riveting. Watch Today's main man, Matt Lauer, delivering his chipper banter with the hollow eyes of a zombie, and it's clear the rot has set in: After all these years, Lauer knows that this is a silly gig. But Tiki has a rookie's eager-beaver effervescence. He loves breakfast television; he believes in it. It's a strange spectacle. A man who has already achieved more than Matt Lauer ever will—who on the football field displayed valor and a kind of genius—has been reduced to doing puff pieces and cooking segments, and he thinks: Finally, I've arrived. Of course, he may not be wrong. Barber is rumored to have political aspirations, and why wouldn't a bright, beautiful gridiron-hero-turned-TV-star be a seductive candidate? In the meantime, Tiki is a network executive's dream: O.J. Simpson without the sociopathy.

—Jody Rosen, music critic

Nancy Botwin, Weeds (Showtime) Much has been made of the gnarled heart and sour visage of Dr. Gregory House, the physician played by Hugh Laurie on Fox's hit medical drama. What a feat to build a show around a lead character so off-putting! Some feat. No matter how much House glowers in the elevator, it's a breeze to root for him: He's forever saving lives, with competence, wit, and science on his side.

It's easy to root for Nancy Botwin, too. But Nancy—a suburban widow with two kids and a fledgling pot dealership—is forever putting lives at risk. Mary-Louise Parker is magnetic in the role, capable of extracting favors with a bitten lower lip and an expectant smile. She's also gutsy: If business demands it, she'll commit insurance fraud or double-cross her supplier. At first glance this chutzpah seemed admirable, part of a whatever-it-takes effort to support a grieving family. But Nancy's bravery has its roots in her deep sense of entitlement. She's rich and white and pretty, and she's used to solving problems with a "Gee, officer …" and wide eyes. By the end of last season, Nancy's bad decisions had led to the disappearance of one son, the impending arrest of another, a death, and a host of other problems too big to flirt your way out of. I'm still rooting for Nancy—that smile works on me, too. But I don't feel good about it.

—Julia Turner, culture editor

State Sen. Clay Davis, The Wire (HBO)
You would think that after last year, when Slate did everything short of David Simon's laundry to prove our infatuation with The Wire, I'd be embarrassed about slobbering over it again. You would be wrong. The Wire's fifth and final season doesn't air until January—so it's not even fall TV—but it's the only show I'm looking forward to. In particular, I eagerly await the return of state Sen. Clay Davis (and, of course, Omar, Snoop, Cutty, Bunny, Herc … and, oh, did I mention Omar?). Sen. Davis embodies none of the moral complexity that The Wire does so well. Davis is unapologetically and delightfully corrupt, happy to rake in his bucks from developers or drug dealers, and to double-cross them, too. His amorality is irrepressible. You can't keep a bad man down! And then, of course, there is Davis' favorite word. Has any actor ever wrung so much emotion—disgust, amazement, glee, rage—from a single expletive as Isiah Whitlock Jr. does from the barnyard epithet? "Sheeeeee-it"—it must be heard to be believed. Watch Whitlock as Davis here, and watch a tribute to his shit-speaking here.

—David Plotz, Deputy Editor

Kelly Kapoor, The Office (NBC)

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