First and foremost, Oprah Winfrey will talk on the air today about ending her iconic syndicated daytime talk show, “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” She will tell viewers that the show will end its run after 25 years on September 9, 2011. Oprah does have her own network, called OWN, launching next year, but we’re not sure what her future plans are beyond the show.

Other news, the season finale of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” starts at 9 on Sunday on HBO.

Some future premieres to talk about. ABC will start the sixth and final season of “Lost” on February 2 with a two-hour episode starting at 9 p.m. An hour-long recap of last season will start at 8, and the show will air Tuesday nights at 9 all season long. ABC will also launch an online companion for “Grey’s” addicts called “Seattle Grace: On Call.” on ABC.com. The six-webisode series will be set at Joe’s Emerald City Bar and will feature cast regulars including Gloria Garayua and Brandon Scott.

Over on NBC, “Chuck” will start its third season on January 10 with 2 episodes starting at 9 p.m. Then it will move to a regular time slot with another episode Monday January 11 at 8 p.m.

G4, the video game and Gen-Y network will start a show called “Campus PD” with a look at police on colleague campuses on Florida, Texas, California, and North Carolina. It premieres December 8 at 11 p.m.

The kids are paired off randomly and assigned to sing a ballad to one another. Due to Matt’s freak medical emergency, Rachel is paired with Mr. Schu, much to his chagrin. He agrees to sing “Endless Love” with Rachel to teach the group what a ballad is. The terrified look on Mr. Schu’s face, Rachel’s lovelorn expression, and the off-the-wall voiceovers from the kids make for a hilarious combination.

Along with the ballads, two new crushes are revealed (A crush? On Glee? Never!). First we see Rachel’s school-girl crush on Mr. Schu, which he desperately tries to nip in the bud by singing her a mash-up of “Young Girl” by Gary Puckett and the Union Gap and “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” by the Police. The message sails right over Rachel’s head.

Then there’s Kurt’s unrequited love of Finn. It all started when Finn yelled at Puck for pushing Kurt into a locker (“Dude, impulse control!”), and grew while they spent time together in Glee Club and football practice. As Kurt says, “I’m madly in love with Finn.” Lucky for him, Kurt and the often clueless football captain are partnered for their ballad.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Glee Club are worrying about Quinn and Finn and their unwanted bun in the oven. When Mercedes tells Puck that the Glee Club is planning to sing a ballad to show their support for the couple, Puck snaps, “Finn’s not the father! I am.” Quickly recovering, Mercedes puts him in his place, telling him that he might be the baby daddy, but it takes a lot more to be a father. She reminds him that Quinn chose Finn, and Puck owes it to her to back off.

Mr. Schu remembers another schoolgirl crush, that of Suzie Pepper, who was so distraught over his rejection she ate the hottest hot pepper in the world and was in a medically induced coma for three days. Fearing the worst from Rachel, Mr. Schu tries to get through to her. But it doesn’t help when Mrs. Schuster invites Rachel over to cook dinner and clean their house. Rachel doesn’t get the message until she’s confronted by Suzie Pepper herself, fresh from two years of therapy and an esophagus transplant.

Ashamed, Rachel apologizes to Mr. Schu with tears in her eyes. He assures her that some day some boy will love her for all that she is, even the parts she doesn’t like. After their heart-to-heart, all is well between diva and teacher.

Back to crush No. 2, where Kurt is helping Finn stop worrying about the baby by getting him to sing “I’ll Stand By You” by the Pretenders. But the cat’s out of the bag when Finn’s mom catches him singing the ballad to a sonogram.

Quinn’s parents (we shall dub them Shallow and Clueless) invite Finn over for dinner. When Finn asks Kurt to help him pick out an outfit for the occasion, they go through a trunk containing his father’s Marine Corps uniform. In a very touching scene, the two boys bond over their departed parents, Finn’s dad and Kurt’s mom.

In the most painfully awkward scene ever, Quinn, Finn, and Quinn’s parents sit down to dinner. Finn chooses this moment (after a pep talk on the phone with Kurt) to sing “You’re Having My Baby” by Paul Anka to Quinn. The disastrous result is that her parents literally denounce the couple and kick Quinn out of their house. Things are looking worse than ever when Finn’s mom tells Quinn she can stay at their house for as long as she needs.

In the final scene, Kurt tells Finn his ballad is “I honestly love you,” before the two are interrupted by Mercedes. Finn is ushered to the choir room, where the entire Glee Club is waiting for him. The group sings “Lean on Me” to Finn and Quinn to show the couple that they’re not alone in dealing with the pregnancy. Credits roll on a group of smiling, dancing, teenagers who will live to sing another day.

Notably absent in “Ballad” was conniving cheer-leading coach Sue Sylvester. In last week’s episode, “Wheels,” we learned that Sue actually has a soul, which only comes out in the presence of her mentally handicapped sister.

With Sectionals only a few weeks away, there’s a lot of sordid drama to get through on Glee. Will Finn find out Puck is Quinn’s baby daddy? Will Mr. Schu find out Mrs. Schu is pregnant with a foam pad? Will Tina make things right with Artie? Will Finn finally choose between Rachel and Quinn? You know what they say: It’s not over till the high school outcasts sing.

And since there’s no threaded storyline that continues each week, Modern Family is the type of show that you can just jump in to and not be too concerned with a convoluted plot. They keep it funny and simple.

The other guest star this week was Edward Norton as the bass player from Spandau Ballet. When Claire is in a tight spot trying to find an anniversary present for Phil, she has what she thinks is a brilliant idea. She invites Norton’s character to the house as a surprise for Phil, wrongly thinking Spandau Ballet is his favorite group. Phil has never heard anything by the band, which makes for some awkward moments between Norton and Phil when the washed up rocker realizes Phil is not a “fandau”.

However, the star of the show to me is always Manny. That chubby little Colombian kid gives the best facial expressions. In a somewhat creepy plotline, Manny has developed a crush on Claire’s eldest daughter Hailey. Hailey is technically Manny’s niece by marriage, even though she is older than him. The whacky age difference, the fact that he is a chubby Latino kid and the glare he gives Hailey’s boyfriend over a tiny espresso cup, takes away from the creepiness factor.

Modern Family airs Wednesday nights at 9 p.m. on ABC.

In the news, MTV will have exclusive US television rights to Michael Jackson’s “This Is It.” The movie concert will start to air on MTV’s networks in 2011, so don’t hold your breath.

Discovery has another epic series coming out in March. “Life” is an 11-parter and will be narrated by Opray Winfrey.

Lorraine Bracco from “The Sopranos” was cast in a TNT drama pilot called “Rizzoli.” She will play the mother of police detective Jane Rizzoli, who will be played by Angie Harmon.

TBS’s new “The Very Funny Show” will debut November 19 at midnight, featuring stand-up comics talking about life on tour. The show will follow “Lopez Tonight.”

The CW is developing a medical school drama called “HMS.” Word is that Hayden Panettiere will executive produce it.

That’s it today. A worthless Browns/Ravens game is on “Monday Night Football” tonight. Enjoy.

This week the team of flirty, dramatic lost wanderers finds themselves on a jungle planet with weird food, and suddenly people start getting sick. The race is on to figure out what’s making everyone sick and how to fix it before time runs out.

It’s an episode! Get it? Well, almost. Because it’s another multi-part episode.

But it’s progress. We’ve well established that they’re stranded on a ship in outer space with no chance of getting home. That doesn’t mean they can’t have a little off-world fun, does it?

There’s drama, jungle, disease, rain, but oh no wait, it’s all just a flashback from an alternate reality that they now need to work to prevent. Perhaps even two alternate realities.

Finally, it almost feels like we’re watching Stargate again.

Character development: We learn about these people. We learn their human stories; where they come from; what their burdens are. We learn what makes them tick, and it makes is relate to the characters. How many people gasped when they learned *spoiler* that Eli’s mom’s mystery sickness is that she was a nurse who got HIV from a junkie who stabbed her in a hospital.

These are the kinds of things that add value to the show. The soldier and the scientist working together, helping each other.

In the episode, a team from the Destiny arrives on a jungle world and finds one of their floating recording devices already on the planet with a full recording file. They return immediately and see that the video is actually of them. The team on the tape arrives, comes down with a horrible disease, and they can’t risk going home. But at night, horrible lizard-like creatives emerge and attack, laying waste to the team. Lt. Scott gets bit and goes into a coma. He wakes up to find he’s the only one alive. The alien snake’s venom cured the disease. An unstable wormhole meant that when Scott tried to return to Destiny, it sent him back in time, and that’s how the “real” team found the recording device.

Back to the present, the disease isn’t from the planet, it’s from the water the team brought back two episodes ago. Now the team has to go back to the awful snake planet to capture one of them and extract its venom to cure everyone else.

Things don’t go well, but that’s all the time we have for today. Tune in next week for the dramatic conclusion.

I don’t like all of these multi-part episodes, but it’s progress. It’s already late in the season, but I can sense that we’re getting closer to “good” here in SGU.

As I’ve said before, if we were at this point a month ago, things would be a lot cheerier in the SGU world, especially among fans of SG-1 and Atlantis. If the setup wasn’t so awful leading up to this, I don’t think I’d have said a negative word about the show so far.

“History Repeating” does three things exceptionally fine this time around. First, it balances the continuity by tying up loose ends from plot-points as far back as episode, “Night of the Comet.” Secondly, the tone is spot-on with its chilling moments reminiscent of a good old horror film. Lastly, it’s all about the acting! There was definitely more of an ensemble feel, and stands out as some of the best of the series so far.

There was a bit of everything, from Caroline taking the initiative with Matt to Bonnie’s final scenes out in the woods. Truthfully, everyone was on their A-game, even Jeremy who manages to show a different side apart from his doldrums. Without the trappings of melodrama easily found in other vampire niche franchises, we not only found out more about the supporting characters, but also saw what they’re really made of in the face of danger. There was really a major underlying message about trust and loyalty in this episode.

We have witnessed the quaint Mystic Falls transform into a place of imminent danger after the arrival of vampire brothers, Stefan and Damon Salvatore. This all ties in with the romance angle between the Salvatores and Elena Gilbert – whose uncanny appearance to their “maker” attracts them to her. Yet beyond the vampire love story are a number of gripping subplots; mainly the development of Bonnie Bennett’s (Katerina Graham) magical powers, and the secret society of townsfolk hell-bent on taking down some vampires.

Without holding back, the episode begins as Bonnie sits in science class with an expression of complete boredom. This all changes as we see a figure passing along the dark hallway. Bonnie notices it, and we see it is her ancestor Emily – recognizable by the portrait shown previously to Bonnie by her grandmother. The atmosphere takes an eerie twist as Bonnie follows Emily out the classroom and into the hallway where she receives a haunting message. It becomes apparent this is a nightmare within a nightmare as Bonnie notices Emily sitting in class beside her.

But not everything is a dream. The reality of life in Mystic Falls hones in on a new face, Alaric Saltzman (Matt Davis), who, despite his charm and specifics on pronouncing his name, dons a “garish” ring like Stefan and Damon. Elena and Stefan are forced together by circumstance once more, and Damon makes his move for his “precious” – an amber crystal amulet.

The critical point hits its limit when Caroline suggests the idea of a séance to Bonnie and Elena. Because it’s always a great idea to conjure up spirits when your best friend tells you she sees dead people, right? Although the mayhem that ensues is quite predictable, the fear came off as real. Katerina Graham really shines in this episode and there’s nothing better than when we get a bit of paranormal activity by way of possession from dear old Emily. The direction of the scene where doors are slamming while Caroline and Elena desperately try to get Bonnie out of a trapped room is something to remember.

Coinciding with the séance, we get some brother bonding moments as Damon and Stefan meet up on the football field. It’s odd seeing these two actually get along, despite ulterior motives. The chemistry between Paul Wesley and Ian Somerhalder as brothers onscreen gets stronger and stronger. It was nice to see a bit of a nod to their previous football play in the flashback episode “Lost Girls” reenacted in the present on a much larger playing field. But the moment is short-lived as we later discover Damon’s goal in returning to Mystic Falls.

It turns out that the literal alignment of the stars – the comet – along with the power of the crystal will allow Damon to bring Katherine back. The second shocker turns out to be that the 19th Century undead vixen was not killed after all in the notorious fire. In fact, she was protected by the magic of Bonnie’s ancestor, Emily. Damon is determined to bring Katherine back at all costs, declaring he knew their sire better than Stefan ever could while they were together.

But the best moment comes with the showdown between Damon and Bonnie – whose magic goes into overdrive with her possession by Emily. In one scene she throws the eager vampire into a tree staking him in the gut. She will not allow him to unleash Katherine despite their pact: Damon saves her children, and she protects Katherine. As Emily conjures up a fiery pentagram, Damon helplessly tries to stop the possessed Bonnie from destroying the amulet. Without a moment to spare, the crystal is sent into the air and shattered into pieces. Held back by Stefan, Damon is unable to control himself and lunges at a weakened Bonnie, who falls after Emily completes her mission.

Elena, who also arrives at the scene, is horrified by the turn of events. Damon nearly rips Bonnie’s throat out, but is stopped by Stefan who later feeds Bonnie his blood to heal her. When Elena asks Stefan if Bonnie will suffer the same fate as Vicki, he reminds us that only way to become a vampire is if you die shortly after being bitten and drinking a vampire’s blood. Something to remember, as the series continues to prove no one is entirely safe.

The final scenes of the episode move in a series of montages set to the music from The Bravery. Without dialogue we see a heartbroken Elena finally reveal the truth to Bonnie while dealing with her breakup with Stefan. We see Matt and Caroline make inroads with a bunch of snacks and laughs. Once again, appearances are deceiving as we end the night with the stunning cliffhanger. As Jenna Gilbert (Sara Canning) cleans out her items reminding her of Logan Fells (Chris J Johnson), her ex and recent victim of Damon, there is a knock at the door. Stand at the threshold is none other than a very undead Logan asking Jenna to invite him into the house.

No, we weren’t allowed to ask about “Saved by the Bell.”

QUESTION: What made you want to be a part of this show?

Tiffani Thiessen: Ever since I read the script, which has been a little over a year ago now, I fell in love with it. I fell in love with the characters. I fell in love with the show, and more and more, when the cast was brought together, the more excitement I had for the show and wanting to be a part of it. This is really the first time I feel like in my whole entire career which has been over 25, 26 years of doing this that I finally feel like I’m kind of playing a role a little closer to home for me, which is kind of exciting.

QUESTION: Was there instant chemistry when everyone began working together? I know you’re very close working together with Tim and Matt as well.

TT: We are, from day one. I of course had met Tim through the testing process of us being put on screen and doing our scenes together, and we had chemistry from day one. I absolutely adore that man and then met Matt, actually, after we had already started shooting the pilot. We actually were on the same flight going to New York to shoot the pilot last year.

Then Willie Garson I actually had known just being in the business for so long. We had met prior, and I’ve always really enjoyed him and loved him, so I was really excited to know that it was actually really kind of a special cast that we were putting together. I couldn’t be more thrilled with everybody I’m working with. It’s really a nice group of people. Being away from home, it makes it so much nicer when you actually like the people you’re working with.

QUESTION: It feels like there’s more to your character than what we’ve seen. We almost feel like maybe she’s hiding something. What sort of background can we expect as we move along?

TT: I think you’ll start to see background on all of our characters, especially the guys. Surely, this show is definitely the guys’ show. It’s Matt and Tim’s show, and Willie and I definitely play more of a supporting role, but you will definitely see much more of me in the further episodes as you’re coming along. Last week or two weeks ago you saw a little bit more of what I really do for a living and kind of my career, which is really nice to kind of see because we really never saw that in the pilot, and it was something that we kind of came up with actually after we shot the pilot.

They’re definitely putting more of what I do outside of my relationship with Tim into the show a little bit, and that’ll continue on even, hopefully, in seasons from here on out, which hopefully there’ll be five to ten years of White Collar. In general, I can’t give you exact specifics, ideas of what’s going to be happening, but I can promise you you’ll see a lot more of her.

QUESTION: What about any sort of action scenes. Do you get involved in any of the sort of cops and robbers element of it?

TT: I don’t think so. It’s really not part of my character and my storyline in this show. Again, I’m definitely a supporting role, especially being that I’m the wife of Tim’s character, but you will see a lot of a triangle in a sense of what I can do and help with Matt’s character as well, especially, I think, when it involves the storyline of Kate. You’ll see that a lot as well.

QUESTION: As a first-time mother, how do you think that it will play out balancing your roles and responsibilities of motherhood and your part on White Collar?

TT: You know, that’s a very good question in the sense that I really don’t know being that I am a first-time mom, so it’ll be a very different kind of thing for me being that I’ll be working and being a mother at the same time. There are millions of people who do it. My mom did it herself, so I know I can handle it, but it’ll be a very new experience, so it’s hard to say what is going to be like. It’ll be all brand new for me.

QUESTION: Is the onscreen relationship between you and Tim’s character, Peter, seems to be loving, but also a bit strained by his professional commitments. Now, with the charming and charismatic Neal Caffrey entering the picture, how do you think this partnership will affect Elizabeth and Peter’s marriage as the show develops?

TT: I don’t know if I would actually use the word strained. I think in every marriage there’s always the challenge of making time and making priorities in their relationship when people have careers, and what you will start to see more and more is my career, being that it takes up a lot of my time as well. I think it’s going to give a lot of, not so much looking into Peter’s career and how it affects our marriage. There’s also my side of it as well.

I think she is very understanding to that. She’s been living with it for so long and knows what he does for a living, and she knows what she married. I don’t think there’s a strain to it. I think there’s a challenge. I think probably the challenge is the word I could use for that. I think what Neal brings into it is that I think my husband on the show is very kind of black and white in the way he thinks, and I think Neal is definitely much more colorful, and I think he will definitely teach my husband a little more of the colorful side of being romantic and all those things that you do need in a marriage as well.

QUESTION: I know you did a short film a couple years ago that you directed, and I wanted to know is that something you still want to be doing? Is there a chance maybe you could direct an episode of White Collar?

TT: I do. You’re so sweet. Yes, they definitely know directing is something that’s in my thinking of wanting to do more and more, and it all really just depends on time and all that. I wanted to make sure that when we started the show my focus was on my character and what I’m doing as an actress. Now with my new role coming as a mother, it’s going to be a little more challenging, but it’s definitely something I want to do more of, so yes.

QUESTION: You’ve been in the business for a long time since you were very young. If you weren’t in the entertainment business, what else would you want to be doing?

TT: It’s so funny. Last year when we did the pilot, we really didn’t know what Elizabeth’s character was going to do for a living. They had some ideas, and they kind of changed it, and then I had come to Jeff Eastin, our creator of the show and said, you know, it’s funny. I think it could work, but it’s something I’ve always wanted to do if I wasn’t an actor. I’d always wanted to be an event planner, and I think it could work really well for Elizabeth’s character being that she’s in New York City. We could really show the city in a different light, and they loved it. I have to say funny enough, that was my idea, and that’s exactly what I would do if I wasn’t an actor.

QUESTION: What would you say to those that haven’t seen White Collar yet to convince them to watch?

TT: Oh gosh, well, besides having really cute guys on the show, it’s definitely the type of TV and movies that I like to see. I’m a huge fan of The “Thomas Crown Affair” and those kinds of feels of movies and shows and 48 Hours, which is so interesting, Catch Me If You Can, things like that. If people are really into those kinds of movies and those kind of story-telling, they have to watch this show. It is so absolutely entertaining. The characters are so rich and so fun to watch and follow.

As well as you see New York City in a completely different way. It’s shot in a beautiful way. It’s interesting, a lot of shows that are shot in New York City can be a little more dark and gray, and this show really, I think, kind of captures New York City in a really beautiful light, and it’s nice.

QUESTION: You’ve played a wide variety of characters. How do you think these roles have prepared you to play Elizabeth Burke?

TT: It’s funny. I think I’ve made this statement before a few times, but it is really true is that this is the first character in over 25 years of me doing this that I actually feel like it’s the closest to me that I’ve played in all the different shows and movies that I’ve done in my career. I think it’s more about myself and my own experience that I can bring to Elizabeth. She has this really solid wonderful marriage. I feel like I have that with my own husband. She’s career-driven, which I feel like I am. It’s all those things that you put towards a character like her that I feel that are definitely very much me.

QUESTION: USA Network has some big hits out there right now. How does it feel to be a part of the network?

TT: Absolutely exciting. I tell them this all the time that I feel blessed to be on such an amazing network. This is the first time I’ve ever done a cable show, and I’m utterly thrilled and over-the-moon with the fact that they’re so supportive and they’re so behind their shows, and they really do give such a great chance of us really trying to make it. It’s nice. It’s nice to feel like we’re really wanted in a sense and really have a lot of passion behind us. It’s a lovely, lovely feeling.

QUESTION: You mentioned that Elizabeth is the closest to your personality. Do you know if your pregnancy will be incorporated into the show?

TT: I don’t know. That’s actually going to be up to the writers and the executive producers and USA and Fox and everybody involved. I’m going to be still somewhat not too pregnant along when we’re finally coming to the end of the season. We really don’t have too much more left, so it’s really up to them if they want to. I’m open to whatever they feel. We tried to time it to a certain degree so I wouldn’t show too, too much.

QUESTION: We’ve also grown up watching you as you’ve grown up in front of the camera. What’re the challenges that you have if any in creating a new character knowing that you have a career behind you?

TT: Yes, well, it’s bittersweet at times. There’s good and bad. There are people who of course followed my career and who have loved the shows that I’ve done in the past and are always up to seeing something new of myself or any of my past co-stars, which is really wonderful. Then there’s always people who have opinions, and of course, that’s how the world works, and that’s A-OK.

Some people were really open and loving to the fact that I’m actually playing a role that’s quite different than what I’ve played in the past. Like I said, it’s definitely much more close to home for me, this character, but some people had a hard time with it. Some people didn’t believe the relationship between Tim and I, which is so funny to me because we had chemistry from day one, but that’s how the entertainment business works. That’s how people are, and that’s okay. Everybody has their opinions.

QUESTION: Well, we’ve seen on the show that Neal has escaped from prison for love. What’s the most romantic thing a guy’s ever done for you, and then maybe what is the cheesiest thing a guy’s ever ….

TT: Oh, gosh. Well, my husband himself is definitely romantic. I mean, he is romantic almost every day whether it’s leaving me cute little notes somewhere throughout the house or the way he proposed to just the day we got married. He was amazing and romantic in everything he did, so I’m blessed to have a husband like that. The cheesiest, God, that would be really hard. I wouldn’t want to out anybody because I feel like anybody who wants to put themselves and their heart out there is a wonderful thing, and we shouldn’t put them down for it, right?

QUESTION: You’ve been on a few shows that have been a little short lived in your career. What makes White Collar something you think can surpass a couple of seasons?

TT: Well, I think a few reasons. People are already enjoying it. We’ve had a lot of great feedback and a lot of great critics really loving the characters and the storylines and the show and us on it, which is exciting, the fact that we are on a network like USA. They are so behind us, and they really put us out there, and it’s nice to have the passion behind us because I think that helps a lot. These network shows, sometimes they don’t give it a chance, and it’s nice to know that we have somebody who’s really given us a chance. I think we, knock on wood, I think you’re going to see us for awhile.

QUESTION: On television, there tends to be a fine line between that perfect supportive spouse that’s believable and the one that is so over the top that you’re like, no one in this world exists quite like this, and you are actually doing a wonderful job being that supportive spouse that we definitely believe. How do you strike that balance, and how do you plan to keep it going?

TT: Thank you so much first of all. That’s very sweet of you to say. That means a lot to me because I really try, and Tim and I both have long talks about this as well as our creator, Jeff, that we really wanted this to be a relationship that does work on TV, not one that has a lot of problems, not one that you constantly see drama, which you see a lot on TV.

Funny enough, Tim and I come from marriages that work, that really do work like that, so I think we really take it from just our own experiences. Tim’s been married for quite some time to a wonderful woman and has two great kids. My husband and I have this wonderful relationship and humor has a lot to do with it, communication, all those things I feel that are so, so important. I take those just being from my parents who’ve been married for over 45 years. My grandparents were married for 67 years. It’s important, so I feel like I take from my own life and really try to bring what I can to the relationship and the characters.

QUESTION: Have you had a favorite moment so far, either one that’s coming up that we can keep an eye out for or one that’s already been aired?

TT: Wow, that’s hard. I think there are a couple episodes coming up that I’m definitely a little heavier in, which is kind of nice to really get to explore my character a little bit, but each episode is so exciting and so fun, and it’s such a ride that it’s hard for me to pick out one more than the other or one little bit more than the other. That’s a hard choice. I have to think about that a little longer, and I know we wouldn’t have time.

QUESTION: What kind of pressures do you think that women or you, yourself, still face as far as looks and beauty pressures and things like that?

TT: You’re right. It’s all there. It will never go away. I don’t think our business and the entertainment business in general will ever just be okay with how people are. I think we’re in a business that critiques everything we do, and you kind of just take it with a grain of salt. I look at my grandmother, and I think she’s aged beautifully, so I hope that I could be a smidgen of how she’s aged.

There’s nothing you can do. All you can do is take of yourself and do the things that make you feel good and make you healthy and age appropriately, but there’s always going to be people out there are going to say something, and there’s nothing you can do about it. Like I said, you have to take it with a grain of salt.

BLAST’S CONCEPTION ALLEN: You mentioned that you had some influence on the career of your character. That being said, are you going to be able to also provide future input into shaping and developing her as well? I know that the producers and writers have the job of carrying that out, but would you have a chance to put some input into that?

TT: It’s interesting. We are very lucky to be on a show (and that’s all of us across the board) that our executive producers and writers are very open to anything we have to say, which is so nice because not a lot of shows are like that. They believe a collaboration always works best, and not that we are there writing the show, nor is that what we’re supposed to be doing, but they’re always very open to any time we have a question or concern or have an idea, they’re always open. It’s nice to be able to get on the phone or sit down with them and talk with them about it, and we all feel that way, which is really great.

BLAST: Your character is one of the, obviously, highlights of this show. Will we have, I know you said that she won’t necessarily be doing the action.

TT: No, I don’t see that unless something changes, but who knows. I don’t see it, though.

BLAST: Will we see maybe a centered episode around her, perhaps, maybe?

TT: I don’t know. That’s a question that really I can’t answer. Again, I say the show really is Matt and Tim. It’s their show, and it was from day one. I knew that coming in. I came in knowing that this role was supportive, which I was completely happy with.

It’s funny. I’ve been doing this for so long that I was actually okay not having to work every day and having the weight of a new show on my shoulders. As well as I really just fell in love with this character, and I fell in love with the cast that they started to put together, but you’ll see definitely, there’s an episode coming up that I’m much more heavy in, and you’ll see that every now and then that I’ll be a little heavier in certain episodes. It’s not something you’re going to see every week because, again, it’s not my show. I’m a supportive role on the show.

In news news, CNN quickly replaced Lou Dobbs with the king of the touchscreen, John King. King will host a weeknight political show at 7 p.m.

Spike has a new cars show called “Unique Autosports: Miami,” starting February 28 at 10:30 a.m. There will be eight half hour episodes combining cars, celebrities and beautiful Miami. Guests will include LeBron James, Diddy, and players from the Yankees.

A bunch of news out of SyFy today. The network formerly known as Sci-Fi has a comedy series coming out called “Outer Space Astronauts” starting December 8 at 9:30 p.m. The show is about eight quirky soldiers who travel the stars looking for adventures. It’s basically making fun of Stargate, and it shows how much the network has changed in 10 years.

SyFy got good ratings on the premiere “Ghost Hunters Academy” on Wednesday, drawing 2 million total viewers, the best ratings for a reality series on SyFy since January 2008’s “Ghost Hunters International.”

Famed author Ray Bradbury will executive produce a six-episode miniseries about six of his short stories. “The Bradbury Chronicles” hasn’t been picked up by a network yet.

“Dollhouse,” “Hank” and “Brothers” all got the proverbial pink slip. “Dollhouse” through no fault of its own was set in no man’s land Friday night and seemed destined for failure from the start of the second season. “Hank” and “Brothers” never got off the ground.

Elsewhere, The CW will things fresh through at least May with new episodes of “One Tree Hill,” “Gossip Girl” and the new “Life UneXpected” all revolving around each others. “One Tree Hill” premieres with back-to-back episodes at 8 p.m. on January 18, followed by the start of “Life UneXpected” at 9 p.m.

The at-times controversial news anchor Lou Dobbs announced live on the air and unexpectedly that he was resigning from CNN immediately. Dobbs was under contract until the end of 2011, but CNN apparently released him. He was by some measure the voice of the right for CNN, though his views on immigration made him a lightning rod at times.

The innovative Joss Whedon drama’s second season was a disaster from the start with a Friday night time slot it had to share with “Stargate Universe” and the fans’ social calendars. DVR couldn’t save it, either.

A few weeks ago, FOX announced it would pull “Dollhouse” during the November sweeps period due to low ratings, and yesterday the rest of the ax came down. FOX will air all 13 episodes of the second season starting on December 4, however.

Are you a die-hard Dollhouse fan? What do you think of this? Share your thoughts below.

In the news today, ABC made some moves, giving an order for five more episodes of “The Forgotten,” and canceling the new series “Eastwick,” which nobody watched.

ABC also nixed “Let’s Dance,” on news that Kathy Griffin was to host and celebrities weren’t flocking to join the show, according to reports. ABC will use a filler reality series in that time slot, instead of “Let’s Dance,” which was set to debut November 23.

“Lopez Tonight” scored 3.2 million viewers on TBS, TNT and truTV when it premiered Monday, beating Conan O’Brien and David Letterman in the 18-34 demographic.

truTV will launch a new reality series about professional football, going behind the scenes from draft day to the Big Game in “NFL Full Contact” produced by NFL films.

The CW will premiere “Life Unexpected” January 18, tagging in for “Gossip Girl,” until that mega-popular show returns with 12 more episodes later in 2010.

Finally, Nielsen has reported that Americans are watching more television than ever before, with an average of four hours and 49 minutes per day, per American. This is a 20 percent increase from 10 years ago. We have more choices than ever, and we can DVR anything we want. Life is good, right?

A&E will premiere two episodes of “Intervention” at 9 p.m. and 9:30 followed by the second season premiere of “Hoarders” at 10 on November 30. This is the eighth season of “Intervention.”

Evolution Media, producer of Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of Orange County” is working on a men’s reality series called “Boys Club: ATL.”

News on this Monday morning, The Disney/ABC/NBC/Universal/Heart television partnership announced it was cutting 10 percent of jobs at A&E and Lifetime, which the TV group acquired in August.

While Lifetime is cutting, Showtime is adding. The premium network will be the first to air “Twilight” on January 23. On January 25, “Secret Diary of a Call Girl” airs at 10 p.m. and “Tracey Ullman’s State of the Union” at 10:30. Monday will be comedy night next ytear with “Nurse Jackie” at 10 and “united States of Tara” at 10:30. Showtime also announced that the fourth and final season of “The Tudors” will premiere April 11 at 9 p.m.

Bravo announced that “The Real Housewives of Orange County” attracted nearly 50 percent more viewers on its season five opener last Thursday than it did last year.

TNT acquired the exclusive syndication rights to the CBS drama “The Mentalist” which will start airing the cable network way out in 2012. “The Mentalist” is in its second season. USA Network got exclusive cable syndication rights to the hit CBS spin-off “NCIS Los Angeles.”

A ton of A&E news today. A&E has a reality miniseries about the Jackson Family called “The Jacksons: A Family Dynasty” scheduled to start December 13 at 9 p.m. with a two hour premiere. The series will focus on Jackie, Jermaine, Tito and Marlon Jackson preparing for a tour after the death of Michael. A&E also announced that it approved an hour-long pilot for “Sugarloaf” about a Chicago cop who gets fired after his captain shoots him and wrongfully accuses him of sleeping with his wife. The cop moves to Florida and joins the state police. A&E’s new drama “The Quickening” will star Jeffrey Nordling, John Heard and Michael Arden with Radha Mitchell. The show is about a cop who gets demoted to desk work after it surfaces that he’s bipolar.

Finally this morning, HBO is planning a new drama called “T” about a woman who undergoes gender transformation into a man. No word on an air date.

I can think of a few things off the top of my head that I learned about with my eyes glued to the television and my hand in a box of Cheerios as a child: Counting, counting in Spanish, bottle caps, and a mastery of the ABC’s are a few examples.

But here’s one thing I learned about on Sesame Street that you might not think of right away: death.

When Will Lee, the actor who played Mr. Hooper, died of a heart attack in 1982, instead of covering it up on the show or saying Mr. Hooper moved away or went on vacation, the show decided to tell children the truth: “Mr. Hooper died.” They told Big Bird this in the episode “Farewell, Mr. Hooper,” broadcast on Thanksgiving 1983. Later in the episode, Big Bird wants to give all the cast members drawings that he made of each of them. When Big Bird asks where Mr. Hooper is, they remind him that Mr. Hooper is dead, to which Big Bird replies that he’ll just wait for him to come back, so he can give him the drawing. The adults pause and tell Big Bird that when someone dies, they never come back.

It was real. It was powerful in a way that insulating modern television may never be again. It was one of TV’s most important moments, and it would affect me just as much when I saw it for the first time in the late 80s. (I wasn’t born when it originally aired)

But most of my Sesame Street memories aren’t nearly as sad!

It this doesn’t completely floor you, nothing will: (see more here)

Register a free account with Blast, and leave a comment about your best Sesame Street moment for a chance to win a free DVD.

The inclusion of Richard Dean Anderson in this episode of “Stargate Universe” was a happy anecdote. He’s now a 3-star general.

Totally changed is the senator’s wife, role from a raging alcoholic who’s emotionally out of control to this oddly grounded matron who has to comfort and reassure her daughter. I guess grief is a process.

Oh wait … HEY! A sex scene! Col. Young, (Justin Louis) millions of light years away, used one of the ancient communications stone devices to take over a soldier’s body on Earth to communicate with everyone back home. And he has sex — in that soldier’s body — with his wife. I’ll leave that one out there for you to comment on. We also learned that Young had an affair with Johansen (Alaina Huffman) before any of this all happened. It might has also been the reason she has decided to leave the Stargate/Icarus program shortly before the attack that forced them to evacuate through the Ninth Chevron.

And then, two of the other characters, in two other people’s bodies, get drunk and go clubbing. Elyse Levesque plays a decent drunk. Not great, but decent.

We do learn more about these characters. The senator’s daughter role (Levesque) gets a back story that’s not too surprising. She was a shallow, rich, bitch, whose boyfriend is dating her best friend now. She didn’t have real friends, and she’s beginning to learn that her happy little life wasn’t so great. This is all good stuff. This is character development. There remains much work to do on the three fronts of character development, writing dialog, and acting it out.

The Eli character (David Blue) was also improved. We knew he was an underachieving misfit with a sick mom, but we saw more of his inner monologue. We gets to take over the body of an attractive, fit man and gets to be popular with the ladies for once.

Improvement was made in this episode, but I still can’t help but wonder if this much progress could have been made in three episodes instead of seven. We are also having all of these “good” moments on Earth, instead of on the ship the show is set in.

We learned in previous episodes that the ship, “Destiny” recharges its power by flying through a sun, but each pass doesn’t recharge the batteries to 100 percent. Earth has a master plan to fire the ship’s weapons, to lower the ship’s power, to force the ship to further recharge its batteries entirely by flying through another star, hopefully giving the ship enough power to dial the Stargate back to Earth. We know this fails, because that would essentially end the show. A nice twist is the fact the plan might have worked — or it might have blown up the ship — if Dr. Rush (Robert Carlyle) hadn’t staged the whole thing to fail.

Rush showed me something in this episode. He’s spiteful and arrogant, but we’re finally seeing clearly that his goal is to study the ship and learn more about the universe. The ship might be very well able to get everyone back home, but Rush’s experiment is ongoing.

On a side note, it’s so refreshing to continuously see the talent that Carlo Rota brings to the table every time. The man who played Morris O’Brianon in “24″ added something to “Stargate Universe” in his brief appearance as a member of the International Oversight Committee.

This was the best episode of “Universe” yet, but it came six weeks and seven episodes later. You get the feeling we’re an an impasse here. They’re stranded. Earth tried to intervene/interfere and failed, and now they have to figure things out for themselves. If this were week four, I think people would be more drawn in to the suspense.

“Supernatural” started as a really cool mash-up of “creature of the week” and proceeded with a solid genre plot.

Sam and Dean Winchester drive around the country in their dad’s old Chevy Impala, continuing the family business — hunting and killing unnatural and evil things. Armed with a collection of classic rock tapes, a trunk full of weapons and their dad’s journal detailing all things evil, the brothers battled all sorts of cool monsters.

But at the end of season one, the show began to balance serialized storytelling and accessibility better than any other on television.

The creator, Eric Kripke, and the rest of the writing staff have done a wonderful job at slowly layering the mythology, season-by-season, without getting bogged down by it. This is not a show like “Lost” where you have to have been invested since episode one to understand what is going on. With “Supernatural,” you can jump in with any episode and be entertained without feeling completely lost (pun intended).

A lot of the credit for that accessibility is due to the strength of the show’s two leads, Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki.

As Dean, Ackles proves to be a ridiculously charismatic television lead. His razor-sharp comedic timing and ability to emote seemingly on-command (the guy can produce a single tear drop that would even make Denzel Washington jealous) have helped make Dean one of televisions most intriguing characters.

Padalecki ably handles the tougher job of keeping Sam likable, even as he consistently makes bad decisions. Padalecki excels at playing the serious, cerebral Sam. Ackles is the crowd-pleaser, but Padalecki has proven himself a capable comedic actor, when called for, and does a great job at handling most of the show’s expository scenes.

Ackles and Padalecki were in top form in tonight’s episode. The season-long plot of the hunt to kill Lucifer advanced in some intriguing directions. The Trickster (Richard Speight Jr.) made a welcome return and, once again, got the best of the brothers, trapping them in episodes of familiar television shows. With the Winchesters stuck in The Trickster’s cable box of horrors, the writers have a ball inserting Ackles and Padalecki in some very familiar-looking shows. Anyone who ever wondered what “Supernatural” would look like as a sitcom, Japanese game show or “Knight Rider” had to look no further.

The highlight was the writer’s version of “Grey’s Anatomy.” Dean’s guilty pleasure, “Dr. Sexy M.D.” followed the adventures of the whiny, annoying and constantly-bordering-on-tears Dr. Ellen Piccolo at Seattle Mercy Hospital. I also loved the not-so-subtle dig at David Caruso’s sunglasses and murmur-heavy acting style on “CSI: Miami.” I must agree with Dean: only “no-talent douche bags wear sunglasses at night.”

Despite the heavy doses of comedy, the episode significantly advanced the season’s overall plot. I loved that The Trickster turned out to be an angel with a personal stake in the brother’s battle. The heavy knowledge he drops on Dean and Sam about their destiny is as dark as any narrative twist the writers have given us so far.

Brilliantly mixing comedy with some seriously sobering revelations, “Changing Channels” shows “Supernatural” to be confidently firing on all cylinders.

NUMB3RS might be getting the boot after six years.

CBS is making some mid-season changes. It is cutting the season order of “NUMB3RS” to 16 episodes, down from 22. This is in order to make room for shows like the reality “Undercover Boss” and the dramas “Miami Trauma,” “Flashpoint,” and “The Bridge.” Numbers gets cut short in its sixth season.

The fate of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” is up in the air. One report has it that Oprah will switch from broadcast to cable when her contract with CBS expires in 2011. Oprah would then be tree to move to her own cable network, which launches next fall. But CBS says they know nothing of any moves the talk-show diva is looking to make.

Also on the topic of talk shows, NBC has renewed “Maury,” “Springer,” and “Steve Wilkos” for at least three more years. Tribune, the company that syndicates these shows, also announced that some of its other shows, including “People’s Court,” “Judge Matis,” “TMZ,” “This Old House” and “Judge Jeanine Pirro” are renewed through 2012.

Scipps is purchasing a 65 percent majority stake in the Travel Channel from Cox Communications, pouring millions of dollars into the 22-year-old cable network and securing its near billion-dollar debt.

Comedy Central is teaming up with The Onion to produce a 30-minute television series inspired by The Onion Sports Network.

Finally this week, FX has a Western drama series under construction called “Reconstruction,” set in Missouri during the post-Civil War era.

All the stress of this situation, and the horror of vampires existing in general, has left Elena feeling confused and sullen. What makes Elena so likeable as our heroine, is her conflicting and complex feelings on this whole new world. Unlike a certain other vampire saga heroine (Bella, okay, it�s Bella), Elena doesn�t immediately accept Stefan as the personification of a mythical creature. She doesn�t leap into his arms and confess, �Oh you�re a vampire? That�s totally fine because obviously we have romantic interest in one another and absolutely nothing is going to come between that.� Her hesitancy is refreshing and very human. It�s easy to identify with the isolation she feels by carrying the burden of Stefan�s secret and not being able to talk to anyone about it.

Two sub-plots that have been playing out in the last few episodes have done a great job in moving the story along. One involves the key townspeople (the sheriff, the mayor) being in on the vampire secret. They are aware of the existence of vampires in the town, but they don�t know that Damon and Stefan are the ones they are hunting for. They also have the knowledge of how to fight the undead. In another awesome plot twist (seriously, they get me every week) Damon manipulates the �informed� townspeople to his advantage.

The other storyline that I�m glad is finally getting more attention, deals with Elena�s best friend Bonnie. Bonnie is a descendant of Salem witches and discovered a few episodes ago that she does have the power to practice witchcraft. Judging by next week�s episode preview, this particular plot-line will finally be developed more.

�The Vampire Diaries� airs Thursday nights at 8 p.m. on the CW.

ABC announced that “The Bachelor: On Wings of Love” will premiere January 4 at 8 p.m. This is the 14th edition of the reality show, and it will feature commercial airline pilot, Jake Pavelka, from Dallas, who was in the most recent “Bachelorette” only to fail.

FOX has a cool new CIA drama in the works from Chernin Entertainment, Variety reported. It’s untitled but it will be about a unit of the CIA that does “remote viewing,” finding out information using paranormal skills. No word on the cast.

In other FOX news, Colin Hanks will star in “Jack and Dan” opposite Bradley Whitford. Hanks will play Jack, a detective teamed up with a drunken maverick partner. This one will premiere in early 2010.

Therefore, in good network television form, ABC is doing everything it can to totally screw it up.

According to ABC, 14.3 million people watched Tuesday’s series premiere of “V,” which challenged CBS and the current No. 1 show in America, “NCIS” in the Tuesday night ratings battle. In fact, “V” had the best debut of the 2009-10 fall television season.

It’s all gravy so far.

But ABC has decided only to air four episodes this fall. It will hold the remaining episodes for March — March — until after the NBC Winter Olympics coverage. Also, news came recently that the producers, who made “V” the ratings and popular success it is, are departing the show. “Chuck” executive producer Scott Rosenbaum will join the series as executive producer and showrunner, to pick up production, which was halted for what ABC called a “creative hiatus.”

ABC only filmed the fourth episode of “V” a few weeks ago, and the show will not go back into production — they won’t film the rest of the episodes — until January.

I have no explanation for any of this. Usually if a show debuts with the best ratings of the season you leave it alone and let the magic happen. This move reeks of no uncertain lack of confidence on ABC’s part.

Those will all get lost in the shadow of Game 6 of the World Series at 8 p.m. on FOX where the Yankees will hope to close it out against the Phillies.

In other news, CBS ordered five more episodes of “Accidentally on Purpose,” giving it an 18-episode season run so far. The show averages 8 million viewers per episode.

In an effort to draw viewers to “Lopez Tonight,” TBS announced that both TNT and truTV will simulcast the episode, which will feature guest stars Ellen DeGeneres, Eva Longoria-Parker and Kobe Bryant. Afterward, “Lopez Tonight” will air Monday through Thursday at 11 on TBS.

It was announced recently that Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin will serve as dual hosts for the 82nd Academy Awards in March. That should be a treat. Martin hosted the 73rd and 75th ceremonies previously.

The FX comedy “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” will enter syndication on at least 23 local affiliates beginning in Fall 2011. The list includes local Boston affiliate WLVI-TV, CW-56.

Kathy Griffin will host the latest new dancing reality show, “Let’s Dance,” where celebs will reenact famous dance routines. This one premieres November 23 after the “Dancing with the Stars” performance finale.

Finally today, A&E will launch a documentary series about Kirstie Alley and her continuing struggles with her weight and live as a single mom. No title or air date yet.

And it didn�t. But I didn�t mind it. As the show progressed through its pilot episode, it got stronger. It�s not exactly something I�d watch weekly but I still think it�s worth an hour to check out. The show centers on Neal Caffrey (Matt Bomer), a charming, professional con-man and Agent Peter Burke (Tim DeKay, aka “Bizzaro Jerry” from “Seinfeld”), a straight-laced law dog.

The first 20 minutes set up the series. Burke catches Caffrey after the latter escaped prison in an attempt to chase the woman he loves. While in custody, Caffrey tells Burke he can help him catch a particular con artist if he�s granted freedom. After hesitation and initial denial, Burke accepts Caffrey�s offer and we go from there.

Throughout the episode, the duo goes through a typical tumultuous road with trust issues at stake on the road to solving the mystery. Not shockingly, Caffrey finds the right man and helps Burke lock him down. The story itself was basic and formulaic. But that�s fine. If you want a plot that�s bold, daring and innovative � go to HBO or AMC, and for the love of God, stay away from USA.

USA�s shows typically rely on characters and not storylines. Their shows feature strong leads that can carry a 40 minute block such as Jeffrey Donovan (”Burn Notice”) and James Roday (”Psych”). “White Collar” has two strong leads with noticeable on-screen chemistry. Like their network counterparts, the duo also brings out the lighter side of drama (another USA Network theme).

The supporting cast leaves a little bit to be desired. In her 700th role since �Saved by the Bell,� Tiffani Thiessen (apparently the �Amber� in her name got the heave-ho) is horribly miscast as Burke�s wife. The only worthwhile cast member outside of Burke and Caffrey is Caffrey�s con-artist friend, Mozzie (Willie Garson).

Yet, a lackluster supporting cast doesn�t weigh down “White Collar” completely. Unlike “CSI” or “Law and Order”, “White Collar” is held up by a strong lead, not a strong ensemble. In this regard, as I said, this light-action drama is worth a look.

TV Quick Hits of the Week: This week was about getting to check out a few shows I hadn�t seen before.

Modern Family: (Check out the review from Blast�s Jill Vallecorsa) Love this show, it�s got great potential and I�ll probably add it to my weekly lineup. The most recent episode had a great tri-arch shifting between the three families. I particularly love the character of Manny (Rico Rodriguez) � probably the most appealing kid sitcom stars since Kevin Arnold. Ed O�Neill as Jay Pritchett is on top of his typical pig-headish, alpha-male game while the duo of Cameron (Eric Stonestreet) and Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) creates great on screen chemistry.

Sons of Anarchy: I have to admit, I watched this show for the first time this past week. I was thoroughly impressed with Sons of Anarchy. In the episode I saw �Gilead,� there was great dramatic tension and comprehensive character interactions. One scene in particular where Jean Carlos �Juice� Ortiz (Theo Rossi) is about to get the �Oz� treatment, kept me on edge. It�s a very layered drama with outstanding performances from Charlie Hunnman as Jax, Ron Perlman as Clay and Katey Sagal (big week for the Bundy family) as Gemma. If you haven�t seen “Sons,” I highly recommend it.

The World Series is off tonight as it returns to New York for game six, so you can expect everything to be watching “V” tonight. “NCIS” and “NCIS Los Angeles” are also on, on CBS.

The other premiere we’ll mention tonight is “Tabatha’s Salon Takeover,” which starts at 10 on Bravo. We’re so happy for Tabatha, who gave an interview with Blast shortly before her disappointing exit from “Shear Genius.”

In other news, TNT cut a deal with Warner Bros. Television to obtain NBC’s canceled “Southland.” The cable network will have exclusive rights to the 13 episodes, which includes seven unaired episodes. It will air on TNT on Tuesdays at 10 p.m. starting in January.

G4 will renew “Human Wrecking Balls,” for a second season starting November 11 at 8 p.m. The show, with the daredevil Pumphrey brothers who wreck things like helicopters and gas stations. So grab your Cheeze-Its and cola, all you hyperactive nerds, and tune into G4 for shit getting destroyed.

FOX announced that the Charles Logan character will be back on “24,” as actor Gregory Itzin is back for season eight, which starts January 17 at 9 p.m. and continues a two-night, hour-hour opener the next night at 8.

Variety reported that executive producers Ian Sander and Kim Moses have three possibly big projects in the works for ABC. In “Jane and Dick,” an all-female law firm has all sorts of fun and drama. “Police Surgeon,” is about a female cop in Chicago who’s also a doctor. Clever name. Finally, in “Ghost World,” (the duo also does “Ghost Whisperer on CBS) an female homicide detective in New York solves cases with the help of a male ghost who also needs to find out how he lived and died.

Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio will join USA’s “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” as the new captain, replacing Eric Bogosian.

PBS began as little more than a string of local educational programs. Over the last four decades, shows like “Sesame Street,” “The American Experience,” “Masterpiece” and “NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” have touched the lives of many Americans.

“Over the years, PBS has built a reputation for excellent programs and objectivity,” the Census Burean said in a statement.

The Public Broadcasting System has more than 350 stations, which come together collectively to own the network.

There’s a decent amount of news on this Monday. FOX gave a full sixth season order to the animated hit “American Dad” about a CIA agent voiced by Seth MacFarlane, who also created “Family Guy.” The show airs at 9:30 p.m. on Sundays.

Discovery will order a second season of “Swords Life on the Line” about the lives of New England fishermen. Discovery Channel also approved a series called “Airplane Repo” about a team that repossesses jets and helicopters from owners who defaulted on the loans. This will start early next year.

Writer Josh Heald, who has films “Hot Tub Time Machine” and “Mardi Gras” slated for release next year, also has a few TV projects in the works. “Sausagefest,” will be a comedy on NBC about two 20-something best friends with totally different fathers — one of which will be played by Norm Macdonald. The second show will be a FOX comedy called “Sequestered,” about 12 strangers who have to live together during a long jury trial. The show will mainly focus on their time outside the courtroom where they are allowed to talk about anything except the ongoing trial.

World Series big game tonight, so ABC has “Dancing with the Stars,” FOX eventually has “So You Think You Can Dance,” and NBC has the defunct “Trauma,” What a night. Even Bostonians will be watching baseball.

Michael Shanks is an actor, and while it’s easy to get lost in the character he has played on, off and on again for a dozen years, there’s a lot under the surface.

Born in Vancouver and raised in small town British Columbia, Shanks began his acting career playing Charlie Brown in the fourth grade play. He witnessed his first television production in college while taking a beach break from trying out for a play. Ironically, it was “MacGyver” that shanks saw being filmed, not knowing of course that he would one day star beside Richard Dean Anderson in “SG-1.”

He made his television debut in a 1993 episode of “The Commish,” a popular ABC crime drama. He landed a lot of minor roles before getting his big break on “Stargate SG-1″ in 1997, staring in 196 episodes in the series as an adventurous archeologist named Dr. Daniel Jackson. Since the end of “Stargate SG-1″ in 2007, Shanks, 38, has been trying to remake himself as an actor

“Well its a double-edged sword, I will say this,” Shanks said in his interview with Blast. “The things that come down the pipe, career-wise, that are offers to pay the bills are sort of sci-fi related projects.”

But, humbly, Shanks admits that all he can do is keep trying to land roles — hopefully roles that aren’t nerdy archeologists. “You just have to get back in a line as if you’re starting all over again,” he said.

We saw some of this. Shanks left “SG-1″ after season 5 and landed a few small roles, including two episodes of “Andromeda,” where he met his wife. It’s possible we may never have seen Daniel Jackson again if Shanks was offered another starring role (pure speculation). But Daniel’s was a popular role, and Shanks returned to “Stargate,” first as a guest, and then in his everyday role.

After “Stargate,” Shanks got to show some range by playing a pseudo-villain in the popular USA series “Burn Notice.” He played Victor, a rogue secret agent taking revenge on the shadowy intelligence agency that killed his family. He also recently landed a role that could bring him more into the mainstream by appearing in The CW’s “Smallville,” as comic book hero Hawkman. It’s still in the realm of sci-fi/fantasy, but the show has a wider following.

Still though, we can’t forget what Shanks and the “SG-1″ crew did in making the Sci-Fi/SyFy channel what it is today. A new Stargate show, “Stargate Universe” began this year, even as a rumoed “SG-1″ straight-to-DVD movie is on the shelf.

“Stargate Universe” is a much younger, more melodramatic, almost juvenile take on the franchise, and fans are conflicted. Shanks is too, even though he’s slated to appear in at least four episodes this season.

“It is really slick and pretty,” Shanks said. “[But] from what I’ve seen I’m not on board. … I’m not hooked in.”

Shanks said the drama and conflict seems forced. “They’re creating tension, pathos and angst,” he said. “The conflict with the characters seems a bit forced.”

One thing I did not dig deeply into was Shanks’ relationship with Christopher Judge. At the San Diego Comic-Con International in 2008, Judge boasted that he and Shanks started their own production company. We later heard about a production about the archangel Michael. But Shanks said the production company was off. He didn’t discuss his relationship with Judge, and I didn’t press him any further on the matter.

BLAST: So you and Christopher Judge are best buds. You have a production company you’re putting together? What’s happening with you guys?

MICHAEL SHANKS: Yeah. Let’s just say the production company’s not happening anymore, and I’d rather not go down that road and talk about Christopher Judge at this particular junction.

Shanks lives in Vancouver with his wife, the beautiful British-Filipina-Canadian actress Lexa Doig (Jason X), whom he got to work with when she played a doctor in 11 episodes at the end of “SG-1’s” running. She is also known for her sci-fi/fantasy work. The couple has two children, and Shanks has an 11-year-old Daughter, Tatiana, born in 1998 to then girlfriend Vaitiare Bandera, who played Daniel Jackson’s wife, Sha’re on “SG-1.” Shanks also said he’s been known to enjoy a good game of Hockey — like any true Canadian.

Editor’s note: After readers called out Blast — and called us liars — for not including the audio of the Christopher Judge portion of the Michael Shanks interview, we are posting it in the interest in full disclosure. We wouldn’t lie about or improperly quote an actor who agreed to give an interview to Blast.

“General Hospital” is on Wednesdays at 3 p.m. on ABC, but that’s not what we’re talking about.

I’ve been holding back so far in my “Stargate Universe” episode reviews. I’m a fan. I keep hoping they’re going to bust out with “the big one,” and everyone is going to be happy.

We noticed later on in the “Stargate SG-1″ and “Atlantis” runnings that the powers that be would put together a fantastic opening plot, fraught with unimaginable danger and peril, only to hastily wrap it up when they ran out of time. We saw this when SG-1 “fought” Ares. How about “Red Alert?” That’s what’s happening so far in “Universe,” only it’s happening at the beginning of the series. And it’s happening on two fronts. The makers are building up this fantastical plot in every episode, complete with certain death. Only each episode spends 40 minutes building up a 5 minute plot. And each episode is building up to what we assume is going to be something, but we’re deeply into the season without any hint of the endgame.

In this episode, “Water,” Lt. Smith (Brian J. Young) nearly dies on an ice planet only to not die. This is maybe the third time this has happened to him.

Oh and an alien bug that may or may not be benevolent was flushed out of the ship via the Stargate. I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of that.

And that’s it. That’s all that happened on this week’s episode of “Stargate Universe.” It was 43 minutes of “oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, what are we gonna do?” and no substance. We know little more about the characters, and, frankly, I am starting to care less and less about each one to the point where I’d like to see someone killed off just to make things interesting. Do the producers forget what happened when Daniel Jackson died/ascended to a higher plane of existence on “SG-1?” People went nuts. People created “Save Daniel” websites. People were truly in love with these characters. To a slightly smaller extent, the same applied to the now-abandoned characters on “Atlantis.”

“Universe?” No one gives a shit about these people. Even Ben Browder has a proper introduction to “SG-1″ that made us care about him. And he’s a better actor than anyone on this new show. Even Robert Carlyle is beginning to let down (though, to his credit, it’s mostly the writing that’s making him look bad).

The producers are acting like they have a three-season order in place already from SyFy. All seven episodes have been garbage so far. They have done nothing to build a community feeling for the viewers. In the past two shows — and on any good sci-fi show — the audience is naturally brought in somehow. They feel included. In “Universe” we feel like the outsiders. We’re the nerdy kids watching the high school football game. There are aspects of a good sci-fi series that make people go apeshit and dress up in full-on cosplay costumes — that they make themselves, spending sometimes thousands of dollars on — to attend conventions.

What you never saw, was someone dressing up as their favorite Gilmore Girl. It’s a different fanbase, people.

Sadly, “Universe” fails both as a sci-fi show and a teenage melodrama, because the elements that attract sci-fi fans religiously aren’t there and the writing just sucks.

So we’ll see what happens next week.

NBC is canceling its brand new drama, “Trauma,” with the production stopping after the initial 13-episode order. NBC has not said whether or not it will even air the remaining episodes. NBC did order six new mid-season episodes of “Chuck,” so it’s not all bad news. This expands the season to 19 episodes. “Chuck” was originally going to open after the Winter Olympics, but it may come sooner.

ABC announced that “Scrubs” will premiere with two episodes on December 1 at 9 p.m. The regular time period will be Tuesdays at 9. “Better Off Ted” will premiere December 8, and will regularly follow “Scrubs” at 9:30.

Syfy ordered 13 new episodes of “Being Human,” an American port of a British series based on three roomates — a ghost, vampire and werewolf — who lead double lives. The show will premiere in the summer.

Finally on this Friday, we know that NBC is working on a “Monk” ripoff with a few twists. Variety reported that a washed up magician with agoraphobia will be approached by an elite law enforcement group to use his talents to solve the hard cases.

The premise of the series involves a high school student Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev) struggling to pull her life back together after the death of her parents. Enter the mysterious Stefan Salvatore- the new kid in the small town of Mystic Falls, Virginia. Elena and Stefan’s relationship develops very naturally during the course of the show; it doesn’t feel too sudden or intense. Elena has normal, teenage girl reservations about dating Stefan that have nothing to do with him being a vampire, a fact she is not privy to at first. Aside from you know, being 145-year-old vampire, Stefan comes with a lot of complexities. He works hard to maintain an animal blood only diet (yes, I know just like Edward), has issues with constantly lying to Elena, and is trying to keep his meddlesome and evil brother at bay.

Evil older brother Damon (Ian Somerhalder) is the most fascinating character of the show. He harbors resentment towards Stefan for denying his natural thirst of human blood, and the brothers are still at odds over a mysterious secret from their past involving another woman. Damon is always quick with a sneer and scathing comeback, and makes no apologies for tearing the throats out of various townspeople. He finds his younger brother’s attempts to keep him from feeding humorous. Stefan has his hands full just trying to deal with Damon and his impetuous acts of rage and terror.

The writers of the show have given their monsters traits from several schools of vampire thought. No coffins, crucifixes or garlic, but a wooden stake can end them as well as the sunlight. Super speed, sensitive hearing and even mind control powers are granted but unless you invite them into the house, they are powerless at the doorstep. Strength of powers depends heavily on the amount of feeding with human blood, which is what makes Damon much more powerful than Stefan and ultimately why Stefan cannot simply take his brother down. And no, neither of them sparkles in the sunlight.

This week’s episode brought another Damon-initiated problem into Stefan’s world. In a great plot twist, an impulsive Damon turns the troubled Vicki into a vampire. Vicki is the love interest of Elena’s brother Jeremy and probably the absolute worst person possible to become a bloodsucker. Before Damon’s interference, Vicki was happily living the life of a hard-partying druggie. Add some serious blood-lust to her already addictive tendencies, and the mortals of the town should probably only go out in daylight. Stefan tries in vain to teach Vicki how to control her thirst, but of course Damon is standing by to complicate matters. Coupled with the girl’s rebellious streak, it makes a difficult task for Stefan to control her and keep Elena and Jeremy safe. There’s an explosive action scene near the end that I won’t ruin, but once again the writers pulled off another fantastic plot twist.

“The Vampire Diaries” airs Thursday nights at 8 p.m. on the CW.

The film’s new trailer will be shown on the Cowboy Stadium’s enormous four-sided diamond vision screen- the world’s largest video display- just before noon this Sunday. The trailer will also be broadcast live to the audiences watching “Fox NFL Sunday,” the channels NFL pregame show.

Fox is calling the viewing party “the largest live motion picture trailer viewing in history.”

“Avatar,” which reportedly cost upwards of $200 million to produce, hits theaters December 18th.

Shanks will play Hawkman in two episodes, “Society” and “Legends” which he told Blast are due to air in early 2010, possibly January.

The Canadian actor is working on a few other projects, but it wasn’t all good news. Shanks said that the next — and currently untitled — “Stargate SG-1″ movie is “not coming any time soon,” as the DVD market is down and financial issues aren’t making things easy for MGM to green light another Stargate film.

Make sure you read Blast in November. Did we mention we’re doing a Stargate-themed giveaway? Make sure you register an account to be eligible.

I love documentaries. Always have, always will. Documentaries are a visual guide for the lazy lovers of non-fiction. Since I’m a lazy lover of non-fiction, and I don’t read it nearly as much as I should, I’ve always been drawn to documentaries. Whether it’s an episode of “True Lif” on MTV or Morgan Spurlock’s “Super Size Me,” I believe a good documentary is as entertaining as a good scripted drama. In fact, they’re often better because the drama is real.

So naturally, when I heard ESPN was bringing 30 original documentaries from 30 talented filmmakers in honor of their 30th anniversary, I was pretty excited. Love sports. Love docs. Love good filmmaking. It seemed like a natural love affair. Add in the ingenious ESPN “Sports Guy” Bill Simmons as the mastermind behind the project and I bought into it from the beginning.

After having watched the first three documentaries, my optimism and high expectations were realized and rewarded. Unlike ESPN’s last celebration of its anniversary, there has been nothing hokey about “30 for 30.” It’s just been enjoyable documentaries from talented filmmakers about stories which haven’t been broached one hundred times.

My favorite was “Small Potatoes: Who Killed the USFL?” It retells the story of an upstart spring football league established in the early 1980s that takes on the mighty NFL. “Small Potatoes” relieves the league’s rise, its prominence, its ultimate demise and lasting legacy. It also perfectly portrays the league’s villain (Mr. “You’re Fired” himself, Donald Trump).

Directed and narrated by Mike Tollin, who had first-hand experience in the USFL as its film guy, “Small Potatoes” has a striking amount of depth. One reason I liked it better than the first two “30 for 30″ documentaries, (”The Band That Wouldn’t Die” and “King’s Ransom” ““ both pretty good in their own right), was its breadth of interviews. Tollin talked to an impressive cast of characters ranging from Keith Jackson to Burt Reynolds. It really gave a first-hand impression of what it was like to be there at the time.

All in all, the documentary did a great job of depicting the USFL’s relevance to pro football. This was a league that had Jim Kelly, Steve Young, Hershel Walker, Doug Flutie, Reggie White, Anthony Carter and many other future NFL stars. It was a league that introduced 2-point conversions, instant replay and post-TD celebration pizzazz. Furthermore, in terms of storyline development, Tollin pointedly gets to the reasons behind the league’s quick rise and fall.

It shouldn’t be a surprise that Tollin, who directed the remarkable “Hank Aaron: Chasing the Dream” documentary back in the mid-1990s, could put together such an impressive piece. Yet, to do it in a mere 52 minutes is nothing short of extraordinary. If the “30 for 30″ series continues with this kind of work, I’ll be hoping for more ESPN-based celebrations in the future.

TV Quick Hits of the Week
South Park: “W.T.F.”
“South Park” is one of those shows that can baffle you, make you cry tears of laughter and then do both at the same time. This is episode does the latter. The boys find themselves wanting to be wrestlers after attending a WWE event. When they go and try out for the school’s wrestling team, they find out that “real” wrestling is homoerotic and weird. Instead, they make up their own faux-WWE (aptly titled Wrestling Takedown Federation”¦or W.T.F.) with ridiculous storylines involving aborted babies. Of course, their soap opera storylines attract a wide audience of dumb rednecks who think it’s all real. The episode takes a bizarre twist as the boys put on a Broadway-like production, with very little wrestling mixed in, for a bunch of dumb hillbillies. Elsewhere, the rejected amateur wrestling coach goes on a crusade to prove his “wrasslin’” is the real one. If it sounds silly, it is. But these are the kinds of “South Park” episodes I love the most.

The Big Bang Theory: “The Creepy Candy Corollary”
First off, am I the only person in the world that didn’t know Wil Wheaton from “Star Trek: The Next Generation” was Gordie Lachance from “Stand By M”? As a fan of both the show and that movie, I’m really disappointed in myself. Anyway, this episode saw Sheldon trying to exact revenge on a fictionalized, evil version of Wil Wheaton. Jim Parsons’ angry, angsty and comic-book-like actions as Sheldon leading up to the confrontation with Wheaton carried this episode. Also, I’m still stuck on his hilarious “four napkin rul” at the table with Leonard. Priceless. The side plot had Penny setting up Wolowitz with one of her friends in a run-of-the-mill storyline.

30 Rock: “Into the Crevass”
I’m not sure how I feel about “30 Rock.” I watch it and often find myself laughing and enjoying its snarky, clever humor. However, I read its constantly glowing reviews, watch it collect a bunch of Emmy awards and start to think it gets way too much credit. It’s funny, it’s cleverly written ““ it’s just not that good. This week was a great example. The storylines weren’t compelling, nor were the characters. That’s a huge part of scripted TV. “Into the Crevass” relied on a bunch of funny one-liners (ala Family Guy). Sometimes I feel like this show would be better off running 23 minutes of straight one-liners and quick wit rather than come up some with a forced, lame storyline.

“TNA iMPACT!” on Spike TV is one of the highest rated cable shows for young men.

“Hulk Hogan is one of the world’s top pop culture icons and the biggest superstar in the history of professional wrestling. We are truly excited to welcome him into the TNA family,” said Dixie Carter, president of TNA Wrestling, in a statement Tuesday. “Our goal is to become the world’s biggest professional wrestling company. Hulk defines professional wrestling and we look forward to partnering with him in a variety of ways as we continue to grow TNA globally.”

Hogan, who made waves in reality television after retiring from the WWF/WWE, said he was glad to be back.

“I’m thrilled to be jumping back into the world of professional wrestling,” he said. “My fans have been asking me to return to the business for many years on a full time basis, but the timing or the opportunity has never been right until now.”

Hogan recently wrote an autobiography with Mark Dagostino, “My Life Outside The Ring.” He is a member of the WWE Hall of Fame.

This week’s episode had each set of parents dealing with kid issues. Manny is starting the 5th grade and decides to leave the house in a poncho to represent his culture. Jay stares in disbelief and make some wisecracks that convince the young boy to leave it in the car. The relationship between Manny and Jay is hilarious to witness. The kid is very wise beyond his years and Jay is a very gruff, no-nonsense kind of guy.

When Gloria discovers what Jay has done, she makes him return the poncho to Manny at school. They then find out Manny planned to play a pan flute to the class while wearing the traditional garment. Afraid her son will die a virgin, Gloria and Jay hastily pretend to drop the flute and then step on it. Poor Manny’s disbelieving face makes the scene.

Mitchell and Cam’s parental woes this week were equally hilarious. Cam has decked out their daughter as, “Diana Ross from the RCA years” for a little photo shoot in the living room. Cue montage of baby Lily as various pop icons.

While dancing around with the baby, Mitchell accidentally bumps her head on the ceiling. Following this is a great scene in the doctor’s office in which they have to explain to the doctor the reason Lily’s head was protected was because she was wearing a “ghetto-fabulous wig.”
As usual, the show leaves us with a message about the importance of family, but instead of cheesy music and a hug from Danny Tanner, we get a chubby Colombian kid playing a pan flute in a poncho. Genius.

“Modern Family” airs Wednesday nights at 9 p.m. on ABC.

TBS will launch “Lopez Tonight” with George Lopez on November 9 at 11 p.m. with a star-studded lineup including Ellen DeGeneres, Eva Longoria-Parker and Kobe Bryant on night one and Sandra Bullock, Ray Romano, Jamie Foxx, Jessica Alba, Charlie Sheen, Queen Latifah, Marc Anthony, Ted Danson, Andy Garcia, Larry David, Taylor Lautner, Oscar de la Hoya, Kelly Osbourne, Floyd Mayweather, Eva Mendes, Arsenio Hall and Kathy Griffin for the first few episodes. It will air Monday-Thursday.

Nielsen announced that FOX News rules the cable news primetime waves with MSNBC coming in second place. CNN is down toward the bottom, with “Anderson Cooper 360″ placing forth in the ratings, behind re-runs of “Nancy Grace” and “Countdown.” Not a good sign for CNN.

TNT approved a pilot for the George Clooney-produced drama “Delta Blues” about an eccentric Memphis police officer who doubles as an Elvis impersonator.

The World Series starts tonight. Nothing else of note, except for “It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown” on ABC. Here in Boston, smart money’s on the Peanut gang.

Johnson’s historic novel takes us all the way back to the origins of Atlantic City. The story drags a bit in the beginning as it gets bogged down in the extensive history of the early days. It is clear how much research Johnson put into this historical work, but it makes for tedious reading to go through every person that was involved and all the railroad and other bureaucratic complications.

The story picks up steam when we reach the era of Louis “The Commodore” Kuehnle and thus begins the chain of Republican bosses. Kuehnle’s reign ends in the early 1910s with a conviction for political corruption, leaving the door wide open for a new leader. That leader was Enoch “Nucky” Johnson. Nucky (to be played by Buscemi) is described as a “ruggedly handsome man” and was the perfect charismatic boss to keep the Republican machine well oiled and running smoothly.

“In his prime, he strode the Boardwalk in evening clothes complete with spats, patent leather shoes, a walking stick, and a red carnation in his lapel,” writes Johnson. Nucky was known for his lavish behavior and also his generosity; provided that said generosity could turn into votes for the machine-picked candidates come election time.

It will be interesting to see how Buscemi will portray Nucky and how the producers will handle the rich history laid out by Johnson. The dynamic between each political boss and the people of Atlantic City is another fascinating aspect that could bring some great drama to the HBO series. Eleven episodes have already been ordered and the show is due to premiere sometime next year. But if you want to get a head start on the story, you can pick up “Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City” now.

Beyond that, USA Network is singing the praises of its new series “White Collar,” which debuted Friday night at 10 to the tune of 5.4 million total viewers. It was the best Friday 10 p.m. performance for USA in three years. CBS continues to carry Friday nights among the major networks, however, with new episodes of “Ghost Whisperer,” “Medium” and “Numb3rs.

FOX, with “Dollhouse,” finished fifth on Friday night, behind Univision, ABC, NBC and FOX. Even “The Jay Leno Show” did better than anything on FOX on Friday, which also boasts “Brothers” and “Till Death” in its Friday night lineup.

FOX is at the drawing board, however. The network has approved a new comedy from Seth Gordon and Adam F. Goldberg about a pack of 20-somethings who hack computer systems. That show, however, is still a ways away from even being a pilot.

NBC green-lit two products of its own recently. One, a drama called “Nola Rising” is from Teri Weinberg and writer Diane Ademi-John about a private eye who partners with an ex-con who can allow ghosts to use his body — like in “Ghost” — as the pair solves crimes. The second show is a comedy called “Ordinary People,” which is being hailed as “Mad About You” meets “The Cosby Show.”

“NCIS” and “NCIS Los Angeles” are on CBS tonight, and ABC busts out the big guns with “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown,” so don’t miss it.

All three episodes are getting decent ratings. “Community” averages about 5.7 million viewers. “Mercy” has 7.8, and “Parks” has 4.8 million weekly viewers.

“Parks and Recreation” has gotten markedly better as the season has gone on. We’re glad its staying.

What do you think of the three shows? What do you think of Jay Leno?

Jason Schwartzman could sit in front of a camera reading obituaries and somehow make it interesting. The actor, who is known for starring in such classic films as “Slackers” and “Rushmore,” makes the jump to the small screen to play writer/detective Jonathan Ames. We meet Jonathan in Brooklyn just as he is being broken up with by his girlfriend (Olivia Thirlby, “Juno”) who says he drinks too much (”But I’ve switched to white wine!”) and smokes too much weed (”It helps fight cancer!”). This is the catalyst for his decision to post an ad on Craigslist saying that he is an unlicensed private detective, and there begins his moonlighting career.

Jonathan’s best friend is Ray Hueston, played by Zach Galifianakis of “The Hangover” fame(crazy beard included). Ray is a talented but aimless cartoonist. He’s in a hilariously unhealthy relationship with a mother of two. He spends half of his time walking around in his whitey-tighties and the other half curled up in a fetal position.

“I never should have started dating a woman with kids,” Ray said. “I have to be the only child in a woman’s life.”

Due to the fact that his girlfriend doesn’t want to conceive again, Ray donates his sperm to a couple of nice lesbians who are fans of his artwork. Ray is Jonathan’s sidekick for all intents and purposes. He completely disapproves of Jonathan’s unconventional detective tactics, but always tags along.

And finally, we have my favorite character, George Christopher, played by Ted Danson. George is the wealthy, over-the-top editor of “Edition” magazine for which Jonathan sometimes writes. George is incredibly affectionate, narcissistic and open-minded. He will do whatever it takes to make his magazine succeed, even to the point of trying out homosexuality so he can better connect with his feminine readership. George finds Jonathan’s life fascinating and often clears his schedule to join Jonathan on his escapades.

Thus far, the plot of “Bored” has put Jonathan, Ray and George in some interesting places, including a Russian night club, but it’s the character interaction that keeps me coming back. Fans of “The Hangover” will love to watch Ray wallow in self pity, muttering hilarious one-liners. Fans of “Cheers” will be glad to see that Danson is doing a hell of a lot better than Kelsey Grammer, who is currently starring in the dud “Hank.” And fans of Schwartzman will love watching him play this meek, doe-eyed, ballsy intellectual wearing a khaki peacoat.

This is the type of show where you’ll be hushing your friends’ laughter so you don’t miss the next hilarious line. Just make sure you DVR it, because you’ll want to watch it more than once.

“Bored To Death” comes on Sunday night at 9:30 on HBO.