The TCA sneak peek for HBO's upcoming film "The Girl" could make anyone squirm. Alfred Hitchcock, played by Toby Jones, is seen groping Tippi Hedren, played by Sienna Miller, in the back of a car. He makes lewd, suggestive comments to her, and says she should make herself "sexually available" to him. He forces her to endure take after take for his famed film "The Birds." Sienna Miller's Tippi Hedren, worn down and injured from birds, unravels before your eyes.

And then, the lights come back on at HBO's TCA tour and Tippi Hedren herself takes the stage with a big, fake crow, playfully pecking Toby Jones on his head as they are seated on stage for the panel for "The Girl." The first question launched at the veteran actress led to a response that took the edge off the preview entirely.

"With 'The Girl,' the film," said Hedren, "in an hour and a half there wasn't enough time to give an example of what other experiences were in existence during the Hitchcock-Hedren years. There were times when it was absolutely delightful and wonderful."

An odd way to kick off a panel devoted to a film that detailed the perverse obsession Hitchcock had with one of his famous leading blond ladies. But, Hedren approached each question with a level of candidness about her experience with the helmer that gives more insight to her relationship with Hitchcock than the film may offer.

"He was my acting coach," remarked Hedren. "I hadn't had any acting experience except in commercials...I wasn't afraid of cameras or being on set, but to break down a script, to delve into how you become another character...it was something I didn't know how to do, and of course it was perfect to have someone as brilliant a genius as Alfred to be my drama coach."

"There were times of delight and joy," Hedren explained to the press. "It wasn't a constant barragement of harassment to me. That is the fault of any film, it can't possibly have everything in it."

The thesp noted, however, that if the harassment had been that expansive, she "would have been long gone" from Hitchcock.

Hedren does hope, though, that "The Girl" serves as a cautionary tale to young actresses. "I hope that young women who see this film know they do not have to acquiesce to anything that they do not feel is morally right, or that they feel dissatisfied with simply wanting to get out of a situation. I hope they understand that you can have that strength and you deserve it."

As for where Hedren stands now in relation to the late director, Hitchcock's assistant once told Hedren, "He would have these kind of feelings for his leading ladies, but he never got over you." Hedren told the press, "I don't know if that was supposed to be a compliment...but really, I don't care."

    After Fox’s TCA panel for “The Mindy Project,” I spoke with Chris Messina in the scrum about one of his other TV series that is a world away in both content and channel lineup: “Newsroom.”

    “I was shocked at some of the early response,” said Messina about the negative reception of the skein by critics. Indeed, once screeners hit the desk of journalists across the nation, once the series bowed on HBO, the internet lit up with a cacophony of harsh remarks and misgivings about the dramedy’s writing and storytelling. Sorkin took hits left and right in both short tweets and long form essays. Journalists treated “Newsroom” like a train wreck they could not turn away from.

    I follow primarily fellow journalists on Twitter and watched tweet after tweet (some being my own) flow down my feed criticizing the skein. Out of curiosity, I clicked on the “Newsroom” hashtag link when it was trending during the days after the show’s premiere. Upon scanning the feed, I was, like Messina, surprised by what I saw -- but for a different reason.

    When not filtered, the Twitter feed revealed how broader audiences received “Newsroom.” The verdict? Profound love and respect for the show. Dialogue and soliloquies dubbed “preachy” by journalists were warmly embraced by average viewers. Apparently Sorkin’s scripture, while wince-inducing for those of us working in a newsroom environment, struck a chord with American audiences. The show’s writing, while polarizing for TV critics, resonated with viewers and evidently gave voice to sentiments churning within the American conscience -- or at least within HBO subscribers.

    “The Newsroom is seriously so good”; “It’s my favorite new show”; “Finally, a show with intelligent characters, content and writing.”

    Messina has noticed this discrepency as well. He has found himself being approached by strangers while walking down the street, strangers who praise not only his acting but “Newsroom’s” content in general. Messina referred to Sorkin as “Shakespeare,” and noted that, when it comes to negative reviews, “sometimes people love to build other people up and then drag them down.” Nevertheless, Sorkin is reported to have axed part of his writing staff in preparation for season 2, leading many of the show’s detractors to wonder if the move was a typical restructuring of a writer’s room or, perhaps, a sign that Sorkin has caught on to the inherent flaws in his skein and is making moves to change them.

    Dick Wolf, an equally prolific industry member, stated succinctly during NBC’s “Chicago Fire” TCA panel that “the secret to success on television is writing.” “There’s never been a good show with bad writing,” said Wolf. “And there have been very few bad shows with good writing. Quality tops out...in ‘Chicago Fire,’ the writers are writing about people that you do admire.”

    Wolf is known for bringing viewers into the foreign (and albeit fictional) world of gritty occupations as he does with the “Law & Order” franchise, and "Chicago Fire" will be no exception. But, many in the legal world are quick to note that skeins like “Law and Order” glamorize the practice of law, and that it isn’t as exciting as it is portrayed to be on TV. Even in HBO’s doc “Sex Crimes Unit” that follows the real life “special victims unit” in New York City, the featured D.A. points out that her line of work isn’t as thrilling as it seems on Wolf’s hit NBC series, “Law & Order: SVU.”

    “Newsroom” also brings viewers behind the scenes of an occupation that many know only through tele-prompters and rehearsed camera cues. As the news industry is fictionalized on "Newsroom," journalists are quick to point out that no, we do not have black tie New Year’s Eve parties in the newsroom, and no, we do not have blowout fights with our significant others in the middle of the office. And with the such public means to express distaste for the series, the noisy influx of negative reviews began on Twitter, blogs and publications. Meanwhile viewers of “Newsroom” with a meager number of followers quietly tweeted out: “Hey, I like this,” and hashtagged the show.

    “Series like ‘ER,’ ‘Law & Order,’ and ‘Hill Street Blues’...they’re never being written down to an audience,” said Wolf at the “Chicago Fire” TCA panel. With Sorkin’s rapid fire dialogue on intellectual news events, “Newsroom” certainly isn’t written down to the broad audience that has embraced it on Twitter, either. At the same time, no occupation-based show can be expected to write to the niche that inspired it. Even Nigel Lythgoe emphasized during Fox’s “So You Think You Can Dance” TCA panel that show’s like “Idol” and “SYTYCD” are first and foremost “entertainment shows,” and not aimed solely at the dance and music communities.

    Would members of the medical community, the legal community, and now the fire-fighting community be so quick to point out the discontinuities between the onscreen portrayals of their occupation and their actual jobs? Maybe, maybe not. Mostly, they shrug off the discontinuities: it's television, after all. But Sorkin met the cruel fate of inviting criticism about a fictional news show from an industry that, well, makes the news. This world isn't so forgiving.

    In spite of this, the journalism and media industry has not given up on the skein, even as it continues to lash out at each episode’s flaws. The flurry of negative comments on Twitter each Sunday night is proof that for better or for worse, “Newsroom” offers a certain intrigue that keeps detractors watching. It has managed to romanticize a career in the same way that the “Law & Order” franchise romanticized police and legal work. And while I may know better about the realities of this line of work, I continue to watch Will McAvoy and his team grapple with issues because at the end of the day, when my reporter hat is hung up, I just want to be entertained too.

Holy crap, by now E should know enough to keep his hands off of Mrs. Ari! Might this be a plot point in season six of "Entourage?"

HBO hosted a screening and party on the Paramount lot Thursday night for its boys of summer. Our heroes/lovable losers are going through some growing pains this season, but they all had a perfectly pleasant time in the plaza outside Paramount Theater on a balmy night tailor-made for an intimate premiere party. The after-party chow was great -- a veggie dish that blended beets, tangerines and bell peppers was quite tasty -- and the desserts were even better. Simple (vanilla ice cream, cookies) but scrumptious.

"Entourage" creator/exec producer Doug Ellin spent some quality time with one of the o.g.'s of Paramount and Variety, Peter Bart. Wonder if the subject of a certain TV critic came up in their conversation? 

(Pictured above, "Entourage's" Kevin Connolly and Perrey Reeves. Pictured right, Peter Bart and Doug Ellin.)

"Entourage" is back in fine form, just in time to be a guilty summer pleasure.

As season six dawns, Vincent Chase's career fortunes have taken a turn for the better, which brings its own set of problems. The boys in general appear to be going through serious growing pains, making the show feel more like "Sex and the City" for guys than ever. Not that that's a bad thing.

There's great stuff going on with Rex Lee's Lloyd, the long-suffering assistant to Jeremy Piven's alpha-agent Ari Gold. And there's some intrigue in store for Gary Cole's character, Andrew, the old friend that Ari brought in as a partner to the Miller Gold Agency last season. Jami Gertz is a nice addition to the ensemble as Andrew's wife, Marlo.

Of the insider-y stuff, early on in the season opener there's a reference to Andrew having just signed Greg Garcia of "My Name is Earl" fame (no mention of the show's demise), and Andrew and Ari put the hard sell on two "UTA showrunners" (they don't have names, just agency affiliations in Andrew's mind). And ICM's Ted Chervin gets a name-check, as "Chervin," who Ari frets about beating on the golf course.

"Entourage" bows July 12 at 10:30 p.m., running in tandem with newbie "Hung," which preems on Sunday. I intended to watch the "Hung" pilot last night but I couldn't resist taking in the second "Entourage" episode on HBO's screener. I've got a date with "Hung" tonight fer sure. 

I may regret saying this but ..."Eastbound and Down" has grown on me. Kenny Powers, the foul-mouthed, bellicose cretin at the center of the show, has grown on me. I can't explain why.

I pretty much sat slack-jawed through the first episode, not believing what I was seeing, or hearing. It's hard to describe specifics without giving too much away, but suffice it say that Powers, played by Danny McBride, is an ex-Major League pitcher in the mold of John Rocker. He's not just politically incorrect, he's just wrong on every level of his life.

We meet up with the mullet-headed Kenny a few years after he's been drummed out of the game for a steroid scandal, and he's hitting near rock-bottom. All he's got to his name is his truck, his jet ski and his audio book of the Kenny Powers guide to life, a relic of the brief moment when he was a big wheel in baseball.

He's now reduced to moving back to his North Carolina home town and moving in with his well-meaning older brother, his churchy sister-in-law and their three young kids, and he takes a job as the P.E. teacher at his alma mater, Jefferson Davis Middle School.

Powers' old flame from high school days now works as a teacher there, and she's engaged to the nebbishy principal, but he's determined to win her back, etc. He also reconnects with his hard-living, beer-swilling old friends, including the owner of a local dive bar, Clegg (played by series co-creator Ben Best pictured left), who helps Powers self-medicate.

The premise isn't all that unusual, but the setting is. You can tell that the show is shot North Carolina with local extras. The tweens and teens in the middle school scenes don't look like L.A. kids who are angling for their SAG cards.

So maybe it took a while, but somebody finally noticed how good “In Treatment” is.

That somebody was the Golden Globes, and the HBO shrink series got some love from the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. with five nods after Emmy pretty much said thanks but no thanks in the fall.

At Friday’s TCA panel, exec producers Steve Levinson and Warren Leight chatted up the new season. Noticeably absent, however, was top doc Gabriel Byrne, who was suffering from strep throat and a stomach bug and couldn’t make it. Geez, these thesps will do anything to avoid the grilling of the assembled press.

The first order of business discussed was that telecast structure of the second season has been revamped. No longer will it be one half-hour each weeknight. Rather, two episode will air on Sunday nights and then another three the next day on Monday.

Programming topper Sue Naegle said the net found that viewers were watching multiple episodes on Tivo anyway, so why not stack ’em up themselves, and put it on Sunday to start, the cabler’s signature night.

“People like to dig in and watch more than one at a time,” she said. “It’s easier this way for people to find it. It was tough to get into the swing of thing five nights a week.”

The clips for the new season looked intriguing. Byrne’s character, Dr. Paul Weston, has seen his marriage disintegrate and now he’s practicing therapy out of Brooklyn brownstone apartment. His new clients include CEO John Mahoney (“Frasier”), attorney Hope Davis, a young woman suffering with a cancer diagnosis and a teenage boy whose parents are getting divorced.

Also returning are Dianne Weist as Byrne’s own shrink and confidant, Michelle Forbes as his wife and Emmy winner Glynn Turman as Blair Underwood’s grieving father. The series begins in April.

The theme for the new season? Leight, who arrives to the show after years on “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” said it’s all about finding out what’s bubbling underneath.

“These are people in pain, in need,” he explained. “What’s the subtext? How did they get to this point in their lives now? These are characters in crisis. Instead of acting out (as they would in “L&O” with a gun or some other harmful way), they see a therapist.”

We’ll also learn more about Dr. Weston’s backstory, and how he got to this place in his life. His children will also make more of an appearance.

“Our challenge is to understand this guy and keep his voice consistent,” said Leight in writing the character, “but Gabriel knows the voice better than any writer would. That’s a help to us.”

-- Stuart Levine

Oh what a treat. HBO's telepic rendition of "Grey Gardens" with Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange looks fabulous, absolutely fabulous.

I don't say that lightly because I love love love the Maysles' brothers 1975 docu. It's a gem that my husband found late night on cable years ago -- many moons before the Broadway show -- and made me watch.

The telepic, skedded to bow in April, traces the early years of Big and Little Edie Bouvier Beale (aunt and cousin of Jaqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis) through their time as members of New York's high society in the 20s and 30s through the decades they spent together living in squalor in the East Hampton home that Big Edie refused to leave any other way than "feet first."

Barrymore and Lange both looked incredible on stage at TCA Friday. Really glowing and beautiful in a happy rather than made-up way. They gushed, like only actresses can, about how much they loved each other and loved working together and how they "bonded" over the strains of doing the picture. (It took many hours in the makeup chair for both of them for the later 60s and '70s scenes in the mansion.) But I believed it, just based on their body language and their glow.

Lange looked elegant in a black knee-length cocktail dress. Barrymore seemed to be channeling a happy version of Kate Winslet's character in "Revolutionary Road," wearing an orange and yellow print sling dress with one shoulder bare.

Barrymore bubbled with tales of how she'd never worked harder on a part in her entire career and how grateful she was to have had the chance. Yes, it's a well-worn cliche for actors but she put it over. I believed her.

"I believe that I have not proven myself yet. Michael taking this chance on me is one of the greatest opportunities I have had in my life... I worked harder on this than anything I've worked on in my life," Barrymore gushed.

Lange was a little more restrained, allowing Barrymore to take the spotlight, but she was also effusive about her experience, in contrast with her other recent work.

"It's the most difficult role I've had in a long time as an actor. If you don't flex your muscle, you get flaccid and lazy," Lange said. "I've been very lazy as of late. It was wonderful to really work hard again in an way that I was accustomed to at one time."

A few minutes later, Barrymore wanted to make sure that everyone in the room was crystal clear on how she felt about the part, the picture and her co-star and director.

"I've never had this kind of dramatic role" that involved her aging from 18 to 58 and "embodying another human being who is so well-documented," she said. "I've never laid anything on the line or worked so hard for anything in my life. I've never been given this chance before. I wanted to do nothing but not let them down."

Lange noted that the Grey Gardens manse is now owned by Washington Post's Ben Bradlee and Sally Quinn, who let them spend a few days out there soaking up the atmosphere. Lange came away understanding why Big Edie was so attached to the place.

"It's one of the most beautiful houses. It's not this kind of cold mansion. It's one of the most beautiful, warm houses and gardens. It's really lovely," she said.

Barrymore said she was glad to have the experience of sleeping in Little Edie's bedroom, except that "Little Edie wouldn't let me sleep."

"Grey Gardens" telepic was spearheaded by writer-director Michael Sucsy, whose makes his feature-length helming debut on the project. His background is helming commercials, but he began working on his vision of "Grey Gardens" the day after he first saw the docu about seven years ago.

Although he was a tyro feature helmer, there was never any question from HBO brass that he would direct "Grey Gardens," Sucsy happily assured reporters.

"A fun way to send him off" -- that's how Will Ferrell described his decision to reprise his George W. Bush impersonation and head to Broadway for a limited run in "You're Welcome America: A Final Night with George W. Bush."

Ferrell and his producing partner Adam McKay, who wrote and will direct "You're Welcome America," promised in a satellite appearance at TCA on Friday that the show, which will have a live presentation  March 14 on HBO, will probe W.'s record but also take a few fictional talents. Ferrell handled Bush-spoofing duties on "Saturday Night Live" in the early years of W.'s first term.

People who hate Bush will probably think it goes too easy on him, McKay said, and people who idolize him will probably think its way to harsh. But why do it now, just as Bush is exiting the Oval Office? "You're Welcome" begins its run at the Cort Theater on Barack Obama's inauguration day, Jan. 20.

McKay, in a moment of seriousness, said he thought it was "a healthy thing that after eight years people look back at this," and he opined that one reason W. and Dick Cheney felt free to run amok was that people tended to "ignore the crimes of past administrations" after a regime change in the White House.

The premise of the play is actually somewhat generous to the outgoing prez, McKay explained:
"Before you close the book of history, let the man have his say." With Ferrell as the conduit.

HBO's "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" has two comely and charming stars in Jill Scott and Anika Noni Rose, but the most prominent player in the dramedy may be its host country, Botswana.

Scott and Rose raved about the experience of working in the African nation during the sesh on the show, a coproduction of the BBC, Weinstein Co. and HBO, at TCA on Friday.

The two-hour telepic/pilot for "Detective Agency," which bows March 29, was among the last project that Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack worked on before their deaths last year. It was important to Minghella and Pollack that "Detective Agency" reflect "the wonder of Africa as a place and the gorgeousness of its people," said exec producer Richard Curtis, who co-wrote the telepic screenplay with Minghella. (Curtis appeared via satellite from South Africa.)

"I didn't completely get it until I saw Botswana and I saw people who looked like me," said Scott (pictured above). Rose said tackling such a specific accent was tough until she "really got to be around the people of area and take those rhythms into my person."

When TCA is most worthwhile, it brings people from recent history on stage to talk about very personal events that made national headlines and shaped the cultural landscape.

Such was the case at HBO’s first session when Ted Haggard explained how his journey – from beloved pastor of the New Life Church in Colorado to besieged clergyman forced to leave the pulpit after being involved in a homosexual affair with Mike Jones and caught buying drugs – has changed his perspective.

On the panel to promote the doc “The Trials of Ted Haggard,” which premieres Jan. 29, were Haggard and his wife, Gayle, and children, Christy and Marcus.

“We were unable to answer questions for two years and now that we have the freedom to answer questions. That’s all we want to do,” said Haggard.

Added Gayle: “We have a powerful story, both a human story and family story. We’re grateful for the opportunity to tell it. We think it’s a great one.”

When pressed as to whether Haggard now considers himself a heterosexual, homosexual or bisexual, he refused to give himself a label, and instead offered: “I think sexuality is confusing and complex. This process opened the door to discuss my own sexuality thoroughly and intimately with Gayle, the children and my therapist. That therapy has been incredibly helpful.

“I’m in a place where I’m thoroughly completely satisfied with the relationship I have with my wife. I’m in a positive constructive process, but the delightful thing is I can be completely open about the process.”

Gayle said she was completely supportive of Ted following his ordeal, even more so than before the controversy began.

“I learned the depth of his problem and struggle going on inside of him. I think everyman is a hypocrite, and some women as well. None of us seem to be able to be the best we hope to be. I love this man as a whole person and this was one area that he had a personal struggle. Our marriage is stronger now because the ability to communicate about these things. I’m prouder of my husband now after making these hard choices.”

Everyone on stage was fully aware that many members of Haggard’s church felt deceived by his actions and transgressions. Christy offered her thoughts and said she understood the feelings of those who felt betrayed.

“People were hurt by us and a lot of people deserve a sincere apology from our family,” she explained. “But people have the right to make their own decisions and how they see themselves without fear of how other people perceive them.”

Looking back at the incident and how it changed his life, Haggard said: “I made the wrong decision and wished I could’ve dealt with it privately. Now, I wish I would’ve been open, more transparent. I wished I resigned my position way earlier that I did and wish I was open with my children way more open than I was. I was afraid, but I’m grateful for the accusations.”

Doc is directed by Alexandra Pelosi, who is currently in production with HBO on a story about  John McCain's presidential campaign, made a name for herself in 2002 with “Journeys With George,” when she covered the first George W. Bush campaign. She’s the daughter of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

-- Stuart Levine

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

— Stuart Levine

"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.

"Entourage" gets its fifth season off to a swell start. The first two segs, sent out this week by HBO, breeze by in what feels like about 10 minutes.

There's a clear story arc building for our stubbly hero Vince, who's south of the border licking his wounds (with tequila and bikinis) from the devastating reviews that are still rolling in on "Medellin" in the season opener.  Ben Silverman's cameo as himself comes in the first seg, and if you look closely you can also see his NBC Entertainment lieutenant Teri Weinberg by his side.

You don't have to look closely to spot Endeavor's Richard Weitz. He pops up early on in the opening seg and nails the part of an MGA agent offering Ari Gold a little post-"Medellin" empathy.

As always, "Entourage" really belongs to Jeremy Piven's Ari. By the end of episode two, Piven has pretty much clinched his fifth consecutive Emmy nom for the role he seems born to play. He's greatly aided by punchy writing and directing in both segs, "Fantasy Land" and "Unlike a Virgin," from series creator Doug Ellin and helmer Mark Mylod.

"Entourage's" 12-episode run begins Sept. 7.

POSTED BY STUART LEVINE

It hardly seems possible, following all the accolades David Simon and Ed Burns received for the final season of "The Wire," but the duo's current seven-part miniseries "Generation Kill" seems to be chugging along far underneath the radar.

I can understand why: Iraq War films have been having a difficult time breaking through theatrically for awhile now, and the same reasons for their failure on the bigscreen -- uncomfortable subject matter, violent, many view our invasion of Iraq as wrongheaded — make it a tough sell on TV too.

While watching anything Simon and Burns (pictured above) create is a given — the pair are currently putting together "Treme," about the post-Katrina situation in New Orleans — the first "Gen Kill" episode wasn't the easiest piece of material to digest. Characters were hard to distinguish from one another, dialogue was dense, there were a ton of military acronyms and the language was coarse.

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.

Hard to believe that an award designed to honor excellence in television could elude "The Wire" during its incredible five-season run.

The critical raves reached a new peak earlier this year when "Wire" wrapped up with its 10-seg fifth season, which featured razor-sharp writing, a hell of a potboiler story involving the media, the cops, the courts, the dealers, local and state pols, smarmy defense attorneys, etc., all while tying up the series' loose narrative ends. (I choked up at the deaths of Omar and Proposition Joe.)

It was not really much of a surprise that the show was snubbed in its last year of eligibility for the top Emmy prize of drama series. It did earn a writing nom for creators David Simon (pictured left) and Ed Burns for the finale seg, "30." I may be worked up about the snub in the series category (especially since we know it made the top 10 final list), but one "Wire" fan who is not is Simon.

Simon took the time to call Thursday afternoon to deliver a carefully considered comment on his show and the lack of Emmy action over the years. He likened it to one of the major plot threads of "Wire's" last season about the Baltimore Sun management turning a blind eye to journalistic malfeasance in the relentless pursuit of a Pulitzer.

"The last season of 'The Wire' included a critique of the prize culture in newspapering as being one of the many forces confronting and threatening contemporary journalism. I would have to be the biggest hypocrite on the planet to now suggest that whether or not a drama gets nominated for an award matters. The only thing that matters is the work."

Speaking of work, Simon is gearing up for his next HBO project after Iraq war mini "Generation Kill," bowed this week. His drama project "Treme," set in post-Katrina New Orleans, got the greenlight to pilot last week. Simon wouldn't give up too many details about the project that he co-wrote with Eric Overmyer, but "Wire" lovers, take note: Wendell Pierce (pictured right), aka Det. Bunk Moreland, is attached.

The project should hit home for Pierce, a New Orleans' native whose parents lost their home in the Katrina devastation. Simon demurred on the details of Pierce's character, but he did offer this tantalizing tidbit: "We made him buy a trombone."

Simon is working with casting director Alexa Fogel, an alum of "Wire" and "Generation Kill," on filling out the rest of the players. He's shooting for a start date in February or so.

"We'll probably be filming right at the edge of hurricane season," Simon says.

POSTED BY STUART LEVINE

"Deadwood" will never die. Well, at least as long as there are critics to talk about it.

Three years from now at press tour, if there is a press tour, there will be a question about the "Deadwood" telepics that never happened.

It occurred last week at the HBO panel and Tuesday at the "Damages" session as well, where Timothy Olyphant will have a recurring role on the FX drama. The Old West is long gone, but "Deadwood," it seems, is still very much a hot topic.

Said Olyphant, who played Sheriff Seth Bullock, on the chances that the movies were ever going to take place following the demise of the series: "I thought there was a really strong chance it would never happen. It was never clear, but nothing is very clear on that."

Before a scene on "Deadwood," David Milch, who is currently working on the HBO series "Last of the Ninth," about New York cops in the 1970s, would often talk to his actors in great detail about the psychological mindset of their characters, where they were coming from and why they might be speaking a specific line of dialogue.

The conversations were often very Milch-ian: Dense, brilliant and baffling … all at once.

To that effect, when asked the difference between working on "Damages" and "Deadwood," Olyphant said, "When those guys talk ("Damages" exec producers Glenn A. Kessler, Todd Kessler and Daniel Zelman), I understand what they're saying."

Olyphant went on to say after the panel that he considers his time on "Deadwood" "quite a blessing" and he's not quite sure how the Western changed his career. Since the show wrapped, he's had parts in indies like "Bill" and big studio pics, such as "Hitman" and "Live Free or Die Hard."

When mentioned about the playful banter on the first-season DVD of "Deadwood," Olyphant added that he and Ian McShane, who played Al Swearengen, remain close friends and speak regularly. He also indicated that if Milch called him up for another project, he'd "absolutely work with him again."

Some tidbits of interest from HBO's TCA sesh for its new vampire drama "True Blood":

**Creator/exec producer Alan Ball (pictured with stars Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer) affirms right off the bat that he's no vampire freak. He stumbled on the book series that spawned "True Blood" while browsing in a bookstore as he waited for a dental appointment. He was sold by the tagline "Maybe having a vampire for a boyfriend wasn't such a good idea" on the first installment of Charlaine Harris' series of Sookie Stackhouse novels. As he read through it, he realized the colorful characters and backwoods Loo-zee-ana setting would make a fine TV show.

**Ball, renowned for "Six Feet Under" and "American Beauty," has never seen "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"  or "Angel" or read Anne Rice novels. But he does have a favorite vamp pic, 1987's "Near Dark," which marked the directorial debut of Kathryn Bigelow. "The best vampire movie ever made, in my opinion," Ball told TCA-ers.

**Ball didn't say whether he'd seen CBS' "Moonlight" or not, but he did volunteer an opinion on the show."I think it's pretty lame when you let your vampire go out in the day just because you don't want to shoot at night," Ball said.

**A great deal of thought was put into how to depict the physiological attributes of the undead. No quick slip-on fangs for "True Blood's" vampires. "We took great pains to depict a certain kind of physiology for the fangs, where they are actually retracted like rattlesnake fangs, and then they click forward. I wanted to approach the supernatural not as being something that exists outside of nature, but something that is more deeply rooted in nature," Ball said.

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."

"How would you characterize the sex?"

This line in Alan Ball's new HBO vampire drama "True Blood" is posed not by a shrink or a sex therapist or a nosy friend but a sheriff's deputy with a thick Louisiana drawl. Let's just say it stems from a situation involving a roadside work crew and a loose woman named Maudette who turns up dead in her apartment.

"True Blood," based on the series of fantasy/mystery novels by Charlaine Harris, is true to its fictional small Louisiana town setting (Bon Temps). It's swampy, languid, humid, lusty and full of ... steam. I've still got another seg to go on the screener HBO sent out on Monday, so I'll reserve judgment until I've spent two hours with this weird collection of characters.

Ball is definitely not Pasadena anymore. I am pretty much convinced that Anna Paquin (pictured) is the best thing about the show -- by far. She's adorable, and does a lot with material that could otherwise sound ridiculous, in the wrong hands. (I'll leave it others to decide if she nails the accent.)

In a nutshell, "True Blood" takes place in the not so distant future when the undead have "come out of the coffin," complete with their own advocates making the talk show rounds and an equal-rights-amendment type bill that they're pushing in Congress. Paquin plays a plucky virtuous waitress Sookie Stackhouse, who has her own unusual trait in that she can read minds -- which can make her rounds at the tables at the backwoods bar and grill where she works awfully noisy.

Sookie is open-minded enough to be friendly to vampires, who are now able to "mix" with mortals after the invention of mass-produced synthetic blood, which is supposed to keep them from gnawing on unsuspecting sweet young things like Sookie. Bill, played by Stephen Moyer (pictured left and below with Paquin), is a handsome, mysterious vamp who falls for Sookie after she shows him some kindness one night (it involves her whacking a bad guy with a heavy chain, and protecting Bill from the greedy whims of some trailer-trash types).

Lois Smith is good as Sookie's slightly-daffy grandmother. Rutina Wesley is fun to watch as Sookie's smart-mouthed best friend, Tara ("Can you believe someone would name a black girl after a plantation. My mother was either stupid or mean.") So far some of the supporting characters seem a little 2-D, but Sookie is compelling enough to make up for a few Southern-fried cliches in the pilot seg, written and helmed by Ball.

"True Blood" bows Sept. 7. HBO is cranking up the viral marketing campaign with the launch of this elaborate website for Tru Blood, a "synthetic blood nourishment beverage" that figures into the show's storyline. Just in case you miss it on the Web, HBO also took out a full page faux ad for Tru Blood in today's edition of Daily Variety. "Friends Don't Let Friends Drink Friends."

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

Almost every acceptance speech at Thursday's inaugural Television Academy Honors dinner started with a statistic: The rise of HIV infection among teenagers; the number of severely wounded soldiers returning from Iraq; the rate of cancer in people under 40; the prevalence of Alzheimer's disease among the elderly.

The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences' newest kudo (not to be confused with a new Emmy category) aims to honor "television with a conscience." Thursday's gathering at the Beverly Hills Hotel was all about achieving lofty goals and using the electronic soapbox of educate, enlighten, motivate and inform -- but the event itself managed to stay low-key, not too starchy and like a well-produced television program, breezy.  (Dinner at 7, program at 8 and we were grabbing the goodie bags by 9:20. Event producer Phil Gurin deserves a kudo for that.)

TV Academy Honors was the brainchild of ATAS chairman and CEO John Shaffner (pictured in center above with recipients David E. Kelley and Dick Wolf), who explained at the start that he felt it was important for the org that recognizes television excellence via the Emmys to also "honor programs for their humanity and their conscience." Event's debut ceremony was dedicated to the memory of Ronnie Lippin, publicist and wife of longtime ATAS publicity rep Dick Lippin. Ronnie Lippin died of breast cancer last year; the TV Acad Honors idea began as an effort to pay tribute to Ronnie Lippin and her work on behalf of numerous charitable causes.

Inaugural kudos, selected by a 22-member committee co-chaired by Shaffner, went to Discovery-BBC's "Planet Earth"; HBO's "Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq"; ABC's "Boston Legal"; Lifetime telepic "Girl, Positive" and series "Side Order of Life"; CNN's "God's Warriors"; "Law & Order: SVU" seg "Harm"; Hallmark Hall of Fame/CBS' "Pictures of Hollis Woods"; and Showtime docu "Shame."

The standing ovation of the night went to the half-dozen servicemen and women in the crowd in connection with "Alive Day Memories." Exec producer Dawn Halfaker (pictured at podium), an Army First Lieutenant who lost an arm during her service in Iraq, recalled being shocked when she was approached by HBO's docu maven Sheila Nevins about getting involved with the project. "I didn't think anyone would be interested in my story," Halfaker said. "I'm just a soldier."

May 12 update: Finally found the time to watch "Recount." It's great, absolutely a ton of fun, even if it is very said to relive the election heist of '00. There's great work all around by the cast but the standout perfs come from Tom Wilkinson and Laura Dern, IMHO.

Can't wait to see "Recount," HBO's telepic about those 36 days in November and December 2000 when the decision on who would be the next president of the United States hinged on a few hanging chads.

The screener landed on my desk today and it just looks like it's going to be a lot of fun, even if living through that experience as a voter was anything but. Remember all the dueling press conferences where each side tried to shove as many American flags into the shot as possible? The posturing was laughable. But I submit that Gore's final-final concession speech after the Supremes weighed in was one of the classiest moments we've seen in politics in many years. (And Mr. Nobel Prize Winner has done all right for himself lately.)

Jay Roach is at the helm of this pic, and I'm hopeful that his comedic touch will enliven the pace and the characterizations of these, lawyers, policy wonks and political animals. The cast is first-rate, from Kevin Spacey as Al Gore's chief of staff Ron Klain, to Laura Dern of Katherine "pancake makeup" Harris to Ed Begley Jr. as legal eagle David Boies arguing for the Gore side. Denis Leary will surely bring all of his wiry intensity to the role of another key Gore operative, Michael Whouley. Bob Balaban, who's always good no matter what, plays a lawyer for the Bush-Cheney camp, Ben Ginsburg.

Both sides trotted out their elder statesmen for the fight: Tom Wilkinson plays James Baker III; John Hurt takes on Warren Christopher.

Sure, we know how it ends ("Mission accomplished!") but it ought to be interesting, in this intensely political election year, to revisit the bare-knuckle (brass knuckles?) campaigning that helped get us to the place we are today.

POSTED BY STUART LEVINE

David Chase answered one of life's most enduring questions Tuesday night. One that has baffled the greatest minds of the last decade.

No, not what came first, the chicken or the egg? Or if a tree falls in a forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? The real question everyone has been asking, of course, is the one that has eluded the most elite television scholars since May 6, 2001: What happened to the Russian in the woods?

Chase, the creator and voice of "The Sopranos," spoke to a crowd of a few hundred gathered at the Writers' Guild to discuss all things "Sopranos." The event was an homage to Chase, this year's recipient of the Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for Television.

Kudos to David Chase, who's getting the Paddy Chayefsky treatment from the Writers Guild of America West.

"The Sopranos" boss will be feted with the Chayefsky laurel for television, recognizing his contributions over a long career, at the WGA West's honors luncheon on April 23.

Chase's "Sopranos" achievement speaks for itself. But let's not forget his early years on the Universal lot. Far as I'm concerned, "The Rockford Files," on which Chase was a key contributor, is in the top 10 of all-time great TV shows (C'mon -- pound for pound, is there a cooler private eye on TV than Jim Rockford?).

"Kolchak: The Night Stalker" also ranks high on the TV fun-meter. It's too bad "Kolchak" star Darren McGavin was in poor health during the "Sopranos" years -- he undoubtedly would've made a great guest shot or two on the HBO drama.

Meanwhile, the Writers Guild Foundation is hosting an "Evening with" Q&A with Chase on April 22 at the Writers Guild Theater in BevHills. Foundation will host a Q&A with Budd "What Makes Sammy Run" Schulberg (pictured right) on April 24, also at the WGA Theater, that will include a screening of Schulberg's "On the Waterfront."

Series finales are a cruel assignment for anyone who has slaved over a show for years until its bell tolls. It's especially daunting for a rarity like "The Wire," a show that has burrowed deep into the psyches of its ardent, often evangelistic fans. 

The characters have been so finely drawn and fully fleshed out over the previous 59 episodes. How can one final hour (or even an hour and a half) do them justice for all eternity?

For David Simon, the mandate for episode 60, "30," was the same as every other "Wire" episode. Tell the story as truthfully as possible for the characters and their situations, and don't pull punches, even when you want to. That's why Dukie wound up shooting up in one of the final scenes. That's why Alma and Gus got demoted at the Sun for complaining, and Templeton got his Pulitzer. That's why Carcetti made it to the governor's mansion on little more than a trumped up serial killer case. That's why lawyer Levy managed to turn his own bust into a win for Stanfield that only enhanced his reputation as the reigning legal eagle for Baltimore's drug kingpins.

And that's why the seg -- written by David Simon and Ed Burns and helmed by Clark Johnson (who was such an electrifying addition to the cast this year as bloodied-but-not-bowed city editor Gus Haynes) -- opens with Mayor Carcetti flailing around in his office trying to wrap his head around the magnitude of what has gone wrong in the police department while Carcetti's media whiz, ex-Baltimore Sun staffer Norman Wilson, can't stop laughing. He may be in PR now, but Wilson's hasn't lost his reporter's calculus.

"They manufactured an issue to get paid. We manufactured an issue to get you to be the next governor. Everybody's getting what they need behind some make-believe," Wilson sez of the faux homeless serial killer case. "I wish I was still at the newspaper so I could write on this mess. It's too fucking good."

POSTED BY STUART LEVINE

And so it ends, and the finality of it saddens me deeply.

Not only did the fifth season of "The Wire" conclude Sunday night, but now the series is over too. Mort. Done. Finito. After 60 brilliantly written and acted episodes, I find myself with an incredibly empty feeling, not knowing if anything so good will come our way on television ever again.

I've now watched the 95-minute episode "30" (meaning end of story in journalistic circles) twice, trying to absorb everything creator David Simon and episode co-writer Ed Burns and director Clark Johnson wanted to say about Simon's Baltimore -- its cops, politicians, drug pushers, lawyers and everyone else who makes the city an ever-changing and, quite depressing, living organism.

The finale lived up to all expectations, certainly one of the best closing episodes of any show ever. Loose ends were wrapped -- at least most of them anyway -- and McNulty and Lester took the fall for their ill-fated serial killer chicanery. Not with jail time, but an end to their lives as cops. And they should consider themselves lucky that's all they got.

So many great scenes here and countless memorable lines that keep running around in my head. Lets get to them, while wondering if the city is going to have enough money to pay for the TV that Carcetti broke in his office:

(Note: Photos attached here don't necessarily have anything to do with the final episode, or even this season, but are just some pieces of art that pay tribute to the actors on "The Wire.")

David Simon always seems to have a lot on his mind. For the past six years, he's given voice to his thoughts, commentaries and general reportage on life in urban American through his imposing HBO drama series "The Wire."

That sweeping saga of hustle and bustle on Baltimore's drug corners, in its police department and school system, in the corridors of City Hall and its court system comes to an end Sunday with episode No. 60, "30."

As you might expect, Simon had plenty to say about the process of wrapping up a show that is near and dear to him, the issues it has tackled over its five seasons and what he hoped "Wire's" legacy would -- and would not -- be in the long run.

Simon was generous with his time in a telephone interview late last month, in between looping sessions on "Generation Kill," his upcoming HBO miniseries about Marines in Iraq. (Beyond "Kill," Simon's also working with "Wire" and "Homicide" alum Eric Overmyer on an HBO pilot script set among musicians in post-Katrina New Orleans, and he's got a deal with his "Wire" collaborator William Zorzi to write a non-fiction book about the rise of the drug culture in 1950s and '60s Baltimore.)

According to Simon, the best way to understand "The Wire" is to think Greek -- not the nefarious Greek characters who dominate the illicit trade in Baltimore's ports, but the storytelling tradition of the ancient Greek tragedies, where the heroes and anti-heroes always face a dramatic downfall, usually as a result of their own hubris.

Leaning on that structure gave them a road map to plot the fates of the show's primary characters, particularly the savvy police detectives Jimmy McNulty, Lester Freamon, Bunk Moreland and Kima Greggs; dealers, dopers and street soldiers Omar Little, Bubbles, Proposition Joe, Marlo Stanfield and Avon Barksdale.

"We knew what was going to happen over the course of the five-year run," Simon sez (though it was not always clear it would be a five-year run, he's quick to add. It took some work to secure seasons four and five).

"We were always adjusting where characters were going to end up, what parts of Baltimore we were going to depict when, what we wanted to say with the overall  theme of the show. It was a Greek tragedy done in a modernist urban way, with the city as the main character," Simon says.

POSTED BY STUART LEVINE

David Simon found himself Monday afternoon bunkered down in the bowels of the law school building on the USC campus, discussing the demise of journalism as it relates to the fifth -- and sadly, final -- season of "The Wire."

It's a topic Simon can pontificate about for hours, and he did so for about two of them here. At the beginning of the chat, he polled the room to see how many journalism majors were in attendance. Two people out of about 100 raised their hands. If the future of journalism can be gauged by the attendance at USC, the ranks of the next generation of ink-stained wretches will be awfully thin.

To summarize Simon's thoughts on the fall of newspapers and how "The Wire" weaves that depressing topic into politics, crime, corruption and, basically, the decay of civilization, he addressed it this way: "Everyday human beings matter less. The game is rigged. The house odds are against you."

STUART LEVINE ADDS HIS COMMENTS BELOW

I can't recall hearing a single note of Neil Young in an episode of "The Wire" over the past five seasons, but after watching the penultimate installment of this epic urban drama, Young's haunting ballad "Comes a Time" came to mind.

Time is a big theme of this episode, and time obviously is running out on everyone in "The Wire" diaspora. About a third of the way into "Late Editions" -- penned by George Pelecanos and David Simon and helmed by Joe Chapelle --  New Centurians of the Baltimore's corners are on their knees with cuffs on and cell phones surrendered, kingpin Marlo Stanfield included.

The cops and Mayor Carcetti are having a field day with the big bust that draws news coverage, but our anti-hero Jimmy McNulty isn't partying -- even after going so far out on a tightrope to bring about the Stanfield bust. He knows the hellfire is coming, it's just a matter of time. Doesn't help that his boss calls him a "genital wart" for his lack of progress on the homeless serial killer case.

McNulty's main partner in crime, Lester Freamon, is too high on the rush of victory to let reality sink in just yet. He's bagged his prey, and now they're gonna pay. The wordless exchange of hard (granite-hard) looks between Freamon and Stanfield at the arrest site throws off enough sparks to start a brushfire, a credit to the acting skills of Clarke Peters (Freamon) and Jamie Hector (Stanfield).

POSTED BY STUART LEVINE Cynthia's comments below

Omar dead.

If only Omar had listened to the surgeon general, who told us years ago that smoking kills. Buying a pack of Newports at a Korean convenience store, Omar was gunned down not by Snoop or Chris but by Kenard, the pre-teen kid who would hassle Dukie whenever he walked by.

But that it was Kenard, who actually used to look up to Omar, is almost besides the point. Killing is so random on the blight-infested streets of "The Wire" that there's often nary a reason drugslingers -- most of which are only in their teens and 20s -- often find a bullet in the back of the head. Being in the wrong place at the wrong time, unknowingly pissing off a drug lord and or having your allegiances questioned is all it takes.

Not that Omar was a seller. Maybe at one time, but he'd seen the evils of all that dope on the streets and tried, in his own way, to clean his hood just a little.

Omar's demise wasn't all that unexpected. He'd been living dangerously for awhile now, especially since coming back from Puerto Rico after learning Butchie and Prop Joe were offed. And limping around on a bad leg -- I still love Marlo's line, "That's some Spider-Man shit," after realizing that Omar jumped out of the fourth- or fifth-story window -- made him an easier target.

Kudos to Michael K. Williams, who had a throwaway minimal role in the third episode of season one and turned Omar into a fan favorite. As it turned out, his death wasn't even worth a mention in the Sun, but how do you compress his tumultuous life into a couple of graphs anyway?

Other observations while wondering if Bubbles prefers to go by Reggie:

This episode of "The Wire" has just about everything, including a Shakima Greggs bedtime story, as only she could deliver:

Goodnight moon
Goodnight stars
Goodnight po-pos
Goodnight thieves
Goodnight hoppers
Goodnight hustlers
Goodnight scammers
Goodnight to everybody
Goodnight to one and all

This bit of poetry from Greggs as she sits on her windowsill late at night, trying to ease her little boy back to sleep, wraps up the eventful episode seven, "Took," penned by Richard Price and and David Simon and directed by Dominic West. It's a nice touch to end with a leisurely paced two-minute scene with Greggs (looking very un-Greggs-like) after a seg that moves the overall plot along at warp speed, for the most part.

Another morsel offered for the rabid fans is a glimpse of Richard Belzer in his Det. Munch persona from "Homicide: Life on the Streets" (the NBC drama inspired by "Wire" creator David Simon's non-fiction book about life in Baltimore). It's a fleeting moment -- Munch is parked on a stool arguing with a bartender about his tab when Clark Johnson's city editor Gus Haynes goes to an old cop-bar hangout from his days on the beat to do some reporting on some of the B.S. that his fiendishly ambitious Jimmy Olson, reporter Scott Templeton, has been feeding him about a story that has drawn complaints from readers for its veracity, or lack thereof.

It's called "The Dickensian Aspect," but to me much of this seg of "The Wire" seems to explore the mystery of how life, and death, are influenced by random elements, chance encounters and moments of opportunity seized and exploited.

Mayor Tommy Carcetti (played by Aidan Gillen, pictured above) stumbles across homelessness as the Big Issue that could carry him to the governor's mansion. Det. Jimmy McNulty happens across a hard-luck homeless beggar who is unknowingly recruited to take part in the plot to squeeze more coin for police work through the concocted homeless serial killer. Scott Templeton for once actually does some real reporting, and finds the satisfaction comes with pounding the pavement.

As much as all these characters are inveterate operators and schemers, in "Dickensian Aspect," written by David Simon and Ed Burns and helmed by Seith Mann, the character portraits become that much more rich because we see them working largely on impulse, and more important, we see what impulses and instincts rise to the surface when confronted with situations they can use to their advantage.

The characters that buck this theme in the seg are dope kingpins Marlo (pictured left) and Omar (pictured right). Marlo here is playing Michael Corleone in the first hour of "Godfather II." He's carefully plotting his takeover of the five (or more) corners, putting his capos in place and laying down the law to others in the collective. (There's a great scene where Marlo, never one for sentimentality, dispenses with the murder of Proposition Joe and another dealer, appoints their successors, announces there will be no more meetings, ups the bounty on Omar's head and announces that the price of "the brick" is going up.)

Marlo's every move is plotted and protected by his muscle -- and part of the tension of course is that we know at some point there will be a slip up, some fraying in the cocoon he's spun around himself. He's either gonna get got by madman Omar or a few determined Baltimore cops who haven't forgotten that Marlo's behind the largest string of mass killings in B-more history.

Omar, on the other hand, is fueled by psycho-vengeance, a type of dope more powerful than anything offered on the corners.

Watching this seg of "The Wire" is kinda like making Jell-O pudding (regular, not instant) when you're at the the halfway point, when your wrist is starting to get tired of stirring but you can see the payoff coming as the milk thickens into chocolate mud.

Episode 5, "React Quotes," penned by David Simon and David Mills and directed by Angieszka Holland, gallops along in advancing, twisting and expanding the plot. In this sea of unsavory characters, no one is more unctious in this seg than Marlo Stanfield's defense attorney Maurice Levy, who's positively giddy at the prospect of being awash in litigation fees when he realizes that his star client is using a cell phone. "Joe gave him to us just in time," says Levy, played by Michael Kostroff (pictured right. Above, Michael Kenneth Williams as drug dealer Omar. He's baaaack.)

Marlo Stanfield opens the seg speaking cryptically to drug connection Spiros (played by Paul Ben-Victor, who was so great in "John from Cincinnati"), and he delivers a great line about the untimely end of Proposition Joe in last week's seg. "Tomorrow ain't promised to no one," sez the man who had him killed. Ice water in his veins, fer sure.

The swagger that Marlo and his muscle Chris demonstrate -- it's a gait unlike any other, wordlessly telegraphing their  menace, recklessness and their sense of utter invicibility. Seems a dangerous, but necessary, quality to have in their line of work.

Shining a light on humanity's baser instincts seems to be the theme of this seg. You can see it in city editor Gus Haynes' eyes when reporter Guiterrez tells him that the homeless murders case has suddenly become "sexual" in nature. His ears perk up. He decides to run it past "the 4 o'clock" layout meeting. Mere homeless homicides -- deep inside the book stuff. But add a sexual perversion angle and bingo! Page one. We're all guilty of it. If it bleeds it leads, etc. You never see the headline "999 Planes Landed Safely Today," do you? (I stole that analogy from Washington Post's Howard Kurtz, BTW.)

POSTED BY STUART LEVINE

R.I.P. Proposition Joe — the street just lost a class act.

Sure, Prop Joe was a drug pusher and lived off the misfortune of others, yet, if things had turned differently when he was young, Joe could've easily been an English professor at Johns Hopkins or expert on the economy. The man knew of what he spoke and his "associates" rarely appreciated how much he had to offer.

Unfortuntely, he got caught in Marlo's sights and his end was inevitable. Unlike in season's past, he couldn't talk himself out of this predicament and just closed his eyes and took it in the back of the head.

Joe was old school, when killing was only done out of necessity, not for greed or pleasure, and maybe that's why the Greeks had such an afinity for him — and why Marlo's association with the Greeks seems doomed from the start.

POSTED BY STUART LEVINE

The timing seems fortuitous that last night's brilliant episode of "The Wire" was televised the same day James O'Shea was ousted as editor of the L.A. Times.

For me, the best parts of the episode took place inside the fictional Baltimore Sun newsroom, as editor James Whiting gives his speech about "finding ways to do more with less" as he announces the paper is cutting foreign bureaus all over the globe. And then lets his staff know that more "voluntary buyouts" will be necessary.

Interesting, isn't it, that he felt the more important news -- the lede as we would say here in the news game -- was that the worldwide offices would be closed rather than people losing their jobs in Baltimore.

Oh, he's a dog, that Scott Templeton. A pompous dog. On the heels of last week's fabrication of the wheelchair-bound 13-year-old kid who was heartbroken (cue the violins) after failing to get into the Orioles' opening day game, Templeton's back in the fiction biz this week in the third seg of "The Wire," "Not for Attribution."

Mr. Entitlement is pissed off once again that he's relegated to reaction quotes on a big story about a shakeup in the police commissioners office, so he comes up with an incendiary blind quote that he claims is from city council prez Nerese Campbell. One thing that doesn't quite ring true is that Baltimore Sun city editor Gus Haynes, who insists that Templeton tell him the source of the quote, would instinctively question why a political pro like Campell would let loose to a relatively inexperienced reporter that she doesn't know that well -- not even the paper's City Hall beat reporter. But we can let that one go, for now. (Knowing what a dyed-in-the-wool journo "Wire" creator/exec producer David Simon is at heart, we're counting on him to devise some particularly cruel form of punishment for Mr. Entitlement by season's end.)

"Twigg's not the only guy with game around here," Templeton, played to sniveling perfection by Tom McCarthy (pictured above), tells Clark Johnson's Gus.

POSTED BY STUART LEVINE (Cynthia's comments follow)

Jimmy McNulty, how low will you go?

McNulty's utter contempt for the inadequate resources given to the Baltimore Police Dept. — and the lack of respect given to the mission of the BPD as well — came to a head in the final scene of Sunday's night's episode, when he arrives at an abandoned storefront with Bunk and tampers with a dead body.

"The Wire" is justly praised to the skies for its writing and near docu-style direction.

But what jumps out at my from this opening episode is the sheer number of fine actors in this cast. It's a big cast, and it can be overwhelming at first. But to the credit of the actors and writers, these characters are so well-defined that it doesn't take long at all for the viewer to get a sense of their distinct personalities.

One who has only a few minutes of screen time in the episode (written by series creator David Simon and Ed Burns and helmed by Joe Chappelle) but makes his mark is Reg E. Cathay (pictured right), who plays political strategist Norman Wilson to Aidan Gillen's youthful Mayor Tommy Carcetti (pictured above).

To my mind, Wilson has the best line of the episode when he chides his boss for being so politically minded as to refuse a $50 million bailout for the city's fiscal troubles from the state's Republican governor simply because the nakedly ambitious Carcetti, a Dem, wants to be the next governor and it would make his campaign more difficult. Instead, Carcetti scrambles to juggle the bills, starving the police department (despite campaign promises of raises, new equipment, etc.) to scrape together pennies to funnel to the schools. As it stands, Carcetti now is "just a weak-ass mayor of a broke-ass city," Wilson tells him.

There are two types of people in this crazy, mixed up world. Those who get "The Wire" and those who don't.

(Actually there's a third type, those who can identify Little Walter's "My Babe" by within a nanosecond of hearing the first note, and those people also usually fall into the category of "Wire" fanatics.)

To make the most of the HBO drama's fifth and final season, which bows Sunday at 9 p.m., Variety's resident "Wire" nuts -- including myself, Brian Lowry, Stuart Levine and any others who care to join in -- will be ruminating and riffing here on each of the upcoming 10 segs. Although we've have had the luxury of screening the first seven episodes (thanks HBO), we're going to be mindful of spoilers, so we'll take go one seg at a time, the Monday after their premiere telecast.

As always, we'd love to hear from readers in this space too about the series that has never been a major ratings success for HBO but does have its fiercely loyal cadre of viewers. "Wire" has always revolved around the life of drug dealers, cops and others in tough neighborhoods in Baltimore, but at its best, it's been more than a gritty slice of life -- it's a unrelenting look at the hypocrisy of the social order, the corruption, bankruptcy and decay of the civic institutions that were once America's pride. To my mind, the upcoming season is more plot-driven than the others, and it's a wild, wild ride, so buckle up.

A huge plus in season five is the addition of "Homicide: Life on the Street's" Clark Johnson (seated in pic below) to the cast, playing a seasoned editor at the Baltimore Sun. The newspaper storyline, as Lowry noted in his Variety review, is visceral and more true to life than any other ever attempted on the smallscreen.

As a warm-up for Sunday's preem, here's a link to a fabulous profile of "Wire" creator/exec producer David Simon by Margaret Talbot that ran in the New Yorker in October. According to HBO, Simon has steadfastly refused to do any press for "Wire" while the writers' strike is going on, so the New Yorker piece is likely to be his last word on the new season for a while.

However, posted below are Q&As with Simon and "Wire" exec producer Nina Kostroff Noble that HBO included as part of its press materials. Also posted are the HBO-provided Q&As with longtime cast members Clarke Peters, Wendell Pierce, Andre Royo and Dominic West. West asserts that season five remarkably "ties up every single story strand of the series."

Also, check out these "Wire" prequel webisodes that are posted on Amazon.com.

Now this actually makes some sense to me.

"Made in America," the much talked-about series finale of HBO's "Sopranos," was in parts a commentary by creator/capo David Chase on the war in Iraq and the extreme denial (apathy?) that the vast majority of Americans seemingly have toward the carnage that's going on over there every day -- so he sez  in a first-person essay to be published in the December Men of the Year issue of GQ mag. (A GQ publicist was kind enough to send along a sneak peek.)

In Chase's view, it was "Made in America," as in, we've got it made in the shade here in the land of milk and honey, and we've got no clue and don't really care about how the rest of the world feels about us. In it Chase reveals the allegory behind those onion rings and what it would take to get a "Sopranos" movie on track. To wit:

The theme of that episode was “Made in America.” I used that title not only because Tony’s a made guy, and all these guys are made guys, but also because it was about the extreme amount of comfort Americans have, especially people with money. And specifically, it was about the war in Iraq—it was made in America, and as you saw in the show, Tony and Carmela just didn’t want their son to go, and they could afford to see that their son didn’t go. Like some of our leaders.

I felt, and I continue to feel, that our country is in a tremendous crisis right now, and people are focused on onion rings, and as it turns out, they’re focused on onion rings as they appear in the end of "The Sopranos." Not to get too didactic about it, but it was really sort of about how we are going about our amply fed, luxury-car life here, and the world is going to hell and we’re under tremendous threat. And people don’t want to see it.

Some Emmy tidbits I really should have written up Sunday night before going off to parties:

Consistency, thy name is David Chase. "It's open to interpretation," the "Sopranos" creator said backstage at the Emmys when asked, inevitably and more than once, about the series' famed blackout finale. In a convoluted way, after being pressed by multiple questioners, Chase seemed to say that he knew in his mind what happened to the family, but he had no intention of sharing it with the intimate room full 200 or so reporters. Chase did say that he'd had the notion to take the show out in the way that he did for a long time....

Earlier in the night Alan Taylor told us backstage scribblers that Chase was pleased by the fact that even members of "Sopranos'" production crew debated what the finale really meant. Chase wanted it to be something people would chew over and talk about, Taylor said...

And as for the Emmy snub of James Gandolfini after the tour de force he turned in? Paulie Walnuts had his back, backstage on Sunday. "I think it was a shame. He should've won tonight...but we won all around (for drama series)," Tony Sirico (pictured right) said. "We've been honored. I speak for Jimmy when I say he can handle it." .....

America Ferrera was such a doll in the backstage quip room. She displayed her usual humility and gratitude for the career-making break that "Ugly Betty" has been for her. And she's happy that her star turn has come on a show that is light and frothy on the outside but meaningful on the inside, where it counts, by challenging the conventional notions of beauty and body image for women.
"It's fun and it's funny and entertaining and I feel so incredibly blessed," Ferrera said. "To be acknowledged for it, to know peep are watching it and enjoying it -- it's just a dream for me. This is what I have wanted to do since I was 5 years old. It just reassures me in the power of dreaming. Now I can set my (career) heights even higher." And she was channeling the self-assured Betty Suarez when a questioner tried to pry into her love life. "I don't talk about my personal life. Thank you," she said in a Betty-esque polite-but-firm tone....

Don't ask Terry O'Quinn what's going on in "Lost" in its upcoming fourth season, because he doesn't know. Is John Locke really Jacob? Is he going to somehow kill Jack? Will he ever get near a shower again? I'm telling ya, don't ask because Quinn doesn't know. (And no, winning an Emmy doesn't entitle him to a few free plot points.) Backstage after his win for supporting drama actor, Locke showed off his hot pink shirt and black tie with glittery rhinestones. When asked, Quinn admitted that early on in the show's run he would go on the Internet to see what the fans were speculating about the Deeper Meaning of it all and where the castaways were headed. But not any more. "I'm sated," he said....

Sally Field was feeling strong, confident and not ready to suffer any cliches on Sunday. She made fast work of a question about actresses of a certain (out-of-the-demo) age enjoying a renaissance on cable ("The Closer," "Damages," "Saving Grace," etc.) and why aren't there better roles for women in features and blah blah blah...."I don't listen to any of that stuff. You guys are the ones who are listening to that," Field shot back.

Where fore art thou, Oscar? Jon Stewart had a cheeky response for the reporter who just had to know what it meant to him to be asked to host the Academy Awards a second time. "Whatever emotional hole I had in my soul vanished at that moment and I was complete," he deadpanned. "That's why I decided to do it."...

And thus brings to a close this inaugural edition of live blogging at the Emmys. I'd be remiss without giving a special thank you to the shooters of WireImage, who moved Emmy photos lickity-split last night and thus livened up this blog considerably. Honorable mentions go out to Steve Granitz, Jeffrey Mayer, John Shearer, Jeff Vespa and Todd Williamson.

HBO turned the Pacific Design Center into Thai Town on Sunday night.

Theme of this year's shindig was all about the far east isle of Siam, and the party space was dripping with purple and gold iconography and, of course delectable, and exotic eats. I particularly enjoyed an orange-chicken salad concoction with a light-sweet touch that hit the spot just right after getting parched in the packed-like-sardines press room for three-plus hours earlier in the night.

HBO's party space was packed with stars, execs of all stripes (not just Time Warner folks), and even the dance floor got busy at one point. The Journey power ballad "Don't Stop Believin'" that had such a powerful guest-star role in "The Sopranos" finale was playing (loudly) over the P.A. when I arrived at the party with Variety managing editor Kathy Lyford. Hearing that tune kinda put a slightly bittersweet vibe to the night for me, as if it was really HBO's final-final farewell to the show that put the network into overdrive, and of course it was made all the more poignant by "Sopranos" bagging the top Emmy prize one last time, plus prestige wins in the drama series writing (David Chase, for the finale) and directing (Alan Taylor) categories that it has long dominated.

The whole "Sopranos" gang seemed in great spirits, particularly Chase, who was remarkably open to a few thousand people sidling up to his table to gush about what the show meant to them (me included, and he even offered a smile when I mentioned how cool it is to see his name on "Rockford Files" segs.) Most important, Chase reiterated what he said backstage at the Shrine: Don't hold yer breath for a "Sopranos" movie. He won't say never-ever, but it'd have to be a fantastic idea that would make for a pic worthy of the series. I pressed him on what's next for him. He said nothing in particular, maybe a movie script down the road but nothing's on the front burner.

(Pictured above left: "Sopranos" kids Jamie-Lynn Sigler and Robert Iler; at right, Time Warner prexy Jeff Bewkes and "Sopranos'" Tony Sirico.)

That rumble you might've heard earlier this week eminating from the Westside wasn't the screams of youngsters on the Ferris Wheel at the pier but the folks at HBO's Santa Monica headquarters.

With less than 1 million voyeurs tuning in to the premiere episode of "Tell Me You Love Me," the folks at the pay cabler couldn't have been pleased. Shocked may be a better description.

That's a shame, considering "Tell Me" is a smart and introspective look at four couples (including therapist Jane Alexander and her husband) in the midst of relationship turmoil. And, oh yeah, there's lots of sex, too.

There's lots of ways to interpret the numbers. HBO has always said it's more interested in cumulative viewer totals over the week of repeated viewings than what happens on opening night. And the network also previewed "Tell Me" before Sunday, which means some caught a sneak peak.

But even with all that into account, the numbers have to be disheartening. It was a major drop from the "John From Cincinnati" premiere in June, and that one was considered low. The 5.7 million who tuned in for the first-ever "Deadwood," which preemed in March 2004, seems like a "Seinfeld"-like number now.

Maybe some were turned off by all the explicit sex they had read about in reviews. Who knows?

Adding to the cabler's woes was the lowest-ever premiere for "Curb Your Enthusiasm," which obviously got no help from "Tell Me."

So where does HBO go from here? All they or any network can do is continue to make programs that rise above the common denominator and hope that folks give these shows a chance.

But it's undoubtedly been a tough year over there and hard to keep a stiff upper lip, with the sudden departure of Chris Albrecht and the end of "The Sopranos."

Where HBO once ruled the cable universe, those days are long gone now. Showtime has made huge strides with shows such as "Weeds" and "Dexter," while FX has established itself as the gritty basic cable alternative with skeins like "The Shield," "Damages" and "Nip/Tuck." Even networks that didn't have original drama programming just a few years ago, such as AMC and TBS, are now in the game.

This weekend should help, however. "Sopranos" and James Gandolfini could certainly be coming home with Emmys and "Longford" was a stellar piece of work, as was its star, Jim Broadbent.

HBO's closets are filled with Emmys but what it needs now, more than statues, are hits.

— Stuart Levine

Not much of an upset Saturday night during the first leg of the Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony as HBO's "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" maintained its trophy market share with a total of five wins, followed by Discovery Channel's "Planet Earth" (wha?) and NBC's "Tony Bennett: An American Classic" with four apiece. (For a proper report on who-won-what, click here for the report from Variety's Jeff Sneider, who sacrificed his Saturday night so that you and I wouldn't have to.)

Contrary to conventional wisdom the Creative Arts ceremony isn't all craft and tech honors (though let it be said here that the below-the-line folks are not only H'wood's salt of the earth but its true artisans). NBC nearly swept the guest-star awards categories, which can be a handy career reviver for the right actor at the right moment if the sun and the moon and the stars align...

Elaine Stritch (pictured left) bagged the guest actress in a comedy trophy for her turns in "30 Rock." Leslie Caron (pictured right) took the drama trophy for her one-shot on "Law & Order: SVU." John Goodman's visits to "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" were recognized for guest actor in a drama, while Stanley Tucci (pictured above) got the nod on the comedy side for having fun with the great Tony Shalhoub on "Monk." (So if you count USA Network as one of "the networks of NBC Universal," as the Peacock likes to put it, NBC U did sweep the category. That bit of bragging rights and a dollar will buy you a cup of coffee at Musso & Franks...)

(Pics of Stritch and Caron on Creative Arts Emmy red carpet by Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage)

Watching the season finale of "Big Love" last night and seeing Bill Paxton making out with his wannabe girlfriend/fourth wife to be Branka Katic (Ana the waitress), I wondered why it's OK for him to be unfaithful in his marriage and not anyone else who tires for old and wants something new and fresh?

Being polygamists, the Henricksons don't have to abide by normal laws of matrimony: one wife at a time. But under the guidelines of his religion, Bill Henrickson can, without discussion, announce to his three wives — all wonderfully portrayed by Jeanne Tripplehorn, Chloe Sevigny and Ginnifer Goodwin — that he's received a calling for a fourth woman to share his bed.

Suddenly, when Bill locked lips with Katic, my first and only wife turned around to me and said, "He's just a cheater." Can't really argue with that.

The episode was a strong, if not stellar, conclusion to "Big Love," the series that HBO moved to Mondays in order to allow "John From Cincinnati" to gather post-"Sopranos" momentum. Yeah, how'd that work out for "John"? "Love" often feels like it's traveling under that radar at HBO, which sees much bigger buzz on "Entourage" and even the low-watched but geek-friendly "Flight of the Conchords."

Even at Emmy time, "Love" seems, well, unloved. Granted, it wasn't eligible this Emmy season but in its first campaign it didn't receive a series or any acting nominations. And Paxton and his three ladies — or at least one of them — are certainly worthy of awards attention. Even Sevigny, who's so good that she makes me hate her Nicolette Grant.

With "Sopranos" gone and HBO looking for a drama series that might be able to capture some of that watercooler talk that Tony and the gang seemed to create week after week, "Big Love" is as good a candidate as anything they've got.

Certainly, the upcoming "Tell Me You Love Me," about three couples who go to therapy and reveal intimate details about their love life, will get plenty of publicity for all the sex that takes place. And it would be a shame if this addictive series is dismissed as exploitive and not given credit for the terrific dialogue and intricate interplay between characters, as created by Cynthia Mort.

But "Big Love" is the better long-term candidate for keeping viewers subscribed to their HBO. Though the network will rightly say that it counts its audience on a cumulative scale — adding up the different broadcasts during the week, including video on demand, rather than just on the premiere night — moving it to Mondays didn't seem right.

It's earned a move back to Sunday for season three. Polygamists, whether you agree with their philosophy or not, seem a better fit than surfers, no matter who they're sleeping with.

— Stuart Levine

Been a tough couple of weeks for "John from Cincinnati" fans. First, the show that its most ardent fans have embraced as life-altering (or at least mood-altering, eh?) gets unceremoniously dumped by its network -- though I still submit we gotta give HBO credit for sticking it out through the initial 10-episode order. Now today comes word that the titular star with the big wave on his head, Austin Nichols, has been busted for inebriated motorvatin' in Jackson, Mich. (Details here in this AP story)

Driving your silvery Mercury Mountaineer the wrong way down a one-way street is never a good thing, and there are no writers to get him off the hook in this episode...Meanwhile, the post-mortems on "JFC" are continuing to flow, and most of them have been rough on the show and its creators, David Milch and Kem Nunn, but the truly faithful have not given up. Ultra-fan Nancy Tippett is among those behind http://www.savejohnfromcincinnati.net/ website, which comes complete with a to-do list (No. 1 -- send postcards with the Monad stick figure -- fans of the show know what this means, sort of -- to HBO execs).

"If I learned anything from 'John from Cincinnati,' it's that an expression of love is never futile," Nancy explained to me in an email about her quixotic effort. What can it hurt? The Internet is big....

In truth, what little I know about HBO's intentions regarding a "John from Cincinnati" DVD set boils down to  this: Yes, they intend to put one out, but it won't be until next year. People who know more about these things than I do say that it takes a long time to master and "author" 10 hours of material for DVD, not to mention assembling packaging materials and marketing plans, etc.

Plus, how could you put out a DVD set of David Milch's spiritual surfin' safari without packing it with all kinds of cosmic extras, from commentary tracks (even if it might sound like a post-grad English lit course) to deleted scenes and behind-the-scenes hijinx. (Can you imagine the outtakes? Tee hee.) Certainly, all of the original viral-vid material produced during the run of the series would be a natural to fill out a nice bonus disc. They could even incorporate some of the puzzles and such that are built into the faux fan websites that have distributed this material to date, as chronicled here two weeks ago in this post.

HBO has confirmed what most "John from Cincinnati" fans already suspected: It's 10 episodes and out for one of the strangest examples of smallscreen drama ever to hit U.S. airwaves, as Variety's Steven Zeitchik reports. People either loved it or hated it, as the blogosphere chatter about the show proves. As co-creator/exec producer David Milch said during a lengthy interview yesterday, "You can't waste a second on remorse."

POSTED BY STUART LEVINE

I’m man enough to admit I have a guy crush on David Milch. I’ve watched everything he does, and I mean   everything. “Hill Street Blues” … watched every episode. Hell, I was a fan of “Bay City Blues.” “Big Apple,” with his good friend Ed O’Neill, was intriguing and smart, but had little chance of succeeding as a midseason replacement where only easy-to-digest series have a chance to thrive.

And as for “NYPD Blue,” I might not have been fanatical about it as much as my friend Alan Sepinwall of the Newark Star-Ledger, who blogged about every episode on his informative “Blue” website, but I was devout. Watched every minute of it. From Caruso’s enthralling first season to Sipowicz’s promotion in the series finale, I was there for every second.

As I write this, I’m staring at my “Deadwood” poster, looking into the steely eyes of Al Swearengen, with Seth Bullock’s hand on his holster and Trixie looking pissed off, in the delicious way only she can. So don’t even get me started on the greatness of “Deadwood.”

Which only adds to my utter disappointment that was “John From Cincinnati.” With all due respect to my Variety colleague and curator of this blog, I think “John” was a monumental misfire, with lessons to be learned all around.

(Pictured above: David Milch, far right, with "John from Cincinnati" stars Luke Perry, left, and Austin Nichols.)