Ellen Gray: Changes come for 'Glee' & 'Ugly Betty'

GLEE. 9 tonight, Channel 29.

UGLY BETTY. 8 p.m. Friday, Channel 6.

ARE COURSE corrections easier when a TV show's led us to expect that anything can happen?

It's a question that occurred to me more than once while watching tonight's episode of Fox's "Glee" and Friday's two-hour season premiere of ABC's "Ugly Betty."

"Glee," the closest thing TV has to a telenovela set in Ohio (and to music), isn't afraid of absurdist plot points - from a faked pregnancy to a cheerleading coach who wields more clout than Joe Paterno - but the Ryan Murphy show about a show choir sometimes appears hesitant to exploit all the members of its ensemble.

Instead, it's often seemed more like the Rachel and Finn Show, with backup singers. Which, given the chemistry between Lea Michele and Cory Monteith, is understandable.

The Rachel and Finn drama's not going away, but other members of the troupe, including Mercedes (Amber Riley) and Quinn (Dianna Agron) get their moments to shine tonight, too, as the club's new co-director, cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch), decides to drive a wedge between the students and their dedicated but often clueless adviser, Will Shuester (Matthew Morrison).

That she does it by playing the race card makes it particularly funny - next to Sue, who refers to Spanish as "that dead language," Don Imus is Mr. Sensitivity - but any "Glee" episode where Lynch figures prominently automatically begins on a high note. And just because a point's being made by a madwoman doesn't mean there isn't a point. When even the gay kid, Kurt (Chris Colfer) thinks Will has them singing too many show tunes, it may be time to expand some horizons.

Betty Suarez, too, could use a change of view.

And as "Ugly Betty" begins its fourth season Friday, she appears headed for one.

Knowing that the telenovela it's based on featured a character who grew and changed over time, it's sometimes felt to me as if Betty (America Ferrera) was a little bit stuck as the perpetual ugly duckling who was always triumphing over the very skinny swans who surrounded her.

But with this season's move from assistant to junior editor at Mode, Betty's been thrown in the deep end, and the swans are beginning to look a bit more like sharks.

Her nephew Justin (Neshaminy's Mark Indelicato) is also facing changes, as he begins high school in an environment that's not exactly friendly to fashion-mad teenage boys, and bumps heads with his mother, Hilda (Ana Ortiz).

There's lots happening in the two-hour premiere, as befits a show that never tells one story when five or six will do, but the ending leaves Betty in a place where she should have more room to maneuver.

Betty's hasn't been the only face missing this fall.

Liz Lemon (Tina Fey), the harried producer of the troubled show-within-a-show on "30 Rock," returns tomorrow (9:30 p.m., Channel 10) as NBC finally brings back the comedy that last month won its third consecutive comedy Emmy.

Season 4 finds Liz's boss, Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) fighting to turn things around at NBC by ordering up a new cast member for sketch comedy "TGS," and looking for ways to make the late-night sketch show more appealing to, well, the kind of people who probably aren't watching "30 Rock," either.

Hilarity is supposed to ensue, but having had some laugh-out-loud experiences already this season with ABC's "Modern Family" and NBC's own "Community," I may just be less disposed to find even an outrageous parody of NBC's troubles amusing.

That said, next week's episode, which finds Kenneth the page (Jack McBrayer) volunteering at an animal shelter, is pretty irresistible.

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