Maugham: "People who ask for criticism want only praise."

Your esteemed Mayor has had a rare ideological break with the Council of Network Executives, who seem to think that providing the nation's TV critics with but one mere episode of the new series debuting this fall is sufficient to ascertain their quality.

Of course, this is the same pilot episode that the networks provided critics with back in May or June. Nothing has been accomplished since then?

Pilots, of course, are shot on more leisurely schedules, with larger budgets, than regular episodes, and writers have all the time in the world to hone their scripts. These luxuries are denied showrunners during the course of the regular season, so the true test of a series is how well it holds up under the duress of an unforgiving schedule. Thusfar, the networks have been loathe to offer critics insight into that aspect of their new shows.

The one new series I might've considered giving a pass to on this count was Fox's latest conspiracy thriller "Vanished," which debuted very early, last Monday. But the producers of "Prison Break," which also premiered last Monday, managed to provide two episodes for review, so the fine folks at "Vanished," had they been so inclined, likely could have done so, as well.

Most of the shows that are debuting before the official Sept. 18 start date for the new season are from Fox - "Justice" premieres tomorrow, "Standoff," "'Til Death" and "Happy Hour" next week. None have provided a second episode for review, despite my repeated efforts to coax more from them. Perhaps the most egregious example of a network's stonewalling, however, comes from ABC, whose "Men in Trees" debuts Sept. 12, with another episode airing a few days later - and yet, ABC has provided only the pilot episode for review.

Invariably, the reason given for short-shrifting reviewers is that future episodes aren't completely finished. But the networks also send out unfinished edits of shows when it suits their purposes, and anyway, well-written and -executed television with the occasional piece of temporary looping or missing shots or time-coding still stamped on the image is still better than a supremely polished piece of hackwork.

No screeners for shows debuting the week of Sept. 18 have been distributed as yet. But if those don't include multiple episodes, the Mayor might have to take some drastic actions. Such as whining further.

Consider: Last year, ABC's "Commander In Chief" had a thoroughly workable pilot that promised good things. But the show's production arm fell utterly apart during the course of its run and, despite initial high ratings, hemorrhaged viewers as the season wore on. That's the sort of thing the networks want to conceal from viewers, but as that anecdote suggests, viewers will figure it out anyway. What critics could've done was save viewers a couple of hours of their lives by warning them of the gathering creative storm.