“Vacation, All I Ever Wanted”

Welcome to the first pre-show thread of Season 8. For those new to this site, what I do on the morning of each new episode is post my thoughts on what I expect to happen that night. I'm still tweaking the format a little bit (I have a new section to add but it will probably be at least two weeks before I need to use it) but basically it's the same one I used last season.

Then later that night I'll post a recap with my thoughts on how life went for Alex (technically I won't be posting a recap if the episode is Alex-less, but I'll probably say something anyway). The earliest I will ever post this will be at 12:31 Eastern (U.S.) time, so as not to spoil anything for west coast viewers (obviously if you are reading this outside of North America then you do so at your own risk, as I have no clue how long it will be for other countries to air new episodes).

So with that out of the way, what are my thoughts on tonight's season opening “A Tale of Three Cities”?

"There Is No Balance, No Equality"

I'm not sure if I should say "Finally" or "Well that didn't take long", but the press release finally came out for "A Stereotypical Day" just hours after I mentioned it.  Another set of the same photos I mentioned last night can be found at that link as well.

As for Alex, here's the money quote:

"Oh, My God, What's Wrong With My Head?" (First Impressions - "A Stereotypical Day" - Season 8, Episode 2)

Well, there's still no press release out for this episode, but I did find some photos for it from ABC's press website.  You'll have to scroll down a little to get to them, and you can click on them to see them larger (I'm surprised they let an unlogged person do this - much of this site is accessible only to members of the media).

(NOTE: Those who read/reread this posting a few weeks from now may not be able to find them - I'll post a more permanent link when/if I find one).

"A Change Will Do You Good"(?)

Two more episode titles have been released, and we've had our first schedule change of the season, and it could be an important one.  Or maybe not.

"If I Could Save Time In A Bottle"

First, the little news - the press release for "A Tale of Three Cities" finally came out, but there were no new details about any of the three main stories.  So, I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens to Alex in New York.

The one plus side of the release was the note that Elaine Ko wrote it, so if Alex does have a little story hopefully it will be a good one.

But that's not the biggest story of the day:

"Don't Want To Be The Last To Know"

So as far as I know ABC has yet to issue a press release for the season opener, but they did air a commercial for it during last night's first rerun (they fell so far behind they're airing two a week to catch up - last night was "Man Shouldn't Lie" and "Promposal", the final two, "Crazy Train" and "Double Click" air next Wednesday).  It did look like we will see a bit more in depth of the Dunphys' New York trip than I thought, but I'm not sure whether Alex has a story of her own in it.

That's about all I have, strangely enough - no real details yet.

[UPDATE] Here's the commercial from YouTube:

“Time Keeps On Slipping Into The Future”

Well, it's finally September, so it's time for me to stick my neck out and take some wild guesses on what will happen to Alex in Season 8.

Here are my big questions for this season, and many will look very familiar: