1) World Series opener, 8 p.m. ET Friday, Fox; pre-game at 7. Baseball gets a chance to swipe attention from football. It has games Friday and Saturday … skips Sunday, when pro football rules … then has games Oct. 27, 28 and (if needed) Oct. 29 and 31 and Nov. 1. The Mariners (shown here) or Bluejays face Dodgers or Brewers; check Sports for details.
2) Basketball, 7 and 10 p.m. Tuesdaym, ET, NBC. In the midst of that baseball/football overload, NBC launches its slate of Tuesday NBA games. That starts with two season-opening games. “On Brand With Jimmy Fallon,” which has been on Tuesdays and Fridays, will now have its final episodes at 8 p.m. the next two Fridays; this week involves concocting Kitchen-Aid ads with celebrities
3) “Boston Blue,” 10 p.m. Friday, CBS. Danny (Donnie Wahlberg) is still planing to return to New York soon; then a murder case drops in front of him … literally. This second episode offers the show’s strengths — good characters, twisty story, some action — and its flaw: With so many regulars,
“Blue” tries to include everyone via a clumsy plot detour.
4) “TV We Love,” 8 p.m. today, CW. To critics, “Brady Bunch” was a mess. It was “one gag line after another,” said Robert Reed, who kept complaining while playing the dad. For good or bad, it was the “sitcom-iest” of situation comedies, a professor says. But it eventually found a young audience, via late-afternoon reruns; here’s an interesting profile.
5) “DMV,” 8:30 today, CBS. It’s the hottest day of the year and workers at this Department of Motor Vehicles office are banned from fiddling with the air-conditioning. Naturally, Colette obsesses on that … and on helping a troubled mom … and on making sure the cute guy doesn’t quit. The result, like the first episode, is fast and funny, with likable people.
6) “The Lowdown,” 9 p.m. Tuesday, FX. Graham Greene, who died last month at 73, had a brilliant career. He does great work here, as someone drifting in and out of dementia while providing key information. This excellent episode (the sixth of eight) is the first in which writer-producer Sterlin Harjo strongly uses his own native roots.
7) “Nova” and “Secrets of the Dead,” 9 and 10 p.m. Wednesday, PBS. Two fascinating documentaries dig deep into the past. First, planes and drones found thousands of designs in the Arabian desert. Religion? Art? Survival? Answers have emerged. Then we meet the nowadays amateur codebreakers who cracked secret messages from Mary Queen of Scots.
78 “Sheriff Country,” 8 p.m. Friday, CBS. Last week’s debut ended with teen-aged Skye in tears and blood. As she’s taken for questioning, everyone tries to take over — her mom, the sheriff; her divorced dad, a lawyer; her grandfather, a drug dealer; and more. It’s a chaotic and high-stakes story, as the show moves to its 8 p.m. slot, with “Fire Country” returning to 9.
9) “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” 7 and 8 p.m. Sunday, ABC. A ratings success in its 36th season, this offers two Halloween hours — the first new, the second a rerun. Keeping the comedy side of the holiday, ABC has “Hocus Pocus” (1993) at 9. Freeform has a marathon, starting and ending with “Addams Family” films — 7 and 9:05 a.m., 7:50 and 9:55 p.m.
10) “Talamasca” openers, 9 and 10:14 p.m. Sunday, AMC, rerunning at 11:17 and 12:31. Far from her cozy “Downton Abbey” world, Elizabeth McGovern plays someone aware of the supernatural dangers. Set in the Anne Rice domain (shortly after “Interview With the Vampire”), this evolves too slowly. Still, it’s beautifully written, acted and filmed.