TCA: "John from Cincinnati" moment at HBO party

Garson couldn't have been sweeter or more effusive in his thanks for putting my "John" ruminations in print (so to speak), and while my face was stretching well beyond its normal capacity to smile, I turn to the other side of me and lo and behold -- it's Brian Van Holt. Butchie! In a black sport jacket! Great googily moogily, now I'm in "John" heaven, surely levitating with excitement as the kind words flow, not in a posterior-kissing way but in the most gratifying sense of letting me know that they really and truly did read my column.

I would've been furiously pinching myself but I was too busy fawning over Van Holt's work. He's the one who was so good in his character's skin that he led me past my initial resistance to the show's baffling esoterica. I told him so, about 20 times. He was kind and aw shucks about it (and so straight-looking, which only reinforced how good he is in the role of the wildly messed-up Butchie) and he told me his story of how he declared to his agent that he was done with doing bad TV series and why oh why couldn't he find a show as good as "Deadwood."

As if this anecdotia wasn't enough, Van Holt (pictured far right with Greyson Fletcher at "John" premiere party in May) then introduced me to another man standing in the charmed circle who I should've guessed was Kem Nunn, novelist and co-creator of "John" with David "Deadwood" Milch. Nunn had that legendary-novelist mien that's cool-ness incarnate, especially to those of us who have to crank it out the prose on cue and on deadline. I spent another few minutes of raving to the soft-spoken Nunn about how strangely wondrous "John" is and how how it captures the tao of surf culture just right. (I bragged shamelessly about my father being a native Redondo-Hermosa beach boy who eschews boards for body surfing, even at 74.) After while I had to meander on or I would've seen god for sure, and "John" fans know what a double-edged sword that can be.

There was plenty of interesting scenery for the rest of the evening, as there always is at HBO parties, plus fantastic food and an array of chocolates, cakes, pies, cookies, cheesecake lollipops (I couldn't make this stuff up), fudge and other sweets that many TCA-goers will still be working off come November sweeps.

Adrien Grenier had a hive of people surrounding him, as always, and Kevin Dillon was perfectly in character too. Larry David and Cheryl Hines held court with plenty of admirers. Cast members from "Big Love" and "Flight of the Conchords" were all over the place. I made a point of tipping my reporter's notebook to Alan Sepinwall of the Newark Star-Ledger for the fine work he did leading up to and after the "Sopranos" finale (including getting the only post-finale interview so far with David Chase).

During the rest of my rounds around the patio and pool, which had a ring of fire blazing in the middle of it for natural law-defying effect, I saw plenty of other "John" thesps; Ed O'Neill had his eye on Austin Nichols (whose hair was not quite as buoyant as his John from Cincy character); Garret Dillahunt set aside his metaphysical worries to enjoy the feast at a table with HBO execs. Luke Perry was diligently trying to explain the show to the reporters that flocked to him. Greyson Fletcher looked super-Joe-cool in a Pendleton T-shirt and hat pulled down around his ears. Keala Kennelly looked like she was enjoying the newness of her first TCA experience. But I kept missing the one other "John" player who I most wanted to fawn over. Rebecca De Mornay absolutely makes the show with her untamed outbursts of matriarchal frustration (if you were the den mother of the Yosts you'd curse too.)

Van Holt even tried to help me find her as I was winding down the meandering and heading for the goodie bag table. She just left, we were told...Oh well. I asked Van Holt if I should brace myself for what the season (series?) finale of "John" may bring. He grinned and told me that episode eight is mighty powerful, but the final seg, No. 10, is on another plane entirely.

"Our story starts in episode 10," he said. "You'll see."