The 2000 Year Old Man lives! He made a cameo appearance tonight at the Paley Center for Media's fund-raiser honoring the great Carl Reiner and the deserving Matt Blank and Robert Greenblatt of Showtime Networks.

Reiner's tribute was funny, of course, with hosannas coming from the event's host, Bonnie Hunt, as well as Larry Gelbart, Dick Van Dyke, Lily Tomlin, George Segall and progeny Rob Reiner. It was clear that as he surveyed his career retrospective in the clip package, the recent loss of his wife of 65 years, Estelle, was not far from Carl Reiner's mind. He credited his wife, who died in October at 94, with "raising me" and influencing every aspect of his professional life.

It was also clear that Reiner was enjoying the opportunity to reminisce. Mel Brooks, Reiner's old compadre from the "Your Show of Shows" writers' room, was among the luminaries in the crowd, along with Norman Lear. Reiner got a second standing ovation as he walked off the stage and over to where Brooks was seated and kept right on talking. Hastily, a spotlight and a microphone materialized and in an instant the crowd was treated to a dash of "The 2000 Year Old Man."

I only took mental notes but the routine went something like this:

Reiner: "So you knew Jesus?"

Brooks: "He used to come in to my candy store. With 12 guys."

Reiner: "What were they like?"

Brooks: "They wore sandals."

It was no surprise to see Showtime's Matt Blank and Robert Greenblatt looking like they were enjoying themselves Friday afternoon during their executive Q&A sesh. Any way you look at it, Showtime is on a roll. They're not getting the

"Why aren't you as cool as HBO?" questions lobbed at them at TCA anymore. Think of the programming assets Showtime has these days: "Weeds," "Dexter," "The Tudors," "Californication," "The L Word," "The Secret Diary of a Call Girl," "Brotherhood," "This American Life," "Penn and Teller's Bullshit!" and "Tracey Ullman's State of the Union."

Greenblatt reinforced the cabler's Big Mo with his rundown of the paybox's programming highlights during the past year, capped by Thursday by the best drama series Emmy nom nabbed by "Dexter." He also showed off clips of two intriguing half-hours  to come, "Nurse Jackie" (pictured left), starring Edie Falco as an unconventional nurse at a Gotham hospital; and the Toni Collette-John Corbett starrer "The United States of Tara" (pictured right), the brainchild of Steven Spielberg and Diablo Cody about a suburban mom with multiple personalities.

Greenblatt noted that Showtime's top buzz-getters, "Dexter" and "Weeds," are in a contest for bragging rights as the cabler's highest-rated shows. "Dexter" set a new high water mark for the feevee-er last September with its season two opener drawing more than 1 million viewers. "Weeds" has been smoking in its fourth season. Its June 16 debut brought in 1.35 million viewers for the premiere, and segs have been averaging a cume weekly rating of more than 3 million -- a ratings record by far for Showtime, Greenblatt assured the crowd.

Showtime is getting into the high school musical business.

No, not with Zac and Vanessa, et al, but through a feature documentary to be produced with Lionsgate that promises to examine "the cutthroat world of high school musicals in southern Indiana." Pic will focus on the rehearsals, histrionics and hijinks surrounding tuner productions at three schools -- Floyd Central High, New Albany and Jeffersonville -- as students, parents, teachers and even local salons go at it head-to-head in an effort to have their shows selected to participate in the International Thespian Festival. Untitled docu will be produced by Barry Blaustein, producer of the wrestling docu "Beyond the Mat," and Nigel Sinclair, who produced Martin Scorsese's "No Direction Home: Bob Dylan" doc.Lionsgate gets worldwide theatrical distrib rights to the pic, which is expected to bow next year.

Blaustein's promising to capture "all the joy, all the love, all the backstabbing" that surrounds the process.
The southern Indiana setting is kinda close to home for Showtime entertainment chief Robert Greenblatt, who had his own "Waiting for Guffman" moments in high school as the stage manager of variety show and tuner productions at his high school in Rockford, Ill., including "Guys & Dolls," "No No Nanette," "Bye Bye Birdie" and "George M!"

As such, the untitled docu project "really speaks to me," Greenblatt says.