TV

Conan O'Brien is not smooth, or charming and far from being classically handsome, he's kind of weird-looking. That's why as a celebrity, and more to the point, as a talk-show host he lives and dies by being funny and smart. He was both during his Monday night debut as the new host of The Tonight Show, replacing Jay Leno who ended his 17-year run on Friday.

Just not enough of either

He didn't cry, but after 17 years hosting the Tonight Show, Jay Leno has never done anything to make viewers expect he would. The man who replaced late-night legend Johnny Carson under less than ideal circumstances -- Carson was clumsily forced out and his handpicked heir, David Letterman, was unceremoniously passed over -- has proven to be unflappable during his tenure, always steady and ready with a joke and a softball question for his next celebrity guest.

Dancing with the Stars' Tuesday night finals showcased three last dances earning three perfect scores. It was the perfect summation of an 11-week competition that host Tom Bergen revealed, just before announcing the winner, had been "our closest season ever, with less than one percent in difference between the final two competitors."

And with that, the winner was named -- Shawn Johnson, the gold-medal-winning gymnast who, at 17, is the youngest competitor in the reality TV show's eight-season history.

The breakdown is this: Shawn and Gilles tied at 58 going into tomorrow's night final judgment, Melissa bringing up the rear at 56. This after Monday night's opening "Paso Doble face-off" followed by freestyle dances from each.

It finally happened: Ty Murray was eliminated. The bull-riding champion who has been this season's hardest-working dancer was voted off Tuesday night, sending Dallas gal Melissa Rycroft to next week's finals. The only question now is can either she or Shawn Johnson beat dreamboat dancer Gilles Marini.

By the scores, the breakdown of Monday night's show is easy: Gilles scored a perfect 60 (isn't that a first in DWTS lore -- a star scoring two perfect dances in a single night?) followed by Shawn with a 56, Melissa just behind her with a 55 and Ty bringing up the rear with a distant 48. But that doesn't really tell the story.

Calling it a shock may be overselling it, but what a surprise to hear Tom Bergeron call out Lil' Kim name when announcing the contestant who was being eliminated on Tuesday night.

How close is the competition this season? Going into next week's semi-finals, the high score of Monday night's two-dance contest was decided by the final performance -- Melissa Rycroft's perfect-score samba gave her a one-point lead over Gilles Marini and Shawn Johnson.

This may be the strongest field of celebrity dancers yet for Dancing with the Stars, but it's hard not to see this week's elimination as an expression of the dance competition's flip side -- a big-name, big-budget popularity contest. Country star Chuck Wick, coming off a two-week streak of strong performances, was eliminated, sparing this week's bottom-rung holder but perennial frontrunner, Melissa Rycroft.

The big surprise of the evening came with the announcement of the second celebrity to be safe (after last night's top scorer, Lil' Kim) -- bull rider Ty Murray. As faithful viewers know, he's been an up-and-down dancer and an undeniably gracious, humble and good-natured competitor. If this were just a dance competition, it would have been his turn (who was it last night that prognosticated that tonight he would be "riding off into the sunset?" Oh yeah, that was me.) But it's not just a dance competition, and Ty's voting fan base bested Chuck's. It's presented an interesting moment in pop culture. The real cowboy proved more popular than the show-biz cowboy.

It's got to be Ty's turn next week, doesn't it? As this week proved, not necessarily. At this point, the real suspense may be in who goes and who stay in the mini-finals brewing between Lil' Kim and Shawn Johnson. Stay tuned.

Lots of action during Monday night's show, but the funny thing is the biggest news of the night came from the one competitor who didn't dance -- Melissa Rycroft. A rib injury (an x-ray had the doctor theorizing hairline fracture) sidelined the Dallas gal and jilted Bachelor winner. Tom Bergeron explained that she was determined to comeback but had to sit out this week so her partner Tony Dovolani had to stand solo as the judges scored the taping of their rehearsal performance of a jive. As all acknowledged, the rehearsal just had the pair "blocking" their dance -- going through the motions without giving any moves the full treatment. The resulting score, the evening's lowest, three 7s for a 21.

The bottom two were no surprise -- Lawrence Taylor and Ty Murray. The only uncertainty was which would go this week, which would go next. This week it was Lawrence. Next week it will be Ty. Then we'll be wondering about the next couple on the chopping block and which will be cut first -- Chuck Wick or Lil' Kim.

You didn't have to watch long on Monday to see the best dance of the night. Dallas' own Melissa Rycroft and her partner Tony Dovolani opened the show with an Argentine tango that alternately snapped and simmered, lots of intricate interlacing leg work. Bang -- high score of the night, 29, with only head grinch Len Goodman withholding a 10.

We're getting to the middle of the season, so it's time for everything that bugs me about this show to really kick in, and, sure enough, tonight it was all there.

And then there were nine. On Tuesday night's results show, it was the dreaded "mid-season double elimination." That twist took the place of this season's added element, the elimination dance-off, in which the bottom two couples dance their routines in the hopes of improving their judges' scores. I didn't miss it.

With Tom Bergeron exhorting this week's "mid-season double elimination" and "two new dances," Dancing with the Stars sounded more a night of pro wrestling than ballroom dancing, but with Monday night's performances, the truth was somewhere in between.

First things first: the biggest surprise of the night wasn't who was eliminated (Denise Richards) but who wasn't. Among the first four couples announced, "in no particular order." to be safe, was Steve Wozniak and his pro-partner, Karina Smirnoff. He's cute, he bright, he's positive, he's daffy-laffy, but he's a terrible dancer. As Bruno said of his performance last night (echoing Comic Book Guy on The Simpsons) "that was the worst salsa I've ever seen." But reflecting his cult-of-Apple fanboys out there, he got the audience votes to stay in. So next week we get to see him cute-and-goofy his way through either a Lindy Hop or Argentine Tango. Oh boy.

By the third week, things are getting interesting, and frustrating. Interesting because the good dancers are really getting good, and that includes some that at first didn't seem like they would. But it's also frustrating because already you can see who the hopeless competitors are -- the ones who are irredeemable and if they were going to get better would at least being showing some spark.

The eighth season of Dancing with the Stars got going even before Monday night's debut, as two contestants bowed out and two hastily drafted substitutes were added. Thus, the night's drama preceded its broadcast.

My one-word summation of Jimmy Fallon's debut as the latest late-night talk show host is: oof.

More from Media Critic Tom Maurstad:

Dallas gal and The Bachelor finalist Melissa Rycroft won the heart, and marriage proposal, of Jason Mesnick -- hooray. But wait, on Monday night's follow up to the season finale, a one-hour special The Bachelor: After the Rose, we watched (in horror) as Jason reneged on his proposal and decided he wanted to date the other finalist, Molly from Michigan. Boo.

In the post-dumping limo ride, a tearful Melissa said she was more hurt than angry and would come back to Dallas and continue the search for her Prince Charming. So gentlemen, start your engines.

Media Critic Tom Maurstad files this report from the first hour of ABC's reality series:

As spoilers such as this one predicted in January, Bachelor Jason Mesnick picked Melissa Rycroft, Dallas gal and former Cowboys cheerleader, as his bride-to-be. Let's all hold our breath and wait for the wedding. It could happen -- a flock of pigs could fly by, too.

The post-finale, After the Rose twist (there's one every season)? Jason just announced that "things have been different since the show ended and we're not right together." This is his summation of his engagement to Melissa six weeks after the cameras stop taping every moment between him and his line-up of ladies. Turns out he's still in love with Molly and wants to 1) break up with Melissa and 2) start dating Molly

WFAA-TV's Victory Plaza studio will turn into a celebrity fishbowl on Tuesday morning when Will Smith stops by to visit Good Morning Texas and promote his new film, Seven Pounds. While Channel 8 viewers are by now familiar with on-camera spectacle of post-game crowds milling about the studio during the ABC (and, of course, Belo-owned) affiliate's 10 pm newscast. But this Tuesday morning will offer the rare opportunity for some completely justified screaming-in-public when the man known as Mr. Fourth of July/the $25 million dollar Man and/or the Biggest Movie Star in the World gets his up-close-and-personal groove on in Victory Park. The show begins at 9 am, so figure out what the ideal arrival time is and be part of the throng.

Editor's note: Smith will also host the Dallas premiere of his upcoming movie Seven Pounds at Cinemark 17 at 11819 Webb Chapel Rd in Dallas.

Click the link below to see details on how to attend the screening.

NBC announced that its dropping second-season start-up Lipstick Jungle and debut My Own Worst Enemy.

The fall of Lipstick Jungle is no surprise. The show isn't good, never really found an audience and was stuck in the primetime deadzone of Friday night. The writers strike gave it a stay-of-execution as it was declared the putative victor in the contest between dueling Sex and the City knock-offs when the even lamer Cashmere Mafia was put out of viewers' misery. But the show never found its rhythm, a point driven home by the debut of a much more successful primetime series starring Brooke Shields, namely the clever series of Volkswagen commercials for the German automaker's new minivan, the Routan.

It was the last elimination before the semi-finals on Tuesday night's Dancing with the Stars -- the cruelest cut, to be so close to something so meaningless. With all the mounting stress and strain, the five remaining couples had a session with Celebrity Rehab's Dr. Drew. Former Olympian sprinter Maurice Green and DWTS vet Cheryl Burke could have saved themselves the soul-baring; they were the unlucky couple cut, sparing north Texas native Cody Linley who with sub Edyta Sliwinska was the other couple on the cusp of elimination. Cody teared up while talking about how much his DWTS partner Julianne Hough -- who's been out for a couple of weeks after surgery -- means to him during his Dr. Drew session. He managed to hold back the tears of joy when the judgment was announced that assured him of being reunited with Julianne for next week's semi-finals.

A nice bit of 'ripped-from-the-headlines" verisimilitude at the end of Wednesday night's new episode. At the end of a highly publicized murder trial, DA Jack McCoy is giving a press conference on the stairs of the courthouse. As he finishes his comments and turns to leave, a reporter shouts out "Is it true you've been asked to join the Obama administration?" Is America ready for its first fictitious Attorney General?

I took advantage of this week's TV Guide/iTunes exclusive offer and downloaded the 30 Rock premiere. I just watched it on my iPhone where it now is stored along with other favorite episodes, including season two hotspots such as "Rosemary's Baby, MILF Island and the sublime "Cooter" ("The ceiling's leaking." "No, it's not. I can show you the study.")

The ongoing financial implosion has had lots of effects on our nation's economy and our society's psychology. But one of the most dramatic has been its transformative effect on the television viewing experience.

In this cable era of 24/7 news cycles and competing news networks, watching the news has become the routine backdrop of our daily down time -- flop on the couch, go through the mail, return email and text messages, pay bills and whatever else, all while your preferred news network buzzes in the background, sort of the televisual equivalent of Muzak.

But now, thanks to the economic crisis, with each day bringing a new chapter of breaking bad news, watching the news has changed. Turning on the news these days feels like you're enrolling in a correspondence program to earn an MBA. All the facts, all the figures, $700 billion this , $300 billion that, the "commercial paper" industry, "mortgage-backed securities -- as the newscasters and pundits go on and on, you just want to hit the pause button and scream "Is any of this stuff going to be on the test?"

Okay, no season-recapping prologue here, just off to the races. The season premiere of the show in which aspiring-idealist lawyer Nick (Peter Krause) tries to take care of a rich family's business while holding onto his integrity started its second season with a tricky time-twisting episode in which we start at a birthday party for Nick, watch a few critical exchanges -- with patriarch Tripp Darling (Donald Sutherland), with ex-flame daughter Darling Karen and his straight-arrow wife Lisa -- and then flash back to 48 hours previous and spend the rest of the episode catching up to the point at which the show started. It's not a new trick, but it sure was fun.

There should be a special category of Emmy for next year's awards -- the outstanding season-recap prologue. Pushing Daisies is one of many sophomore shows that were refreshman-ized by the writers' strike. Critics loved it but not many people had a chance to jump on before the strike ended last season. So here comes the second-time-around that the network hopes will attract a lot of first-time viewers -- Dirty Sexy Money is another promising show that's getting its second first debut tonight, but more on that show after it's over.

Big two-hour premiere of the new, strike-delayed third season of Heroes -- "Villains." This has been hyped as the season that gets the show back on the rails after jumping off them with a second season that many complained was rambling, disjointed, dull, etc.

My reaction to the premiere was mixed.

Can we get a message to the programming committee for the broadcast of the 2012 Summer Games in London -- cut way (way) back on beach volleyball.

The WB is returning as TheWB.com, the latest experiment in bridging/blurring the chasm between television and the Internet. A beta version of the site is scheduled to be up and running on August 27.

If you get frustrated with the programming choices NBC is making for its Olympic broadcasts, you can have much more freedom and variety by tuning in online. NBC has set up an entire digital network to cover and keep up with every event at its olympics site -- I've been watching hours of badminton. Who knew -- I mean besides a couple billion people in Asia -- how exciting and beautiful a sport it is to watch? B

The August 11 issue of TV Guide (available on newstands on Aug 7) features a list of TV's highest paid stars. Can you guess who is at the top of it?

While watching "Flight 1" I found myself thinking "I almost don't care what's going on. This show is so beautiful to look at, you could just hit the mute button and just lose yourself in the cinematography and styling." I don't know if Mad Men now ranks as the most expensive-to-produce show on television but it sure looks like it. Every frame is its own perfect composition. And the stunning attention-to-detail -- the clothes, the furniture, the slang -- make Mad Men the best period piece ever on television (take that Happy Days), and one of the best ever filmed. But, of course, this week's episode was just another reminder that it's also great character-driven storytelling. Let's dig in.

Over a week and a half of stars and creators and executives (they're my favorite), the crowning moment of my TCA experience this summer had to be getting publically reprimanded by Ian McShane, aka Deadwood' Al Swearengen.

I know I said I would be, what was the seductive phrase I chose, "disgorging" my press tour journal entries today, but alas, life has conspired against me. Monday, I promise.

This concludes the live-from-L.A. portion of my TCA coverage. But tune in (late afternoonish) Friday when I will be disgorging my online journal of all the news that's fit to blog from my nine days at the Beverly Hilton.

It was Al Michaels, John Madden and the rest of the seemingly ever-expanding team of commentators/reporters/analysts that make up NBC's football-coverage team.

Perhaps the biggest news item coming out of the panel was the reunion of Keith Olbermann with his ESPN counterpart, Dan Patrick. When someone asked about the secret of their success during those mid-90s hey-days when they co-hosted ESPN's Sportscenter, Mr. Patrick explained "We just tried to entertain each other."

Mr. Olbermann elaborated, saying "the goal being to make the other laugh uncontrollably on national television."

When, in a joking reference to the "controversy" that has dogged Mr. Olbermann here at the TCA Press Tour since, during an earlier Fox News panel," anchor Chris Wallace opined that Keith Olbermann's dual function on MSNBC as both outspoken editorialist and co-anchor of campaign coverage, was a breach of journalistic ehtics and/or intergrity, Mr. Olbermann was asked if his outspoken criticism of the Bush administration should disqualify him from serving as co-host of Football Night in America, he (eventually) responded thusly:

"Barring the possibility of John McCain picking Brett Favre as his running mate, I don't think it will be a problem."

As the panel wound down, a final question was asked. "Are any of you," someone queried "going to be on the next season of Dancing with The Stars?" A follow-up to the suprisingly slinky and newly traded REdskins pass-rusher, Jason Taylor who made it to the finals this past season.

Chris Collingsworth was the first to wave off the suggestion.

"My wife's been bugging me ever since the first season that show was on to take dancing lessons. I finally just told her 'I will never either look like or dance like Jason Taylor.' "

Jerome Bettis patted running-back-cum-commentator Tiki Barber and said "Tiki's our guy." For his part, Mr. Barber just laughed and shook his head 'no.'

Then Mr. Madden entered the fray on a serious note.

"I heard it's going to be Warren Sapp," he said and then proceeded to start doing what he does -- analyzing and forecasting the outcome.

"He's good, he's got the moves," Mr. Madden said. "I predict he'll win."

The panel had opened with a discussion of last year's Super Bowl (Mr. Madden thought it was good for football and -- more importantly -- football commentators that the NY Giants had one since it set up a more interesting storyline this season) and a look ahead to this coming Super Bowl. It culminated in Mr. Madden predicting that the New York Giants, against most oddsmakers, would win again.

Now he wrapped things up.

"I'm going with the Giants and Warren Sapp."

Another Deadwood alum, another Deadwood perspective. Last week, it was Timothy Olyphant dishing Deadwood and on Monday it was Ian McShane, aka Al Swearingen. Appearing at a panel for the new NBC drama, Kings, in which Mr. McShane plays -- can you guess? -- a king, someone asked for his thoughts/feelings on the sort of sad, undignified way that Deadwood ended. Mr. McShane likewise lamented its passing, and more to the point, the way it passed.

"They (HBO reps) said the reason was he (creator David Milch) was working on another show -- well, he was always working on another show. He had signed a three-show deal. You're familiar with David Milch and how he works. I suspect what happened was HBO saw that this was the most expensive show on television and went to David and said 'how about we just do maybe eight episodes this season. And he said 'how about we do [expletive] none?'

I always knew it was over, that was the end. Everyone involved did. That 'two movies' idea that was floated about was just a smoke screen. Pathetic. It left me with a bad taste for a while."

Think the Summer Olympics in Beijing are going to be a big deal? NBC, which paid $1 billion for the broadcast rights, certainly does. How big? Try "the single most ambitious media event in history" in the words of Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC Universal Sports and Olympics. Or, in the words of NBC's Olympic primetime host, Bob Costas, "uber-spectacular."

Start with the amount of coverage -- 3600 hours, more than the combined total of every other Olympics televised in the U.S., starting with the 20 hours CBS devoted to the first Olympic broadcast in 1960.

In a cutting-edge exercise of multimedia programming, all those hours are going to be spread across television, computers and mobile devices, and all are going to be broadcast in high-definition.

"That's probably the biggest technical innovation," Mr. Ebersol said, speaking by satellite from Beijing. At the last Olympics (in Salt Lake City) only five sports and the opening and closing ceremonies were in high-def. They were boutique presentations. Now every camera we're using, including the lipstick cams that will show you the arrows landing in the archery competition, will be high-def.

The other change that may mean even more to viewers -- considering that according to NBC astatistics, 95 percent of Americans still use standard televisions -- is that the majority of coverage will be live. In stark contrast to previous NBC-broadcast games, viewers will see what happens as it happens, as when, over the first eight nights, swimming events will be shown during primetime. Gone is the "plausibly live" approach of previous Olympic broadcasts when NBC would hold back events and package them for a primetime audience, showing them hours after they had happened and, in this evermore wired world, results were widely known.

One reason for the emphasis on live coverage is viewser frustration. "We've learned our lesson," Mr. Ebersol said.

Another reason is that China, though halfway around the world, is, conveniently, 12 hours ahead of New York -- mid-morning there is primetime back home. With all those high-def cameras and all that "cross-platform content" -- streaming video on nbcolympics.com, updates broadcast to cell phones, and , of course, all the coverage televised on NBC and its cable counterparts -- it's easy to understand why the Olympic mantra at NBC is "whenever, wherever, any hour, every hour."

If imitation truly is the the sincerest form of flattery, the NBC paid ABC a huge compliment during its executive panel by pulling the same stunt as its rival network did a few days ago. Just as the first question for ABC's president Stephen McPherson came from Jimmy Kimmel posing as journalist, the first questions to NBC's co-chairmen, Mark Graboff and Ben Silverman were asked by a bald, bearded guy in the back, who turned out to be Jay Leno in disguise.

It made for funny impromptu theater for the NBC execs, but it also allowed them to handle The Question -- what's going on with Jay and when will Conan be taking over The Tonight Show -- in a way they could control. Thus, a ballroom full of actual journalists found out that Jay Leno's last night as Tonight Show host will be Friday, May 29 of next year and Conan O'Brien's first will the next Monday, June 1. The stunt also allowed Jay to seem in on the joke and to dampen suspicion that this transition marks a fractious break between the talk-show host and his network, a suspicion that was seemingly buttressed by Mr. Leno himself in an interview with USA Today in which he was quoted as angrily saying he was done with NBC once his reign on the Tonight Show ended.

Just a misunderstanding due to a quote being taken out of context, according to Mr. Silverman, who said that the network continues talking with Mr. Leno about what role he might play after the switch to Conan.

"He came to us and said he felt bad about how he sounded in that interview. We're still talking to Jay about staying within NBC."

Jay Leno, the bald-headed journalist, didn't stick around to provide any answers. He just asked his questions -- "You've brought back Knight Rider, any plans to bring back Manimal? "Have you offered Jay a fifth hour of the Today Show?" -- and then he was gone. He didn't sound mad, but then, this is show business.

A panel with the cast (minus Darrell Hammond and the soon-to-be-former member, Amy Poehler) of SNL and creator/executive producer, Lorne Michaels, opened with a burst of news items:

This season will be extended from the normal 20 episodes to 22.

There will be seven live episodes leading up to the November presidential election, with four consecutive live shows kicking off the season.

Most notably, during the build-up to the election, the SNL crew will stage a weekly half-hour version of Weekend Update, Thursday Night Live, which will premiere on Oct. 9.

But there was time for all of that. Another more pressing question had to be answered: How will the show deal with a pregnant Hillary Clinton? No, that's not another news flash, the First Lady and former presidential candidate isn't pregnant. But the SNL actress who impersonates her on the show is, Amy Poehler, and will be abundantly so as the election nears. "Are you going to have her wear really big dresses or have her sitting behind a desk?"

"There'll be less need for Hillary in the fall," head writer Seth Meyers ventured. But when reminded that Bill Clinton being out of the White House hadn't meant that Darrell Hammond's version of him didn't still pop into SNL skits, Mr. Meyers nodded. "That's true, well then, you're idea about the desk is a good one. We'll do that."

With the country accelerating into the final months of the presidential campaign, it's not surprising that talk during the SNL panel focused on the show's plans for and history of political satire. How, for example, will the show's writers deal with Obama, who has thus far proven to be a tough personality to parody.

"He's still defining himself," Mr. Michaels said, "and he's still primarily cast as heroic. But that will change. It's all about finding the take on him that everyone can agree on. He's still being dealt with very cautiously and reverently, but as he becomes more familiar and the campaign grinds on, the proper satirtical take will become clear."

Since both candidates have appeared on the show, although Senator Obama just appeared in one sketch while Sen. McCain was a guest host this past season, Mr. Michaels was asked "who's funnier?"

Of course, they both were funny, in their own ways. He complimented Sen,. McCain for being such a good sport and willing to go with the show's flow. When he was subsequently asked about his personal politics -- he acknowledged that he has contributed to Sen. McCain's campaign, he waved off the possibility of any such bias affecting the show's content or tone.

"I contribute to any former host running for office," he joked, before adding, "Who ever's in power, we're suspicious of."

Sounding like a coach about to enter the championship season, he also said that Amy Poehler "will be with us through the election, or at least, as long as she can be."

When Friday Night Lights' Connie Britton (Coach Taylor's guidance-counselor wife) was asked about the effects of all the doomsday-anxiety surrounding the show, she said:

"Maybe it's got something to do with Austin, but once we're down there and shooting, we don't pay that much attention to what people are saying about the show's future or demise. We're just in our little Texas heaven."

Friday Night Lights has been a unique and extraordinary show since it debuted on NBC in Oct, 2006. It's a show based on a movie (of the same title) that completely reinvented itself and became not just different but better than the film that inspired it. It's become variably known as 1) the football show that isn't about football, 2) the best show on television that almost nobody is watching, or 3) just simply the best show on television.

That unique/extraordinary aura got (at least) another level added to it on Sunday when at a panel featuring castmembers and exec producer/writer Jason Katims it was confirmed that the show will become the test case for "a completely new model" of distribution -- this plan was originally announced, but sketchily explained in an April meeting with advertisers during NBC's upfront. FNL's upcoming third season will debut in Feb. 2009 on NBC, but first it air in its entirety -- starting Oct. 1 -- on satellite TV provider Direct TV's original programming initiative, the 101 Network.

."I'm a huge fan of the show," said Eric Shanks, executive vice president of entertainment for DirecTV, "and like everybody at NBC, I wanted to fiure out a way to keep the show going. It's been a long journey, but the show is so special and it has such intense, dedicated fans."

The plain facts are this: NBC has ordered 13 episodes (nine less than last year's 22-show season). Production will begin some time in August, in Austin. The show will start clean; rather than picking up where the strike interrupted it, FNL's new season will begin at the start of a new school year, the next football season. That means that two of the show's central characters, former star quarterback/paraplegic, Matt Saracen (Zach Gilford) and hotshot running back 'Smash' Williams (Gaius Charles) have graduated and won't be regulars on the show anymore.

"As much as we love those guys and those characters," said Mr. Katims, "we felt the show has always been about being true to life, authentic as possible, so we love them but to be true to their lives, it was time for them to move on.

"They're both going forward to the next step in their lives, but we are absolutely leaving the door open to them coming back."

Other than that, not much in the way of facts, plain or otherwise, were offered, a reflection perhaps of just how "completely new" this arrangement is and how little about how it's going to work is known.

For instance, how will this experiment be judged a success. Is it just a matter of attracting a significant segment of DirecTV's existing 17 million subscribers, giving them something to get excited about? Or will this venture be judged by how many new subscribers it draws?

Mr. Shanks either didn't know or was unwilling to say.

"There are a large number of things that we will be looking at. It's about keeping existing customers satisfied and new customers coming in the door, You can't just look at one thing to say whether this is a success. There are a lot of ways we're going to be looking at it."

Okay. Let's try something else. Among the unique FNL features DirecTV will be offering to its subscribers are a "postgame" show, Friday Night Lights Live in which viewers will be able to call in and ask questions of that week's participating cast members (Mr.Kasims guessed that "two or three" will take part each week). Even more enticing to hardcore fans, however, is the promise of bonus content and/or extended episodes available only on DirecTV. What does this mean. Will the show be reverse-engineered, sort of the opposite process a cable show like Sex and the City goes through to run on broadcast television, only instead of taking the R-rated material out, FNL's producers will be putting it in?

In a word, maybe, or more precisely in three words, they don't know.

"Well, we're talking about what we might do. We haven't started production yet so I could probably answer that question a lot better in six or eight weeks," Mr. Kapinos said. "We potentially could do a version that's different for DirecTV. One thing that's really attractive is the possibility of a longer running time, so we might do something like that.

"I don't really know yet, but each version would have something to recommend it."

It's not surprising that, on the cusp of doing something that's never been done before, that clear, certain answers are few. Switching to a new season with fewer episodes and the creative possibilities of longer, more fluid running times and adult-themed content -- Friday Night Lights seems to be going through a strange, unprecendented metamorphosis. It entered its strike-imposed cocoon an underperforming broadcast show and it may emerge a precedent-setting new kind of cable show.

The new 90210 may be a whole new show -- "We're really having a strong adult storyline" -- but there are a few ways in which it will be just like the old show by including some of the original castmembers. Jennie Garth will be back as the all-grown-up Kelly Taylor, and in one of those what-a-teeny-tiny-world, improbably convenient coincidences that always happen on television and never in real life, she is now back at West Beverly High as the school's guidance counselor.

The show's producers also confirmed that Tori Spelling will be back as Donna Martin, now the owner of a boutique that will no doubt prove to be a crucial site in the lives of its new crop of hip high-schoolers (you know how teens love a good boutique). The producers also announced that Shannon Doherty will appear in an undetermined number of episodes as a drama teacher "guest directing" a musical at West Beverly High.

As for Jason Priestley, Luke Perry et al, "We're open to it," said Gabe Sachs, executive producer, "as long as we can do it organically within the show. But we haven't talked to any of them yet."

For anyone who lived through the original 90s craze that was Beverly Hills 90210, the specter of a new "cooler, sexier, more provocative" spin-off series may induce a groan and a shudder. But there are reasons to hope the new series may not only not be hateful but actually be fun.

1. It's being written and produced by Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah, who worked on Freaks & Geeks and created Life As We Know It, two shows that blew up and turned inside-out all the conventions and tedium of teen "dra-medy."

"We grew up in Apatow country (a reference to filmmaker and Freaks & Geeks creator Judd Apatow)," Mr. Judah said. "We're grounded in reality, telling truthful, emotional stories that are also really funny."

2. It's got an interesting cast that includes Jessica Walters, from Arrested Development, and Tristan Wilds, from The Wire.

Asked to compare her matronly character in 90210 to her hilarious stint at the matriarch of Arrested Development's dysfunctional Bluth family, Ms. Walters said "They're very different. First of all, Lucille (Bluth) drank vodka and Tabitha drinks scotch."

Mr. Wilds' tenure on The Wire provided the panel's funniest moment when Mr. Judah talked about his excitement at working with a Wire alum. "I love that show so much. The first time I was with Tristan, I was like Chris Farley, a reference to recurring SNL sketch in which Mr. Farley would play a starstruck celebrity interviewer.." 'You remember that time you were sitting on the stoop? That was awesome' "

The Cw, once staked its brand on being a source of "urban" entertainment shows -- a show biz euphimism for shows centered on African-American stories and characters. But at this point, the only such shows remaining on the network's schedule are Everybody Hates Chris and The Game.

Meanwhile, the CW's new target audience are women 18-34 and the shows the network is using to attract them are series centered on the young, beautiful and (perhaps especially) rich. Perhaps the signature show of this new brand identity has been Gossip Girls, a show about the days and nights, loves and addictions of a band of merry (and not so much) rich kids in New York City. With its new season, the network looks to expand that niche with entries like the updated spin-off, 90210 ("If you wanna live in the zip, you gotta live by the code"), and Privileged, a show about the fabulously wealthy, and did I mention young and beautiful, residents of Palm Springs.

Clips of both these shows shown to the press gathered in the Beverly Hilton ballroom on Saturday offered a dizzying, designer-decked montage of high fashion, fabulous mansions, exotic cars, exclusive clubs and, of course, the lucky inhabitants of all this gilded luxury. All this glamorizing imagery and voyeuristic fascination with the wealthy, their playthings and playgrounds, comes just as news reports and front pages are filled with daily accounts of America's slumping economy, described, coincidentally, in Saturday's Los Angeles Times, as "the worst economy since the Great Depression."

As gas prices climb, stocks slump and the housing market implodes, is anyone at the CW concerned that viewers' appetite for or perceptions of all the wealth-worshipping entertainment may suddenly shift? No. Being a network executive means the glass if never half-empty, it's always half-full.

"I think when times are tough, escapist entertainment is even more important. Viewers are looking to escape into television and see worlds they wouldn't see every day," Ms. Ostroff says. "You look back at shows like Dallas and Dynasty, they were fantasy shows that were very popular at a time (the 80s) when we had similar economic problems."

For some of the broadcast networks trumpeting their new (or not so much) seasons at the TCA press tour, spring has become the new fall as they announce post-strike plans to shift the premiere of new shows from the traditional launching-pad of the Fall season of September/October to Spring and January/February (and maybe March). But on Saturday, the CW unveiled another calendar re-calibration -- summer as the new fall.

Instead of springing forward, the CBS-owned network is falling back and premiering its new Fall lineup in the last couple of weeks of summer. Returning shows One Tree Hill and the cult-pop phenom, Gossip Girls, will debut on Monday, Sept. 1 while the Tyra Banks-hosted reality hit, America's Top Model, starts Wednesday Sept 3. In between, the spin-off of that inescapable 90s smash, Beverly Hills 90210 -- this time dubbed simply 90210 -- will kick off on Tuesday, Sept 2 with a two-hour premiere.

A week later, another new soapy drama focusing on the young and the rich, Privileged, will debut on Tuesday, Sept. 9, and the following week Smallville and Supernatural return on Thursday, Sept. 18. There are a couple of exceptions to the earlier roll-out -- Everybody Hates Chris and The Game return on Friday, Oct. 3; the new fashion-reality show, Stylista debuts on Wednesday, Oct. 28 -- but CW's falling back into summer will last beyond this post-strike season and even extend further next year.

"This won't be a one-time maneuver," said Dawn Ostroff, the CW's president of entertainment. "We plan on starting earlier in the summer from now on, maybe early August or even late July.

"It allows us to premiere outside the clutter of the Fall season."

The move can also be seen as the latest reaction from broadcast networks to the ongoing and broadeneing success of cable networks with original programming, many of which use summer -- a season historically neglected by the broadcast networks, a dumping grounds for re-runs and cheap-tp-produced reality shows -- as an uncontested fly zone for fledgling series.

"Sure, we looked at cable," Ms.Ostroff said. "They launch a lot of show in the summer and it works for them. And we looked at what broadcast puts on in the summer.I think it's a real open opportunity for us."

For now, anyway. With basic cable networks joining in on premium cable networks' show-launching (Emmy-garnering) fun,and broadcast networks trying to find ways of holding on to their core viewers and reach out to new ones, summer may soon look like an overbooked hotel during a holiday rush -- no vacancies.

At a panel of CBS News personalities -- Bob Schieffer, Jeff Greenfield, Katie Couric -- and Sean McManus, CBS president of news and sports, the question of Ms. Couric's fate and future as anchor of the network's evening news was asked, repeatedly. And again and again, both Ms. Couric and Mr. McManus reported that there was no news to report.

"All the speculation is befuddling to me," Ms. Couric said. "At least it's died down considerably."

Showtime has signed Edie Falco to star in a new 30-minute comedy series, Nurse Jackie. On the surface, it looks to be a female version of House -- she's smart, dark and drug-addicted. But this being Showtime and premium cable, count on more "edgy" content (that is, R-rated) and executives involved promised that the show would be more about her personal life than a week-to-week medical procedural.

CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler said she is "very proud" of Swingtown, the show centered on wife-swapping couples in the 70s, and loves the show. As to whether the show will be back, "We wish the rating were better but right now we're behind it."

Jason Alexander and Luke Perry will make guest appearances on the upcoming season of Criminal Minds

In a case where quantity trumps quality, CBS has, at least in one way, already won the Fall season irace before it has even started by managing to muster one. At a press tour where the standard post-strike approach taken by most of its competitors has been to introduce a couple of new shows and talk about what an exciting opportunity it is to re-introduce last Fall's shows again, CBS is debuting four shows -- Worst Week, The Ex List, Eleventh Hour and The Mentalist.

What fate awaits them is another matter, but there's something to be said just for getting them on the air this fall rather than delaying their debuts to what has now become the default, post-strike pilot season, which is January or the even more vaguely delayed release of "sometime this spring."

How did CBS do it?

"The strike was a tough time for everybody," said Nina Tassler, president of CBS Entertainment. "But we felt it was really important to get viewers back, win back their hearts and trust, and we approached that challenge in a very strategic, methodical way....

"That meant we had to have a pilot season and develop new content that viewers could look forward to. "To build viewers' anticipation of your new fall season, you have to first have a new fall season."

Of course, with that mission accomplished, the question becomes are any of the shows any good? It's a fool's gambit to judge the merits of a series based on its pilot, so let's go ahead and do that.

Two are comedies: Worst Week, a sitcom about a nice guy who always has bad things happening to him. It stars Kyle Bornheimer, the guy from that hilarious T-Mobile commercial where he's trying to leave a voicemail message to a girl he went out with the night before and keeps screwing it up ("gosh, you ate like a horse last night..."), so that's good. The pilot is a fairly frantic procession of physical-comedy gags so that could grow tiresome over time, but the core situation -- he's trying (and failing) to win the approval of his pregnant girlfriend's parents (think Meet the Parents as a sitcom) offers plenty of potential laughs.

The Ex List is all about a single woman (Elizabeth Reaser, Ava/Rebecca on Grey's Anatomy) who is told by a psychic that she has one year to get married or she will spend her life alone. The additional hook is that the man she should marry is someone with whom she's already been romantically involved. The pilot was as strained and limited as that set-up, but if the show can be half as funny and crazy-energetic as its creator, Diane Ruggiero, was in the show's panel on Friday, then it will be worth watching.

Two are dramas: Eleventh Hour is a science "fact" not a science fiction show from Cyrus Voris and Ethan Reiff, the creators of the Showtime series Sleeper Cell. Another plus, it stars Rufus Sewell as the biophysicist-investigator who goes to work for the FBI, solving crimes having to do with cutting-edge stuff like cloning and cryogenics. The pilot is good, but there's a lot of this kind of techy/edgy drama on television, so it all depends on the consistency of the show's execution.

The Mentalist is a drama starring Simon Baker (the callow hunk from Devil Wears Prada) who stars as former fraud-psychic who is now using the skills he perfected as a fake psychic ("his razor sharp skills of observation") to help the California Bureau of Investigation to solve the seemingly unsolvable crimes. It's got a kind of clever charm about it, but I wouldn't bet on it.

A recurring message among executives, producers and actors at the TCA Press Tour has been that the message that shut Hollywood down for five months and brought last year's new Fall season to a screeching halt was, really, when you think about it, a good thing.

Of all the outrages big and small, this year's final snubbing of HBO's The Wire is the most maddening and egregious. One (!!!!) nomination. That's it. Granted, it's for Best Writing, a category that the Academy should just go ahead and rename in honor of the consistently best written show ever (there, I said it, take that Sopran-iacs). But year in year out, The Wire had great acting and great cinematography It's a joke that among that amazing ensemble of actors creating and extending such rich and unpredictable characters that none has ever been nominated.

In its six year on-air, it received only one other nomination, in 2005, also for writing. And now it's going out with a final season that I personally thought was (once again) smart, courageous, compelling TV all but ignored by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. So be it. Decorum prevents me from the purest expression of my reaction, but fans know what a singularly great show The Wire was, and thanks to DVD afterlife, is.

ABC Entertainment president Stephen McPherson acknowledged that this past season of Dancing with the Stars lacked dramatic tension. While he first discounted the suggestion that Kristi Yamaguchi's superior athletic/dancing skills didn't dampen excitement and speculation over who might win ("we didn't get back in testing that people thought she had some sort of unfair advantage"), he went on to pretty much say that, in fact, yes she did.

"No mystery does take away from the fun of watching the show and from early on you knew that unless she fell there was no way she wasn't going to win." He also admitted that Jason Taylor's second-place success was a surprise. "We honestly thought he'd be out in week two. I mean, he's this 7-foot-tall football player, who knew he could dance like that?"

He did add that Kristi as the obvious winner wasn't last season's only problem. Another problem was that everybody was just too nice. "You need some edge along with more competition. We'll definitely be looking for some entertaining personalities as we cast this season."

Calling Gary Busey?

The writers strike ended last February, but its effects linger on. In its first day at the TCA press tour, ABC spotlighted the only two new show it has to offer viewers this fall -- Life on Mars, a remake of a British series, and Opportunity Knocks, a reality game show. That's not exactly a jam-packed schedule for what is, after all, supposed to be the new TV season. But Stephen McPherson, president of ABC Entertainment, tried to put the best spin on the situation during his morning Q&A session.

"The strike changed everything in terms of the way development went.... We're in the middle of pilot season now. January and March are the new launch zones for shows this year."

So Spring is the new Fall in TVland. So what does that make Fall. For ABC, it has become the season of making old shows new again. The name of the game this September and October isn't launching shows, it's re-launching, whether it's a relative newcomer like Dirty Sexy Money coming back with a new star (Lucy Liu) joining the cast or an old-timer like Desperate Housewives returning with some fired-up plot points (that must not be revealed).

"We are prioritizing returning shows this Fall, that's where we're at," Mr. McPherson says.

The last season of what FX introduced on Tuesday as "the single most important series in commercial supported cable television" (a long-winded way of saying "the most important cable show other than The Sopranos") is being called The Shield: The Final Act. It will begin in September and the cast and crew gathered on stage at the Beverly Hilton to talk about it, with star Michael Chiklis appearing via satellite, thanks to a movie-shoot obligation.

There was a lot of talk about what made the show great, how it was for the actors and writers and producers and so on. But, of course, the bulk of questions tried to ferret out clues or glimpses of what will happen and, especially, how will it all end for the gang of L.A. cops.

"It feels like a graduation," said creator Shawn Ryan. "The finales I've liked are ones where the shows stayed true to themselves, didn't try to go outside the umbrella. I think our finale feels like the Shield universe."

As to anything more specific -- who lives, who dies -- forget it. But you can be sure that some characters do die since, responding to a question about the possibility of a Shield movie, Mr. Chiklis said one of the problems would be "are there enough characters still alive to do a movie?"

The real question everyone was looking for an answer to or hint about was: Does Vic Mackey, Michael Chiklis' maverick cop, die?

No answer, of course, except for this offered by co-star CCH Pounder, who plays Mackey's tough captain: "This finale is what Vic Mackey deserves."

John Landgraf, president and general manager of FX Networks opened his morning comments with several announcements. They included:

Nip/Tuck: The final eight episodes of the strike-interrupted fifth season have been completed and will air in "early 2009." In addition, the network has ordered an additional 19 episodes, bringing one of cable TV top-rated scripted series to the significant-in-syndication total number of 100.The show, which has been the number-one-rated scripted series on basic cable for five consecutive years, will conclude its run in "early 2011."

Rescue Me: The series will begin its fifth season in Spring 2009 and will include a guest-star run from Michael J. Fox who joins the show for a four-run arc starting with the season-opening episode.

Damages: The series will return for its second season in January. Joining the cast will be Marcia Gay Harden, William Hurt and Timothy Olyphant. Ms. Harden will play an attorney who goes up against Glen Close's character, Patty Hewes. Mr. Hurt plays a man from Patty's past who's in trouble and reaches out to her for help. Mr. Olyphant plays a "mysterious figure," a man that Patty's assistant Ellen meets in grief counselling and becomes her confidante.

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: The network announced it will order 39 more episodes of the comedy that has become the number-one downloaded show on the online-TV site, Hulu.com. 13 episodes are currently in production and the fourth season kicks off on Sept. 18.

New Show Announcement: FX will introduce Testees, a new comedy from Kenny Hotz, a writer for South Park and creator of the Comedy Central series, Kenny vs Spenny. The show will center on two buddies who make their livings as medical test subjects.

He was at the FX network's day during the TCA press tour to talk about his new role on the upcoming second season of Damages -- new enough that the listing of it hasn't yet made it onto his profile at IMDB.com. And talk about it he did, but let's get to that in another post.

He's the second Deadwood-alum actor in as many days to appear on a TCA panel (Garrett Dillahunt who played Hearst's psycho-killer scout was part of Monday's Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles panel). And once again, the Deadwood diehards in the audience couldn't let the opportunity to ask some questions, specifically The Question: Will there ever be the once-promised series-concluding movie?

But as an opening segue question, he was asked to compare his experience thus far on Damages with his experience as Sheriff Seth Bullock. The big difference, he said, is "that when those guys talk," pointing to executive producers Daniel Zelman, Todd A. Kessler and Glenn Kessler, "I understand what they're talking about," a reference to Deadwood creator David Milch's tendency to speak in grand, rambling, incantational discourses.

Then he was asked if he always knew there would never be a movie.

"I thought there was a really strong chance it would never happen, but no it's not like it was clear all along that it wouldn't.

"Nothing ever was very clear in that experience."

Two actually kind of newsy tidbits came out an afternoon panel of the producers of Fox's animation line-up.

1. Work on a follow-up to Family Guy's most-successful-episode-ever spoof of Star Wars (an hour-long retelling of the original Star Wars movie, recast with the Family Guy characters) is, according to creator Seth MacFarlane, "basically done." It's -- can you guess? -- a spoof of The Empire Strikes Back and will be "shipping off" to whereever the show is animated sometime in the next week. No word yet on when it will air, but soon, Mr. MacFarlane promised.

2. Seth Rogen has written an episode of The Simpsons. Longtime producer Al Jean revealed that episode has Comic Book Guy creating a superhero that gets made into a movie played by a slimmed-down and buffed-up Homer, thanks to his celebrity trainer, played by -- wait for it -- Seth Rogen.

Spring will be the new Fall in this strike-struck year of television, a forecast made clear in Monday morning comments from Kevin Reilly, president of entertainment for Fox Broadcasting Company. Acknowledging that because of the writers' strike -- started last November and ending in February -- Fox was only going to have two new shows debuting this fall, Mr. Reilly said that the network was going to have a lot of new shows premiering in January, "by default."

But that's good, really, the executive went on to explain because the strike and its consequences are just forcing Fox to change and adapt in ways that an evolving media marketplace and shifting viewers' habits were going to force on the networks anyway.

He may have refused to appear before Congress, but Karl Rove appeared before a ballroom full of television reporters on Monday afternoon as part of the Fox News panel. Mr. Rove was there in his role as a "contributor' to the Fox News team, but his presence created a surreal buzz and dramatic tension to what is more typically just another assembly-line promotional event.

First came a general question about the whole slippery-slope aspect of Mr. Rove, so centrally involved in so many ongoing and headline generating stories, appearing in the role of a commentator on a news network covering those stories.

Thanks to the breakthrough success of shows like Lost and Heroes, it wasn't all that long ago that "serialized" television was all the rage. Over the past couple of years, while trumpeting new series at TCA events, producers talked enthusiastically about the depth of storytelling and audience connection/interaction made possible by the serialized style -- in which the arc of a story runs over an entire season with each episode acting as more the chapter in a book than a stand-alone experience -- and held it out as the killer-app strategy that television could apply to counter the YouTubing of viewers' tastes and habits.

Jon Voight was surrounded by a throng of reporters at the Beverly Hilton on Monday afternoon. He was ostensibly there to talk about joining Kiefer Sutherland and company for the new season of 24. But I will give you two guesses what everybody was instead asking him about.

Take it as a sign of this new series' success that, as you're watching, you can't believe that it's taken this long for someone to make this show. Coming from the same production company that brought us Deadliest Catch and Ice Road Truckers, Black Gold -- the new original series from TruTV -- is yet another winning iteration of this brilliant/breakthrough reality TV formula. Rather than throw a bunch of strangers into a ridiculously artificial and contrived environment and film them "acting" like real people, this approach finds groups of intimately connected people working in extreme conditions and film them being real people.

The fourth season of Weeds returned Monday night and the first episode of a new (to America, anyway) series, Secret Diary of a Call Girl. Let's start with the old show and then move onto the new. Please consider everything that follows to be a spoiler if you haven't yet watched the episodes and wish to remain blank-slate ignorant of what transpires.

It's a sign of just what a readymade commodity hipness has become that the funniest/snappiest commercials on TV right now are a series of spots for -- not established cool-makers like Apple or Target or BMW or some recreational beverage producer -- Holiday Inn.

That's everyone's favorite funny lady, Tina Fey on the cover of the current issue of Emmy Magazine. At this point, her cover is blown and the secret is out that Ms. Fey is drop-dead, knock-down gorgeous but the cover portrait and inside photos certainly make that abundantly clear -- my personal favorite in the page 129 image of her sitting on a white pedestal decked out in a black Dior dress and white Christian Louboutin shoes.

Based on the premiere episode, producers may want to consider changing the name of this franchise to Law & Order: Criminal Negligence. I want to go on record as saying I'm a fan. Criminal Intent is my favorite of the L&O spin-offs. I like Vincent D'Onofrio, was happing when they brought back Det Mike Logan as the series' alternating-weeks crime-solver and thought it was a cool gambit when NBC Universal announced it was making USA Network the first-run platform for the show's seventh season. But the debut episode, which aired last night (Sunday, 06/08) was an uninvolving mess.

It appears the broadcast networks are (finally) reacting to the cable networks' re-animation of summer from a dead zone into a hot time for new, original programming. Case in point: NBC's unveiling on Thursday (06/05) of its new horror series, Fear Itself. The series will occur as a thirteen-episode anthology of hour-long tales of dread and terror.

Instead, you can waste endless hours playing this game. This is an example of the sophistication of simplicity. The name of the game: Throw Paper -- a virtual version of that most banal of office-time acts, throwing a ball of paper into a trash can. But that simple premise is so time-suckingly seductive, thanks to a few genius touches: the ever-shifting wind speed and direction (I guess this office has a really powerful and unpredictable air-conditioning system), the curveball arc of the paper ball (there is something so deeply, irrationally satisfying about clicking the perfect shot in a strong crosswind, watching it slowly bend and drop into the basket. And then there's the sounds, the clack-a-clung clunk of the two-rim shot.

So click away, but be prepared to lose a few hours.

Fans waiting for the next season of Entourage now have something else to look forward to, an upcoming installment of DIY Network's show, Celebrity Rides. Kevin Dillon, aka Johnny Drama will be the star of franchise starting with an episode on September 3. Over four episodes -- what Drama would call "a four-episode arc" -- viewers will watch Kevin, who we learn is both a car aficianado and a devoted James Dean fan, oversee the production of a replica of James Dean's 1955 Porsche Spyder.

If you've ever wondered how much art is imitating life when it comes to how convincingly Kevin Dillon inhabits his Johnny Drama character, this quote from the press release will only confirm your suspicions that there's not much "acting" going on.

"As much as I want it to look like James Dean's original car, there are a couple things that I'm doing to make it my own. His car was set up for racing...the windshield was so small it would mess up your hair, and I've got to keep my hair in shape! But it's still going to say James Dean."

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the perfect job just got a little more perfect. The core group of actors providing the voices of The Simpsons -- Dan Castellenata (Homer), Julie Kavner (Marge), Nancy Cartwright (Bart), Yeardley Smith (Lisa) and Hank Azaria (Moe, et al) -- have signed a new four-year deal with Fox, settling months of negotiations. They will now receive $400,000 per episode. Nice.

This is just the latest reminder that being a voice actor for a successful cartoon series is the greatest job in the world. All the money and privileges of a celebrity lifestyle with none of the privacy-obliterating hassles of it. Dan Castellenata could go into a Starbucks (product placement) or a Target (ditto) anywhere in the country -- except Los Angeles) and be just as anonymous as he wants to be -- maybe a hardcore Simpsons fan here or there might recognize him. But any time he feels like having a king-of-the-world moment, he just has to open his mouth and say "D'oh."

The cast is supposed to start work on the 20th season this week. Because of the lengthy negotiations, this season will contain only 20 episodes instead of 22. That's $8 million. For a job you could do in a bathrobe. I'll say it again: Nice.

This exciting news just in: Starting Sept. 8, Dr Phil -- the syndicated talk show starring that Oprah offspring, the bald guy with the mustache, what's his name?, oh yeah, Dr. Phil -- will be produced in glorious high-definition.

In the attendant press release, Dr. Phil (McGraw) says, "My goal has always been to give our viewers the very best in show content, and now we are able to offer the very best broadcast quality."

Well, that's just fantastic, what a thoughtful service he's providing viewers and it's all about the viewers, after all. This isn't some silly attention-seeking stunt, a gratuitous application of some zippy sounding but fundamentally pointless high-tech trick. Goodness no. Granted, Dr. Phil isn't exactly Planet Earth-type programming but high definition broadcasting really makes a difference when you're doing a daytime talk show. You want to be able to see the furrows in Dr. Phil's billboard forehead deepen as he chastizes the father who wants to marry his daughter. You want to see each hair in his moustache bristle as he dresses down the compulsive shopper who has squandered her children's college fund on eBay auctions.

So get ready. Come September you can see this mug in high definition.

The "Characters Welcome" network unveiled its new brand-enhancing project in the form of Sunday night's premiere of In Plain Sight. The new original series is the latest example of cable TV's ascendancy as a source (verging on "the" source) of edgy, innovative story-telling.

AMC announced today that its great and much-praised original series, Mad Men, is returning for its second season on Sunday, July 27 at 9 p.m. Central. No word on what happens or where the second season picks up. But its premiere will be one of the big events of the new summer TV season that cable networks like AMC and TNT have transformed the former dead zone of reruns and reality shows into. You have to wonder how long the old-world broadcast networks are going to let their cable competitors steal the thunder of their big fall premieres without a fight. If this year is anything like last year, a lot of viewers are going to be remarking that all their favorite shows on television are ending just as the old-guard networks are sounding the trumpets for their "new" seasons.

The HBO film chronicling the Florida ballot-counting mess in the 2000 presidential election debuted this weekend. My interview with director Jay Roach ran on Sunday. Space restrictions necessitated abandoning significant sections and topics of our 45-minute conversation (by phone), which already had me thinking that I was going to blog a follow-up item in which I discussed some of the points that fell by the wayside in writing Sunday's review-feature. But then I got some emails from readers responding to my treatment of the movie's treatment of those 36 days and that flitting thought became a steely determination.

Anyone who dedicated blocks of their college days memorizing and reciting lines from This is Spinal Tap when they should have been studying for their Cultural Anthropology final -- or some other equivalent scenario -- may want to check out the new web feature National Geographic opened up today.

On Tuesday night's finale, viewers learned that -- are you sitting down -- the best dancer won the title of Dancing with the Stars champion. Kristi Yamaguchi came out and once again did what she's done all season, scoring a perfect 30 with her jive routine.

Tuesday night will decide the winner of Dancing with the Stars' sixth season. But it may also settle the debate that has raged among fans from the beginning. Is DWTS a dance competition or a popularity contest?

The Steve Carrell-hosted season finale of Saturday Night Live featured another sharp shot of political satire in the form of a campaign commercial from both Democratic candidates -- Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Presenting the theme "There Can Only Be One," the spot has them both (Fred Armistead as Barack and Amy Poehler as Hillary) delivering the same commentary with some significant (and, in theory, hilarious) exceptions.

It probably shouldn't be a surprise that Terrell Owens isn't bad in his television action debut. He's appeared as himself before -- most notably in a spot performance as a wide receiver in Oliver Stone's Any Given Sunday. After all, he's been playing a character he created -- T.O. -- in the media since he's been in the NFL, so he's got plenty of experience.

But on the MyNetwork sitcom, Under One Roof, he plays a character created by someone else when he appears as a con man posing as the long-lost baby brother of the sitcom's patriarch, Winston Hill (Kelly Perine).

ABC released its upcoming Fall schedule on Tuesday and Women's Murder Club is nowhere on it. When I asked a network exec for clarification -- has the show been cancelled or might it return -- I got back this specifically vague response: "Women's Murder Club will not be returning next season."

Well, okay then, that settles that.

On Tuesday night's Dancing with the Stars, the weirdest thing happened -- nothing weird happend (unless you count the Michael Jackson Thriller tribute coinciding with the children's dance finals). After an improbable run, Marissa Jaret Winokur was the final elimination before next week's finals, featuring Kristi Yamaguchi, Jason Taylor and Cristian de la Fuente.

If you tuned in last night for The Bachelor's finale, then you saw Matt Grant drop to one knee and propose to Shayne Lamas, the actress-daughter of Lorenzo Lamas.

As a next-day follow-up, here comes Girls Gone Wild entrepreneur Joe Francis announcing that Ms. Lamas will be appearing in a six-page spread. In a press release, Mr. Francis says "Shayne has a genuine 'girl next door' quality, but she also happens to be very hot."

Nice. Maybe this GGW spread will be the cornerstone of the couple's lifelong commitment to each other.

One point separated each of the top three competitors after Monday night's round on Dancing with the Stars, with Kristi Yamaguchi reclaiming the top spot with a 57 and Jason Taylor coming in third with 55. Marissa Winokur Jaret, whose tenure has surpassed her dancing abilities, came in last. She's most likely to be eliminated, but when Cristian de la Fuente can score one of the high scores of the night, anything is possible.

MSNBC broadcast a live news conference with Jimmy Fallon and the ubiquitous Lorne Michaels (the older he gets, the more he's looking like the Emperor in Star Wars) on Monday. Clips of it haven't been posted on YouTube yet, but it didn't exactly fan the flames of anticipation. Jimmy's looking a little older, different enough that it makes you wonder "geez, just when was the last time I saw you, oh yeah, it was like three years ago." He was always cute and funny on SNL, but as Patty and Selma observed on The Simpsons, "the older they get, the cuter they ain't." And let's not forget, there may be a reason why Jimmy kind of disappeared. His movie, Taxi, with Queen Latifah, was a trainwreck. His album was not all that funny. He had those Pepsi commercials that were kind of fun. But a little of Jimmy Fallon goes a long way. Five nights a week may be a few too many. His hiring may end up being the best thing that ever happened to Craig Ferguson.

Here's hoping that Dancing with the Stars isn't a microcosm of the upcoming presidential election, because if it is, a lot of viewer-voters are going to be feeling disenchanted. R&B star Mario was eliminated despite his best-dance performance last night, while one-armed Cristian and scrappy Marissa both were spared. Shocked viewers may have had flashbacks to last season's unaccountably early departure of Sabrina Bryan, another young pop performer whose great dancing couldn't counter a lack of DWTS-watching fans.

The winner of Monday night's edition of Dancing with the Stars was Cristian de la Fuente, bravely performing with his injured left arm. But the loser may be the show since his inflated scores (his first 10s of the season) were strikingly out-of-step with the quality of his dancing. Meanwhile Marissa Jaret Winokur finds herself at the bottom again, and seems a sure bet to be eliminated tomorrow night unless voters refuse to play their part and choose instead to vote off the worst dancer -- Cristian.

Less than a month of endless buildup to go before the SATC opening on May 30. Tune into to ExtraTV or check out the web site for the latest burst of fab-gab from SJP and company. One particularly delicious swipe from Ms. Parker had her delineating the powers each of her crew wields:

Parker also dishes about costars Kim Cattrall, Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis. About Cattrall, Parker said, "She's as sexy, if not sexier than she was in the series." As for Nixon, Parker commented, "Cynthia is so beautiful on screen. It's breathtaking." When asked about Davis, Parker revealed, "And Kristin, I think is the comic relief."

Oof. Good ol' Kristin 'comic relief' Davis. I'm sure she appreciates the vote of confidence. And this coming from original Square Pegs funny gal -- hey Sarah, why the long face?

Less than a month until the SATC movie opening, but the cross-platforming promotainment has already begun. The movie is sure to be a showcase of cutting-edge product placement -- Manolo Blahnik should get a co-star credit, and it's clear plenty of companies are going to be look to hitch a ride on the gals' upscale wagon. For a taste of things to come, check out Skyy vodka's web site. It contains a Sex and the City section where you can engage in all sorts of virtual SATC-themed merriment, including a list of cocktails based on each of the characters. So there's a Carrie, a Miranda, a Charlotte, a Samantha and even, a Big. Guess what each of this concoctions contain -- that's right, Skyy vodka. The sole exception, of course, is Big's manly highball -- Cutty Sark with a healthy splash of Cinzano Rosso vermouth and three dashes of peach bitters.. Then again, it says something about what a woman's world SATC is when the manliest drink offered is garnished "with a peach slice."

Fans of extreme-o-phile TV know Bear Grylls as the British survival expert and host of Discovery Channel's Man Vs. Wild. He's back with six new episodes, starting Friday, May 2 at 8 pm CST

Calling all Sex and the City fans, tune into The Oprah Winfrey Show Thursday as the talk show queen welcomes the cast in advance of the May 30 movie premiere. According to a press release touting the already taped show, stars Sarah Jessica
Parker, Kim Cattrall, Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis talk about trying to keep the movie's plot under wraps while filming in New York City with hundreds of fans watching. Mr. Big, a. k. a. Chris Noth, also sits in to talk about being a man in pop culture's most beloved ladies-land theme park. (Tune-in time: 4 p.m. on Channel 8).

Shannon Elizabeth is young and attractive but without much of a fanbase -- maybe that's why she was eliminated on Tuesday night after scoring her best dance of the season with her Monday night tango. Then again, the same could be said of Cristian de la Fuente and he made it into the final five. One difference between the two is that he had his worst dance of the season the night before with a distastrous samba. Another is that he is a man, and as any DWTS fan knows, men have the inside track in this dance competition. We'll see how much farther viewer-voter sympathy can carry Cristian -- he was already the weakest dancer of the remaining field, before he ruptured a tendon in his left arm.

It finally happened: Kristi Yamaguchi did not rack up the highest score on Monday night's two-dance edition. That distinction went to Jason Taylor, with Kristi coming in one point behind. That one-two finish may be a glimpse of the final as the ice skater and the football player cemented their positions as the two top competitors. On the other side, Cristian de la Fuente may be on his way out after a self-destructing samba left him bringing up the rear.