May 12 update: Finally found the time to watch "Recount." It's great, absolutely a ton of fun, even if it is very said to relive the election heist of '00. There's great work all around by the cast but the standout perfs come from Tom Wilkinson and Laura Dern, IMHO.

Can't wait to see "Recount," HBO's telepic about those 36 days in November and December 2000 when the decision on who would be the next president of the United States hinged on a few hanging chads.

The screener landed on my desk today and it just looks like it's going to be a lot of fun, even if living through that experience as a voter was anything but. Remember all the dueling press conferences where each side tried to shove as many American flags into the shot as possible? The posturing was laughable. But I submit that Gore's final-final concession speech after the Supremes weighed in was one of the classiest moments we've seen in politics in many years. (And Mr. Nobel Prize Winner has done all right for himself lately.)

Jay Roach is at the helm of this pic, and I'm hopeful that his comedic touch will enliven the pace and the characterizations of these, lawyers, policy wonks and political animals. The cast is first-rate, from Kevin Spacey as Al Gore's chief of staff Ron Klain, to Laura Dern of Katherine "pancake makeup" Harris to Ed Begley Jr. as legal eagle David Boies arguing for the Gore side. Denis Leary will surely bring all of his wiry intensity to the role of another key Gore operative, Michael Whouley. Bob Balaban, who's always good no matter what, plays a lawyer for the Bush-Cheney camp, Ben Ginsburg.

Both sides trotted out their elder statesmen for the fight: Tom Wilkinson plays James Baker III; John Hurt takes on Warren Christopher.

Sure, we know how it ends ("Mission accomplished!") but it ought to be interesting, in this intensely political election year, to revisit the bare-knuckle (brass knuckles?) campaigning that helped get us to the place we are today.

We were told they were coming, but it still didn't prepare the Variety newsroom for the sight of 26 cases of unsalted peanuts showing up at our door on Tuesday afternoon.

"Jericho" fans are nothing if not determined. The loyalists who helped save the show from annihilation after its first season with a well-orchestrated campaign last year have regrouped to find more creative -- and not inexpensive -- ways to bring attention to their cause. (Last year, "Jericho" fans sent nuts by the truckload to CBS execs.)

The nut-cases delivered to Variety all featured a sticker that read "Save Jericho! "Nuts to Nielsen!!!" highlighting the shortcomings in the ratings service's ability to track viewing on more than just the old-fashioned live telecast.

"Jericho" stalwarts are convinced that if CBS could get its arms around the number of people who are watching the show via DVRs, web streaming and paid downloads, it might be enough to have convinced the Eye to hang tough rather than nuke the show for a second time as it did last month. The industry's inability to get a clear understanding of the new world of on-demand viewing habits is a big problem, bigger than even a nuclear bomb going off in the middle of the lone prairie.

"Jericho" fans have also shelled out in the past few days for full-page ads in Variety and the Hollywood Reporter designed to convince another net or cabler to give the show a chance. Pretty bold, given that CBS Paramount Network TV could probably bring the law down on them for shopping something that isn't exactly theirs to shop. Ad even goes so far as to point interested buyers to CBS Par Entertainment boss Nancy Tellem. CBS, meanwhile, has migrated the show to the "CBS Classics" page of its website and is offering web streaming of all 29 episodes from both seasons.

The "Jericho" fandom may be an irritant to CBS Par execs, but at a time when even TV's top shows are taking double-digit ratings hits, it's heartening to see that TV, even canceled TV, can still stir up such passion in viewers who adopt shows as their own.

So thanks to all the "Jericho" lovers out there, and thanks also for the protein boost that many of us at Variety will enjoy during the next few weeks (months?) as we work our way through the peanuts. About an hour after the delivery arrived, the newsroom was a-poppin' with the sound of peanut shells being opened.

Whaddya know, Warner Bros. has decided to revive the WB, at least as a brand for one of the many "destination" websites that the studio is investing in as it tries to figure out where in the world this business and its next-gen consumers are headed next. Variety's Diane Garrett has the details right here. (So far, TheWB.com is still in beta.)

My advice -- not that anyone asked -- to put this over is: Bring back the frog! Plaster Michigan J., the WB's much-missed spokesphibian for most of its 11-year run, all over that new site. It'll push all the right buttons in the youths who have grown old enough to vote or drink in the 19 months since the WB signed off on Sept. 17, 2006.

Here's that heart-tugging "Faces of the WB" promo spot that marked the Frog's final bow.

TV's Craig Ferguson charmed the tough crowd at the White House Correspondents Dinner in D.C. on Saturday.

Ferguson's barbs at the New York Times for sitting out the dinner this year ("Shut the hell up, you sanctimonious whining jerks!") were gleefully reported by other media, but the "Late Late Show" host's remarks at the dinner were also full of the lower-key observations and word play that we've come to appreciate from this ex-pat Scot who clearly, unabashedly, wholeheartedly loves his adopted home.

Before he made the move from the Old Country, Ferguson noted, plenty of people suggested that he might like Canada, with its pockets of Scottish communities, a little better. Nothin' doing, he said.

"To me, Canada is not the party. It's the apartment above the party," Ferguson said.

When you're up watching TV at 12:45 in the morning, lines like that help you sleep a little better.

Here's some highlights, courtesy of CSPAN and YouTube. (Forgive me, Brian Lamb.)

"Surreal" is the only word that Santiago Tapia can summon to describe his experience during the past  year since a friend sent him an article about a website called Filmaka.com.

Tapia (pictured left) was intrigued by the site's premise of challenging aspiring auteurs to create short films based on  concepts and loglines suggested by the site. The finalists from a series of monthly competitions vie for the chance to have Filmaka fund the production of feature-length pic budgeted at up to $5 million.

What set Filmaka apart from similar web short film ventures, in Tapia's eyes, was the company it keeps. Backing the venture was Deepak Nayar, producer of noted indies "Bend it Like Beckham" and "Buena Vista Social  Club," and the list of boldface names he'd assembled to judge the monthly submissions: Colin Firth, Werner Herzog, Neil LaBute, John Madden, Zak Penn, Paul Schrader, Bill Pullman and Wim Wenders.

Tapia moved through the monthly rounds of competition and is now among the finalists waiting to find out Monday (This just in: Winner is 21-year-old Nuru Rimington-Mkali of London. Click here to see his winning pic "And I Refuse to Forget.") if they're getting a coveted greenlight from Nayar. But Tapia already feels like a winner, because his Filmaka experience has opened more than a few doors for the Boston resident, who's in the process of  moving to L.A.

For starters, Tapia's collection of Filmaka shorts were enough to convince actor Malcolm McDowell to  appear in his final-round pic, "The Secret Adventures of Mr. Grant." (Pictured right. Click here to watch the short.)He's also been accepted as a  directing fellow in the diversity mentoring program run by Film Independent. And he's the first  home-grown Filmaka talent to be signed to the fledgling company's management division.

It's a far cry from where he was a little over a year ago, fresh out of Boston University with a MFA, having focused on film production. He ran a video production shingle from his living room, but other than getting a few gigs producing short vids for the website of his undergrad alma mater, Harvard (where he earned a degree in biology), Tapia wasn't overly burdened with work.

Tapia had no shortage of motivation but the structure and deadlines provided by the monthly competitionwas the prod he needed to get cracking, at first on his own dime, and then with a little bit of coin from Filmaka as he advanced through the final rounds.

"I loved the challenge of making films every month. That's what really got me into it. It was a chance to out there and do something," Tapia says. "It's one thing to call yourself a director, but you don't often get the chance to make anything. This opportunity was so exciting."

"Who the hell is Jacob?"

As usual, Sawyer cuts through the haze and gives voice to one of the key questions that viewers have had about "Lost" for a long time now.

For sure, "Lost's" stormy, sensational return with No. 9 of this season, "The Shape of Things to Come," written by Brian K. Vaughan and Drew Goddard and helmed by Jack Bender, was one hell of a Big Ben episode, a tour de force for thesp Michael Emerson.

But it was also a big night for Sawyer, who demonstrated the kind of courage and resolve under fire that only those with the highest moral character, integrity and compassion possess. First he does a "Saving Private Ryan" and risks all to save Claire as the invasion begins. Then he tries to do the same for Hurley, only Hurley won't let him. Sawyer, we always knew you had it in ya.

"Lost" scribes surely did give us a lot to process in tonight's return after the five-week, strike-hangover hiatus. Let's review the apparent tangibles before we dive into the 'what the #$%^&?' issues.

**We now know that by Oct. 24, 2005, Ben makes his way to Tunisia.

**We know that Ben kept up with news coverage of the early days of the Iraq war, more than a year before Oceanic flight 815 crashed. Shock and awe, indeed.

**We know that Sayid reconnects with his beloved Nadia after he gets off the island, no doubt because of his notoriety from being one of the Oceanic 6. And we know that Nadia is killed in L.A., three blocks away from the intersection of La Brea and Santa Monica. Don't tell me they were having lunch at the Formosa Cafe? Pink's? Shopping at Target?

It sounds like something that will either be very good or very ... not so good. But I give 'em all credit for derring-do and willingness to try something totally off the wall -- a scribe swap that cuts across genres, and even studios.

"CSI" writers Sarah Goldfinger and Evan Dunsky have penned the May 5 seg of "Two and a Half Men," based on a story by "CSI" czarina Carol Mendelsohn and Naren Shankar. Chuck Lorre and Lee Aronsohn, co-creators and exec producers of "Men," have done the script for the May 8 installment of "CSI."

The "Men" seg, "Fish in a Drawer," involves a CSI team coming to Charlie Harper's beach house to investigate -- what else? -- a mysterious death. It should be further enlivened by guest stars Robert Wagner and Jenny McCarthy.

"CSI" seg "Two and a Half Deaths" revolves around the death of a high-maintenance sitcom star, played by Katey Sagal, while shooting her show on location in Sin City. Suspects include the entire writing staff, her loser husband and her stand-in, played by Rachael Harris. 

I'm thinking positive and hoping these experiments be as playful as they outta be. I will do some more investigating and find out whose DNA is all over this idea, what the motivation was and the weapon (laptop, legal pad, etc.).

In the meantime, here's some more pics of the crossover episodes.

(In the pic above, that's Aronsohn leaning over the body, and Lorre directly behind him.)

From the "CSI" - "Two and a Half Deaths" seg:

This is very, very good news for our democracy. Laurie Ender, a former top producer for "Entertainment Tonight" and "Access Hollywood," has been elected to the Santa Clarita City Council.

Laurie gave up the syndie newsmag wars some time ago to be a full-time mother and community activist in her 'hood of Valencia. She and her husband, CBS Entertainment senior veep Chris Ender, have deep roots in the community where they have lived for the past 16 years and where they are raising three fabulous sons, Jason, Griffin and Davis.

Laurie is the kind of best-and-brightest, pillar of her community that is desperately needed in politics, particularly at the rubber-meets-the-road local level. Any journalist who's covered one minute of local-yokel politics knows that all too often, those who wind up in elected positions are people who can't actually put a sentence together on their own, let alone handle serious business.Laurie, on the other hand, is schooled in the high-wire act of producing a nightly television news program.

During the past few years she's learned the ropes of public policy by serving as a Parks, Recreation and Community Services Commissioner for the city of Santa Clarita. She has her alpha-mom bona fides as a former president of the Santa Clarita Valley PTA and a member of Valencia High School's Action Team for Partnership, among other school and community board positions.

Pictured above: Laurie with sons Jason (in back), Griffin and Davis, husband Chris and her parents, George and Sue Holt.

POSTED BY STUART LEVINE

David Chase answered one of life's most enduring questions Tuesday night. One that has baffled the greatest minds of the last decade.

No, not what came first, the chicken or the egg? Or if a tree falls in a forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? The real question everyone has been asking, of course, is the one that has eluded the most elite television scholars since May 6, 2001: What happened to the Russian in the woods?

Chase, the creator and voice of "The Sopranos," spoke to a crowd of a few hundred gathered at the Writers' Guild to discuss all things "Sopranos." The event was an homage to Chase, this year's recipient of the Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for Television.

Unlike the Democrats, "The Colbert Report" had plenty to crow about this past week.

Fresh off of its Peabody win, "Colbert" demonstrated its anything-but-faux clout in the contempo political landscape, drawing brief appearances by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and a sit-down with Michelle Obama. How desperate are these candidate for the approval of "Colbert's" youthful affluent/educated/urban hipster (dare we say elite) aud? Really desperate.

For "Colbert," the show's weeklong stand in Philadelphia (aka the special "Doritos Spicy Sweet Pennsylvania Primary Coverage From Chili-Delphia -- The City of Brotherly Crunch!" edition) added up to the most-watched week in its two and a half years on the air. An average of 1.5 million viewers tuned in Monday-Thursday -- not bad for 11:30 p.m. on cable. It averaged a winning 1.8 rating with the men 18-34 that Clinton, Obama or McCain would love to see in their column on Election Day.

Most important, Stephen Colbert was on fire, taking the foul air out of the gaseous pre-primary atmosphere in Pennsylvania by skewering what the show aptly dubbed "Democralypse Now: The delightful dismemberment of the Democratic hopescape!"

"Shameless!" Colbert inveighed in one of his commentary segs on Obamamania. "Scoring political points using footage of Hillary being booed for scoring political points using comments Obama made to score political points. Who does he hope he is?"

On Friday, Comedy Central was kind enough to send along a highlight reel for the week:

And since they did the same for "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," what the heck, give it a spin. Stewart was in fine form too. On Thursday he added his pointed critique to the chorus savaging the perf of moderators Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos in Wednesday's Democratic debate on ABC.

"The first hour of last night's debate was a 60-minute master class in questions that elevate out of context remarks and trivial, insipid miscues into subjects of national discourse ... which is MY job!"

CBS chief Leslie Moonves made a visit to the CBS News offices today as a show of support for embattled anchor Katie Couric. Associated Press' David Bouder has all the details in this report on Moonves' journey into the newsroom and meeting with Couric and "CBS Evening News" exec producer Rick Kaplan, who insisted that reports of Couric's exit from the anchor chair have been greatly exaggerated. "She's not been at it two years and everybody is writing her obituary," Kaplan told the AP. "That's fine. Success is the sweetest revenge."...

Meanwhile, NBC News has locked up the services of its intrepid Middle Eastern correspondent Richard Engel. Engel has been upped to chief foreign correspondent for the Peacock, which is promising to raise his profile on "NBC  Nightly News," MSNBC and other platforms. Engel, who is conversant in Arabic and fluent in Italian and Spanish, made a name for himself covering the early days of the Iraq war as a freelancer for ABC before joining NBC News in 2003. "There aren't enough superlatives to describe the work that Richard has done in some of the most dangerous places on Earth for NBC News," said NBC News prexy Steve Capus in touting Engel's promotion.

A child of new media is spreading his gossipy wings into the oldest of broadcast media.

Yes, Perez Hilton has inked a radio syndication deal, with ABC Radio Networks and C Student Entertainment. It'll be Perez in small doses -- two-minute celeb dirt and dish updates running twice a day (morning and afternoon drive times, natch) on weekdays, starting May 5. He's already got stations lined up in Gotham (WQHT-FM aka "Hot 97"), Los Angeles (KPWR) and Chicago (WBBM-FM). C Student is the newly launched production banner of Premiere Radio alum Steve Lehman and former music biz and MTV alum Andy Schuon.

Hilton (who was born Mario Lavandeira but assured me he prefers his online moniker) said he'd recently been approached with a number of radio offers. He settled on C Student as his production partner because he felt comfortable with Lehman and Schuon and their take on his peculiar brand of celeb-toid reportage. The expansion into radio -- in addition to his high-traffic blog, Perez hosts VH1's trashy "What Perez Sez" -- is all part of his master plan. He's not merely a 21st century Rona Barrett in drag; he's a brand, of course.

"My whole goal for 2008 has been to really actively and aggressively try to grow my brand and live up to my self-appointed title of Queen of All Media. This is one wonderful way to do that. It's going to be a lot of fun, and the results will be exponentially amazing," he said. Not that he's excited or anything.

But radio is a uniquely cool medium with incredible reach. People who would never in a million years stumble across Hilton's blog or his VH1 show will hear his 120 seconds of gossip in major markets. Which in turn will drive his blog traffic and TV show ratings. And radio is a wonderfully user-friendly medium for talent. With a fancy microphone that plugs into his laptop, Perez will be able to record and send via an FTP site his reports from whatever den of debauchery he may be visiting on any given night.

So let's face it -- love him or loathe him and everything he stands for -- it's good to be Perez Hilton.

"It's a Cinco de Mayo party with Perez," he enthused, noting his May 5 preem date.

POSTED BY STUART LEVINE

After thoroughly enjoying the Turner Classic Movies special last night, "Role Model: Gene Wilder," I have to say it was as good as advertised.

Those firmly camped in middle age like me will remember Wilder as the comic foil in two of the funniest films of the 1970s, if not ever, with "Young Frankenstein" and "Blazing Saddles," both from the bizarro mind of Mel Brooks. Both pics remain indelibly etched in my brain, with scenes from each making me laugh louder than the next.

From the opening shot with Wilder, as the good doctor, sticking a scalpel in his leg, to trying to delicately discuss Marty Feldman's humps, to asking Teri Garr to "put the candle back!," Wilder was wildly underrated in "Frankenstein" and other comedic gems. He played the straight man with Zero Mostel in "The Producers," moved on to "Frankenstein" and "Saddles," where he developed a huge following, and then, only a few years later, co-starred with Richard Pryor in "Silver Streak" and "Stir Crazy." It was quite a run, indeed.

Alec Baldwin did a nice job of setting a pleasant tone and getting Wilder to recall how he felt working on those films, his initial meeting with Brooks, his on-set relationship with Pryor (and how drugs affected Pryor's performances) and his comfort zone in front of the camera compared to being on stage.

When Wilder chatted about his relationship with comedy icon Gilda Radner, it was hard to believe that it's been 19 years since she passed away and that he's been married to his second wife for 16 years now.

Anyway, there's certainly no shortage of celebrity interviews on the air these days -- "Inside the Actors Studio" is still probably the best at it -- but it felt good to see Wilder, who's pretty much retired from showbiz and lives in Connecticut, far away from the hubbub of L.A., to get his due in an interview that felt not too fawning or personal.

In an era where some actors don't know when to step away, Wilder's virtual disappearance from film and TV (he last appeared in "Will and Grace" about five years ago) has worked to his benefit.

Some highlights from this morning's Q&A at the National Assn. of Broadcasters confab with "Lost" stewards Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse.

We will find out more back story as to why the late Libby was in the same mental hospital with Hurley, prior to the plane crash, and presumably after she gave her boat to Desmond for the race.

Will we at some point catch up with Emma and Zack, the two kids from the tail section group of survivors who were kidnapped by the Others in season 2's "The Other 48 Days."

To the question of whether we'll ever see Katey Sagal's Helen character (Locke's former flame) again, Darlton indicated that they hoped so.

To the question of whether the DeGroots, the hirsute couple who founded the Dharma Initiative, are still alive, Cuse and Lindelof paused a bit and then pressed for more specificity on the time frame of the question. As of where the time line of "Lost" will be when the series returns on April 24, Darlton would only say: "One of them is."

Lindelof let it be known that in a recent episode when one of the castaways (Locke? Hurley? Sawyer? I can't remember offhand) asked Ben if he knew what the island's smoke monster really was and Ben responded that he didn't know -- big lie. "Ben was lying about the smoke monster," Lindelof said.

And once again, Darlton made it clear that they do in fact have a blueprint for the series, stem to stern, and that "the last scene has been in our heads for a long period of time."

More to come from the sesh, which mostly focused on big-picture business issues and production processes, once I transcribe the tape.

In the meantime, above and below are some pics from the upcoming April 24 seg "The Shape of Things to Come."

I swung by Wisteria Lane on Sunday for the first time in months, encouraged by the positive buzz generated by "Desperate Housewives'" first-back-from-strike seg, "Sunday." I hoped to be as impressed as others have been with Dana Delany's contributions to the cul-de-sac.

As it turned out, it wasn't a huge episode for Delany's Katherine Mayfair -- though she did have one great scene with guest star Chris Carmack toward the end -- but I have to say that the whole conceit of Mayfair having deep dark secrets to hide still felt a bit tired.

The ludicrous storyline about Bree claiming her daughter's baby as her own was what made me stop watching last season, and it still bugs me to see Bree and Orson toting a baby carrier, even though they weren't much of a factor in this episode either. As always, the one ever-reliable player in the "Housewives" troupe for me is Felicity Huffman as Lynette.

A show that did not disappoint on its post-strike return last week was NBC's "The Office" with seg "The Dinner Party."

Special commendation is owed to Melora Hardin, who is turning beyond-bizarro Jan into the show's most explosively funny character. Considering that she's playing opposite Steve Carell's Michael Scott, that's saying something.

Plot of this episode was particularly funny because it is something we've all endured -- an evening with a couple who are obviously not getting along. Of course, Rainn Wilson's Dwight Schrute took the laughs up a notch by crashing Michael and Jan's dinner party with his one-time babysitter ("Strictly carnal," he assures them) and his own food and wine in tow. I didn't catch the actress' name but she gave a great deadpan perf. Thank goodness ABC's "Lost" is moving from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. hour when it returns April 24 -- no tough choices on whether to check in first with the "Office" or the island....

Speaking of "Lost," ABC this ayem put out the good word -- strike be damned, "Lost" is getting a two-hour  finale after all on May 29. (And yes, confirmed with ABC that it is two original hours, not a recap show leading into a finale.) That translates to six post-strike segs instead of the five that Darlton previously forecast. (Only downside: "Lost" will be preempted on May 22 to make room for a two-hour "Grey's Anatomy" finale that night.)

I hope to pry a few details about the next run of "Lost" adventures out of exec producers Damon Lindelof (pictured left) and Carlton Cuse (pictured right) Tuesday morning when I have the pleasure of moderating a Q&A with them as part of  this week's National Assn. of Broadcasters confab in Las Vegas.

CBS needed some happy news last week, and it got some courtesy of its resident Scotsman-turned-American in late night.

"The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" notched a milestone in its three-year-plus competish in the wee hours against NBC's long-dominant "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" by winning the week ended April 4 -- Ferguson averaged 1.88 million viewers for the frame to O'Brien's 1.77 million.

Not that latenight always has to be measured strictly a death-match, zero-sum game -- both Conan and Craig are very funny fellows indeed and viewers are well-served by their diverse styles -- but it is a competitive business and ratings are the yardstick by which ad sales and pop culture traction are measured.

NBC number crunchers noted that Ferguson got a big boost that week from the post-strike return of CBS' big scripted guns, the three "CSIs," "Without a Trace," "Criminal Minds" plus the circulation lift from the NCAA finals coverage, while NBC was still mostly in reruns.

Looking back over the past few weeks, however, the trend is interesting. "Late Late Show" has been making it a real horse race with "Late Night" of late, in spite of the latter's lead-in benefit from "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno." Indeed, Ferguson is more competitive with O'Brien than his 11:35 a.m. companion, "The Late Show with David Letterman" is with "Tonight Show" -- the berth O'Brien is to move up to in the fall of '09.

Cabler Si TV is jumping on the presidential bandwagon with voter registration org Voto Latino to mount a "Crash the Parties" contest to pick two Latino political junkies to serve as "embedded" reporters for the channel at the Democratic and Republican National Conventions.

Aspiring David Gregorys and Candy Crowleys can upload short vids to www.crashtheparties08.com explaining why they outta be picked to represent the voice of young Latino America at the confabs.

Si TV, the indie entertainment outlet aimed at English-speaking Hispanics, and Voto Latino will also be hosting a series of registration events in the coming weeks in Chicago, Phoenix, Sacramento, San Jose and San Diego where hopefuls can enter the ring. Starting May 7, vids will be judged by the public and a panel including CNN anchor Rick Sanchez, actress Rosario Dawson (a co-founder of Voto Latino), Craiglist's Craig Newmark, former Texas congressman Henry Bonilla, YouTube's Steve Grove and Danny Vargas, chairman of the Republican National Hispanic Assembly. Winners, to be announced in July, will report regularly during the gatherings (Dems meet in Denver Aug. 25-28; GOP powwows in St. Paul, Minn. Sept. 1-4) for the Si TV channel and website.

....Speaking of a call for entries, the Humanitas Prize has extended its deadline for 2008 entries until Wednesday. It doesn't cost a cent and there's no limit on entries, so c'mon all you film and TV scribes out there, pick your favorite script of the past 12 months that has something to say about the human condition (and was blessed with a theatrical release or national telecast) and send it in. (Applications are a click away via the Humanitas website). It could fetch $10,000-$25,000, and add a serious dollop of prestige to any resume. This year's winners luncheon is set for Sept. 17 at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

An interesting development within Cartoon Network was overshadowed by the slew of other announcements unveiled at the cabler's upfront presentation last week.

Rob Sorcher, Cartoon Net's newly appointed chief content officer, is spearheading a development initiative they've dubbed the "Cartoonstitute." Sorcher (pictured left) wants to get a bunch of original development in the works pronto (insert a Hanna-Barbera zoink and pat-a-pat-a-pat-a-pat sound of running bare feet here), and so he's carving out a space with the Burbank-based Cartoon Studios facility for an artists colony that he hopes will harvest funny fruit in the near future.

Cartoonstitute will be run by two veteran Cartoon Net producers, Craig McCracken, of "Powerpuff Girls" and 'Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends" fame, and Rob Renzetti ("My Life as a Teenage Robot"). Sorcher aims to put six artists to work full-time on pilots and short segments for the channel immediately, under the guidance of McCracken and Renzetti. As many as 30 more artists -- some already in-house at Cartoon, some new to the toon net tent -- will be brought in to pitch in and/or develop their own ideas at any given time, particularly when they're on production hiatus from other Cartoon Net shows.

Sorcher was part of the early Cartoon Net exec team in the mid-1990s and rejoined the channel in January after six years at AMC. He wants to generate 150 bits of programming for Cartoon Net during the next 20 months. It's an ambitious target, and a sign of how eager the new programming chief is to inject new characters and fresh yuks into Cartoon. The mission, as Sorcher sees it, is to create a "think tank" for animators. A productive think tank.

"I wanted to put a swift development track together," he says, "but the other side of it is thinking about long-term development and what it takes to get a successful cartoon series. I know that a lot of it comes from setting out the conditions where artists and writers can really succeed at doing that. We started thinking about how to create an environment where this kind of creative thinking can happen."

Recent headlines about the state of broadcast TV news, particularly at the local station level, have been almost as harsh as the grim reports about the fate of newspapers.

Established TV news outlets have been shedding editorial staff, even at the once-vaunted O&O level. Stations are relying more and more on pre-fab wire reports and in some cases even running thinly veiled promotional vids complete with bogus "correspondents" as part of regular newscasts. On too many stations, newscasts have been tarted-up, tabloid-ed, dumbed-down and frequently prostituted for corny tie-ins with adjacent entertainment programming. Old-school broadcast journos like the late great Bill Stout (oh how I miss him) are sneering at us from beyond the grave.

Given these unfortunate truths, it was extra-heartening to see in the list of 2007 Peabody Award winners announced last week that the 16 esteemed members of the awards committee found plenty to commend at one old-guard network affiliate that has long nurtured and protected its reputation as a provider of local news that matters.

WFAA-TV, serving the Dallas-Fort Worth market, earned a Peabody that recognized for a series of influential, in-depth reports from the station's dedicated investigative reporting unit on four topics: fraud and negligent lending practices at the federal U.S. Export-Import Bank; the lethal lack of oversight of the maintenance of natural gas pipelines running near residential areas; a probe of the unconscionably cozy relationship between a local police department, NBC's "Dateline" and a watchdog group that set up a series of sting operations to nab men who trolled on the Internet to arrange sex dates with teenagers; and a heartbreaking look at conditions in a Homeland Security detainee center and the story of one immigrant family's ordeal.

Each one of the reports is incredibly detailed, well-reported and well-told in terms of its impact on the people of the state of Texas. Each report had a swift and significant impact on the moves taken by others to address problems raised in WFAA's reporting. But most impressive was the intelligent and altogether sober presentation of reports on complex topics with lots of specific information, documents, whistle-blowers and opinions from all sides of presented to viewers in segments than run as long as -- gasp -- six minutes or more.

This is reporting that takes time and shoe leather, extensive research and the support of an editorial staff with a deep understanding of the communities they serve. This is television that respects the intelligence of its audience. There are no histrionics or hyperventilating in the delivery, just two seasoned investigative reporters tackling important stories in a fearless, responsible manner. The rhyme of the slogan "News 8 Investigates" is as gimmicky as it gets.

Call it pay TV, only in a theater. The much-loved Showtime/public radio skein "This American Life," hosted by Ira Glass, will mount a live show on May 1 at NYU's Skirball Center for the Performing Arts that will be beamed out via high-def satcast to more than 300 theaters that are part of National CineMedia Fathom digital network. Event promises to show behind-the-scenes clips, outtakes, and a live audience Q&A with Glass, and it will help tubthump the sophomore season bow of the TV rendition on May 4. For tix or more info click here....

Good news today for Aardman Animations nuts. Disney Channel has licensed a preschooler skein from Aardman, "Timmy," about a cuddly 3-year-old lamb "with a lot to learn." He's based on designs by the great Aardman animator Nick Park, and a character already known to fans of Aardman's "Shaun the Sheep" series. Disney calls "Timmy" to be Aardman's first foray into wee kidvid territory (which seems surprising), but I'm guessing it'll still have those subtle-wacky touches that we love so much in Aardman's "Wallace and Gromit" (Timmy first appeared in the "Wallace and Gromit" short "Wallace and Gromit" in a Close Shave") and "Creature Comforts" et al ....

Speaking of kidvid, those of us who were raised on "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" will be wishing we could be in Pittsburgh on Thursday for the preem of "Speedy Delivery," a docu on the long-running PBS series by helmer-producer Paul Germain. Pic is described as a retrospective on the show through the eyes of David "Mr. McFeely" Newell (pictured left), who played the 'hood's Speedy Delivery postman from the show's inception in 1968. Hard to believe that Fred Rogers, the Presbyterian minister who saw television as his pulpit to spread the gospel of healthy child-rearing (never forget that "Mister Rogers'" is as much designed to teach moms and dads how to cope as it is to entertain kids) has been gone for more than five years. Thankfully, his gentle soul lives on in those 900 segs that should run forever. For more info on "Speedy Delivery," check out the doc's website right here. (Just thinking about "Mister Rogers'" makes me want to put on a sweater and change my shoes.)

POSTED BY STUART LEVINE

More than ever these days, comedy series show up for five or six episodes and then disappear. Just when you were getting acquainted, they're gone.

Often, the plan is to just give viewers a half-dozen or so sampling and see if it sticks. More times than not, the show will never be seen from after that. Sometimes it's because they're horrible and the network can read the Nielsen tea leaves and yank it before it does any more ratings damage.

Well, when it comes to ABC's "Miss Guided," consider me a fan wanting more.

Like most new shows, I Tivo'd "Miss Guided" when it aired March 18 and, before I could even watch, my wife and daughter said they loved it and wanted to know what night it would be airing regularly. Though I may not have shared as much enthusiasm as they did, there was a sweetness and relatability to the show that couldn't be denied.

Everyone's been in high school and most of us -- or at least the people I hang with -- weren't the cool kids or the jocks. It's impossible not to see a bit of us in Judy Greer's spot-on Becky Freeley. She's been a supporting actress for most of her career up until now and she takes the lead here with full-throated comic perfection.

And there's a roomful of well-done supporting turns, too. Chris Parnell as the closeted gay vice principal, Kristoffer Polaha as Spanish teacher Tim, drop-dead gorgeous Brooke Burns as the drop-dead gorgeous cheerleader who's come back to teach and raise Becky's ire again, and Earl Billings as is-retirement-here-yet Principal Huffy.

Certainly, low viewer totals were not what the folks at ABC were hoping for but sometimes shows deserve a longer fate than the Niesen gods are willing to allow. Exec producers Todd Holland ("Malcolm in the Middle") and Ashton Kutcher ("Beauty and the Geek," "Punk'd") have shown they know what it takes to make a show that's built to last.

ABC would be wise to give them the chance to prove it again.

Here's something we didn't expect to see at the "Jimmy Kimmel Live" 1000th episode party on Thursday night: Dominic Monaghan. The dearly departed "Lost" star was making the rounds poolside at the Hollywood Roosevelt hotel and hanging with "it" couple Jimmy Kimmel and Sarah Silverman.

Monaghan must've had a good time making the Jimmy Kimmel-Ben Affleck music vid a few months back (he's in the sing-along celeb gospel choir). He's also guested on "Kimmel" five times since the dawn of "Lost" in the fall of 2004.

Monaghan, looking very neat and clean (we still can't get used to that) in a crisp open-collar dress shirt and gray suit, didn't stay in one spot for too long, but we stopped him long enough to share a heartfelt "awwww" over Charlie's heroic sacrifice. Thesp said he's "trying to do something with Sarah for her show" (presumably the Comedy Central skein that resumes production in the next few weeks) and he does read the scripts that "Touchstone" (guess he didn't get the memo on the name change to ABC Studios) is sending him but is more focused on film than TV these days.

Monaghan reported that he's just wrapped production on the "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" pic and is soon off "to go find the world's biggest spider." Not entirely sure what that means. We do know that there's a shot of a spider in the "Happy Accidents" exhibition of photos that Monaghan recently had on display at West Hollywood art gallery Hamilton-Selway Fine Art.

By the dim light of the heat lamps at the party, Monaghan looked cheery and chipper, like he was enjoying himself. Heck, that's all we ever wanted for Charlie...isn't it?

One thousand episodes down and Jimmy Kimmel hasn't changed a bit. When asked about some of the guests he's yet to be able to book on his show during his five years (and counting) the first words out of his mouth were "I'd love to have Letterman."

When "Jimmy Kimmel Live" first went on the air, all of the obligatory media profiles of the new latenight entrant mentioned what he Letterman fanatic Kimmel was, and apparently still is. Others on Kimmel's guest wish-list are Bill Murray, Woody Allen and Steve Martin.

Kimmel seemed to be enjoying his 1K moment on Thursday night after taping an extralong 90-minute seg (complete with a comedy bit with latenight mainstay Richard Simmons) to herald his 1000th episode milestone. The afterparty was a low-key affair held poolside at the Hollywood Roosevelt hotel, right next door to the show's studio at the El Capitan Theater. Small-ish crowd was mostly crew members, family and assorted friends (like Adam Carolla, Johnny Knoxville, Dominic Monaghan, Paul Reubens, Rebecca Romijn, Carson Daly, David Spade, Rachael Harris, Andy Milonakis and Dick Van Patten, who professes to being a regular view of "JKL").

Despite the old saw about television being such a confounding medium, Kimmel said his job has surely gotten easier with time.

"The audience is much more receptive, the jokes go down much easier" when you've been on the air for a while, Kimmel said.
No, he never fretted too much about getting canceled, even in his rocky first year. "I have ups and downs in my career," Kimmel observed.

Kimmel credited ABC Entertainment boss Stephen McPherson, who was on hand to slap a few backs at the party, with making his work life much easier during the past few years. "We wouldn't be on the air if it wasn't for Steve," Kimmel assured. "He gets our show."

A spinoff of "The Office"? That's the big news outta NBC today as the Peacock makes good on its promise to reinvent the upfront process with its way-early announcement of its sked for the next 65 years, er, weeks.

A "Son of 'Office'" project has been rumored about for some time, and I have to admit I'm very skeptical...but of course will reserve judgment and give Greg Daniels and Co. the benefit of the doubt until we hear more about it.

12:30 p.m. update: Per NBC, the new show will be "another comic journey, complete with new faces and new locations," which suggests that none of the current "Office" workers will be extracted from the Scranton branch, at least not for the purposes of the spinoff. New skein will launch after Peacock's Super Bowl telecast in February, right behind a fresh seg of "Office." Of this development, Daniels said in a canned statement: "Who would have ever thought that Americans would be subjected to a mock-documentary after the Super Bowl? What has happened to this country?"

Other good news from today's announcement is that the glorious "Friday Night Lights" will live to play another season. Whoo-hoo. Variety's Joe Adalian has all the details on NBC's plans right here.

POSTED BY STUART LEVINE

Sometimes, on rare occasion, the hype is true.

"A tradition unlike any other" … so says the CBS marketing team about the Masters for the past few decades. The message is drummed into our heads in categorizing the bigger-than-life golf tournament that runs April 10-13 from the hallowed grounds in Augusta, Ga.

But guess what? It's no lie. There's nothing quite like the Masters. For me, the Masters is always the year's greatest sporting event. This weekend's Final Four is great, the Super Bowl is a must see and the World Series -- though certainly not what it once was -- remains a top draw, yet the final round of the Masters is the most compelling sports television by far.

Who doesn't remember where they were when Tiger Woods hit his miraculous pitch from just off the green at the 16th hole in 2005? I just watched it again on YouTube and my goosebumps immediately returned.

This year ESPN replaces USA Network in providing coverage of the first two rounds. CBS will offer its usual latenight highlights and then full 18-hole coverage on both Saturday and Sunday. I can't wait.

This faux press release was distributed this ayem by Tribune's corporate office, no doubt at the instruction of its fearless leader Sam Zell (pictured right).

I admit, this got me for a few seconds at first, until I got to the part about the company's newspapers switching to a new system of "edible ink and a newly designed licorice printing system."

TRIBUNE COMPANY ANNOUNCES NAME CHANGE

Zell Tells Employees of Switch in an Email;
Company Announces Revenue Generating Efforts To Offset Debt

CHICAGO, April 1, 2008—Tribune Company, the largest employee-owned media company in the nation, today announced it has changed its name to ZellCoMediaEnterprises Inc. or ZCMEINC.  Zell, who made a fortune in real estate before deciding he’d like to dabble in an industry completely unfamiliar to him, announced the change in his record-setting 437th email to exhausted employees this year.

“H---, I put $315 million into this thing, and we’re on the hook for $13 billion—the least I ought to get is my name on the company’s stationery,” said Zell, who remains chairman and CEO of the newly named enterprise. 

The company also announced a series of revenue-generating efforts, including a newly signed $600 million deal to rename historic Tribune Tower in Chicago.  The new name of the landmark building will be unveiled at a ceremony held outside its Michigan Avenue entrance at noon today.  Zell is expected to attend.

“While everyone was wringing their hands and worrying about renaming Wrigley Field, I went out and got a great company to put its product’s name right over the main entrance to this great building,” said Zell.  “Finally we’ll have the money to renovate the place and put in a heating and cooling system that doesn’t date back to the days of Colonel McCormick.”

Just to remind employees of how important it is that the company increase revenue in order to meet its considerable debt payments, the company has installed debt-o-meters at each of its business units and on the company web site, www.tribune.com.

The company, which publishes nine daily newspapers in some of the country’s top markets, also unveiled plans to go completely paperless, using edible ink and a newly designed licorice printing system. 

“Now our newspapers can be put to good use for something other than news, information, and lining bird cages,” said Randy Michaels, executive vice president of the company’s broadcasting and internet divisions, who’s also fooling around with newspapers.  “Although I’m told it’s a little dry, a family of four will be able to get a week’s worth of nourishment off the Sunday edition of the Chicago Tribune.”

Additional revenue-generating initiatives can be found on the company’s web site, www.tribune.com.   

ZCMEINC (formerly Tribune) is America’s largest employee-owned media company, operating businesses in publishing, interactive and broadcasting.  In publishing, Tribune’s leading daily newspapers include the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Newsday (Long Island, N.Y.), The Sun (Baltimore), South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Orlando Sentinel and Hartford Courant. The company’s broadcasting group operates 23 television stations, Superstation WGN on national cable, Chicago’s WGN-AM and the Chicago Cubs baseball team. Popular news and information websites complement Tribune’s print and broadcast properties and extend the company’s nationwide audience.  The company is also becoming known for its sense of humor and for not taking itself or its business too seriously.  We suggest you check out the company website, www.tribune.com, for further proof of that.

Please note the date of this press release:  Happy April Fool’s Day.

MEDIA CONTACT:
Gary Weitman
VP/Propaganda and Disinformation
312/222-3394 (My office, where else would I be?)
gweitman@tribune.com