Last night on "The Biggest Loser," there was a small bit of redemption. Well, maybe a huge bit of redemption, and a bigger bit of even more gameplay. Here is how it went down....

Host Alison Sweeney told the contestants after the last elimination that there would be a yellow line and a red line at the next weigh-in, meaning two eliminations and the Final Four selection. Then they showed The Alliance, aka Brendan, Patrick and Frado, mouthing off about how the winner of the show was sitting in that room and that it was all working "according to plan." Bogus!

Then they had to meet up with Alison and Olympic gymnast Nastia Liukin for a Subway-sponsored challenge, an obstacle course with single eliminations per round. Elizabeth was out first, followed by Mark, Ada and Frado. Then it was between Patrick and Brendan, and Brendan won, with the prize being $10K and a whole bunch of sandwiches.

During workouts, Bob singled out Brendan for not giving it his all in recent weeks, and then Bob and Jillian had a campfire chat with everyone, literally, to get a feel for where their heads were at. After that it was time for the "pounds back on" challenge, in which they had to strap on all the weight they had lost, and shed it after various rounds of stepping or running. The winner would get a one pound advantage at the weigh-in, as well as a home gym valued at $25K. Wow. So thankfully the running part helped Ada win, and not one of The Alliance.

Then it was time for the weigh-in. Ada went first and lost 6 pounds, giving her a 7-pound weight loss. Elizabeth lost 4...uh-oh. Mark lost 7, which wasn't good enough. Patrick lost a whopping 12 and Frado lost 15, after which I started to tell Mrs. Mike that something was wrong--like those guys were taking pills or something to shed extra pounds. I mean, how can they possibly have lost that much more weight than everyone else? So Mark and Elizabeth were below the line but Ada was also in danger. It was time for Brendan to weigh in...would he lose double digits as well? Nope! He lost 5 pounds, which put him below the red line and sent him home. Good freaking riddance, as nice a guy as you might be.

Frado was trying to cheer him up instantly, saying, "Bro, you keep in touch, okay?" as Brendan was STILL ON THE SCALE. I think Frado was inwardly thrilled. So Mark and Elizabeth were below the yellow, and one would be going home. Brendan, Patrick and Ada were Final Four bound.

After Elizabeth and Mark stated their cases, it was time to vote. Elizabeth was below the line for like the ninth time, while Mark was for maybe the first time. And last week he had voted for Frado to stay so that he could compete with him. He was expecting The Alliance to do the same for him. So Ada voted for Mark, because duh, he's the bigger threat....and so did Patrick, which means so did Frado, but we didn't have to see Frado's back-stabbing vote. Mark was pissed, and rightly so. Patrick said, "You would have done the same thing," but he was wrong about that.

So holy crap, Elizabeth is in the Final Four. That shows what a gameplay-driven season this has become. I mean, seriously, Elizabeth?

Anyway, Brendan has gone from 362 pounds down to 237 so far; and Mark has dropped from 421 to 248. Good for them. And now the Final Four will go home and probably run a marathon before weighing in for the final time, after which America will vote someone off to make it a Final Three.

I so want Ada or even Elizabeth to win now. What do you think? Let me know in the space below and thanks for reading!

There's little question that one of the most lively panels during the early days of the TCA tour was the one dedicated to Joan Rivers' new TV Land series, "How'd You Get So Rich?" Or, if you read my coverage of the panel, you may be more familiar with it as "How'd You Get So Fucking Rich?" But, y'know, that's Joan for you. You can learn just about anything you need to know about the concept of the series by checking out the link to my panel coverage that I just offered up (though I would be remiss if I didn't mention that there's a new episode of the series airing tonight at 10 PM EST / PST), but after she held court before the crowd of critics, a few of us actually had a chance to speak to her one on one for a few minutes each.

Now, I'll be the first to admit that, were it a contest to see who got the best pull quotes out of Joan, Joel Keller of TV Squad - who preceded me in speaking with her - would have taken the victory (she hadn't been aware that David Tutera was scheduled to have his own TCA panel, but when he brought it up, she let fly with her thoughts on him in her usual forthright manner), but I still managed to get a couple of good lines from Ms. Rivers about "Z Rock," "The Celebrity Apprentice," and "Rabbit Test," and the closing moments of our conversation will live in my memory forever.

Bullz-Eye: It's a pleasure to meet you.

Joan Rivers: And it's a pleasure to...well, we’ll see.

BE: (Laughs) I’ve got only got a couple of minutes, but I'll do my best.

JR: Ask whatever you want.

BE: You were talking earlier about your continued relevancy, and I just wanted to say that I'm a big fan of your work on “Z Rock."

JR: I love “Z Rock." Love “Z Rock”.

BE: How did that gig come about? How were you pitched the show?

JR: They sent me the pilot. Did you ever see the pilot?

BE: Yes.

JR: Can’t get funnier. "Stick a Statue of Liberty up your ass." I mean, I laughed out loud. They said, "Would you do an episode?” I said, “I want to be on it.” I asked them, literally, and that’s how it started. Every time I’m in town and they’re in town and we get together, they put me on. I love the boys; I think Lynne is a genius. And, of course, I can’t remember the other comedian who is so brilliant on it, but...you know, the one that plays the gay…

BE: Oh, right, the bar owner. (Writer's note: the comedian's name is Big Jay Oakerson.)

JR: Oh he’s so good. He’s so good. It’s just a joy to work with them. And it’s improvisation. I come out of Second City, you know.

BE: So when you did “The Celebrity Apprentice," was it always going to be you and Melissa, or did they approach you first? Or even her first?

JR: They approached us separately, but somebody was very smart. There was no mother/daughter team that really works. I think it was the smartest thing they did. I think it brought such another color to the show. The mother/daughter dynamic was obviously one of the high points of the show.

BE: Well, my wife was cheering you on the entire way.

JR: Isn't that nice?

BE: Yeah, I was in the other room working, and she’s yelling, “You’ve got to come watch. Joan’s got to win! If she doesn’t win, I’m going to need some help!”

JR: (Laughs) Oh, that’s so great. That’s so great.

BE: Was there ever any point where you thought you might not win?

JR: All the time. I did not know, and...no one believes this, but we sat down (during the finale), and I still did not know. I thought he was going to say, “Joan, you’re very good, but you’re too emotional. And Annie (Duke) plays it tough and that’s what business is all about.” But it’s not what business is all about anymore. After Bernie Madoff, no. You play honorably. It’s not lie and cheat and steal to get your way. It’s get it right or don’t get it. So I truly didn’t think I was going to win. And she thought…she stood up. Go watch it. He goes, “Annie,” and she stood up…and then he goes, “Sorry." It looked like she had osteoporosis. She shrunk.

BE: Joel (Keller from TV Squad) brought up your appearance in PBS's“Make ‘Em Laugh” special a minute ago.

JR: Yeah.

BE: Did you see the entire special?

JR: I just watched parts of it. You know what the best part of that was? W.C. Fields. He can still make you laugh. And Fanny Brice can still make you laugh. When they’re good, they’re good. I love watching the ones to see why they were great.

BE: Is there any comedian who you would consider one of your peers, who didn’t make it as big as you always thought they should have?

JR: Yeah, there are a couple that didn’t make it as big as I thought they should. David Brenner, I think, should be further along, because his mind is a great mind. There’s a girl named Lynne Kop…uh, from…I’m very bad on names, but from “Z Rock." Lynne....

BE: Oh, right, Lynne Koplitz.

JR: Right. She is so ready, you know, like a full bloom. And she’s not getting that recognition, and it kills me. If I had a late night show, she would be on it so fast. Yeah, I think she deserves recognition. Lily Tomlin, I think, she went into movies. She took a different turn. I think she was one of the incandescently wonderful on stage.

BE: How do you look back at “Rabbit Test,” which you wrote and directed in 1978?

JR: It’s funny. I think we got a very short shrift. You look at “Borat” and you look at “Brüno” and go look at “Rabbit Test." It’s just as silly and funny. And the critics…we had one of the mothers in the film, she was having gas, but she took the meal, she wanted to be nice. So she sprayed it with Lysol, and then brought it out. Every critic said. “This is disgusting, this is terrible." We were too soon. Too soon.

BE: Do you have any idea if it will ever see the light of day on DVD?

JR: Um, probably…not.

Joan’s assistant: Everybody asks that question.

JR: That, and “The Girl Most Likely To...” (which Rivers wrote) is another one that got lost in the shuffle.

BE: Well, it seems like if it does come out, you’d be ready to do the DVD special features.

JR: Oh, you’re damned right. You’re damned right.

BE: And last one, since I know I need to wrap it up: have you ever found it hard to be able to keep your risqué edge in standup, being a female comedian?

JR: Not now. The only good thing about...I said this before, but the only good thing about age is that I get out there and I say I’m working better than I ever worked. That started about seven years ago in Edinburgh. I just said, 'Oh, what, am I going to censor myself?” I’ve been fired, I’ve been broke, I’ve been bankrupt, I’ve had to go to court to get my name back, I’ve been publicly humiliated. Screw all you. Now I’m going to tell you what I really think about Jennifer Aniston, that little miss boo-hoo. So, no, I don’t censor myself at all now.

BE: Actually, when I was watching your panel, I changed my Facebook status to read, "Joan Rivers is on stage. She has dropped at least seven f-bombs in the last 60 seconds. She is awesome."

JR: Oh, that’s very sweet. But, you know, fuck is in the vernacular now. It was good enough for Shakespeare. When Jane Fonda can say "cunt," it’s over. It's done.

BE: Well, thank you very much, Joan.

JR: You said you've got a wife...? Where is your wife? Where is home?

BE: Home is Virginia, and wife will actually be arriving any minute. In fact, I should be getting a phone call from her any time now, saying that she’s at the airport.

JR: Great. Are you going upstairs to your room or staying down here?

BE: I am going to go check out the next panel, whatever it may be.

JR: Oh, I was going to send that to your wife. (Gestures to a rose in a vase, sitting on a nearby table)

BE: Well, I won't refuse that.

JR: Want to run it up to your room?

BE: Sure.

JR: Run that right up to your room. Trust me, you’ll get lucky tonight.

BE: (Laughs) Thank you, Joan.

JR: Oh, sure.

Remember FUN? from Mitchell Squires on Vimeo.

It feels a little disingenuous for me to talking up a series which I can't even watch in my area (Cox Communications in Hampton Roads, VA, has yet to pick up Fox Reality), but as someone who works at home and has a 4-year-old daughter, I respect the concept of "Househusbands of Hollywood" enough to do at least a little bit of promotion for it. I've already detailed the TCA panel about the show, but when the opportunity to sit down with one of the cast members - Darryl Bell, late of "A Different World" - became available, I couldn't resist. In addition to his time spent on the "Cosby Show" spin-off, Bell has worked with Spike Lee and done time on a rather infamous sci-fi sitcom, but he's still very much a working actor. He's also the significant other of former "Cosby" kid Tempestt Bledsoe, a relationship which led him to this reality-show endeavor...and led me to my first question.

Bullz-Eye: First off, you two seem to be almost a ringer on the show. You’re not even husband and wife yet!

Darryl Bell: That is a good way to put it, Will. We are the ringers. That’s probably caused the most frequently asked questions, like, “You guys are the only couple who is not married, you’re the only ones without kids, so what are you doing here in a show called ‘Househusbands’?” The short answer to that has been Marilyn Wilson. Marilyn’s a good friend, produced Temp’s talk show. Marilyn and I have been out, pitched shows’ and tried to sell other things. We’ve worked together in that capacity. It was her assurances that we’re trying to do something that’s fun and not trying to ambush anyone or be mean spirited. “Come be a part of this, because we think you guys are hilarious.” Apparently, the more that I have even talked to other friends, they are, like, “Oh, we’ve been saying for years that you guys should have your own reality series, because you are just funny.” It just happened to come in this format. I don’t know that we would have agreed to have done this for anyone else. So, there you go.

BE: It makes it a little hard for me to ask, “Is it weird being a ‘Househusband’?”

DB: And I don’t know what that means for me, anyway, only from the standpoint that people ask me that because I’m on this show. But in terms of work-wise, it’s just like…even in the series, when Tempest was coming back from on location, shooting the film, I was going on location to shoot this show for TV One. That’s really the nature of our relationship. You know, it’s rare that we’ll both be doing something at the same time, but we’re always in this cyclical gig that is being a working actor in Hollywood. That’s just how our lives have operated. I was just saying in another interview, when Brad is off shooting a movie, Angelina isn’t always shooting one. She’s somewhere with the kids. Or when Angelina’s shooting and Brad is somewhere…? That’s just the way it works.

BE: So what kind of husbandly responsibilities do you have? I mean, do you chip in, doing the dishes or whatever when she’s not there?

DB: I mean, I can’t really call it husbandly duties. Our house is not a pigsty, but I can say that some of that is attributed to the housekeeper. You know what I mean? That helps out a lot. I can only say that when I think of that…when anything breaks, like most men, it’s, like, “Darryl, come fix it,” you know? I get that. But as a regular responsibility, that’s not me.

BE: Is there anything you do that would typically be considered a gender-specific thing, something that one would normally expect a wife to do?

DB: For us, no. For us, I guess that’s what has been so good: we have talked about not having an ego about anything. She likes to cook, so she has cooked for me, but I’ve cooked for her, you know? So from a relationship standpoint of view, I can’t say that…we don’t have any specifically defined roles, other than, as many men will find the case, she wanted pets and yet somehow they are my responsibility. You know how that works out.

BE: Hey, I feed our cat.

DB: Exactly, exactly. And what man asks for a cat? That’s just not the way it works. I want a Neapolitan Mastiff, but the reason I don’t have one is because she wanted a cat.

BE: Sure, that seems fair.

DB: That’s a whole different relationship kind of issue, you know what I mean? It’s not specific to the show, but that’s how it worked out.

BE: So is there any interaction with you two and the other couples? Because I literally just got a copy of the screener, so I haven’t seen the show to know.

DB: As actual couples, we don’t get together until the end, but there’s a lot of interaction between the other guys. We get together to do the “man cave” segments together. And we all went on specific outings together. I spent time with Billy, Charlie and Danny spent time together, and Grant and Billy, so individually we did things together that we also shared in that respect. And then we all talked about that, and that was fun. The interactions between us…we all like each other, you know, so it was fun to hang out with each other and get to know each other a little bit.

BE: Did you know any of them beforehand?

DB: No. I’m not sure if anyone else did, but we got to know each other through this. That was really it. I certainly can say that we are now linked together forever. (Laughs) So that’s not a bad thing, they are a good group of guys.

BE: So how much acting do you do nowadays?

DB: Often. All the time. The only reason I’m here is because I had to have another pilot audition moved just to be here. That’s one of the interesting things about the life of an actor, is oftentimes the work we do, you can’t always see, you know? For a pilot that was shot but didn’t get aired, or auditions you’ve got to go on, and development meetings and all this sort of thing. That’s part of the job. You know, when I listen to Ron Howard talk about how “this is a film that was ten years in the making,” I’m, like, well, during those ten years, even though he does a film every couple of years, in between it’s about working on what the next one will be. That’s the life of an actor. When you look at the television landscape now, there isn’t a whole lot of television that you go, “That’s great,” you know? Even film-wise. Look, some of our biggest film stars now are doing television. Kyra Sedgwick is on TV; Laurence Fishburne is on TV; Glenn Close is on TV; Jeff Goldblum is on TV. A lot of our film actors are doing television and doing great work on TV. But with the industry so fractured with all of the channels now, it’s just that finding good work and a good project for you has become increasingly difficult. You’d think it would be easier, but it actually has become more difficult. So what can you do? Just keep putting one foot in front of the other. I’m getting ready to shoot a new pilot for a talk comedy genre show next week. So we’ll see how that works out.

BE: Is that for TV One?

DB: TV One is the other project. This isn’t necessarily for TV One, although they are one of the folks that we have talked to about it. But we’ll see what happens.

BE: I want to ask you about a couple of other things you have done.

DB: Yeah.

BE: How did you get involved with “School Daze”?

DB: I was a student, came home for the weekend, saw Spike Lee at a screening of “She’s Gotta Have It,” I asked him for a part in his next film, and I got it.

BE: Wow, it was that easy?

DB: That is the abbreviated version, but that is basically what happened. “She’s Gotta Have It” was playing on 68th and Broadway in Manhattan. I ended up there as a result of a fight with my girlfriend at the time. Because I was at Syracuse…I left school to drive down to where she lived in Brooklyn, which was in the deepest part of Brooklyn, and she wanted to go see “She’s Gotta Have It.” I’m, like, “It’s only playing in Manhattan. It took me four hours to get here, and now we’ve got to drive another hour to get it?” And so it led to this big fight. Needless to say, she won and we were on our way to Manhattan to go see “She’s Gotta Have It.” When I got there, Spike was outside selling t-shirts. I asked, “How much are the t-shirts?” They said, “Ten bucks.” I said, “Well, that’s too expensive for a t-shirt,” and they said, “Well, what would you like?” “A part in his next movie.” “Go ask him.” So I did. I told him they were too expensive, and he said, “Are you an actor?” I said, “Well, sometimes.” He said, “You either act or you don’t.” I said, “I do.” Spike gave me his address, told me to send him a picture and a resume. I didn’t have an agent, wasn’t acting. I was an economics major on my way to work for my father’s brokerage firm in New York. And I got back to school, got a friend of mine who was a photography major to take head shots for me, sent them to Spike, got an audition and booked it. So I left school to go do “School Daze,” and after “School Daze,” the movie wrapped up in May, which is when I should have graduated. Instead of going to summer school, I had planned to come to Los Angeles for the summer. I came to L.A., my first month here I witnessed a freeway shooting, I was in an earthquake and caught the chickenpox. So there you go, that was my introduction.

BE: Welcome to California.

DB: Yes, exactly. And then right after that, in August, September…you know, right for pilot season in 1987, which was the regular television cycle at the time…they were casting for “A Different World.” And I never looked back.

BE: Nor should you have.

DB: I’ve been fortunate. I have been very lucky.

BE: You know, I have to ask about "Homeboys in Outer Space.”

DB: Yeah, go.

BE: When they first pitched you the show, how did they pitch it to you?

DB: The original script for “Homeboys” was very clever. And it was satirical and it was funny, because one of the biggest fans of “Homeboys” was Roseanne Barr. I remember talking to Roseanne, she came up to me and said, “You know, the problem with ‘Homeboys’ is that they went cartoonish. It should have been satirical like ‘In Living Color,’ then it would have been great.” That was the original plan, but as often happens, shows take on a life of their own. Once we got started, we did one episode where we went to the planet of whatever, and there was a network executive who said, “That’s the show!” And the next thing you know, we were going to “The Planet of…” every week, and the comedy would ensue. What’s interesting is that I remember when I was concerned about it, I called Dr. Cosby to ask him, “What do you think?” He said, “It’s not the worst thing on television, but it does remind me of bad Saturday morning cartoons.” I’m like, okay, well, if that’s the worst thing about it. Now, the legend of “Homeboys” has become much more incendiary than the actual show. It’s funny how I usually challenge most people who talk about how much they disliked “Homeboys” to name me five episodes. Most of them can’t, because they just bought into the “oh, it’s awful, just the title. Oh, it’s terrible.” What’s interesting is that I had a great conversation with Chi McBride, who was doing "The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer,” which was infinitely…if you want to talk about in terms of the imagery of what was wrong, that show was much more infamous than “Homeboys.” Yet it’s not remembered in the same way because the title didn’t grab you in the same way. I remember Chi pulled me aside and he was, like, “Look, everyone who is criticizing what you’re doing would take your job from you in two seconds. All of them. So all I can tell you is that this is one blip on both of our careers, and we are moving on.” And, look, Chi has moved on, as have I. I want to say that right after “Homeboys” went off…I can’t remember if that’s when I was doing Diane English pilot or if that was another pilot with Carol Burnett, and neither of those ended up making it to air, but what I’m saying is that those are the people I was working with right after, you know what I mean? “Homeboys” has never been an impediment to my career or my ability to work. It’s just been the topic that everyone loves to rehash in terms of “we just think it was terrible, it was awful” and so forth.

BE: Well, I’m a “Star Trek” guy, and James Doohan was on there, so that alone made me at least want to tune in and check it out.

DB: James Doohan was on there, and so was George Takei. And…oh, why can’t I say Adam’s name? Um…Adam West?

BE: Right.

DB: Adam West was on there, and so was…oh, I can’t tell you the other gentleman’s name, but he was Gomez from “The Addams Family”.

BE: John Astin.

DB: John Astin. Thank you. John Astin, who was just the sweetest guy. But, I mean, Adam West was cool, too.

BE: In other words, it had sci-fi street cred.

DB: It did. That’s what I’m saying. That was the whole point…and James Doohan was the sweetest guy. Oh, he was just so wonderful to us. But…I want to say it was a UPN show, but I believe either Paramount or the Roddenberry estate was unhappy that we were satirizing Scotty as a character. So then James Doohan came out of the show, and when James Doohan came out, I was, like, “Oh, no.” That was one of the things that was so good about the show, that you had actually got him to have fun with this role. And I thought that’s the way this show was going to be portrayed. It’s one of the things that to me was interesting about what “Homeboys” could have been. Because whenever people talk about the future, if you look at some of the best futuristic movies, from “2001: A Space Odyssey” and all the others, generally African Americans aren’t there. I mean, it’s like we don’t make it to the future, except in the “Star Trek” series. Those are the few places. I had the privilege of meeting Nichelle Nichols at the NBC 75th Anniversary, and she was just like a queen. She was so regal and so wonderful; she was terrific. Just being able to say to her “thank you for being one of the pioneers that opened doors for me to be able to do what I do” was terrific. You say you’re a Trekkie, right?

BE: Oh, yeah.

DB: Interestingly enough, someone was saying to me that it has been long rumored in folklore that she and William Shatner’s kiss was the first interracial kiss on television. But, actually, no, that’s not true. It was Sammy Davis, Jr. and someone else in an earlier picture. And then they said that their kiss wasn’t even the first interracial kiss on “Star Trek.” It was when Captain Kirk kissed the Asian actress who was the warrior and the tear could make you fall in love….? Their kiss was the first quote, unquote interracial kiss. I was, like, “Look at that, I learned something.” And I even made you go “wow,” I think.

BE: You are correct. I did not know that.

DB: They were, like, “Yeah, that actually preceded that.” But I still like giving “Star Trek” credit, just because it sounds good. (Laughs)

BE: What’s your favorite project you’ve worked on that didn’t get the love that you thought it deserved? I guess you can include pilots in that, given that you’ve worked with some big names in pilots.

DB: Wow! Wow, that’s interesting, and I will tell you that it’s a toss-up. I would say in one sense, it would be the pilot I did with Jim Burrows, which we all thought was terrific, but it just happened to come at a time when reality TV…how’s this for irony? Reality TV was just starting to take off, and I want to say that it was “Meet the Parents,” “Average Joe,” “The Apprentice,” and I think they were about to do “Average Jane.” I think that was coming up, and all of them were taking up our blocks in NBC lineup. Additionally, they had already agreed and dropped $55 million on the Siegfried and Roy animated series.

BE: Oh, “Father of the Pride.”

DB: Yeah, “Father of the Pride” was coming up. So they had all of these things they had already committed to that I guess they didn’t they know would be successful before the upfronts. But by the time they had already renewed them for a second season, the window for available space for television wasn’t good. They had ordered, like, 24 pilots, and this was like Jim Burrows, Larry Wilmore, who had gotten an Emmy for “Bernie Mac,” and Henry Winkler was in a part. We even got a day off filming the pilot, which never happens, but it was because it was so tight. And it didn’t get picked up. So I was disappointed in that. But the other answer to your question would be “A Different World.” Dr. Cosby always said that our show was the goose that kept laying the golden eggs, but they never wanted to credit the goose. They always wanted to say that we were a show that was a beneficiary of our time slot. Notwithstanding the fact that I think in our third season, we beat “Cosby.” They also never wanted to give, I think, Debbie (Allen), Susan (Fales-Hill), and the writing staff credit for being as funny and topical as they were with the shows that still hold up now on AIDS, war, racism, and all the things that we did. We’re still one of the 50 highest rated shows in television history.

BE: Wow.

DB: It’s been in syndication for 17 years. We’re only the second show in television history to debut at the number two spot, behind “Bewitched.” I could go on, I’m good with the numbers. You know, everyone in the cast was always, like, “If you want to know the details, you’ve got to ask Darryl,” because I remember all that. So that would be the only other thing. People tend to look at our show, some people, under the umbrella of “Cosby” success and don’t give the people who put in a lot of good, hard work and were really good at what they do, for our show. But, you know, for what that show didn’t get in terms of that kind of recognition, to have shared the stage with Whoopi Goldberg, Lena Horne, Diahann Carroll…I mean, it paid dividends in so many other ways. It was the best.

BE: Do you still talk to Kadeem Hardison and Jasmine Guy, or at least keep up with them?

DB: Yep. I saw Jasmine in New Orleans last week. I was hosting a symposium on Hollywood, and Jasmine was there choreographing a number. Kadeem just texted me ten minutes ago. Let’s see, I’ll see Debbie probably sometime this weekend, she’s doing something at the dance academy. I usually call her about “So You Think You Can Dance” all the time. Dawnn (Lewis) and I were at a function together not too long ago. So yeah, we don’t all get to see each other collectively, but we do still see each other from time to time, and it’s always love.

BE: And I should close with one more about your current show.

DB: Go ahead.

BE: So what are your expectations of “Househusbands of Hollywood”? Are you going in with concerns about them being too invasive, or…?

DB: You know, I really don’t know. I can’t say that I have any expectations. I’m curious to see what will happen. If I’m to judge by most of the questions we have gotten so far, I think the challenge is going to be for people to be able to get past the title, to see what the show is really about. And if that happens, that could be fun. And we’ll see where it goes from there. So it will be interesting to see what happens. So my expectations are that we will either change some minds and be really successful, or something that I haven’t conceived of will be the answer. (Laughs) One or the other, right?

One of the most consistent pleasures of the TCA Press Tour for an Anglophile such as myself is the opportunity to get the scoop on the latest UK imports to arrive on BBC America. In 2007, I was introduced to "Jekyll" and "Torchwood," and in 2008, I very quickly fell in love with "Gavin and Stacey" and "Primeval." This time around, the picks to click were "The InBetweeners" and "Being Human," and although I'll be waiting a bit to offer up my conversation with the folks from the former, I'm running a bit late in posting my chat with the cast of the latter. "Being Human" actually made its BBC America debut when I was still in Pasadena, but now that I'm playing catch-up, I wanted to share with you the lovely courtyard conversation that I had with the show's trio of stars: Aidan Turner, Russell Tovey, and Lenora Crichlow.

Join us now as we embark upon...

Bullz-Eye: So when you guys were pitched the series…I mean, I’m sure you get this all the time, but on the surface, it sounds almost like it could be a Saturday morning cartoon.

Aidan Turner: That’s what I thought it was, actually. I thought I was going to do a voice over for a cartoon.

BE: Really?

AT: No. (Laughs) But I hear you.

BE: Were you familiar with Toby (Whithouse’s) work beforehand?

Russell Tovey: I was, personally. When it was pitched to me, I thought it sounded terrible, so I said yeah. (Laughs) There’s a few shows in England that are actually kind of not very good. They’re fun for students, but they’re not, like, credible, really. I thought this could be something like that show, just with a bit of sci-fi put in. In my head, it didn’t really compute, but in reading it, you realize it’s more than that.

AT: I mean, I hadn’t heard of Toby at all. I was aware there was a pilot when my agent pitched it to me…which was a funny phone call, because I kind of couldn’t believe what I was hearing. It was, like, the most obvious idea in the world, but you think, “This just can’t work.” But then the brilliant thing…and Toby’s such a brilliant writer…is that you read it and suddenly, almost from the get go, it’s original and it’s real and it’s steeped in this sort of truth, this beautiful world of realism. It just seems to work. Russell was part of the (original) pilot, but I made a decision not to watch the pilot. I don’t know why, really. I just…well, it didn’t work, first of all, and I thought, “Maybe that’s a sign I shouldn’t do it.” Yeah, so…I don’t know. Then it just turned over, and it just all worked. And then I met these guys, and they were cool, and we got on so well. And the whole team just works together so well, the crew and everybody. It’s just a joy, it’s an absolute joy.

Lenora Crichlow: Same story, really. Even now, when people who haven’t seen the show come across the show and I’m explaining it to them, I find myself halfway through going through what it’s about, and…it actually sounds quite off-putting. (Laughs) I’m looking at their faces, and I can read that they just think it’s not their cup of tea. I can totally understand, because when it was pitched to me, I thought a bit like the boys: “Oh, this just sounds ridiculous.” It’s only when you get into the meat and bones of the story and the characters that you realize there is something there for everybody, everyone. I suppose that’s what gives it the difference. The sci-fi element…it can only happen as a result of these very human issues and traits and relationships. That’s what makes the difference.

AT: I think that, with the show, people are surprised because the idea does sound ridiculous, but that’s the beauty of being a part of something like this. It’s that, immediately, when people see it, they go, “Oh, okay, I get it now. It’s not what I thought it was going to be.” So I think we’re lucky we have that element, because it gets people from the beginning, you know?

RT: The themes to me sounded American in its concept and scale. I think that’s why our first impression is, “Yeah, if this was America, it would be okay, but in England, we can’t compete.” There hasn’t been a massive track record of hit shows that have got something so kind of “out there.” My first instinct was that it sounds brilliant but it will never, ever come to fruition of what you really aspire it to be. But, however, it has and it can compete with your American shows, which is such a great thing for us. Respectfully to your shows, they are like the top of the pyramid. They are the icon that we look to, to get inspired. People are saying this show is kind of comparable to that and can be put in the brackets with that. What an honor. We’re just absolutely over the moon.

BE: I think there’s almost a “Buffy” feel to it at times.

RT: Yeah, great. And “True Blood,” people are saying. I mean, none of us have seen “True Blood.” Have you seen it?

LC: No.

AT: No, I haven’t seen it.

RT: But we know that has gotten massive reception, a massive audience, and we’re being compared to that and compared to “Buffy.” That’s great for us, we’re just so chapped.

BE: Well, I’m sure the phrase “British ‘True Blood’” is going to be thrown around a lot, because on that show there’s a shape shifter, there’s vampires, and other sordid types of characters.

(At this point, my wife – who had been traveling from Virginia to meet me at the press tour – arrived at the hotel after a highly extended ride on an airport shuttle van and joined us in the courtyard. Fortunately, I had forewarned the trio that her arrival was imminent, and as proper gentleman, Messrs. Turner and Tovey immediately leapt to their feet.)

RT: This is Mrs. Harris?

BE: This is Mrs. Harris.

RT: Hi, Mrs. Harris. How are you doing?

AT: Hello. Hi, Mrs. Harris.

LC: Hi, Mrs. Harris. Welcome. Pull up a chair.

Jenn Harris: I was the last drop off.

RT: Oh, my goodness.

AT: Well, you made it.

LC: You’re here now, that’s the important thing.

BE: And for the record, she has seen the first episode, and she loved it, too.

AT: Oh, fabulous.

JH: It’s awesome.

LC: Oh, great.

RT: Cool.

BE: Yeah, it’s funny that you say that about the British and the American shows, though, because between “Dr. Who,” “Torchwood,” and “Primeval” recently, British sci-fi is actually on a real roll at the moment.

RT: Do you like “Primeval”? Did that do well?

BE: I do like it, yeah. I don’t know how well it’s really done here, but it was pitched to us at TCA last year, and I was a fan right out of the gate.

JH: We enjoyed it.

BE: So did either of you guys approach your iconic monster roles with any particular forethought as far as other vampires or werewolves from the past?

AT: Yeah, I don’t know. It’s weird: you can do all this research, you can watch the movies and read the books, but at the end of the day…it’s not even a choice you make to be original, it’s just sort of something that happens. I don’t know if you can play up to any sort of idea of what people have of a character. I think that’s where you’re going to make a mistake. What you really do…and maybe it’s a cliché to say, but, you know, the writing is so good that it sort of does it itself. It does, the character…it’s an easy transition, you know? You just kind of slide in and, yeah, the script does do it for you, and the characters just evolve through Toby’s writing, which is just sensational.

RT: Your only research would be basically what other people have created, because these aren’t real life things. I mean, a ghost possibly exists, but vampires and werewolves don’t exist. You’re basing what you think your performance should be on what people have done before, based on something that doesn’t exist. What you do is treat it like a human being, like with the writing, and then that’s…

AT: It’s the essence of the show, isn’t it? Which is so lovely. That’s what makes it really deep, is that these guys want to be human, they want to be…

RT: It’s fresh, and we’re rewriting the rules.

LC: I think the biggest research for…well, not the biggest research, but a huge part of the research for us is just on our characters. Essentially, that’s what they are. The werewolf, the ghost, and the vampire side of each of our characters is quite…it’s something that we are quite objective about at times. For me, anyway, my biggest research was, who is Annie? Before I dealt with Annie as a ghost, it was more, “What is she like?” And then the ghost element is just as beguiling to me as it is to her. Do you know what I mean? So that journey is something that you can just play with. Because, I mean, there’s only so much research you can do to play a ghost or a vampire, really. Essentially, Russell had to play George.

AT: It’s great we don’t have to play the supernatural. It’s by proxy that these people happen to be yadda, yadda, yadda. But we don’t have to play it, which is great, you know? It’s just the people, the real people.

BE: So, Lenora, does Toby have a rules and regulations guide for your character? As far as, like, the clothes, which I’m sure you’ve heard about more than once.

LC: Oh, yeah, the clothes… (Laughs) Annie can’t change. Her clothes do kind of adjust slightly with her, but I’m not quite sure where that rule came from. It came from his mind, I think.

AT: I think budget. We didn’t have enough money for your costume change.

LC: I think it was the budget. It was BBC Three we started on, let’s don’t forget that. So one, the budget, but two, it kind of actually makes sense and it all adds to Annie’s frustration, or adds to her sort of being trapped. The house is completely like a prison, almost, and that’s like her uniform. Her costume actually becomes very much a part of her character, and that is when we see it morphing and stuff like that, is when she’s feeling differently.

JH: And it keeps coming back. Like, there’s one episode where she’s fixing her hair and she’s totally changed, she looks totally different, but then she walks out and she looks the same.

LC: Exactly the same. Or she gets a bit more confident, and maybe she will shift a layer, but then it’s very soon back and she’s wrapped up again. And it’s an aid. It’s become sort of a thing that even though, yes, I’ve got one costume, it’s something that the costume designer has been able to help me use and play with, to kind of just sort of all add to her ghostliness.

BE: Well, I guess along the same lines, but for all of you, what’s your favorite aspect of your character to play?

LC: I love Annie’s energy. I think she’s always looking for the bright side, and she’s positive. And for a ghost and someone who’s dead, she’s really, really optimistic. And I like that energy about her. She’s always able to…

JH: And a little sneaky.

LC: A little bit. (Laughs)

JH: But in a cute way.

LC: In a very cute way, yeah.

AT: Well, I think with Mitchell, he’s just…he’s flawed, you know? He’s a troubled soul, and he’s an addict, you know? He wants to be a good person and he wants to live a life that he considers, you know, moral. And he wants to address those issues, as opposed to someone like Herrick, who just doesn’t care anymore, you know? He wants to completely embody what he represents, and he’s happy with that journey, too. But I think Mitchell just wants to get on a positive road. So, essentially, you’re dealing with someone who’s incredibly flawed that wants to take the right road. So I guess it’s his courage and his bravery and his…yeah, yeah, it’s interesting, you know? It wouldn’t be as interesting if I was playing a vampire that was just after the blood lust all the time. That would get incredibly boring, you know. This is a huge journey for Mitchell, and it will always be a struggle. You know, if we go to Series Three, I can bet he’d still be struggling with it. I don’t think it’s ever anything that he is going to completely overcome. So that’s interesting, and it’s cool to kind of play somebody that’s always teetering on possibly falling back off the wagon again and stuff. You know, it’s exciting.

BE: There’s a Britishness about it, too, in that he’s kind of going, “I really feel bad about this, but…”

AT: Yeah, yeah. “Let me apologize, I’m a vampire.” But that’s what makes him real. We all know people like that, you know, that have those kinds of problems and issues, and they deal with them. So we have to feel different about it, and it’s just complex. There’s so much there to play with Mitchell, you know?

RT: I like George’s neurosis. I think it’s fun to play, and I like the fact that they allow me to just go up and down the scale tonally in my voice. He’s just a great stuttery, nervous character, and as an actor, to play somebody who’s kind of a bit twitchy is…it’s rewarding.

JH: You want to help him, but you don’t know how.

RT: Yeah, he needs help, completely.

BE: You had a great spotlight in the second episode with one of your fellow werewolves. Was that fun to play against somebody who was going through the same kind of things and yet knew more about it than yourself?

RT: Yeah, yeah, it’s great. I mean, every script we read is just…before we get it, like, you start and we don’t know what’s happened at the end of the show. Like, we’ve only read one and two and three. You just get so excited about what’s coming up, and that’s fresh. Yeah, it was brilliant, and Dean Lennox Kelly is a wicked actor. This story line…it’s just great dialogue that you don’t really get as an actor a lot. It’s a rarity when you’re given something and you’re getting these words to say, which you love saying. And the scenes, which you completely go, “Oh, I love this.” I really like the dynamic, and you work with people you love. It’s just a gift. This show is a complete gift, basically.

BE: Are the transformations a pain?

RT: Are they a pain? Sometimes.

AT: Quite literally, sometimes.

RT: Yeah, I have to wear contacts, and I’ll have the makeup put on. I’ve got very sensitive skin, so it flares up every now and then. And my teeth…yeah, it’s a long process, and I’m screaming my head off. But, again, that’s rewarding. The compliments I have had on them, the transformation stuff, has been great. And also Philip, who did the animatronics and puppetry of it all, is brilliant. So that again…I think that’s such an important aspect of the show, is the transformations. You don’t really see…you see Annie sort of disappearing towards the end, but…Annie is constantly there, Mitchell has teeth, and your eyes are done on CGI.

AT: Yeah, but it’s so rarely. We’ve only done it a couple of times, which is great, too, because we don’t rely on it. We don’t play on it. Again, it’s just something that you sort of feel as you watch the show, it just has to happen. It’s not something like you get bored of seeing or you feel like the show is trying to show off. Essentially, it comes down to the characters. That’s what’s so beautiful about it.

RT: The way our transformation is, is like completely exposing, and they wrote it as that. So if I went half-heartedly, if I was, like, going “ahhhhh” while doing it, I think it could really shift the balance of the piece. Do you know what I mean? You have to commit to it and go for it, because every bone in your body is breaking and all your insides are changing. And it’s the most immense pain you will ever feel. If the audience doesn’t believe that, then I think that’s failure.

JH: Was it crazy watching it?

RT: Was it what?

JH: Was it crazy watching the transformation onscreen?

RT: It’s weird when you watch it back on the monitor because we have…you can have playback there, and I like doing that. (To the others) Do you like doing that? Yeah, I like watching back afterwards to judge and say, “Oh, yeah, I got away with that.” But they have these two heads, these animatronics heads. So there’s me and there’s one that’s more like me, but they can push bits out. And then there’s another one which is like me, the final wolf. So when you watch it back on the monitor, you’re, like, “God, yeah,” and then you’re, like, “Oh, that isn’t me I’m watching.” That was really weird. Yeah, it is strange. I think my mum finds it strange, doesn’t like it. There’s a scene where I get…probably a spoiler, but I get beaten up, and Mitchell rescues me. That’s how he and George met. George has been attacked by a load of other vampires, and Mitchell broke it up, and they became, like, this codependent friendship/relationship, like “The Odd Couple.” I get beaten up in this scene, and my mum said, “I can’t watch you, I’m almost really upset.” Because, basically, she sees…you know, I’m in character, and I think, “Mum, it’s not me, it’s George.” But she sees her son getting the shit kicked out of him, and she doesn’t like it.

BE: In the first episode, the vampire attack out in the alleyway was pretty gory. Did you hear back from viewers or BBC Three about the goriness?

AT: Well, this is what you were just talking about. It’s that scene, isn’t it?

LC: No, no.

RT: That was a different one.

AT: Oh, right, yeah. Well, yeah, that was pretty gruesome, yeah. Yeah, (Annabel Scholey) did an amazing job. I remember that.

RT: She was great.

AT: She was amazing. No, we didn’t hear back whether anything was too gory. I think that they are the boundaries we can push on the show. I mean, naked bodies as well. And, Lenora, you get naked a bit too. I don’t know if there are any boundaries for this show. Maybe next season will get completely crazy with that.

RT: It’s suspected, I suppose. The audience would expect to see blood and guts.

AT: And loads of it, and that kind of thing. But I remember watching that on the playback and being quite moved, actually. She was amazing in that scene. It was actually a tough day to shoot that one as well, we were pushed for time and stuff.

RT: Yeah, we shot that scene in like 15 minutes.

AT: That’s right. But it’s fine because the blood tastes really good. It’s minty. Treacley and sweet.

BE: And, lastly, who is the coolest person you’ve heard from that’s a “Being Human” fan?

RT: Alan Bennett liked it.

LC: Stephen Fry.

AT: Stephen Fry! I’m a huge fan of Stephen Fry. I love him. He’s a man of incredibly high intellect, and if he likes our show, I think that’s a huge thumbs-up for us. So, yeah, I think that was a big one for me.

LC: Absolutely.

RT: Russell T. Davies is right here.

LC: Oh, gosh, yeah Russell.

RT: He loves it, so that’s always good. A lot of writers have said they’re fans. You don’t really realize who’s seen it because you just do these shows and they go out and you don’t realize who’s watching it. But if someone I run into like that goes, “Oh, I’ve seen it and it’s great,” you’re, like, “Wow, I really respect you, and that’s really lovely. Thank you.”

LC: We’ve had an incredible response from people within the industry, which is always, I think for actors, where you really start to feel, you know, touched by those compliments.

God bless the TCA Press Tour, where the television industry gives critics from throughout North America the opportunity to play with the folks who live and work in Hollywood. The tour allows us a remarkable amount of access to the stars, producers, directors, and writers of the various shows currently taking up residence on the various cable and broadcast networks. Yes, while I may spend 48 weeks out of the year feeling like a nobody, for those four weeks - two in the summer, two in the winter - which are taken up by the tour, I'm at least made to feel like I'm a somebody. (Really, though, I'm not anybody.)

This was the first time the summer tour had been held after Comic-Con rather than before, so there was a certain amount of grumbling about the fact that the fans were getting a certain amount of information that would've ordinarily gone to the critics first, but it must be said that the networks did a pretty good job of pacifying us. And, besides, aren't the fans supposed to come first, anyway?

Although the content that I managed to accrue during the course of the tour will continue to come your way for quite some time to come, what you see before you is a summary of the highs and lows of the event, mixing stories you may have already read on Premium Hollywood with many that I simply haven't had a chance to discuss yet. As ever, it was a heck of a good time, full of the kind of moments that leave me grateful that I managed to get that journalism degree from Averett College back in 1992, pleased as punch that Bullz-Eye and Premium Hollywood have given me the opportunity to cover the tour, and, most of all, that there are lot of great readers out there who seem to enjoy the tales I bring back from these strange TCA adventures that I've embarked upon.

Let's get started, shall we?

Most Enthralling Panel by a Cable Network: "P.O.V. - Patti Smith: Dream of Life,” PBS.

As someone who has spent the majority of his journalistic career as a music critic (and, even before that, spent a decent chunk of time as a record store clerk), I was easily as excited about this panel as anything else on the schedule. I mean, c'mon, Patti Smith? She's a legend...and the audience treated her as such: the questions were well-considered, and in turn, Patti's answers were well-constructed, informative, and entertaining. Despite my excitement, I had somehow developed an expectation that she might be reserved and, indeed, perhaps a bit prickly with her responses, but she was smiling and laughing and enjoying herself. When she broke out her guitar at the end of the Q&A and proceeded to favor us with a couple of songs, I dare say I wasn't the only one who was completely mesmerized. After Patti's performance, we absconded to a PBS-sponsored cocktail party, where writer Marc Allan - a veteran attendee of the TCA Tour - said that this might've been the single best panel he's ever attended. I don't know if time has tempered the immediacy of his reaction, but the more I think about it, the more I think he could well be right.

Funniest Panel by a Cable Network: "Bored to Death,” HBO.

There was always a pretty good chance this panel was going to take this category by storm, given that it was going to feature Jason Schwartzman, Ted Danson, and Zach Galifianakis, but I had no way of knowing how hilarious the creator of the show, Jonathan Ames, was going to be. Granted, Galifianakis still won the day by offering up enough great lines to warrant my compiling a full-fledged Top 10 list of them, but it was Ames' quick wit that sent me to eBay to pick up one of his books. (I opted for "Wake Up, Sir!" If anyone else has any recommendations for others, however, I'm ready to hear them.)

Most Enjoyable Panel by a Broadcast Network: “Gordon Ramsay: Cookalong Live, Hell’s Kitchen & Kitchen Nightmares,” Fox.

By the time Fox took the stage for their various panels, we were well past the halfway point of the tour, and most of us had begun to hit that invisible wall which makes us start to zone out of the proceedings and just start wishing we were back home. Fortunately, Chef Ramsay decided that he wanted to add a bit of interactivity to the proceedings, and given that he was there to talk up his latest series, "Gordon Ramsay: Cookalong Live," it made complete sense. As such, he invited the audience of critics to follow a recipe and whip up the topping for their own serving of Baked Alaska. It would be fair to say that I did not do spectacularly (one look at mine, and he sadly sighed, "Oh, mate...), but it was a lot of fun nonetheless.

Most Unnecessary Panel by a Cable Network: “Dark Blue,” TNT.

Not that it's a bad show, but what was the point, really? The series had already been on the air for a few weeks by the time of the panel, but not long enough for most of us to have developed any particular dedication to it yet. Worse, TNT preceded it by offering up scenes from their upcoming series, "Men of a Certain Age," starring Ray Romano, Scott Bakula, and Andre Braugher, which made us far more interested in knowing more about that show.

Most promising new broadcast network program that I didn’t know anything about before going into the tour: "Life UneXpected," The CW.

Given how many programs are already premiering in the fall, I made it a point to try and avoid watching episodes of series that wouldn't be arriving until January, but that was definitely a mistake on my part when it came to "Life UneXpected," starring Kerr Smith and Sheri Applebly. The video presentation showed a sweet and intriguing new series about a teenage girl who reunites with her biological parents. It's so unlike anything else on The CW these days that Dan Fienberg of Hitfix.com asked the producers outright, "Is there any concern that you may have made this pilot for a network that doesn’t exactly exist? Because this is sort of a warm, fuzzy, family, everybody-together pilot, and if you look at The CW’s shows for the Fall, they’re less that." But Paul McGuire, president of entertainment for The CW, assured us that "Life UneXpected" is "a series that’s going to be something special à la 'Gilmore Girls,'” so let's hope the network gives us the chance to enjoy this series as long as we did that one.

Most promising new syndicated program that I didn’t know anything about before going into the tour: “The Dr. Oz Show.”

I can honestly say that I've never sat through an entire episode of "Oprah," so I didn't really know anything about Dr. Mehmet Oz except that he's apparently been a staple of her show for some years now. But as he told us about his new daytime series by using a PowerPoint presentation which absolutely felt like something he'd put together (rather than, say, a precisely prepared creation done by the boys in Marketing), then followed it with a Q&A session, it was remarkable how he held everyone's attention. I'll say to you what I said to my peers: if it had been a pyramid scheme, he'd have my life savings by now. It was that impressive. When his show premieres this fall, God help me, I think I might actually sign up for a TiVo season pass.

Panelist who most knew his audience, for better or worse: Ken Burns.

He was there to discuss his new PBS series about America's national parks, but before the panel began, he became aware of something that had gone missing from our tables.

"When the doors opened, there was a companion ('The National Parks: America’s Best Idea') book as a centerpiece at each table," Burns noted, "and I now notice they’ve all disappeared. This is obviously something every table will have to deal with on your own, who among you has the book, but we want to say that we will have enough books for everybody, and if you will just leave us your card or write down your name, we will send you the book. We had hoped not to burden you with the weight of this heavy tome, but clearly there are 25 among you here - and I don’t want to call anyone out - who have decided that it is not too heavy a burden to take."

Um...oops? But for the record, had my swiping of the book from the table turned into a thorny legal issue, I was already prepared to cite the case of Finders v. Keepers as precedent.

The panel that every 15-year-old girl (and, let's be honest, quite a few women of other ages)in America was jealous of me for experiencing: "The Vampire Diaries," The CW.

You can bet that CBS is still kicking themselves over the fact that they canceled "Moonlight" just as the combination of HBO's "True Blood" and the "Twilight" films were about to make vampires into Hollywood's hottest commodity, but at least The CW had the good sense to fast-track the development of this popular book series into a TV series. Sadly, the majority of the show's cast members - including Ian Somerhalder, late of "Lost" - weren't able to make it into Pasadena in time to attend the panel, but I feel certain that the presence of Paul Wesley would've been more than enough to keep the average teenage girl swooning throughout the proceedings.

Largest panel that really only needed to consist of one person: "Cougar Town," ABC.

During the course of his many remarks in the "Cougar Town" panel, creator Bill Lawrence joked that he'd told his cast, "Hey, you guys want to come to Pasadena while I talk for a while?” And when I say "joked," I mean he was probably being completely and totally serious. Lawrence has often said that his childhood dream was to grow up and become a talk show host, and it's never more evident than when he's holding court during one of his show's panels. It's not that he steals the show as much as it is that the critics know how entertaining he can be, so they defer to him with their questions...and when they do, he takes the ball and runs with it.

Most awesome visit to the set of a network show: "The Office." I sat at Michael Scott's desk, I sat at what used to be Pam's desk (she's in sales now, you know), I was given a tour of the set by Angela, and those who come to my office will now seen that I have been declared an Assistant to the Regional Manager at Dunder-Mifflin. It doesn't get much better than that.

Biggest mixed-bag visit to the set of a network show: "Bones." It's always nice to see David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel, and it was cool to see Booth's base camp at the FBI, but we'd been promised a look at Bones's lab at the Jeffersonian and were denied as a result of filming commitments. Understandable, sure, but it was still a major bummer.

Best off-site visit that was in no way connected to the tour: I arrived early enough on the day before the tour started that I was able to go to dinner - my first-ever experience eating Ethiopian - with one of my Popdose colleagues, Jon Cummings, then attend the so-called "Girls Night Out" concert at Molly Malone's as part of the International Pop Overthrow. It was great to finally see the Paula Kelley Orchestra, but the best part of the evening was definitely the performance by Kay Hanley, late of Letters to Cleo. Sadly, she didn't break out anything from "My Friends Tigger & Pooh," but she still rocked the hell out of the joint. I was dead on my feet by the end of the night, but it was totally worth it.

Best party by a cable network: Food Network.

In addition to meeting Brian Boitano, host of the awesomely-titled series, "What Would Brian Boitano Make?", the latest round of "Iron Chef" contestants each had their own booth where they were making their signature dishes for your dining enjoyment, some of which were positively to die for. Eric Greenspan made a Tallegia grilled cheese and short rib sandwich on raisin bread that I could've eaten all night, Robert Trevino created a combination of manchego cheesecake with pata negra that blew my mind, and Jose Garces threw together a sandwich consisting of a pork belly bun with Togarashi mayonnaise that seemed to be universally praised. Great stuff all around.

Best party by a broadcast network: CBS.

The function took place at the Huntington Library, and it technically wasn't just a CBS party, since it also incorporated the folks from The CW and Showtime, but we're still going to let them have it on a technicality. I didn't get as many interviews during the festivities as I did at the other network parties, but it was so star-packed that it was hard to complain because...well, what, like I can moan about the fact that there was too much talent there? Every time I turned around, someone awesome was walking past me, from LL Cool J to John Lithgow to the cast of "The Big Bang Theory."

In addition, it was a beautiful venue...though, to be fair, just getting away from the hotel upped it a notch. (All of the other broadcast networks stayed within the grounds of the Langham, which is where the various panels took place.) The combination of all of these factors definitely made it the most memorable gathering of the second half of the tour.

Recurring trend of the tour: writers trolling for Ben Silverman one-liners. CBS's Nina Tassler replied to something he'd said about her in the past, saying, "Well, you know, I’m really just a D girl, so I wouldn’t comment on that." When the topic came up during Fox's session, Peter Rice said, "I assumed you were going to ask if he was going to judge on 'Idol' next season." Bill Lawrence opened the "Cougar Town" panel by saying, "So, Ben Silverman..." (Unfortunately, he never really let loose about the man who'd headed NBC during the network's final season of "Scrubs," instead asking the rhetorical question, "Can you say 'off the record' to 230 people?") Even NBC's Angela Bromstad got an unintended laugh when she began her response about Silverman's departure by saying, "Well, I think that this has always been Ben's plan." What, to inspire half a dozen punchlines during the course of the TCA Press Tour? If so, I think it's fair to consider it a success.

Best panelist rants: Thomas Jane, during HBO's "Hung" panel.

From the moment Jane said to one critic, "Speak into the mike and tell me how you feel about my penis," it was clear that things were probably going to be interesting, and when he assured us that he prefers the word "cock" over "dick," we knew that theory was correct. But while his panel-ending comments about how he feels about prostitutes were probably in jest, our favorite moment came in the midst of his reply to a question about how he felt about the show when it was first pitched to him.

"You know, the fact is that it’s all fucking fate and luck, man. This is fate and luck that we are all up here together talking to you about a show about a guy with a big dick. Right? Fate and luck. There is no reason this show should be good. The show should be bad. It’s about a guy with a big dick who fucks people for money."

Nice, Thomas, very nice. You kiss Patricia Arquette with that mouth...?

Best anecdote that I heard from someone who I wasn't even interviewing at the time: Megyn Price.

When I walked up to Drew Carey so that I could revisit an earlier discussion with him about his favorite bad movies (in 2007, he assured me that "Boat Trip" was so bad that it was actually a must-see), Price - of CBS's "Rules of Engagement" - proceeded to tell a story about how she used to make a point of going to see certain shows on Broadway simply because they looked like they'd be horrible.

“David Cross and I decided that we were going to go to ‘Footloose,’ because we were, like, ‘It’s gonna be so bad that it’s gonna be fun!’ So we’re sitting in the theater, and we decided at intermission that we were just gonna do shots. We were, like, ‘It’s gonna get better, because now we’re all drunk!’ So we go back in and we sit down, and these boys in front of us, who were, like, fifteen and were clearly there under duress from their mother, turn around and say to David, ‘Hey, you’re in ‘Mr. Show.’ We thought you were cool.’ And he was so bummed for the longest time! He was, like, ‘No, no, if you'll just let me explain…! I'm here ironically!’”

Cheapest thrill of the tour: Shaking hands with Robin Williams.

There's generally at least one person per press tour who leaves me feeling completely unlike a professional journalist and turns me into a total fanboy. In January, it was Ozzy Osbourne. In July, it was Robin Williams. I had a fleeting moment where I had to choose between taking a photo and shaking his hand, and although the photo would've been more permanent, I went for the memory. If he hadn't been in the process of leaving, I would've told him that I'd been a fan ever since I wrote a fan letter to "Mork and Mindy" and, in return, ABC sent me a postcard with his pre-printed autograph (and Pam Dawber's, too), but in the end, I was succinct and just said, "I've been a fan for a long time." In return, he said, "Oh, thanks, man, I really appreciate it," and it's a testament to his acting abilities that he said it in such a way that it really felt like he hadn't heard the exact same thing a million times before. Or maybe he really does still enjoy having people tell him that.

Best piece of swag: Who doesn't like free stuff? Granted, the networks have cut back, so it's not like we're getting bombarded with awesome swag the way we used to, but there's still some pretty cool stuff being offered to us. I particularly liked the "Fringe" flashlight which sends out its beam in the same of a butterfly, and my daughter dug the PBS Kids tote that she's now using as her library book bag, but all told, I think the win has to go to the Dunder-Mifflin nameplate that I received after my tour of the set of "The Office."

Coolest moment of the tour for my wife: Oh, man, there was a lot of competition this year. Was it having Jim Parsons from "The Big Bang Theory" recognize her from their conversation last year? Was it getting her picture taken with Jon Hamm ("Mad Men") and Sam Trammell ("True Blood")? Or was it geeking out and getting to meet Doctor Who himself, David Tennant? I just checked with her, and she says that, since she didn't really get to talk to Tennant very much, she's going with her conversation with Parsons. But, y'know, that's her answer today. It could change tomorrow.

Coolest moment of the tour for my daughter: This was also a good tour for my daughter, in that Sofia Vassilieva thanked her for being a fan of her work in "Eloise at the Plaza" and Yeardley Smith said "hello" to her as Lisa Simpson, but as much as she enjoyed those moments, they ultimately paled in comparison to the fact that her daddy also met three residents of "Sesame Street" and asked each of them if they'd mind offering her a personal greeting.

Coolest moments of the tour for me: As I've mentioned before, it's all pretty cool to me, since I spend 48 weeks out of the year in Chesapeake, VA, and therefore don't get the opportunity to mingle with the stars on a regular basis, but with that said, what I'm particularly enjoying is the fact that some of these folks are actually starting to remember me from our previous encounters. Pauley Perrette jumped at the chance to take our picture again (in our first encounter, she demanded to hold the camera in front of us and take the shot herself, assuring me, "I'm really good at this!"), pointedly saying to the publicist who offered to take it for us, "No, no, this is our thing." Talk about surreal...but even that couldn't top the fact that, as soon as Bill Lawrence spotted me, he thrust out his hand and said, "Will, what's up? How's it going, buddy?" He then introduced me to his wife, Christa Miller, and told her about how I had met up with him at the College of William & Mary, in Williamsburg, VA, then made sure I knew that he'd be heading back to W&M again soon. Before I let him continue his rounds with the other critics, I asked if I could grab a quick shot of the two of them together, and I don't mind telling you that it's probably my favorite photo of the entire tour.

Coolest person I still haven’t gotten to talk to, even after three tours: Hugh Laurie.

I did at least manage to enter his gravitational field this time, but he slipped away from the throng within fifteen minutes of the Fox function's kick-off.

Most intimidating person to talk to: Chevy Chase.

Actually, this suggests that I actually talked to him. In truth, I opened my mouth to ask a question, only to have him say that he needed take a break for a few minutes. But given that the conversation immediately prior to that involved his discussion about how he used to participate in a regular poker game with Johnny Carson, Steve Martin, Neil Simon, and Carl Reiner (not to mention the fact that I was standing close enough to him that I could've - but didn't - run my finger down the dimple in his chin), it was hard to be unaware of his place in television history. I was fully prepared to approach him later, but he never failed to be surrounded by a crowd, so it never came to pass. Oh, well, maybe next year.

Least intimidating person to talk to (and I mean that in the best possible way): Ed O'Neill.

When I arrived at the ABC party, I saw him stroll out of the main ballroom and onto the patio, so I thought, "Okay, maybe I can catch up with him out there." As it turned out, there was almost no one on the patio, and after Ed grabbed a drink from the bar and sat down, I caught his eye and raised my recorder uncertainly. He immediately waved me over, and although it ended up starting off slightly awkwardly (he'd thought I was the person who'd asked him the first question during his panel earlier in the day), we ended up having a great one-on-one chat for several minutes, talking about his new series, "Modern Family," contributing to David Faustino's online series last year, and his work with David Milch over the years. Did you know that Milch, creator of "Deadwood," had originally written the part of Al Swearengen for Ed? True story.

Most genuine celebrity: It's getting harder and harder to pick one of these, since I'm consistently discovering that a lot of celebrities are pretty genuine, but I'm gonna have to give the nod to Jim Parsons from "The Big Bang Theory." The guy is up for an Emmy this year, but he's just as nice a guy as you could possibly hope to speak with. He was at the TCA Awards, and when I saw him at the CBS party, he immediately lit up and commented how nice it was to see me again, and before he left, he made a point of coming over and asking if I would be at the Warner Brothers party later in the week. "If so," he said, "I'll see you there!"

Person Who Necessitated the Institution of a Three-Strikes-And-You’re-Out Rule: Hayden Panetierre.

To put this in proper context, you must understand that, in almost twenty years of doing interviews, I don’t even have anyone who’s earned two strikes, but Hayden went three for three at the NBC parties I’ve attended over the course of my trio of summer press tours.

In 2007, I managed to ask her precisely one question, which she answered lazily before wandering away. In 2008, I waited patiently for an interview as she finished a casual conversation, and although both she and her publicist clearly saw me, they both turned and walked in the opposite direction when the conversation was over. I unintentionally but audibly said, “Oh, no, you didn’t,” at which point her publicist attempted to pacify me by assuring me that she had to go to the ladies room and would be back. (She wouldn’t be.) This year, I decided I’d give it one more shot.

As I was steeling myself for her impending indifference, a colleague came up and said, “Do you want to double-team her?” Just as we were heading her way, another critic beat us to the punch by calling Hayden’s name…and I saw Hayden’s eyes roll as far back as she could muster, then turned and offered about the most fake smile imaginable, in no way hiding the “I don’t want to be here, let alone answer your questions” look in her eyes. My colleague and I approached nonetheless, and we watched as several other writings entered the newly-created scrum. After the fourth or fifth time Hayden reacted to a new tape recorder as if someone was thrusting a knife at her, I finally just said, “Screw this" (albeit under my breath), and bailed out, but I got the impression that the scrum broke up not long afterward, anyway. C'mon, Hayden, if you don’t want to be at the party, don’t come to the party...and if you have to be at the party, then at least pretend to be civil, would you? We're not paparazzi. We're TV critics.

A buddy of mine has a far better relationship with Hayden and her publicist than I do, and he says he's going to do what he can to hook me up with a phoner with her. Despite the newly-instituted rule, I would be willing to make an exception for a one-on-one interview, mostly because it would be nice to actually confront her - politely, of course, because that's how I roll - about my experiences with her at past parties. But will I get the chance to do so? Stay tuned...

During my time at the TCA Press Tour, I was fortunate enough to visit the sets of two CBS series ("NCIS: Los Angeles" and "Three Rivers"), two Fox series ("Bones" and "Dollhouse"), and two ABC series ("Castle" and "Private Practice"), but when you get right down to it, my excitement level about all six of those sets probably still didn't equal out to how psyched I was to visit the set of just one NBC show: "The Office."

It was an absolutely surreal experience to pull up in front of a building in Valencia, CA, and see a sign which read, "Scranton Business Park," but it got even more bizarre as we stepped into the Dunder-Mifflin warehouse and immediately saw members of the cast milling about. We were quickly divided into small groups and taken on a tour of the actual Dunder-Mifflin office by cast members, and I was fortunate enough to be part of the group led by Angela Kinsey, who plays Angela Martin on the show.

My wife and I met Angela in 2007 when we attended our first TCA Awards ceremony, as "The Office" had taken home the award for Best Comedy Series that year, so I was already well aware that her real-life personality is the polar opposite of her character's. She's constantly laughing, and you could tell that, although she was no doubt drafted into the task of giving us this tour, she loves her job and doesn't mind talking about it in the slightest. It was incredibly cool to be able to see the intricacies of the various certificates on the walls of the office, as well as the personal photos on each of the desks, but I think my favorite moment was when she told us that Brian Baumgartner, who plays Kevin, still has a post-it on his desk that was written during the very first episode of the show. No, wait, I take that back: it might've been when she recited back to us the way she used to have to answer the phone when she was an operator for 1-800-DENTIST. Well, either way, it was a real treat to have her give us the tour personally. We were also given the opportunity to take our photo at Michael Scott's desk, which I absolutely took advantage of, but all things considered, I think I actually might like this shot from Pam's desk better:

After the set visit, we returned to the warehouse, where we were each presented with our own nameplates which declared us to be Assistant to the Regional Manager of Dunder-Mifflin...and you can bet that mine sits on my desk at this very moment. From there, we were offered coffee and pastries as we sat down for a Q&A with the cast (minus Rainn Wilson, who wasn't feeling well) and producers of the show.

It won't surprise you to learn that there were many laughs to be had, but few were timed quite as well as the first one. The question at hand was a simple one relating to the fact that the series was celebrating its 100th episode: "Did you expect it to last this long?" Producer Greg Daniels began to answer the question, saying, "I don’t think any of us did. You know..." Suddenly, there was much whispering from Steve Carell. Daniels leaned over to hear what Carell was saying, nodded, then looked back at the critic who'd asked the question and replied, "That's what she said."

(Carell also proceeded to get the next laugh, when, after being asked how he keeps finding depth in a character who ultimately is very shallow at the surface, he replied, "I just model it after my own shallow self.")

If you're looking for news about the upcoming season, we were able to get a little bit here and there. At various points during the Q&A, the following information was revealed:

* As you might expect from someone who's preparing to become both a husband and a father, Jim's going to be going through some changes this year. "I think Jim’s ambition has always been more of an issue than his skill," said B.J. Novak (Ryan). "I think it seems to most of the writers that he would be great if he tried, and I think one of the themes this year is Jim going for it more and trying and challenging himself, especially with the wedding and the baby on the way. I think that that will be really fun to see."

* As far as the Pam / Jim relationship goes, most of what we'll see will take place within Dunder-Mifflin. "I think we’re going to try to see it in the office and how that affects people who work together," said Paul Lieberstein (Toby). "But we will be going out for the wedding. We’ll meet the family, and it will be fun."

* Per Jenna Fischer, "Pam is going to be walking down the aisle very soon because she is pregnant, but trying to hide that from certain members of her family. So they’re getting married pretty quickly...in, like, the fourth episode. I actually just had a fitting for Pam’s wedding dresses, like, just right before I walked in here, and that was a really special moment."

* According to Lieberstein, there will be more romance in the office beyond Pam and Jim. "Andy likes Erin," he revealed. "Erin isn’t quite aware of that yet, and we’ll play that out for you."

* Sadly, however, Michael should prepare for a dry spell. "I guess it might be a rough year for Michael Scott," said Lieberstein. "There’s no one on his horizon."

* After being prompted for further information about the season, Lieberstein and Daniels had a brief huddle before the former gave up an upcoming storyline which takes place at Dunder-Mifflin while Pam and Jim are on their honeymoon. "Michael is meeting with an Italian gentleman, and it comes to everyone’s belief that Michael has just met with the mafia, and they’re extorting him for insurance money," he said. "The coalition of reason is a little weak in the office."

* Also in the cards for an upcoming episode: a Dunder-Mifflin shareholders meeting.

There was also considerable talk during the Q&A about the changes that have gone on with the characters of "The Office" since the series began. Two of the most notable: Steve Carell's hair and weight.

"Part of the evolution was between that pilot and Season Two, I lost about 25 pounds, in part because of 'The 40-Year-Old Virgin,'" explained Carell. "That sort of formed the look partially there. I think that first year, the look was really scary. I don’t know if there was any word from the hierarchy at NBC that he needed to be at least reasonably watchable, but there wasn’t any big conscious decision. The hair just changed a little bit and got a little fluffy."

"Part of the character changed, though," noted Daniels. "Michael was more an antagonist in the first season, and, you know, became much more a person that you rooted for. So you had to root for somebody with less hair gel."

"I’ve always sort of seen him as a sympathetic character," Carell observed. "You know, even people who are obnoxious and in-your-face or unlikable to most, I believe that there are other sides and other gray areas to everybody, and I always felt that he was a kind of guy whose intentions were good and his heart was in the right place, but he just has a disconnect socially, and sort of that emotional blind spot. So that’s kind of how I’ve proceeded with the character."

In the first season, the computers of the supporting characters didn't even work. "My agent actually told me that we were required to bring paperwork to look busy," said Kate Flannery (Meredith).

"I thought I was going to a temp job," said Oscar Nunez. "It was a great gig. Basically, you just want to get on with your work and not be filmed. So as an actor, it’s weird, because you’re like, 'Oh, the camera.' And you just don’t want to be filmed."

"My memory of the first year or two was Oscar and Angela and I in the corner deciding that our show was better," said Brian Baumgartner (Kevin). "And we were just going to make up bits and force people to film them whenever we could."

"We also said that we could maybe pitch it to Telemundo," said Angela. "'Los Contadores'!"

The evolution of the Jim & Pam relationship was also a topic of conversation, which John Krasinski and Jenna Fischer were more than happy to discuss.

"You know, when the relationship started and it was kind of an unrequited love relationship, I would get a lot of fan mail from people who were also pining away for someone else in their office, and they were enjoying watching that," said Fischer. "And then when we finally got together, we’d get mail like thatwe’re expecting.” So I feel like we’re sort of growing up with our fans, and we’re going through those same life stages as the people who have been watching us from the beginning. I think maybe that’s one of the reasons why the relationship has continued to be successful: it’s been growing realistically."

"I definitely would attribute it all to the writers," said Krasinski. "I think that we’ve had a great time doing it, but I think there’s very little credit that we can take for the ideas and what it is to go ahead and do. And I think that to write such incredibly real moments has always been my favorite part of the relationship. Probably my favorite episode is 'Booze Cruise,' and that moment on the top of the boat where they allowed silence to play at the moment that I was supposed to tell her that I loved her. I knew from then that I’d just sort of do whatever they told me to do with this relationship, and I think that they followed that. I loved when they said that we would find out that we were pregnant before we got married. And I just thought, 'That’s real, and it’s gutsy.' And you kind of would follow people anywhere if they choose to be that gutsy."

Lastly, if you've been sticking with the show in hopes that the documentary that's been filmed in Dunder-Mifflin for all of these years will finally be released (as was the premise of the concluding special for the British "Office"), I hate to break it to you, but you've been wasting your time.

"Well, in the beginning, we always said that, if we ran out of ideas for the way the show was being produced, we would see the documentary," admitted Daniels. "And having said that now, we might not be ever able to see the documentary, since it will be a mission of defeat in some way."

When it comes to late-night hosts, I never thought I'd hear myself say this, but...I have almost reached the point where I prefer Craig Ferguson to David Letterman. When it comes to my all-time favorite, I don't think I'll ever see a day when Dave will be topped, but there's just something about Ferguson that comes closer to matching my current sensibilities. In particular, I love the way the guy speaks off the cuff and from the heart. It's not that other hosts can't and don't step outside of the standard talk-show mold to address specific issues of the day, but Ferguson does it every day of the week and throughout the majority of his show, creating a feel of spontaneity where you truly have no idea what he's going to say next. Plus, he has such a "real person" vibe that you know that, when he does say something, it'll sound like something that you might say.

Well, you know, if you had a Scottish brogue. And were funnier.

The TCA has had a long-standing relationship with Mr. Ferguson, but I swear to you that his ongoing gesture of buying us pizza whenever we hold our organization's business meetings has nothing to do with my enjoyment of his show. With that said, however, I can't say that the messages that he includes with the pizza - like the one below - haven't made me respect him more. I mean, as someone who has an affinity to the printed word (as opposed to the online word), I have to give him props for this:

Craig stopped by the TCA tour for what was described as an "informal press conference," which is no doubt why he started the proceedings by saying, "First of all, let me say my wife is standing by me through this very difficult time," adding that "Buenos Aires is lovely at this time of year." From there, he was willing to tackle any and all questions that were thrown at him, but before I offer up some of my favorite moments, I must drop this bombshell: he's considering getting rid of the puppets.

Yes, I know: I'm as upset as you are. And so were many of the others in attendance, several of whom immediately gasped in horror.

"That reaction right there?" said Ferguson. "That’s what I’m looking for: controversy. 'No puppets? That’s it! To the presses...that don’t exist anymore!' I don’t know, I’m getting bored with puppets. If I can’t think of anything else to do with them, I’ll have to let them go the way of all flesh."

As you can imagine, we did our best to pretend that he never made this comment...I don't think I want to live in a world where "The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson" doesn't provide me with my weekly puppet quota...and instead chose to focus on the funnier and more thoughtful bits of the "press conference." Here, then, are ten of my favorites...

1. "One of the luxuries of doing a television show every night...it’s almost like you had an outlet of where you could just broadcast your thoughts. Perhaps something on the Internet would be popular in the same way. That’s why I never would Twitter: because I’ve got an hour to fill every fucking night. What the hell else am I going go to say? 'Going to say things about things.' So it’s really just me doing that. That’s all it is. And so I think there’s a part of it which is retro, in the sense that it’s someone just talking on television, which they used to do back in the day, and another part of it is extremely contemporary. It’s the broadcast of unedited thought...which is, you know, causing the newspaper shortage."

2. "The other night, I was talking about Dave’s show, and I got the name of Dave’s show wrong. Now, what I could do? 'Late Night with David Letterman' is what I said, which is apparently not the name of his show, and I got into trouble saying it. Now, what’s more interesting is to watch a sweaty vaudevillian try to get out of a situation like that rather than cut it and make it pristine. I don’t have the patience for that, and I would prefer as a viewer to watch the mistakes. I am my own blooper reel as it happens."

3. "At 12 and 13, I thought I would be an astronaut. By 17, I thought I would be dead by the time I was, you know, this age. It’s a constantly changing thing for me. I think for everybody, I don’t think just for me. I always kind of half expected I’d end up doing something in show business because it was tolerant of drunkenness and you could meet girls. But, you know, I’m married, and I’m 'teetotals,' but I’m still here because I don’t know where else to go."

4. "I think my show is probably closer to 'Pee-wee’s Playhouse' than anything else I’ve seen, and that is an aspiration. That’s a great show. I don’t know where we are, but wherever we are, we won’t be that next week. I do know that. That’s why the puppets won’t stay forever. It’s important to keep moving. There was a point, you know, when I had a sound board, and I was always doing the sound board, and people asked about the sound effects. Or there was the cheeky monkey thing. We have to keep moving because I’ll get bored, and if I get bored, then I think we start doing retakes when I make a mistake, and then the rote sets in, and then there’s focus groups and then committees about 'I don’t know about this joke.'"

5. "I don’t want to be poor. I don’t want to be rich to the extent that all I care about is keeping my job. I don’t care enough about keeping my job right now. That’s good. That makes me effective at what I do. I don’t want to be frightened of getting fired. So, to that end, I suppose my ambitions are that I spend less than I earn. I don’t want to have the ambition of a time slot or a number of dollars. Do I want to make a lot of money? Fuck, yeah. But do I want to make it at the expense of...look, I’ve met a lot of rich people who are douche bags. I don’t want to be that...or any more of that than is necessary. So I hope to, I suppose, in some way try and maintain some...if I have any...type of integrity. I want to be able to look at myself in the mirror. That’s my ambition."

6. "I watched Jimmy (Fallon) in his first week...maybe 10 minutes of it. I remember during that time Jimmy Kimmel - who is a very nice man - gave an interview, and he said, 'We all watch and anybody of the late night guys says that they don’t watch another show is lying.' So I guess I’m lying, but the truth is I don’t watch the other late night shows. You know the shows I see? I see 'Duck Dodgers' and 'MythBusters.' That’s what I fucking watch, because I’ve got an eight-year-old son, you know. I watched Jimmy, and I liked him. I thought he was good, but I stand by what I said the last time: I never thought we were in competition, and I don’t think we are in competition now. The last time I talked to you guys, I said I thought Jimmy’s competition was 'Adult Swim,' and I still believe that. I think my competition is sleep. Or the ShamWow commercial, or whatever the hell is on cable, or whatever video game. I don’t know. I just do what I do."

7. "I don’t really understand (ratings). When they say people age 18-34, and then they go 18-49, I said, 'Well, what? So the people in the 18-34, are they in the 18-49? Or is this different people that are not in the 18-34?' Then you go, 'Do all ratings stop at 49?' And they do. You go, 'I’m 47. So in two years, I’m fucked. Fuck you! No!' I don’t really understand how it works. I know it’s important because everybody writes about it like it’s religion, but all I know is this: the numbers can change dramatically, and people get pay raises. Here’s what I do know, and this is probably the wrong thing to say in a room full of journalists, but it seemed to me...I don’t know if this absolutely accurate, but when Jay was shit-canned from NBC, he was the leader in all numbers, and then they fired him. I don’t want to get fired. So perhaps keeping your head down is what you should do with the numbers. I don’t understand how it works, but it clearly matters. Yet I don’t know why. I think the truth of it is this: I think it makes you sound clever if you talk about them, and I think that’s what a lot of people do. I understand that. I want to sound clever, too, but I swear to God, I don’t understand it."

8. "What I think we’ve been doing at this show...I hope what we’ll be doing at the show is deconstructing and deconstructing and deconstructing the format, and the more we deconstruct the format, if we are successful in doing that, the more we separate ourselves for good or ill from the format. The format is tired. The format is tired, and it is old, and...look, here’s the reality: I’m another middle-aged white guy telling jokes late at night on TV wearing a suit. And that’s tired, you know? So I want to mess with it. Because that’s who I am, I want to mess with it. I want to poke it with a stick. I want to do it. I swear, I don’t know if I’m part of it. I kind of would like to be. You know, I kind of like to be, 'Hey, what’s going to happen with that?' And then another part of me thinks, 'Well, then I’ll end up like that. Then I’ll be important. Then I’ll be worried about the fucking 18-18 1/2 demographics.' And I don’t want to be. So I’m conflicted a little bit with it, I guess."

9. "I’d like to announce I got my pilot’s license on Friday of last week. And I’ll tell you why I like aviation: because it is the complete opposite of show business. In show business, you bullshit, you bullshit, you bullshit, and that’s what you do, and that’s how get ahead. In aviation, you bullshit, you fucking die. You’re gone. So when Andy says to you in show business, 'Can you do that?' You go, 'You bet I can.' When Andy says to you in aviation, 'Can you do that?' You better tell the truth, because if you can’t, you know, you’re on the local news, and that’s that."

10. "David Letterman, no matter what the numbers have ever been, ever, in the past...David Letterman is the king of late night television. All right. Now, I know there are press releases and other people that can prove to you scientifically that that’s not fucking true, but
I’m telling you, that’s true. I’m very happy to work for him and to work close to him, but if there is a successor to Johnny, then, of course, it’s David. My relationship with David Letterman is that I sit at his feet. I’m kind of his bitch. In the modern parlance, you know. I sit at the feet of the master."

During his executive session at the TCA Press Tour, Fox President of Entertainment Kevin Reilly announced that they've finished 13 episodes of "Glee," assuring us that "the show delivers. It’s fantastic." While this is exactly the sort of thing you'd expect a network president to say, those of us who caught the pilot episode of the series when it aired earlier this year couldn't be much more hopeful that Reilly isn't just talking out of his arse.

It was an interesting experiment for Fox to air the series pilot months before the series was to make its proper debut, but it created the kind of buzz that makes network executives giddy.

"We didn’t really think that a one-time-only play was going to be about ratings," said Reilly. "It was really a marketing stunt to a certain extent, and it’s something that has ended up being very successful. In fact, it could be the marker for something we’re going to employ more frequently, because our marketing effort in these things get wedged into such a narrow window from the time they’re ready to put out there to the time they air. We wanted people to talk about it and take time to get their heads around it. It did a 4.3 rating ultimately in the Live-Plus-Seven. It’s been sampled by 25 million people between TV, the online site, and Hulu, which has been unbelievably strong. We’re going to repeat it again. We’ve heard the chatter, and the talk continues to get more and more positive.

"We were at Comic-Con last week, which was a stretch for this show," he admitted. "We were nervous nobody was going to show up. It wasn’t even in the main venue. There were thousands of people out the door, and it was like The Beatles were there. There’s something happening with the show. With that said, we’re both very confident there is a core audience for this show that is going to be there and it will be successful. How much the upside is...? I don’t think we’re looking for this to be necessarily the biggest phenomenon of the fall. It is a little bit of an offbeat show, but we’d certainly love to have it in that square success category. We know it’s a creative success because we’ve now seen the work. So all in all, we like that strategy. It worked very well."

There's a very important question, though: is it possible that "Glee" is too good to be a long-term success? After all, the critics love it, which is, as often as not, the kiss of death for a series.

"Sometimes things find a niche audience," admitted executive producer Brad Falchuk, "and oftentimes those are very high quality things that can’t find a broad audience. I don’t think we have that problem. I think we are for a broad audience. I think there will be people in certain niches that will enjoy the show in their own specific way, but our intent is always to make something that a lot of people would enjoy. I’m not a big musical fan, I don’t like musicals, and I didn’t want to make a musical, and so the idea was to attract me and Ian (Brennan, producer) and 70 other different categories of people that would enjoy it. I hope that we’re so good that people can’t not watch."

Fans of "Party Down" were no doubt disappointed at the news that Jane Lynch would be missing out on that series' second season due to her commitment to "Glee," but she's the first to clarify that it wasn't a position of choosing one over the other. "('Glee') was in first position, technically," she explained. "But I’m having the time of my life. I am acting in the role of a lifetime, and the words that they have written to come out of my mouth are some of the best, most heinous things I’ve ever said in my life. I could not be happier. I really loved doing 'Party Down,' but this is really a highlight."

Lynch's role in "Glee" shares certain personality traits with her role in the film "Another Cinderella Story," which begs this question: what draws her to parts like this?

"I’m scheming and arrogant," she said, with a grin. "You know, I don’t necessarily know, but I love that lack of shame, and I find it fascinating that a lot of people walk through life that way thinking they’re really something and they can be that mean. And I guess I’m attracted to that on some level. I don’t think it’s first and foremost in my personality, but it’s a lovely delicious thing to call upon, and I love doing it, obviously. I do it a lot, actually, but I think it’s reached a pinnacle with Sue Sylvester. She has to be the most scheming, unashamed, entitled person I’ve ever played...and I’m just adoring it."

Given Kevin Reilly's comments about the show's reception at Comic-Con, it will probably not surprise you to learn that life has already begun to change for the young stars of the series.

"We were just so happy at the response that we got," said Lea Michele, who plays Rachel Berry on the show. "We’ve been in this little 'Glee' bubble of finishing the 13 episodes and working really hard, so we were just really thankful to get to see the reaction, especially when we went to Comic-Con. That was so great. And we’re also just about to go on a 10-city tour in a couple of days, and hopefully we’ll get to meet people that have seen the pilot and that are excited for the show. We are really excited about that. You’re going to have all of us kids on a plane going to tons of cities, all of us together."

"Our Facebooks have gone crazy," added Chris Coulfer (Kurt Hummel).

"You know what’s funny," said Dianna Agron (Quinn Fabray), "is that I was on a plane yesterday, and 'So You Can Think You Can Dance' was on the plane. I was sitting next to two people, and a commercial came on, and the guy sitting next to me kind of did this look, looked back at the screen, and looked one more time. And later on, he was, like, 'Were you the girl in that commercial?' Those things are weird. When we went to the upfronts, you know, and saw all the huge balloons everywhere, people walking around...it’s exciting, because you forget, especially when it’s not airing in conjunction with shooting, that you’re making something that people are eventually going to see. And once that starts happening...I mean, for a lot of us, this is a big first, so it’s thrilling, but it’s shocking every time you have a moment like that."

The cast can likely expect many more moments like that come September 9th, when "Glee" makes its proper debut with an episode entitled "Showmance." It's also worth noting that a director's cut of the pilot will be airing the previous week, in case you were one of the folks who missed it the first time around and have been chomping at the bit to see what all the fuss is about.

Oh, and if you're wondering about the possibility of a "Glee" CD, you'd better believe that's already in the works. Per producer Dante de Loreto, "We’ve produced over 60 tracks so far for the show, and we've got a partnership with Columbia Records. We’re hoping that the first soundtrack CD will come out in November, and if it's successful, hopefully there will be a second one."

"Lie to Me" is a series which I would've watched a heck of a lot more if it hadn't always been up against a series that I already had an existing addiction to, but every episode that I did see was enjoyable, so I've already got my order in for a copy of the Season 1 set, so that I can be properly prepped for Season 2. There's also another really good reason to be ready for the show's sophomore outing: they've added Shawn Ryan - a.k.a. the man behind "The Shield" - to the series' production team.

How did such a thing come to pass? In a nutshell, Samuel Baum asked him to join, and although the two hadn't really known each other, Ryan was swayed both by a sudden opening in his schedule and the company Baum was keeping.

"I came out and helped out a little bit on the last couple episodes as a favor to the studio," explained Ryan. "I didn’t really know Sam, but I had a couple of my old 'Shield' writers who were over there, and I thought, 'Well, that will be cool.' I enjoyed it: I got to meet Tim and the rest of the cast, I dug the show. 'The Unit' was unceremoniously dumped by CBS, so I suddenly found myself with a little time, and I thought I could bring something to the show. It was something that excited me. You see the actors here: it’s an incredible cast, and I just want to get to know these characters better. And believe me, there’s enough work on a TV show for both Sam and I. So it really is a very cooperative, very friendly relationship. There was no “All About Eve” sort of situation here. There’s plenty for both of us do. In terms of what I think I might bring to it, I think I’m trying to push it a little bit more in a character direction, add a little bit of adrenaline to the show, but really sort of dig deep."

So by "adrenaline," are we talking more explosions, or what?

"No, no, I don’t mean that exactly," Ryan said. " Listen, the show is ultimately based on a group of scientists. And Mekhi (Phifer) plays a character who is not a scientist. But the fact is they are people who are diving into the middle of charge cases and accusing people of being liars. That can lead to consequences. So I don’t mean adrenaline in a 'Shield' sense or a '24' sense, but they are going to put themselves in some emotionally and physically harrowing situations at times. And I think the pace of the show will increase slightly. And we have a lot of story to tell, and I just think there’s some juice that can be added to the show in a fun way."

You may have noticed the reference to Mekhi Phifer in Ryan's comments. Those who did watch the show last season and recall that he turned up in a few episodes as Agent Ben Reynolds will be pleased to hear that he's been added to the series as a full-fledged regular. And if you didn't watch last season...well, fortunately for you, Phifer clarified his character a bit for us.

"He’s an FBI agent who was contracted by the Lightman group to be sort of the guy with the gun and the badge to help bring some of these cases home," explained Phifer. "He’s new, and he’s just learning about this whole scientist understanding of, you know, how to read people and faces and things of that nature. So it’s definitely an exploration for the character to get into the family of the Lightman group and be a better agent, as well as be a part of the family and be an asset to help solving a lot of these cases."

You'd better believe that everyone on "Lie to Me" - actors and producers alike - were completely psyched to be able to get Phifer to join their cadre.

"He had an amazing and totally different kind of part, an amazing role in '8 Mile,' so that was sort of in the back of our mind," said executive producer David Nevins. "We have all these scientists, and we wanted to bring in somebody who was not a scientist, who was not steeped in the same sort of book knowledge that they have, but who was going to be able to go sort of toe to toe as an actor and toe to toe sort of intellectually with these kind of brainy scientists."

"Liz Craft and Sarah Fain, who wrote on 'The Shield' for me, wrote the episode where Mekhi’s character was introduced," said Ryan, "and one of the things they had talked about...I had come on just as an advisor for these last couple episodes, and the one thing that we had talked about with the creation of that character was that in previous episodes there seemed to be a law enforcement figure that would be introduced into an episode, and you guys kept introducing different ones. And it was brought up that, you know, 'What if you have one person that can be your go-to person?' And for a company that is doing so much work for the government, it would make sense that they’d want a liaison between them. And so it was just an opportunity to add him. Sam signed off on that casting last year. I wasn’t hugely involved with that, but when I heard the name Mekhi, I was, like, 'Man, if you can get him, it’d be good.'”

"Yeah, he was my first choice last year, and we were very excited to get him," confirmed Baum. "The first parameter, I would say, is that Tim Roth has a tendency to blow off the screen a large number of actors who he’s opposite in scenes. You just disappear. It can even happen to an inexperienced writer. Blown off the set. So, one, we needed someone who was really a man and had gravity and could own scenes with him. I would say the second thing is we wanted someone who really had some life force, who was magnetic and who, rather than taking a scientific approach, was incredibly street smart from years and years of investigative work, where he knows a particular guy just by looking at him and what his MO is based on past criminal work."

"It’s that he’s not going to believe me also until I’m proven," explained Roth. "And that’s a nice atmosphere to bring into our office. It’s like, 'Yeah, all right, prove it. And if you can’t prove it, I’ll move on the way I normally do.' And that I liked about your character. You can kick a door down. 'Don’t have to talk my way through it. I’ll just kick it down,' until things change for him. And we’re in that mode, I think, with Mekhi where we’re building to those episodes where we’re going to open up his character and really examine what lies beneath the surface. And it’s going to being quite shocking."

"Yeah, that’s coming," confirmed Ryan.

"Yeah, there will be an episode that goes deep into his history as an FBI agent, into Reynolds’ history, and will really split Lightman’s loyalties," said Baum. "I think over the season, you’ll start to see a friendship develop and be tested in terms of split loyalties throughout the season."

"The first season...it was kind of experimental in a way," said Roth. "And a lot of what’s happening now, I think, is that the characters are starting to surface. And a lot of what we’re doing is looking into why they are what they are and how they behave and what their backgrounds are and their secrets are and so forth. It should be quite interesting. It’s great stuff to act, I have to say."

As far as what else we can expect this season, Brendan Hines' character, Eli Loker, will be continuing to tell the truth, despite how uncomfortable it tends to make those who are on the receiving end of his truth-telling. "For me, it’s a choice that he made," said Hines. "It’s an experiment of sorts that he’s running on himself, because it allows him to put people in awkward situations and see what their reaction is to it, and it also is an experiment that he can run on himself and see how long he’s able to do it, if he is able to be 100 percent committed to it. But I think this season we’re moving on into other territories for him to sort of explore as far as his research and experimentation. And he’s still putting people in awkward situations, I think."

"There will be an episode coming up down the road, a Thanksgiving episode that’s set on Black Friday," said Baum. "There’s a big-box-store stampede to get a cheap television, as happened at a retailer a couple years ago where someone is trampled by the thousands of people trying to get a TV, and one of the areas of interest for Loker, you’ll see, is group psychology and how good people can end up trampling someone to death in a situation like that. You’ll also see him continue to experiment with different levels of honesty; you might see an episode where he goes silent for the entire episode and takes a vow of silence."

Ryan offered further information about Season 2, including the fact that Emmy Award-winning director/producer Dan Sackheim has joined the series. "He's really kind of retooling the look of the show, and it really looks spectacular," he said. "The sets have sort of been updated, so the show, I think, is going to look different and feel different as well."

Other things to look forward to: Erika Christensen plays a multiple personality disorder victim in the season premiere, and Garret Dillahunt plays opposite Tim in the second episode. Ryan also revealed that there'll be a case of art coincidentally imitating life in the season premiere. "In our first episode, the B-story deals with the firm being hired by the White House to vet a potential nominee," he said. "The nominee has certain positions, and they want to know whether he’s being truthful or not. It’s a lifetime appointment. You’re not going to see that kind of story on any other show on TV.

"Another area that we really want to get into this year that Sam and his team touched on a little bit last year is the idea that not only is (Cal) a master of detecting lies, but really he’s one of the world’s greatest liars," continued Ryan. "So it’s seeing the flip side of the coin. It’s seeing him insert himself in the situations and lie to people to be someone else. We have a great scene that Matt Olmstead, who ran 'Prison Break' last year and who is writing for the show this year, wrote where we meet Cal Lightman at a singles’ mixer. And we think, 'Oh, is this his hard-up way for a date?' But really he’s there to check out one of the women for a case. And we see him presenting himself as a suitor to this variety of women that’s just fascinating to see him, the way he lies, and sort of worms his way into the hearts of some of these women. We’re going to see him in other situations where we see him being the liar, not just the lie detector."

"Also, one of the things this season I’m excited about, particularly as Kelli’s character, Dr. Foster, is newly single and starting to date, is this question of, 'How much do we want to know?'" said Baum. "How much honesty and at what price? And what is it like when you do this for a living and suddenly you’re single? And the period of dating where normally there would be a fair number of half truths, the person is laid naked. And Lightman can see it as well. And what do they talk about, and what don’t they talk about?"

"Can’t wait," smirked Williams.

"Or being the father," added Ryan. "Hayley [McFarland's] not here, but Hayley, who plays Lightman’s daughter on the show...what’s it like to be the father of a teenage girl and see through the lies? And from her perspective, not to have that privacy of being a teenager being allowed to make mistakes. That’s an area that we’re going to really delve into a lot this season: Lightman and his daughter and the unique position of him as a father with these skills."

I have to say, no other panel gave us as much insight into what we can expect from a show's upcoming season. So I ask you: are you now as psyched as I am to see "Lie to Me" return? Because, personally, I'm pretty damned psyched.

Fox's "Fringe" premiered last season to a ridiculous amount of buzz, thanks to the combination of J.J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman, and Roberto Orci, a trio whose various credits (many of them shared) - "Alias," "Lost," "Mission: Impossible III," "Transformers," and the then-still-forthcoming "Star Trek" - were more than sufficient to get the sci-fi fanboys into a tizzy. Things may have started off a bit rocky, mostly due to a slight uncertainty about exactly what the hell was going on, but by the close of the season finale, when we found ourselves barely getting over that guest appearance by Leonard Nimoy before we found ourselves looking at a still-standing World Trade Center, we were already ready for Season 2 to begin.

"As we went along, I think we got a better handle on the balance of our characters and the plots and making sure that our plots were character-centric," admitted executive producer Jeff Pinkner. "I think that we learned how to write for these actors, these characters over time, and I think we learned this in 'Alias' and 'Lost.' The shows that are really about the characters, the characters and the actors playing them start to meld a little bit more, and I think we’ve gotten better at that."

Orci noted that one of the series' biggest issue from the very beginning was figuring out the percentage of standalone episodes versus a larger serialization. "We’ve all read the research that says a regular viewer watches three episodes in a year, etcetera, etcetera, so you try to modulate," he explained. "In the first season, we actually had to sort of plan around resetting the series once or twice and doing it around three- or four-week-long breaks. And that kind of exercise makes us, in Season Two, a little more flexible, a little bit more able to read the green. And I think, you know, the fact that we are closer than we were from New York is also helpful. We can all be up there a little bit more; we can communicate better with each other. I think we're just a tighter ship this year."

If you weren't entirely sure whether or not that shot of the World Trade Center took place in the past or in an alternate universe, Pinker is glad to clarify. "We have decided that, though science acknowledges a multi-verse and an infinite number of universes, we are only going to tell a story about two: here and what we are referring to internally as 'over there,'" he said. "But they are two versions of reality. It’s not time travel." (Season 2 will predominantly take place here, he said, "but what’s happening over there is impacting what’s happening over here.")

Pinkner admits that it's a challenge to come up with the most succinct way to convey the show's science to the average viewer.

"One of our co-producers, Brian Burk...we literally say that we try to write the show for his dog and for my dad (to comprehend)," he said, scoring a laugh. "Both his dog and my dad are really bright, but...how do you convey a parallel universe, which science has actually acknowledged or hypothesized for decades, and the idea that there’s literally a Doppelganger for each of us living in another universe where very similar, although different events are taking place?

"At the end of the season, when we made the choice that we were going to see our character, Olivia, cross over to the other side and meet William Bell, who we now know is over there, we tried to figure out what would be the most iconic symbol to represent this is very much like here but different. And we talked about using the World Trade Center as the visual representation of that, such an iconic thing that tragically is no longer here, and we immediately thought, 'Okay, that’s perfect.' That’s the end of 'Planet of the Apes,' when you’d see the Statue of Liberty buried in the sand, and then you know, 'Oh, we landed back on Earth.' And we struggled with whether it would be appropriate or disrespectful, but we thought that, ultimately, it’s an honest way to represent that there’s another version of Earth in New York where different choices were made and, therefore, different consequences."

If you're wondering, Leonard Nimoy will absolutely be back on the show as William Bell, and the option is available for him to appear "as much as he wants, truly," according to Pinkner. "We’ve made an open invitation." One has been filmed, and fellow executive producer J.H. Wyman says that there will be several more for sure.

Although it was cool to have Nimoy on the set, that's talking in terms of general awesomeness rather than temperature. "It was 106 degrees outside," said Pinkner, "and unlike Los Angeles or New York, the sound stages in Vancouver don’t have air-conditioning. It was 120-some degrees inside, and like a pro, he sat there all day. He never went back to his trailer, and did pages and pages and pages of dialogue and scenes with Anna."

"Well, he’s from the planet Vulcan," observed Joshua Jackson. "He’s after that kind of heat."

"Sincerely, his wife told me that he practices biofeedback," said Pinkner. "He just sort of, like, regulates his body temperature, which is very Spock-like."

Compared to his broadcast network peers, ABC President Stephen McPherson had a pretty low-key executive session, admitting outright that he didn't really have any grand announcements to drop on us, but he did discuss the following matters:

* "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" returns to ABC tomorrow. McPherson describes being on the set with Regis again as "nostalgic and energizing," and assures us that the show's return features the best million-dollar question moment in the entire history of the series. Big talk, but we'll see.

* McPherson's got class. He didn't take the bait when asked for the obligatory comment about Ben Silverman's departure, and he fully acknowledged that he's interested in seeing what's going to happen with Jay Leno, given that it's the first time we've seen anything like this on TV in our lifetime.

* On the matter of viewers investing in series that could be yanked out from under them at any given moment, he made it clear that it's not an arbitrary decision when a show is canceled. "How patient can you be?" he asked. "How much information do you have about the show? Is it being rejected? Is it slowly building? Is it stable at that label? How does it affect the rest of your schedule? The overall network?" Though they try to be as patient as they can be with a series, sometimes it just has to go. "Canceling shows is the worst part of my job," he said.

* That's as may be, but it sounds like dealing with Katherine Heigl's outbursts can't be a heck of a lot better. When asked about her actions, he replied, "I think it's unfortunate. It's not something I think you want to let consume you or your people, because it is what it is, and people are going to behave in the way they choose to behave, but I think there are so many people who work hard on 'Grey's Anatomy' and all of our shows and go without any credit. Those are the people I'd be most concerned about."

* When "Scrubs," it's still gonna be "Scrubs." "It's not changing its title," confirmed McPherson. "It's gonna be different in the sense of the construct of what's going on, but it'll be the same character dynamics as before, but it's allowing Bill (Lawrence) to introduce new characters and spend time with them. But it'll be the same tonal show, with the same kind of comedy and storytelling that you're used to." As noted, Zach Braff will be turning up for a few episodes, but McPherson says they're going to "try to convince him to do more."

* Despite appearances, "FlashForward" was not specifically created to be the heir apparent to "Lost." "We would love for it to have even a part of the success of 'Lost,'" McPherson admitted, 'but the spec script was originally done, I think, for HBO, and we were thrilled to read it. But there was no development where we went, 'Hey, let's try to make the next 'Lost'! It was just about good material."

* It seems a bit weird that ABC should've rescued both Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton after their joint Fox failure, "Back to You," but McPherson says they came about through very different circumstacnes. "We'd previously developed 'The Middle' and even shot it, but we just didn't feel like we'd gotten the pilot to where it needed to be," he said. "But then Patti got available, she struck us as the perfect person for the show, and she sparked to the script." As for Grammer, his new series, "Hank," was pitched "as a full show with him attached, and we felt it was really in the zeitgeist and a great character for him to be playing."

* "Romantically Challenged," the new Alyssa Milano / Kyle Bornheimer sitcom, is in talks for a midseason run, but McPherson isn't sure where to put it at the moment.

* Despite rumors to the contrary, "Ugly Betty" was never canceled. It was just taken off the air to offer up episodes of "Samantha Who?" and "In the Motherhood," and McPherson is very excited about the new season.

* In regards to Violet's storyline on "Private Practice" last season, he acknowledged that he was "frightened by it" when heard about it, but "while it's polarizing, it's gained excitement about the show and the characters and the potential where we can go with it. We can go edgier at 10 PM, and it can be a different show than 'Grey's.'" McPherson declared the storyline to be a perfect example of why you should trust great show runners.

* And, lastly, for all of you "American Idol" fans, McPherson admitted that he has indeed reached out to Paula Abdul, and although he first said that he was sorry about what she was going through, he did managed to slip in that he'd love to see her on ABC.

During NBC's portion of the January TCA press tour, I spotted "Medium" creator Glenn Gordon Caron at the network's cocktail party. I cornered him long enough to tell him how excited I was for the series to return, then I asked him why the show hadn't scored its own panel that day, even though the miniseries "The Last Templar" had. Caron shrugged and acknowledged that "The Last Templar" was an NBC-Universal production and "Medium" wasn't, but if he had anything else to say about his show's home, he was polite enough to hold his tongue.

Now that "Medium" has found a new home on CBS...well, Caron's still polite, but he doesn't mind acknowledging that he had some problems with the way the show was underpromoted in its time on NBC. (He also didn't mind getting off a one-liner about how "the last time we came here, NBC made us walk here.")

"You know, it’s so hard in this environment to launch a show and sustain a show," Caron acknowledged. "I think we’re all incredibly grateful to NBC, we were on their air for five years, and nobody wants to take shots. I think there were times along the way when everyone, even people inside NBC, thought, 'Gee, maybe if we gave that show a little more attention, if we publicized it a little more vigorously, it might actually do better for us and might bring more viewers to the network.' I don’t think there’s been any great secret there. It’s been written about; it’s been talked about. Having said that, we had five fairly fruitful years at NBC. Looking back, could things have been done differently? Absolutely. Ben (Silverman), who is actually a friend, said some harsh things I’m sure he regrets about our show...and, by the way, you guys play no role in this whatsoever."

Ahem.

Medium: Season 1 - 4.5 stars
Medium: Season 2 - 4 stars
Medium: Season 3 - 4 stars
Medium: Season 4 - 4 stars

I'm just saying: there are critics who've been supportive of the show, and I'm definitely one of 'em.

Okay, back to business.

"Truthfully, we’re grateful to NBC," said Caron. "We had a nice run there. But the good news is we’re on CBS now, and for the first time in three years, we’re going to do 22 episodes. We’re beginning a season, knowing when we’re premiering: in the Fall and doing 22 episodes. And as a storyteller, that’s a huge thing. It means I can say to you, sir, 'And on Halloween, we will be doing thus and so.' That’s a luxury we’ve not had for three years, and those are the sorts of things that are frustrating when you’re doing a show. But it beats not working."

Indeed, it does. But as happy as he was about bringing the show to CBS (it's perfect, really, since it's a CBS production, anyway), Caron did at least try to keep the show where it was by writing a cliffhanger ending to the Season 5 finale...not that the plan actually worked.

"What I was trying to do was write an ending that was so provocative that it would be impossible to cancel the show," he explained. "You saw how that worked out. It was sort of me being a wiseguy, frankly, and really trying to stack the deck in such a way. And for what it’s worth, NBC was complicit. We don’t make the shows in secret. I said, 'This is what I’m going to do: she’s going to have a brain tumor, she’s going to go into a coma, and we’re going to put up a sign that says, ‘To be continued.’ And they said, 'Great.'"

Caron gave us a big scoop, by the way.

"There’s so many of you here, I guess I can let the cat out of the bag: she comes out of the coma," he revealed, with a grin. "And she’s on a different network. It’s the damnedest thing!"

Caron's pleased about the series that "Medium" has been paired with on CBS, but how can he not, really? I mean, could there be a more perfect companion show than "Ghost Whisperer"?

"I think 'Ghost Whisperer' is clearly a show that people really like," he acknowledges. "And, frankly, given our history, it’s nice to follow a show that people really like. And 'Numb3rs' is also a very, very well-done show. So it’s nice to be part of a night of entertainment that clearly works for people."

In terms of what else we can expect from the upcoming sixth season, Caron played things relatively close to the vest, but he did offer up a bit of information, specifically about the episode which will air immediately prior to Halloween as well as a tidbit about an upcoming guest director.

"It’s actually the vestige of an idea that I had way back when I was doing 'Moonlighting,'" he explained. "When I was doing 'Moonlighting,' we had bought the rights to this old AIP drive-in movie, 'Mothra vs. Godzilla,' and we were going to mat Bruce and Cybill into it, but it was one of those ideas I just never got around to doing. So this year we’ve actually gotten the rights to the original 'Night of the Living Dead,' and we’re going to insert Patricia into it. It’s going to be sort of the landscape of her dreams during that particular episode. That’s one of the things that we have going on.

"As always, we have interesting people come to play with us, interesting people coming to direct the shows and act in the shows. Marc Webb, who just finished directing '500 Days of Summer,' the one thing he wants to do is direct an episode of 'Medium,' so I said, 'Well, okay, if you really want to.' And he’s going to come play with us. You know, we mix it up as we go along. Ours is a show that we really try and leave ourselves open to the possibilities that come along, as opposed to locking ourselves in for an entire season with a game plan. It’s always worked for us, particularly because we have three young people who are constantly changing and growing, and we want to take advantage of those things."

In closing, I thought I'd include some comments that Caron and Arquette had to say about the suggestion that NBC's biggest issue with "Medium" was that there wasn't enough of a fan buzz about the series. In fact, when the matter came up, Arquette leapt into the fray before Caron could even open his mouth.

"I just want to say that the same way that we were sort of led to believe we were going to get picked up, I think our audience was also led to believe that to some extent," she said. "And I know on all of the bloggings and all of the fan sites, that was early stories that they had picked up and then ran with that. So I don’t think our audience ever felt we were in jeopardy of not getting picked up."

"I think it’s probably a more complicated conversation than we have time for here," noted Caron, "but the short version is I think sometimes people make a mistake and think we are in the buzz business. We’re not in the buzz business. We are in the broadcasting business, which when you do it right is a very long-term business. You are talking about telling a hundred-chapter story.

"Also, because there are so many different ways for audiences now to communicate with storytellers, I think that we get sort of myopic. We say, 'If we are not getting Twitters, then we are not being effective.' The truth is, people communicate in a whole variety of ways and different audiences in different ways, and we consume, we experience shows in different ways. So, you know, a great example being...and I’m not casting aspersions, but 'Chuck' is a really, really good show that NBC has attempted to launch twice and only really been able to bring a certain locus of people to. Now, those people have created a tremendous amount of buzz about that show, but that hasn’t translated into people actually watching the show. So, at the end of the day, you have to say, 'Okay, very effective buzz, but what does that say about the worthiness of the show on the schedule?' Our show...I don’t know quite how to quantify the buzz. Clearly, for NBC, we didn’t create as much buzz as 'Chuck,' but we did attract more viewers. So it was their choice to make."

I dare say that millions of "Medium" fans believe it was the wrong choice...but, hey, the show is still on the air, it's on the network that actually owns it, and it's actually paired with a show that it should be paired with. Seems like a win to me.

After FX's executive session, I managed to catch up with network president John Landgraf and ask him about the status of the series based on Brian Michael Bendis's "Powers." Unfortunately, there hasn't been much more forward motion since Bendis broke the news about the adaptation during the New York Comic-Con in February.

"It's in development," Landgraf reconfirmed. "We've seen a draft of the script, we've given the notes on it, and we're waiting on another draft. But I liked it."

If you're wondering, Landgraf has read the original source material, and he's aware of the challenge inherent in transforming it from the page to the tube.

"You saw this also with 'Watchmen' when it came out," he said. "You're making a property, you're trying to figure out how to take something from a comic book into a TV show, you're trying to make something that both satisfies the hardcore fans of the property, the story, and the characters, but also has the ability to introduce a new, broader audience to it. That's really hard to do. That's always a struggle, I think, when you're working with a well-respected graphic novel. So that's what we're working on right now."

Landgraf also spoke to "The Riches," which he selected as the show during his time with FX that he most wished had taken off, acknowledging that there had indeed been a very real chance for the series to earn a third season.

"The ratings did fall off a lot in Season 2," Landgraf admitted, "and yet we still thought long and hard. It was a very close choice and a very difficult choice, because it's hard to say goodbye to that kind of quality. And to see what Dmitri Lipkin has gone on and done with 'Hung' on HBO...we knew we had a real talent on our hands, and those are some of the hardest choices that you have to make."

One suspects it was probably even harder once Eddie Izzard began trumpeting how he was prepared to continue doing "The Riches" for many years to come.

"He was ready," Landgraf agreed, "and there was a journey for those characters that was a journey that *I* really wanted to see, one that I thought was just a really sound, really inspired idea beyond Season 2...which, unfortunately, was the last one we did. But at the end of the day, we just felt like we had to make room for something else."

Given that interest, would Landgraf be willing to revisit "The Riches" for an FX movie?

"I would never say never."

John Landgraf, President of FX, just sat down and gave us his Executive Session, and here's what came out of it:

* FX pursued six pilots this time around - three dramas, three comedies - and they've already picked up two of those. The first is an animated series entitled "Archer," which stars Aisha Tyler, Chris Parnell, and H. Jon Benjamin, and is set at ISIS, an international spy agency where global crises are merely opportunities for its highly trained employees to confuse, undermine, betray and royally screw each other. (I've seen the first episode and it's very Adult Swim, but that's to be expected from a show created by Adam Reed, the man behind "Sealab 2021" and "Frisky Dingo.")

The second, "Lawman," was developed by Graham Yost ("Boomtown") and stars Timothy Olyphant ("Deadwood") as Raylan Givens, a character created by Elmore Leonard in his short story, "Fire in the Hole."

* The network is also working with Louis CK, is looking into "Terriers," created by Shawn Ryan and Ted Griffin, and a pilot entitled "Lights Out," which was written by Justin Zackham ("The Bucket List") and stars Holt McCallany, Elias Koteas, and Melora Hardin.

* Landgraf was absolutely not surprised about the lack of Emmy nominations for "The Shield." I find that sad.

* The current "Rescue Me" season,, which Landgraf says they are "unbelievably satisfied" with, will consist of 22 episodes, and FX has picked up 18 more for next season, though they are contemplating expanding that order. When the show returns next summer, it will probably be earlier than it was this year. (The delay was predominantly due to the writer's strike.)

* "Testees" will not be back for a second season on FX, but it will have a second season...in Canada, where it was apparently more successful.

* Announcements regarding the cast of Season 3 of "Damages" will hopefully be made within the next week or two, and Landgraf says, "I don't think anyone in this room would guess who they're going to." The network was naturally disappointed with the ratings of the series in Season 2, but he admits, "It's a very demanding show. It's one where you can't watch 3, 5, 7 episodes out of 13. You're either in or you're out." This obviously doesn't fit the current mindset for TV viewers, who he describes as being "more interested in dating than marriage," but the series is what it is.

"If we came back with 'Damages' and it was Patty Hughes as Perry Mason, and every year she broke someone down on the stand and got her man or woman, you guys would literally be eviscerating me," said Landgraf. "And I would deserve it."

Lastly, here are the premiere dates for your favorite - and soon-to-be-favorite - FX series:

"Sons of Anarchy," Season 2 premieres on September 8th
"It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," Season 5 premieres on September 17th
"Nip/Tuck," Season 6 premieres on October 14th
"Archer," premieres in the fall
"Damages," Season 3 premieres in January 2010
"Lawman," premieres in the spring of 2010
"Rescue Me," Season 6 premieres in the spring or summer of 2010

During Fox's session to promote Gordon Ramsay's three series on their network, we enjoyed a rare bit of interactivity between panelist and audience, and...oh, wait: if you're a Ramsay fan, then you probably noticed that I said that he has three series on Fox. Well, okay, you're right, he does only have two at the moment, but come December 15th, you can say "hello" to his latest endeavor, "Gordon Ramsay: Cookalong Live." To celebrate this development, Chef Ramsay led us all through an attempt to whip up some topping for Baked Alaska, promising that the person who did the best job would earn themselves a table for four at Hell's Kitchen.

Sadly, I did not win...and when I say I didn't win, what I mean to say is that it wasn't even close. I added too much of the egg-white mixture, resulting in a topping so pitiful that Chef Ramsay took one look at it and said sadly, "Oh, mate..." But I took comfort in the fact that it still had enough substance to it to be browned a bit when he took his pocket blowtorch to it, and when I met up with him post-panel, it definitely seemed to be a case of "no harm, no foul." (What, like he's not used to dealing with the occasional sub-par chef...?)

I just want you to know that your sad delivery of the words, “Oh, mate,” about my Baked Alaska will ring in my ears forever.

Oh, shit. Really? Was it that bad?

No, thankfully, there were others that were worse. But it was just the way you said it…

Well, I just wanted to have a little bit of interactivity…and it was fun doing it as well!

I had the added bonus of Fox’s photographer snapping a picture of me when you were hitting my Baked Alaska with the blowtorch.

Oh, really? Even better.

So, Gordon, when do you sleep? You’ve got three shows now on Fox, and that’s not even counting what you’ve got going in the UK.

Yeah, good question! Chefs aren’t very good at sleeping, anyway. Guy Savoy said to me 20 years ago, when I was in his kitchen and said, “Sorry, Chef, I’m a little bit tired,” he said, “Tired? How many hours sleep did you have last night?” I said, “Six.” He said, “Fucking way too much.” I said, “What?” He said, “Think about it: the average person sleeps for eight hours a day, so when you get to sixty years of age, that means you would’ve slept for twenty years. Does that scare you?” I said, “Yeah!” He said, “So shut the fuck up, sleep four hours a night, get to sixty, and only have slept for ten years of your life!” And so that’s ringing in now. That’s in there now.

Is every contestant who appears on “Hell’s Kitchen” really an aspiring chef? Because you get someone like Joseph on there, and he’s too good for TV to actually be real.

If I had to cast for that program, then I would be looking at one-star, two-star, three-star Michelin chefs all day long. Did they try with Thomas Keller? Did they spend time with Jean Georges or Daniel? Did they come out and advertise? Because I want to be surrounded by, sort of, chefs in that environment. Out of respect for them, I never get to see any of their resumes before we meet, and so it’s quite an interesting fact because they all seem excited and motivated on winning the challenge. This year’s responsibility in terms of running that restaurant at the Araxi up in British Columbia, Vancouver, is a perfect setup. 99.9 percent of the ingredients are located within a hundred miles of that radius. So, from a chef’s point of view, it’s a dream come true, even the wine, meat, fish, vegetables located within a hundred miles of that radius. So that outburst was ridiculous because no one could ever foresee what was going to happen. I didn’t realize that he was acting, you know, the way he was behind the scenes of the dorm. I never see any of that stuff going on because it’s unfair for me to judge them on the downtime because that is purely off my limits, and I didn’t know what to do in terms of - I asked him a very simple question three times, and he didn’t want to answer it. It was hard because I’ve been to Afghanistan, and I’ve been out, cooking for the Marines last year for a thousand of them, U.S. and the U.K., and the atmosphere was electric. The banter was phenomenal, and to go and change their view and give them something that they deserve in terms of a decent meal on Christmas Eve was a dream come true. So to have that kind of negativity from him, I think there were issues on a personal front that needed to be solved before he came into “Hell’s Kitchen.”

Which “Hell’s Kitchen” contestant over the years has surprised you the most from when they started to when they finished?

Elsie (from Season 1). Yeah, what, from a Waffle House chef to cooking the most amazing, authentic American food? And then an extraordinary palate like that…? That was amazing. Yeah, Elsie. She’s good.

Are you surprised when people take your comments as personally as they do, given that they’ve gone out of their way to be on your show?

I’ve gotten a little bit sort of surprised, in a way. But I don’t edit it, because I’m a chef, not an entertainer, so I call it as I see it. If you had to come in my kitchen tonight at The London West Hollywood, and things went wrong, of course I’m going to cane someone’s ass! But when things go right, I’m going to equally compliment them! When we’re in the middle of that pressurized environment, getting straight to the point is the healthiest thing. I don’t want it becoming cancerous, where they come into work the next day and it’s still on their shoulders. I get straight to the point. Don’t question me in there; question me after it. When we come out of it, if you want to talk to me and you want insight, fine. Because it’s not that one incident, it’s the 25 chefs behind and 180 people sitting in the dining room as well. So sitting and discussing it at length…? You haven’t got that time. It’s live, and…that’s what I said earlier about the “Cookalong.” For me, it’s how I am, and cooking along…I think it’s going to be a huge insight into what I can really do, because not enough people see me cooking, and that’s been frustrating for the last three or four years! All they say is, “Stop cursing and cook more!” So I’m going to do it!

And, lastly, are you surprised that your shows have taken off as well as they have in the States? Because, y’know, we’re not always necessarily known for embracing the abrasive.

No, I suppose I just try to keep it real. I am somewhat surprised, but, y’know, we work hard at it. That’s the most important thing.

(Special thanks to our man Mike Farley for the questions. Wish you could've been here, sir; I know you would've dug it.)

It's been several days since we were treated to HBO's panel on their new series, "Hung," but I just hadn't been rushing to write it up, mostly because I still haven't checked out the show yet. I didn't get advance screeners for the first two episodes, then I did get screeners for the second two episodes, but by that point, I had too many other things in my pile that were more important for me to watch, and...well, here we are. But even without having watched the show, I still got several laughs out of some of the exchanges during the panel, so the least I can do is offer those bits up for your reading enjoyment.

Colette Burson (series co-creator): I think we see what makes him special all the time in terms of dealing with the women.
Jane Adams: I know *I* do.

_ _ _ _ _

Colette Burson: Thomas actually is someone we had thought of long before this audition process happened, and he actually didn’t really go through the audition process in quite the same way. Itt happened afterwards, and we talked to him, and we met with him, and then he read some. But, again, none of these issues really came up. It was just all about he sort of captured the essence of Ray.
Thomas Jane: I did have to go into the next room to disrobe, so I wouldn’t hit anybody in the eye.

_ _ _ _ _

Critic: Even today, we’ve sort of been tripping over double entendres and things. But did you think maybe this was going to lead to a funny press tour session?
Thomas Jane: Or bigger things?
Critic: Extend your career?
Jane Adams: Like while you are holding that mic, too. Really, it’s become surreal.
Thomas Jane: Speak into the mic and tell me how you feel about my penis.

_ _ _ _ _

Thomas Jane: You know, the fact is that it’s all fucking fate and luck, man. This is fate and luck that we are all up here together talking to you about a show about a guy with a big dick. Right? Fate and luck. There is no reason this show should be good. The show should be bad. It’s about a guy with a big dick who fucks people for money. Fuck you.

_ _ _ _ _

Critic: Given that it seems like most women who would purchase those services are interested in the totality of the experience rather than the size issue, as this is about a heterosexual gigolo, how did you wind up focusing on “Hung”?
Colette Burson: We don’t really make the marketing decisions. But interestingly enough, I think that the marketing was designed to not focus on that, actually. Like, not to focus on his penis.
Thomas Jane: Are you asking, why is the show called “Hung” if we’re not showing how big this guy’s cock is?
Critic: Well, if it’s more about the totality of the gigolo experience rather than size, why the emphasis on size in the title?
Thomas Jane: Because it grabs you.
Jane Adams: It’s funny that you said "cock." Isn’t it Mo’Nique that has a joke about, like, Black guys say “dick” and white people say “cock”?
Thomas Jane: "Cock." Yeah. I wouldn’t say "dick." I say "cock."
Sue Naegle (President, HBO Entertainment):We have time for one more long, hard question...

Critic: I wanted to ask Mr. Jane if this has made you think about what women want, and...
Thomas Jane: Absolutely not. Don’t get the impression that I’m going to think about what women want.
Critic: ...what women want, and also about what women go through. Say, for example, female prostitutes.
Thomas Jane: Right, those poor sullied creatures of the night. No. Absolutely not. I just don’t want to know what they go through after I give them my $300.
Jane Adams: Are you guys Twittering? Did anybody get that? Because I can’t wait to read that shit later.
Thomas Jane: There was a syntax in there. I have given them. In the distant past.
Jane Adams: Anyway...
Thomas Jane: I knew people who used to give $300 or $400 to people who I didn’t care about.
Sue Naegle: Is it safe to say we’re done...?

This morning, Peter Rice, Fox's Chairman of Entertainment, and Kevin Reilly, Fox's President of Entertainment, sat down for their network's executive session, and you will be unsurprised to learn that they were positively bombarded with questions about Paula Abdul's departure from "American Idol."

"Paula is the only member of 'American Idol' whose contract was up this year," said Rice. "We have been talking to her about it for most of the season, and we very much wanted her to return. In the past few weeks, the negotiation came to a conclusion, we made an offer that was fair to Paula, a substantial raise on the money she made in past, but Paula decided not to return. It was not our choice. We wanted her to come back to the show."

Rice admitted that, given the short amount of time since Abdul's announcement of departure, they didn't have any big announcements to make about what they'd be doing, aside from the fact that
they would be focusing on the auditioning process and that it was their intention to have guest judges at each audition.

"We are talking to people now, a couple are confirmed, and we are talking about dates with others," said Rice. "It's our intention to have the guest judges be female pop stars, female performers, female artists." Minutes later, he acknowledged that they had indeed gotten commitments from two such judges already: Katy Perry and Victoria Beckham.

"Between now and January," said Rice, "we will come up with a more permanent solution on what we'll do," but of the inevitable change in dynamic with a new judge, he admitted, "There's something exciting about that."

Seriously, though, isn't there still a chance she could still be back in the "Idol" fold come January?

That'd be a "no," according to Rice. He says that the negotiations have concluded and that Paula Abdul is not returning.

"The expectation and hope was that Paula would come back," he reiterated. "I think that when her current agent made a statement to the press two weeks ago, we thought, 'What if she doesn't come back?' But we had no contingency. There is going to be a change, and we have to look at it as a positive change now, an opportunity for the show, to bring a different energy to it."

Reilly, who had let Rice run with the ball, did finally chime in and remind us that, ultimately, the show is about the contestants. But I don't think anybody bought that for a second.

Okay, that's enough about Paula, but there was one more "Idol" note that came up during the session: no matter what you may have heard, Fox is not paying Ryan Seacrest $15 million to host "American Idol." Seacrest's $15 million deal is with CKX, Inc., which encompasses much more than "American Idol." His original contract for "AI" remains in place.

Frankly, there wasn't much time left after all of the Paula Abdul questions were asked and answered, but somewhere in the midst of it all, a few more random facts did slip out:

* The renewal of "Dollhouse" for a second season was due to the die-hard Joss Whedon fans, but Reilly swears that "it didn't factor in from a fear place. It was more from a positive place. Those fans were there every week, and they stuck with it in a way that a lot of television fans don't." Now that he's worked out the hiccups in the show, the official mandate for Season 2 of "Dollhouse" is for Joss to keep doing what he does.

* The decision to air the pilot of "Glee" as a standalone episode several months before its formal series premiere was "a marketing stunt," one that did better than they ever imagined. Rice admits that the show's a bit unique. "It's definitely not saccharine, but every episode ends in an uplifting manner," he said, going on to describe the series variously as "upbeat," "subversive," "sweet," "emotional," and "aspirational."

* And, lastly, there are currently no plans to air the final six episodes of "King of the Hill." Nice one, Fox. The series was always treated like the bastard child of the Sunday night animated line-up, so way to keep it that way to the very end.

Of the set visits I've done this trip, the one to "Bones" was the most disappointing one to date. Don't get me wrong, the Q&A with stars David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel and producers Hart Hanson and Stephen Nathan made for a good time. The disappointment came from the fact that we'd been told that we'd be touring Dr. Brennan's lab at the Jeffersonian, only to arrive and find that, due to filming commitments on that set, we'd be stuck hanging out at the FBI. I'm not saying it wasn't cool to see that set, but...well, it's like if someone told you that you were going to get to walk onto the field of Yankee Stadium, only to find out that you were actually only going to get to go into the locker room: they're both cool in their own way if you're a fan, but one's definitely a damned sight more impressive than the other.

Okay, I know, I'm complaining about not getting to see my favorite set when you're probably saying, "Yeah, but, still...Bones and Booth were right in front of you!" And you've got a point: that was pretty cool. I've never actually had a chance to chat with Ms. Deschanel before, but I've talked to David before, and he's always a lot of fun to talk with. And if you've never seen him do an interview before, let me assure you that, for as much characterization as the writers have brought to the table at "Bones," there's still a heck of a lot of Seeley Booth in David Boreanaz, and vice versa.

So, of course, if we're talking about the upcoming season of "Bones," then what you really want to know is if Bones and Booth are finally going to get together.

"Do you honestly think I am going to answer that question after what I went through last season?" asked Hanson, with a laugh.

"We did end up in bed together," Deschanel reminded us. "It was in our minds, but that changes our relationship, and you will see that going into season 5. That changes our relationship for good. Basicall,y he wakes up and you don’t know whether it was his coma or my books or both, in some way. The fact that it was in our minds does in fact change your relationship, and you will see it changes our relationship even more than just being in our minds."

"You look at each other differently," acknowledged Hanson, "and it’s quite evident, especially in the first episode. You see the relationship has evolved because of that experience."

"Well, I’m just trying to get my memory back, so that’s probably what you’re seeing," said Boreanaz, with a grin.

It was a joke, of course, but it does bring up a valid question that has been lingering in the minds of "Bones" fans since the end of last season: how is Booth's memory, now that he's out of the coma?

"Well, it’s an interesting thing that is going to happen I think with him," said Boreanaz. "What I really want to maintain with the arc with him, which we are threading in each episode, is to have the thought that he does have a memory of certain things, but he is not adept to other things that he thought he was.

"An example: in the last episode about plumbing, he is ordering a Plumbing for Dummies book, and he can't remember how to plumb his own kitchen sink and, in turn, is upset that he has to pay someone 800 dollars for some guy to do it. So Brennan is, like, “Well, why don’t you just do it? You’re so adept.” Oh, yeah, well, that was before the coma, so I have to revisit things that Booth is very good at, and I think that really allows the character to really kind of examine where he’s at, if he likes doing it, and getting his grasp of that material back in his system.

"So we will slowly see that development with his character through the episodes," promised Boreanaz, "whether it's, like, putting on the belt buckle again - how does he find that act? - or we have a great part in this first episode, with the socks. He doesn’t remember wearing these socks! They're all little touching moments."

"I think it’s a matter of rediscovering your character," explained Nathan, "and, in that process, rediscovering Brennan. And that’s why that event might have been not technically real was very, very real for them as characters, and it makes them see each other differently. The event
that happened either in the book or in this coma is real for them."

"And," continued Boreanaz, "it makes me want to reinvest my time and energy into a relationship with her because I don’t remember certain things that now we are back to ground zero again. We are probably even worse than ground zero."

We can also expect to see another season's worth of new assistants for Bones at the Jeffersonian...or, if not a full season's worth, Hanson says they're definitely still going to continue with them for awhile, anyway. "This is one of those things when you adapt to what happens organically in a series," he said. "We thought, 'We are going to have a bunch of people come in, and we will see how we like them and we will pick someone.' And then we got these people, and we cast these wonderful people, and they open up stories in the lab. The ones we have now are very, very good, and I worry all the time that we are going to lose them, because we don’t have them on series deals. We have them as guest stars...and they are amazing. So I think we will keep doing that until it starts to feel like we should do something else."

According to Boreanaz, there's also talk of doing something similar for Booth within the FBI.

"We have the squints, but we haven’t seen much of the wackies in Booth’s world," he said. "We just worked with Christopher Duncan. He’s a great actor, and he brought so much to the show and he brought such an identity. What’s great about the experience of working with these guys is that they open up the realm of possibilities. To see how these two characters work off of them, how I would react to Squint, or how (Bones) would react to an FBI guy, it really just opens up the character work."

Lastly, you may already know this, but "Bones" received one of the highest compliments a series can get: a two-season pick-up. Based on Hanson's comments, it doesn't sound like it was a complete surprise, but he's clearly happy about it.

"To be honest, there was a lot of negotiation about how we were going to proceed into the fifth season, and one reason for the two year pick-up had to do with license fees," he explained. "Boring stuff...but that being said, it’s great! For us making stories, it gives us a nice timeline, and for them being the actors, it gives them an idea as to how they can settle into it. I felt like it was a great gesture from the network to us. They didn’t have to do that."

"It really was a vote of confidence, because so many shows get picked up for 13 episodes rather than 22 episodes," admitted Nathan. "It really made us feel very welcomed on the network. More importantly to me was the Thursday night. It seemed like every year it was announced that we were going to move to Friday nights!"

"We fought it every year, though," Deschanel reminded him.

"We did fight it every year," agreed Nathan. "And Thursday at 8:00...it's not the greatest time slot, but it's definitely not the worst. If we can just stay there and build up our audience, that would be fabulous."

Last year, I had a chance to visit the "Dollhouse" set, and it was absolutely breathtaking. This year, I went to visit it again, and the effect was the same. I just wish I liked the show as much as I like the Dollhouse itself. But, hey, maybe that'll change when I finally get a chance to sit down and watch the Season 1 set in its entirety...particularly the bonus 13th episode, "Epitaph One," which the show's creator, Joss Whedon, describes as "an incredibly strange sort of bookend to the show."

When we first arrived on the set, the actors were still shooting elsewhere on the Fox lot, so Whedon held court before the assembled throng of critics (some of whom may or may not have actually been bowing before him) and spoke to the second season of "Dollhouse" all by his lonesome, which he described as "the biggest surprise of my career."

"What can I say?" asked Whedon. "I really didn’t expect to be sitting here again for a while. This has been like skiing in a cartoon where you go up the mountain and down the mountain and up and down. Right now, we are pretty high up on it because we realized that we were actually going to have to work for a living this summer."

Okay, I'm sure the Whedon-ites will want to know every last word that Joss had to say, but for the sake of those who - like myself - still have good intentions of playing catch-up before Season 2 begins, I'll do you the favor of waiting 'til post-jump to offer up his comments.

"The first thing I did was get together with my writers and start talking about what possibilities there were," said Whedon, "and what we discovered was that the possibilities were entirely limitless. We had more excitement and enthusiasm about the show than we did by a country mile last year, because we are in it now. Before, it was an idea, and it was an idea that we had a lot of trouble defining...and America got to watch that. And now we feel like it is defined. The network understands what it is, we understand what it is, and we know what our cast is capable of, which is wonders. So we came in just with the most excitement, and we been having a great deal of fun ever since.

"We are wrapping today right after this the first episode, starting the second one on Monday, and from 'go,' the mandate has been, 'How far can we take this?' How much can we twist the knife? Where can we find alliances that we did not have where can we pull people apart who seem to be together? And, most importantly, how can we build Echo up from nothing - which is basically where she started last year - and really give her a sense of momentum and purpose that will ground the show in a way that it couldn’t be last year?

"And that has been sort of our mission statement: to make things harder for everybody, find ways to bring back all the extraordinary reoccurring actors we had, and, most importantly, let things begin to cohere. And the good news about that is, once they do, Echo starts really realizing that, as a person, she not only exists but that she has a mission, that she has something she wants. This year, we are going to see the results of everything she went through last year, particularly the event with Alpha, where she was downloaded with all of her personalities. We are going to see what effect that’s had on her, and we are going to find her to be a great deal less passive and a great deal more directed in what she wants. And that is, of course, going to make her life a lot harder. And the more she finds out about what is going on around her, and the more we find out, the creepier it is going to get. Because creepy is what it makes it fun."

And with that, Whedon concluded his opening remarks by simply saying, "Welcome to Season Two."

From there, we entered the Q&A portion of our visit, and I'll just offer up a few random tidbits that came out of that discussion:

* The future which has been witnessed in "Epitaph One" will be seen again in the second season premiere, to serve as a bookend of sorts. Whedon admits that it's a bit of a risky move, given that the episode wasn't aired and therefore won't have been seen by the casual viewer, but he and his writers were just too fascinated by the future they'd created to throw it away. Fortunately, the Season Two premiere will take that into consideration.

"It will say what that episode said," he said, "which is that all of this will result in disaster. But this is the story order of what happened then, so the actual bulk of the show takes place three months after the events of Omega. We will be visiting that future every now and then, but it will not be something where we can change it or where we send people back in time or anybody has metal under their flesh. I love that stuff, but apparently that gets you canceled."

* Echo has gone to a new level this season, and it will start to become obvious as early as the season premiere. "We will see that she has a cohesiveness and a mission that make every engagement mean a great deal more to her," said Whedon. "As Echo, she has her own agenda, which is something she didn’t quite have, and we did sort of build to that in Omega, where she had been dumped with all the personalities and we heard her say her name. At the end of this episode, we are going to see how far she’s come, and it’s a little further than the people around her know. We are going to see her as we know her, and then we are going to see something very different. And that is pretty much all I can say."

At this point, Whedon said, "I have a very homely and shy bunch of people to introduce," thereby giving the cue for the cast to come out of the shadows and take their seats alongside their lord and master.

The truth of the matter is that the critics still continued to address the majority of their questions to Joss (which is how we found out conclusively that Amy Acker will, despite her series attachment elsewhere, still be making further appearances on "Dollhouse," if not as many as he'd like), but we still managed to hear from a couple of the cast members when someone asked the group as a whole if the show feels different for them as they go into the second season.

Tahmoh Penikett (Paul Ballard): “I would say so. Yeah, I would say so completely. It is impossible not to get caught up in the first season. It's a new series, and there are so many growing pains you go through in a first season. I have been through it before, and there's a lot of insecurity involved. It's hard to not be affected by it. I personally have been so excited (about Season 2). When we all saw each other for the gallery shoot, there was just a lightness about it. Everyone was very excited. It's about the work this year. We can have fun."

Fran Kranz (Topher Brink): "It certainly feels like it gets better and better, right? I
mean, I'm getting Episode One of Season Two, and it feels like it's the best thing yet. And I feel like relationships have changed. All of the sudden, the character Paul is here with us, you know what I mean? So just in little ways like that, the show has sort of transformed. But, yeah, I think it just gets better and better."

Eliza Duskhu (Echo): “I was just going to say that I am already sort of astonished by the emotions and actions and reactions just in the last eight days, just this episode. Yesterday, I full on burst into tears in the middle of the take. It was a giant scene with Bamber, and there was something that happened, and I haven’t had that kind of...I was just surprised at my emotion and hadn’t really had that. I was, like, 'All right, this is kind of a nice kick off for the season: Everything out on the table!" We’ve already had the first season to sort of have our insecurities and have our guard and a little bit of that, and now we just get to open it up and search into humanity with you.”

I'll close by offering up this last bit to you. Call a gift to the Whedon-ites, if you like...

Reporter: How does it feel to know, whether or not it's true, that (Fox President of Entertainment) Kevin Reilly says he is motivated by fear of your fans?

Whedon: He should fear them. God knows we do. I think he was probably motivated by what we are all motivated by. (Laughs) It is definitely true that the fans made themselves heard. But all they did by "making themselves heard" was by loving the thing. By DVR-ing it, by putting numbers up that are not the traditional Nielsen numbers. There was no angry campaign. There was no "send them bottles of something." There wasn’t any of that. It was, in particular, the studio’s understanding that the math of television is different than it used to be, and that the shows that we make may not go out as broad as something as "Lost," but that the fans will come to them forever, and that that revenue stream does not dry up, however thin it may be. That is the thing that ultimately motivated them. You know, the numbers have never been my concern. I have never done huge numbers. I am not a big-hit guy. What I do is find the best ensembles on television, and then I make them work their asses off. And as long as I get to do that, I am in clover.

I'm a big fan of CBS's "NCIS," but I'll freely admit that I didn't get in on the ground floor. I didn't find my way into the series until the second season of the show was released onto DVD, but once I started working my way through the set, I found that it was almost impossible to stop. Ever since then, I've been making it a point of watching the show...though, of course, I'm far from the only one at this point. Back then, it was still kind of an under-the-radar series, but, really, how far under the radar can a show possibly fly when the USA Network is running three back-to-back episodes every weeknight?

This heightened off-network profile, combined with the remarkable accomplishment of having its new episodes grow in popularity with each subsequent season, is no doubt why CBS has decided that the time is finally right to gift the show's fans with a spin-off: "NCIS: Los Angeles." It's probably also why the new series has no less than three instantly recognizable faces - Chris O'Donnell, LL Cool J, and Oscar winner Linda Hunt - within its cast.

It's gotta be tough to break out from a series like "NCIS," where the fans are about as die-hard as they come, but at least the cast is aware of their responsibilities.

"My biggest concern, and I think for most of us, is to please the current 'NCIS' fans first and foremost, because they're very loyal fans and a huge following," said O'Donnell. "And, you know, if new people tune into the show, that’s great, but I feel more pressure to live up to their expectations than I do maybe to the network or the studio expectations, to be honest with you. I was overwhelmed how many people were watching the show. It was a similar reaction to when I went on 'Grey’s Anatomy,' and I would go through the carpool line, and every mom wanted to know what was happening in the show. Everywhere I’ve gone this summer, you know, it’s just...I’m overwhelmed. People that I don’t even think watch TV are coming up to me. 'What’s going to happen? I love her. I love him.' It’s amazing. You look at the numbers there, and everyone says, 'Well, his TV numbers are pulling back, and not as many people are watching network TV.' I’ve got to tell you, so many people are watching 'NCIS.' It’s amazing."

"I think the main thing for us is just approaching it with humility and being clear that nothing is guaranteed and that our job is to do the best work that we can," said Mr. Cool J. "We depend on Shane (Brennan, the show's executive producer) to bring the best stories to the table, and then we will try to bring those stories to life in a great way. And I think that that, for us, is the main focus. Obviously, we want to maintain the current 'NCIS' fan base and all of those people that are joining the show. We don’t want to, you know, make them have an allergic reaction to what we're doing on screen. But I think it’s just about having fun. You know, the pressure part of it...I don’t think anyone here is being arrogant. We're not making any guarantees or predictions for the playoffs. We're cool. We just want to do a great show, and we hope that you guys like it. That’s the real thing."

It's pretty clear that Brennan has no intention of letting the fans down, either, and as the man who's been helming the original series since the departure of Don Bellisario, he's definitely someone whose vision can be trusted.

"What we have on 'NCIS' is a show that’s now in its seventh season, it has an amazing fan base, it’s got an outstanding cast, and at its core is that wonderful mix of drama, emotion, and humor," said Brennan. "And for us to attempt to do 'NCIS: Los Angeles' without those three key ingredients would be crazy. So that’s what’s been so important to us: to take those things and transfer them into the new show. But from that point on, everything else is different. We are on the West Coast, it’s sunny California, and there’s a whole different vibe out here, so we’re playing those differences. We all have a different way of getting on when we are in the workplace, so what the audience will see is this bunch of characters working together under the intense pressure of doing what they do, and finding the humor in doing that. To my mind, I think the audience is going to say, 'Yes, this is familiar, but these characters are different, and we love them in a very different way.' It’s my very strong belief that that’s what’s going to happen. These guys are phenomenal, and the chemistry is just startling."

Brennan isn't kidding. This cast hasn't been together as a complete unit for very long, but to watch them interact with each other during the Q&A, you could feel the combination of respect for each other as actors and the burgeoning friendship amongst the bunch of them. During the CBS party later in the week, I talked with Daniela Ruah, who plays Special Agent Kensi Blye, and while it was really sweet the way she was asking me if I knew about Linda Hunt's work and how awesome an actress she is, she also made a point of saying that no one in the cast is cooler than any other to work with, because they're all such professionals.

This seems like a perfect juncture to offer up a story that Ms. Hunt regaled us with during the Q&A. It was actually a spontaneous moment that was unrelated to the question at hand, but I dare say that it charmed even the most curmudgeonly members of the audience.

"On the first day, I was absolutely beside myself, because I had this long list of sort of specs for a new up-to-date cell phone that was absolutely the end, and I had memorized it, but I knew I could never (reel it off) like that. Jimmy Whitmore was directing, and he said, 'Don’t worry about it, we will try when we get to the end of this scene to see where you are with this, because if you could say it right off the top of your head, it would be wonderful, but we won’t die if that doesn’t happen.' So we went along, and we had a difficult time, but we got through, we had a good time at the end, and, you know, we had gotten to know each other in the process a little bit.

So when Jimmy came to me and said, 'Okay, now it’s time to try this list,' Chris picked up the little cheat sheet that I had, and he got a piece of Scotch tape, and he Scotch-taped it to his chest. His back was to the camera. So every time I thought, 'Oh, I don’t know what the next thing is,' I just looked at Chris’s chest. It was wonderful. It’s one of the best things that’s ever happened to me.

I know I’m getting off subject here, but that’s just an example of the way, in the first reading, we have begun to work together as a team, you know, just out of sheer necessity. It’s wonderful how it works."

Sweetest. Story. Ever.

(It was made all the more sweet by O'Donnell's embarrassed fidgeting next to her.)

I had a chance to tour the show's set last week, and, man, let me tell you: it's awesome. More specifically, it's unique, in that the team has set up shop in an old Spanish mission, of all things. I couldn't take any shots myself, but CBS's publicity squad - including my buddy Katie, who was responsible for hooking Premium Hollywood up with our "Harper's Island" victims interviews - has provided us with some photos that I can share with you:

Pretty awesome, no?

Executive producer Shane Brennan explained that "the ops center and the area that we were in during the spin-off, 'Legend 1' and '2' was compromised after Callen was shot, so they have picked up and they have moved, and they have just moved into this venue. They’ve been here about three months."

The most eye-catching thing about the set is the combination of old (the mission itself) and new (the state-of-the-art computer system upstairs). "We thought the technology was cool and different," said Brennan, "so we exposed the audience to that. What they will see on 'NCIS: Los Angeles' is everything, the full thing: sunny California, the great rapport, the humor between these characters, the mystery of solving crimes through the undercover world, and the technology."

Okay, I feel like I've been going on forever here, so let's start the wrap-up process by giving you a bit of an idea what you can expect from the series.

First off, Rocky Carroll will serve as the lynchpin between the two "NCIS" series, and he's honored to hold that position, especially given that he's only just finished his first full season playing Director Vance. He also doesn't seem overly concerned about the fact that the two shows have slightly different sensibilities. If anything, he seems to view it as a challenge.

"The dynamics are different, the characters are different, but, you know, it’s the same character that’s crossed over," said Carroll. "I have decided for myself as the actor that I’m playing my own evil twin on this show, so we’ll see how that works out, but I love it. Like Shane mentioned earlier, it is Los Angeles, it’s a different vibe, and the dynamics will be a lot different. We may even see a much lighter, more interesting side, especially with the relationship that’s forming between Hetty (Linda Hunt's character) and Vance. I think it will be a really nice change of pace for him."

Brennan also dropped the news that we'd be seeing Pauley Perrette turn up in the show's second episode, saying, "Abby does a crossover, and she’s directly involved in helping us solve the case." I must forewarn you, however, that I talked to Pauley during the CBS party, and she very much downplayed the length of her appearance. (To be fair, Brennan didn't take long to downplay it himself, later describing it only as "a fun little cameo.")

Despite the number of explosions in the bits of the show we've seen thus far, Brennan assures us that there’s a narrative drive to the show. "Obviously, the first episodes that we make, we want to show the audience what we’re capable of," he said. "We’re flexing our muscle, but we have other stories as well. The third episode gets very personal for Sam Hanna, who was a former SEAL and becomes involved with some of his old friends, so we will do all sorts of stories. There is a strong action element, though, in all of them. What you have really with this show is, I guess, two guys in particular, Sam Hanna and Callen, who work really well together. There’s a repartee, a lot of banter, and in the great tradition of those kinds of shows, they tend to get out and kick ass."

Lastly, you may remember that when we last left Chris O'Donnell's character, Callen, at the end of "Legend 2," he was lying bloody on the sidewalk. When we see him next, approximately the same amount of time has passed in his world as has passed in ours: about four months. "It’s Callen’s first day back on the job," O'Donnell says of the premiere episode, "and we see his scars. We literally see his scars. And he rolls into this new venue, and away we go from there. Will we answer what happened to him and how it happened and why? Yes, and in the very best tradition of 'NCIS,' you’ll just have to wait.

"It will be a sweeps episode," O'Donnell said, with a grin. "I’ll give you that."

And I'll give the last word here to LL Cool J, who refused to let the assembled TV critics get away until he'd made a final declaration to us all:

"I think it’s important...and this is the last thing...but I would like to just thank the original 'NCIS' cast," said LL. "I think that Mark Harmon and those guys deserve a mention and some respect. I had a great conversation with Mark, and he embraced me and was very, very nice to me and us on the pilot. And I think that we should at least acknowledge that this is their sister show. We appreciate and respect them, and we want to try to keep the franchise alive. I think that should be said. Thank you."

No, thank you, Mr. Cool J.

We just had NBC-Universal Executive Session, with Angela Bromstad (President, Primetime Entertainment) and Paul Telegdy (Executive Vice President, Alternative Programming and Production) taking the stage to answer our questions, and...you know, I've got to be honest: it was pretty underwhelming. No surprise: the first two words of the very first question were "Ben Silverman," and his name remained a recurring theme for the remainder of the session. It also wasn't a surprise that the topic of Conan's ratings and the expectation for Jay's ratings were brought up, but it was absolutely ridiculous that neither Bromstad nor Telegdy seemed prepared to handle the queries, instead either feigning uncertainty about the numbers, offering vague responses which signified nothing, or attempting to pawn the questions off to Jay's panel this afternoon. This immediately came back to bite Bromstad on the arse when she was asked outright if she'd be on that panel (she won't be), and it led to one critic offering a sarcastic apology for asking questions of the wrong people.

Here's the extent of information that I was able to glean from the panel:

* Bryan Fuller's latest departure from "Heroes" was dismissed as being due to the fact that he's at a point in his career where he's really wanting to create his own shows, so NBC is focusing on their development deal with him. As for "Heroes," Bromdstad said that Fuller helped Tim (Kring) get back on track, helped everybody decide where they were going, and that the show is doing exceptionally well creatively.

* The start of "30 Rock" has been delayed due to Alec Baldwin's movie schedule, which is why the network is kicking off "Community" in its timeslot. The 8 PM timeslot will therefore be filled with six Thursday night "Weekend Update" specials, three of which are currently on the schedule.

* We are assured that, despite the fact that some shows which were previously airing in the 10 PM timeslot are now being moved to 9 PM out of necessity, there should be no issue with their content in their new time periods.

* The network's new zombie series, "Day One," is being embraced due to the sci-fi success of "Heroes." "It's a genre we cannot ignore," said Bromstad, though she admitted that it does tend to be a little more of a narrow genre. Her most notable comment on the matter, however, was the acknowledgment that the network is viewing "Day One" as a "big event" for the network...but not necessarily one which would return for a second season.

* There is always talk of doing another regular "Apprentice," but according to Telegdy, the most recent "Celebrity Apprentice" had a ratings jump from the previous, so we probably shouldn't look for it to happen any time soon.

* "Friday Night Lights" will not be back until summer 2010. "We just think that 'Friday Night Lights' is a sensational show," said Bromstad, "but it doesn't have the ratings to justify it on the fall schedule."

* Regarding "Southland," the network has "incredible passion" for the future, but its future depends on how it does in the fall. "We've made some creative adjustments," said Bromstad. "I feel like they tried to do too much in the first six episodes - instead of letting the audience become more familiar with characters, they became too serialized - so the show will focus on Regina King and Ben McKenzie, the crimes, and how they come together."

* RE: "Medium," "It was definitely a show we were considering picking up 'til the very end, but we had to make choices creatively and financially."

* RE: "Chuck," "The great thing is that they're on a great track collectively. We've got 3 or 4 scripts in already, and it is something we can move around, but right now it's not scheduled to come on until March." The series has a 13 episode pick-up, and it's possible that it could be bumped up, but "these are just discussions we're continuing to have."

Hey, everybody, Alex O'Loughlin's back!

Oh, how I've missed Alex O'Loughlin. I can't even begin to tell you how much abuse I had to deal with during his days on "Moonlight," all because I thought the pilot for that series was just okay. My dissenting opinions immediately made my article "B.S.," according to some readers, and I was subsequently forced to endure all manner of commentaries about how gorgeous O'Loughlin was, even though I kept assuring them that I'd probably be more interested in revisiting the series if they'd be willing to praise other aspects of the show that didn't involve his hotness quotient. The irony...? When I reported how, after the show was canceled, CBS Entertainment President Nina Tassler admitted that "the response to ‘Moonlight’ was actually more actor-centric," I was buried in responses from readers who seemed shocked and offended that she would say something so patently ridiculous.

Well, for what it's worth, Tassler did at least want to keep O'Loughlin within the CBS family, and she's gotten her wish by handing him a plum part in the network's new medical drama, "Three Rivers" (yes, it takes place in Pittsburgh), where he'll be working within an ensemble which includes Katherine Moennig ("The L Word"), Daniel Henney ("X-Men Origins: Wolverine"), Justina Machado ("Six Feet Under"), Christopher J. Hanke, and...Alfre Woodard?

Yep: Ms. Woodard came aboard the series mere days ago, so recently that, when O'Loughlin responded to his first question in the on-set press conference for the TCA members, she did a double-take.

"Let me just say how freaked I am to hear you talk like an Aussie," she said. "I'm, like, 'What is he doing faking over here?' He’s such a believable Pittsburgh boy!"

If you haven't heard about "Three Rivers" yet, it's being described by the network as "a medical drama that goes inside the emotionally complex lives of organ donors, the recipients and the surgeons at the preeminent transplant hospital in the country where every moment counts." We're being forewarned, however, that "dealing with donor families in their darkest hour and managing the fears and concerns of apprehensive recipients takes much more than just a sharp scalpel." Pardon me for a moment while I groan at that line, but kudos must go to the series for taking their subject seriously enough to work directly with the organization Donate Life, a national movement to inspire Americans to register as an organ-and-tissue donor.

Executive producer Carol Barbee spoke to the origins of the series. "I was looking for an idea for a
medical show," she said, "and Ted Gould called me and said, 'I know you’re looking for a medical show. What about transplants?' And I had seen a documentary that week in doing research for the show I was trying to put together, and in it there was a transplant in the operation, so the minute he said it...it didn’t occur to me to do a show about transplants, but I knew exactly what I would do: I would tell it from three points of view. I thought the donor, the recipient, and then the doctors, the actual medicine...every one of those stories was so fascinating. So I thought, 'That’s what I’ll do: three points of view, and then see how it drives to this one conclusion.'"

O'Loughlin says that he's pretty much passed the point of having problems with the whole acting-in-an-American-accent thing, but the medical material is requiring a lot of studying, reading, and practicing...which he promptly demonstrated by reciting the phrase "hypotropic myopathy" over and over again.

"When I first read the pilot, I had lunch with Lina and I met with Carol a few times, and..." He looked over at Carol. "...you had to kind of talk me into it! I was so nervous when I met you, because it’s just such a big...to embark on this journey, if you take it seriously at all, it’s enormous. You know, I don’t have any training in medicine, and there’s so much to learn, even just to get off the ground and be convincing when you say the words. And, you know, the whole time we’re in Pittsburgh, and before that as well, I was into medical journals and I was on the phone, and I was researching all night.

"I didn’t sleep very much at all in Pittsburgh, and I was back and forth from Pittsburgh to Cleveland. I spent a lot of time flying and driving over there, and I spent a lot of time in the OR with Gonzo Gonzales, the surgeon who, really, my character is based on, and the surgeon that I studied with. The
whole time we studied, and now I’m obsessed with it. I’ve chosen the wrong profession. I’m so boring. I should have been a doctor. I found out that my father wanted to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. That was a dream of his later; it was something that he was obsessed with as well."

So what does he think now?

"We weep together about it," he said, solemnly.

And then he laughed, thankfully.

Even with all of the obvious medical drama that will be going on throughout "Three Rivers," Barbee assures us that there will be plenty of character stuff mixed in with the procedural elements.

"I would say that there’s a great camaraderie between the characters," she said. "They each have personal journeys they are going on, and they are going on them together because they all sort of live in this hospital 24/7. You will see relationships develop, but what you are mainly going to see for the first little while the medicine. You are going to see the lives that come in here and that are joined together, people would never have met in a million years, and they suddenly are the answer to each others' prayers. And these are the conduits that bring those people together. So there will be incremental changes in relationships among the cast, and you will see their personal lives unfold, but it’s mainly about the medicine. It’s mainly about the people whose lives are being brought in here.

Any romantic entanglements for Mr. O’Loughlin’s character?

"Oh, there will be many romantic entanglements," replied Barbee, with a grin.

With other series regulars?

"All of them," O'Loughlin assured us.

"Entanglement is the operative word," chimed in Moenning.

"You, too, Alfre," added O'Loughlin, with a wink.

"Let me say this to you: salpingo-oophorectomy."

Say what?

"'St. Elsewhere.' 50,000 years ago. I still remember it. I fought Denzel over it one night. We both learned it because we thought it was our line. I said, 'Oh, no. That’s mine.' He said, 'That’s mine.' I said, “No. I learned this. I have to say that word.'"

"What is it, though?" asked O'Loughlin. "What’s the definition?"

"I was an OBGYN," replied Woodard, "so it has something to do with the wonderful female body."

"And a wonderful thing it is," replied O'Loughlin.

And, once again, all the ladies love Alex...

Just a few last pieces of housekeeping on the series to close.

First off, if you've read about the show since its inception, then you may have noticed that I haven't mentioned Julia Ormond's name, even though she appeared in the original pilot. She's out, and Ms. Woodard is in. We didn't get any real answer about why Ms. Ormond got the boot. Actually, we don't even know for sure that she did get the boot, but the mere fact that it wasn't addressed directly leads me to believe that it wasn't Ormond's own decision to depart. Barbee's only real comment on the matter was that they combined two roles from the original pilot and made them into one, saying, "You learn things when you’re doing the pilot, and we decided we didn’t need two characters to do this one job, so we combined them, we changed the back story, and we were honored to be able to get Alfre Woodard to join us."

And, lastly, if you were looking forward to seeing O'Loughlin in those tight t-shirt-looking scrubs that have been seen in early press photos and in the advance trailers for the show, I've got bad news for you: they're out.

When asked if there's anyplace where doctors actually dress like that, O'Loughlin replied, "In 'Star Trek,' if you’ve done any sort of research. You’ll see that there’s all sorts of things in those skivvies that we wear. We can get beamed to places."

"The scrubs have changed," Barbee assured us.

Replied Moennig, "Thank God."

Dawn Ostroff, President of Entertainment for The CW, just took the stage for her executive session, during which time she had these things to say:

* After a year which found some pretty impressive increases in the number of young women viewers (77 percent on Mondays, 26 percent on Tuesdays), they're going to try and build on that momentum and make their schedule more cohesive. They're viewing themselves less as a network and more as a magazine, where people come to see what's going on in the world. That perhaps would explain why I always feel so horribly out of touch whenever I tune in.

* The CW has stepped away from sitcoms at the moment because they can't seem to find any which are "loud enough or noisy enough to get the attention that we get from our drama and reality shows." In fact, they didn't have a single sitcom in the running this season.

* Why the move of "Smallville" to Friday nights? "We felt it was the best way to open up the night," she said, since Fridays had previously been more of a standalone night for the network. Is this the last season for the show? "I hope it isn't. Zod is going to be the big villain this season, and Clark has to save the world, or we're all going to be kneeling before Zod." She says the cast and producers are excited, and she has high hopes that the show will stay on the air for awhile.

* What about seeing Michael Rosenbaum return as Lex Luthor, since he's still talked about constantly? "I don't know if we really had a conversation with Michael, but I think the talk was to keep the character alive and make his presence felt." She I don't know if (a return) will happen this season."

* Similarly, the hope is that "Supernatural" will also continue. "Eric Kripke has done a great job creatively, and the show's gotten better every year."

* What does she say to a 35-year-old guy who wants to know what he can find on the network? Her response was to reel off most of The CW's lineup and suggest that guys watch almost all of them, even "America's Next Top Model," even if they don't necessarily want to admit it. But with that said, she also defended their decision to be specific about the demographic they're courting...which is good, because, wow, talk about a total cop-out of an answer. (A 35-year-old guy can find something to watch anywhere if he doesn't want to admit that he watches it!)

* The much-hyped "Gossip Girl" spin-off that never got off the group has now officially been given the status of "not likely."

* "Body Politic," the pilot which took a look at Washington politics through the eyes of up-and-coming staffers, is officially dead.

* How about a "90210" crossover? "Technically, we could do that," she said, "because both shows are shot in L.A. I think down the road, after 'Melrose' gets up and running, we would consider that. It would be a big event for us."

* As far as Mischa Barton's health, the only real concern was that she was ready for production...and she was. "We're happy that she's better," said Ostroff, "and what went on in her personal life is her business." A question about the fact that she looks heavier in current photos than she did in the original presentation we saw for "The Beautiful Life," asked in the context about whether re-shoots would be required, was met simply with assurances that "she looks great."

I walked into the panel for the Science Channel's new game show, "Head Games," with considerable excitement. In earlier drafts of the schedule for the TCA Press Tour, we'd been told that the show's executive producer, Whoopi Goldberg, would not be in attendance, but somewhere along the line, plans changed and Goldberg apparently decided that she would be able to make it to Pasadena. I'm still very much the kind of critic who gets excited about big names being in attendance for the tour, and although Whoopi might not have been the most famous Comic Relief host to turn up that day (a few hours later, Robin Williams had a panel for his upcoming HBO stand-up special), c'mon, she's still Whoopi! Plus, the host of "Head Games" is Greg Proops, and I've been a fan of his since his days as a regular on the original British version of "Whose Line Is It, Anyway?"

So why, then, did I walk away disappointed?

Because, frankly, Whoopi was a grouch.

Believe me, I'm still very excited about the series itself, and it's impossible not to get behind Whoopi's personal mission to inspire more people, especially women and girls, to share her love of learning, but did she really have to start out by insulting us?

"I’m sure most of you had no idea that if you put a gummi bear in a test tube, what would happen to it," she said. "I’m pretty sure none of you knew that a flea can jump with a velocity higher, faster than a shuttle. Now, you can sit there and be cool because I know you’re all from L.A., but you didn’t know this, and you know you didn’t."

Well, I'm not from L.A., so maybe that's why I did know the thing about the flea. But when someone tried to remind her that quite a lot of people in the room weren't actually from L.A., she replied, "Wherever you’re from, you were not into this, but I want you to be into this now." Why all the insistence that we're not into science? Is it really so hard to believe that TV critics might actually have interests outside of television?

What really got me, though, was her rather snippy response to a question that was clearly intended to be funny. Someone asked her which member of the "View" team could most do with a lesson in science from "Head Games," and she replied, "I am not here...you know what? I know that’s supposed to be a provocative question, but I’m here to talk about my science show, which is separate from 'Whoopi Goldberg, producer.'" A beat. "Also, Academy Award winner, Grammy winner..."

I guess you have to give her some credit: it's not easy to make a joke within seconds of seeming to have no sense of humor.

Fortunately, Greg Proops was there to lighten the mood, though he unfortunately didn't actually get a question until the very last moment. When he was finally addressed, he first launched into a response where he pretended that he was a member of an earlier panel (the one for "Police Women of Broward County," of all things), settling down only slightly when someone wanted to know if he had any personal favorites amongst science-oriented shows.

"I think 'Entourage' is a very scientific show," Proops said. "You learn a lot about the science of show business on that. And I like 'Dexter' as well. I think that has a lot of forensic things in it that I can pick up. I watch a lot of documentaries and stuff as well. I do. I watch the Science Channel and the History Channel. Or I used to watch the History Channel when it was all Hitler, but now that’s it’s not, it’s not as fun for me."

I'll close by confirming that I do indeed know that Whoopi's intentions for this show are sincere. After disparaging our collective knowledge, she made a plea for us to fill our children's head with the scientific information that she was providing us.

"Now, you know, maybe none of you care (about 'Head Games')," Whoopi said, "but you’re critics, so you have to. But we would like you to care in a loving way, so that even if you don’t care, you can get the people who watch to see if they care and come check us out. We’re this big as a show..." She held her thumb and forefinger very close together. "...but our hearts are gigantic because we know we can make it better."

I'll be glad to do my part to help promote the show, Whoopi. And in return, maybe you can be a little more cheerful toward us next time...?

"Head Games" premieres on the Science Channel on October 17th.

I guess one person's request doesn't necessarily qualify as "clamoring," but since it's been requested, I thought I'd go ahead and offer up Mr. Behr's opening remarks from the TCA Press Tour panel for Season 2 of "Crash." Truth be told, it's as educational a lesson about what to expect from the show's sophomore season as one could possibly have hoped for...and if he'd just sent this off in an E-mail or letter to all of the writers in attendance rather than delivered it orally, he probably would've found a lot more people saying, "Say, I am curious to check out this show!"

Okay, here we go...

"Crash," Season 2.

L.A.

Los Angeles.

Okay, we’re in Pasadena, but pretend.

Los Angeles is paradise, but paradise comes at a price and everybody pays, and that’s the new season of "Crash.” So I’d like to introduce some of the new characters who will be paying that price this year along with the wonderful Dennis Hopper as Ben Cendars, Ross McCall as Kenny Battaglia, and Jocko Sims as Anthony.

We’ll start with Eric Roberts, who plays Seth Blanchard. Seth Blanchard is a billionaire. That means he has lots of money. He has $28 billion, which probably put him as the third- or fourth-richest man in the country. Seth believes he’s going to bring a football team to Los Angeles. Los Angeles has not been with a professional football team for many years. It’s about time we had one, but Seth is going to discover that football is not his destiny, and he will be bringing something else to Los Angeles. He is going to be thinking outside the box, you know, and usually when we use that cliche, we think outside the box means a new thought. So we can situate ourselves back in the box, but in a somewhat better position. But Seth is going to be thinking outside the box to take us all outside the box and to keep us there.

Then we have Linda Park playing Maggie Blanchard, Seth’s wife. And Maggie is married to a billionaire. It sounds good but we know better. She’s a talent in her own right with her children’s books, but Maggie has a couple of secrets of her own, and she’s going to be dragged by her husband out of their comfort zone and into a new world that they’re going to have to deal with. It’s exciting; it’s different, but not the easiest place to live when you live in a mansion that’s probably worth $30 million.

We also have Bo Olinville, who is played by Jake McLaughlin, who is sitting in the car at the opening montage watching the ball players and Bo is a young man in his 20s, who had a great, great career ahead of him. He was a talented high school pitcher, who blew out his arm way too young during a tryout with the Dodgers and now works in Hobbywood, the hobby shop run by his mother. So Bo’s horizons are quite limited, and like everyone who thinks they live in paradise, he’s going to try to make something of himself in a way that’s going to lead him into some very, very dark places, and eventually he will have a crash with the rest of our cast in a very surprising way.

Then we have Dana Ashbrook, who plays Jimmy, and Jimmy we will all recognize. We’ve all met Jimmys. Jimmy comes to Los Angeles - of course, Los Angeles is the place to come to reinvent yourself. Los Angeles is the city of dreams. It’s the city of tomorrow. So Jimmy is in Los Angeles to become something else. Unfortunately, he doesn’t quite have the skills to become that thing that he wants. So instead he’s the guy who’s always looking for the scam. He’s the guy who’s looking to con you. He’s the guy looking to make the quick buck, and he’s living with Inez played by Moran Atias, who was with us last season.

So these are the people that we have this year on “Crash.” Like I said, they’re here in a city that promises a lot. It doesn’t always deliver, delivers in ways that are surprising, in ways that change them and, in this season, gives them an opportunity to change us all.

Thank you.

Yeah, I know: you're thinking, "This is great stuff! How could it have dragged as badly as you say it did?" All I can tell you is what I experienced. But, again, I'm still in for the second season of "Crash," so no harm, no foul, Mr. Behr.