Judd Apatow to relive his soul-depleting TV days

It’s early, but the folks at the Paley Center for Media want you to know just how hip they are when it comes to programming the 25th annual William S. Paley Television Festival next March. The first three evenings announced honor “Pushing Daisies,” “Gossip Girl” and Judd Apatow.

It’ll be interesting to see how the writers strike (if, God forbid, it’s still ongoing next March) will affect the heat on “Pushing Daisies” (though its ratings have faltered in recent outings), or whether there’ll ever be heat on “Gossip Girl,” which regardless of whatever Entertainment Weekly may gush, hasn’t turned out to be the guilty pleasure people expected.

As far as Apatow: Consider this his “I told you so” moment. After spending a decade banging his head against the wall of TV indifference (he co-created, wrote for and produced the quickly cancelled but fondly remembered “Ben Stiller Show,” “Freaks and Geeks” and “Undeclared” and also spent some time on “The Larry Sanders Show,” where he got his first directing assignment), he’s now Entertainment Weekly’s Smartest Man in Hollywood (which seems a bit of a reverse putdown, but that’s just me), thanks to his string of box-office comedy blockbusters. Not sure a guy who’s so utterly successful these days would want to relive his years of struggle, but that evening will no doubt be the hottest ticket on the whole Paley Festival schedule (which will be announced in its entirety in February).