We should've seen this coming. There's nothing Golden Globes voters like better than big stars in new clothes, and that's what FX served up this year in "Damages."

Legal murder-mystery thriller led the TV noms tally with four Globes chits, one for drama series, for star Glenn Close (pictured left) and costars Ted Danson (pictured right) and Rose Byrne.

It was a given that AMC's "Mad Men" would get some traction this year -- Globes voters rarely snub the buzz -- snaring a bid for best drama series and a richly deserved nod for its handsome star Jon Hamm. Same goes for ABC's "Pushing Daisies," a contender for comedy series and for stars Lee Pace and Anna Friel.

Back to the stars we-know-and-love derby, no surprise that Showtime's "Californication" made a good stand with a bid for best comedy and for star David Duchovny. Donald Sutherland of ABC's "Dirty Sexy Money" made the cut in the supporting drama actor; so did Christina Applegate as lead comedy actress for ABC's "Samantha Who."

And in the spirit of the giving season, there was even a little something in the Globes stocking for 90-year-old Ernest Borgnine (pictured left), a telepic lead actor contender for Hallmark Channel's sweet-'n-sentimental "A Grandpa for Christmas." The last time Borgnine was nommed for a Golden Globe, he won -- for lead actor in 1955's "Marty," in which he played a less-than-handsome guy who's convinced he'll never meet Mrs. Right. (With all due respect to Borgnine, and I do mean all due, he was good in the bigscreen rendition of Paddy Chayefsky's telepic, but it's Rod Steiger in the original TV version of "Marty" who reaches down your throat, rips your heart out, pounds it into mush and then puts it back in just in time for him to find happiness with a young Nancy Marchand.)

It's that most wonderful time of the year for showrunners. After living with a pilot for a year (or more, in some instances), and after working non-stop for most of the summer on the subsequent segs, the climax of the campaign comes down to one night, one hour or half-hour during the Long March known to non-pros as Premiere Week.

Of course, it's rarely all over (but the shoutin') for a new show after week one, but those first overnights set a certain tone for frosh shows that can be very hard to overcome. This time around, there's no more active theater in the 2007-08 campaign than Wednesday night. And while most of the recent industry chatter has focused on the fates ABC's "Pushing Daisies" and NBC's "Bionic Woman," ABC also has a high-roller bowing in the 10 p.m. slot in "Dirty Sexy Money." "Dirty Sexy" (costar Seth Gabel pictured at left) has a secret weapon in exec producer Greg Berlanti, who has shot up the short list of uber-showrunners during the past few years, particularly after he parachuted in to save "Brothers & Sisters" for the Alphabet net last season.

According to the tao of Greg, when the nerves begin to jingle-jangle as the premiere date approaches, the only thing a showrunner can do is breathe deep and keep focused on the next script in the pipeline.

"What I always get excited about at this time of year is that it's almost out of your hands," Berlanti said last week when asked to reflect on his pre-premiere rituals. "You have to say to yourself: 'Have I done everything I can to get this ship to shore?' And then you just have to keep working. The great thing is that once you're on the air, you're communicating directly with the audience. There's nothing that fuels you more than having people finally see the stuff you've been working on for a year. That is a really great second wind. I always look forward to that part of it."

In an effort to rev up for the fall season, it's time to inaugurate what I intend to make a regular feature of this blog, namely lots of video snippets from our favorite, and even not-so-favorite and we're-not-sure-yet, shows.

Let's call it Clip Madness. (This edition was made possible by the kind folks at Fox and ABC who helped me quickly wrangle some clips. In subsequent weeks we'll spread the spotlight around to all the nets that care to offer up easy-to-embed snippets.)

Clip Madness is presented in the spirit of this wonderful time of year, the tail end of the honeymoon period when every new show is full of promise, this year's sleeper, a new "Friends," the next "CSI," a slow-building gem a la "The Office," etc. etc. Showrunners are starting to stock up on Mylanta, vodka and Vicodin, but network marketing mavens are in their element as they head into the final now-or-never stretch of piquing the American public's interest in what the programming department came up with this year.

(Pictured above: A scene you're not likely to see on ABC's "Pushing Daisies," for reasons that will become clear in the clip posted below. Pic of actors Lee Pace and Anna Friel kissing comes from the Aug. 16 screening of "Daisies" at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.)