Judd Apatow makes me laugh. He makes a lot of people laugh. He kept the packed house at the WGA Theater in Beverly Hills laughing Thursday night as he moderated the "Beyond Words" panel of WGA Award nommed screenwriters. It was a good group -- Simon Beaufoy ("Slumdog Millionaire"); Lance Black ("Milk"); Tom McCarthy ("The Visitor"); Jonathan Nolan ("The Dark Knight"); and Eric Roth ("The Curious Case of Benjamin Button") -- that reflected a range of pics.

Apatow joked at the start about not preparing for the event, but he'd clearly done a little bit of homework. He zeroed in on Roth to start, noting that the esteemed screenwriter had been a friend of Jim Morrison when they both attended UCLA in the mid-1960s.

"Can we talk about that all night," Apatow said.

Roth breezed over this interesting chapter in the L.A./rock'n'roll/Hollywood history with a dry mention of weird scenes ("I did get high with him a lot") and the observation that the Lizard King, in all his tight- leather-pants-whip-it-out-in-Miami-rock-god glory, really wanted to be a respected poet, or maybe even a screenwriter. "He wanted to be here," Roth said. (I think he meant Morrison would've loved being in a setting that conferred on him the status of being a really good writer.)

Apatow then warned McCarthy that the only thing he was more interested in than Jim Morrison stories was behind the scenes tales of "The Wire." (McCarthy co-starred as a really craven character -- a corrupt newspaper reporter -- in the HBO drama's final season last year. He shredded in the role. I loved HATING him.)

"So, what role as an actor pissed you off so much that you decided to write," Apatow asked, zeroing in on the heart of the question, no matter how delicately phrased, that is always asked of actors who decide to write or direct, or do both in the case of the multi-talented McCarthy.

(Pictured above, from left: Eric Roth, Lance Black, Judd Apatow, Jonathan Nolan, Tom McCarthy and Simon Beaufoy.)

Strike TV is getting closer to its close-up.

The website devoted to showcasing original works from Hollywood union-repped folks is planning a private beta launch starting Monday. If you're curious, go sign up for updates and info about the venture at www.strike.tv and they'll be sending out log on and password info soon.

The plan is to let a 1,000 or so people into the site to help break it in and work out the bugs before they mount a full-blown launch. Until then, clips and trailers for some of the Strike TV fodder already produced can be found on this Strike TV blog.

Who knew jokes about proctologists and urologists could be so charming? It's all in the delivery, and writer-producer Donna Kanter's docu short "Lunch" has the goods.

The pic documents a social phenomenon that has been taking place every other Wednesday for 40 years at the Valley Inn in Sherman Oaks. A small group of showbiz scribes, an actor, a comic and  sportscaster or two have been gathering there to break bread, swap stories and generally enjoy one another's company, and the hospitality of their longtime waitress, Valerie.

The group includes Shelley Berman, Rocky Kalish, Gary Owens, Paul Pumpian, John Rappaport, Gil Stratton and Kanter's dad, famed multihyphenate Hal Kanter. The 38-minute doc, which screens Friday night at the WGA Theater in BevHills, is a sweet tribute to these industry vets who still have plenty of good lines in them. (Hal and Donna Kanter pictured right)

The project grew out of a Directors Guild of America workshop that Donna Kanter attended with famed docu maker Chuck Workman. It was designed to be "a rewarding exercise...I didn't expect it to be more than an etude," she says.

Emmy's picks for writing and directing nominees in the series categories are kinda like a state of the craft report card every year. They're often the category where new and innovative programs are recognized long before they crack the more prominent races.

But in a year when Emmy voters seemed to embrace new and different, the choices in the writing and directing heats seem more pedestrian, though some of this year's contenders were so obvious (Bryan Fuller and Barry Sonnenfeld for "Pushing Daisies" Pie-lette, Matthew Weiner and Alan Taylor for the "Mad Men" pilot) as to take some of the suspense out of the race this year. Sonnenfeld (pictured left) and Taylor (pictured right) have already bagged DGA Awards for their work on these pilots.

Sonnenfeld, IMHO, can safely begin rehearsing his acceptance speech for comedy helmer. (Coming from him, it oughta be a doozy.) The competish is strong -- a six-nominee category meaning that there was one tie in the nom ballotting -- but nothing was quite so inventive and visually distinct as that first slice of ABC's "Pushing Daisies."

From my viewfinder, the dark horse in the race could be James Bobin of HBO's "Flight of the Conchords." Bobin, co-creator of the series with Kiwi comedy-rockers Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie, is up for the "Sally Returns" episode of "Conchord's" 12-episode frosh season.

Dan Attias nabbed a nom for the "No Cannes Do" installment of "Entourage." Paul Lieberstein has shown that there's no end to his talents by performing, writing and directing segs of NBC's "The Office," and now he's up for helming the seg "Money" Parts 1 and 2 (sounds like a James Brown hit from the early '70s). Also nommed from "Office" is Paul Feig, for handling the season finale, "Goodbye, Toby," which happened to mark the farewell of Lieberstein's character. Michael Engler of NBC's "30 Rock" is up for the "Rosemary's Baby" installment.

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."

If you dream of becoming a television writer, buff up the resume and click here because applications are now being accepted for the 2009 Writing Fellowship Program run by the Disney-ABC Television Group, Walt Disney Studios and Writers Guild of America West.

The fellowship is an intense year-long paid program that gives a handful of promising scribes the chance to jumpstart their careers through seminars and workshop, one-on-one mentor assignments with Disney and ABC creative execs and the ability to observe first hand how the sausage is made on ABC, Disney Channel or ABC Family shows, among others.

Alumni of this program, heading into its 19th year, have famously done well for themselves. Success stories from this year's program, which isn't even over yet, include Erika Johnson, who landed on "Ugly Betty"; Leyani Diaz, who joined the staff of "Brothers and Sisters"; and Matthew Whitney, who can now be found in the writers' room on ABC Family's "Greek."

I've spoken with a number of fellowship alums over the years, and there is no doubt that it is an incredible experience for those who are lucky enough to land a slot. Disney deserves a tip of the pen for its commitment to the Writing Fellowship and similar program for helmers that the Mouse House runs with the Directors Guild of America.

Applications for the Writing Fellowship will be accepted via this website through Aug. 8. So get out that spec script you've been harboring on your hard drive and get cracking.

Can it really be 10 years since "Sports Night" debuted? Sheesh.

Shout Factory reminds us how quickly time passes with today's announcement of the "10th Anniversary Edition" DVD box set of all 45 segs of the ABC comedy. The half-hour from Aaron Sorkin and Thomas Schlamme may not be "the show that changed what television could be," as it's touted in the press release, but it was entertaining and a breath of fresh air for its time. It was single-camera before single-camera was cool for small screen laffers.

"Sports Night's" core cast members have certainly done well for themselves in the intervening years: Peter Krause, Josh Charles, Felicity Huffman, Joshua Malina and Sabrina Lloyd. (Robert Guillaume was already doing well for himself by the time this show came along, and he was great in his role as the elder-statesman exec producer at Continental Sports Channel, the Gotham sports cabler where the show was set.) Set, due out Sept. 30, includes two discs of bonus features including deleted scenes, gag reels, behind-the-scenes featurettes, commentaries, etc.

Word is that CBS has just made it official on its hot drama pilot "The Ex List" (fka "Mythological Ex"), from 20th Century Fox TV and scribe Diane Ruggiero.

Series is based on an Israeli series about a woman who's told by a tarot card reader that she needs to get married by year's end, and that the man of her dreams is someone she's already known in her life, which of course sends her on a journey through her past. Buzz is that CBS supremo Leslie Moonves in particular sparked to the pilot -- it's believed to be the one he was talking up to investors as his favorite on CBS' earnings conference call earlier this month.

U.S. rendition stars Elizabeth Reaser (pictured in center), Rachel Boston, Alexandra Breckeridge and Adam Rothenberg. Timothy Busfield helmed the pilot. Ruggiero and Jonathan Levin are exec producers.

Meanwhile, the other no-brainers dramas pilots picked up by CBS are Jerry Bruckheimer's "Eleventh Hour" (which is said to have formally been picked up a week or so ago but kept under wraps so as to not bruise any other egos)l Simon Baker starrer "The Mentalist," both from Warner Bros. TV. Also ordered is "Harper's Island," a murder mystery from CBS Paramount Network TV and Jon Turteltaub's Junction Entertainment (the one-time home of "Jericho").

There's chatter that the "X-Files"-esque "Eleventh Hour" could be bound for the post "CSI" berth on Thursdays.

Nothing's official yet but it looks like Fox has decided to take a pass on the Bernie Mac comedy that Bruce Helford penned for Warner Bros. TV, "Starting Under." However, the network is said to be bound and determined to getting the comedian back on its air as soon as possible, and execs hope to start developing a new project with Bernie Mac after the upfront madness ends.

Warner Bros. TV, which has a deal with the comic, is equally determined to find the right fit for the star and will likely shop a new project around town, though there's an understanding that the welcome mat is definitely still out at Fox for Mac.

During the weekend, the signs were that Fox would pick up "Starting Under," about a blue-collar guy who's forced to move in with his son after losing his job, and then give it a major overhaul. But somewhere between Sunday afternoon and Monday morning, there was a meeting of the minds and it was decided that it would make more sense to just start over again from scratch.

Bernie Mac, of course, enlivened Fox's air from 2001-2006 as the star of "The Bernie Mac Show."

Primetime in the 2008-09 season is gonna be all over the map -- Australia, Israel, Canada and the U.K. for starters.

In this strike-interrupted pilot season, networks are embracing concepts and formats from overseas like never before. After writing "based on a ----- series" about 50 times while tracking the pilot buzz this weekend, I got to wondering about the origins of these projects.

I doubt that I'm the only one who assumes that if a property is being exported to the U.S., it must've been a hit at home, right? Wrong. At least that wasn't the case with "Sit Down, Shut Up" (pictured left), the live-action Australian sitcom that has inspired the Fox animated series "Class Dismissed," from Mitch Hurwitz and a bunch of his old "Arrested Development" cohorts. Fox gave it the greenlight on Saturday on the strength of a short presentation reel.

Original "Sit Down" ran for 13 segs on Australia's Channel Ten in 2001 but wasn't well received by critics or viewers, according to a post on "TV Tonight," a blog that bills itself authoritatively as "Australia's leading TV blog." In fact, this voice of Oz TV greeted the news that "Sit Down" had been fingered as a U.S. animated series with a pithy: "Now I've heard everything."

CBS is believed to be thisclose to picking up has picked up an unusual drama project, "Mythological Ex," that is based on an Israeli series of the same name (and retitled "The Ex List" for the U.S.).

Tracking down any details of this show -- revolving a woman sent on a soul-searching journey after a tarot card reader tells her to get hitched pronto to Mr. Right, who is someone who has already been in her life -- on the web in English was kinda tough.

From what I could gather, the series airs on Israel's Channel 2, an outlet that bowed in 2005, and is produced by a company called Reshet TV. Here's the link to the company's home page. If anyone who reads Hebrew can provide further guidance on whether "Mythological Ex" has its own page within, I'd be grateful. (Thanks to reader Phil, here's the link to the page, with clips of the show.) The image at right was all I could turn up through the Google Image search.

Word is that CBS execs are over the moon about the potential of the U.S. adaptation penned by Diane Ruggiero.

Fox just made it official: It's a go for J.J. Abrams' "Fringe."

Two-hour pilot produced by Abrams' Bad Robot and Warner Bros. TV, stars Aussie thesp Anna Torv as a femme FBI agent who tackles cases involving spooky unexplained phenonena with the aid of an out-there scientist and his neer-do-well genius son. Yes, it does sound like "X-Files Redux" but because "Lost" is perhaps the Greatest Show Ever we'll give Team Abrams (whose fearless leader is pictured at left) the benefit of the doubt that they can put a fresh spin on the genre.

"Fringe" pilot was penned by frequent Abrams' collaborators Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci and helmed by Alex Graves.

Speculation is that "Fringe" will be Fox's Big New Fall Launch series while Joss Whedon's "Dollhouse," which already has a seven-episode order, will be the Big New January Launch series. With these two shows plus "Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles" returning, there's gonna be a lotta reality-bending going on at Fox next season.

Earlier today, Fox handed pickup to animated comedy "Sit Down, Shut Up," from Sony Pictures TV  and 20th Century Fox TV, insiders said. "Sit Down" is exec produced by "Arrested" maestro Mitchell Hurwitz and features the vocal talents of "Arrested" thesps Jason Bateman (pictured right), Will Arnett and Henry Winkler, along with comic Nick Kroll. That greenlight comes on the heels of Fox's order dispensed late Friday for live-action comedy "The Inn," whose pilot Bateman directed.

"Sit Down" is based on a live-action Oz comedy and revolves around the dysfunctional faculty at a high school. Pickup had been expected. Toon vets Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein were already recruited as showrunners last month (Daily Variety, April 28).

No official word yet on anything from Fox, but it's understood that in addition to "The Inn," Fox has have given the nod to a third season of Sony sitcom "Til Death" and has pinkslipped the Kelsey Grammer-Patricia Heaton starrer "Back to You" after one season.

Meanwhile, CW execs are expected to make their official pickup calls later today. It's a no-brainer that the spinoff of "90210," from Rob Thomas and CBS Paramount Network TV, gets the go-ahead. Warner Bros. TV's young femme-friendly drama "How to Teach Filthy Rich Girls" is also considered a safe bet.

"Inn" stars Niecy Nash (pictured left) and Jerry O'Connell in a multi-camera comedy set in a hip Gotham hotel. It hails from scribe Abraham Higginbotham (who is yet another "Arrested Development" alum), 20th Century Fox TV, Reveille and Principato-Young Entertainment.

Meanwhile, rumblings from the Fox screening room is that execs very much want to be in biz with Bernie Mac (pictured right), whose Warner Bros.TV  project "Starting Under" has a 13-seg commitment, but they were only lukewarm about the execution of pilot, revolving around a down on  his luck guy who's forced to move in with son, by comedy vet Bruce Helford.

So the project still seems likely to get a greenlight but it will undergo some major renovations, perhaps with another scribe brought in to work alongside Helford.

Biz watchers today are also intently focused on ABC and what it may or may not be announcing Tuesday ayem as it moves into the leadoff slot normally occupied by NBC (which already lifted the curtain on its sked last month).

Chatter late Friday was that the fate of a renewal of David E. Kelley's "Boston Legal" was still wrapped up in the prospect of Kelley and 20th Century Fox TV reaching a deal with ABC Studios to move the Kelley cop pilot "Life on Mars" from 20th to ABC Studios under the direction of new showrunners Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec.

Drama "Women's Murder Club" appears to be officially K.O'd after one season, but as of late Friday there still seemed to be some hope for renewals for ABC midseasoners "Eli Stone" and "Miss Guided."

It's a very weird year. That's what everyone in town keeps saying over and over again as the biz gears up for the annual upfront ritual, which will be a little less ritualistic this year.

Gone in this Very Weird Year is the time-honored way in which reporters get big hints on what pilots are getting picked up -- by tracking the talent that is being flown in to New York.

As we all know, there are a whole lotta pilots that have not yet been shot and are just now setting casts. Most of the chatter, good and bad, about 2008-09 hopefuls this week has centered around the projects that the nets have in hand as pilots or presentations, or at least have significant thesps attached, a la ABC's "Never Better," which landed Damon Wayans (pictured right) as its lead last week.

So with the caveat that it is all spin and conjecture at this moment in time, let's review the buzz out there.

ABC's the hardest to read when it comes to new stuff.

On comedy front, Cedric the Entertainer (pictured left) vehicle (ABC Studios) seems to have traction -- or not, depending on who you talk to!

"Bad Mothers Handbook" (ABC Studios), about three generations of femmes living together, has not lensed but has the benefit of Alicia Silverstone (pictured right) and another high-profile name in the offing.

"My Brother's Hot and Other Dilemmas" (ABC Studios) about a girl attracted to her new step brother, has Alyssa Milano (pictured left). It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that either a Silverstone or Milano comedy vehicle could be a nice companion for ABC's frosh hit "Samantha Who?" -- assuming that either pilot satisfies the larger obligation to actually be funny.

"Never Better" (ABC Studios) shot up on the radar after Wayans signed on and Marc Buckland signed on to direct.

Drama-wise at ABC ... I just don't know.

Only "Life on Mars," offbeat time-travel cop drama, is in the can. David E. Kelley and Tommy Schlamme have bowed out of that project, they're looking to move this from 20th Century Fox TV to ABC Studios and retool it under prospective showrunners Josh Appelbaum, Andre Nemec and Scott Rosenberg.

There's been a lot of chatter in the biz that "Life on Mars" shuffle granted a reprieve to Kelley's "Boston Legal" for another season. (Biz watchers with long memories will recall that two years ago, the same thing happened when ABC was hot for Kelley's "Mars.") But I'm hearing that "Boston Legal's" fate also has a lot to do with Kelley and how involved he intends to be going forward, among other factors.

It seems a safe bet that "Women's Murder Club" is headed for the morgue, though ABC is said to be anxious to stay in biz with star Angie Harmon. Midseason drama "Eli Stone" is said to be 50-50 for a sophomore year. And surprisingly, ABC is said to be considering a pickup for midseason comedy "Miss Guided." Can't swear to this but I heard the actors' options have been extended for a few more weeks.

At CBS, it's always a dangerous game trying to predict what Team Moonves is going to announce at Carnegie Hall on Wednesday. But some chatter about returning shows seems to be firming up.

It sounds like something that will either be very good or very ... not so good. But I give 'em all credit for derring-do and willingness to try something totally off the wall -- a scribe swap that cuts across genres, and even studios.

"CSI" writers Sarah Goldfinger and Evan Dunsky have penned the May 5 seg of "Two and a Half Men," based on a story by "CSI" czarina Carol Mendelsohn and Naren Shankar. Chuck Lorre and Lee Aronsohn, co-creators and exec producers of "Men," have done the script for the May 8 installment of "CSI."

The "Men" seg, "Fish in a Drawer," involves a CSI team coming to Charlie Harper's beach house to investigate -- what else? -- a mysterious death. It should be further enlivened by guest stars Robert Wagner and Jenny McCarthy.

"CSI" seg "Two and a Half Deaths" revolves around the death of a high-maintenance sitcom star, played by Katey Sagal, while shooting her show on location in Sin City. Suspects include the entire writing staff, her loser husband and her stand-in, played by Rachael Harris. 

I'm thinking positive and hoping these experiments be as playful as they outta be. I will do some more investigating and find out whose DNA is all over this idea, what the motivation was and the weapon (laptop, legal pad, etc.).

In the meantime, here's some more pics of the crossover episodes.

(In the pic above, that's Aronsohn leaning over the body, and Lorre directly behind him.)

From the "CSI" - "Two and a Half Deaths" seg:

The significant progress made in the DGA's tentative contract agreement with the majors stands as a hopeful sign that labor peace may soon be at hand. And it's also provides perfect examples of what's gone wrong to date in the fitful negotiations between the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and the WGA. The lack of communication between the studios and the scribes has been devastating to the creative community, below-the-liners included, and a failure of leadership on both sides of the picket lines.

The DGA rightfully touted on Thursday its victory in achieving big gains in residuals for electronic sell-through (aka paid downloads) based on a percentage of distributor's gross, not the despised producer's gross homevideo formula that took 80% of the distributor's revenue off the table, leaving 20% for the scribes and helmers to take a slim percentage of (1.5% or 1.8%, for sales after $1 million) as a residual. It's understood that the AMPTP wanted to base the deal on some definition "producer's gross" in the deal but the DGA held firm, on the rationale that it's too easy for the majors to move money around to make the producer's gross a lot punier than the distributor's haul.

The WGA pushed hard in its approach to the studios for a distributor's gross formula, but it was a non-starter, the AMPTP reps repeatedly told the WGA. How come? Because, according to execs from the AMPTP member congloms, they quite weren't sure what the WGA meant by the D- and G-words. AMPTP reps raised the specter of the WGA demanding a cut of advertising revenue from new media exhibition platforms (ABC.com, NBC.com, etc.) if they were owned by the same company that distribbed the program to the Internet (as is more often than not the case in post fin-syn Hollywood).

So why didn't the companies just ask for clarity? Why didn't they demand a simple, declarative sentence, a la the DGA's snappy "Distributor's gross is the amount received by the entity responsible for distributing the film or television program on the Internet." AMPTP says they did; WGA says it was the majors who refused to define their understanding of distributor's versus producer's gross. I can't imagine a first grade teacher accepting such a "did too/did not" explanation for why the entire class flunked the math test.

An astute friend who has been through more than one showbiz strike made the observation this evening that in the history of Hollywood labor negotiations, there's never been a situation quite like today, where the membership of DGA, WGA and SAG have as much information about the nitty-gritty details of a contract agreement at the same time as guild leaders. Membership of all three guilds were able to form their opinions in real time along with their respective leaders in the era of insta-communications, websites, blogs and email alerts. Guild leaders don't even have the time to put their spin on it. The devil is in the details, indeed.

It's hard to not feel a little melancholy when you're working on a year-end obit package.

Assembling a list of notables who died during a 12-month time span is like taking stock of how much the world you once knew is disappearing. Although I don't often admit it in the company of non-journos, I (usually) like working on obits. It's challenging work, usually against a tight deadline, and I feel a certain responsibility to do right by the person. I often hear Mrs. Loman's famous command in my head: "Attention must be paid."

In that spirit, here is an electronic chronicle of those who left their mark on the TV biz. 2007 saw the  passing of industry titans the likes of Jack Valenti, Merv Griffin, Tom Snyder  and Roger King; influential hyphenates including Sidney Sheldon, Mel Shavelson, Martin Manulis, Mel Tolkin and Bob Carroll, Jr.; and a local TV news icon in Hal Fishman.

It was a tough year for "Match Game" fans, with Charles Nelson Reilly and Brett Somers heading in to the blank hereafter. And no obit in the pages of Variety this year was more heartbreaking than that of Cartoon Network exec Jennifer Davidson, 38, who was a charter member of the cabler's staff and a mother of three.

(Here's the link to part one if you're just joining us.)

AUGUST

Hal Fishman, 75, news anchor who was a fixture of L.A.'s airwaves for 40 years, primarily on KTLA-TV. Fishman was known for his rat-tat-tat delivery style, his occasional conservative-leaning editorials and his interest in aviation. Here's the tribute to Fishman that ran on KTLA's 10 p.m. newscast on the day Fishman died, Aug. 7.

Merv Griffin, 82, multihyphenate who began as a band singer and died a billionaire real estate mogul. In between, Griffin hosted a popular syndicated talk show for more than 20 years and created two of the most successful shows in history in "Wheel of Fortune" and "Jeopardy." Merv, as he was known to all, was one of those ubiquitous entertainers who was seemingly everywhere when I was a kid, as I waxed on about in this remembrance. And here's a fun clip of Merv and Don Rickles going at it on "The Merv Griffin Show" in 1985.

Melville Shavelson, 90, prolific film and TV scribe whose credits include "The Danny Thomas Show." Also a three-time prexy of WGA West. Here's a link to part 1 of his nine-part Archive of American Television interview from 1999.

SEPTEMBER

Alice Ghostley, 81, actress, a Tony-winner best known for her nervous-housewife persona exemplified by her role as the ditsy Aunt Esmerelda on "Bewitched."

Martin Manulis, 92, producer, creative steward of CBS' "Playhouse 90" who was responsible for such landmark TV drama productions as "Requiem for a Heavyweight" and "The Miracle Worker." Manulis was a guy Rod Serling respected, and that's saying something. Here's a link to part one of his 11-part Archive of American Television interview.

Brett Somers, 83, stage actress known for her long stint on "Match Game." She played Oscar Madison's ex on "The Odd Couple" and was Mrs. Jack Klugman for a time in real-life too. Here's a representative clip featuring Somers parrying with "Match Game" host Gene Rayburn.

OCTOBER

Joey Bishop, 89, the stone-faced, cool cat comic who was the last surviving member of the Rat Pack. Bishop made a number of stabs at TV, including a domestic comedy and a bid to challenge Johnny Carson's dominance of latenight with show that ran on ABC from 1967-69. Below are two great clips, and more Nehru jackets than you can shake your love beads at, from the latenight "Joey Bishop Show."

In the first, Sammy Davis Jr. tries to teach Joey to tap dance. The second is a nice long monologue clip that also features Bishop's sidekick, Regis Philbin.

Gary Franklin, 79, L.A. TV reporter and film reviewer for KABC-TV Los Angeles and KCBS-TV Los Angeles, who was known for rating films on his "Franklin scale of 1-10, 10 being best."

NOVEMBER

Mel Tolkin, 94, writer-producer who had the formidable job as head writer on Sid Caesar's "Your Show of Shows." He was a guy who could make Caesar laugh, and corral a room that featured such wits as Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, Larry Gelbert, Lucille Kallen and Woody Allen. Here's a link to part one of his eight-party Archive of American Television interview from 1997.

Verity Lambert, 71, pioneering femme British TV exec and producer. Lambert was the first female and youngest exec to work for the BBC in the early 1960s. She also was the first producer of the worldwide cult fave "Dr. Who." Here's a fan video tribute that hits the highlights of her remarkable career.

DECEMBER

Jennifer Davidson, 38, who was one of the first 15 people hired at Cartoon Network in the early 1990w, rising to senior veep of programming and scheduling. She was part of the team that spearheaded the launch of Adult Swim in 2001. Here's a link to a story from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution featuring remembrances from family and friends.

Roger King, 63, leader of King World Prods. and one of the most successful entrepreneurs in TV history. King World prospered with enduring hits, "Wheel of Fortune," "Jeopardy" and "The Oprah Winfrey Show," that spurred the growth of the first-run syndie biz in the 1980s and '90s. As King World grew, so did Roger's reputation as a master salesman with an encyclopedic knowledge of TV stations and local markets. Here's a link to part one of his three-part Archive of American Television interview, and here are links to the remembrances posted here in the days after his death. 

Stu Nahan, 81, longtime broadcaster and sports reporter for various L.A. outlets who earned the nickname "Skipper Stu" after hosting a kidvid show of the same name early on in his career.

Floyd Red Crow Westerman, 71, actor and activist, Westerman was a passionate advocate of Native American causes and filmmakers and recognized for his work on "Dances with Wolves" and "Northern Exposure," among many other movies and TV skeins. Here's a video interview with Westerman from 2004 that illustrates the depth of his intelligence and dedication to advancing the cause of Native Americans in all fields.

This just in: "Lost" is coming back to ABC's sked sooner rather than later, even if it won't be in the straight 16-consecutive-week thrill ride we'd hoped for before the strike blues hit. It's bound for a new night, taking over "Grey's Anatomy's" Thursday 9 p.m. slot as of Jan. 31. (Click here for the rundown on ABC's midseason-because-there's-a-strike-sked from Variety's Michael Schneider.)

That's going to make things tough for fans of NBC's "The Office," but I suppose that's what DVRs are for, and sadly, it doesn't look like there's going to be any new "Office" visits for a while, at least not by the time "Lost" bows for what's believed to be an eight- or nine-episode run of segs completed by the time the scribes walked on Nov. 5.

New ABC drama "Eli Stone" gets a big boost by debuting the same night as "Lost" in the 10 p.m. slot.
"Eli Stone," starring Jonny Lee Miller (pictured right) as a young corporate lawyer who suddenly starts hearing things and  seeing things, which leads him to believe he's a prophet. Overall the show has a fantasy-light, kinda feel-good touch that may be right in tandem with "Lost." Goodness knows, ABC's had no luck pairing "Lost" with dark-and-brooding dramas, so maybe a 90-degree turn is the way to go. Tip for TV insiders: Note how Miller's Eli Stone character channels some of the mannerisms and speaking patterns of UTA's Dan Erlij (who is a friend of On the Air's) who reps series co-creator/exec producer Marc Guggenheim. Very charming.

In the meantime, as the warm up for full-blown "Lost" fun, check out the "Lost: Missing Pieces" minisodes. They're ultra-cool, full of interesting plot points and intriguing backstory bits, and they're WGA, DGA and SAG approved under deals with the guilds that were cut a long time ago.

Why, oh why, do I have to work?!

I'm told that David Milch is holding one of his discourses on writing today and tomorrow at the Writers Guild Theater in Beverly Hills. Having attended one of his seminars on scribing years ago, I can tell you it is a journey to the center of a mind that functions in ways us mere mortals can barely grasp. And I can only imagine where his brain is at in these post-"John from Cincinnati," strike-angsty times.

Thursday's 2:15-4 p.m. sesh is free and open to the public on a first-come, first-serve basis. I'm told these events were fairly impromptu affairs that grew out of a discussion Milch and others had at WGA's HQ just a few days ago. I'm told it will be videotaped for the WGA library so us working stiffs can catch up with it at some point.

(Pictured above: David Milch on the set of "John from Cincinnati" with co-star Ed O'Neill)

Let's hope there's real movement this week in the talks between the Writers Guild of America and the majors -- for the good of the biz in general and for the sake of "Brothers and Sisters" in particular.

This show has been growing on me all season, and it did again Sunday night, with a little help from a nicely written guest shot for the ever-charming Lyle Lovett (pictured left). "Brothers and Sisters" is the poster-child for shows that are too promising -- creatively and commercially -- to lose their momentum because of the Big Distraction of the strike.

I'm not the only one who thinks so -- "Brothers and Sisters" ratings have been solid all season on the back of 9 p.m. companion "Desperate Housewives." Most recent seg drew 12.5 million viewers and 4.8 rating/11 share in adults 18-49, and even more impressive in femme demos, including women 18-34 (5.6/15) and women 18-49 (6.7/16).

Another potent weapon ABC has in the wings is midseason drama "Eli Stone," from "Brothers and Sisters" alums Marc Guggenheim, Greg Berlanti and Ken Olin. Pilot for skein starring Jonny Lee Miller (pictured right) as a lawyer who suddenly becomes convinced he's a prophet is quite compelling, but it's doubtful ABC will invest in the launch of the show while the writers' room is still empty.

The real value of a good script in this town hinges not on the eloquence of the prose or the cleverness of the plot but in its execution from page to screen. Nobody understands this Hollywood truism better than television showrunners; it’s the challenge they tackle with every week.

As such, it comes as no surprise that these multitasking members of Writers Guild of America should have played such a pivotal role in the first and second acts of the scribe strike of ’07. The determination of a wide swath of showrunners shut the biz down, for all intents and purposes, in a hurry in the first 72 hours after the strike began on Nov. 5. And by many accounts, it was the growing restlessness of many of the same showrunners last week that prodded both the studios and the guild off of their rhetorical high horses to agree to resume formal negotiations on Monday.

“The showrunners were the tip of the spear in this fight,” said a top tenpercenter who’s been piped into the backchannel discussions among scribes, CEOs and top agency partners during the past fortnight of discontent.

(Pictured above: "Grey's Anatomy" star Sandra Oh marches with "Grey's" showrunner Shonda Rhimes, to Oh's right, and "Back to You" co-creator/exec producer Steve Levitan, on Rhimes' right, during WGA's Tuesday march and rally on Hollywood Boulevard. Below, the march at its peak covered three blocks. Pics by Matthew Simmons/WireImage)

This just in from the home office at the Ed Sullivan Theater in Manhattan. This is why we've always loved David Letterman. From his spokesman Steve Rubenstein:

“Next week's tapings of 'The Late Show' and 'The Late Late Show' have been cancelled and we will continue to make a week-by-week determination about future tapings. However, it is important to Dave that our staff members have some degree of support during this uncertain time. Therefore, Worldwide Pants, which independently produces both shows, will continue to pay the non-writing staff of the shows – fully compensating lower-salaried employees, and providing a substantial portion of salaries for those at the higher end -- at least through the end of the year.  Of course, we all want to get back to work as soon as possible, and it remains our hope that both sides in this dispute will make progress toward that end. In the meantime, we will continue monitoring this situation closely as we make decisions regarding our future production schedule.”

The word that comes to mind to describe the mood among the scribes on the picket lines during the past week is: resolute.

Over and over, the attitude expressed on the lines was one of calm, cool determination to stick it out for a "fair deal." Despite the early predictions that the Writers Guild of America membership would be split along income-strata lines, there is no doubt that writers of all stripes, of all levels of experience and success are fired up by the feeling that the major congloms have been hosing them for years.

The WGA leadership has expertly built on that foundation of pent-up ire to help scribes gird for the strike that many rightly predicted was inevitable. On Friday (Nov. 9) at the mega-rally of at least 4,000 guild members and industry supporters held outside the Fox Plaza building in Century City, guild leaders and guest speakers including the Rev. Jesse Jackson very clearly drew a line between the WGA strike -- disparaged by some as a rich union's attempt to paint itself as blue-collar -- and the growing income disparity that has cleaved the nation into the super-haves, the haven't enoughs, the have-nots and the have nothings during the past 40 years.

"If they gave us everything that we're asking for, and then they went and did the same deal with the DGA and SAG, they would still be giving all of us less than each of their CEOs makes in a year," WGA West prexy Patric Verrone asserted to a receptive crowd on Friday.

(Can't absolutely vouch for Verrone's math, but we've all seen the studies on CEO pay gone wild and the widening gulf between the salaries of top execs and lowest-paid workers at many corporations.)  A picket sign in the crowd featured an unflattering picture of News Corp. prexy Peter Chernin, with "$34 million last year" scrawled underneath.

Seth MacFarlane, a wunderkind who scored his first multimillion payday before he was 30 with a hit animated Fox series "Family Guy," was a savvy choice by the guild to address the rally. His is a voice representing both the future of the guild and the promise that the biz holds to make (very lucky) people fabulously wealthy on the strength of a great idea. MacFarlane (pictured below) made a point of urging his fellow high-earners to keep paying their freshly laid off assistants for as long as possible. And he urged "the press" to get the message out to the general public that WGA members are, in the main, members of the five-figure annual income middle class, not the six-, seven-, eight-figure and above ultra-elite.

"Writers in this guild are not millionaires," MacFarlane stressed. "The royalties we're fighting for will make a big difference to them."

(Above pic snapped by Michelle Sobrino-Stearns/Variety)

Yikes, awkward timing for the season finale of "Weeds." Showtime skein's third-season closer involves our favorite gated-community suburbanites fleeing from a raging wildfire. Episode titled "Go" is set to air Nov. 19.

Showtime took pains to note in its listing release issued Wednesday that the segs were shot over the summer, and in no way is the show trying to grandstand on the real-life tragedy that hit so many in Southern California just a few days ago. In fairness to the show, wildfires are  a fact of life in this state, so it's a natural plot point. But now that "Weeds" maven Jenji Kohan and the rest of her scribe team are on strike, show's probably hard-pressed to tweak even a line or two if there's one that hits too close to the recent headlines.

I have to confess to being way behind on my "Weeds" viewing this season, but the season finale synopsis sounds intriguing enough to make me fire up the DVR this weekend and reconnect with our friends in Agrestic. I have to find out why Kevin Nealon's character appears to be getting romantic with his banjo.

(Pictured left, Mary-Louise Parker and Alexander Gould. Pictured right, Kevin Nealon.)

Multihyphenate Marshall Herskovitz has a thoughtful op-ed in today's Los Angeles Times looking at -- what else? -- WGA strike issues and how so many of the issues on the table are intertwined with the death 11 years ago of the FCC's financial interest and syndication rule. He also gets in a noticeable plug for his new online skein "quarterlife," which once tried to find life as an old-fashioned show on ABC.

(In the spirit of unabashed self-promotion, chapter one of a certain new book about the life of two now-defunct networks has a whole lotta info about fin-syn and its legacy, not that I'm plugging "Season Finale: The Unexpected Rise and Fall of the WB and UPN" or anything...)

As Herskovitz submits about the post-fin-syn world of network TV:

The most profound change resulting from that ruling is the way networks go about the business of creating programming. Networks today exert a level of creative control unprecedented in the history of the medium. The stories my friends tell me would make me laugh if the situation weren't so self-defeating. Network executives routinely tell producers to change the color of the walls on sets; routinely decide on the proper wardrobe for actors; routinely have "tone" meetings with directors on upcoming pilots; routinely give notes on every page of a script. (When we did "thirtysomething" in the late '80s, we never received network notes.) And by the way, they have every right to do these things. As owners, they have a responsibility to satisfy themselves that their product is competitive and successful.

Sadly, editing chores kept me in the office this a.m. For comprehensive coverage from Variety's Josef Adalian and Michael Schneider of the rally that brought out a who's-who of showrunners, check out Variety's Scribe Vibe strike blog.

Our cause is worth the fight. That's the message top showrunners plan to send to the nets and studios this morning (Wednesday) with a Very Special Episode of picketing outside of ABC's HQ in Burbank.

A strong turnout of high-powered types is expected to gather along West Alameda Avenue in an effort to demonstrate loud and clear that TV's ultimate multitaskers have thrown down their pencils and every other tool they use to deliver their segs under normal circumstances.

I've no doubt there'll be fists of fury in the air, lots of clever placards, quippy chanting and shouting into bullhorns. Showrunners have rallied with a surprising degree of solidarity around the belief that the contract talks with invariably be spurred along that much faster if production comes to a grinding halt this week.

Of course, there's been scoffs in many quarters about how some of the most successful folks in showbiz have suddenly gotten in touch with their inner blue-collar worker (and their scruffiest pair of jeans) to walk the picket lines that they drive to in Mercedes and BMWs from digs in Brentwood and Bel-Air.

But for others, the very fact that writers who are well off enough already to shrug their shoulders at a few pennies worth of residual hikes only proves that the picketing is more than money, (though it is surely about money). For the high-earners on the picket lines, it's about fairness, respect and recognition, something many feel they've had none of since the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers came to the table in July with a residuals revamp proposal that was instantly seen as an "attack" on the decades-old compensation formulas that keep film and TV scribes afloat between gigs.

Of all the strong convictions expressed by the hundreds of Writers Guild members who took to the streets on Monday, none was more pervasive among the strikers than the certainty that the television business as we know it today will soon be a distant memory.

Many scribes are convinced that soon all television program distribution, or at least the reruns that generate the stuff of mortgage and car payments for WGA members, are going the way of the Web. The advent of buy-to-own downloads, web streaming of full-length segs and DVD box sets by season will combine to put the knife in the kind of mammoth syndication deals that for decades have yielded the biggest windfalls for studios and profit participants.

The CEOs of the struck studios and networks undoubtedly share those fears/concerns -- on that point at least they can all agree. Warner Bros. did well with old-fashioned syndie sales to local broadcast stations of CBS' "Two and a Half Men," but is it the last one? How long will cablers keep paying $1 million-plus for rerun rights to an hourlong series that can be readily accessed on an on-demand basis?

"The media is changing. The way our product is getting out is changing," said writer David Fury as he stood outside the 20th Century Fox lot on Pico Boulevard holding up one end of a large homemade paper banner reading "Writers 4 a Fair Contract." Fury, who also gamely leaned into the street with a sign urging drivers to "Honk 4 Writers" (and they did, through the gamut of Toyotas, Mercedes, BMWs, Lexuses, Prius, Hondas, etc.), said the fire this time stems from a desire to protect themselves in the future.

The hangover of the much-reviled formula writers agreed to in the mid-1980s on homevid compensation hovers like smog in Riverside on a windy day in L.A. over every move the scribes and studios try to make on new media. In the view of writers who took roles in Monday's picket street theater, the biggest problem is that the studios have refused to make any moves on the matter.

"The younger writers -- the kids who are now in college -- are not protected" for the new media world order, said Fury, whose credits include "24," "Lost" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."If we don't do it now, a lot of writers are going to wonder why we let them down."

And so it begins, the shutdown scenario no one wanted to see. Sunday's marathon talks between writers and producers couldn't move the sides close enough together to prevent the pickets from going up all over town and key sites in Gotham (click here for the WGA's list of L.A. picket sites).

No new talks are on the horizon, as Variety's Dave McNary reports, but here's to hoping that will change soon. The local weather report forecasts a cooling trend during the next few days for the L.A. area, but we all know the temperature is going to rise several degrees as those pickets hit the street at 9 a.m. Of course, the big question now is how the Teamsters-repped showbiz workers react to pickets, and how showrunners and the multihyphenates a la "The Office" writer-thesps respond to a professional dilemma, as Variety's Josef Adalian and Michael Schneider report.

For a flavor of how workaday scribes are feeling during this season of discontent, check out United Hollywood, a blog maintained by several WGA members. And check Variety.com all day for updates.

Godspeed to John Wells and all of those who have been engaging in shuttle diplomacy during the past 48 hours in the effort to bring about a cease fire agreement between the WGA and the producers.

I sensed a shift in sentiment in the room Saturday night at Hollywood's Cabana Club during the ironically-timed 300th seg celebration of the Wells-produced "ER" -- a shining example of the kind of high-end scripted TV that is at risk in the WGA-Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers contract talks. (I confess to wondering if I wasn't being hopelessly Pollyanna-ish with my post-party post below, but I also felt it couldn't hurt to put some hopeful vibrations out there.)

If Wells, given his background and experience, is the one who can get the sides to build a bridge, or even some temporary scaffolding, to prevent the pickets from going up all over town on Monday, he really will be "the Eisenhower of all showrunners," as Warner Bros. TV boss Peter Roth intro'd him on Saturday night. Fingers crossed...

It was a celebration of a mighty impressive achievement -- "ER's" 300th seg -- but the talk of the party thrown by Warner Bros. Television Saturday night at the Cabana Club in Hollywood was all about what may transpire on Sunday and Monday.

Any gathering of TV industry insiders would have been abuzz with talk of the writers strike called for 12: 01 a.m. Monday and the Hail Mary meeting set for Sunday between the scribes and producers. But with "ER" in particular, it had to be the dominant theme given "ER" exec producer John Wells' background as a former WGA West prexy, one who skillfully helped avert a Defcon 4 scenario in 2001 when contract talks got heated (though not nearly as scalding as they are this time around).

In his brief remarks saluting the show and the people who make it, Warner Bros. TV prexy Peter Roth called Wells "the Eisenhower of all showrunners," and his use of a militaristic comparison was not lost on the crowd, unconscious as it may have been on Roth's part. NBC U Entertainment co-chairman Ben Silverman was more pointed, saying that Wells was going "fix all of it" in relation to the strike.

During his turn at the mike, Wells didn't use the S-word (except to sheepishly scoff at Ben's remark), but he did note that he'd done the math, and in the 14 seasons since "ER" dawned, skein has produced some 24,682 pages of scripts.

Neal Baer, a WGA negotiating committee member and an "ER" alum (who now shepherds NBC's "Law & Order: SVU" and does the work of angels as a licensed physician in his spare time), was on hand and inundated by "what's gonna happen?" queries. It was intriguing to see Baer and Wells and former "ER" showrunner Lydia Woodward huddled in a heavy-duty discussion toward the end of the evening.

As befitting the spirit of "ER," there was a define touch of optimism to all the strike talk among partygoers. The fact that a meeting was called for Sunday on Friday afternoon, hours after the WGA formally announced its plan to walk out on Monday, was widely dissected and discussed as a flicker of hope. There was also a feeling among the card-carrying types in the room that after Friday's strike announcement, some of the CEOs were starting to get more personally engaged and realize the serious-as-a-heart-attack-ness of the threat at hand.

Maybe, just maybe, there'll be enough of a give-and-take on Sunday for the scribes to hold their fire, even if it's 12- or 24 hour increments. Or in "ER" parlance, let's hope Sunday's meet turns out to be the final act of a two-parter, packed with guest stars and exotic location shoots, with a cliffhanger in the middle...and an uplifting ending by 11:59 p.m. Sunday.

Best quote to come from today's 1:30 p.m. newser at the Writers Guild HQ:

“We have 48 hours. What we really want to do isn’t to strike. What we want to do is negotiate. There still is time.” -- WGA Negotiating Committee head John Bowman.

The atmosphere at the guild's HQ was tight-lipped and fairly grim. This was not a coffee-and-pastry kind of affair.

There wasn't much rhetorical grandstanding by guild brass, and both WGA West prexy Patric Verrone and his WGA East counterpart Michael Winship seemed earnest in expressing that they are more than willing to go back to the bargaining table, so long as the producers ease up on the stance that the home video residual formula be applied to the new media realm as well -- at least "electronic sell-through," or digital downloads, of existing films and TV programs.

“There is still time and a deal to be made before this strike begins. We urge the studios and the networks to come back and bargain fairly,” Winship said.

During the wait for the newser to begin, there was some clucking among the journos and camera folks that the WGA had already gone to the trouble of getting a camera-ready screen backdrop reading "Writers Guild of America Contract 2007."

But after hearing them out, I'm convinced that none of the guild leadership wanted it to get that far -- despite the many accusations to the contrary. When asked whether there was any peacemaker who might step forward to avert this disaster, Verrone sounded firm in his resolve that "what we are seeking is fair," but not damn-the-torpedos defiant, either.

“No one was able to prevent us coming to this moment. There is still a chance that someone or someones will and that’s what we look forward to,” Verrone said.

For updates throughout the weekend, check out Variety.com and the United Hollywood blog maintained by numerous WGA members.

Among the many immediate concerns for WGA members on this dark Friday is what to do with those scripts they've been furiously writing up until the Pencils Down moment arrives. The WGA is asking scribes to turn in copies of their eleventh-hour scripts to the guild so that they can see where the pages stand at the time they were turned in -- and compare them to produced work down the road should things get that far. Studios, of course, are wigging out about this WGA strike rule, and some of them have even dispatched formal letters to scribes under contract expressly stating that they'll be in breach of their agreements contracts if they ship their scripts to the guild.

So what's a working writer to do? I'm told by a veteran talent rep who has vivid memories of the Five Months War of 1988 that scribes would be well-advised to turn in their scripts to their commissioning bodies, and then head to the post office to drop a copy in the mail to themselves, and then stick that package unopened in a drawer. That way they'll have a postmark time stamp to prove, should guild brass inquire later, when they stopped working on it and what shape the script was in when it was turned in.

It may have taken them a little longer to get there than most shows, but Fox's unsinkable "Family Guy" is prepping a 100th episode party for Oct. 29 at the ever-fashionable Social Hollywood. Seth MacFarlane and his crew are known to know how to celebrate their "freakin' sweet" milestones. This bash might lend itself to some TMZ moments, if Stewie gets out of hand...

There might be some TMZ action coming out of next week's Hollywood Radio and Television Society gathering of the heads of the five network families. The selection of Barry Sonnenfeld, helmer and exec producer of ABC's "Pushing Daisies," as moderator of the Oct. 16 luncheon has raised some eyebrows among rival nets. It's a head-scratcher for others, given that Sonnenfeld isn't exactly known for his emcee-ing skills. But for those of us who've complained about milquetoast HRTS moderators in the past, we've got to give Barry the benefit of the doubt. It outta be a lively sesh, anyway, with ABC's Steve McPherson, CBS' Nina Tassler, CW's Dawn Ostroff, Fox's Kevin Reilly and NBC's Ben Silverman...

The milestone-episode parties continue on Nov. 3 with Warner Bros. Television's celebration of "ER's" 300th at Hollywood's Cabana Club. Hard to believe it was 13 years ago that George Clooney did such an effective job of playing the tipsy Dr. Doug Ross in the famously good two-hour "ER" pilot. NBC skein has had its ups and downs since then but it has earned its place in the pantheon of primetime's longest-running series, and casting history. This party outta be a classy affair to remember, especially if it attracts a full (or even pretty full) complement of thesp, writer and producer alums....

And from the good-cause department, Zimmer Children's Museum will fete Fox talent relations exec Missy Halperin (pictured left) and PBS' kidvid programming exec Linda Simensky (pictured right) at its 7th annual Discovery Award dinner on Nov. 8 at Regent Beverly Wilshire hotel. Brad Garrett and Joely Fisher, the battling spouses of Fox sitcom "'Til Death" will emcee. Zimmer org is focused on teaching small fry about ethics, community involvement and cultural sensivity through interactive and roll-up-your-sleeves exhibits at its museum on the Miracle Mile.

"Playhouse 90" -- what a legacy. If Martin Manulis had only produced Rod Serling's "Requiem for a Heavyweight," he would forever have earned his place in TV history books.

But as the creator and chief steward of CBS' high-end dramatic anthology series, Manulis, who died last week at the age of 92, presided over many more great hours of television, most of them live, though "Playhouse 90" also ran "filmed presentations" about once a month. (Click here for Manulis' Variety obit.) Thanks to the Archive of American Television, click here for vid of a comprehensive 11-part interview of Manulis in 1997.

It's maddening that those of us born long after the skein ended its 1956-61 run have had scant opportunities to see these smallscreen gems. I've seen a kinescope of the original "Requiem," and it lived up to every inch of its advance billing. (With all due respect to Anthony Quinn and the 1962 feature version, once you've seen Jack Palance as the hard-luck boxer, you can't never go back.) I've also seen a beat-up copy of another breathtakingly good Rod Serling teleplay, "The Comedian," helmed by John Frankenheimer with a fearless perf from Mickey Rooney. And that's about it.

I'd love to see the original "Days of Wine and Roses" starring Cliff Robertson and Piper Laurie. I'd love to see Serling's "A Town Has Turned to Dust," with Rod Steiger and James Gregory. And I'd like to see at least some of the "Playhouse 90" segs that I've never heard a thing about. If I can turn on the tube any time day or night and find a repeat of the Ultimate-Fighting-Xtreme-Street-Skate'n'Spandex-Challenge semi-finals from 1997, why can't we have the Ultimate-Badass-TV-Dramatists-Showdown airing once a week or so on an artsy channel? Or how about a comprehensive, anotated DVD set? A "Playhouse 90" download-on-demand website?

(Pictured above: "Requiem" stars Keenan Wynn, Jack Palance and Ed Wynn. Pictured right: Manulis in 2004.)

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.)

For anyone who wants to test-drive the experience of being a television writer, Matt Selman has an easy solution.

Get a group of your most sarcastic friends together in a room, preferably windowless, and try to make each other laugh by outdoing one another with a steady stream of the most offensive, sophomoric and vulgar set of jokes and set-ups that you can possibly imagine -- things that could never air on TV, not even pay cable. Add in lots of takeout food and soft drinks and repeat for a few weeks on end. If your heart soars and body tingles every time you make the room snicker, you just might be cut out to be a television writer.

At least that's the quick-and-easy career counseling that Selman (pictured right), an Emmy-winning scribe for "The Simpsons" and co-writer of "The Simpsons Movie," offered Tuesday night during the "Sublime Primetime" dish sesh with a clutch of Emmy-nommed scribes, hosted by the WGA West and Variety at the Writers Guild Theater in BevHills.

"Don't wait for the industry to give you money," Selman instructed. "Take any opportunity to (try writing). The joy of writing is just as fun to do ... if you're on the worst show on television or the best show...Find a group of friends and make each other laugh. Riff off each other. Go on super-offensive runs about degrading subjects."

Among the guests on the next seg of CNBC's "Conversations with Michael Eisner" is the peacock's Ben Silverman. Episode is set to air Sept. 26 and also features L.A.'s hizzoner Antonio Villaraigosa and celeb blogger Perez Hilton....

Among the events of particular interest (to me) on the Paley Center for Media (fka the Museum of Television & Radio) sked of events for the 2007-08 season include seshes at the New York outposts with the writers from CBS' "Late Show with David Letterman," set for Nov. 9; a so-long-farewell-Auf-Weidersehn-etc. to "Scrubs" (Nov. 10); and an "Evening with" sitdown with the inimitable Angela Lansbury (Nov. 14), pictured left. At the Bev Hills branch, good times outta be had at the Oct. 1 "Inside 'Robot Chicken' panel -- that's gotta be a bizarre 90-minutes; the 100th-seg salute to "Two and a Half Men" (Oct. 3); and the "Lou Grant" reunion (Nov. 16)...

Kinda sad to see that Don Bellisario didn't appear to make it to the "NCIS" 100th-episode cake-cutting photo op on Tuesday. I never did figure out the story behind Bellisario's abrupt exit from the drama he created (one of many) at the start of last season -- some reports blamed it on a clash between him and star Mark Harmon. Oh well, Bellisario will soon (one day?) be able to take comfort in his syndie residual and profit-participation checks.

This time next week Warner Bros. Television and CBS will be celebrating the taping of the 100th episode of "Two and a Half Men."

Good grief, can it really have been four seasons-plus since the show debuted? (Just for fun here's Brian Lowry's dead-on first Variety review of the show from September 2003) Warners is inviting some industry folks to the taping at the studio, followed by a champagne and cake soiree. It ain't a 100th episode party if you don't have a big-cake cutting photo to show for it. So congrats to Chuck Lorre, Lee Aronson, Eric and Kim Tannenbaum, Charlie Sheen, Jon Cryer, Angus T. Jones, Conchata Ferrell and the rest of the folks behind the show that is not only TV's top-rated comedy but also Emmy-nommed this year. (Here's a highlights reel from last season). In these lean times for sitcoms (especially good ol' fashioned multi-camera sitcoms) the 100th seg is a real milestone (and as always a happy sign of the syndie coin that's soon to flow).

I'm sorry that I won't be able to make the "Men" taping, but not too sorry. I'm going to be out of town -- out of BlackBerry radar, even -- next week on vacation. During my absence, On the Air will be in the good hands of Variety's Stuart Levine, who did yeoman's work in this space in July during the long march of the Television Critics Assn. tour.

Take it away, Stu...!

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.

I'm told a splendid time was had by all last night at the "Pushing Daisies" screening at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Pilot was said to have been enthusiastically received by the non-pros in the audience, just as it has been by industry insiders during the past few months since it was picked up by ABC back in May. Pilot helmer and exec producer Barry Sonnenfeld looks like he was having a good time, all decked out as a pink cowboy. And here's a pic at left of something we're unlikely to see anytime soon on the show -- stars Lee Pace and Anna Friel smooching!

"Daisies" revolves around a guy, Ned, with an unusual talent to bring the dead back to life with the touch of his hand -- with the catch that if he touches them again, they're back to .... pushing daisies. Chuck happens to be Ned's long-lost childhood sweetheart who Ned reconnects with, unfortunately a little too late when she's already been bumped off. He revives her and the flower of their youthful love re-blossoms in a big way...but only if they don't actually touch.

"Pushing Daisies" has a few tough tasks ahead of it. It's got great industry buzz that it has to live up to. It has to open a night for ABC (Wednesday) at 8 p.m.; and it has to build on the Ned-Chuck storyline without the "no touching" rule feeling tired, and it has to keep the franchise murder-mystery element of Ned reviving murder victims to catch their killers from running out of steam too. If anyone's up to the task, it's "Daisies" creator Bryan Fuller, a man with a naturally sunny-morbid disposition who spent the past season on "Heroes" and has a loyal cult following for his previous offbeat dramas "Wonderfalls" and "Dead Like Me." And he's got formidable help from fellow exec producers Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen (who flank Sonnenfeld and Fuller in the pic at right, with Bruce on the far right). Go, Bryan, go...

(Group pic by Jean Baptiste Lacroix/WireImage.com)

Come prepared to laugh. Variety's Army Archerd will host a tribute to multihyphenate Mel Shavelson, the industry vet who died earlier this month at the age of 90 (here's Variety's obit), on Aug. 28 at the Writers Guild Theater in Beverly Hills.

Shavelson (pictured at left from an Academy of Television Arts & Sciences event in June) was known for his long association as a writer-producer for Bob Hope and for his many feature screenplays -- including "Sorrowful Jones," "The Great Lover," "I'll See You in My Dreams," "April in Paris," "The Seven Little Foys" and "Yours, Mine and Ours" and a ton of other credits -- but he earned his place in TV history by penning the pilot for Danny Thomas' "Make Room for Daddy." (That show, which ran from 1953 to 1964 on ABC and later CBS, was the gift that kept on giving, through the magic of syndication and residuals, Shavelson was said to have often observed.)

Shavelson also served three terms as prexy of the Writers Guild of America West and generously donated a boatload of coin to establish the Writers Guild Foundation's Shavelson-Webb Library. By all accounts, Mel was an all-around standup guy and very funny man. I'm sure that sentiment will be shared on Aug. 28 with a lineup of speakers set to include fellow scribes Hal Kanter, Del Reisman, Mort Lachman, Sherwood Schwartz and thesp Angie Dickinson, who starred in the Shavelson-penned 1966 drama "Cast a Giant Shadow."

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.)

"JOHN FROM CINCINNATI" SPOILER ALERT, PART TWO:

Among the many interesting things about the "John from Cincinnati" finale seg is that it heralds the ascent, in WGA terms, of Zack Whedon.

Zack is the latest addition to the Whedon clan's tradition of producing fine TV and film scribes, stretching back to the 1950s and '60s with Zack's grandfather, John Whedon ("The Andy Griffith Show," "Dick Van Dyke Show"); and father, Tom ("The Golden Girls," "Benson," "Alice"); and on through older brother Joss ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Angel," "Serenity").

Zack has been schooled in the David Milch tradition for the past four years, starting out as an assistant to Milch on "Deadwood" early on in its first season. He wound up co-writing a "Deadwood" seg with his boss last year, and this year he was a kind of permanent freelancer on "John from Cincinnati." And like the titular character, Zack had good timing throughout. In episode seven, he fell into a bit acting part as Wonderboy, aka the Stinkweed vice president armed with all the research about the company's target demo and its prospects for expanding in e-commerce -- all of which earns him a face full of Linc Stark's bare ass in the memorable mooning scene. In Milch-ian fashion, they wrote the character the day before the shoot and were time-pressed to find someone to play the part.

(HBO's hard-working publicists searched but could only find one production still above from that scene, with Milch at the center, and it offers only a glimpse of Zack's arm, his hand holding a pencil and a bit of his face in the far right-hand corner.)

SPOILER ALERT FOR ANYONE WHO HASN'T SEEN THE FINALE OF "JOHN FROM CINCINNATI."

(This post updated Monday evening, after thinking more about all that Mr. Milch had to say this a.m.)

"Each character has the opportunity to generate God by his or her behavior. All of us are the mother and father of God, to the extent we accept the limits of our humanity."

David Milch, the Oracle of Imperial Beach, the co-creator with Kem Nunn of HBO's strange and wondrous "John from Cincinnati," was kind enough to indulge me in a few (but only a few) "what'd that mean" questions this morning as the hangover in the cerebral cortex from last night's season finale was really settling in. In this viewer's humble opinion, "JFC" wrapped on a high note -- high as the "whoooooos" that Little Richard vocalizes in "Long Tall Sally," the ecstatic R&B hit that was used to great effect in the final scenes.

The above quote is from Milch in response to my question about the very very last scene of Kai on the water. The shot of Kai expertly turning her body into a wave would've seemed to have stood alone, but then just as she turned her face to the camera to show a sly smile came the maddeningly intriguing voice-over from the John character: "Mother of God, Cass-Kai."

What!? After a second viewing of the episode, I was almost confident in my interpretation of nearly everything else that transpired in the previous 47 minutes -- even the pigeon-English scene between the two visiting Hawaiian drug dealers. But that voiceover clip at the very-very end threw me.

I should've known better than to think that Milch would've talked me through it frame by frame, explaining every syllable. That's just not how he works. But he was generous enough to give me the above quote as a hint as to what he was getting at with that "mother of God" business.

(Pictured above: Milch in the center of a crowd scene from the "JFC" finale seg.)

Spoiler alert for those who haven't seen "His Visit, Day Eight" (episode 9) of HBO's "John from Cincinnati"

OK, so I know these "John from Cincinnati" faux PSAs featuring Bruce Greenwood's moody Mitch Yost (pictured right) pitching for a San Diego County coastal cleanup initiative have been around for a while. But I just found a link to one of them while reading Steve Hawk's insightful blog on the "John" home page on the HBO.com site.

Mitch references his past experience in doing the "PSAs for the Tijuana Sloughs" very briefly amid the big Mitch-and-Cissy reconciliation brawl scene as they come to grips with the realization that Shaunie ain't in his room anymore. And like everything else with "John," these PSAs are full of clues, of course. It's hard to tell exactly where these purported PSAs fall in the Yost family time line, but by the looks of Mitch in them they can't be more than five to eight years old, max. And in them Mitch clearly states that he sees the ocean as "my church" -- which explains a lot of things, right? Maybe? Kinda? Sorta? Oh, but what about those darn stick figures!!

"You wouldn't want somebody dumping sewage in your church...would you?" Mitch intones in the PSAs. Hawk's blog links to one posted in all sincerity on the web page of the enviro-centric nonprofit group Wildcoast (See for yourself by clicking here.)

Wildcoast is based in Imperial Beach and smartly forged a partnership with "John" once David Milch, Kem Nunn and their merry band of drama-pranksters hit town to begin shooting one of the strangest TV series ever to grace the mainstream smallscreen. There are at least two more PSAs to be found on our national bulletin board, YouTube:

We "John from Cincinnati" acolytes may be a small group but we're....devoted. As of this writing (Monday, shortly after 6 p.m. PT), there are 144 hours and counting until the "John" season (series?) finale.

They met a few years ago in the trenches at MGM. Meredith worked as an assistant to MGM Pictures prexy Michael Nathanson; Marcie was on the desk of Elizabeth Ingold, the Lion’s exec veepee of production.

As both of them were bright and bubbly, young and ambitious in similar ways, the laws of workplace physics dictated that Meredith Lavender and Marcie Ulin would become friends. They ate lunch together most days, hung out in their spare time and developed a circle of mutual friends, many of whom were similarly employed in lower-rung showbiz jobs that offer Skybox views of the industry they seek to conquer.

Meredith and Marcie just happened to get there a whole lot faster than most, even in a town known for its accelerated career development.

What is it about Mary-Louise Parker? What is that hoo-doo she does so well? The third-season opener of Showtime's "Weeds" is a Mary-Louise tour de force of sidelong glances, mischievous grins, heavy sighs and "oh fucks" that bespeaks the weariness of working moms everywhere. Who wouldn't get tired chasing a teenager and a pre-teen boy around all day, keeping tabs on them and trying to make a living all at the same time.

What's always been fun about "Weeds" is that it's a crazy suburban fairy-tale about a sexy-sweet pot-dealing soccer mom. Series creator-exec producer Jenji Kohan was smart to ground "Weeds" from the get-go in the heart-breaking story of a woman who was truly living the dream with a husband she loved madly and two beautiful sons, and then wakes up one day (in the pilot) finding herself a widow and forced to make her own way in the world, and to make enough of a living to maintain the comfortable lifestyle that her family has become accustomed to, or more accurately, the only way of life they've ever known. In the dealing with this smack-in-the-face wakeup call, Parker's Nancy Botwin discovers a very real world far removed from the neatly trimmed lawns and tract houses of planned suburbia.

POSTED BY STUART LEVINE

The dark gloom of Seattle skies turn bright this season for Shonda Rhimes (pictured left), as she brings her "Grey's Anatomy" spinoff to Los Angeles in the form of "Private Practice."

The overcast weather analogy seems appropriate for the past season of "Grey's" in many ways. The tone of the series was ominous in a bunch of episodes, including arcs on the tenuous relationship between Meredith and McDreamy, George's by-the-threads marriage to Callie, Richard's divorce and Burke's ultimate dismissal of Dr. Yang as a life partner.

And that's just the on-screen tumult.

Of course, nothing got bigger headlines than Isaiah Washington's meltdown and anti-gay remarks, which ultimately led to his dismissal off the show.

(When asked about Ben Silverman's comments, that NBC had talked to Washington about a possible role on "Bionic Woman" while he was still under contract to ABC Studios, Rhimes answered, "I wasn't aware of any conversations." And when prodded for a response on his arrival at the Peacock primetime lineup, she rose above the fray, answering, "He's very talented and I hope he and the show do well, but not as well as 'Private Practice.'")

"It was a dark journey," said Rhimes of the past year, who added later on that it was a "dark season, but I want to get back to having fun."

On Wednesday, ABC topper Steve McPherson agreed, having said "Grey's" would arrive this fall with a slightly lighter tone.

"There was a lot of difficult stuff and emotional stuff going on for a multitude of characters. And I think we're going to get away from some of that  just because of the nature of the storytelling that she (Rhimes) is going to do," he said.

That's not to say Rhimes wasn't happy with the how the stories turned out. She remained on the creative course she set out from Day 1.

"We started with Meredith helping Izzy out of her wedding dress and ended with Meredith helping Christine out of her wedding dress," Rhimes said in bookending the season.

And, yes, she was aware of the unhappiness of some of the hard-core fans — though she didn't necessarily agree with them — those who followed the show to Thursdays from Sundays in a risky programming move by ABC that paid huge dividends.

"I read the blogs," she explained. "I take very seriously what the fans say. They care about the show."

Had some fun this morning at the LATV Festival panel on how digital media is changing the face of TV. Not sure if we answered that question in 75 minutes, but the panelists were a good cross-section of the biz and they were talkative, which made my job easy. Chris Henchy, veteran writer-producer and head of Will Ferrell and Andy McKay's Gary Sanchez Prods., was one of the panelists, yakking about FunnyorDie.com, the comedy Web site that launched stealthily in April with some very funny Ferrell shorts and an open invitation for undiscovered comic geniuses to submit their own shorts. In "American Idol" fashion, users are invited to vote on their fave/least fave shorts, some of which become "Immortal" and some of which are banished to "the Crypt," never to be seen again.

It's kinda mind-boggling but the Ferrell short "The Landlord" (featuring a pic-stealing performance from McKay's toddler-daughter Pearl) has been viewed more than 40 million times since FunnyorDie.com bowed in mid-April. Henchy (pictured above at right with Ferrell), who's also busy juggling feature projects and an HBO pilot, said they're in the midst of trying to partner with a local comedy establishment to bring some of the undiscovered talents on FunnyorDie out of their basements and bathrooms to a showcase event that would be streamed live, natch, on FunnyorDie. And he confirmed that most of the Gary Sanchez-produced stuff on the site is filmed in under an hour, and slapped up on to the site while the DV cam is still warm. Gotta love the digital age.

Another panelist, "Heroes" co-exec producer Jesse Alexander, promised that the show had lots of fun in store for fans this weekend and Comic-Con and when season two of the NBC hit bows in September.