Tube Notes

By Mike Hughes
Gannett News Service

Tonight's Must-Sees

"24" premiere, 8 p.m., Fox. In a year of mediocre programming, what a pleasure it is to see a show that grabs the mind and the senses. There are some flaws tonight, but this episode has everything we saw last season: characters — beautifully written, acted and directed — in a tense situation. Last season, Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland), the Counter Terrorist Unit agent, saved the life of Sen. Palmer (Dennis Haysbert). Jack's wife was killed, however, and his daughter (Elisha Cuthbert) was terrorized. A year later, Palmer is president and Jack is burned out. He's out of the agency and estranged from his daughter. Suddenly, something comes up so big — we won't reveal surprises — that it pulls him back in.

"Galileo's Battle for the Heavens," 8 p.m., PBS. Pope Urban VIII put Galileo under house arrest after he satirized the church view that the heavens rotate around the Earth. During this time, while in his 70s, Galileo made some of his greatest discoveries.