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

ESPN 2 has a series coming up that sounds a whole lot like a real-life spin on "Friday Night Lights." Judging by this promo (click here and enter the password: heespn07), "Varsity Inc." is even shot like "FNL." Six-part skein follows the 2007 pigskin season of the West Monroe Rebels, the high school football heroes of West Monroe High School in football-crazy West Monroe, La., where the Friday night games pack the high school stadium with more people than there are in all of West Monroe, according to ESPN.

Rebels are among top-ranked high school squads in the country, having won six state championships ("State!") and two national titles since 1993. Series promises to follow the team's exploits on the gridiron, as well as the players and coaches' personal trials and tribulations. (Sound familiar, Coach Taylor?)

Series, the first from ESPN's Content Development unit, hails from producer Jason Sciavicco and his Horizon Entertainment banner, and is penciled in to preem Nov. 29 at 11 p.m. ET, with repeats on the ESPN U channel. ESPN's also promising more content on its ESPN360.com web platform that fans may want to follow, should the Rebels saga prove as compelling as the fictional drama of "FNL's" Dillon Panthers.

POSTED BY STUART LEVINE

Following the frantic exec session with Ben Silverman and Marc Graboff, NBC's next panel focused on the network's Sunday Night Football package. And, despite Silverman's success on "The Office" and "Ugly Betty," this was a group with just a few more accomplishments between them.

Sitting in the front row of the stage were NBC Sports topper Dick Ebersol, John Madden (pictured right), Al Michaels, Bob Costas, Cris Collinsworth and Keith Olbermann. Behind them were producer Fred Gaudelli, reporter Andrea Kramer, future Hall of Famers Jerome Bettis and Tiki Barber, and production exec Michael Weisman.

Michaels, forever known for his 1980 Winter Olympics call "Do you believe in miracles" on the U.S. upset of the USSR in hockey, is an announcing institution. He's appeared in more live primetime network broadcasts than any person in history.

Madden coached the Oakland Raiders to a Super Bowl win but that almost seems an afterthought at this point. His gravelly signature voice has become ingrained into the minds of football fans that the week's big game only matters if he's doing the color. That's not true, of course, with Fox and CBS also doing a steller job covering the league, but Madden's presence always raises the game up a notch.

Costas has won 19 Emmys and feels old school ... in a good way. There's no doubt about his first sports love, which is baseball, but his football acumen remains strong.

The lightning rod of the NBC football shows this year will be Olbermann, who has become a champion for liberals over the past few years. On his increasingly popular MSNBC "Countdown" show, Olbermann pokes and prods the Bush Administration. Whether he does the same thing to Peyton Manning and Terrell Owens remains to seen.

"If I say something negative about Reggie Bush, then I have to say something negative about Clinton Portis," Olbermann joked.

He'll get that chance early on. The network's first game is Thursday, Sept. 6 when Bush and his New Orleans Saints travel to Indianapolis to face the world champion Colts.

But, certainly, his appearance will bring in viewers who might not be as much fans of the game as fans of him.

"With Keith, there comes an interesting heat," said Ebersol. Referring back to Olbermann's days on "SportsCenter," "With Dan (Patrick), he changed the way generation of fans looks at highlights."

-- Stuart Levine