Horror naturally extends its claws on cable nets where its gruesome imagery can bloom. "American Horror Story" frightens FX viewers, while "Walking Dead" and "True Blood" flaunt gore on AMC and HBO respectively. This fall, however, horror is creeping over to ABC with the premiere of "666 Park Ave." During the show's panel at ABC's TCA press tour, exec producer David Wilcox offered insight as to how he and the skein's creative team bring scares in spite of the limitations of broadcast nets.

"I've been a horror fan for a long time," said Wilcox to the audience at the Beverly Hilton. "It's the kind of genre that has a real, direct connection with the audience. I've thought there could be a show in the horror genre that could work on network TV for a long time because it's so successful theatrically."

From the creative inception of "666's" TV adaptation, however, Wilcox knew his team would face certain challenges within the genre. "I told my writers, we don't have the tool of gore and blood and that kind of spectacle. It has forced us to be a lot more clever in how we tell these stories."

Wilcox and the "666" crew have looked backwards, then, while moving forward with the project. "We looked at Hitchcock films, and how so much of those stories keep playing in your head even when you're not seeing [action] on screen. That was very instructive for us as we were getting into the ['666'] stories."

If fans of the genre are looking for gore, Wilcox knows the new ABC drama may fall short of expectations. "There are people that love to see blood, murder and mayhem," Wilcox remarked. "And there are shows on cable that have freedom to do that."

However, Wilcox is confident in the "666" product. "For us, it's a different kind of horror. It's a psychological horror," he said. "That's not to say there aren't some shocking, visceral moments in the show...But ['666'] is driven by suspense and mystery."

ABC has given a pilot order to “Mr. Sunshine,” a laffer starring Matthew Perry.

Should it go to series, Perry would join fellow “Friends” alum Courteney Cox on the Alphabet net, which just gave her show a sophomore order on Tuesday.

“Mr. Sunshine” centers on a San Diego sports arena manager who goes through a mid-life crisis when he turns 40.

Perry is exec producing the pilot with Thomas Schlamme, who’s directing, as well as Jamie Tarses. Sony Pictures TV and Tarses’ Fan Fare label are behind the project.

Single-camera comedy was written by Alex Barnow and Marc Firek, who will exec produce as well, along with Perry.

Alphabet had already given a major commitment to “Mr. Sunshine” this fall.

“Mr. Sunshine” was also the title of a short-lived 1986 ABC sitcom starring Jeffrey Tambor as a blind English professor.

Pros: Ty Burrell, Julie Bowen, Ty Burrell, Ed O'Neill, Ty Burrell, Sofia Vergara, Ty Burrell, Eric Stonestreet and Ty Burrell

Cons:

After screening  bad-to-not-too-bad half-hour pilots so far, "Modern Family" restored my faith in comedy writers.

This ABC pilot is really, really funny. The cast is great, and the premise is fraught with potential. The banter is witty without being too clever, and it delivers laughs. Serious out-loud yuks that hold up even on a second viewing.

It's a little un-PC in parts, in service of its finely drawn characters. It took me a little bit to warm up to Julie Bowen in a mom role, but once she started doing the kind of pratfalls with a refrigerator door that seem to happen to me first thing in the morning, I was with her.

"Modern Family" looks to be the show that will finally do justice to Ty Burrell's considerable charms. I liked him in CBS' "Out of Practice," and in Fox's "Back to You" (from the same creative stewards as "Modern Family") and I'm now preparing to love Burrell (pictured top right) as the self-described "cool dad" in "Modern Family." Ed O'Neill is also very smartly deployed here.

The show manages to offer sly and subtle insights into the state of familial relations without ever once getting preachy or "very special episode"-y. Co-creators Steve Levitan and Christopher Lloyd have set the bar high for the series with the pilot.

Cons:

The cons on this ABC sitcom are too numerous to mention.

I didn't buy the premise, the characters, the setting, the jokes, the casting. None of it worked for me. I'm surprised at how much I didn't like it, because the creative auspices are strong. But watching the "Cougar Town" pilot felt like a long 23 minutes.

I particularly disliked the perf by Busy Philipps as the dopey, slutty co-worker of Courteney Cox's recently-divorced-mom character. Josh Hopkins, who was so good in "Swingtown," and Brian Van Holt, who's adorable and roguishly charming, are simply wasted.

The one thesp who wasn't half-bad was Christa Miller as the married next door neighbor of Cox's hapless Elie.

Some of my fave thesp discoveries from recent years are popping up in ABC's new series.

Elizabeth Mitchell tops the list. The fantastically talented "Lost" player toplines "V." Oh Juliet, we miss you already.

Ty Burrell (pictured right) -- this dude is a comedy star. He's back with Levitan and Lloyd on "Modern Family." (Burrell's an alum of L&L's "Back to You.")

Jack Davenport -- aka Bruce from "Swingtown" is in "Flash Forward"

Sonya Walger (pictured left) -- aka Penny from "Lost" -- is also in "Flash Forward"

Josh Hopkins -- aka Roger from "Swingtown" is in "Cougar Town"

Brian Van Holt (pictured below left) -- the charming rogue from "John from Cincinnati" also resides in "Cougar Town."

Melinda McGraw (pictured below right) -- the sleazy Bobbie Barrett from "Mad Men" -- has gone domestic opposite Kelsey Grammer in "Hank." That should be a fun pairing.

Reiko Aylesworth -- late of "Lost" and "24" -- is on the case of "The Forgotten."

Here's ABC's new sked. Wednesday is loaded up with sitcoms. "Castle" and newbie "The Forgotten" get plum drama launchpad slots after "Dancing With the Stars."

I find it kinda funny that the "Back to You" gang is back together, sort of, on the same night with Kelsey Grammer's "Hank," Patricia Heaton's "The Middle" and Steve Levitan-Chris Lloyd's latest "Modern Family," featuring "Back to You" alum Ty Burrell. 

MONDAY: 8:00 p.m.  “Dancing with the Stars” (two-hours)
 10:00 p.m. “Castle”
  
TUESDAY: 8:00 p.m. “Shark Tank”
 9:00 p.m. “Dancing with the Stars the Results Show”
 10:00 p.m. “The Forgotten”

WEDNESDAY: 8:00 p.m.  “Hank”
 8:30 p.m. “The Middle” 
 9:00 p.m. “Modern Family”
 9:30 p.m. “Cougar Town”
 10:00 p.m.  “Eastwick”

THURSDAY: 8:00 p.m. “Flash Forward”
 9:00 p.m. “Grey’s Anatomy”
 10:00 p.m. “Private Practice”

FRIDAY: 8:00 p.m. “Supernanny”
 9:00 p.m. “Ugly Betty”
 10:00 p.m. “20/20”
  
SATURDAY: 8:00 p.m. “Saturday Night College Football”
 
SUNDAY: 7:00 p.m. “America’s Funniest Home Videos”
 8:00 p.m. “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”
 9:00 p.m. “Desperate Housewives”
 10:00 p.m. “Brothers & Sisters”

“The Bachelor” will air Monday nights from 8:00-10:00 p.m. following the run of “Dancing with the Stars,” and “Scrubs” and “Better Off Ted” will air at 9:00 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., respectively, following the run of “Dancing with the Stars The Results Show.”

New series descriptions after the jump:

Buzz is building at ABC for the Patricia Heaton starrer "The Middle."

The Warner Bros. TV half-hour,penned by DeAnn Heline and Eileen Heisler, tells the story of a middle-class Midwestern family through the eyes of a harried mom with a quirky (is there any other kind?) family. It's said to have a certain sweetness to it, or what was described as "Malcolm in the Middle" meets "The Wonder Years."

Single-cam project is a redo of the pilot WBTV produced for ABC a year ago with Ricki Lake as the lead.

Alyssa Milano starrer "Romantically Challenged" remains high on ABC's hot list, as is Courteney Cox's "Cougar Town." Still in the mix is Kelsey Grammer's "Awesome Hank."

A surprise bit of news from today's trolling is that the 1980s remake "V" looks like a midseason drama contender for ABC.

"Flash Forward" got the official pickup nod from ABC late Friday (though in reality, the promos for the show that ran in last week's "Lost" were about as official as it gets).

The time-bending fantasy drama stars Joseph Fiennes, Courtney B. Vance and Sonya Walger ("Lost's" dearly beloved Penny). Variety's Michael Schneider has all the info right here. Undoubtedly ABC hopes it has another "Lost" on its hands.

Congrats to co-creators/showrunners Steve Levitan and Christopher Lloyd on their latest pilot pickup. The buzz is very strong on this mockumentary-style show, from 20th Century Fox TV, revolving around three suburban couples.

Pilot was helmed by Jason Winer.

The core cast members: Julie Bowen, Ty Burrell, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Ed O'Neill, Eric Stonestreet and Sofia Vergara.

By Shalini Dore

No secrets were spilled, but there was plenty for Losties to geek-out on during the WGA Foundation’s panel sesh with "Lost" scribes Thursday at the WGA Theater in Beverly Hills.

The “Inside the Writers Room With Lost” evening gave fans plenty to chew over as Damon Lindelof, Carlton Cuse, Liz Sarnoff, Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz talked about how they plot the ABC drama.

The process of writing each new season starts with a blue-sky meeting where scribes discuss what the season will accomplish. After that the writers break down the episodes and write them. Usually there are three storylines: on the island, off the island and one other.

What helps the writers? Rabid-fan discussions of reality shows like “Top Chef,” which Sarnoff took credit for introducing to the "Lost" writers room.

OK, I confess. I'm enjoying "Desperate Housewives" in semi-regular doses this season.

The show lost me a few seasons ago with too many inane flights of fancy. Maybe I've mellowed, maybe in these turbulent times a guilty, soapy, silly pleasure is just what you need on a Sunday night. Or maybe the ABC sudser has simply gotten better after leaping five years into the future at the end of last season.

The storylines this season, from Lynette's son's affair with the soccer mom to Carlos' miracle blindness cure to the blossoming of Bree's Martha Stewart empire to Neal McDonough as Edie's hubby with the psycho-vendetta against Mike Delfino (who's now shacking up with Katherine, etc. etc.), have been fun and lightly addictive, kind of like M&Ms. Eva Longoria Parker has also been a standout this season, offering comic relief in all the right places. Felicity Huffman is unfailingly good at what she does, and earlier in the season Lily Tomlin was also a fun addition to the troupe.

I don't watch "Housewives" religiously every Sunday as I did in season one, but this season I've found myself checking in every other week or so to keep up with As Wisteria Lane Turns ...

Meanwhile, after all the fanfare and critical  hosannas showered on the series finale of "Battlestar Galactica" this past Friday, I'm feeling awful for never diving into the show.

It really makes no sense. By all rights, the remodeled "Battlestar" should be my kind of show -- smart fantasy drama with great characters, swell spaceships and scribes with a lot to say, Gene Roddenberry-style, about the state of our world by imagining the goings-on in distant galaxies. On top of all that, I'm a fan of Edward James Olmos.

Somehow, I missed Sci Fi Channel's initial boarding call for this mission when it began as a miniseries in 2003, and I just never caught up. I suppose that's what DVD box sets are for. If only spare time could be acquired as easily.

The showrunners just starting the prep for their last episode of the season when the official word came down from the network. "Life on Mars" would not see a second season.

As much as ABC execs from Stephen McPherson on down love the show, the math just didn't work. The long-gestating U.S. remake of the hit Brit series garnered mostly strong reviews (certainly from this space and from Variety's Brian Lowry) but it hasn't been able to draw a crowd, despite the benefit of landing ABC's two best drama lead-in slots, behind "Grey's Anatomy" in the fall and behind "Lost" for the past two months.

The "Mars" masterminds -- showrunners/exec producers Josh Appelbaum, Andre Nemec and Scott Rosenberg -- were just starting to get ready to shoot episode 17, the last of their order, in late February when the final call was made. There would be no second season of psychedelic adventures for Sam Tyler, the NYPD cop who mysteriously finds himself transported from Gotham 2008 to Gotham 1973 after getting hit by a car in the line of duty.

But the news was not all bad. In a sign of ABC's affection for the show, "Mars" was not yanked immediately. The show has been allowed to finish Tyler's journey through deep-seated emotional traumas that scarred 4-year-old Sam in '73 in ways that grown-up Sam has largely blotted out.

"It was a gift that Steve gave us, creatively to finish out the show and to have that closure for the audience," says Nemec.

It wasn't that hard to turn the script for the season finale to the series finale, set to air April 1. Because they were already building to a big revelation, they wound up rewriting the second half of the script to fully explain the "Mars" mythos and enlighten the loyalists on what's been going on and what becomes of Sam.

(Pictured above, "Life on Mars" stars Michael Imperioli and Jason O'Mara shooting on location in Gotham.)

The hits just keep on coming for "Lost."

ABC drama appears to lead the TV-on-Internet herd by a wide margin, drawing 2.5 million unique viewers in the month of February, according to the latest numbers from Nielsen Online. Those 2.5 million viewers initiated some 48 million streams of "Lost" episodes, clips and made-for-Web content a la the ultra-fun audio and video podcasts that showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse grace us with once a week (or thereabouts).

As much as I love writing "'Lost' is No. 1'," there's an important caveat to these numbers. Nielsen Online's monthly survey does not include numbers from Hulu, the NBC Universal-News Corp. joint venture. Hulu is on a tear these days, as readers of today's Daily Variety know from this page 1 story on Hulu climbing to No. 2 among online video providers behind only YouTube (which remains the equivalent of Wal-Mart, Microsoft, McDonalds and Toyota combined when it comes to online vid).

ABC.com ranks No. 6 among Internet vid providers for February with 187.1 million streams, up 14.5% from January. Hulu, on the back of its big marketing push, spiked 33% to 309 million streams. The average Hulu viewer spent 176.9 minutes watching its vid, compared to 104.8 minutes for ABC.com

So with that understanding, here's the rest of the top five online TV shows per Nielsen's report. They're mostly ABC shows, but that would likely change if only Hulu would cough up some show-specific numbers. Nielsen's report does include the individual websites of Hulu partners NBC and Fox, so there is some representation of their shows.

"Grey's Anatomy" -- 18.7 million streams/1.3 million unique viewers

"The Bachelor" -- 15.1 million streams/962,000 unique viewers

"The Office" -- 15 million streams

"Heroes" -- 11.7 million streams

"Hey, I'm just a driver."

When you're Lance Reddick, you're never just an anything. You are the creepiest, spookiest, strangely compelling and "Wire"-y driver who ever prowled the streets of L.A., or Tunisia, or Santo Domingo, or Santa Monica. Gawd, he's a fantastic actor, and there wasa great pic and feature story on our man Matthew Abaddon in today's L.A. Times.

Abaddon's return to "Lost"in episode seven, "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham," was the maraschino cherry and jim-jims on top of a six-scoop (one for each of tonight's extra minutes) hot fudge sundae. What did we do in our past time travels to deserve such a wonder on Wednesday night. (Sadly, ABC has no art from last night's seg; apparently none of its photogs covered this episode.)

There's much to sort through in this seg -- delivered to us by the power trio of Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof and helmer Jack "Badass Lenser" Bender -- but let's start with some big-picture questions.

** So, who exactly is Richard Alpert aligned with? Ben? Widmore? Jacob? Captain Jack Sparrow? Someone/thing else entirely? Interesting that both Ben and Widmore sort of dismiss him to Locke.

** How did Widmore know to track Locke pre-815 crash? How'd he know to send Abaddon to work as the orderly in the hospital where he told Locke to go on the Oz walkabout, etc. Who told him about Locke? Alpert? Or did Widmore know from their 1954 meeting? I loved it when Widmore in Tunisia asked Locke "how long has it been for you" since Locke first encountered Widmore at 17. Everything we think we know is wrong.

** Caesar (c'mon, there's nothing coincidental about that name) who we first met briefly last week, is no innocent victim here. He seemed to be very deliberately and purposefully looking for something in that office space on the island in the opening shot. I don't remember a Dharma station that looked quite like that however. And Ilana, the woman who seemed to be a cop escorting Sayid on the plane in last week's seg, seemed to know Caesar as more than just a fellow castaway.

Just got home from working the early shift at Variety. Grabbed a burrito on the way and am now set up in front of my computer to live-blog my heart out. I can't wait to see what music director Michael Giacchino has up his sleeve. The Acad hasn't seen fit to give him an Oscar yet -- he was robbed last year when he was nommed for "Ratatouille" -- but Oscarcast producers Laurence Mark and Bill Condon had the good sense to tap him for the show this year.

5:35: Well, it's an interesting start with host Hugh Jackman doing a song and dance medley themed to the best picture nominees. OK. Anne Hathaway singing? OK...

5:39: Jackman is having fun with stars in the front row: Frank Langella, Mickey Rourke, Brad and Angelina. It's a little Vegas-y, but ... OK.

5:41: Clips of past supporting actress winners. Audio clips of supporting actress winners being named. Interesting.

5:42: Five past supporting actress winners -- Tilda Swinton, Eva Marie Saint, Whoopi Goldberg, Anjelica Huston and Goldie Hawn -- come out to talk up each nominee. Hmmm, are they gonna do this for all categories?

5:47: Penelope Cruz (pictured right) wins supporting actress for "Vicky Cristina Barcelona." "Has anybody ever fainted here? I might be the first one." She goes on a bit but brings it home in telling us about staying up late as a kid in Spain to watch the show, and what it meant to her: "This ceremony was a moment of unity for the world." Film and the arts are a universal language, she said, "and we should do everything we can to protect its survival." Gawd, she's gorgeous.

5:52: Original screenplay award, presented by Tina Fey and Steve Martin. Is there an awards show that Fey hasn't made in this awards cycle? There's a stylized touch to the presentation of the nominees that's kinda cool.

5:55: Dustin Lance Black's ascent is complete. He wins for "Milk." Good for him. Learning of the Harvey Milk story gave him the hope to "live my life openly as who I am, and maybe even fall in love and one day get married." And Black (pictured left) has a message for gay and lesbian youth: "Very soon, I promise you you will have equal rights, federally, across this great nation of ours."

6:01: Simon Beaufoy wins adapted screenplay for "Slumdog Millionaire." Lots of thank yous. His year is complete too.

6:03: Jack Black and Jennifer Aniston are on stage presenting the first of what are called "Movie Yearbook" clips. Black gets off the first line that made me laugh out loud: "I make more money doing animation than live action...Each year I do one DreamWorks project, and I take all the money to the Oscars and bet it on Pixar." Cut to a shot of Jeffrey Katzenberg laughing like a good sport. But really, after all the MPTF madness of the past few weeks, I actually feel a little sorry for him.

6:06: "Wall-E" takes animated picture. No surprise. Black roars with approval. His fee for "Kung Fu Panda 2" just went down. "Wall-E" helmer Andrew Stanton thanks the usual suspects and then adds a shout-out to his high school drama teacher for casting him as Barnaby in "Hello Dolly." Hey, that's a cool tidbit. (At left is a pic of the "Slumdog" kids, just because.)

6:10: Glamour quotient on Oscar ads is definitely down: JC Penney. Hyundai. "We're all in this together" Jeff Bridges (I think) tells us in the voice-over of the Hyundai spot. I feel a little better. Now Gwenyth Paltrow and Dave Matthews and Brian Grazer and Tina Turner are shilling for American Express. Carl's Jr. Vons.

6:14: Music on the intros and outros is cool. Swingy, bouncy.

6:15: Sarah Jessica Parker and Daniel Craig are doing the set up for art direction award. Band's still noodling, giving it a nightclub kind of feel. I like this. "Curious Case of Benjamin Button" wins. Big shout-out to David Fincher for being "a wonderful human being."

6:19: Parker and Craig stick around for the costume design award. "The Duchess" wins. Tight bodices and hoops get 'em every time.

6:23: "Button" takes the makeup award. Winner Greg Cannom thanks litany of people and "New Orleans."

6:25: The "Movie Yearbook" clip package for romantic pics. A way of getting more popcorn fare into the telecast? Lost of kissing in the rain, and we end on a "Wall-E" shot of Wall-E and Eve. Sweet.

6:29: Commercial break. Wonder when we'll get the first movie ad?

6:30: "Good Morning America" plug. Followed by "Dancing With the Stars" plug. Always interesting to see what ABC tubthumps on the telecast.

6:31: Ben Stiller doing the Joaquin Phoenix joke, with paste-on mountain man beard as he presents the cinematography award with Natalie Portman. "I just want to retire from being a funny guy." Portman: "You look like you work at a Hasidic meth lab."

6:34: Anthony Dod Mantle wins for "Slumdog Millionaire." He's a little subdued.

6:37: Commercial break. MasterCard and JC Penney. Where's the movie ads?

6:38: Jessica Biel doing the Sci-Tech roundup clip package. She needs tech support for her dress, it's pretty awful.

6:40: More commercials. Aha! "The Soloist" gets the first blurb. And now Audi. I feel better when Oscars are advertising things out of my price range.

6:43: Judd Apatow-directed short with Seth Rogen and James Franco recapping the year's comedy pics. Cute but not uproarious. It is broadcast TV, after all.

6:51: "Castle" gets first ABC primetime series promo. They're selling the Nathan Fillion starrer more as a rom-com than they have been in the past few weeks.

6:52: Another number from Hugh Jackman, noting the revival of musicals. Beyonce joins him. It's a medley, but it's pretty good. Beyonce can sing anything. Wait, here comes Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens and a couple from "Mamma Mia." "The musical is back!" Jackman declares after the rave-up ending with "Somewhere." Baz Luhrmann gave us that number, Jackman informs us.

6:58: Second movie spot. The Sandra Bullock comedy "The Proposal." Hey, it's got Betty White in it, it must be good.

7:02: Clips of supporting actor winners. Here comes past winners Christopher Walken, Alan Arkin, Joel Grey, Kevin Kline and Cuba Gooding Jr. Same drill as with the ladies. I suppose this is a nice way to give the nominees a little extra spotlight in the seconds before they get it, or don't.

7:07: Heath Ledger wins for "Dark Knight." The late actor's mother, father and sister accept for him. "This is ever so humbling," says his father, Kim. Says mom Sally Bell: "Tonight we are choosing to celebrate and be happy with what he has achieved." (Pictured below, Sally Bell, Kim Ledger and Kate Ledger)

7:13: Bill Maher presenting docu award, and noting that he had one this year, "You know, the one about religion that didn't get nominated."

7:15: "Man on Wire" wins for docu. Philippe Petit hams it up with a bit of sleight of hand and by balancing his Oscar on his chin. Hey, it'll make the clip packages for years, he's no fool. (See pic at the very end of the post.)

7:20: Another "Dancing With the Stars" promo. And a funny one for "Jimmy Kimmel Live" with Tom Cruise.

7:23: Will Smith follows the action movie clip package, makes a joke about how action movies may not get Oscar respect but they do have something else -- "fans." Vfx nod goes to "Button." "Dark Knight" wins for sound editing.

7:30: Smith calls sound mixers "the superheroes" of the movie industry. "Slumdog" bags it. The three winners are breathless, literally. "I dedicate this award to my country," says Resul Pookutty with emotion that should remind us that even when awards season gets old, in "Slumdog's" case the achievements are incredibly meaningful on a level that those of us Hollywood natives can't really understand. "Slumdog" also gets it for film editing.

7:39: Clever promo for ABC's upcoming comedy "In the Motherhood" playing off all the Oscar thank yous to moms.

7:41: Eddie Murphy presents the Hersholt to Jerry Lewis. No matter what, you gotta give him credit. That MDA telethon has done a lot of good, you can't take that away from him. Jerry gets a standing ovation. He's extremely low-key, by King of Comedy standards, and he's looking his age. "The humility I feel is staggering." Ah, but all's right with the world, humble Jerry does a little hamming and face stretching at the very end.

7:49: Another "Castle" promo.

7:50: Music slot. Giacchino leads the orchestra in medley of nommed scores. Very elegant.

7:53: Alicia Keys and Zac Efron present original score. "Slumdog's" AR Rahman wins. "I'm grateful to have come all the way."

7:56: Here's the slot where Peter Gabriel isn't. He'd have a hard time following the "Slumdog" dancers and drummers anyway on "O Saya," I have to say, unless perhaps he brought "Wall-E" with him. Well, John Legend is doing a good job on "Down to Earth" anyway, and he brought along the Soweto choir. And give it up - here comes "Slumdog's" "Jai Ho," with Legend chiming in at the end. Nicely done.

8:00: "Jai Ho" wins! Rahman (pictured right), whose suit is to die for, BTW, looks a little stunned. Citing the hopeful theme of the movie, he observed: "All my life I've had a choice of hate and love. I chose love, and I'm here."

8:04: Plug for "Brothers & Sisters" upcoming two-hour seg.

8:05: Wow, big surprise in the foreign film category. Japan's "Departures" bests "Waltz with Bashir" and "The Class," to win. Nobody looks more surprised than director Yojiro Takita. "I am here because of films... We'll be back, I hope," Takita said.

8:10: During the commercial break, I'm thinking, there hasn't been a lot to make fun of this year! Is that good or bad?

(OK, that was kind of a silly comment. In hindsight after thinking about it some: No. 1: The presentation of the acting awards was squirm-worthy at times, as the cameras zeroed in on each nominee trying to look modest while the past winners on stage gushed and gushed about them. At least Cuba Gooding Jr. was funny in his spiel about Robert Downey Jr. No. 2: Jackman's opening dance number was a miss -- sorry, just not funny. The outre lyrics by "Sarah Silverman Program" scribes Dan Harmon and Rob Schrab were just...not funny. Other than that and the musical medley, which was entertaining, Jackman didn't seem to make his presence felt that much. He was pleasant enough, but that's about it. Not particularly engaging. No. 3: The shtick about taking us through the steps of making a movie felt a little bit too "Sesame Street" for comfort. No. 4: The Acad doesn't have to worry. Tonight's show wasn't anywhere near as bad as last year's Emmycast. In fact, it was only really bad in small doses. Mostly it just felt looooooong.)

8:11: Here's Queen Latifah, looking beautiful and gift-wrapped with a big bow on her bright blue frock (which is different than the gown she wore on the red carpet). She's singing "I'll Be Seeing You" over the clip reel of those lost in 2008. Classy touch. Super-classy to linger on Paul Newman at the end.

8:17: Another "Jimmy Kimmel Live" post-Oscar special spot.

8:18: Acad prexy Sid Ganis gets a round of applause but no speech. Are we running late?

8:19: Reese Witherspoon doing the director honors. She's always lovely, but she's had better hair and dress days. She's just not as radiant as usual, IMHO.

8:20: Danny Boyle, natch. Jumps up and down three times, a message to his kids. Warners gets thanked for giving "Slumdog" up to Peter Rice at Fox Searchlight. Am I imagining things or does Boyle look a little bit relieved to not have to make any more acceptance speeches, at least not this week.

8:26: Best actress -- coming atcha from Shirley MacLaine, Sophia Loren, Halle Berry (who looks really fantastic), Marion Cotillard and Nicole Kidman. Kate Winslet gets the nod. Shampoo bottles, dad whistling, she's going on and on. I can imagine the producers looking at their watches and gritting their teeth.

8:35: Best actor. C'mon Sean Penn! Here comes Robert De Niro, Ben Kingsley, Anthony Hopkins, Adrien Brody and Michael Douglas to do the honors. Adrien Brody's working on his Joaquin Phoenix look. Oh boy, we are so going way over.

8:42: Mickey Rourke looks like he wants to scream: "Get on with it already."

8:43: Sean Penn gets it for "Milk." He earned it, for sure. Standing ovation. "You commie homo loving sons of guns." "I do know how hard I make it to appreciate me, often." He gets serious in referring to Prop. 8, and calling on those who voted for the same-sex marriage ban to think of the "great shame" they will one day feel. "We have got to have equal rights for everyone," Penn said. And he closes with a shout-out to Mickey Rourke, "my brother." Somebody slipped Penn a humility pill.

8:50: "Slumdog Millionaire" gets the call. Wow, look at that mob on stage. I was rooting for a "Milk" upset but looking at those faces, especially the kids, it's hard to be anything but happy for them.

8:55: Credits roll with clips of upcoming pics. Funny choice of closing credits music, Beck's remake of Dylan's "Leopard Skin Pill Box Hat" (is there a connection I'm missing?).

9:00: Clever ABC promo setting stars of their upcoming shows "Castle," "Cupid," "In the Motherhood" and "Better Off Ted" at an Oscar party.

Here’s a news flash: “Lost” is a hit online. But so is CW’s “Privileged.”

For the first time, Nielsen Online has released rankings for online streaming of episodes and clips.
“Lost” tops the chart for the month of December with 1.4 million unique viewers, followed by NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” with 1.1 million.

By the yardstick of the total time viewers spent with a show online, the surprise leader in December was CW’s “Privileged.” The rating-challenged dramedy drew only 29,000 unique viewers, but those that did tune in stuck around for an average of 214.6 minutes.

There’s a big caveat to these rankings, however, in that they don’t include shows streamed via Hulu because Hulu won’t breakout its numbers to Nielsen (at least if I'm reading Nielsen-ese right. A Nielsen Online rep would only say that Hulu is "not available in our syndication service.")

Nielsen’s survey includes the websites of Hulu partners NBC and Fox, as well as ABC, CBS and CW. But by all accounts, Hulu's vid streaming traffic has outpaced that of the Peacock and Fox nets' individual websites. The survey captures clips that are embedded on other websites and blogs, as long as the streams come from the network's proprietary player (but not Hulu's player).

"It's OK, he's with me."

No, Jack, you're with him.You might as well have a dog collar around you're neck because you are sooooo subservient to Benjamin Linus now that it's hard to take. Just ask Kate.

For all the curve balls that tonight's "Lost" installment, "The Little Prince," threw at us -- and they were fast and furious in the last 15 minutes (JIN! ROUSSEAU! JIN! JIN! JIN! JIN!), the one big moment of clarity I had was that Jack is just a goner. He may be cleaned up a bit, having sworn off the OxyContin and the facial hair, but he most certainly has lost his mind -- the sharp, skeptical, strategic mind that helped the castaways so much in the early going of Our Great Adventure.

I saw it most particularly when Jack and Kate were sitting in Kate's car outside the motel, when Jack talked Kate into letting him go confront Claire's mother. (It's always a good "Lost" episode when there are multiple references to Claire's surname, or in this case "Mrs. Littleton," though in point of fact I am not a Mrs. Littleton, but it's still cool...)

Jack pleads: "I can fix this, Kate." So cloying. If you have to spell it out, you're doomed. Jack of old would've been up the staircase before Kate had time to react, and he would've tried to punch out the lawyer on his way down the stairs. And then he would've wigged out some more and made sure he hadn't given the guy a concussion.

In the closing scenes, Jack just sounds ridiculous trying to convince Kate "we all need to be together." Earlier in the episode he tries to convince Sayid "Ben is on our side." Can't he tell how ridiculous he sounds? Sayid wisely corrects Jack: "The only side he's on is his own." But does Jack listen? Nooooo.

The island is calling again...“Lost” returns to ABC on Wednesday, Jan. 21.

The fifth season of the fantasy-mystery skein will air Wednesdays at 9 p.m., after airing on Thursdays last season. The current occupant of the Wednesday 9 p.m. berth, ABC’s sophomore season drama “Private Practice,” will be relocated after “Lost” returns, ABC said Friday.

It’s expected that ABC will make more skedding changes on Wednesday in the near future, given the weak perf of 8 p.m.’s “Pushing Daisies” and 10 p.m.’s “Dirty Sexy Money” this fall. “Private Practice,” on the other hand, has been given a full-season order.

“Lost” will bow Jan. 21 with its usual season preem drill: two back to back segs from 9-11 p.m., preceded at 8 p.m. by a clip recap show.

(Sorry, as a reader points out, "Lost" has not previously bowed with back-to-back segs. The screeners ABC sent out at the start of season 4 and the bifurcated season 3 included at least two episodes, so that's the source of my late-on-a-Friday-afternoon confusion.)

Oh boy, here's the new "Lost" trailer. ABC hasn't officially set the preem date beyond "early 2009." Here's to hoping it's closer to mid-Jan.than early Feb. Still wondering what Sawyer and Juliet have been talking about all this time...

"Life on Mars" deserves more than the 7.9 million viewers it pulled in last night.

I've fallen for ABC's redo of the Brit drama, which unfortunately is placing third in its Thursday 10 p.m. time slot. I like star Jason O'Mara more and more as I watch the show and I also like ensemble of supporting players -- Harvey Keitel (pictured at left with O'Mara in head lock), Michael Imperioli (pictured below), Gretchen Mol and Jonathan Murphy. The mystery element -- the whodunit on why our hero, NYPD detective Sam Tyler, was transported back in time to 1973 after getting hit by a car while chasing a perp in 2008 -- is unfolding slowly, with just enough intrigue to make you want to keep your eyes peeled for veiled clues.

Perhaps most of all, I love the way the show is lensed -- the look of 1973 Gotham has a hazy, almost sepia tone to it that adds to the mood of the show. We see it all as Sam does -- very surreal and dream-like. Keitel was a little over the top in the pilot but has since dialed it down. Imperioli has settled in to his mustache and sideburns. I hope "Mars" gets the time on air to tell its time-warp tale.

Interesting to see the networks getting more aggressive about reporting their DVR numbers.

ABC today is touting "Grey's Anatomy" (pictured above) retaining its crown as the most-DVR'd show of the season so far. The medical drama's Sept. 25 season preem numbers (18.5 million viewers, 7.4 in 18-49) don't look so soft when you add in 2.7 million viewers and 1.3 demo rating points from DVR playback viewing in the week after the premiere telecast. (The premiere ratings are based on the new industry standard of Live-Plus-Same Day, which means the aud for the initial telecast plus those that watched it on the same day of the preem.)

ABC also reports that "Desperate Housewives," "Boston Legal" and "Brothers and Sisters" added 1 million viewers or more to their preem numbers through DVR viewing. "Grey's," "Boston Legal," "Ugly Betty" and "Brothers and Sisters" registered gains of 10% or more in the demo derby too, according to ABC.

CBS also sent out a bunch of info on its premiere week DVR ratings. "CSI: Miami," "NCIS," "The Mentalist" (pictured right), "Without a Trace," "Criminal Minds" and "Two and a Half Men" all padded their opening-night numbers by 1 million or more viewers.

The lag time in getting the DVR numbers out seems so incongruous in this era of non-stop, insta-information. But it's also true that success breeds success. A show that performs poorly in the old-fashioned overnights is not likely to turn the corner when the DVR numbers are factored in. But strong shows look even stronger when the ratings yardstick is stretched out to include the DVR aud.

Listen up, "Ugly Betty" fans. Variety's Season Pass blog has a Mode-errific interview with showrunner Silvio Horta, the scribe with the brightest smile in Hollywood (as evidenced at left).

Horta touches on a little bit of everything about the show in the Q&A conducted by Kathy Lyford from questions submitted by fans. Among the topics he touches is how the relationship between Betty and Gio, played by Freddy Rodriguez, developed.

As Horta explains:

I've always known Freddy Rodriguez to be an outstanding actor, but even so, I never expected the chemistry that he brought — it was simply incredible. Obviously, we saw this chemistry immediately and that did affect certain details of Betty and Gio's relationship. In other words, we utilized the chemistry America and Freddy brought to the show by writing scenes with that same chemistry in mind.

Only a been-there/greenlit-that showbizzer like Leonard Goldberg could bring together the motley crew of Sumner Redstone, Michael Eisner, Leslie Moonves, Jerry Weintraub, Bill Blinn, Harry Sloan, Jonathan Dolgen, Arnold Kopelson, Ed Zwick and Peter Bart on a night when there was a compelling boxing match on TV.

But the Paley Center for Media months ago dated Thursday night for its salute to Goldberg's long career in film and TV, and his friends and longtime colleagues weren't about to let him down, not even for the spectacle of Biden vs. Palin.

It is a testament to Goldberg's legacy as an innovator and successful producer that the conversation was much more a lively discussion about television's present and future than it was a rose-colored nostalgia trip back into the past.

"The problem is, it's nobody's money," Goldberg opined when the conversation turned to the ever-spiraling costs of TV production.

During the years of his very fruitful producing partnership with Aaron Spelling in the 1970s and '80s (count the hits: "The Rookies," "SWAT," "Starsky & Hutch," "Family," "Charlie's Angels," "Fantasy Island," "Hart to Hart"), Goldberg recalled, "if we went over budget, it was our money. We decided when we would (need to) go over budget, because it was our money...If more people were given the opportunity to independently produce (today), I think you'd see people figure out ways to do it for less."

Variety boss Bart moderated spirited debate about the state of the biz, then and now, among Goldberg, Eisner (his former underling at ABC), writer Blinn (who penned "Brian's Song" and "Starsky and Hutch" for Goldberg) and multihyphenate Zwick (who cut his teeth in his 20s on "Family").

(Pictured above, from left, Eisner, Goldberg and Bart.)

"Desperate Housewives" fans should hop on over to the Season Pass blog for a fun, video-enhanced Q&A with Marc Cherry, conducted by Season Pass maven Kathy Lyford from questions sent in by fans.

Cherry is candid and insightful in discussing his creative process and the characters that populate Wisteria Lane. To wit:

Eva and I sort of discovered the character together. At some point I started making Gabrielle selfish and mean and self-obsessed and materialistic and Eva kind of was scared at first. She thought people wouldn’t like her. But I discovered she had the same qualities that Rue McClanahan did in “Golden Girls,” which is the ability to do unlikable things and still have the audience love you. And once I was confident in her ability to pull that kind of character off, we really went for it. It’s all about coming up with ways for Gabrielle to do just horrible, horrible things and we’re having a lot of fun with it.

"Mad Men" fanatics alert: Some swell tidbits were shared by series creator/exec producer Matthew Weiner and his assistant-turned-staff-writer Robin Veith during Wednesday night's panel sesh with Emmy-nommed writers at the Writers Guild Theater in BevHills.

Most awesome, to my ears, was the anecdote that Veith shared about the unforgettable scene in the seg toward the end of season one where a stressed-out Betty Draper shocks her children by picking up a BB gun to shoot the neighbors pigeons as they fly overhead against a postcard-perfect blue sky. The neighbor had threatened to shoot the Draper's new puppy after the dog got a hold of one of the pigeons.

Veith vividly remembers being a shocked at the age of 7 or 8 while growing up in "farm town Maryland"  when her own mother did the very same thing after her dog, Boo, snapped the neck of a pigeon kept by their very unpopular neighbor -- whose birds were the scourge of their cul-de-sac.

"It was the greatest thing I'd ever seen," Veith said, with obvious pride.

Veith (pictured left) gave us another insight relating to an element in this season's segs that has generated a ton of commentary in "Mad Men" blog-o-sphere.

"Sally Draper mixing cocktails for her parents -- that was me," Veith said, noting that daiquiris were among her specialties. There was a momentary hush in the aud.

Another funny bit relating to a plot point from the first-season finale, "The Wheel," for which Veith and Weiner (pictured above) are nommed (Weiner's also up for the pilot): Weiner bought an actual "Relaxercizer" machine that he found in a thrift store more than three years ago, before "Mad Men" was even set up at AMC, with the idea that he would use it in the show one day.

"That's how I work," he said.

Very classy. With Laura Ziskin at the helm, ABC, CBS and NBC pulled off a historic simultaneous telecast devoted to raising money for cancer research and awareness among viewers of the importance of early-detection tests for the disease that claims 550,000 Americans every year.

"Stand Up to Cancer" was part telethon and part tribute to the millions of famous and ordinary folks who have battled cancer in its many forms. The hourlong, commercial-free special, originating from Hollywood's Kodak Theater, was notable for featuring a joint-emcee appearance by the Big Three news anchors -- Charlie Gibson, Katie Couric and Brian Williams -- and appearances by a gaggle of celebs. Presidential contenders John McCain and Barack Obama sent in vids, as did producers of "The Simpsons."

All in all, an uplifting hour that harnessed the awesome power of the medium on behalf of a most worthy cause. Kudos to Ziskin (pictured below with Ellen DeGeneres), a cancer survivor herself, for joining with Sherry Lansing, the Entertainment Industry Foundation and other organizers to make it happen.

(More pics after the jump. Below right: Jennifer Garner, Evan Handler and Scarlett Johansson)

The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and ABC are adding an anniversary sheen to this year's 60th annual Emmycast by holding an online poll to determine television's 40 greatest "moments."

The problem with these kind of tallies is that no finite list can do justice to the bazillion hours of television programming that have flown through the air since commercial network television took root in the '47-'48 period.

But even accepting the limitations of these kind of list-y efforts, I gotta say that the selections that ATAS and ABC have come up with -- 20 apiece for comedy and drama -- are a little thin, in my book.

First off, they have the Beatles' first appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show" under comedy. Huh? The finale of the first edition of "American Idol"? Huh?

The "All in the Family" where Sammy Davis Jr. kisses Archie -- OK. "The Carol Burnett Show" with the "Gone With the Wind" spoof -- OK. "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In" with then-candidate Richard Nixon delivering the "sock it to me" line -- well, OK, though I'd call it more historical curiosity than a comedy moment. But the coming out episode of "Ellen" and a "Mork and Mindy" seg, even with the talents of Jonathan Winters -- c'mon! No "Cheers"? No "WKRP in Cincinnati"? No "Odd Couple"? No "Soap"? No "Barney Miller"? I could go on (and on).

Same beef goes for the drama selections: No room for "I Spy," "St. Elsewhere," "The Wire," "Homicide: Life on the Street," "The Rockford Files," "Adam-12," "Lou Grant," "Hill Street Blues," "Northern Exposure," "NYPD Blue."

But "Little House on the Prairie," "L.A. Law," "Dynasty" and "Moonlighting" make the cut?

Oh well. The top comedy and drama vote-getters will be revealed during the Sept. 21 Emmycast, just before this year's top series winners are announced. From the choices at hand, I'd have to vote for the "To Serve Man" seg of "The Twilight Zone" for drama (pictured top left), and the series finale of "Newhart" on the comedy side (pictured right).

Good to finally get a proper look at this year's "Lost" vid from Comic-Con now that it's popped up on ABC.com.

"Secret Candle" drops a lot of hints, though I just don't know if I buy that Marvin Candle (aka Edgar Halliwax) is Pierre Chang, professor of astrophysics from Ann Arbor, Mich.

"Time isn't just of the essense, it is the essense," Candle/Halliwax/Chang pleads, from 30 years in the past (or is it his future and our past?). The audio of the "Lost" panel with Damon Lindelof, Carlton Cuse and Matthew Fox from Comic-Con is also posted on the show's podcast page.

I'm grateful for any morsel of fresh "Lost" material, but it's also kinda harsh to see the "returns in early 2009" posted on the show's home page, given that it's the dog days of August and we still have to wait another Six Months at Minimum for the next full-length adventure with the Flight 815's once-and-future castaways.

Can't wait for this year's "Lost" Comic-Con teaser vid with the creepy Dr. Marvin Candle (or whatever his handle is) to show up on ABC.com or iTunes.

I've seen the grainy versions captured on cell phone cameras and posted on YouTube but those are more frustrating than anything else because you can't grasp all the nuances, hints and clues. For those of us who didn't make it to Comic-Con, Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune has provided us with the next best thing -- a fabulous write-up of the "Lost" panel on her The Watcher blog.

It's so good, you'll feel like you've time-traveled back a few days to the S.D. Convention Center after reading it. Thanks, Mo.

POSTED BY STUART LEVINE

A few wandering thoughts while waiting for the season two premiere of "Mad Men" Sunday night. More on that later, but for now …
-- You can take the NBA Finals, Wimbledon and British Open, but I'll go for ESPN's World Series of Poker coverage every time. I find very few TV events -- even though this one is highly edited -- that has as much drama. Tuesday, the cabler premiered the tourney, with satellite games to start out with the main event to begin in a few weeks. (Pictured right is 2007 WSOP champ Jerry Yang and his $8.25 million in winnings. Cash.)
While attending the Cinevegas Film Festival at the Palms last month, I walked across the street to the Rio and caught part of the WSOP in person. Two massive rooms with hundreds of tables, the sound of chips rattling around like the white noise of honeybees busy in a hive. As a player, it was music to my ears.

Emmy's picks for writing and directing nominees in the series categories are kinda like a state of the craft report card every year. They're often the category where new and innovative programs are recognized long before they crack the more prominent races.

But in a year when Emmy voters seemed to embrace new and different, the choices in the writing and directing heats seem more pedestrian, though some of this year's contenders were so obvious (Bryan Fuller and Barry Sonnenfeld for "Pushing Daisies" Pie-lette, Matthew Weiner and Alan Taylor for the "Mad Men" pilot) as to take some of the suspense out of the race this year. Sonnenfeld (pictured left) and Taylor (pictured right) have already bagged DGA Awards for their work on these pilots.

Sonnenfeld, IMHO, can safely begin rehearsing his acceptance speech for comedy helmer. (Coming from him, it oughta be a doozy.) The competish is strong -- a six-nominee category meaning that there was one tie in the nom ballotting -- but nothing was quite so inventive and visually distinct as that first slice of ABC's "Pushing Daisies."

From my viewfinder, the dark horse in the race could be James Bobin of HBO's "Flight of the Conchords." Bobin, co-creator of the series with Kiwi comedy-rockers Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie, is up for the "Sally Returns" episode of "Conchord's" 12-episode frosh season.

Dan Attias nabbed a nom for the "No Cannes Do" installment of "Entourage." Paul Lieberstein has shown that there's no end to his talents by performing, writing and directing segs of NBC's "The Office," and now he's up for helming the seg "Money" Parts 1 and 2 (sounds like a James Brown hit from the early '70s). Also nommed from "Office" is Paul Feig, for handling the season finale, "Goodbye, Toby," which happened to mark the farewell of Lieberstein's character. Michael Engler of NBC's "30 Rock" is up for the "Rosemary's Baby" installment.

POSTED BY STUART LEVINE

Marc Cherry said once again on Thursday that he'd like to set an end date for "Desperate Housewives" but the network isn't going for it. On a panel of ABC showrunners at the Television Critics Assn. tour in Beverly Hills, Cherry (pictured right) said that the series would end after seven seasons.

The show is about to embark on its fifth season, meaning if creator-exec produced Cherry had his wish, "Housewives" would end in 2011. An ABC representative and a high-level network exec said that there were no firm plans for the show to end at that point, and that Cherry was in no position to declare a finale for the series.

This isn't the first time Cherry has spoken to the press about his desire for the show to have a solid wrap-up date, but his discussions with the media haven't swayed the network. "Lost" exec producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse were also on the panel, and Cherry's comments came after segment on how Lindelof and Cuse have been able to focus on their storytelling now that they know exactly when the show will end. There are two more seasons of "Lost," and it will conclude in 2010.

"Housewives" was a kudos and ratings powerhouse when it launched in 2004, receiving a nomination for best comedy. Although it hasn't been nominated since, the show continues to draw a significant amount of viewers. On the panel, Cherry said the first season of the show was very strong creatively but then dipped in season two. According to Cherry, seasons three and four have been an improvement. Cherry is currently contracted to ABC Studios until May 2011 and commented on ending the show when he signed that deal: "I think that, at the end of my deal, and after seven seasons, it will be a good time to call it quits," he said.

"I don't want anyone else to run the show, and I don't want us to fade away. But I'm serious in my intent to end it after seven years," Cherry said. "I don't want to overstay my welcome."

So glad I didn't have to work up a sweat over another "Lost" Emmy snub this year. (It helped me save my fire for the final snub of "The Wire," which "On the Air" contributor and fellow "Wire" nut Stuart Levine called more than a week ago.)

Season four of "Lost" was one long thrill ride -- a cerebral adventure that called for viewers to have masters degrees in physics, engineering, philosophy and literature. Hard to believe Henry Ian Cusick, aka Desmond, didn't make the supporting drama actor cut, given that the seg submitted to the Acad was his tour de force in "The Constant."

Now, there really would've been trouble in TV town if Michael Emerson had not made the list, for his labors as the nefarious Benjamin. He's so good in the role that you can never quite decide if he's evil incarnate or just a misunderstood Other. (My favorite bit of Emerson trivia is that the actress who played Ben's mom in the season three flashback segs, Carrie Preston, is his wife.)

Also nice to see the Acad recognize that "Lost" is the best lensed show on TV with a cinematography nod, to John Bartley for "The Constant." And another nod for Michael Giacchino for his most excellent scoring work. He wuz robbed earlier this year at the Oscars when he lost for "Ratatouille." Here's hoping he adds another Emmy to his collection in September.

ABC has been good about coming up with clever promo stunts for its clever-quirky dramedy "Pushing Daisies."

Last year it was a special pre-premiere screening of the pilot seg at the Hollywood Forever cemetery. This year they're hosting a Pie Hole pie-eating contest at the Orange County Fair.

Field Cate and Sammi Hanratty (pictured below at last year's Hollywood Forever event), the moppets who play the kid versions of Lee Pace's Ned and Anna Friel's Chuck, will be on hand for the cherry promotion, which will run July 11-12 and July 15-19, and six more nights between July 22-Aug. 2.

If you're inclined to scarf some pie and pick up a few "Pushing Daisies" trinkets, get yourself down to the O.C. Fair and Event Center in Costa Mesa. Somehow I'm guessing "Daisies" creator Bryan Fuller can put away a lot pie; he must love the stuff to have made them such a dominant motif in his romantic fairy tale.

"Daisies" was one of the casualties of the WGA walkout last season, as its promising frosh year was rudely interrupted. The show's re-launch is off to a good start, as it seems to have a strong shot a copping an Emmy nom for comedy series after making the top 10 of vote-getters in the nominations polling. Here's hoping it comes back in the fall with pie-high ratings.

Nothing says TCA like stars in awkward situations. (See pic at left of "House" star Hugh Laurie in a bumper car at Fox's TCA party on the Santa Monica pier last summer.)

Yep, the Television Critics Assn. summer press tour is upon us, starting Tuesday at the Beverly Hilton hotel. The January TCA gathering was scuttled by the writers strike, so undoubtedly there will be pent-up excitement (agitation? irritation? ultra-obnoxious lines of questioning?) than usual among the scribes, execs and stars who make TCA go 'round.

As we did last year, On the Air will offer team coverage of this fortnight of frothing about shows to come and the strike-interrupted season that just was, and any other issues that crop up between Tuesday and July 22. Variety's Stuart Levine plans to park himself at the BevHilton for the duration, while our TV leader, Michael Schneider, reporter Daniel Frankel and myself will also be availing ourselves of the hotel's free Wi-Fi to cover the events...and drink. I'm guessing it's a safe bet that the tradition of TCA bingo (in which attendees track the over-use of buzz words by panelists) will include the phrase "writers strike" this year.

It all starts Tuesday with a heavy rotation of cable presentations, including Hallmark Channel, HD Net, BBC America and E! nets.

Wednesday's lineup includes: AMC and WE; MTV Networks; A&E Networks

Thursday: Discovery Networks; ESPN; Sundance Channel; HBO

Friday: Turner Broadcasting; Fox Reality Channel; Starz; Lifetime

Saturday-Sunday: PBS -- whose talent roster includes none other than Sir George Martin, plugging his series "On Record: The Soundtrack of Our Lives."

Like parents trying to get the kids to turn off the TV and the Wii and spend some time between covers this summer, ABC and "Lost" stewards Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse have launched the "Lost Book Club" via ABC.com and iTunes.

It is exactly what it sounds like: A running list of books that have made their way on to one of the smallscreen's Best Shows Ever. There's info about each title, details of how it was referenced on the show and of course, a forum for fan gabbery. It's a little something to help tide us over during the (argggh) seven more months (give or take a week or two) until our heroes come storming back in early '09.

(I'm just dying to know what's transpiring between Sawyer, Juliet and that bottle of Dharma rum right about now...)

Dean Moriarty and Sal Paradise 4 Ever!

Hot off the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences nomination vote-tallying machine, here are the top 10 finalists for Emmy noms in the comedy and drama series heats. The final noms will be announced on Thursday, July 17.

(My 2 cents on the list follows after the jump)

COMEDY

Curb Your Enthusiasm
Entourage
Family Guy
Flight of the Conchords
The Office
Pushing Daisies
30 Rock
Two and a Half Men
Ugly Betty
Weeds

DRAMA

Boston Legal
Damages
Dexter
Friday Night Lights
Grey’s Anatomy
House
Lost
Mad Men
The Tudors
The Wire

If you dream of becoming a television writer, buff up the resume and click here because applications are now being accepted for the 2009 Writing Fellowship Program run by the Disney-ABC Television Group, Walt Disney Studios and Writers Guild of America West.

The fellowship is an intense year-long paid program that gives a handful of promising scribes the chance to jumpstart their careers through seminars and workshop, one-on-one mentor assignments with Disney and ABC creative execs and the ability to observe first hand how the sausage is made on ABC, Disney Channel or ABC Family shows, among others.

Alumni of this program, heading into its 19th year, have famously done well for themselves. Success stories from this year's program, which isn't even over yet, include Erika Johnson, who landed on "Ugly Betty"; Leyani Diaz, who joined the staff of "Brothers and Sisters"; and Matthew Whitney, who can now be found in the writers' room on ABC Family's "Greek."

I've spoken with a number of fellowship alums over the years, and there is no doubt that it is an incredible experience for those who are lucky enough to land a slot. Disney deserves a tip of the pen for its commitment to the Writing Fellowship and similar program for helmers that the Mouse House runs with the Directors Guild of America.

Applications for the Writing Fellowship will be accepted via this website through Aug. 8. So get out that spec script you've been harboring on your hard drive and get cracking.

POSTED BY STUART LEVINE

Growing up a sports nut in the 1970s, Saturday afternoon always meant three things: NBC's Major League Baseball Game of the Week, ABC's Professional Bowlers Tour and "Wide World of Sports."

The latter was hosted every week by Jim McKay, who passed away this morning at the age of 86. I can still hear his voice in the intro, "The thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat." Visually, those words were always set against that unfortunate ski jumper tumbling, head over feet, down the side of a mountain. That poor guy, how horrible to always be know as the guy synonymous with "defeat."

McKay would bounce all over the globe with "Wide World," from cliffdiving in Mexico, to table tennis in Asia, to log rolling in Scotland. He seemed to get a big kick chipping a golf ball over the Great Wall of China, back when traveling to China was something special and unique.

He also was a big fan of horse racing, and would always stand in front of the twin spires at Churchill Downs on the first Saturday of every May for the Kentucky Derby. Hosting the Derby coverage was special to McKay, a Maryland resident who owned a horse farm and loved thoroughbreds.

But where McKay earned his reputation as one of the giants of television came during one of the ugliest incidents in the history of sports competition: the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Germany. There, under the dark of night, a Palestine terrorist group killed Israeli athletes and coaches, turning the Games into a political arena and place of mourning for Jews all around the world.

Covering the story, McKay ended up on the air for something like 16 consecutive hours. The incident culminated, tragically, at the local airport, where nine Israelis were murdered. A visibly shaken McKay, upon hearing the news, just looked into the camera and said, "They're all gone."

His remarkable coverage of the events in Munich would be his legacy. He would go on to cover several more Olympics for ABC and was as important in making the Olympics such a massive television event for decades to come as Mark Spitz, Mary Lou Retton or Nadia Comenici.

There are very few giants of sports broadcasting around anymore, and McKay — a newspaperman who could write as well as anyone with a mic in their hands — has to be considered one of those who helped turn sports from the back page to the front page, and into the billion dollar business it is today.

He certainly might not agree with that, nor would he want to think sports has become so corporate anymore that it has lost its sense of place in the world. Chances are, he would've loved to be at Belmont Park today, watching to see if Big Brown was Triple Crown worthy.

It kinda felt like time stopped for about 48 hours or so after "Lost" delivered to us its amazing season four finale on Thursday night. I couldn't think of anything else but the scads of plot developments served up in the three-parter, "There's No Place Like Home."

I watched it again the way it was clearly meant to be viewed -- the three parts consecutively, with pause and rewind buttons at the ready -- and tried to step back a bit and think about the larger story that has gripped so many of us since Oceanic flight 815 hit that first nasty pocket of turbulence on Sept. 22, 2004.

Interesting, if not surprising, to see that Jack is the most focused on piecing together the truth of what's been happening to them -- even in his pill-popping, boozy, out-there state in the flash-forwards, he's on a quest for answers. The remaining survivors, even Have Gun, Will Travel Sayid, seem to still be in a state of post-traumatic island fever denial.

On one hand, the fact that there is a conspiracy to cover it up -- the staging of the faux 815 plane wreckage, etc. - should give credence to Jack's stance that it's not about destiny or miracles but science, the individual and free will -- in this case some folks very determined to snuff out the free will, and the last breaths, of the 815 survivors. (It's not explicitly clear to me whether Jack's aware of who Charles Widmore is, but I'm guessing he got an earful from copter jockey Frank Lapidus during the time they spent together on Penny's boat)

But on the other hand (no pun intended), Jack has a fascinating conversion in the life boat after the helicopter crash, just before they run into Penny's boat. Soon as he sees the light at the end of the tunnel -- the lights of a boat that can help them get back to civilization -- he must've heard Locke's warning from the greenhouse echoing in his ears. In insisting that the shell-shocked survivors concoct a doozy of a story to cover their tracks, he's tacitly accepting at least some of what Locke asserted.

"Lie to them. If you do it half as well as you do it to yourself, they'll believe you."

Oh Locke. Jeremy. Locke. Bentham. Whatever your name is. Wherever you are...

"Lost's" fourth season finale, "There's No Place Like Home, Parts 2 and 3," wasn't 88 minutes of television. It was somewhere between a religious experience and a psychedelic journey through time and space, through the earth's crust, past the frozen donkey wheels, past disappearing islands, heroic dudes making the ultimate sacrifices for the ones they love and a latenight break-in at a low-rent funeral parlor in a bad part of L.A. I am still tingling from the enormity and the emotional gamut of the experience.

Friday ayem update: Ratings are in. Big but not nearly as big as you'd think for two of the Greatest Hours of Television Ever. No doubt the DVR numbers will add significantly to the viewership by next week, and the web streams off ABC.com will surely be flowing during the next few weeks. 9-10 p.m. hour of finale averaged 11.9 million viewers and 4.6 rating/13 share in adults 18-49. 10-11 p.m. hour did 12.5 million and 5.1/14 in 18-49.

There's so much to think about, so much info to process and plot development to parse that it would be folly to try to offer anything like a definitive commentary on these segs while the first viewing is still reverberating around my brain. I didn't know how they were going to be able to top last season's gut-wrenching finale, but Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof (who penned both hours) and helmer Jack Bender surely did.

So first some top-of-mind observations and a few questions. After repeat viewing(s), I'll try to draw some larger conclusions. There's plenty of time. I think part of the emotional roller-coaster of tonight is having to come to grips with the fact that we won't get any new episodes until January-February. Shudder.

**A moment of mega-significance seems to be the scene toward the end in the life boat (I felt the ghost of Tallulah Bankhead in the scene) when Hurley is talking about "miracles" and Locke moving the island. "One minute it was there, the next minute it was gone." Hurley's statement was such an echo of the conversation Jack had with Locke in the fantastic, fantastic, beautifully shot scene in the Orchard station greenhouse where those two are once again going at it on the science/faith seesaw.

"Just wait til you see what I'm about to do," Locke warns him, and then tells him he has to lie about the survivors' plane crash experience to protect those left behind. Now fast-forward toward the scene in the life boat and Jack as always is scoffing at the notion of miracles, but, the minute he steps into what turns out to be Penny's boat (Penny's boat!), what's the first thing he cooks up? The Big Lie, for their own protection. For his own protection, as Locke warned him in the greenhouse: "the knowledge (Jack has) will eat you alive from the inside out. You're going to have to lie." Oh boy.

"Do you believe in God, Jack?"

"Do you?"

"Two days after I found out that I had a fatal tumor on my spine, a spinal surgeon fell out of the sky...If that's not proof of God, I don't know what is."

This exchange between Ben and Jack in "Lost" episode "The Cost of Living," while Jack's imprisoned in the bowels of the Hydra station is more than just an epistemological debate -- it's a heck of a bit of writing that, to my way of thinking, helps prove that the first half of "Lost's" third season has been unfairly maligned as being weak. In preparation for tonight's two-hour, season four closer, I dove into the season three DVD set again.

Time has softened some of the harsher criticism, but in the fall of 2006 it seemed that even some of the show's most devoted fans felt the show was off the rails in the first six segs that aired in October and early November, before taking a two-month break. That skedding pattern didn't work well for the peculiar storytelling pattern of "Lost" -- live and learn, and to ABC's credit, they surely did.

Season three also carries the stigma of having the dreaded Nikki and Paolo storyline, which enough fans   yelped about to get the poor misguided characters buried alive before the end of the season.

But my goodness, let us not forget that the first few segs of season three are the ones that truly introduce us to Evil Sadistic Madman Ben -- beating Sawyer to a pulp, making Kate break rocks in the hot sun in an itty bitty sun dress and keeping them in cages while he plays  major head trips with Jack in the underground glass-walled cage. He's so bad ass he's not afraid to stroll around in tan pans and white shoes well after Labor Day.

It wasn't a total loss. This is a contrarian view on the season that will go down in the Nielsen annals as the lowest rated on record for the Big Four nets, but there was some good news to be found here and there, amid the wreckage.

For sure, the season-long stats on the 2007-08 campaign are pretty darn ugly, as Variety ratings guru Rick Kissell smartly and soberly details in this season wrap. But in actuality we didn't have a season, we had two abbreviated seasons -- pre- and post-strike. Writers Guild of America leaders were as strategic as Eisenhower and Marshall carving up the European theater in triggering the work stoppage to begin on Nov. 5, to ensure maximum impact on current production and pilot development.

Of course, most everything the WGA was fighting for in its 100 Days War has been at work in force  -- on steroids -- in this topsy-turvy season: the increasing popularity of web streaming of programming and DVR time-shifted viewing, the increasing use of digital extensions of traditional programs to drive traffic to network-affiliated websites and to generate new revenue streams for our half-dozen favorite media congloms.

Beyond the fairness issue and the wonky oh-my-god-younger-generations-will-never-watch-TV-the-same-way-again considerations, let's look at what the nets have to show for themselves program-wise out of the fall and spring mini seasons of '07-'08.

Can it really be 10 years since "Sports Night" debuted? Sheesh.

Shout Factory reminds us how quickly time passes with today's announcement of the "10th Anniversary Edition" DVD box set of all 45 segs of the ABC comedy. The half-hour from Aaron Sorkin and Thomas Schlamme may not be "the show that changed what television could be," as it's touted in the press release, but it was entertaining and a breath of fresh air for its time. It was single-camera before single-camera was cool for small screen laffers.

"Sports Night's" core cast members have certainly done well for themselves in the intervening years: Peter Krause, Josh Charles, Felicity Huffman, Joshua Malina and Sabrina Lloyd. (Robert Guillaume was already doing well for himself by the time this show came along, and he was great in his role as the elder-statesman exec producer at Continental Sports Channel, the Gotham sports cabler where the show was set.) Set, due out Sept. 30, includes two discs of bonus features including deleted scenes, gag reels, behind-the-scenes featurettes, commentaries, etc.

This one opened and closed on high notes but hit some rough sledding in between.

"There's No Place Like Home, Part 1," the first of the tri-part season four finale, is the first "Lost" seg of the season where I had believe-ability issues with the plot that were nettlesome enough to take me out of the thrall of the storytelling, ever so briefly here and there.

Jacob's mouthpiece tells Locke to move the island? I can dig it. Ben is a master manipulator who has secret rooms and stashes of "Doctor Who" props all over the island? I'm down with that. Polar bears in the jungle and black smoke monsters with gnarly tempers? Sure. But Aaron is five weeks old? Give me a break!?! That baby is at least three-four months old if he's a day.

(Saturday afternoon update: A reader with impeccable credentials on all things "Lost" makes two good points that should be noted. First, in the "Lost" chronology, Aaron is actually only seven weeks old at the time of the press conference, given that he was born in season one on day 38. Second, and this I really should've remembered, Screen Actors Guild rules and other labor laws make it virtually impossible to do scenes of any length with infants younger than two months. So we gotta allow some slack there.)

None of the reporters at that press conference would've bought that, and they would've charged that dais to get at Kate with questions about her giving birth on the island. They would've challenged Sayid's assertion that there were "absolutely not" any other crash survivors. How could he possibly know?

Jack, as Kate says earlier in the episode, is a horrible liar and Sun is no better. The press would've smelled the B.S. and pounced. There would've been no decorum or quick exit for the survivors -- there would have been a riot, and the story would've turned to skepticism about the claims of the Oceanic 6. I thought that was where they were going when the reporters started to ask Kate about giving birth and Sun about her husband. The only thing worse than Jack trying to lie to the press was the awkwardness of him instructing the other five how to lie just before they landed. I noticed they weren't looking at Jack with quite the same reverence as before.

Second major hole in the "Lost" ozone layer for me this week: Sun and the business about buying up a controlling interest in her father's mega-conglom. I'm sure each of the 6 got fat settlements from Oceanic Airlines once they turned up, however they turned up. But enough to swoop in and steal control of a multinational conglom from its meglomaniac leader? Oh come on. Those South Korean firms are huge -- it'd take billion(s) and it would not be the kind of transaction you could do in a single morning.

They could've still had what was otherwise a hell of a showdown scene between Sun and her father without that flight of fancy. We know Sun's got plenty of reasons to despise her father. For starters, I can't swear to it but I don't think Mr. Paik was in that opening scene of the Oceanic 6 reuniting with family members on the tarmac of the military facility. (I'll check in the ayem.) OK, he was there....sorry Mr. Paik.

All that said, once again, it was still a mighty entertaining hour of television delivered in the seg penned by our "Lost" leaders, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, and helmed by Stephen Williams. We learned a lot.

**It jumped right out at me this time: Kate looks an awful lot like Jack's mom, Margo (played by Veronica Hamel, pictured above).

**I'd been wondering, like every other "Lost" fan, about what to make of Ben and his whining about losing control to Locke and his faux emotional trauma over his daughter. I don't buy it now. I think he's still the puppet master, manipulating every situation he's in for own nefarious ends. Granted, Ben's got more of a challenge these days with all the unruly factions on the island. But as he informed Locke toward the end of the seg: "I always have a plan." He also admitted once again to not being "entirely truthful" with Locke. Duh.

**In the flash-forward scene of Hurley's surprise party, Hurley appeared to have the same style of ceramic Virgin Mary statue that bedeviled dear old Charlie way back in season one, only Hurley's was painted gold. Great line from Mama Hurley: "Jesus Christ is not a weapon" as Hurley holds it over his head ready to strike a charging polar bear or something with it.

**So Jack finds out about Claire, at his father's long-delayed funeral no less. He just can't catch a break. I confess to wishing that they would use Claire's surname more often on the show. It has such a familiar ring to it...

ABC saved a few development tidbits for its upfront presentation at Avery Fisher Hall today. One that stood out was ABC Entertainment prexy Steve McPherson confirming that the net is developing an adaptation of the online serial "In the Motherhood," which stars Leah Remini (pictured left), Jenny McCarthy and Chelsea Handler (pictured right) as typically harried moms.

This is the first I've heard of this thing, but the Internet shorts are sponsored by Suave and Sprint and are hosted by MSN at www.inthemotherhood.com. And  it appears that each of the three- to four-minute shorts are inspired by stories sent in by bona fide harried moms from around the country. Production looks high-end, as these things go.

As as harried journo-mom myself, I've got no time right now, but I'll have to check 'em out when I'm off deadline -- and after a certain 7-year-old's bedtime.

Here we go with the first main event -- ABC unveiled its fall sked this ayem.

Lineup is mostly similar to what worked for the net last fall, before all hell broke loose with the strike. As predicted, new drama "Life on Mars" (pictured left) landed the plum post-"Grey's Anatomy" slot on Thursday. "Boston Legal" moves from Tuesday to Monday 10 p.m. to make room for "Eli Stone," which the net showed major faith in by picking up for a sophomore sesh.

Ashton Kutcher the producer scored by landing the Tuesday 8 p.m. berth on the fall sked for Katalyst's latest unscripted concoction, "Opportunity Knocks" (pictured right), plus Katalyst got a midseason order for a beauty pageant thing co-produced with Tyra Banks' shingle. So Katalyst is 2 for 1, because from the looks of ABC's release, doesn't seem like comedy "Miss Guided" is back, but we don't know that for sure yet.

I don't think I'm the only one who looks at this sked and thinks -- good grief, after May 29, we're gonna have to wait NINE LONG MONTHS before "Lost" comes back!?! Oh, the agony.

MONDAY:

8:00 p.m.  “Dancing with the Stars”
9:30 p.m. “Samantha Who?”
10:00 p.m. “Boston Legal”
 
TUESDAY:

8:00 p.m. “Opportunity Knocks”
9:00 p.m. “Dancing with the Stars the Results Show”
10:00 p.m. “Eli Stone”

WEDNESDAY:

8:00 p.m.  “Pushing Daisies”   
9:00 p.m. “Private Practice”
10:00 p.m. “Dirty Sexy Money”

THURSDAY:

8:00 p.m. “Ugly Betty”
9:00 p.m. “Grey’s Anatomy”
10:00 p.m. “Life on Mars”

FRIDAY:

8:00 p.m. “Wife Swap”
9:00 p.m. “Supernanny”
10:00 p.m. “20/20”
 
SATURDAY:

8:00 p.m. “Saturday Night College Football”

SUNDAY:

7:00 p.m. “America’s Funniest Home Videos”
8:00 p.m. “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”
9:00 p.m. “Desperate Housewives”
10:00 p.m. “Brothers & Sisters”

NEW SHOW DESCRIPTIONS

“LIFE ON MARS”
“Life on Mars” is based on the BBC series created by Matthew Graham, Tony Jordan and Ashley Pharoah. The series revolves around Sam Tyler, a modern-day police detective who, after a car crash, mysteriously finds himself transported back to 1973 and still working as a detective.

“Life on Mars” stars Jason O’ Mara as Sam Tyler, Rachelle Lefevre as Annie Cartwright, Colm Meaney as Gene Hunt, Stephanie Jacobsen as Maya, Lenny Clarke as George Randall, Patrick Wenk-Wolff as Colin Raimes and Richard Benjamin as Milton Kornboll.

The series is produced by Twentieth Century Fox Television and ABC Studios. Josh Appelbaum, Andre Nemec, Scott Rosenberg, Jane Featherstone, Stephen Garrett and David E. Kelley are the executive producers. The pilot episode of “Life on Mars” was executive-produced by David E. Kelley, Tommy Schlamme, Bob Breech, Jane Featherstone and Stephen Garrett, and was produced by David E. Kelley Productions in association with 20th Century Fox Television.

“UNTITLED ASHTON KUTCHER/TYRA BANKS PROJECT”
A beauty pageant unlike any you’ve ever seen, from executive producers Ashton Kutcher and Tyra Banks.

“OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS”
“Opportunity Knocks” is a new show that breaks the mold of typical game and reality shows. We will be showing up on America’s doorstep and testing how well they know their family. Our mobile team will arrive at “Anywhere, America” in a semi-truck that is full of flat screen TVs, new furniture and big cash prizes that the family can win right there. We will take the action of a game show directly into our contestants’ homes, setting up shop in a family’s front lawn. The instant our host, JD Roth, knocks on the front door, the game will begin. Hollywood will invade a suburban neighborhood, and each week one lucky family will play the game of a lifetime in front of all their friends and neighbors.

The host poses trivia questions to family members based directly on their lives, each other and articles found in and around their home. If they’re able to prove they know their family inside and out, they’ll win the prizes of their dreams.

Executive producers for “Opportunity Knocks” are Ashton Kutcher, Jason Goldberg, Karey Burke, J.D. Roth and Todd A. Nelson. “Opportunity Knocks” is produced by Katalyst Films and 3 Ball Productions.

“THE GOODE FAMILY”
A new animated series from Mike Judge, creator of “King of the Hill.” “The Goode Family” is obsessed with doing the “right” thing, whether it’s environmentally, politically or socially. Unfortunately their efforts often have unintended comic consequences.

“The Goode Family” is voiced by Mike Judge as Gerald, Nancy Carell as Helen, Dave Herman as Ubuntu and Abby Elliot as Bliss. Executive producers for “The Goode Family” are Mike Judge, David Krinsky, John Altschuler, Michael Rotenberg and Tom Lassally. The series is produced by MRC and 3 Arts Entertainment.

ABC has no shortage of riches in its comedy casting this year, even if most of its pilots will be shot after its upfront in this wacky year.

“Will & Grace” trouper Megan Mullally is the latest to sign on to an ABC project. She's joined the cast of “Bad Mother’s Handbook,” starring opposite Alicia Silverstone. “Handbook” hails from ABC Studios and scribes Jenni Konner and Ali Rushfield; premise focuses on three generations of femmes in a family in which a 30-something woman is overwhelmed with responsibility for taking care of her teenage daughter and her own mother.

With the casting set, the single-camera pilot is set to lens later this month with Richard Shepard (an Emmy winner last year for the pilot of "Ugly Betty") directing. Mullally, a two-time Emmy winner for her work on “Will & Grace,” toplined her own daytime yakker in the 2006-07 season. More recently, she’s been busy on Broadway co-starring in “Young Frankenstein.”

In addition to Silverstone and Mullally, ABC has a comedy pilot set with Alyssa Milano ("My Brother's Hot and Other Dilemmas"), pictured right; Damon Wayans ("Never Better"); and Portia de Rossi in an untitled entry from scribe Victor Fresco.

This just in: It looks like CW's cult-fave drama "Reaper" is getting a last-minute reprieve, 13 segs for midseason. Also, I'm getting behind in reporting the good news. ABC's struggling midseasoner "Eli Stone" has also escaped the ax. Both dramas hail from ABC Studios. Coincidence? Hmmmm...

Primetime in the 2008-09 season is gonna be all over the map -- Australia, Israel, Canada and the U.K. for starters.

In this strike-interrupted pilot season, networks are embracing concepts and formats from overseas like never before. After writing "based on a ----- series" about 50 times while tracking the pilot buzz this weekend, I got to wondering about the origins of these projects.

I doubt that I'm the only one who assumes that if a property is being exported to the U.S., it must've been a hit at home, right? Wrong. At least that wasn't the case with "Sit Down, Shut Up" (pictured left), the live-action Australian sitcom that has inspired the Fox animated series "Class Dismissed," from Mitch Hurwitz and a bunch of his old "Arrested Development" cohorts. Fox gave it the greenlight on Saturday on the strength of a short presentation reel.

Original "Sit Down" ran for 13 segs on Australia's Channel Ten in 2001 but wasn't well received by critics or viewers, according to a post on "TV Tonight," a blog that bills itself authoritatively as "Australia's leading TV blog." In fact, this voice of Oz TV greeted the news that "Sit Down" had been fingered as a U.S. animated series with a pithy: "Now I've heard everything."

CBS is believed to be thisclose to picking up has picked up an unusual drama project, "Mythological Ex," that is based on an Israeli series of the same name (and retitled "The Ex List" for the U.S.).

Tracking down any details of this show -- revolving a woman sent on a soul-searching journey after a tarot card reader tells her to get hitched pronto to Mr. Right, who is someone who has already been in her life -- on the web in English was kinda tough.

From what I could gather, the series airs on Israel's Channel 2, an outlet that bowed in 2005, and is produced by a company called Reshet TV. Here's the link to the company's home page. If anyone who reads Hebrew can provide further guidance on whether "Mythological Ex" has its own page within, I'd be grateful. (Thanks to reader Phil, here's the link to the page, with clips of the show.) The image at right was all I could turn up through the Google Image search.

Word is that CBS execs are over the moon about the potential of the U.S. adaptation penned by Diane Ruggiero.