Fancast: Inside TV

With impressive overnights and a win in Monday Night's key demographic, the question of whether the country has taken to K-Ville been put to rest (until next week). As for the citizens of New Orleans about whom the show is supposed to be about? That will likely take longer to ascertain.

Times-Picayune TV columnist Dave Walker dubbed it "cliche-riddled, but not hopeless," (which is a much kinder than the critical reaction across the country).

Based on the reaction of his readers, however, the show still has a long way to go:

• "One cop on the verge of breakdown, drinking on duty, his partner a fugitive from justice. White woman trying to take the black mans land by hiring commandos. The recovery is hard enough without making us look like idiots. Who wrote this episode, FEMA?"

• "K-Ville is the second worst man-made disaster to hit New Orleans."

"Lemon, I would like to teach you something. I would like to be Michelle Pfeiffer to your angry black kid who learns that poetry is just another way to rap."

When talking about his guest appearance on the season two premiere of 30 Rock, Jerry Seinfeld, professed to an "obsession" of Alec Baldwin. Given that Seinfeld reinvented, revolutionized and mastered the sitcom, it's as ringing an endorsement as there is in the business. Add a Golden Globe victory, an Emmy nomination and the lead role in one of television's best comedies and things are certainly looking up for Baldwin.

In celebration of Thursday's premiere, each day we'll feature an exclusive Fancast Video Clip of 30 Rock.

email nadum at nadum_tv@comcast.com.

Add House to the list of shows that won't be appearing on iTunes this fall. Though it airs on Fox, the show is produced by NBC Universal, which has pulled all its programming after stalled negotiations with Apple. With their contract expiring in December, the battle has grown increasingly fierce after iTunes hosted two new NBC shows (Chuck and Journeyman), bypassing the network and going to the production studios themselves (Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox).

The dispute stems from the current cost of TV shows on iTunes. Apple is dead set on keeping the price at $1.99, while NBC wants to increase the rate per episode (estimations put NBC's asking price is $3.99).

Among other issues raised by NBC during negotiations was a desire for stricter copyright protection. Much of the internet community has scoffed at this notion, citing the fact that users are already paying for the episodes. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a longtime member of the pirating community, who has never paid for a show from iTunes and "never watches episodes when they air," dismissed NBC's concerns over copyright matters as disingenuous.

"Why would NBC be worried about copyrighting when the customers are paying for the episodes?" Torrent sites like "The Pirate Bay [have] episodes up, commercial free, three hours" after they air. Apple is "selling these shows to a non-tech savvy crowd that would rather pay the 2 [dollars] than go through the hassle of pirating. By pulling their programming from iTunes, all they're going to do is push people away."

But with services like Fancast and Hulu offering free streaming episodes and NBC making their shows available online, the question becomes whether the networks need Apple or Apple needs the networks.

Michael Nyerges, a long time iTunes user, was surprised and disappointing to learn of the fallout. "A lot of the reason I download stuff on iTunes is so that I can watch when I'm not home. It's cool that I can watch the episodes free on NBC's website and I'd do that if I was at home, but I use iPod for flexibility. They don't have the internet on trains or airplanes."

While making the issue about portability is an oversimplification, in the end it might be the deciding factor. The severing of ties between NBC and Apple should bring a lot more clarity to the question of why viewers have flocked to the internet en masse for their TV content.

Would they rather pay $1.99 for the ability to watch on the go and skip commercials or do they simply want to watch TV without the burden of primetime scheduling? No one knows, but here's betting we'll find out soon.

email nadum at nadum_tv@comcast.com.

"You know how pissed off I was when US Weekly said that I was on crack? That's racist! I'm not on crack. I'm straight-up mentally ill!" -Tracy Jordan

» Today's Video: Tracy Expands the Entourage
All love to Liz Lemon and Jack Donaghy, feet to the fire, there's no question who the funniest character on 30 Rock is. However little pub Tracy might get, its his presence that maintains the balance of the show.

Beyond the humor that his insane antics provide on an episodic basis, it's Tracy's ability to bring out the best in his cast mates that's invaluable. Going through season one, most of the characters' best lines come in scenes with Tracy. His character is just so out there he makes it impossible not to be funny.

And even if you disagree, could you really live without a little Dot Com and Grizz in your life?

email nadum at nadum_tv@comcast.com

"What could I do? I picked up the check and made out with him a little bit in the taxi". - Liz Lemon

» Today's Video: Liz Gets Her Sexy On

Cute. Sweet. Good Natured. And best of all, wildly dysfunctional. As well as Liz Lemon rounds out 30 Rock's big three, it's what goes on behind the scenes that makes Tina Fey such a vital member of 30 Rock.

As the creator and lead writer of the brilliant show, Fey's brilliance and wit is evident with every piece of dialogue and outrageous scene. Not since Seinfeld has a comedian integrated their style and personality so vividly into the essence of a sitcom.

email nadum at nadum_tv@comcast.com

Tuesday was the taping of Fox Reality Channel’s 2007 Really Awards, and for the second year in a row I hosted the event that brought the most unlikely meeting of reality minds and bodies together at one Hollywood bar. All I remember from last year’s event was Chyna Doll yelling at me from the audience for three hours, flashing her boobs and vomiting on herself. This year I knew we were in for a treat because Fox Reality promised to up the voltage and the bar tab.

The event was held at Boulevard Three, one of Hollywood’s hottest clubs, and being centrally located and well known we knew it would be well attended. I started rehearsing at 11 am, feeling a stirring of giddy anticipation – the unknown lay ahead and the caustic mix of booze, cameras and narcissism promised to be a well shaken cocktail of chaos. The producers brought in a hot tub this year and the arm chair odds makers were trying to gauge who would go in. The hookers from HBO’s Cathouse? Definitely. Charm School girls? Probably. Guys dumb enough to think the hookers were average model/waitresses who were really interested in them for their looks? I could only hope to see that. As a germaphobe I gave myself an invisible 20 foot radius around the bubbling cesspool. I didn’t want to wander into any collateral flotsam and jetsam that would inevitably include bodily fluids one normally finds isolated in Pumkin’s underwear.

The reality stars started showing up at 3 pm, and immediately I locked in on Sanjaya sitting at a table with his manager and another, uh, facilitator. Sanjaya is a sweet boy who has lost the annoying “welcome to the universe of Sanjaya” swagger that turned me off during Idol. Instead I saw an eager and hard working smiley face who was approachable and genuinely excited for the night. We apparently couldn’t get the right transmitter for his headset so I didn’t get to hear him sound check before the show.

A group of three girls walked in with more silicone than a Beverly Hills surgeon’s supply closet and I thought to myself, “Oh! The Cathouse girls are here!” Then I saw the telltale black BRET tattooed in the back of the ringleader’s neck. Yes! It was Heather, Cristia and the blonde Brandi from VH1’s Rock of Love. I knew Bret Michaels himself would not be at our awards show; this event is too chaotic for his weave. But seeing the first runner up and hearing her story was almost as good as meeting the once glorious god of glam himself.

Heather’s face was sad the whole time. She has clearly not gotten over the rejection of coming in second after she emblazoned the guy’s name in a place only slightly less visible than her forehead. She made no attempt to cover his name, and in fact she wore her brassy stripper hair pulled off to the side in a ponytail that showcased her bad decision for all to see. Heather was quick to tell me Bret and Jes are no longer together and she has a clever idea for VH1 that will save her money on tattoo removal: she wants to do a bachelorette style show with all guys named Bret (or Brett presumably) so when she finally meets her prince she can keep her tattoo, dignity be damned.

Then there was Jonny Fairplay, who is Jekyll and Hyde personified. When he’s sober he is an insecure and unassuming fawn eager to engage people and desperate to be liked. He actually comes off a little needy. When he drinks he drinks too much and becomes all too eager to show off his a-hole side at all cost. He came up to me before the show and basically begged me to be nice to him and not make fun of him from the stage. I felt bad for him but I couldn’t make him any promises.

Our show had a lengthy stop down because of a blown generator so we had a good hour or so in the dark with working mics, so a host of drunken reality stars were onstage fighting for the microphone and a little extra attention. We had a walk off among the biggest drunks: Cao Boi from Survivor, Howie from Big Brother All Stars, Solitary 2.0 winner Phu Pham and Amber from Big Brother 8 (who wasn’t drunk but I wanted to see her walk after she made such a big deal about wanting to be a model) and believe it or not Amber won! Even though she may have been as sober as a nun the audience felt she was more impaired than her well-lubed counterparts on stage. Phu’s great display of the night was his PHU PHAM California license plate, which I lovingly gave to Amber as the winner of the walk-off. Sorry Phu.

Eventually the show resumed and we got to the Jonny Fairplay/Danny Bonaduce portion of the evening. Jonny was clearly drunk backstage as he waited to give out the award he won last year, the audience favorite award we call the Golden Realitini. I was waiting backstage where I entered and exited the whole night (and where I remained delightfully sober as not to compromise an ounce of rationality and brain power I knew I’d need to stave off the drunks and keep my sanity) and we didn’t have a TV monitor so I couldn’t see the show. All I heard was a thud and a collective gasp and I instantly knew something bad had happened.

There was a lot of murmur and pointing and Jonny Fairplay ran off stage humiliated holding his mouth as a stream of fresh blood trickled into his hand. At that point I still could not figure out what happened. The thud was too dull to be Jonny hitting the ground after Danny hit him so I assumed he had fallen from a riser or had climbed the balcony and blew the landing. I walked to the side of the stage and saw a sauced and shaken Alexis Arquette adjusting her man parts and railing against Bonaduce for his alcoholism and roid rage. I stood there for a second with my boss trying to figure out what had exactly just transpired as a producer pushed me toward the stage to get her off and get the show back on track. Now, I am a faithful employee and am willing to go into a shitstorm for anyone, but there is no way I am getting Alexis off. She can finish herself.

There was a lot of scrambling backstage as Jonny whimpered and bled, and all the onlookers were torn. He was clearly not gravely injured other than his missing teeth and bloody mouth, and you never know if a guy like that has hepatitis. As he bled in a heap you could see people weren’t falling all over themselves to help him either because they didn’t want to get bloody or they didn’t want to make his injury worse by poking around in a mouth of missing and broken teeth.

I didn’t see Danny after the incident and Jonny was quickly surrounded by some of LA’s finest firefighters and paramedics. He did pull the ultimate dick move by ripping a camera out of the make up artist’s hands and smashing it on the ground. When you straddle and dry hump a man onstage in front of thirty cameras and hundreds of people you have momentarily compromised your right to privacy. Dr. Jekyll’s diva fit was oddly timed and mostly ignored by the crowd of numb onlookers who weren’t sure if they had stumbled into a weird bit or a bad dream.

My favorite part of the night came from an unlikely unreality source. During our stop-down I was onstage talking to the crowd and at one point a very drunk (even by his peers standards) JP Palyock (from Survivor and Solitary 2.0) stumbled on stage and was hell bent on touching me and my dress. He would not take the hint that I didn’t need his ham handed caresses, and finally I told him if he didn’t stop I’d punch him.

I looked just off stage and a concerned older gentleman was watching our exchange and asked me, “Do you want me to take care of him?” I cocked my head, strained a bit and realized my knight in shining armor was none other than Saved By The Bell’s Mr. Belding. And that's reality, folks -- my reality.

"Answer me this, Timmy. What happened to Texas forever, huh? What happened to livin' large, what happened to that eternal bond that you used to love to throw around when I was still healthy and headed towards the NFL, huh?" -Jason Street

» "'State' became the 'Holy Grail,' its pursuit the singular obsession of the town."

Last Days of Summer - 9:00 p.m. on NBC

The critically acclaimed Friday Night Lights returns for its second season tonight on NBC. For those unfamiliar with the H.G. Bissinger masterpiece that spawned the series (and 2004 film), FNL tells the tale of a small Texas town economically devastated by the oil bust.

Marginalized to the fringes of society, the town developed a pathological obsession with high school football. In an attempt to compensate for what wasn't there, 'State' became the 'Holy Grail,' its pursuit the singular preoccupation of town.

The story is very much an indictment of the way the culture immortalizes kids, only to discard them when they've outlived their usefulness (i.e. can't help win football games); sending them into the real world with a warped sense of reality that leaves them completely unprepared.

More than any new drama last season, NBC's remake came out of the gate in a league of its own, perfectly capturing the essence of Bissinger's story. But towards the middle of last season, a monumental shift in the thematic content occurred. Network executives imposed their will upon the ratings-challenged show, morphing it from a relevant drama ripe with social commentary to a bland teenage drama using high school football as its gimmick.

It's been heartbreaking to watch the the storylines shift from the assistant coach expressing a racial bias very prevalent in America (blacks can't play quarterback) to a budding romance between Tyra and Landry bred from an attempted rape.

As much as the writers may deny (Alan Sepinwall reports they did), don't buy into it. Network executives starting calling the plays a long time ago.

FINAL GRADE: B-

» Watch Danny Bonaduce and Jonny Fairplay In All Their Glory

There are a lot of great viral videos* out there, but the Danny Bonaduce/Jonny Fairplay vid is going down in history. In a culture where celebrity snafus have a minuscule shelf life, this is one that won't be soon forgotten. It's the perfect storm, with two of the most hilarious people in all of entertainment.

You have Jonny Fairplay who, in addition to being one of the most despised Reality TV figures since Puck, also moonlights as a wrestler. His two year stint with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) resulted in this gem of a video where he gets tossed out of the ring by Chicago Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher.

Enter crazy-ass Danny Bonaduce, whose claim to fame is The Partridge Family.

Since his days as Danny Partridge, he's fallen to drink (he's in recovery) and paved the way for insane child-stars everywhere. He's beaten up a transvestite prostitute after a misunderstanding over gender and payment for 'services rendered.' He's suggested that Rosie O'Donnell be strung up for treason (so long as the rope was thick enough). He's suggested Jane Fonda be shot for treason (he really doesn't like treason). And now, he's dumped poor Jonny on his head.

Honestly, is there a better duo in America? Could two crazier people meet in a crazier setting under a crazier set of circumstances?

Jonny Fairplay is completely lit, visibly hurt that he's getting booed at the Fox Reality TV Awards (where they employ the tried-and-true strategy of getting people black-out drunk and seeing what happens). Next thing you know, Danny Bonaduce taps Fairplay on the shoulder and calmly informs him the crowd is booing him is because "they hate [him]." Now everyone reacts to public humiliation differently. But Fairplay inexplicably decides that rather than make fun of Bonaduce for beating up a transvestite over $40 -- or simply walking off the stage, the best course of action is to jump on Bonaduce and start humping him.

At this point, anyone with a love of pop-culture and a healthy sense of humor would already be adding the clip to their 'YouTube' favorites. But it only gets better. Rather than discard Fairplay through traditional methods (pushing, shoving, punching, etc.), Bonaduce has the mental wherewithal to lift Fairplay over his head and throw him over his back -- without ever dropping his jacket. Watch the video. Bonaduce has a black jacket in his left hand during the entire thing. It's uncanny.

Fairplay takes a ridiculous spill (knocking out his teeth), drops his mic and runs back stage. Amazingly, absolutely no one shows up to do anything. No security, no police, no medics, no producers, no agents, no managers. Nothing.

To ensure his spot in the 'viral video' hall of fame, Bonaduce spends about 20 seconds playing to the crowd, completely unfazed by anything that just happened. The man could have just as easily been accepting an award as taking credit for hurting a reviled celebrity.

Or celebrating his entry into the hearts and minds of internet users everywhere.

*A viral video is a video that gains huge popularity via the internet, generally through YouTube.

email nadum at nadum_tv@comcast.com

"Aha! A damn liar! I ain't never met a nigga smart enough to use a personal computer. Not even a Macintosh!" -Uncle Ruckus

» Watch the season two premiere of The Boondocks

It's been a long, agonizing wait, but the return of Comedy Central's animated masterpiece, The Boondocks is finally upon us. Created by one of the most important black minds in contemporary America, the transition of Aaron McGruder's nationally syndicated comic strip to the small screen has been nothing short of delightful. With a top-notch soundtrack, unique animation and witty, intellectually-relevant storytelling, the series hit the ground running and never looked back.

After a two year hiatus, the season two premiere, Or Die Trying (a play on 50 Cent's, Get Rich or Die Tryin) employed a different tone from season one, scaling back the magnitude of the social commentary and providing a lighter, breezier form of comedy.

Since McGruder's stated that the Cartoon Network didn't censor or limit him in anyway, given his history, concerns that the season premiere lacked the edge are premature. Fact of the matter is, regardless of underlying themes, the show is damn funny.

Given the characters, even a trip to the movies can't escape the lash of McGruder's wit. Uncle Ruckus is back in all his self-loathing glory. Robert Freeman (Grandpa) and Riley are just as wildly un-PC as when we left them. Huey suffering continues, the lone voice of reason amongst a sea of lunatics.

My only complaint over the episode was Jasmine's crying. It was painful. Already the weakest link in a strong chain, last night was Jasmine at her absolute worst, nothing more than a weight dragging everyone down.

Regardless, the episode works beautifully a refreshing reminder as to why we've missed the show so much. Now all that's left is to get ready for what's sure to be 15 of the best episodes you can find on television -- animated or otherwise.

email nadum at nadum_tv@comcast.com

God bless Judd Apatow. The creator of television classics Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared, both of which were canceled after only a season, has made many a suit feel foolish with his recent success.

The hottest writer in comedy, Superbad, 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up have all been huge critical hits and moneymakers, proving what many already knew -- Judd Apatow is a creative genius.

Turns out one suit in particular has more egg on his face than others. Last Sunday at the New Yorker Festival, Apatow took the time to put the particular network exec on blast (though not by name). Apatow said that it was the same suit who canceled both shows after changing networks (from NBC to Fox). Apatow, knowing the axe was going to fall on Undeclared, wrote him a preemptive note:

"I don't understand how you can [f---] me in the [a--] when your [d---] is still in me from last time."

Seeing as he drove away one of the brightest minds in the industry, we can only hope that executive is long gone the world of television.

RIP
Freaks and Geeks (1999-2000)
Undeclared (2001-2002)

For some Prison Break fans, last night's death (via decapitation) of Michael's main squeeze Sara Tencredi may have come as a bit of a shocker. But given that Sarah Wayne Callies' contract hadn't been picked up, the question for those following the story was only a matter of how and when.

In an exclusive interview with TV Guide, Prison Break executive producer Matt Olmstead finally shed some light on what exactly happened with Callies. Contrary to rumors, it had nothing to do with personality clashes or behind the scenes drama. The writers simply made a creative decision to kill Sara's character, believing her death to be the only way to move the story forward.

Rather than pick her up for a full 22-episodes, Fox let her contract expire and attempted to renegotiate. Collins, who was pregnant at the time, opted not to go that route, thus making any scenes prior to her death impossible.

That it was Sara's death that caused the contract dispute, not the contract dispute that led to Sara's death is extremely reassuring for the show's fans. In a business where writers are scared to kill off characters in fear of angering their fanbase, it's refreshing to see a story take precedent over popularity.

Through two and a half seasons, Michael Scofield and company's motivation has been survival. With Sara's death, we'll soon learn that turnabout is fair play. We've seen bad-ass Michael, but we've never seen a Michael hell bent on revenge at any cost. It should be interesting.

He can save the world in 24 hours, but can Kiefer Sutherland jail for 48 days? Sutherland, who was on probation for a 2004 DUI at the time of his September 25th arrest for driving under the influence has reached a plea agreement with the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office. Per the agreement Sutherland will serve 30 days for his DUI and 18 days for his probation violation.

I spoke to Lawrence Taylor, one of the nation's most prominent DUI attorneys and author of duiblog.com today and he informed me the sentence was right on target with what was expected. He did, however, bring to my attention an added wrinkle that makes the case more interesting than your standard celebrity DUI.

The original judge, Michael T. Sauer, who presided over the Paris Hilton trial and ordered her back to jail after her early release resulted in a public outcry, is currently on vacation. Employing a clever legal strategy, Sutherland's attorney's quickly plead no contest, hoping to be sentenced prior to Sauer's return.

As a result, the plea agreement will be subject to Sauer's interim replacement, Stuart M. Rice's approval, avoiding any of the complications that could arise from the second high profile DUI case under Sauer's. The only obstacle could be if Rice decides he wants to avoid the case and continues the case to a date after Sauer's return, ridding himself of a surefire media storm.

Sentencing is set for December 21st in Los Angeles Superior Court. If the agreement is rejected, Sutherland could face up to one year in jail.

Rose Byrne, one of the brightest upcoming actresses in showbiz has gone from running with zombies in 28 Weeks Later to working for a Patty Hughes (Glenn Close), who proves almost as dangerous. I talked to Rose about her upcoming role.

Nadum: Right off the bat, who's more intimidating, the zombies in '28 Weeks Later' or Patty Hughes?

Rose: [Laughs] Those zombies were scary; they were really very scary. They were crazy. Patty – she may be mercurial and a little intimidating, but she’s actually – you know, not insane. She isn’t risen from the dead. So…

Nadum: Fair enough. So what did you think of 'The Sopranos' ending?

Rose : Well, at first, I felt cheated, I think, like the rest of America, probably. I felt very shocked, and like my reception had dropped out. But then, on reflection, I loved it. I thought it was very smart, and just in keeping with the whole show. You know, he never really did what you wanted him to do. He just took it the other way again. I thought it was really, really smart. I mean, it’s kind of the best show I ever saw. I really liked it. What did you think? Did you hate it?

Nadum: Yes. Very much so.

Rose : Did you, really?

Nadum: Oh yeah. But I’m a 'Wire' guy through and through.

Nadum: Talking about [Damages] – do you see yourself [Ellen] getting corrupted between the point that you’re at (6 months later) – bloodied in a raincoat – and when you first start out – or is it a matter of circumstance?

Rose : I think there’s going to be a huge kind of sacrifice that she’s going to have to start realizing that she’s making. You know, I think she’s very idealistic when she gets to the job, and I think she realized how all-consuming it’s going to be, and had this kind of danger element of the whole thing which, to be honest it has not been revealed to me yet exactly how it all unfolds. The producers are kind of keeping their cards really close to their chests. But, obviously, there’s a huge incident in this first six months of her working for Patty that we will be privy to, toward the end of the season.

Nadum: With the development of TV – you said you were a fan of shows like 'Rescue Me,' 'Big Love,' 'The Sopranos' et cetera – obviously it’s gotten better; have you become more attracted to the idea of working for an FX, HBO, Showtime type series?

Rose : Yeah, I started just watching these shows, and I found most of them better than feature to films that I go to see. You know, most feature films these days, if you look at the top ten films, I just think they’re dreadful. This filter of mine – everyone has different tastes, which is fine – but, for me, I found series actually more fulfilling and kind of less homogenized, and really willing to take a risk, I guess, because they have the freedom on cable that they didn’t use to have before. So it’s kind of an incredible playground for writers and actors and directors to be a part of at the moment.

Nadum: Well we agree on that if not 'The Sopranos' ending.

Nadum: A lot of the shows – they’re kind of attacking certain institutions, whether it be, a post-9/11 world in 'Rescue Me' or the decay of the American city in “The Wire,” – do you see any of that in 'Damages'?

Rose : I think, in a way, it’s a real comment on capitalism and power, and the power of big businesses and big companies, that there’s this huge case involving, Frobisher – very much a reflection on the huge mentality of how America is run by big businesses and men in suits. And that’s really it. And what exactly is the American Dream, really at the end of the day? And what are you going to sacrifice to get it? And being in power to do that, to make change. And there really – you know, there’s a lot of stuff with the Statue of Liberty, and a little symbolism in the show, and I think it kind of deals with those sorts of themes.

Nadum: Is there any other character on television that you use as inspiration, or feel some connection to with Ellen?

Rose: Not very much – I didn’t really draw too much from any other characters. But I’m definitely a huge fan of characters. I mean, if anything, I kind of thought that Tony Soprano was a bit like Patty Hughes, in that sense, of having such a huge amount of power, and what they actually do with it, and the kind of – the areas of gray they sort of operate in. I think that was just sort of the parallel I had drawn. But, for Ellen, I think she’s pretty unique at the moment, in that she’s kind of a canvas waiting to be sort of explored. So it’s an interesting place to be as an actor.

Nadum: Have you been close to any other shows, or read any scripts that you considered?

Rose : No, this is the first relationship I’ve ever had with a TV show in America. Yeah, I’ve never been in on anything else.

Nadum: Fantastic. It was a pleasure talking to you and thanks for taking the time.

Rose: Thanks a lot.

Never before in its existance has Showtime been such an important figure in the world of television. Achieving the unthinkable, it's managed to surpass HBO and move to the forefront of high-level scripted programming.

No show is more responsible for Showtime's success than Weeds. During a dark period in the net's history, when fans were riled over the cancellation of Dead Like Me and people were going head over heels for HBO's powerhouse lineup, a little show starring Mary-Louise Parker debuted as the top rated Showtime program in its first ten-episode season.

Far better than The L-Word, Queer as Folk or any of Showtime's previous attempts at original programming, Weeds was a dark comedy unlike any other on television. Taking place in an affluent suburb by the name of Agrestic, the show followed Mary-Louise as Nancy Botwin, a recently widowed single mother who began to sell weed to support her family.

Since its inception, the show has managed to touch on an amazing array of themes ranging from the hypocrisy of suburbia to the morality of parenting to the world of drug dealing.

I had the opportunity to sit down with one of the most fascinating minds in television, Roberto Benabib, executive producer and writer for Weeds.

Nadum: Weeds is categorized as a comedy but do you contribute the stylistic differences to it being being a dark comedy, a satire, a drama?

RB: We see ourselves as free to roam from comedy to drama kind of at will and I think part of that is being on Showtime, part of that is being a single camera show and part of that is having amazing actors who have really finely tuned dramatic chops as well as comedic chops. We try to base our stories on the truth and what we think is real and it leads us into comedy and drama constantly kind of the way life does.

Also, we’re not afraid – we keep saying that some shows that get labeled “Dramadies” are afraid to make it too dramatic because they might not be able to bring it all the way back to the comedy again. We don’t mind going from pure drama and then going straight for pure comedy. I think that’s what differentiates Weeds from a lot of other shows -- the extremes on each end of that rainbow. We'll have scenes that are just as dramatic as anything you’ll find on television and scenes that are just as broadly comical as anything you’ll find on Arrested or 30 Rock or any of the other shows.

Nadum: And you've got Doug who’s one of the funniest characters on television.

Nadum: Speaking to that duality, Nancy, despite being one of the most likable – if not the most likable character on television, she’s obviously a very flawed character. She’s got good intentions, but as a mother…

RB: I think that’s why we like her. I think we recognized that we’re all flawed and that everything is compromised to a point. When you see Nancy compromising and when you see her try to do her best and fail it makes her relatable.

It’s when people are portrayed as too good to be true or too evil to be true, that’s when the audience distances themselves. More to the point the relatability Nancy has when she fails audiences find refreshing, engaging and make her sympathetic.

Nadum: Would you agree that she has a manipulative streak?

RB: Oh I think she’s manipulative, I think she's caring, I think she’s selfish, I think she’s giving. She's different things in different situations. Again, Nancy becomes relatable when we find ourselves as selfish and petty at moment and then giving and charitable and sweet at another

Nadum: How much has having Mary-Louise Parker allowed you guys to write towards that end -- such a complex character.

RB: She’s given us free reign. She is a major dramatic actress, used to be in theater, on Broadway, off Broadway... She's used to complex characters which gives us complete leeway to really take that character into some pretty dark places.

Nadum: And very talented at doing so

RB: Amazingly talented. We call her 'gear change'. She can go through five different emotions almost simultaneously and without words. We’re very proud that some of her finest moments in the show are moments when she’s just physically reacting to something without saying anything

Nadum: She has that unique quality. A demeanor, or disposition about her. Is that something that she carries in from real life?

RB: No, but it looks easy because its so natural but she works incredibly hard on the material in order to get that kind of effect. She’s constantly going over her lines and breaking down the script and figuring out where her character is emotionally any given time.

Nadum: Weeds has some similarities in dramatic content with Desperate Housewives, but you guys go so far above and beyond -- the way you’ve managed to avoid manufacturing drama or falling into the trap of becoming a soap opera.

RB: They’re almost high camp. That’s almost like a twisted children’s story. It’s a very different approach stylistically and in terms of content to the subject of suburbia. We have a drug dealer, she happens to live in the suburbs and we come against that a lot but it’s a show about a drugs and drug dealing and Desperate Housewives is a show about suburban mothers.

Nadum: With the U-Turn storyline. Did you feel like that worked, that you weren’t going too overboard into that Desperate Housewives terrain?

RB: U-turn really was a chance for us to say that her career has consequences. She is a real drug dealer and is in real jeopardy and in real danger and not just coming across lovable familial figures like Conrad and Heylia. but scary characters like U-turn.

I think part of the reason a lot of people may have had trouble with the U-Turn storyline is that they didn’t want to see Nancy in that much jeopardy and that we take as a compliment. It’s like 'Wow that’s very cool.' We like the fact that you've taken our character into heart that you’re really uncomfortable and not digging it when she’s in major jeopardy.

Nadum: How in tune are you guys with the suburban drug scene, the U-Turns, etc? Is there anyone in the writing room with experience or is it generally based on research?

RB: As the show changes from season to season -- season one was just Nancy dealing dime bags to suburbanites -- that was a pretty easy thing because some of us have bought dime bags as suburbanites.

But season two she started growing and that was something we didn’t know about so we did an enormous amount of research. Season three, in terms of the underworld of drug dealing we did even more research. Now Nancy has started up distribution and you'll see that will sort of take us through the end of the season so we had people come in and talk to us anonymously. So each season -- and season four will be no different -- we explore a new aspect of the marijuana trade.

I would say that in the end its probably more an exhaustive amount of research going into all this into the drug angle of the show than actual experience

Nadum: You mentioned season four. All indications are you will be back for a fourth season?

RB: Oh yes absolutely

Nadum: Did you guys already get renewed?

RB: Not officially but it’s pretty much a sure bet.

Nadum: That's great news..

Nadum: One part that’s entered in with both summer school and Mary Kate's character is the religion aspect and some of the hypocrisy involved there. Is that more of a reflection of the suburban image that you’re trying to capture or just part of the story?

RB: There are mega churches and these religious communicates that are becoming more and more a part of suburbia and we just felt it was an angle that hadn’t been dealt with. Being on Showtime, we could deal with it more satirically and had more freedom than we could possibly have on a network, so we thought we should go for it and reflect what’s going on in a lot of middle America.

Nadum: So how much are you loving working for Showtime?

RB: Oh its amazing. One of the great things about Showtime -- and possibly even unlike HBO -- we have political freedom, which is something – I'm not saying they have it on HBO -- but I don’t necessarily know that they do either.

Bob Greenblatt has given us the freedom to say whatever we want, to be political, to get in there and make some pretty daring and pretty controversial choices when we tell stories. And that’s been amazing, the ability to write and not have anyone say no you can’t do this or that.

Nadum: A lot different than Ally McBeal?

RB: [Laughs]. Very different. Although that was fun too.

Nadum: After working for Showtime, you think you could go back to network television?

RB: I'm so spoiled and if you talk to any of the other writers on the show they’ll tell you the same thing. I understand now why the David Milch’s and the David Simon's stay with HBO. There might be a bigger audience and as consequence a lot more money on network TV -- and I'm not saying I would turn something down -- but at the same time I have to say it would be not be my first choice.

Nadum: And you guys are doing -- I've had this argument over and over. You guys are producing a much better product than the film industry.

RB: I think again it’s the freedom to do something truly creative. Films cost so much money and have to appeal to so many different people that they’re so watered down by the time we see them that you’re not getting anything from them. I mean I think its almost as important when people hate something like as much as they love something. Films -- you look at them and you don’t even want to see them. And if you do see them you forget you saw them because they're just not stirring any kind of passion; positive or negative and it's just really sad.

I think that’s born out in the fact that TV shows are outselling films on DVD. People are going out and wanting to buy shows on DVD and forsaking wanting to buy movies. I think the TV sector of the DVD business is keeping it afloat.

Nadum: The TV vs. Film DVD figures are stunning. Somewhat on the topic, do you guys have the On Demand numbers yet?

RB: No, I don’t know about those. I know they’re high, because pretty much everyone I talk to watches it On Demand.

What they like to do, they’re so used to doing it on DVD is that they like to let them pile up so you can just resolve the cliffhangers right away. The people I know just who came to the show late, literally devoured the DVDs. People really like that momentum.

We look at the show like a novel with chapters. Each season is a new novel and each episode is a chapter. People are starting to like these kind of shows -- not just Weeds -- and starting to treat the DVDs as you would read a novel. Three chapters tonight, another two tomorrow.

Nadum: The David Simon Formula.

RB: Yeah, exactly. It's no wonder those guys are all novelists and so well suited to the medium.

Nadum: Were you guys inspired at all by what he did with The Wire.

Yeah, we’re inspired by what he did on The Wire, we’re inspired The Shield. We’re inspired by good television and not only inspired but challenged.

When you see really great work like The Wire it challenges you to do great work and not take shortcuts so as to avoid breaking a story that’s been done a million times. Let’s find a new way to tell that story, let’s surprise the audience, let’s do something different. Good television seems to inspire us. There are a handful of shows that we all love out there, let’s try and be as good as them.

Nadum: It’s almost become an evolution that started with Oz, The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, where so many writers and artists are taking their work to a completely different level and we keep getting better and better shows.

RB: It’s really terrific. And we feel like one of the cool things about us is that the most of the work that we find interesting right now in television is being done in the hour-long dramatic category, shows like The Wire and The Sopranos and stuff like that. So if we can bring some of that quality into a half-hour that would be awesome. Our goal is to try and bring the standards the qualities that go into the The Sopranos and The Shield and The Wire and to try and bring that level of craftsmanship to half-hour comedy.

Nadum: Obviously Weeds could work as either a half-hour or an hour long series. Was that a tough decision coming in?

RB:No, because a lot of us had comedy training and had worked in half-hour. And people today have so little time to spare, they're working so hard, they're going out at night and they have the internet and so many things pulling at their attention, that if you can tell a great story in 25 or 30 minutes that’s totally fulfilling, I think that’s great.

And especially as people start downloading them on their iPods and stuff, we become very iPod friendly. I think we’re one of the most downloaded TV shows on iTunes.

Nadum: You were ranked #9 this morning and are steadily in the Top 10.

BR: Simply for that reason, hopefully because the show is good, but also because each episode can be devoured in a very short time and people can get what they want and move on.

Nadum: We're living in the golden era of television.

RBIt’s great. It’s really nice to be part of this Showtime resurgence. I’d like to feel that we were the beachhead that then allowed shows like Dexter and Brotherhood to then come on and be terrific but it's really wonderful to be a part of what’s emerging as Showtime’s real moment.

Nadum: You guys were The Sopranos for Showtime.

BR: And it makes us very proud.

Nadum: So what are your favorite five shows on TV today?

BR: The Wire definitely. The Shield, Flight of the Conchords... Nip/Tuck and Dexter.

Nadum: What’d you think of The Sopranos ending?

BR: You know, I thought amazing television, I don’t think there’s ever been better television but I don’t think it’s the best TV has ever done.

One of the things about The Sopranos that I found a little frustrating is that as it went on and on, David Chase’s whims got more and more mercurial and storylines that he started he just dropped. Then he’d spend endless amount of times on dream sequences. I found that he was meandering a bit too much for my taste as the show continued. I thought that first season especially, when Livia was alive there was really vigorous storytelling. But after she died and the show went on and on I thought that he was possibly getting a little bored and the storytelling was getting lax and meandering, not firing on cylinders the way it had previously.

Nadum: He very much strayed from the 'visual-novel' approach.

BR: And there was a little hubris there too. I don’t think he cared whether we the audience were satisfied or not. It was his own little play toy and he was only going to worry about amusing himself -- which is wonderful, but I stopped watching after while simply because I felt that he was just interested in following his whims and his whims got a little too lackadaisical for my taste.

Nadum: At the same time, there's that fine line of telling the story you're going to tell regardless of the audience's reaction and simply trying to amuse yourself.

BR: Yeah and you’ll find our storytelling is vigorous. It may not be your favorite story. It may not even be a story that you find as particularly compelling as another story we’ve told. But we try not to meander and we try not to sidestep and kill time and that’s what I felt he was doing kind unapologetically towards the end of the run.

Nadum: Well you guys are doing fantastic work. Before I let you go, can you give us anything on the rest of the season?

BR: What I can give you is this. It’s gonna be huge. This year’s season ender in terms of our universe, the Weeds universe, is going to be a biggie and probably make last year’s season ender look tame.

Nadum: Are we talking cliffhanger?

BR: I wouldn’t call it a cliffhanger; I would call it a momentous event.

Nadum: Are they already shot and cut?

BR: They’re already shot and cut.

Nadum: Thanks so for taking the time, it's been a pleasure and we're all looking forward to the rest of season three.

BR: Thank you.

While we were among the first to point out the show's foibles, as the ratings plummet, fans cry foul and even the most benign of media outlets begin to offer up criticism, Heroes has cemented itself as the seasons' biggest source of contention.

Speaking off the record with several NBC insiders, it seems that despite creator Tim Kring's apparant lack of concern, the problems aren't exactly a secret over at the peacock.

By all accounts the origin of the trouble is the writers’ room, with a cliquish core of scribes breaking the stories with little to no input from anyone else. I was also told that Tim Kring is spending almost no time in the writers’ room, further exacerbating the fractured atmosphere.

Kring's absence isn't unusual with big productions, as the executive producer has too many responsibilities to sit it in on every meeting. But given the heavy serialized nature of the story and the serious decline in quality, fans really need to hope that Kring stops delegating and gets back to what made the Heroes one of television’s brightest shows: competent storytelling.

Disagree? Not sure? Decide for yourself...

» Watch Season 2 of Heroes exclusively on Fancast

Last week's episode of Heroes pulled in 10.8 million viewers, a 4.9/11 in 18-49s and a 6.3/9 in overall households.

Contact Nadum at Nadum_TV@comcast.com

Since the writers are probably going to strike later today, the coverage is probably going to be pretty bleak. In an attempt to keep things as cheerful as possible, we've got a plethora of goodies on The Wire. I figured we'd start if off with a little summation of the show's critical reception.

Call it an ode to good writing.

USA Today

"For three clear-eyed years, The Wire has used its Baltimore setting to paint an unflinching portrait of American city life, from the casualties of the war on drugs to the collapse of the working class and the rampant corruption of the political system. Now it asks us to consider the costs such a life exacts on children, abandoned by an educational system and a society that fails them at every turn."

New York Times

"If Charles Dickens were alive today, he would watch The Wire. Unless, that is, he was already writing for it."

San Francisco Chronicle

"The breadth and ambition of "The Wire" is unrivaled. It's an astonishing display of writing, acting and storytelling that must be considered alongside the best literature and filmmaking in the modern era."

TV Guide

"Its the top tier of American drama."

Entertainment Weekly...

"Both brutal and brilliant, it's the best series on television, period."

New York Post

"The single finest piece of work ever produced for American TV."

Los Angeles Daily News

"The Wire is so exponentially better, so much more richly textured and realistic and ambitious than any other show."

Chicago Tribune

"The Wire takes time to create its world, but the cumulative power of that portrait -- of post-millennium urban America...is on a level with the best work in television history."

Washington Post

"The most authentic epic ever on television."

Variety

"When history is written, little else will rival The Wire."

Philadelphia Daily News

"The best show on television."

Newsday

"A critic for this paper once declared 'The Wire' 'the greatest dramatic series ever produced for television' and there's no reason to quibble with that assessment."

GQ

"Nothing even comes close."

Los Angeles Weekly

"A vibrant, masterful work of art, HBO’s novelistic urban saga The Wire is the best show on television."

David Simon is one of the most important and striking voices in contemporary American culture. During Simon's 13-year career at the Baltimore Sun, he penned the Edgar Award winning account of the Baltimore City Homicide Division, Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets (which later spawned the NBC series).

From there, Simon, along with The Wire co-creator Ed Burns, wrote The Corner, a 1997 New York Times Most Notable Book of the Year, also the basis for an HBO miniseries.

But topping all of his accomplishments is HBO's The Wire, a sprawling, epic tale about the decay of the American city. The Wire is considered among the modern classics of our time, with the New York Times commenting, "If Charles Dickens were alive today, he would watch The Wire. Unless, that is, he was already writing for it."

With season four set for release on DVD December 4th and season five debuting on January 6th, 2008, I had the opportunity to go one on one with Simon, starting with a discussion about season five its focus on the media.

Fancast: At what point did you see The Wire going from a story about the war on drugs to an epic about the American city?

Simon: We had the intention to depict Baltimore, going to other pieces of the city, slicing it into different pieces. Ed Burns, Bob Colesberry (RIP), Nina Noble and I were having these conversations while forming season one, what to do next year, how to set up the port story.

Having said that, we didn’t talk to HBO until we presented season and told them we were going to put the Barksdale story on the backburner and going with a different theme.

At that point I had the open conversation with Chris Albrecht and Carolyn Strauss that said, 'Look, we’re going to build a city.' They didn’t guarantee us five seasons, we only knew we would get two at that point, but the presumption had to be if we do get the five what are we going to build.

Then the writers internally began having conversations even at the beginning of season two about what other themes we wanted to explore. Ed was very strong for education, because he worked seven years teaching public school in Baltimore.

I wanted to do the media and I knew that had to wait for the end. And we knew that to do education and the media properly we had to introduce the political component and the implication of reform. That became an inevitable season three.

Fancast: Were there any other themes you thought to explore?

Simon: We threw it open to all the writers and asked what else is there. Are there are other things that would not start feel cyclically and thematically redundant?

Everything was either shot down because they'd make the show feel long in the tooth and we wouldn’t be breaking that much new ground. The courthouse, big hospitals, medical care. And if it was something we thought was new thematically we didn't have the ability to achieve the proper research in the time that we were going to be off the air.

We thought to do a season on immigration. Baltimore virtually no Latino presence till about ten years ago. And now there's a very strong central American-immigrant community in Baltimore. And that would be something great to explore, but by the time we thought of it we had already sold the last two season arcs to HBO and we didn’t have a big enough window between any of the seasons to properly do the research into a culture that we’re foreign to. So we decided on five organically.

Fancast:: In terms of season five, can you speak to your thoughts on the media, its role in marginalizing places like West Baltimore, North Philadelphia, East St. Louis, etc., and the state of traditional media right now?

Simon: I think we proved ourselves -- newspapers, the print media -- to be as ridiculously susceptible to raw capitalism and market forces as anything that we critiqued thus far in The Wire.

The newsroom where I used to work (the Baltimore Sun) had 460 people. Now it has 300. And there are people out there who just don’t care. They’ll make more money putting out a mediocre paper than they would putting out a better paper. They know this. It's their equation. They’re quite content with mediocrity.

And within that culture we have people that are saying, ‘oh no, we’re going to do more with less,’ which is one of the great lies of the 21st century. What it means is we’re going to less with less. And that’s the nature of what journalism is becoming.

Fancast: How do you distinguish between the good and the mediocre?

Simon: You see these sort of 'we gotcha' stories, bite sized morsels of outrage, half-assed scandals. No one is tackling big problems. That kind of ambition is gone. When I went into journalism school, which is over 20 years ago now, high end journalism seemed like it was growing by leaps and bounds in its ability to assess the most delicate and ornate contradictions in society.

You look at some of the coverage Watergate and some of the examinations of political infrastructure that followed on the part of high end papers. It was very impressive and there was every reason to believe that it was become more so, that newspapers were going to become more serious and instead the opposite happened.

Fancast: Why?

Simon: At some point, Wall Street found the industry. And instead of being sheltered in a series family owned companies, the newspaper chain entities, which are beholden to stock holders and share prices, began buying them up. At that moment when Wall Street raised its hand, that was pretty much the end.

Newspapers became vulnerable and it was only exacerbated by the fact that no one I ever saw at any of the newspapers -- with the exception of maybe of The Wall Street Journal -- anticipated the internet.

Fancast: The failure of law enforcement, the death of the working class, the impotence of reform, the inequity of the education system -- how much can you really blame on newspapers?

Simon: I’m not blaming the newspaper for the origins of the problem, the origins of the problem are a complete lack of social policy. Our social framework is "Can I get I promoted now, can I make a buck off it?" The entire country right now is like a pyramid scheme with no other ethic or social framework behind it.

So obviously there are a lot of forces at work. I’m just saying the media, which is supposed to be the assertive watchdog of the political and social culture, the last hope of reform -- they're not here anymore.

I think The Wire is dealing with it in proportion in the sense that it's the last season. After you've seen the the institutions themselves are incapable of reform, after you've seen the political process is incapable of introducing reform than the last question is, "While this going on, what are we paying attention to and why?'

What happened to the people who are supposed to be sounding the alarm? While the unions die, while the jobs disappear, while the political infrastructure dispatches one reformer after another, while the police department and the school system and every other agency create systems to deny the obvious – that they’re not doing their jobs anymore – while all this is happening, what was the external monitor doing and paying attention to?

And to that extent and only to that extent, yes the media is culpable. They had their job to do and they’re not doing it.

Fancast: As far as how bad it got – that pyramid scheme -- do you think it was ineptitude, self preservation or was this a calculated maneuver by those that set our policy to stay atop the pyramid?

Simon: I don’t think that it's that anyone had a plan to do this. People were simply thinking short when they should have been thinking long.

For example, if you're talking about education. No child left behind? It's a lie. Children are being left behind in draconian ways now. But there’s manufactured test scores at the first and third grade levels to show that politicians, that school boards, that administrators are improving things, making them better.

And by the time the kids get to sixth and seventh grade the test scores tumble. Because the system isn't actually intervening in any meaningful way. They're juking the stats. They're teaching the kids how to take the tests in first and third grade and they can't sustain it beyond that. By ninth grade in these school systems the kids aren't even in class. So there's that lie.

Meanwhile, the police department is pretending they’re locking up the right people when they’re just making stats and not solving crimes or protecting real estate. The Baltimore PD has become dysfunctional as have many police departments across the country. The drug war has in fact destroyed good police work, not enhanced it.

They’re just harvesting stats out of self preservation of the institution. You can’t be soft on drugs. Is there a political party that has the courage to re-examine the fifty year disaster that is the drug war? There are more Americans in prison than ever before and they are less violent than ever before. We’re not putting away more violent criminals. The numbers don’t show that. We’re putting out away non-violent criminals at an incredible rates. We’re putting away drug mules and mid-level dealers, street level dealers, runners.

And there are political leaders who have fashioned entire careers on the basis of these falsely improving stats. So it’s a combination of the personal ambition of the people atop these institutions, the people who are dependent upon the perception of how these institutions are running -- coupled with the fact that there’s money in this stuff.

There’s money in 'No Child Left Behind,' there’s money in letting neighborhoods go down in the inner city to the point that they’re uninhabitable, inhospitable to normal life and then buying office real estate and 'rebuilding America.' They can’t fix the culture of the ghetto but they can sure can buy off the real estate and make a profit off it.

Fancast: And at the same time, everytime Bunny takes a step in the right direction his programs get obliterated. The final scene of season three where he's looking at the rubble of Hamsterdam -- the scene at the end of season four after the pilot program gets shut down, Bunny says something to the effect of 'Every time I open my mouth, I'm telling people what they don't wanna know.'

Simon: It’s political fear, it’s political self preservation, wanting to win the next election or get the bigger seat. A combination of fear and dishonesty and ambition and profit. And the truth is a very frail creature compared to those things.

Fancast: The perfect storm.

Simon: Yes. And I don’t think we have the wherewithal as a people anymore, we certainly don’t have collective courage to demand better from our institutions.

The Wire is Greek tragedy. It’s literally like standing up and demanding better of your Gods for the average American.

With Jerry Seinfeld working on his new flick Bee Movie, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss walking the pickets and Michael Richards busy attending Klan meetings, the Seinfeld cast has been remiss to do publicity for this week's release of 'Seinfeld - The Complete Series.'

In his swan song before moving full-time to the Metro Section, Louis R. Carlozo of the Chicago Tribune had a chance to sit down with Jason Alexander:

Q Some friends joked I should riff on your "opposite" episode of "Seinfeld" and ask the opposite of everything appropriate.

A [Laughs.] That's good!

Q So ... should I ask you to describe your most recent sexual experience in detail?

A [Laughs.] Either way, it's a good story.

Q This megaset will give "Seinfeld" fans another chance to rehash the infamous finale, which some viewers loved, others loathed. What's your take on it?

A It's weird from the inside. I felt there were really great things about it. We were a really unsentimental group, but we always did love our bench of players -- people like Wayne Knight [Newman] or Partick Warburton [David Puddy], or people who became big successes off the show, like the Soup Nazi [played by Larry Thomas]. The way [co-creator] Larry David found to get everyone on who had been part of our success over the years was poetic. And the fact we had these four characters who were the most selfish people on the planet getting what they deserved? That was great. But as a story it was a mishmash.

Q Was another approach ever considered?

A Jerry [Seinfeld] had once pitched a way for the show to end -- it would be a regular episode, and we would be in the coffee shop afterward talking and talking and talking until we ran out of things to say ... and Jerry would say, "That's enough."

Q OK, here comes the "Beatles reunion" question. How do you handle people wanting a "Seinfeld" reprise?

A It comes up all the time. Could it happen? I don't know. There are a number of factors, and one of them is what the expectation would be in terms of how we would get back together -- and you thought people hated the finale? Plus we are all 10 years older, and we look it. They [the main characters] were juvenile and selfish; who would want to look at them now? Plus there is a real practical sense for all of us not to want to have the rest our lives defined by the show. Even Jerry in his standup act doesn't necessarily love the "Seinfeld" questions -- he'd be a lot more interested in "Bee Movie" questions. I might be the most realistic one in the bunch when I say, "We can't top this, guys."

Q But you do flirt with it, right?

A We talked about doing a final scene for the DVD where we come out of jail and go to the coffee shop -- Michael Richards [Kramer] had come out all tattooed and become a rough rider; Julia Louis-Dreyfus [Elaine] was a lesbian; I had a sex change ... and Jerry was exactly the way he was. And he would say, "Boy, that was rough."

Q With Joe Torre out as Yankees manager, any guess how that would've played into "Seinfeld," because George Costanza worked for the Yankees?

A My best guess is George would be angling for the job. He clearly has the expertise to lead the team to glory. He'd be in George Steinbrenner's office trying to get his best shot.

Q It's been a year since Michael Richards' meltdown at The Laugh Factory. Have you, Jerry and Julia talked to him recently?

A Of course we've talked to Michael. We adore Michael, and we know where he comes from and where his heart is. What was shocking for all of us was that it appeared he was this closeted racist and he only needed this event to unleash the monster. Nothing could be further from the truth. That night some people were harassing him, and he didn't have the tools to deal with it -- they threw some arrows at him, and he threw some arrows back. And it was a terrible, awful choice -- he knew it the minute he threw the mic down. And to Michael's credit, he has been trying to use the event to find himself.

Q How so? He's definitely been out of the limelight.

A He's been traveling, he's been talking to some deep spiritual guides. He's trying to find some inner peace... I have never felt so close to him as when he began this journey of "Who am I, and what am I, and how do I heal myself?" The thing we were most afraid of is not that the show would be tainted, but that people would look at Kramer and not be able to forget that incident. And it seems to me that people are very wise. I have only met a few people who have not been able to separate Michael from Kramer.

Q You ever get tired of talking about "Seinfeld"? Life goes on, right?

A I have no problems talking about it. The most lovely byproduct of the success of the show is that I've traveled all of the world, without having any expectation of being noticed or recognized -- and I get greeted like family. I was in Ramallah on a peace initiative, and I thought as an American and as a Jew, I'd be greeted with some disdain. But people were coming out to say hello to "George" -- a George they had only heard in Arabic. ... Sometimes I wonder if God blessed me with whatever intelligence I have, or awareness I have, have I squandered it? Then I meet someone who was suffering through chemo, or depression, or the loss of a partner, and they would say, "You guys kept me going." So when you get that kind of reaction you don't think, "Oy gevalt! Not another 'Seinfeld' thing." I'd say, "I'm glad it's there for you."

A DVD adios ...

Since the season one finale aired, I've taken Heroes to task more times than I'd like to remember. The episode was littered with signs that season two would be a convoluted disaster and it's played out accordingly.

While the media, critics and fans have all jumped on the bandwagon, yesterday saw an extremely disturbing development. Tim Kring, the creator of the show, actually agrees.

If the season finale was an ominous sign, consider this the death of 'Heroes.' There's nothing worse in television than a shows creative vision being compromised. The writers either know what they're doing or they don't. If they have to take suggestions from their fanbase, it's a mortal certainty that they're clueless.

Even more curious is how quickly Kring's about-face came. On October 29th, he told Scott Collins of the LA Times that he wasn't concerned. Not ten days later, Kring, in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, apologized to fans for season two's failings.

A week ago I reported the apparent source of the decline:

"By all accounts the origin of the trouble is the writers’ room, with a cliquish core of scribes breaking the stories with little to no input from anyone else. I was also told that Tim Kring is spending almost no time in the writers’ room, further exacerbating the fractured atmosphere.

Between the report, Kring's recent comments and season two's dismal storyline, it's time to admit the obvious. The heroes have lost and there's no saving them.

May they rest in peace.

» Watch Season 2 of Heroes

Project Runaway is one of the hottest shows on TV and with the strike putting a halt to scripted television, the buzz is only sure to grow. So what's the word on our latest batch of up and coming fashion designers?

Fashion Site Elle.com has so much coverage and pictures for season four it'll make even the snazziest dresser dizzy. They've also got a ton of pictures.

Philadelphia Inquirer fashion columnist Elizabeth Wellington watched the season four debut with the first ever 'Runway' winner Jay McCarroll, who has already predicted the winner:

"It's still early, but right now I think Christian," McCarroll said. "And Marion Lee, I like his aesthetic and Rami, he's safe and his work is beautiful."

In stark contrast, Robin Givhan over at the Washington Post is all about the personality. And he's not overly thrilled with this year's crop:

The competitors wear their eccentricities on their sleeves. They are audaciously odd-looking or self-consciously hip. Siriano's hair is styled in an asymmetrical cut that looks as if it were executed with a pair of gardening shears. Carmen Webber -- that's Carmen A. Webber if you're nasty! -- wears her hair in a Flock of Seagulls meets Angela Davis blown-out, cornrowed, not-quite 'fro. The heavily tattooed Sweet P has her nickname inked on one arm and her alter ego "Mean P" on the other. And don't we all know that "Mean P" will be making an appearance before this season is over?

New York Magazine's Caroline Weber, who is so obsessed with the show she begged to be a guest judge is worried about the design challenge:

With a limited amount of material and time, create an outfit “that expresses who you are as a designer.” If this sounds familiar, it should. Season Two began with essentially the same challenge (six yards of white fabric, $20, and one week versus Season Four’s all-the-fabric-you-can-grab and thirteen hours), framed in exactly the same way. Tellingly, all four judges (Klum, Kors, Elle’s Nina Garcia, and, taking my spot as guest judge, the designer Monique Lhuillier) use variations on the word boring to describe the losing garments. But this hardly seems fair. How can the show’s designers be expected to shine when the very task they’re given has been done before?

Alas, 'Runway' fans need no