She was, in a word, lovely. Funny, warm, utterly charming and altogether genuine in her willingness to listen to an unabashed fan do pale imitations of her dead-on impersonations of famous names and everyday folks.

There's nothing quite as nice as meeting someone you've long admired and having that person exceed your expectations for how cool you hoped he or she would be off screen. That, in a nutshell, describes my breakfast with Tracey Ullman a few weeks ago at the Polo Lounge. Even the weather cooperated and allowed us to sit outside on the patio while chatting about her Showtime series "Tracey Ullman's State of the Union," why she took the Lee Greenwood oath and how she happened to grow into her particular comedy niche.

"Suddenly I thought after the last (presidential) election I'd really like to vote," Ullman said of her decision to become a U.S. citizen in December 2006 (she's a dual citizen of the U.S. and Britain). "You just know, somehow. A moment comes when you want to take that next step of becoming an America. So I started studying up."

She did very well on the exam, thank you, and the civics-lesson CD she was handed in preparation for her quiz gave her plenty of material to riff on for a show on her adopted homeland. (And she now does a great heartfelt rendition of Lee Greenwood's ballad "God Bless the U.S.A.")  She's wrapped it all up in a mockumentary format spoofing the earnest PBS-style "Day in the Life of America" docus, with a dash of the vintage British radio program "Down Your Way" for good measure.

"I found the (citizenship) induction ceremony just amazing. There were 5,000 people downtown, and everyone's waving their flags, and they play that Lee Greenwood song to a film...that shows you wheat fields, monster trucks, the moon landing" and of course a big picture of a smiling President Bush, Ullman chuckles. 

"I think it's given me a new voice. It's got me fired up more of what I want to say... I've got more confidence that now they won't take away my green card away if I say things like that," she says.

Kudos to David Chase, who's getting the Paddy Chayefsky treatment from the Writers Guild of America West.

"The Sopranos" boss will be feted with the Chayefsky laurel for television, recognizing his contributions over a long career, at the WGA West's honors luncheon on April 23.

Chase's "Sopranos" achievement speaks for itself. But let's not forget his early years on the Universal lot. Far as I'm concerned, "The Rockford Files," on which Chase was a key contributor, is in the top 10 of all-time great TV shows (C'mon -- pound for pound, is there a cooler private eye on TV than Jim Rockford?).

"Kolchak: The Night Stalker" also ranks high on the TV fun-meter. It's too bad "Kolchak" star Darren McGavin was in poor health during the "Sopranos" years -- he undoubtedly would've made a great guest shot or two on the HBO drama.

Meanwhile, the Writers Guild Foundation is hosting an "Evening with" Q&A with Chase on April 22 at the Writers Guild Theater in BevHills. Foundation will host a Q&A with Budd "What Makes Sammy Run" Schulberg (pictured right) on April 24, also at the WGA Theater, that will include a screening of Schulberg's "On the Waterfront."

POSTED BY STUART LEVINE

Last night's Paley Festival panel for "Damages" wasn't a raucous affair, ala a night with Judd Apatow, but it offered a nice introspection on what makes FX's legal drama so compelling.

Truly, there have been few lawyers on TV like Patty Hewes, so adeptly and connivingly played by five-time Oscar nominee Glenn Close. Glenn was quicky to defend Hewes, who tried to have her own associated killed at the end of last season, saying she isn't a horrible person, just one who does whatever it takes to get the job done for her clients.

Glenn made her mark with such stellar turns in "Fatal Attraction" and "The World According to Garp" in the 80s, but for me, she's really all about TV now, having been such a force in "The Shield" a few years back. Obviously, the experience of "The Shield" convinced her that TV is a place get those creative juices flowing... that, and the fact that the pace of TV is much quicker than movies, which involves a lot of sitting around doing nothing.

The pace is so intense, as exec producers Daniel Kelman, Todd Kessler and Glenn A. Kessler explained last night, that they were editing last season's final episode up until the night before it aired.

Ted Danson said "Damages" has been a treat for him, as he's felt he's done the three-camera sitcom to death -- his last foray in that genre, "Help Me Help You," lasted 10 episodes in 2006 -- and a quality drama offered him a change that any actor would gravitate toward. As for whether he'll be back in season two after his character was shot, Danson said he's clueless and that his agent isn't even sure at this point.

Kelman and the Kessler brothers will start writing season two in a few weeks, determining where the story goes from here. As discussed Monday, they're unsure as to whether the next upcoming 13 episodes will be one long case -- the comparisons between "Damages" and ABC's stellar Steven Bochco series "Murder One" were talked about -- and which characters will come and go.

After the show sat on the fence for a while, FX president John Landgraf showed a bunch of faith in his cast and creators by renewing "Damages" not only for a second season but a third one as well, giving the writers a lot of latitude when coming up with story threads and character development.

Based on the Close's Golden Globe win, nominations for Danson, Rose Byrne and the show itself, it seems like a wise investment.

(Photos by Kevin Parry/The Paley Center for Media)

Bonnie Hammer's footprint at NBC Universal continues to grow.

News that caught many in town by surprise out of the Peacock today is that in order to keep Hammer in the fold for a new multi-year pact, NBC Universal has given her oversight of scripted cable production -- cutting Universal Media Studios in half, basically -- and as well as oversight of a bunch of its fledgling networks like Sleuth, Chiller and Universal HD. She exchanges the mouthful of a title of prexy USA Network/Sci Fi Channel for the slightly streamlined prexy, Cable Entertainment and Cable Studio, as reported by Variety's Michael Schneider (news first broke on the L.A. Times' website).

Rewarding Hammer with more turf comes as no surprise; her USA Network and Sci Fi Channel are among the brightest jewel's in NBC U's crown. She's highly regarded by NBC U topper Jeff Zucker. We know she's been on short lists to conquer other fields within the conglom. What is a little surprising is that her gain this time around would come partly at the expense of NBC Entertainment/Universal Media Studios co-chairmen Marc Graboff and Ben Silverman and Universal Media Studios prexy Katherine Pope. Not that those three don't have their hands full with the ongoing rehab of NBC proper (two words: "Bionic Woman"), but as we all know, execs tend to get fussy about losing turf.

Another immediate question is if Hammer's bump could have a ripple-effect within USA Network. In January, Sci Fi channel marketing guru Dave Howe was boosted from exec vp and general manager to prexy of Sci Fi Channel. There's already insta-speculation that a similar promotion could be in the works for one of Hammer's hard-working lieutenants at USA.

(Pictured above: Bonnie Hammer in December at the L.A. premiere of Sci Fi miniseries "Tin Man," with a new-model Toto.)

(Just a few quick observations for now... I'm on vacation this week, but as Mr. Friendly reminded us, you're never free from the clutches of The Island.)

OK, so I know he betrayed Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Hurley. I know he shot Ana-Lucia and Libby in cold blood. He acquiesced to the Others and buddied up to Ben. I know all this, and still I have to admit, I was really happy to see Michael again in "Meet Kevin Johnson," penned by Elizabeth Sarnoff and Brian K. Vaughan and helmed by Stephen Williams.

To my mind, Michael's one of the most interesting of the Oceanic 815-ers: flawed, tortured, hard to read, volatile, fighting his innate talents, his own worst enemy, at times, and at others, a totally stand-up guy. And he is the spawn-er of Walt, who we all know has some truly pivotal role in all of this island fever. Harold Perrineau plays it just right most of the time -- no hysterics or scenery-chewing, just a man trying to do the right thing, most of the time. (I still wonder about Walt's mom, if she may come back into Our Story at some point.) So, hey man, welcome back. Can't wait to catch up more on April 24 and thereafter when "Lost" returns with its post-strike produced segs.

Few other quick thoughts on our eighth installment:

**Mr. Friendly lives? Of course, Michael didn't know that he was shot by Sawyer at the end of season three....hmmm. And he's a swinger too! Who knew?...His reference to Michael being on "shore leave" made me laugh, don't ask me why. (One reader suggests that Mr. Friendly does not live and Michael's flashback is prior to his getting shot in the season three finale.)

**Ben -- don't trust him one bit, not even with that "When I'm at war I'll do what I need to do to win...but I don't kill innocent people." How much B.S. is that? He's evil, evil, evil and I don't buy anything he sez. I don't even think he's all that devoted to Alex anymore either. I think she was set up completely by her purported father to be used as a pawn by the Freighter Folk in his survival bid.

**Rousseau -- It was so nice to see her cleaned up a bit, and not quite so wild in the eyes. Oh well. Alex's boyfriend Karl, however, might as well have been wearing a red shirt throughout his run on this show. You just knew he was in for it, one of these segs. Then again, if Mr. Friendly is any guide, we may or may not have seen the last of Rousseau and Karl.

**Frank Lapidus, the helicopter pilot character played by Jeff Fahey, is getting more and more intriguing. He obviously provided some very interesting tidbits about the faked Oceanic 815 wreckage in the ocean...of course there's no guarantees that they're true (even if Lapidus believes it).

** Oh the irony. Sayid is disgusted to learn that Michael is working for "Benjamin Linus".... As we know, he shouldn't be so quick to judge.

**Mamas and the Papas/Cass Elliot -- By my count this is the second Mamas and the Papas tune used in "Lost." When we first met Desmond at the start of season two, he was spinning "Make Your Own Kind of Music" (a song so infectious it's bound to stick in your head for a week or so every time you hear it...and as a reader points out, it's not the Mamas and the Papas but a Cass Elliot solo tune) and then in this seg "It's Getting Better" is on the radio as Michael's trying to off himself by slamming his car into a big trash bin. Cass Elliot's pipes are recognizable on the first note, and her soaring vocals add class to any scene.

Before we parse tonight's episode, let's take a moment to salute one of "Lost's" under-appreciated heroes: Jin.

Say what you will about his past, he's been rock-solid hunk of good guy since we first met him on Sept. 22, 2004. Yes, he was involved in a lot of unsavory business back in Seoul while working for his ruthless father-in-law. But he's grown and changed in many ways since the crash. And you get the sense that his still had an inner moral compass -- certainly we've learned through the flashbacks that Jin's job was getting to him, big-time, just before the crash.

Jin is a man of many skills (didn't he snap that really mean Other's neck with just his feet while tied up in the season three finale? As many readers have pointed out, that was Sayid, sorry...), and he's endowed with patience and generosity. His skill as a fisherman helped keep the survivors alive in the early days. He's quick to volunteer for the toughest duties (he was on ill-fated raft launched at the end of season one), and he's loyal to a fault. Back in season two, when Michael first split off from the group (led by Ana Lucia at the time) in his mania to search for his son Walt, who was it that insisted on going after him? Jin.

More than anything else, Jin loves and cherishes his wife, Sun. They've had their marital ups and downs, of course, before and during their stay on the island. But nobody, least of all Sun, has a shred of doubt that he loves her truly, madly and deeply, and that she feels the same about this extraordinary fisherman's son (even if she was intending to leave him if the plane had made it to LAX). "Lost" fans know this like they know the flight number of the plane; the credit for that goes to the writers for fantastic character development over the years, and of course to actors Daniel Dae Kim and Yunjin Kim. I bought them as husband and wife from the beginning. When they fight, you can feel the tension.

Lewis Black outta be in good spirits, for a change. His new Comedy Central skein "Lewis Black's Root of All Evil" did well in its Wednesday debut behind the 12th season opener of "South Park."

"Evil" banked 2.3 million viewers, coming out of 3.1 million for "South Park." Comedy Central sez it was its highest-rated series debut since the dawn of "Chappelle's Show" in 2003. Most important, by Comedy Central's yardstick, is that it scored with young men, finishing third for the night among all shows, in men 18-24 and men 18-34, behind "South Park" and (well behind) Fox's "American Idol."

"Evil" has a faux courtshow/gameshow format in which comics debate the evil-quotient of people or various social ills, phenoms and issues. Black delivers a monologue introducing the topic, other comics make the case for and against, and then Black renders his "final verdict." (Pictured above, Black and Patton Oswalt)

Here's a glimpse of Black expounding, in a most politically incorrect way, on what is more pernicious, Oprah Winfrey or the Catholic Church.

It's only fitting that it's been a busy news week -- Eliot Spitzer, Microsoft-Yahoo, Federal Reserve bailouts, Clinton-vs.-Obama, AOL-Bebo, Electronic Arts-Take-Two, and so on -- as the longest-running news broadcast in history marks its 70th birthday today.

CBS News Radio's "World News Roundup" bowed on March 13, 1938, marking the first time correspondents in various cities around the globe were brought together for a regularly skedded live broadcast. And the program's preem also marked the CBS debut of a newsman we've heard a lot about since, Edward R. Murrow.

Murrow was stationed in Vienna, CBS News pioneer Robert Trout held down the homefront in Gotham, another legendary Eye newsman, William L. Shirer was based in London and there were other correspondents weighing in from Paris, Rome and Berlin. Given the era, at the time the big story was the simmering tensions in Europe that would soon explode into World War II. (Click here for a link to hear the first "World News Roundup" broadcast and its 50th anniversary special. And click here for a link to the program's contempo podcast.)

Reflecting on those early days in a 1958 CBS broadcast, Murrow noted that those early "World News" broadcasts were as up to the minute as you could get, and mostly live without a net. (Today, CBS Radio reporters can report live from pretty much anywhere in the world using a palm-sized bit of wireless equipment.)

"In those days before and during most of the war, we were not permitted to use recordings. Everything was live and moved directly from the reporter's microphone into your home," Murrow observed. "One of the advantages in reporting through a medium as fast as radio is that you don't have the time or the inclination to look back."

Hmmm, sound familiar?

(Pictured above: Murrow at the mic, circa 1954. Pictured right, Robert Trout and Douglas Edwards at the "World News Roundup" 50th anniversary party.)

Series finales are a cruel assignment for anyone who has slaved over a show for years until its bell tolls. It's especially daunting for a rarity like "The Wire," a show that has burrowed deep into the psyches of its ardent, often evangelistic fans. 

The characters have been so finely drawn and fully fleshed out over the previous 59 episodes. How can one final hour (or even an hour and a half) do them justice for all eternity?

For David Simon, the mandate for episode 60, "30," was the same as every other "Wire" episode. Tell the story as truthfully as possible for the characters and their situations, and don't pull punches, even when you want to. That's why Dukie wound up shooting up in one of the final scenes. That's why Alma and Gus got demoted at the Sun for complaining, and Templeton got his Pulitzer. That's why Carcetti made it to the governor's mansion on little more than a trumped up serial killer case. That's why lawyer Levy managed to turn his own bust into a win for Stanfield that only enhanced his reputation as the reigning legal eagle for Baltimore's drug kingpins.

And that's why the seg -- written by David Simon and Ed Burns and helmed by Clark Johnson (who was such an electrifying addition to the cast this year as bloodied-but-not-bowed city editor Gus Haynes) -- opens with Mayor Carcetti flailing around in his office trying to wrap his head around the magnitude of what has gone wrong in the police department while Carcetti's media whiz, ex-Baltimore Sun staffer Norman Wilson, can't stop laughing. He may be in PR now, but Wilson's hasn't lost his reporter's calculus.

"They manufactured an issue to get paid. We manufactured an issue to get you to be the next governor. Everybody's getting what they need behind some make-believe," Wilson sez of the faux homeless serial killer case. "I wish I was still at the newspaper so I could write on this mess. It's too fucking good."

POSTED BY STUART LEVINE

And so it ends, and the finality of it saddens me deeply.

Not only did the fifth season of "The Wire" conclude Sunday night, but now the series is over too. Mort. Done. Finito. After 60 brilliantly written and acted episodes, I find myself with an incredibly empty feeling, not knowing if anything so good will come our way on television ever again.

I've now watched the 95-minute episode "30" (meaning end of story in journalistic circles) twice, trying to absorb everything creator David Simon and episode co-writer Ed Burns and director Clark Johnson wanted to say about Simon's Baltimore -- its cops, politicians, drug pushers, lawyers and everyone else who makes the city an ever-changing and, quite depressing, living organism.

The finale lived up to all expectations, certainly one of the best closing episodes of any show ever. Loose ends were wrapped -- at least most of them anyway -- and McNulty and Lester took the fall for their ill-fated serial killer chicanery. Not with jail time, but an end to their lives as cops. And they should consider themselves lucky that's all they got.

So many great scenes here and countless memorable lines that keep running around in my head. Lets get to them, while wondering if the city is going to have enough money to pay for the TV that Carcetti broke in his office:

(Note: Photos attached here don't necessarily have anything to do with the final episode, or even this season, but are just some pieces of art that pay tribute to the actors on "The Wire.")

David Simon always seems to have a lot on his mind. For the past six years, he's given voice to his thoughts, commentaries and general reportage on life in urban American through his imposing HBO drama series "The Wire."

That sweeping saga of hustle and bustle on Baltimore's drug corners, in its police department and school system, in the corridors of City Hall and its court system comes to an end Sunday with episode No. 60, "30."

As you might expect, Simon had plenty to say about the process of wrapping up a show that is near and dear to him, the issues it has tackled over its five seasons and what he hoped "Wire's" legacy would -- and would not -- be in the long run.

Simon was generous with his time in a telephone interview late last month, in between looping sessions on "Generation Kill," his upcoming HBO miniseries about Marines in Iraq. (Beyond "Kill," Simon's also working with "Wire" and "Homicide" alum Eric Overmyer on an HBO pilot script set among musicians in post-Katrina New Orleans, and he's got a deal with his "Wire" collaborator William Zorzi to write a non-fiction book about the rise of the drug culture in 1950s and '60s Baltimore.)

According to Simon, the best way to understand "The Wire" is to think Greek -- not the nefarious Greek characters who dominate the illicit trade in Baltimore's ports, but the storytelling tradition of the ancient Greek tragedies, where the heroes and anti-heroes always face a dramatic downfall, usually as a result of their own hubris.

Leaning on that structure gave them a road map to plot the fates of the show's primary characters, particularly the savvy police detectives Jimmy McNulty, Lester Freamon, Bunk Moreland and Kima Greggs; dealers, dopers and street soldiers Omar Little, Bubbles, Proposition Joe, Marlo Stanfield and Avon Barksdale.

"We knew what was going to happen over the course of the five-year run," Simon sez (though it was not always clear it would be a five-year run, he's quick to add. It took some work to secure seasons four and five).

"We were always adjusting where characters were going to end up, what parts of Baltimore we were going to depict when, what we wanted to say with the overall  theme of the show. It was a Greek tragedy done in a modernist urban way, with the city as the main character," Simon says.

Where to begin?

This episode was packed with plot development -- fabulously concrete, tangible, easily understood plot development, which is the rarest kind on "Lost."

First, the big picture. It's a genius move to go back to flashbacks on one of the principle characters that we know the least. Filling in more Juliet's story, and by association, Ben's, was very, very satisfying, especially coming on the heels of the last few segs that were way more question-raising than answer-providing.

Most intriguing thing to me about our sixth installment -- "The Other Woman," penned by Drew Goddard and Christina M. Kim and helmed by Eric Lanueville (he's come a long way from swabbing the halls on "St. Elsewhere") -- is how much it provided firm evidence of Juliet's complicity in the Others' dastardly deeds. We've grown to know her only in her heroic resistence-fighter mode, but in reality, she's got some 'splaining to do.

Sure, Juliet was duped into joining a super-elite research org, etc., but the progession of the flashbacks in this seg makes clear she knew a lot, if not everything, that Ben was up to in New Otherton: the dossiers on the survivors; snatching the tail-section survivors, including the kids (remember Zach and Emma?); heck, she even fingered Jack for Ben as being an accomplished spinal surgeon.

When Ben starts dispatching his lieutenants as Oceanic 815 disintegrates over their heads, it's clear that the focus is not on helping survivors, but somehow exploiting them. (How many times have we seen that scene? Yet each time there's a slightly different perspective on the reaction in New Otherton, which makes for a creatively satisfying way for ABC to amortize a costly fx shot.)

At the same time, the flashbacks humanize Juliet even more by filling in her back story of having an affair Goodwin and being the object of Ben's obsessive, possessive desire.

POSTED BY STUART LEVINE

David Simon found himself Monday afternoon bunkered down in the bowels of the law school building on the USC campus, discussing the demise of journalism as it relates to the fifth -- and sadly, final -- season of "The Wire."

It's a topic Simon can pontificate about for hours, and he did so for about two of them here. At the beginning of the chat, he polled the room to see how many journalism majors were in attendance. Two people out of about 100 raised their hands. If the future of journalism can be gauged by the attendance at USC, the ranks of the next generation of ink-stained wretches will be awfully thin.

To summarize Simon's thoughts on the fall of newspapers and how "The Wire" weaves that depressing topic into politics, crime, corruption and, basically, the decay of civilization, he addressed it this way: "Everyday human beings matter less. The game is rigged. The house odds are against you."

It's always intriguing to see how the Live-plus-7 ratings stack up against premiere telecast numbers, or more accurately, the Live-plus-same-day viewing stats. It's the quantifiable evidence that DVRs are changing the world, one show at a time.

CBS has brought to our attention that "Jericho's" preem numbers weren't quite as modest as they seemed from the overnights. Per CBS: "'Jericho's' second season premiere (Feb. 12) ratings increased by +15% in adults 18-49 (3.0/07 from 2.6/07), +17% in adults 25-54 (3.5/08 from 3.0/07) and by more than one million viewers (8.14m from 7.13m, +14%) compared to its live plus same day ratings."

Also, CBS was quick to note the high volume of viewers who trekked to CBS.com and other sources to watch the premiere via web streaming. The Eye sez the "Jericho" opener was streamed 520,000 times during the week after the broadcast preem (Feb. 12-18) and another 180,000 times during the following week (Feb. 18-25).

For those who still remember the details of the WGA strike fight, all of that streaming did fall within the 17-day "promotional window," meaning that the scribes of that seg won't make a cent. Then again, if the stream scene helps keep the show on the air...Moreover, CBS also reports that "Jericho" generated some 760,000 streams of segs from its first season during the week of its second season preem. And being more than a year past the original telecast date, those Web-enabled repeats pay out to scribes at 2% of distributor's gross from the get-go, with no promo window getting in the way.

Meanwhile, media buying agency Magna Global has issued a detailed report on TV viewing during the strike. The general conclusion is that viewing levels remained pretty constant during the November-December period of the strike and didn't start to take a dive until the drought of original segs of scripted series really hit in January. Interestingly, the Magna study shows that there was less delayed viewing via DVRs during the run of the strike, indicating that viewers weren't as interested in keeping up with the replacement reality shows and repeats as they otherwise would be with fresh segs of their scripted faves. The Magna study also notes that retention of audience during the commercial breaks -- a very important measure now with the commercial ratings now determining ad rates -- is far lower with most unscripted skeins than it is with comedies and dramas.

So writes Magna analyst Brian Hughes:

"The primary reason for this (dip in delayed DVR viewing) is that the networks are not gaining as much now from DVR playback as they were in 4th quarter due to an influx of repeats and reality shows. This is clear from the narrowing of the gap between live and live+7 program ratings since January, but the effects can also be seen within average commercial minute ratings...Original reality series, which have been rolled out in force to fill schedule gaps, have a (commercial ratings) index of 97 (5-6 percentage points below scripted original series). This does not include "American Idol," "Survivor," or "Dancing With the Stars," which are the three strongest reality shows, and will always skew the average."

There's welcome news in the CBS press bundle today -- a fresh logline for "The Big Bang Theory."

Frosh sitcom that showed so much promise, creatively and ratings-wise, prior to the strike interruption, returns March 17 with a seg dubbed "The Cooper-Hofstadter Polarization." Story's by co-creator Bill Prady and Stephen Engel, with the teleplay from the capable hands of co-creator Chuck Lorre, Lee Aronsohn and Dave Goetsch.

"When Sheldon and Leonard are invited to present their joint findings at a physics conference, Sheldon refuses, and Penny steps in to mediate … only deepening the rift between the two best friends."

Sounds like fun. The guest cast list for this seg indicates that our nerdy heroes Sheldon and Leonard may meet their Asian doppelgangers (if not in looks then in spirit, perhaps). Thesp Talbott Chin is on board to play "Chinese Leonard"; Howard Chan will play "Chinese Sheldon."

(Unfortunately, there's no fresh art yet for the show on CBS' press site, so here's a pic featuring "Big Bang's" fab four from an earlier seg. Left to right: Simon Helberg, Jim Parsons, Kunal Nayyar and Johnny Galecki. )

The strike may be over, but the Writers Guild of America fundraisers to fill the coffers of its industry strike fund continues.

The next event, hosted by Writers Theatre LA, is set for Saturday at the Lyric Theater (520 N. La Brea Ave.) and will feature perfs of five one-act plays. The last one in the rotation is  WGA board member Howard Rodman's take on "How the Writers Strike Ended," which is billed as "a savage (and savagely funny) look inside the moguls' executive dining room, where food is made, decisions are eaten." (Rodman pictured left)

There are more perfs and readings set for Sunday March 9, and on March 31 there'll be a perf of Jennifer Maisel's "The Last Seder," about how a Passover dinner allows a family's to heal its past and move on. Play recently earned a grant from the Kennedy Center's Fund for New American Plays and was commissioned by the Foundation for Jewish Culture...

Meanwhile, the Writers Guild Foundation is reviving its "Anatomy of a Script" seminar series examining film and TV scripts, starting March 11 for six consecutive Tuesdays at the WGA's HQ on Third Street.
Seminars, moderated by scribes Winnie Holzman and Robin Schiff, begin with a dissection of "Traffic" with Stephen Gaghan; followed by "Lars and the Real Girl" with Nancy Oliver; "Friday Night Lights" with Jason Katims (pictured right); "Ghost" with Bruce Joel Rubin; "The Bernie Mac Show" with Larry Wilmore; and "Grey's Anatomy" with Shonda Rhimes....

And finally, what does ABC's "America's Funniest Home Videos" have in common with "Gunsmoke," "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet," "Law & Order," "Bonanza," "Lassie," "Death Valley Days" and "The Simpsons"? Four-hundred episodes, that's what (at least half of them included the clip of the cat flushing a toilet). "AFHV" was YouTube when YouTube wasn't cool (or invented yet), and "AFHV" czar Vin Di Bona (pictured far left with "AFHV" host Tom Bergeron) has been there for all of them. Di Bona banked seg No. 400 last week; it's set to air April 20.

STUART LEVINE ADDS HIS COMMENTS BELOW

I can't recall hearing a single note of Neil Young in an episode of "The Wire" over the past five seasons, but after watching the penultimate installment of this epic urban drama, Young's haunting ballad "Comes a Time" came to mind.

Time is a big theme of this episode, and time obviously is running out on everyone in "The Wire" diaspora. About a third of the way into "Late Editions" -- penned by George Pelecanos and David Simon and helmed by Joe Chapelle --  New Centurians of the Baltimore's corners are on their knees with cuffs on and cell phones surrendered, kingpin Marlo Stanfield included.

The cops and Mayor Carcetti are having a field day with the big bust that draws news coverage, but our anti-hero Jimmy McNulty isn't partying -- even after going so far out on a tightrope to bring about the Stanfield bust. He knows the hellfire is coming, it's just a matter of time. Doesn't help that his boss calls him a "genital wart" for his lack of progress on the homeless serial killer case.

McNulty's main partner in crime, Lester Freamon, is too high on the rush of victory to let reality sink in just yet. He's bagged his prey, and now they're gonna pay. The wordless exchange of hard (granite-hard) looks between Freamon and Stanfield at the arrest site throws off enough sparks to start a brushfire, a credit to the acting skills of Clarke Peters (Freamon) and Jamie Hector (Stanfield).