ABC and NBC officially unveiled their fall schedules yesterday. The Alphabet network is going for the funny; the Peacock meanders down the drama trail, a path that splits in an unprecedented fashion at midseason.

Both networks made unexpected announcements about renewals, showing surprising confidence in some marginal shows.

ABC will launch a comedy cluster on Wednesdays, opening with Hank, which stars Kelsey Grammer as a laid-off corporate exec.

The parade of sitcoms continues with The Middle, featuring Patricia Heaton as an Indiana mom trying to make ends meet; Modern Family, with Ed O'Neill as the patriarch of a clan under the microscope - or rather the lens - of a documentary filmmaker; and Cougar Town, starring Courteney Cox as a middle-aged woman wading into the dating pool.

"We wanted to get back in the family comedy business," ABC president Stephen McPherson said at a press conference yesterday.

The comedy conclave will lead into the sleuth drama The Forgotten. The other drama newbies are the witchy Eastwick and the heavily promoted sci-fi saga Flash Forward.

ABC's new reality show The Shark Tank, based on a Japanese series about would-be entrepreneurs, launches this summer and continues into the fall.

The network renewed some stragglers: Castle, Better Off Ted, and Scrubs. Samantha Who? and Cupid were canceled, and Ugly Betty is limping to Friday nights.

Struggling NBC jumped the gun on the other broadcast giants, disclosing its crop of new fall shows two weeks ago.

Yesterday, the network confirmed that freshmen class, composed of dramas Mercy, Parenthood, Trauma, and Day One, as well as sitcoms Community and 100 Questions.

What makes NBC's strategy for next year remarkable is its pony-express approach to programming.

Many shows that debut in September will have abbreviated runs and surrender their time slots to a batch of fresh horses after the Winter Olympics in February.

So Heroes will give way to Chuck (Mondays at 8 p.m.); Trauma will split the season with Day One (Mondays at 9 p.m.); and Parenthood will be replaced by Mercy (Wednesdays at 8 p.m.).

100 Questions will have to wait until spring when The Biggest Loser, which starts the season at two hours, slims down to 90 minutes.

A limited run of Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday specials (wow, that's a mouthful) will delay the return of 30 Rock.

All this time-shifting is the result of NBC's daring - some would say dubious - decision to air The Jay Leno Show five nights a week at 10 p.m., squeezing the number of available hours.

Among the surprises in yesterday's announcement was the return of original-formula Law & Order for a 20th season. That will tie Gunsmoke for the longest-running prime-time drama in TV history.

L&O had been considered at best a midseason replacement series.

Chuck was another fence-sitter. The show owes its half-life revival to an aggressive product placement deal with the sandwich chain Subway.

Medium, My Name is Earl and Deal or No Deal were tossed onto the TV scrap heap.

Contact staff writer David Hiltbrand at 215-854-4552 or dhiltbrand@phillynews.com. Read his recent work at http://go.philly.com/daveondemand