Yeah, and...?

Local news does plenty of awful things, so this is just another transgression down a slippery slope where everyone has already lost traction anyway. I was listening to NPR last week and they did a little nothing-burger of a story about McDonalds and neglected to mention that in 2003 Joan Kroc bequeathed NPR with a $200-million endowment.

Besides, why just morning shows? Local TV news shows are missing a good bet by not inserting advertising into all sorts of reporting. For example, police chases:

CHOPPER PILOT: As you can see, the police are keeping a safe distance from the driver in the stolen vehicle. This is a textbook pursuit from law-enforcement's perspective.

MALE ANCHOR BACK IN THE STUDIO: Indeed, Chet, but what about the driver? Did he select the right car to evade the police? Wouldn't he be better off behind the wheel of a 2008 Ford Mustang Bullitt?

FEMALE ANCHOR BACK IN THE STUDIO: Or, if he's worried that this chase may last for a while, should he have selected a car that gets good gas mileage, like the Toyota Prius?

CHOPPER PILOT: Excellent questions, Bret and Daphne. But watching the driver burn rubber the way he is, he better hope that he has a set of Michelin tires on his ride, because he's going to need a set of safe and reliable tires that grip the road with the police in such hot pursuit.

Or, how about serendipitous placement of reporters doing live remotes:

FIELD REPORTER: Karen, residents of the sleepy neighborhood of Vista de Nada were shaken to awaken this morning to the loud reports of several semi-automatic weapons that left three alleged gang members dead.

FEMALE ANCHOR BACK IN THE STUDIO: Trish, are you at the scene of the shootings?

FIELD REPORTER: No, those happened several blocks away and it's all cordoned off by police. I'm here at Gelson's, which is recognized as one of the nation's premiere supermarket chains. Their produce is the freshest you can find anywhere, and at prices that are competitive with anyone!

Even political stories could benefit from this type of coverage:

CORRESPONDENT: Brian, the President today assured Americans that even though Blackwater contractors are operating outside of military laws in Iraq, that was no reason to fear a culture of lawlessness any greater than that anywhere else within the Administration.

ANCHOR: David, what brand of suit was the President wearing when he issued his statements?

CORRESPONDENT: Brian, the President buys off the rack at Barney's. But Blackwater chairman and CEO Erik Prince stood alongside the President looking smart in a tailored suit from Dolce & Gabbana's spring 2009 collection, and of special note was his watch, a shimmering new Rolex Oyster Perpetual Cosmograph Daytona.

ANCHOR: That's David Gregory at the Pentagon. Thanks, David, for the report.

Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Disastrous Presidency

Morgan Spurlock may have gone a bit too far in trying to promote understanding with this one. But they should definitely incorporate this into a storyline on HBO's upcoming series "True Blood."

"I like to watch the old guys rearrange themselves when they come out of the water." (Hey, she said it, not me.)

In her 60s, Estelle Getty played the 80-something Sophia Petrillo on the iconic sitcom "The Golden Girls" (she almost didn't get the part because producers didn't think she looked old enough -- imagine a TV show having that problem today). Getty died today at age 84.

Lifetime will pay tribute to her on Friday with a "Golden Girls" marathon from noon to five p.m. The final episode of the marathon, airing at 4:30 p.m., will be the favorite Sophia-centric episode as voted for by fans at MyLifetime.com. (The poll doesn't seem to be up and running yet, but I have been assured it will be activated soonish.)

These folks have to do their jobs just like everyone else, but it never occurs to them to pose their questions during the post-session scrums, since the rest of those covering TeeVee in all its glory can't possibly use the quotes resulting from such specific questions in their stories.

Of course, I should talk. Your Mayor suffers from a herniated disk and, since there are no such things as ergonomic chairs at upscale hotels that host events like Press Tour, I am forced to wear a back brace for the duration. Needless to say, it's not much of a fashion statement - it looks like a cummerbund in search of a tuxedo (one colleague told me I looked like a matador; if only it looked that swashbuckling). For me, Press Tour is literally a pain in the ass.

(It even looks painful!)

Hence, in the midst of blinding, excruciating pain, I have become an advocate for the rights of spinal injury sufferers everywhere, and that has been reflected in the questions I posed in sessions this past Press Tour:

At the Hallmark Channel's press conference for "Expecting a Miracle:" "Does the miracle involve relieving someone of back pain? If so, I might watch it."

BBC America's "World News America:" "Is back pain a global phenomenon?"

MTV's "From G's to Gents:" "While the contestants are cleaning up their gangsta lifestyles, do they also manage to alleviate any back pain they might be suffering?"

History Channel's "Einstein:" "Did Einstein suffer from back pain? How did he treat it?"

Discover Channel's "Secrets of the Dinosaur Mummy:" "How would a dinosaur mummy treat a herniated disk in the L-4, L-5 region?"

Lifetime's "How to Look Good Naked:" "Is it possible to look good naked if you suffer from back pain?"

PBS's documentary on "The Chicago 10:" "Would the Chicago 10 have been able to be as effective in their protests had they suffered from spinal injuries?"

Fox's "So You Think You Can Dance:" "Can one dance if one suffers from debilitating back pain?"

Disney Channel's "The Cheetah Girls: One World:" "Do the Cheetah Girls have any special powers, like, say, the ability to alleviate spinal injuries?"

CBS's "The Mentalist:" "How does the Mentalist tell when people have back pain?"

NBC's executive session: "Why don't you do more shows about people who suffer from herniated disks? Have you conducted any research that shows you how many people would watch shows like that?"

Ladies and Gentlemen: Herewith, the First TV-related blog entry illustrated only with medical diagrams. Thank you for being part of history.

Leno, sitting in the back of the room, put some effort in selling his performance. He was sporting a bald wig and fake goatee, and scribbled notes, taking down Graboff and Silverman's replies. His sundry queries: "Is there any truth to the rumor that you're offering Jay a fifth hour of the 'Today' show?" "Will Jay still be paid through the end of the year?" and "I know you're bringing back 'Knight Rider.' Is there any chance of 'Manimal' coming back?"

Silverman exposed the ruse, and tipped his hat to Leno, declaring him "a class act." "Yeah, OK," Leno (mock-)grumbled on his way out of the press conference.

Leno did manage to elicit some real news, though: His final "Tonight Show" will air May 29, 2009; Conan O'Brien's debut will be the following Monday, June 1, 2009.

Probably the most promising new show on CBS's schedule is "The Mentalist," starring Simon Baker as a detective with acute observational skills who once posed as a TV psychic. Could be that the third time's the charm for the Australian-born Baker, who previously starred on CBS in "The Guardian," which limped along for three seasons, and the short-lived "Smith." After all, it's in a very safe timeslot on Tuesdays, sandwiched between hits "NCIS" and "Without a Trace."

"The Mentalist" was created by Bruno Heller (HBO's "Rome") Heller, who during the show's TV Press Tour session stopped short of calling b.s. on psychics.

"No one can say one way or another what's true," he says. "But what's fascinating to me about that world is that the skills that they use to pretend to be psychic are more extraordinary than what they're faking. To be that observant is more impressive than talking to ghosts to me.

"You can't be a half-assed mentalist," he continues. "You have to be very good at it or you can't do it at all. You need a prodigious memory, which taps into a lot of the things they do."

"It's very heady stuff," agrees Baker. "I consider myself reasonably observant, but what these guys get into and the skills they have and the ability to remember things and move forward, it's way beyond me."

Baker stars as Patrick Jane, whose wickedly droll sense of humor belies his tragic past. (In that respect, Jane's pretty much like James Roday's character in "Psych," except for that tragic-past bit.) "The deliciously attractive part of this role was the humor and the sense of mischief of the character," Baker says. "I love that the character is a fraud and is aware of his fraudulent nature."

Baker accuses himself of not being able to pick movie projects very well, and attributes his appearance in the hit "The Devil Wears Prada" to his daughter.

"She read the book in, like, an hour, and came to me and said, 'The character's a bit of a d!ck, but I think you should do it,'" he recalls. When he asked why, Baker adds, she replied, "'All of my friends will see it.' And so that was pretty much that."

Oh, and the session following "The Mentalist" and its skepticism? "The Ex List," about a young woman who's told by a psychic that she has one year to find her soul mate - and thoroughly believes her.

Consider this: In the wake of the strike, Tassler declared, "We needed to have new content; we needed to have new programming available for our viewers this fall." Well, that would have been true regardless, as would her observation, "Given the current climate, people want to be entertained."

Or this: In response to a question about how CBS tried - and failed, pretty spectacularly - with some audacious programs last season ("Viva Laughlin," "Kid Nation") and how the network's new shows for 2008-09 represent safer fare, Tassler benignly noted, "Certainly, a couple of our shows are more within our wheelhouse, but the characters are more idiosyncratic. ... We're building shows that are inside of our wheelhouse but still expanding our brand."

No reflections on the lessons learned from last season; no acknowledgement that the shows weren't what audiences were interested in or ruminations on how a network should proceed in programming its lineup, which the question invited.

Fox's Kevin Reilly and ABC's Stephen McPherson would've accepted the lumps and acknowledged the missteps and said something newsworthy. That's why, after their press conferences, a gaggle of reporters pursue them for a post-session scrum for more of their thoughts. A mere handful of reporters sought Tassler out after her session; the others realized they weren't going to get much out of her (well, that, or they're lazy, which is always a possibility). When Les Moonves presided over CBS's executive session, reporters came away sated with his piercing analysis of the state of the industry; Tassler is assiduously unprovocative.

So, the only that really resulted from her session is a bit of an explanation of what's going to happen on "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" this season. William Petersen's leaving the show as a regular after the 10th episode of its ninth season. (He'll return occasionally, and will retain his executive-producer credit.)

"You don't replace Billy," Tassler said. "Billy's an extraordinary guy - let's not forget his roots in the theater. He's still an artist and very passionate, very committed to the show. ... He has always been very outspoken in terms of his artistic dedication to the show. It's an artist's choice to change his life right now."

A new character will be introduced, an outsider to the unit who is a doctor/scientist who won't immediately replace Petersen's Gus Grissom as the head of CSI. The character - who has not yet been cast - will have a dark secret, and that's that he shares a similar genetic profile with serial killers.

"This gentleman knows this about himself, and will go on a journey to discover who this character will become," Tassler explained. Later, she reheated that warmed-over phrase, saying the show's producers "were interested in a character that was going on a journey of self-discovery."

Tassler played down the implications of CBS's franchise show losing its star. "I predict that that show will be extremely resilient," she said. "This will be a DVR-proof season of 'CSI.'"

It's about time.

The fact that "Mad Men" and "Damages" both copped Emmy nominations in the Best Drama Series category - and, in the process, became the first basic-cable shows to earn a nomination in the most prestigious category - is significant, but equally significant is the fact that it took so long for basic-cable to break through in this category. There have long been deserving basic cable shows that never broke through to TV's highest honor - think "Rescue Me" or "Battlestar Galactica." The fact that it took mountains of critical hype and a couple of Golden Globes in AMC's "Mad Men's" case and stars of the caliber of Glenn Close and Ted Danson and an ingenious storyline in the case of FX's "Damages" doesn't so much prove that the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has finally absorbed a cutting-edge aesthetic sensibility than that it finally quit resisting the inevitable facts on the ground: Basic cable programming can be far superior to that on the broadcast networks.

Still, give ATAS credit: It has insisted on proving its irrelevance by snubbing HBO's "The Wire," and it did so to the bitter end. Some suggested the final season of the most sophisticated and nuanced cop show in the history of television wasn't as good as its had been previously, but that's just a way of saying that the dying-newspaper storyline wasn't as accessibly compelling as previous themes of the effects of crumbling schools on our children and the betrayal of the working class. "The Wire" received one nomination, for the series finale's script, which means it received as many nominations as (and therefore must be as good as) "According to Jim" and "Deal or No Deal."

And, overall, the Academy did what it has always done best: the same old same-old. Showtime's "Dexter" joined "Mad Men" and "Damages" in the Best Drama Series category, but all the other nominees there and in Best Comedy Series are veteran nominees. ("Boston Legal" was nominated, yet again, proving it to be the beast that simply cannot be killed.) Both ABC's "Pushing Daisies" and HBO's "Flight of the Conchords" - a couple of the freshest, funniest shows currently on the air - managed to earn nominations for both writing and directing, and yet somehow got snubbed in the Comedy Series category in favor of perennially nominated shows that seem to be phoning it in ("Two and a Half Men," "Entourage"). "Pushing Daisies" did manage a couple of acting nominations, for Lee Pace and Kristin Chenoweth.

Despite the "Wire" snub, HBO again dominated, with 85 nominations, 23 alone for its miniseries "John Adams." It got 22 of the 30 possible nominations in the movie/miniseries acting, writing and directing categories. You almost wonder why anyone else bothers in those categories.

NBC's "30 Rock" led all series with 17 nominations, including seven in the guest-actor categories, which apparently means no other show on TV can cast guest-stars capably, or that "30 Rock's" stunt casting just works particularly well (and my favorite "30 Rock" guest - Matthew Broderick as the nebbishy Washington crony - didn't even get nominated). What does this show have to do to get people to watch it?

Still, perhaps this is the turning point for the Emmys. AMC won a total of 20 nominations, the most of any basic cable network, led by "Mad Men's" 16 (the most of any drama); its edgy "Breaking Bad" even managed four nominations, including Bryan Cranston for Best Actor in a Drama. FX earned a total of 11 nominations, including seven for "Damages" and a couple apiece for "Rescue Me" and "Nip/Tuck."

Now that ATAS has finally recognized what a lot of people have been saying for years - the quality shows have migrated to cable, both basic and premium - the broadcast networks find themselves in even more of a quandary. They've been sliding in the ratings in recent years, losing ever more viewers to cable, but when they've tried to develop shows as quirky and distinctive as those on cable, they've discover that the cable-sized ratings that accompany such shows don't really work for them. They've been able to find solace, such as it is, in the fact that they've still managed to dominate the major categories at the Emmys. Now, that, too, is changing.

How can the broadcast networks remain relevant with top-notch programming and still retain the levels of viewership they need to remain financially viable? Based on what we've seen of their 2008-09 schedules, they have yet to figure that out.

And so along comes "The Dark Knight" to pulverize everything you've ever assumed about Hollywood. It's better than the goodest good you'd ever expect from a movie like this.

(Since "pod" has become a cool tech word of late, here's the Bat-Pod.)

So here's the story (more or less - oh, and hey, there's actually kind of a spoiler in here, so be warned): This Batman guy has become a sort of good news/bad news phenomenon in Gotham City - he's rid the streets of petty crime, but, on the other hand, he's inspired a new breed of steroidal villain to try their hand at wreaking havoc in town. Mainly, this comes in the form of the Joker, who has been driven utterly mad due to the fact that in the past he had been portrayed by actors happy to ham it up for cheese's sake but now he's being played by this charismatically handsome artiste who has a just unbelievably astounding range and is stealing every scene he's in without overacting but actually doing some really intensely nuanced work and so that paradox has driven him to a murderous rage matched only by his ingenious ability to have just about everyone in sight killed, and even though he's the puppet-master, the blood tends to be on somebody else's hands. Which, you know, only underscores his perversity.

And Batman's so obsessed with his mission that he hasn't even noticed that his ex-girlfriend has been replaced by an actual actress instead of a starlet, but he's still kind of conflicted about the fact that she's dating a hotshot D.A. named Harvey Dent, whose fate all the reviews seem circumspect about revealing even though if you read the comic books as a kid you know exactly what's gonna happen to him.

Oh, and Morgan Freeman plays the Morgan Freeman Character.

So, two things: The film does a heroic job of showing exactly what would happen in reality if super-heroes actually did exist, and even though I think that's kind of a stupid conceit on its face (since, after all, superheroes in fact don't exist, because there's enough Lycra in our world as it is), both this and Alan Moore's graphic novel "Watchmen" prove me definitively wrong, while I can't think of any entertainments that have really tried to explore that conceit and failed. So, there's that.

And secondly, any thoughts that Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker has been elevated to some sort of sentimental mythical status since his untimely death will end as soon as you see the movie. Put it this way: He makes Jack Nicholson look like some sort of dinner-theater hack. Though his deadpan sadism and the disturbing-yes-and-almost-poignant way he rolls his tongue restlessly about his mouth may not win him a posthumous Oscar (certainly, some film with far nobler intentions will have a well-played character who's Gandhi's best friend), if there is another performance that's as galvanizingly memorable at year's end, this'll have been a very good year for movies. (All the other actors are good, too, but they're still alive so we don't have to moon over them.)

Oh, and the action sequences are crazy bitchen, too.

And, hey, here's a rare bit of actually helpful consumer information for you: If you have kids around age 10 or so, don't take them to see it in the IMAX format - it's way too intense. Take them to the movie on a regular screen, but see it for yourself in IMAX. Will you be blown away? Hey, the Joker pretty much blows everyone else away in the film, so why not you?

ABC Entertainment president Stephen McPherson was asked about Fox's "Remote-Free TV" strategy, in which two new shows this season - "Fringe" and "Dollhouse," the season's two most highly anticipated series - will be shown with limited commercial interruption, though advertisers who do get their spots in the shows will pay a premium to do so.

(The cast of "Dollhouse" looks so natural and relaxed in this photo. Almost like they're automaton ciphers or something. Oh, wait: They are.)

"I'm glad Fox is trying it," McPherson, which meant he was glad he wasn't trying it.

McPherson had a couple of good points as to logistics: If/when these shows go to syndication or appear elsewhere besides Fox, they'll inevitably have to be cut down to fit the usual advertising requirements. Which means about nine or 10 minutes will have to be excised from each episode.

And that means one of two things: If the episodes are tightly plotted, they might not make a whole lot of sense with that much material chopped out of them.

(It would take a mighty big scissors to cut that much footage out of an episode.)

On the other hand, if the shows' producers are thinking ahead to syndication, they may write a couple of extraneous, neither-here-nor-there scenes into each episode that may represent some narrative wheel-spinning that may frustrate/bore/mystify viewers.

Of course, there's a third alternative: They could write scenes offering some deep background on the characters that isn't necessarily germane to the storyline except to the hardcore viewers who divine meaning in every bit of minutiae on shows like "Lost," who will have already fully digested the series and those episodes by the time the programs reach syndication. Still, it does present J.J. Abrams and Joss Whedon with an interesting balancing act.

Herewith, the evidence:

Pro: It's based on a cool BBC series, about a contemporary Manchester detective working on a case, who gets smacked by a car and wakes up in 1973, where there's none of the nifty CSI-type technology to solve crimes, and all the cops there think they're in an episode of "Starsky & Hutch," playing rough games of bad cop/worse cop with suspects.

(Stars of the British version and what passes for a cool car in England.)

Con: About the only Americanization of a British series that has worked this decade is "The Office." (This is bad news for a scad of new shows, of which many, as we've previously noted, are carbon copies of overseas successes.)

Pro: ABC Entertainment president Stephen McPherson calls the project a "passion" of his. He never called "Cavemen" a passion.

Con: It's been through a particularly difficult birthing process - David E. Kelley left the show after shooting a pilot (which is being completely reshot), and there've been wholesale casting changes since then, as well.

"I'm the only survivor from the original pilot," opined Jason O'Mara, who stars as Sam Tyler, the time-traveling - or comatose, or just plain crazy - cop, at the show's session at summer TV Press Tour in Beverly Hills. "Quite the bit of Irish luck.

"It can be a little weird," O'Mara concedes of being the last man standing. "I was sad to see that I wasn't going to be working with those guys, but at same time I understood the decision."

Pro: Michael Imperioli ("The Sopranos") has joined the cast. "I definitely was being picky," Imperioli says of selecting roles after getting whacked by Tony. "It's a hard act to follow. You want something juicy and different."

Con: Imperioli is so picky that he appeared in the treacly sap-fest "Mitch Albom's For One More Day."

Pro: The new show runners are Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec, who worked on "Alias."

Con: The last show they worked on was - ulp - "October Road." (This should almost count as two cons.)

Pro: Appelbaum cops to being a "huge fan" of the British series, and that the main difference they've brought to Kelley's version is moving the story from Los Angeles to New York, which makes more sense, since they're out to capture the grungy nature of the original series and the bad-ass cops. The casting changes were made, likewise, to reflect worm-riddled Big Apple sensibilities in the actors over a laid-back, City-of-Angels gestalt.

"There are a lot of similarities (with 1973 and) where we are now," says Appelbaum. "We were in a war we were trying to get out of. We had an unpopular president. Gas prices were an issue. A war we were trying to get out of. We're so excited to be able to explore all this on the show, this specific, tumultuous time."

Con: The British series wrapped up its tricky narrative in a mere 16 episodes. (Though a spin-off show sporting another title borrowed from a David Bowie song, "Ashes to Ashes," is in the works.) American series tend not to have the luxury of being so close-ended - in order to be profitable, it'll have to go on for at least four seasons.

Pro: Appelbaum and Nemec understand this and have applied themselves to resolving that problem. For example, in the British version, the detective's partner was kidnapped in the first episode, and returning to the present day to rescue her gave the show a lot of urgency. Appelbaum acknowledges that that would hardly fly over years of episodes.

"In the pilot, we have a similar construct, but we resolve that sooner in the show rather than later," he says. "There will be dispatches from 2008 that will be reaching Sam. We resolve the peril early, because you need to be investing in his life in 1973."

Appelbaum also seems to have a good take on dealing with the mythology that served as the underpinning of the original series. "It's a question of playing it down and actually expanding the mythology," he explains. "We called the creators (of the original) and asked permission to change the mythology. In that series, Sam had three options - he had lost his mind, he was in a coma, or he had actually time-traveled. It turned out he was in a coma, and to do a long-running series where he's in a coma felt unsatisfying.

"For us there's many, many more options," he continues. "In the second episode, he comes up with 13 options [explaining his plight] - well, 12 options and a question mark, the one option he hasn't considered yet and that's the one that scares him most of all."

"Having worked on 'Alias,' we know the pitfalls of extending this mythological storyline," Appelbaum continues. "A lot of people say this, but we know exactly where this is all going."

Con: How could they, really? The pilot hasn't even been reshot yet, and the series is scheduled to debut on Thursday, Oct. 9.

So what do you think? Does "Life on Mars" sound promising, or will it be an otherworldly tank job?

Before addressing the issues confronting his network during his summer TV Press Tour session Wednesday morning, ABC Entertainment president Stephen McPherson took time out for a kum-ba-yah moment.

"We're rooting for broadcast television," he declared. "It's important to get all the viewers back. We have to take a step back and root for the industry. There are a lot of nay-saying and doomsday scenarios out there, but as the May upfronts proved, the money (from advertisers) is there; the interest is there."

Of the major networks, ABC found its shelves the most depleted when it came time to schedule the 2008-09 season; it is premiering but one new scripted series and one new reality show this fall.

"The strike changed everything in terms of the way development went - we weren't going to announce ... shows that didn't exist," McPherson explained.

"We're really in the middle of pilot season now." The network will look at pilots for prospective series in August that may appear on the air as soon as November.

McPherson said that not having many new shows in the fall has an upside. "I like the fact we can prioritize promoting returning shows," he said.

Indeed, when shows returned in the spring after the writers strike, ABC held back its entire Wednesday schedule of new series and decided to launch them anew in the fall.

"That really does have a creative upside - we do believe in these shows; we do believe in these showrunners," McPherson said. "Our Wednesday night was an unbelievable success story, and we think there's a lot of upside there."

In fact, Wednesday proved to be a mixed bag for ABC. The network did prove able to launch a night of all new shows, traditionally considered a dangerous strategy, but the shows lost a considerable number of viewers as the season pressed on. "Private Practice," a spinoff of "Grey's Anatomy," never came close to approximating that show's hit numbers, viewership levels for the quirky mystery-comedy "Pushing Daisies" ebbed after a strong initial showing and the drolly urbane melodrama "Dirty Sexy Money" fairly struggled ...

(... and not just with performance-anxiety issues.)

Nonetheless, by keeping the shows off the spring schedule, McPherson said that gave those series' producers "a lot more prep time" to craft strong episodes that will hopefully grab and hold viewers come the fall, and allow them to possibly produce more episodes over the course of the upcoming season, cutting down the number of repeats.

McPherson attempted to tamp down rumors of creative turmoil regarding "Life on Mars," its sole new scripted series, based upon a British series about a contemporary policeman who, after an automobile accident, awakens to find himself in the 1970s, working for a less sophisticated, more rough-and-tumble police department.

"Those were rumors from people who were searching for something, some conspiracy," McPherson claimed. "It's in great shape. It's a production I'm particularly passionate about - I've been trying to do it for a couple of years."

David E. Kelley ("Boston Legal") initially created the pilot, but has since left the show, which McPherson attributed to his wanting to devote his time working on "Boston Legal's" final season. Executive producers from ABC's low-rated soaper "October Road" were brought in to guide the production; wholesale casting changes were made, as well, with Michael Imperioli ("The Sopranos") and Jason O'Mara recently added to the cast.

"They've been doing a fantastic job - they're creating something that's more what we wanted to accomplish," McPherson said. "We continue to be extremely excited about the show. It is a work in progress, but I would certainly not root against it."

McPherson said that the network's decision to spend more energy promoting its new reality-competition show "Opportunity Knocks" over "Life on Mars" was because the former is scheduled in a more difficult timeslot than the latter.

Jimmy Kimmel, ABC's late-night host, made a brief appearance to help McPherson deal with the question of whether the network will try to woo Jay Leno when he leaves "The Tonight Show" in 2009. Posing as a reporter from a small-town newspaper, he asked McPherson, "Are you concerned that if you do replace Jimmy Kimmel, he might do something to you or your car?"

Noting, "I can't believe NBC will let this guy go at the top of his game," McPherson was intentionally vague as to the network's intentions, but said that Kimmel would be brought in on any discussions. ABC is considered to have the best chance of landing Leno, whom many believe wants to remain at 11:30 p.m., a timeslot neither Fox nor a syndicated deal could guarantee, and though Kimmel's show would air a half-hour later, it would benefit from the ratings bump Leno would provide.

McPherson was equally circumspect in discussing Katherine Heigl's recent declaration that she didn't submit herself for an Emmy nomination (though she won last year) because the show's writers didn't give her any good material to work with this past season. Some saw her comments as a bid to get off the show so she could pursue her expanding film career.

(A serious actress deserves serious material.)

"It's unfortunate when there's turmoil on a show - so many people work hard to make it a No. 1 show," the executive said. But he maintained that Heigl will be back on the show, and promised that the writers had cooked up an "unbelievable story line" for the actress.

And they say there are no new ideas on TV these days.