Emerging from my December blog hibernation, I'm much more inclined to look forward to what the small screen has in store for '09 than reassessing '08. Fortunately, my Variety colleague Stuart Levine was motivated to muse on his highs and lows for '08 (posted after the jump).

There's not a whole lot that I've penciled into my must-see sked for the first quarter. Of course, the Big Event is the Jan. 21 return of "Lost" for its high-five season (more on that later). The final two "Friday Night Lights" segs of the season (maybe forever) on DirecTV Jan. 7-14, will be three-hanky affairs, for sure, according to sources who have already screened them. And there'll be more multicamera hijinks to enjoy from "The Big Bang Theory" ensemble, my fave comedy troupe on the tube these days, hands down.

As for new material, I was very impressed by what I saw on the four-episode screener of Showtime's "The United States of Tara." Toni Collette is amazing as a suburban mother and artist who grapples with three distinct personalities who also inhabit Tara's corporeal being. The supporting cast is also strong, with John Corbett playing Tara's husband in an understated way, and the always-engaging Rosemarie DeWitt as Tara's sister. Brie Larson impresses as the older of Tara's two teenage kids.

"Tara," which as everyone knows was conceived by Steven Spielberg and birthed by Diablo Cody, bows Jan. 18.

The 2000 Year Old Man lives! He made a cameo appearance tonight at the Paley Center for Media's fund-raiser honoring the great Carl Reiner and the deserving Matt Blank and Robert Greenblatt of Showtime Networks.

Reiner's tribute was funny, of course, with hosannas coming from the event's host, Bonnie Hunt, as well as Larry Gelbart, Dick Van Dyke, Lily Tomlin, George Segall and progeny Rob Reiner. It was clear that as he surveyed his career retrospective in the clip package, the recent loss of his wife of 65 years, Estelle, was not far from Carl Reiner's mind. He credited his wife, who died in October at 94, with "raising me" and influencing every aspect of his professional life.

It was also clear that Reiner was enjoying the opportunity to reminisce. Mel Brooks, Reiner's old compadre from the "Your Show of Shows" writers' room, was among the luminaries in the crowd, along with Norman Lear. Reiner got a second standing ovation as he walked off the stage and over to where Brooks was seated and kept right on talking. Hastily, a spotlight and a microphone materialized and in an instant the crowd was treated to a dash of "The 2000 Year Old Man."

I only took mental notes but the routine went something like this:

Reiner: "So you knew Jesus?"

Brooks: "He used to come in to my candy store. With 12 guys."

Reiner: "What were they like?"

Brooks: "They wore sandals."

"Mad Men" creator Matthew Weiner enjoyed the attention the Golden Globes heaped upon his AMC show Thursday morning as he and his wife were in Milan, Italy, promoting the second season for European audiences.

Yet, while Weiner is proud of where the show has gone, he's more than concerned he might not be around for its future. He and producer Lionsgate haven't been able to come up with a deal for season three, and the clock continues to tick.

The lack of a contract is clearly eating away at him, and even gobs of pasta and gelato can't solve the impasse.

"We're supposed to start back in the writers' room in the middle of January," he said. "This process has been going on for a long time. Everyone knew my contract was up at the end of the year. I did more than I promised I would do. It's frustrating that it's taking so long."

Weiner has always acknowledged the team effort it takes in putting the elaborately detailed "Mad Men" together — from the cast to the scripts, from set and costume design and all below-the-line categories — but, make no mistake, this is his baby, and he doesn't want to hand off his child to someone else.

"People know the mythology of the script and know I wrote it in my basement," he explained. "People are shocked that the show could go on without me. Right now it's just frustrating."

As for what's ahead for Don Draper and Co., Weiner has thoughts about where the tale leads, but he may not get a chance to tell it.

"This is all a very confusing business," he reiterated. "There's a strange logic to how things are done. I have every intention of coming back and have lots of stories to tell. I'm not done yet. I can tell you that."

— Stuart Levine

Tuesday afternoon update:

Here the vid of the monologue. In this era of 'reality' TV, nothing remains more compelling than a thoughtful, intelligent person showing genuine, unscripted emotion in front of a live camera.

Craig confessed at the start "I want to run a million miles from talking to you about this...But I can't."

With all the hubbub over the new Jay Leno deal, the bloodbath of executive layoffs at NBC and the latest round of drama to sock the Tribune Co., a moment of great television may be overlooked tonight on CBS' "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson."

Ferguson's mother, Janet, died last week in Scotland. Ferguson was there all of last week, as "Late Late Show" was already skedded for a dark week. Tonight, Craig is set to talk about his mother, her life and her influence on his life. Judging by the humble, humorous, earthy eloquence of the 16-minute eulogy he delivered nearly three years ago after the passing of his father, Robert Ferguson, this will be a can't-miss monologue.

Here's a (low-quality) clip of Janet Ferguson doing a vid bit with Wu-tang Clan's RZA, for her son's show in February 2005:

Just heard about the passing of Forrest J (no period) Ackerman, on Thursday at the ripe vintage of 92. (This news warrants a brief detour out of Book Hell.)

The AP's lead on his obit gives a good nutshell description of this only-in-Hollywood character:

Forrest J Ackerman, the sometime actor, literary agent, magazine editor and full-time bon vivant who discovered author Ray Bradbury and was widely credited with coining the term "sci-fi," has died.

For years, Forry stored an absolutely amazing collection of memorabilia from sci-fi, horror and fantasy movies in the "Ackermanse," a spacious house in the hills off Vermont Avenue. (His phone number, back when all of these parts were 213, famously spelled out MOONFAN.)

I can't say that I'm of the generation that waited breathlessly for my copy of his semi-monthly fanzine Famous Monsters of Filmland to arrive in the mail. But thanks to my husband, I did visit his house once and got a guided tour of his collection. (Somewhere out there, in the ether devoted to long-kaput magazines printed on cheap paper stock, is a Q&A I did with him for BAM, sometime in 1993 or '94 if I remember correctly.)

When Forry showed off a few ragged bits of foam rubber that he kept under glass and proudly informed me that they were from original "King Kong" models, I thought he was going to choke up.

Here's hoping he's somewhere up above (or maybe below?) enjoying a glass of blood-red wine with Willis O'Brien and Merian C. Cooper right now.

Though I have all the admiration in the world for “The Simpsons,” I’ll be the first to admit I’m not always drawn to TV animation.

So, with that in mind, I find it all the more surprising how much I enjoyed the recently concluded season of HBO’s “The Life and Times of Tim.” Playing catch up on my Tivo, I watched the last installment of the season the other night — after seeing the other nine episodes — and now can’t wait for a second season … but more on that later.

Chatting today with Tim — aka creator and exec producer Steve Dildarian — feels a little disconcerting. Am I talking to Steve or Tim? It’s all a bit strange, having a conversation with the voice of a cartoon.

Dildarian said “Tim,” which came out of a cartoon short “Angry Unpaid Hooker” that won an award at the Aspen Comedy Fest, has been a nice change of pace, career-wise. He’s an ad man by trade, having come up with the Budweisers’ lizard campaign and voiced the Budweiser donkey who famously raced against the Clydesdales in a Super Bowl commercial.

“This is beyond gratifying,” he says from his home in San Francisco. “I was in advertising for so long but having a show was always Plan A for me.”

He originally pitched the toon to Fox, but the network said it wasn’t a right fit with its schedule. That wasn’t to say the net didn’t like it, but they felt “Tim” would’ve been a tough sell after “Family Guy.”

HBO grabbed it, however, and without much fanfare, has seen buzz pick up. Net pays a license fee to Media Rights Capital, which produces the series.

“They did promos and some things on the Internet but it’s not the kind of show that’s thrust upon you,” he said. “It seems like we got more attention toward the end of the season.”

The plotlines revolve around Tim, natch, a nondescript “Office”-like worker who always somehow ends up in awkward situations. According to Dildarian, it’s not really Tim’s fault when his girlfriend, Amy, is upset when a prostitute is sitting on his couch, or that he takes a neighbor’s daughter to a strip club. Things happen.

“In my head, everything Tim does is excusable and justified. He’s the good guy but gets portrayed the wrong way,” Dildarian explained.

As far as voice casting, Dildarian went no farther than his co-workers, and he stuck with friends with no experience.

Both Mary Jane Otto as Amy and Bob Morrow as Debbie the prostitute are colleagues from the ad agency.

“MJ is a friend who I asked to step in and read this thing. Bob is a very funny guy and he always did impersonations,” Dildarian recalled. “With no prepping, he started talking like Debbie. People loved the voices. It all seems to avoid the professional veneer. I like that if feels underproduced.”

According to HBO, “Tim” drew 1.2 million cumulative viewers each week. No word has been given for a season two order. If it does, it could come fairly soon.

“We’re in the middle of waiting to hear. All I can say is there’s reason to be optimistic.”

— Stuart Levine

3-D mavens have have been saturated with stereo this week -- the two-day 3-D Entertainment Summit in Century City on Monday and Tuesday, Thursday's presentations of "Monsters vs. Aliens" footage at DreamWorks Animation in Glendale and, that same night, the first-ever live, 3-D telecast of an NFL game, beamed to theaters in Hollywood, New York and Boston.

Chances are Thursday's telecast will be remembered long after the game itself, a one-sided matchup between the mediocre San Diego Chargers and the awful Oakland Raiders. 3ality Digital scored a genuine first with the show.

Here are my takeaways from the telecast:

1) Surprise hit of the evening: 3-D televisions in the VIP lounge. The picture in the theater was good, but suffered for being blown up to bigscreen size. However, the flat-screen TVs (using RealD's polarized glasses) delivered startlingly clear images and knockout stereo. I'm betting 95% of the people who walked into that room had never seen a 3-D TV set before and almost all will be abuzz over it. I could easily see sports bars putting them in and fans having a fine time watching their favorite team in 3-D.

2) Everyone's still learning how to shoot a football game in 3-D. The traditional staple of NFL coverage is the high side angle, but it was used sparingly as it's too far from the action to take full advantage of the stereo. Sideline and end-zone camera positions got a big workout. When those angles are good, they're fantastic. When the ball's coming toward the camera, as on a pass over the middle or a punt, the stereo effect is terrific. But those low angles sometimes make it very difficult to follow the action.

3) In 3-D, you are much more aware of how enormous the players are. Or, in the case of the Chargers' Darren Sproles, how small he is -- which fits with one of the strengths of stereo: It's good at revealing scale. (That's something DreamWorks is taking full advantage of in "Monsters vs. Aliens.") Also, supporting my personal theory that people in general are more interesting to watch in 3-D, I can attest the cheerleaders got even more than the usual attention when the cameras cut to them. My friend Matt and I agreed that this wasn't only because they are, well, cheerleaders. Though that didn't hurt.

4) The technology still isn't perfect. RealD's Lenny Lipton was holding forth on some technical decisions he disagreed with in how the 3-D cameras were set up. (He was complaining about the convergance settings, I think.) His eye is more practiced than mine, but I saw problems with the 3-D whenever a ref or player was at the edge of the screen or when there was an out-of-focus object in the foreground (both known issues for 3-D). And sometimes the stereo would just be way off for a moment and we'd howl and whip our glasses off. On balance, Matt and I felt there's a way to go before you'd want to sit through an entire game in a theater. Our eyes felt strained and tired after about an hour. But hanging out in the lounge watching on those 3-D TVs was pretty darn good and not only because of the buffet and bar. Though that didn't hurt, either.

5) The event was a success. I'm reminded of the story of the first hot-air balloon flight in 18th-century Paris. Someone asked "What good is it?" and got the reply, "What good is a newborn baby?" Live 3-D TV is a newborn baby. It has some growing up to do. But on Thursday night, I think that we saw enough good things to be confident it will get the chance.

-- David S. Cohen

I'm taking a breather on the blog for the month of December while I pay a visit to Book Hell.

It's not so much a place as it is a state of mind where you block out about everything that is good and decent and normal in your life to focus on finishing a manuscript without turning into Jack Nicholson in "The Shining." I'm working on a book about Writers Guild of America strike and the digital revolution in television for Syracuse University Press.

Somewhere around the end of March, it dawned on me that the issues that were fought over during what has been called "the first strike of the 21st century" were a perfect reflection of all of the upheaval that is rocking the TV biz these days. From that early ayem epiphany, the narrative structure for a book just kinda fell into place.

Now all I have to do is write it. The big bosses at Variety were kind enough to give me a few weeks off to make some real progress, as my deadline looms early next year. As if that wasn't enough, they were generous enough to run an early except in the Nov. 30 edition of weekly Variety. If you're interested, click here.

I'll be back in the On the Air saddle in January, and I'm forward to counting down days (hours and minutes) until "Lost" returns for season five on Jan. 21.

Happy holidays and Godspeed in 2009.