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September is here, and it signals the start of a new television season.

Besides cable, satellite, DVRs, DVDs and now Hulu, there's a different way to watch TV: Take your favorite show and "reverse engineer" it into constituent parts.

TV Tropes is a Wiki that shows how a program is built together out of "atoms" of character, dialogue and plot devices -- some plausible, others mostly serviceable for the sake of getting on with the show.

On the main page, it says "tropes are devices and conventions that a writer can reasonably rely on as being present in the audience members' minds and expectations."

For instance, take any episode from the "Law & Order" franchise. Every week, buddy cops go on a reverse whodunit to find the freak of the week based on a true crime story. In the hour, the squad must connect the deaths while being hampered by the suspect's amoral attorney and jurisdiction friction. The shows then end with variants on courtroom antics.

Click on each link to go to TV Tropes and find out what they mean and where and when they are used. Warning: Some entries contain obscenities.

As the economy continues to sour, people are expected to nest more since it's cheaper than going out.
Expect television-watching to be on the upswing. But for all the series like 'Lost' and 'Heroes', sometimes the only choices on the tube are reruns or things that only a boob can love.
The drinking game site makes television watching a social event. It establishes rules for when, how much and why you should drink when an event occurs on a good show or a bad show.
For instance, you chug or a take a shot when Jack Bauer kills someone on '24', Melinda Gordon shows cleavage on 'Ghost Whisperer' or Hurley says 'Dude' on 'Lost'.

Maybe you didn't watch the game, maybe you're a huge fan of Conan O'Brien, or maybe your friends say you missed the best commercial while you were getting a drink. You can catch them online. Hulu.com seems to have most -- if not all -- of them. Here is a collection of direct links to some highlights:

The movie "Monsters vs. Aliens" and soft drink manufacturer SoBe combined for back-to-back ads demonstrating 3-D technology. Without the glasses, the effect was evident, yet harmed by a fuzzy screen.

Bob Dylan and will.i.am bridge generations on a version of Dylan's "Forever Young" for Pepsi.

Racer Danica Patrick takes her fifth shower of the day for Go Daddy Group Inc.

Conan O'Brien on a cheesy commercial he thought was only for Sweden.

Hyundai wins an award, sending competitors into screaming fits.

Ed McMahon and MC Hammer make a pitch for Cash4Gold.

Some of these commercials showed a hard edge seldom seen in Super Bowl ads, said Tim Calkins, an analyst at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

The economy "is forcing advertisers to really think about how they are going to drive sales," Calkins said. "What they're doing is really focusing on differentiation."

Wannabe stargazers can bid on red-carpet bleacher seats for the Screen Actors Guild Awards ceremony in an online auction that will continue through Monday.

Ninety seats with views of the stars arriving at the Shrine Auditorium Jan. 25 are up for grabs in the auction benefiting the charitable SAG Foundation. A gift bag from People magazine is included.

The seats are available in 15 sets of two and 15 sets of four.

Another auction, of items connected with nominated actors, will begin Jan. 23. Past auctions have included autographed scripts, posters, wardrobe pieces and props.

Alas, the legendary composer Earle Hagen has died Monday at age 88. Surely you remember the folksy television theme song for "The Andy Griffith Show," which he co-wrote and whistled. The Emmy winner ("I Spy," 1968) and Oscar nominee ("Let's Make Love," 1961) also wrote memorable themes for the shows "The Mod Squad," "That Girl" and the "Dick Van Dyke Show."

Need to listen to the songs to jog your memory? Go to TelevisionTunes.com and enter the show name to listen to a clip of the theme song.

For more information about Hagen's life and accomplishments, you can check out the Hagen fan site, The Best of All Worlds.

In the meantime, let's whistle some bars of "The Andy Griffith Show" theme song as a salute to Hagen.

Before there was “60 Minutes” there was “The Mike Wallace Interview.” A black and white half-hour exchange of minds featuring the then 40-year-old inquisitor interviewing cultural icons of the time such as Henry Kissinger, Salvador Dali and Kirk Douglas.
But whether alive or dead, familiar to the contemporary viewer or unknown, a high percentage of Wallace’s interview subjects shed light on the world they inhabited and, even from that distance, they can shed light on our world, too.
These historical videos have been put online by the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin, and were donated by Wallace himself in the early 1960s.
They capture the essential Mike Wallace everyone would later come to know. They’re a time capsule unearthed from a pivotal moment.
They’re also a very entertaining treasury.
Go to the home page for “The Mike Wallace Interviews,” and — with no muss or fuss, no sign-in required or ads to slog through — scroll down the litany of personalities.