Sure, “The Big Bang Theory” is often hilarious with its brainiac dialogue and geek appeal.

And “The New Adventures of Old Christine” continues to be underappreciated for being a sitcom about ordinary things heightened by the broad comedy of Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Wanda Sykes.

But the fall TV season hasn’t really started until tonight, when the brilliant “30 Rock” returns to NBC at 9:30.

It’s a shame, really, that the multiple-Emmy-winning-yet-still-ratings-starved show couldn’t better capitalize on Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin buzz earlier this month (instead, we got the unwatchable “Kath and Kim”), or even bask in some post-Emmy glow in September.

The waiting really has been the hardest part – but maybe “30 Rock” ’s late start will somehow benefit from Fey’s ubiquity.

Season three picks up with Jack Donaghy’s return to the hallowed New York building after a short stint working for the government in D.C.

Alec Baldwin is such a perfect network exec with his barrel chest and piercing stare. But his blustery exterior can always be punctured by Fey’s Liz Lemon, who greets him on the sidewalk in front of Rockefeller Center with the enthusiasm of a little girl opening her Barbie boxes on Christmas morning.

In Jack’s absence, the oily Devin Banks (the wonderfully melodramatic Will Arnett) has been running the company, much to the dismay of the staff.

Can you believe, Liz gripes to Jack, that Devin doesn’t know when to have the cake for the employees’ whose birthdays fall on the weekend?

Of course it’s done on Fridays AT LUNCH, Jack responds, shocked (!) at his nemesis’ ignorance.

But even though Jack is back, he’s not exactly in command, and watching him weasel his way back to the big office with the bay windows is a little wince-worthy.

Liz, meanwhile, has carried over her season two brainstorm of adopting a child and is tortured by the overbearing adoption agency evaluator – Megan Mullally, one of about 83 guest stars slated to appear this season.

Though the storyline is predictable – Mullally’s stuffy character takes issue with everything in Liz’s kinda-childproofed apartment and during a visit to Liz at work, the motley staff of “The Girlie Show” inadvertently creates all sorts of embarrassments – it’s the follow-through that demonstrates why “30 Rock” is the smartest show on TV.

Ardent fans might be disappointed that the goal of Thursday’s return is to catch us up and play out the loose ends of season two.

But make sure to set the TiVo season pass, because next week’s episode marks the show’s true homecoming.

Yes, it’s the one with Oprah – and let’s just say that a sleeping-pill-stuffed Liz getting counseled by the Divine Miss O on an airplane really is as bizarrely funny as it sounds and has a humdinger of a kicker – but it also demonstrates “30 Rock” ’s signature intelligence.

Jokes about the president’s approval rating, the Beijing Olympics and even Madonna’s freakishly sculptured arms are not only topical, but straddle the line carefully enough to appeal to people who read Entertainment Weekly or The Economist.

And even though we’d usually like to forget Tracy Morgan has a major role on the show as Tracy Jordan, the whack job star of “The Girlie Show,” his ongoing lawsuit with Jenna (Jane Krakowski, whose wide-eyed, hushed delivery should earn her an Emmy nod, too) over the pornographic video game he created last season is at least a useful subplot for his annoyingly manic character.

But it’s Liz who has our sympathy and admiration in this one, as Fey portrays her not with the exaggerated strokes of her other current character, but as a real person with a crooked grin, a wardrobe of jeans and tailored shirts and a totally relatable weakness for really bad junk food.

I know it’s almost a decade, but I still can’t get used to the sight of Joe Satriani without his ‘80s metal mane.

Friday night at The National, the bald-as-a-cue-ball guitar wizard shredded, riffed, pummeled his whammy bar and glided gracefully through two hours of cranked-up instrumental rock.

With trusty bassist Stu Hamm and nimble drummer Jeff Campitelli anchoring a meaty rhythm section and Galen Henson adding a layer of rhythm guitar (Henson also doubles at Satch’s tour manager), the music blasted off the stage.

Early in the show, Satriani praised The National and commented, “I bet there are some spirits floating around this place.” It was an appropriate opener for the new “Ghosts” (actually, an iTunes bonus track), that featured his two-handed tapping building into a frenzied whir that sounded a bit like a tape being played backward at high speed.

Even though Satriani is all about the instrumental – often an express train to Snoozeville after about 40 minutes – he’s always engaging to witness. In a taut black T-shirt, skintight black pants, bright red sneakers and his customary dark shades, the 52-year-old guitarist grimaced, smiled, pursed his lips like a fish and channeled every emotion into his strings.

Also adding to the performance was the LCD screen backdrop that flashed images of Satriani playing and other morphing shapes; though up-close the screen is reminiscent of a Lite-Brite, from a distance, the images were, simply, pretty cool.

One of the highlights of the set – aside form Hamm’s intriguing bass solo that included Led Zep’s “Goin’ to California” and extracted chants of “Stuuuuu” from the crowd (yes, it does sound like “boooooo”) – was “Andalusia,” the final track on Satriani’s latest mouthful of an album, “Professor Satchafunkilus and the Musterion of Rock.” Henson’s foundation of Latin-style acoustic playing became a launching point for Satriani’s stunning electric presence.

Though the almost sold out crowd of about 900 (reserved seats set up on the floor meant smaller-than-usual capacity) was largely composed of middle-aged men and younger longhairs who happily hoisted their beer cups in cheering Satriani’s prowess, there were plenty of women and more than a few kids watching Satch spread his sonic magic.

When you can attract that varied of an audience with hard rock instrumentals, it’s no wonder you’re considered a master of the craft.

You may have read that DJ AM—who, along with Travis Barker, miraculously survived a Learjet plane crash last month—had recuperated enough to join Jay-Z on stage last week at the well-hyped Hollywood Palladium show.

Turns out AM is also joining Jay for the rest of his tour dates, including tonight in Philly and tomorrow at John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville.

There are still some tix available for the C’ville show. Santogold and T.I. open and Jay is expected to hit the stage around 9:30 (or so).

Details at http://www.johnpauljonesarena.com.

The New York Times announced today that starting next year, it will request the written thoughts of a certain Irish rock star on an occasional basis.

http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003877436

Of course, this will tie in nicely with U2’s new album - the one that was expected next month, but has now been shifted to early ‘09 because the band hit some kind of creative spurt.

But even if you disagree with Bono or think he’s a pompous jerk, the guy usually has something interesting to say.

Next month, the “American Idol” Davids will release their debut albums a week apart.

David Archuleta’s first single, “Crush,” peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100, and now resides in the Top 20. Not a bad first showing – especially since the song is perfectly pleasant, but not exactly distinctive.

Winner David Cook, meanwhile, opted for a moody, slow-burning rocker – “Leave the Light On” – as the follow-up to his victory ballad smash, “Time of My Life.”

The song is rather dull and plodding, but Cook’s fans have already pushed his album, which isn’t out for almost a month, to number two on the iTunes album chart. Maybe he can even unseat the “High School Musical 3” soundtrack after he performs on “Saturday Night Live” next weekend.

But what has become of Jason? Carly? Michael? Brooke?

That’s the question posed by USA Today’s ace “Idol” tracker Ken Barnes in this interesting story: http://blogs.usatoday.com/idolchatter/2008/10/have-we-reached.html?csp=34

Barnes pointedly notes that the crew from season six – Chris Daughtry, Kellie Pickler, our beloved Elliott Yamin, Bucky Covington and the final duo, Taylor Hicks and Katharine McPhee – has fared the strongest in their post-“Idol” careers. But, Barnes suggests that Daughtry and Elliott might have reason to worry about their follow-up releases and wonders, are we “Idol”-ed out?

What do you think? Pining for something new from Syesha Mercado? And actually, did you even remember her name?

Jason Mraz is in the midst of the never-ending tour.

He’s been traveling since February, three months before his latest album, “We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things” arrived. And, on the strength of its first single, “I’m Yours,” Mraz is happily filling places such as Radio City Music Hall and the Tower Theatre in Philadelphia.

This weekend, he performs twice in the area – Sunday at Charlottesville Pavilion for a general admission concert (http://www.charlottesvillepavilion.com) and Monday at Constitution Hall in D.C. (http://www.dar.org/conthall).

Next month, he’ll make his traditional visit home for Thanksgiving and squeeze in a pair of shows at The National on Nov. 26 and Nov. 28 (the first show is with a full band, the second, all acoustic).

Earlier this week, the Mechanicsville native checked in from his tour stop in Philly to talk about politics, his raw food diet and the success of his third studio album, which peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard album chart, has sold about half a million copies and commandeered many spots on the iTunes charts.

Look for the rest of this interview next month, closer to his Richmond dates.

Are you doing anything differently this time around with the tour? Still have the horn section?

We still have the horns. We’re celebrating most of the songs from the new album, as well as continuing to share old favorites. Things are getting bigger, but we’re still trying to keep everything intimate, keep the conversation alive.

There are so many artists out there who take their fans for granted or who look at them as a necessary nuisance, but you seem to embrace them as your friends and you share so much of yourself on your Web site. How much of that do you think contributes to your success?

I feel it, I do. I just want to see people smiling. The things I share on stage and on my Web site are things that give me comfort in life, the same things I put into the songs. I feel that’s my responsibly as an artist, a writer, a world traveler – to continue to share with whomever these stories of comfort and how to make this life experience a good one.

Without guidance, we can get lost in ourselves. We can just feel like what is the point of life? I’m happy to be this ambassador of positivity; it feel so much better than just standing on stage and going, look how cool I am, you guys …It’s those people who are giving me this life, especially the people who buy the tickets and buy the CDs. They’re funding this adventure, and I want to do positive things with that.

What’s this new photo thing you’re doing at the live shows?

You can email pictures ahead of time to the Web site (http://www.jasonmraz.com) based on which show you’re going to be attending. What I was hoping for was that people would share what they thought was beautiful about their community.

There’s also a feature where you can send pictures of just you and your best friends, and it comes up on the screen behind me [in concert] looking like Polaroids.

That seems like something that takes a lot of time to organize. Who is doing all of that?

My friend Jared. He used to spend time before the shows riding his bike and taking pictures. Now he’s slaving over a computer.

You’ve publicly endorsed Barack Obama on your Web site – are you doing anything political in concert?

I don’t talk on the mic about it, but Barack is in our show, I’ll tell you that. He speaks for himself. I do talk personally with people before or after the show and I use my Web site to link to Barack as much as I can.

When he appears [in concert], the place goes [bleeping] crazy. At first I was like, what if there are some people who boo? But then I thought, even if there are McCain supporters in the crowd, they’re not going to BOO Barack. But people go apey when they see his picture and it’s great. Hopefully, people will continue to take that spirit to the polls.

In Thursday’s Beat column, I wrote about music and the presidential campaigns—in particular, the McCain camp’s insistence upon using songs from avowed Democrats, who then complain publicly

(http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/entertainment/music.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2008-10-16-0007.html).

Well, they’re at it again, this time aggravating Bon Jovi for not asking if it would be cool to use the band’s “Who Says You Can’t Go Home” at recent campaign rallys (and really, unless McCain/Palin were in Alaska or Arizona, how does this even apply?).

Anyway, the latest gaffe: http://news.yahoo.com/s/eonline/20081015/en_music_eo/63961;_ylt=Ain8DQlKnvkf1Hgx2fXZ8DyVEhkF

So now we know Janet Jackson canceled a slew of dates not because of a rumored pregnancy, but, says her management, because she’s been suffering from a rare form of migraine that causes vertigo.

As a migraine-sufferer, she has my sympathy.

But riddle me this: Jackson is well enough to return to her tour tonight at D.C.’s Verizon Center, yet on Tuesday, she announced that she was postponing her Thursday gig at Madison Square Garden.

What, she was feeling better Wednesday, but already knew that she couldn’t exert herself Thursday?

More likely, tickets for the D.C. show were selling at a far stronger clip than the New York date—Ticketmaster is offering a buy-three-tickets-get-one-free promotion for the Madison Square Garden date, and a four-pack offer for Friday’s scheduled show at the Izod Center in Jersey – so by postponing the show, it gives promoters a couple of more weeks to try to unload tickets.

Even though Jackson is booked in 15,000-20,000-seat arenas, she isn’t even filling half the house at most shows.

Of the figures released to concert industry trade magazine Pollstar, Jackson’s Sept. 10 show at General Motors Place in Vancouver – a venue with a capacity of 20,763 – was set up for 11,000. She sold 8,900 tickets.

At the Staples Center in L.A. Sept. 17 – another 20,000-capacity venue – the house was set up to accommodate 13,000. She sold just over 12,000.

And Sept. 19, the 12,000-capacity Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas was set up for 8,100. She sold 8,000.

To be fair, a portion of the venue has to be blocked out for what is surely a large stage production. Typically, that will kill 3,000-4,000 seats.

But the fact that these venues were only setting up for attendance far below their capacities – a trick employed when tickets aren’t moving – says it all.

And that would give anyone a headache.

In what would fit perfectly in the “SNL” Weekend Update crew’s feature, “Really!?!”, Ringo Starr announced today that any letters or requests for autographs sent to any of his addresses after Oct. 20 will be thrown away.

Why?

Because he “has too much to do.”

Really?

Isn’t this why artists of any stature – far below that of a former Beatle, mind you – hire PR teams, to handle fan mail and coordinate autographed material, etc.?

I actually thought that Yahoo News, where I first spotted the story, might have been duped and that this was some Ringo-hater trying to besmirch the Mr. Peace Sign’s name.

But, no. A Ringo video is plainly posted on his Web site (http://www.ringostarr.com/home.php) to tell fans, basically, that he can’t be bothered responding to your support anymore, even if you were the people who spent your money on “Bad Boy” and “Ringo’s Rotogravure.”

So, have at it, Seth and Amy.

Really.

In other British superstar news, Ricky Gervais’ first-ever stand-up special, “Ricky Gervais: Out of England,” will debut on HBO Nov. 15.

The special was taped this past summer at the WaMu Theatre at Madison Square Garden. I was fortunate enough to snag a ticket to one of the dates and can tell you firsthand of Gervais’ brilliance.

Here’s what I had to say at the time – under the Billy Joel entry: (http://www.mytimesdispatch.com/index.php/popculture/P40/)

With so much going on at the Richmond Folk Festival – and with spending so much time talking to people to find out what they think of the things going on – we’ve often run out of space to discuss what is the main ingredient of this whole shindig: the music.

So, with one more day left to enjoy the multi-cultural sounds spread among the festival’s seven stages, here are my picks for some acts who shouldn’t be missed.

E.U.: The D.C.-based go-go band is not only an airtight musical outfit, but if you haven’t experienced go-go music live, they’ll show you in seconds why it’s known as an original form of party music.

Go-go relies on its backbeat, a crisp snare drum and rattling high-hat gluing the music with deliberate quarter and eighth notes on the bass drum. That’s the first sound that will make your body head uncontrollably to the dance floor (if you catch them in the Times-Dispatch Dance Pavilion, where there IS a dance floor).

Saturday afternoon, the seven-piece E.U. (which stands for Experience Unlimited) held down a non-stop rhythm while singer Gregory “Sugar Bear” Elliot issued a call-and-response during their versions of “Family Affair” and the Isley Brothers’ “It’s Your Thing.” At one point, he even improvised a Happy Birthday shout-out to “all the Libras in the crowd.”

Even though the band is mostly playing cover songs, when given the E.U. treatment, these well-known jams are stretched into fat, funky soundscapes that will guarantee even the most rhythm-less in the crowd find a groove.

Performing: 1:30 p.m. Dominion Stage; 4:45 p.m. Richmond Times-Dispatch Dance Pavilion

Líadan: This sextet of lovely ladies from Galway, Limerick and Dublin are more about melodic reed and string instruments – and accordion! – than the typical foot-stomping reels that are integral
to many Irish groups.

That isn’t to say they’re Enya.

Far from it, actually.

At Saturday night’s performance, the women balanced spirited instrumentals filled with fiddle, harp and tin whistle with Irish and Scottish ballads that illuminated their gorgeous harmonizing.

Oh yeah, and if their playing isn’t impressive enough, all of the group holds masters degrees in music.

Performing: 4 p.m. Wachovia/Wachovia Securities Stage

Nukariik: While I didn’t find this charming sister act as intriguing as AltaKAI, the Russian throat singers who visited the National Folk Festival in 2006 (maybe we’ve had throat singing overload?), it’s worth checking them out for the sheer oddity of what they do.

However, one of their performances on Saturday occurred on the exposed Dominion Stage, right under a set of train tracks.

Not a great plan, considering the sisters’ form of throat singing is rather quiet, like rapid breathing or whispering. And, of course, a CSX train with its blaring whistle rumbled past in the middle of their show.

But, it was still interesting to watch them – clad in traditional Inuit garb – as they stood inches apart, facing each other and holding each other’s elbows as they gently swayed or edged in a circle while expelling their sounds.

Performing: 3 p.m. Comcast Stage

Plena Libre: This Puerto Rican outfit took a few minutes to get warmed up for their Saturday evening performance – interestingly, almost every member took a brief solo spin on his form of percussion as an introduction to their set, rather than midway through or toward the end, which is more common for solo spotlights.

But when the entire group – all clad in white – seeped in behind a quartet of percussionists, founder Gary Nuñez on upright bass and a sublime horn section injected a jazzy vibe into the rhythmic sea.

Performing: 2 p.m. Richmond Times-Dispatch Dance Pavilion; 5:45 p.m. Ukrop’s/First Market Bank Stage

Howard Tate: The recently resurrected soul legend performed his shows this weekend with the horn section from Richmond’s Chez Roué Orchette, who sounded as if they’ve played with the man for years.

While not necessarily party music, Tate’s straight-up, old school rhythm and blues was belted with an authenticity few can still bring.

On Friday night, I ran into local fave Gary Gerloff (volunteering at the fest), who mentioned that the only living comparison to Tate is Al Green.

I couldn’t have said it any better.

Hope you caught Tate Friday or Saturday, because he’s not performing on Sunday. If you missed him, visit http://www.howardtate.net to learn a little more about this forgotten talent.