Writer pals and the "Murder" gals

Also, "Nightline's" turnaround and why Chris Titus is looking so buff.

You'd think that after three seasons on “The Shield,” one of the most testosterone-charged shows on television, doing a show about four women who solve crimes would be a real change of pace for Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain.

  But that's not how the Pembroke Hill grads and longtime writer-collaborators see it.

  “It's the weirdest thing,” said Fain. “The guys on 'The Shield,' although they're very manly, in some ways they're girls.”

  “They're going to love to hear that,” Craft said.

Gone for a while

If you click the photo, you'll see that I was in the stands Friday night at AT&T Park in San Francisco to see Barry Bonds hit No. 754. Actually, seeing Barry was down the list of reasons I was there, behind seeing my sister, the close proximity to L.A., and the fact my friend Jason had tickets. Nonetheless, it was a pretty exciting game, complete with 22 runs of scoring, an Omar Vizquel web gem, a wonderful moment for Mark Sweeney and the spectacle of 43,000 fans lustily booing their dud of a pitcher, Barry Zito. But I can't deny there was something tremendously exciting about witnessing Bonds' homer -- the reaction was not as volcanic as Yankee Stadium on a good night (of course, it seats 56,000), but the giddy buzz was one that, combined with its scenic, state-of-the-art ballpark, makes the home of the last-place Giants the envy of Major League Baseball. (And yes, I'm saying that if Kansas City had Bonds, we'd be just as stoked about it, and our town would be subjected to the same kind of primitive ethnography that's going on right now with San Francisco.) I know folks in journalism like to get worked up over the travesty of a first-rate jerk like Bonds breaking the humble Hammer's record. All I can say is, I'm glad I don't work in sports.

I'll be out for the next week or so. In the meantime, be sure to click the ad at the right and sign up to Watch the Pilots with me August 23.

Same Matthew Lesko lookalike promotional picture. Otherwise, all new

It's time once more to pack one of Kansas City's most distinctive movie theaters and preview the shows that are going to be worth your while this fall.

Sign up here for "Watch the Pilots with Aaron 2007," being held Thursday, August 23, at 7 p.m. in the fabulous Screenland Granada at 10th and Minnesota in Kansas City, Kansas. That's right, we've upgraded to Butch Rigby's other, roomier venue to avoid the problem we had last year, which was that all the reservations were claimed before we could even launch a decent marketing campaign.

In addition to showing clips and full episodes of the shows I like best, I'll be throwing buckets of valuable swag (mostly T shirts bearing the logos of cancelled shows) into the audience. It's fun. Just ask K. Olsen, who attended last year's event. Actually, I don't have permission to give out her phone number, so instead I'll just quote her email:

"Thank you for having my husband and me at your Watch the Pilots event on Wednesday night.  We had a terrific time and it was a highly entertaining night out for us. We honestly don't watch a whole lot of TV - we still have rabbit ears, in fact! -  but we enjoyed listening to you and watching some of your favorites for this upcoming season."

Tickets are free but I can't guarantee we won't fill the Granada, so it's best if you mark the date and sign up now to attend.

As TV critics’ tour ends, the two best shows we saw are already on TV

I'm standing in the Milton Berle Dining Room at the Beverly Hills Friars Club, and just as I become aware that the portraits of dozens of ancient showbiz icons are staring at me, up walks a woman in a beehive wig and tiny cocktail dress and hands me a drink.

The room is packed with TV critics, press agents and employees of the cable channel AMC. To promote their new show "Mad Men," a period drama set on Madison Avenue in 1960, the AMC folks have taken the Friars Club back to its roots. They've made the room so retro-square, it's retro-hip. Martinis, tablecloths, a jazz combo led by Jeff Goldblum on piano and vocals (yes, that Jeff Goldblum) and Ol' Blue Eyes looking on from his life-sized oil on the east wall. It's a park scene from the fedora years. Sinatra is out on a spree, fighting vainly the old ennui. I, on the other hand, am fighting the urge to light up a Pall Mall and swing, baby!

What's going on here? Simply put, a TV network is trying to catch the critics' fancy by throwing a themed party at summer press tour. But in the case of "Mad Men," AMC had us at the first martini. Beautifully capturing not just the clothing and furniture of the late Eisenhower era, but its social mores and cultural conservatism, "Mad Men" is -- according to my informal polling -- the best new show critics have seen this summer.

Which tells you what kind of fall season this is going to be, because we have screeners of all the network shows, too.

You don't need a laugh track for "Family Guy" - that's our jobs

The next time someone asks me if I have a “guilty pleasure,” I’ll tell them it was laughing hysterically at jokes about cancer, abortion, hookers, Jesus and Lazarus at the “Family Guy” table read, as well as a few topics too touchy even to mention in print.

Comic-Con starts today

The room's a little less crowded today at TV critics' tour, and I know why — the world's biggest pop-culture convention is starting just down the coast in San Diego. Yep, it's Comic-Con 2007.

So while we're waiting for Mo Ryan and the others to file their reports, I looked up my story from last year, when I attended Comic-Con, and found that it holds up pretty well:

Aaron Barnhart: Hollywood seeks geeks at Comic-Con

Of course, any Comic-Con veteran knows to check the site of Mark Evanier regularly. He's the ultimate insider there, though he's challenged to update his site in between hosting upwards of a dozen panels there.

   

TMZ is H-O-T

Lindsay Lohan's worst day ever turned out to be a good one to visit the headquarters of TMZ.com. The starlet was pulled over early Tuesday morning with her blood count well over the legal limit and cocaine in her pocket. Within minutes, tipsters had set the Web's hottest celebrity news site in motion.

Using publicists, police and sources close to the target, TMZ moved the story along, as evidenced by emails that began appearing in my mailbox just before 6 a.m., less than four hours after the arrest in Santa Monica. “Lohan Busted for DUI ... Again!” was followed 23 minutes later by “Lohan -- It's Allegedly Worse than Alcohol” and then, seven minutes after that, by “Lohan Charges -- Coke Found.”

It was just the latest in a string of journalistic coups for the site, which launched less than two years ago and is coming to TV this fall with a daily syndicated “TMZ” show.

When I heard that TMZ had moved from sleepy Glendale into new digs on Sunset Boulevard, where the TV show would be shot, I expected to walk into beautifully appointed studio space with lots of glass, a huge green screen, and flat panels everywhere. What I walked into, instead, looked like a New Jersey tech startup, a galley of cubicles with an exposed ceiling, two floors up from a Virgin Megastore. There was no anchor desk in sight. The press conference had to be held in one of the theaters in a multiplex adjacent to TMZ.

How fans (with DVRs) saved "Jericho"

In the second part of my conversation with David Poltrack, the CBS research guru explained how research — and a few thousands pounds of nuts — changed the network's mind on "Jericho." Then I read to him from a very influential article Michael Lewis wrote a few years ago, which predicted that DVRs would destroy commercial TV as we knew it, and got Poltrack's response.

Download the podcast (11:00)

So-called spoilers from "House," the lost ending to "Gilmore Girls" ... can you tell it's my 15th day of press tour?

If you experience symptoms of depression or anger when reading stories that reveal upcoming plot lines of your favorite TV shows, this story about Fox's “House” may not be for you. Ask your doctor.

  For the 99.9 percent of you still reading, TV critics got a chance to ask Dr. House, aka Hugh Laurie, when he and others from the next No. 1 show on television paid a “House” visit to the Beverly Hilton on Monday. (I say “next No. 1” because it's already tops among 18-to-49-year-olds and will likely surge past “CSI” and even “American Idol,” the show that helped launch it, next year.)

  You may recall that things ended badly last May for Dr. House. By poorly finessing the line between grumpy and hateful, he managed to drive away all three members of his team in just one episode. After refusing to talk Foreman (Omar Epps) out of resigning, he then fired Chase (Jesse Spencer), which drove Cameron (Jennifer Morrison) over the edge and out the door with him. And that was that.

The ABCs on DVRs, with Professor Poltrack

In the industry, Dr. David Poltrack, the aptly-named head of research at CBS, is legendary for his number-crunching exploits. He doesn't win every battle — CBS had to go young despite his years of using charts and graphs to prove beyond a doubt that old people buy stuff they see on TV — but he always come prepared.

I sat down with Poltrack on the patio of the Beverly Hilton (listen for the helicopter!) to get a primer in the only Nielsen rating that will matter to the networks next season. You've perhaps heard about live-plus-3 commercial ratings, or "C3." Here's a succinct explanation of what it is and how it will affect what shows live or die next season.

Even if you aren't much into research, you'll learn something. As with all TV Barn Podcasts, I've edited the tape so you only hear the highlights.

Download the podcast (9:59)

Fox reality czar Mike Darnell will be somebody's strike insurance this fall

Up on stage, top executives at the Fox network were fielding questions about their fall lineup from a roomful of TV critics, while in the back of the room, by the coffee service, lurked a small, wiry dude in denim who might hold the real power at Fox this season.

His name is Mike Darnell, and his name and profile -- well under five feet tall, with long, brown, 80s-pop-star hair -- are familiar to anyone who covers the industry. Since 1998 he has been Fox's head of alternative programming, and he is widely considered the king of American reality TV. He is every bit the pioneer that William Paley was, only instead of Jack Benny and Lucille Ball, Darnell gave us Joe Millionaire and Paris Hilton. He's made money off the middlebrow ("American Idol," "So You Think You Can Dance") and lowbrow alike ("When Animals Attack," "Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?").

There is widespread fear throughout Tellywood of a crippling writers' strike this fall. If the writers' guild and the networks don't have a deal by Oct. 31, production could halt on the scripted dramas that make up most of the Nielsen top 30. But Darnell's world would actually begin spinning faster, since reality shows, which require no writers or actors, would become the only game in town. In fact, Darnell has not renewed his contract at Fox, and other networks are said to be wooing him to bring his special brand of strike insurance.

FX ready for another Close-up (and who can blame them?)

Three years ago, Glenn Close agreed to appear in a TV series for the first time. It was for one season of FX's “The Shield,” playing the captain of an unruly inner-city LAPD precinct, in a role endowed with both guts and smarts. She was the only higher-up who ever was able to read the troublesome rogue cop Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis) like a book.

  That tour of duty convinced Close to take the plunge again with FX -- and this time, there's no expiration date on her availability. “Damages,” a new series beginning 9 p.m. CT Tuesday on FX, puts Close front and center in a TV series, another first (though one can't entirely overlook the trio of “Sarah Plain and Tall” movies she starred in for the “Hallmark Hall of Fame” in the 1990s).

Brilliant, insightful, handsome television critics honor "Friday Night Lights," "Dexter," "Kyle XY," "Heroes"

Who gave their top acting prize to Ian McShane when he couldn't get arrested? Who honored Hugh Laurie and James Gandolfini long before they took home Goldens or Emmys? Who led the parades for both "The West Wing" (32 Emmys and Globes) and "Gilmore Girls" (zero Emmys and Globes)?

The Television Critics Association, that's who. The 23rd annual TCA Awards were held tonight in the same ballroom where the Globes are given out. But while the Hollywood Foreign Press Association likes to kid itself that it "predicts the Oscars," the nation's TV critics couldn't care less who follows our lead — other than, of course, our readers. In fact, I think a lot of my fellow crix are secretly pleased when their choices go unduplicated by other awards, as it confirms the suspicion that their voters are more easily swayed by publicity and Nielsen ratings.

This year's TCA Awards featured numerous declarations of independence:

• The award for Outstanding New Program went to "Friday Night Lights," a show that was completely and shockingly denied even a single Emmy Award nomination largely and surprisingly overlooked by Emmy voters last week.
• The Individual Achievement in Drama award went to Michael C. Hall (right) for Showtime's "Dexter," who was also overlooked by the Emmy voters.
• The TCA Award for Program of the Year went to "Heroes," which did get a best-drama nod from the Emmy voters. (Ever the contrarians, we gave "The Sopranos" the drama award, as well as the coveted Heritage Award in a field that included "M*A*S*H" and "Roots.")
• The TCA Award for children's programming went to "Kyle XY." This show will likely never contend for an Emmy Award because it's a "tweener" — its genre falls between kids and grown-up TV. Funny how the TCA gives out a fraction of the trophies the Emmys do, yet we figured out a way to honor a great family show.

Some of the other winners at the 23rd annual TCA Awards were more accustomed to collecting prizes, like "The Office,"  "The Sopranos," Alec Baldwin and our career achievement winner, Mary Tyler Moore. What all the winners had in common was that they all earned their prizes from the toughest judges of all — the people who watch TV for a living, rather than those who make it for a living.

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What in tarnation is "Kid Nation"?

Easily the most impressive of the four new shows CBS will be adding to its fall lineup is the reality program "Kid Nation." The premise is simple: Forty days, forty kids, NO grownups. Well, almost no grownups — host Jonathan Karsh appears from time to time, and there's a whole crew of adults working behind the scenes. But you get the point: It's an experiment in self-governance on the part of a community made up entirely of children ages eight to 15.

"Kid Nation" host Jonathan Karsh

Jonathan Karsh has numerous documentary and TV credits, but none as high profile as the one he's about to appear in. He's the host of "Kid Nation," the reality show coming to CBS this fall that's already causing a stir for its provocative premise: Put 40 kids ages 8 to 15 out in the middle of nowhere and let them form their own community. Without killing each other.

• Download the podcast

Emmy nominations: Fresh faces, same old slights

At first glance, the list of nominees for the 2007 Primetime Emmy Awards announced early Thursday suggest a long-overdue changing of the guard. But as with many things in Hollywood, the changes may be only skin deep.

Shows like “Boston Legal,” “Heroes,” “Ugly Betty” and “30 Rock” (pictured) joined Emmy veterans “The Sopranos” and “The Office” as top series nominees. Meanwhile, past winners “Desperate Housewives” and “24” were among the programs that found themselves on the outside looking in.

Peanut Mountain: How the battle of "Jericho" was won

Plus — a spoiler exclusive to TV Barn (we think)!

CBS entertainment chief Nina Tassler (pictured) told TV critics here in L.A. that there was "no single reason" why she and her team finally decided to reverse themselves and bring back “Jericho” for a second, shortened season.

But certainly, the guy at the camera shop had something to do with it.

Tassler was at her neighborhood camera store (do they still have those?) and an employee was processing her order, looked at her credit card and said, “Jericho!” And then: “I sent you an email.”

Tassler said she was at the doctor's office when she received her next sign. She hadn't seen this doctor before, so when he came into the office to give the results of her checkup, his look made her nervous. “Oh, god, I think there's going to be bad news,” she recalled. “He pulls out a bag of peanuts.”

KO: "If Rupert Murdoch could make twice as much money making Fox liberal, he'd do it"

That and many other interesting, surprising and funny insights from the host of MSNBC's "Countdown with Keith Olbermann," recorded July 17, 2007 at the Beverly Hilton during press tour.

• Download the podcast

"Friday Night" delight: Same team, new season

Also, "The CGI Wizard of Oz," and how does Keith Olbermann really feel about Bill-O?

Just because you made a wonderful TV show that all the critics loved and everybody at the network was pulling for and it won a Peabody Award doesn't mean it didn't deserve to be cancelled.

And maybe that's what accounted for the unusually good mood on Tuesday, as the cast and producers of “Friday Night Lights” milled in the hallways of the Beverly Hilton before their session at the critics' press tour. Wearing fancy clothes instead of their frumpy TV wardrobes -- I briefly mistook Connie Britton, stunning in a skirt and high heels, for the young starlet of another NBC show -- they hugged and joked and chatted with each other and with some of the journalists who'd provided moral support to them last season. After all, not everyone thought they'd have this reunion.

“I doubted it,” said Kyle Chandler (pictured above), who plays Britton's husband and the coach of the fictional Dillon Panthers on the show. “I told Connie earlier in the year, 'It's coming back,'” but inside I'm going, 'Oh, man….' (So) to have NBC so firmly behind it, I mean, this is just spectacular.”

Averaging barely more than 6 million viewers a week, “Friday Night Lights” wasn't even a top-100 show last season. It finished behind “Kidnapped,” “Crossing Jordan,” “Raines” and “The Black Donnellys,” none of which NBC decided to renew.