POSTED BY STUART LEVINE

"You've got spunk. I hate spunk."

Any self-respecting TV aficianado knows Ed Asner spoke those words to Mary Tyler Moore in the first seg of Moore's iconic '70s sitcom, and spunk is what Asner brought to the Hallmark Channel presentation on the opening morning of fear and loathing between beleaguered nets and disgruntled journos, aka TCA.

During a panel dedicated to the upcoming Hallmark pic "Generation Gap," the first question asked of Asner -- a former president of the Screen Actors Guild -- was whether he thought his fellow thesps would strike.

"I have no idea, but I doubt it," Asner said, just warming up. "The town has been fairly terrorized and actors don't have more guts than the average person. ... The actors would vote for it (AFTRA deal) for it, and I would vote against it, but I always do the opposite thing."

Asner also went off about how Hollywood and the TV biz has changed over the many decades in which he's been doing stellar work.

"TV has been in horrible shape for awhile," he said. "When I came to California in 1961, there were three big networks and I remember going to MGM. It was the city on the hill. I didn't go back for a long time, after Kirk Kerkorian had taken over, and the city on the hill had sunk into the ghetto. It looked like a dump. It was amazing to see the deterioration and shocking to see MGM that way, because it was the king.

"Everything now is based on the cheap, with 30-second soundbites. And who owns the network this week, that sort of thing... What everyone is looking for is stabilization out of the chaos."

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."

Yes, it's true. If Richie Petrie of "The Dick Van Dyke Show" had been a real person, he could be a grandfather today (at least he would if he'd had kids while in his early 20s and his offspring produced grandchildren fairly early.) Don't ask me why but that's the first thing that sprang to mind when I opened an email from Hallmark Channel with this picture attached. Dick Van Dyke and his son Barry Van Dyke have been frequent costars over the years, working together on CBS' "Diagnosis: Murder" and most recently, the "Murder 101" pics. Now Barry's son, Shane, is getting into the family business with a guest starring role in the third entry in the "Murder 101" series, "If Wishes Were Horses," set to bow Aug. 18. "I've taken nepotism about as far as it can go," Dick Van Dyke quips...but then again maybe not. He has lots of other grandkids, though so far Barry is the only one of D.V.D's four kids to carry a SAG card. Shane has also landed an acting gig, apart from his dad and grand-Dyke, in "Shark Swarm," which Hallmark is promising will be a three-hour, teeth-gnashing "event" in May.

Pictured: A trio of Van Dykes, from left, Dick, Barry and Shane.