What's working for me...

1. Waiting for NBC to be sold. Preferably to someone who knows how to run a network.

2. The audacity to remake. Over three nights beginning Sunday, AMC is airing a new take on the 1960s boggler “The Prisoner,” a task not for timid cable channels. See my review in Sunday's A&E.

3. "Andy Barker, P.I." on DVD. With the release earlier this year of “Andy Richter Controls the Universe,” our collection of the funniest sitcoms nobody watched is now complete.

... AND WHAT'S NOT

1. Writing ill of the dead. Richard Schickel gratuitously roasted the new Robert Altman biography (author Mitchell Zuckoff is at the Plaza Branch on Monday), calling the director an angry, drug-addled auteur of "historical curiosities."

2. Rupert Murdoch's war on fair use. The Fox chieftain doesn't believe anyone should be allowed to quote or mashup his content without paying for it. Sadly for him, recent court rulings have all gone the opposite direction.

3. Waiting nine months for "Mad Men" season four to start.

What's working for me...

1. TNT gets "Southland." A quality drama goes from network (NBC cancelled it) to cable, where it can develop a bit more edge and a loyal audience.

2. DVRs. New research finds that nearly half the people with video recorders aren't skipping the ads -- and the number is rising -- which should cool those predictions about DVRs being the death of TV as we know it.

3. Johnny Damon. It's always more fun when the Yankees lose, but that was just great heads-up baseball by the ex-Royal, whose two-base steal in Game 4 turned the World Series around.

... AND WHAT'S NOT

1. Jay Leno's demise. In an interview this week, he said NBC has a lot bigger problems than his show and that in a few months people will get tired of attacking him and start writing comeback stories. He's right.

2. ABC science fiction. "Flash Forward" and "V" both looked so promising this summer. Now I find myself wondering how much better they'd have been if the SyFy channel aired them.

3. Christmas-radio Scrooges. So you don't like it when your favorite soft–rock station goes all-holiday music. Well, I don't like it when my favorite holiday music station goes all-soft rock.

What's working for me...

1. "Friday Night Lights" changes. A new assignment for Coach Taylor highlights season four ... and I won't say any more than that because most of you don't have DirecTV, which gets a head start on the season. (NBC will air the series in 2010.)

2. Charles Kuralt on the DVD. The folksy CBS newsman's "On the Road" series was a model for how to tell stories about America. A new collection of his best work is a welcome arrival.

3. Zack Grienke named AL Pitcher of the Year. The Sporting News' accurate predictor of Cy Young winners suggests that for all the coastal biases of sports media in this country, outstanding achievements can cut through the clutter.

... AND WHAT'S NOT

1. Dave's office politics. One of the few women who ever wrote for Letterman just penned a Vanity Fair piece saying there was "sexual tension" at "Late Show" and those females favored by Dave got nice opportunities that others didn't. Her remedy? Hire more women and treat them with respect. Good luck with that.

2. Cable tastes. TVByTheNumbers.com points out that Sunday's "Mad Men" averaged 1.7 million viewers ... and a "That's So Raven" repeat late Friday night averaged nearly 2.7 million viewers.

3. Microsoft backs out of deal with "Family Guy" creator. The software company two weeks ago announced it would be sponsoring a Seth MacFarlane special without apparently watching anything he'd done. Let's hope they vetted Windows 7 a little better.

What's working for me...

1. Time off. It's about time to bring the rest of the sweet potato crop in. As you can see, they don't play around!

2. "Monty Python" on IFC this week. Belovedly silly for 40 years and remembered in a great documentary miniseries. If you can't get IFC, it's on DVD ... as is just about everything the Pythons ever thought up.

3. "White Collar" on USA. The season's best new drama starts Friday, where "Catch Me If You Can" gets the TV crime procedural treatment.

... AND WHAT'S NOT

1. Losing things. Though I suppose that's better than making up things.

2. Britain's new Supreme Court televised.The UK installed a brand new independent judiciary court of final appeal Oct. 1 and will have TV cameras covering its proceedings. Our Supreme Court still doesn't.

3. Having to think of six items when it's my ... time off!

What's working for me...

1. This amazingly well-timed video:

2. This Vanity Fair article from Jim Windolf, who edited my Letterman pieces for the Observer in the 1990s. Windolf provides the long look at Dave's emotional landscape that, until a few days ago, was mostly hidden from the public.

3. The weekend's best take on President Obama's Peace Prize -- with a contrarian view of the Afghan war thrown in, all in under three minutes -- as seen on the best show you're not watching, CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS."

4. Phil Witt and Cynthia Smith, reunited for WDAF's 60th anniversary. Friday's evening news will pair a couple of familiar faces from Channel 4's heyday in the 1980s, when anchors were royalty, every newscast got a 25 share and people still talked about local TV like it belonged to the public, not the investors.

... AND WHAT'S NOT

1. Obama White House ripping on Fox News. Aides to the President declared open season on Fox, with one calling it the Republicans' PR firm and adding, "Let's not pretend they're a news network." Uh, actually it is a news network, with reporters who report. To be sure, they frame political stories differently from the rest of the pack, but what's the harm in that? The White House's real target is Fox's prime-time lineup of talk shows that are hostile to the administration. Condemning an entire channel because of Beck and Hannity, though, smacks of intolerance.

2. MLB's tortured instant replay stance. Friday's Twins-Yankees playoff game showed why baseball can't have a double standard, allowing home run calls to be reviewed but not other plays, like the foul ball that was fair by three feet -- a missed call that cost Minnesota a double, and thereby a run, and quite possibly the game.

3. NBC. Apparently setting its sights on sixth place, the formerly major network cancelled "Southland," has not one but two horrible new medical dramas and is having buyer's remorse about Jay Leno, the one dude around there who seems to know what he's doing.

What's working for me...

1. Sarah Palin. As of press time, the former governor of Alaska has issued exactly zero public statements on the mess surrounding David Letterman, who infamously tried to tell a joke about her teenage daughter having sex with a celebrity twice her age. The temptation, I'm sure, has been overwheming. If only Letterman could hold his tongue so well ... or anything else, for that matter.

2. Craig Ferguson. Not only is his new memoir, American on Purpose, a terrific read, the "Late Late Show" host had the best joke so far on his boss's troubles when he stepped out on stage Monday night: "I guess by now you've all figured out how I got the job," Ferguson said.

3. C-SPAN's Supreme Court week. The unprecedented look inside the nation's highest court continues at 8 p.m. nightly through Sunday, including full interviews with 10 of the 11 living justices (David Souter, the goofy Luddite, only agreed to give sound bites).

... AND WHAT'S NOT

1. Dave's creepy side. Leaving aside how wronged Letterman was, or how expertly he's managed the message (a debatable point), it's disappointing to hear that the middle-age loser who flirted with 20-something sexpots on stage wasn't just an act. Not to mention icky.

2. Stephanie Burkitt. So much for the girl next door. Dave's newly revealed off-camera romance with his assistant casts her dozens of on-camera appearances in a whole new light. Especially that running gag where he had her dance like her ex-boyfriend ... ew.

3. Another Royals Sunday game that mattered, not on TV. I thought the Chiefs were supposed to be getting blacked out! Next year would it kill Fox to air all 162 games?

What's working for me...

1. "The National Parks." You're not watching it this week? Even after I told you it was the best thing Ken Burns has done? You'd probably run over Ranger Rick, too. There's still hope for you -- KCPT is rerunning all 12 hours this weekend.

What's working for me...

1. The Emmys on CBS. After Sunday's pepped-up broadcast, I say we let them keep it.

What's working for me...

1. Kanye's apology. The fact he had nothing to say when Jay Leno asked what his mother would think of him now spoke volumes about how sorry he was.

what's working for me...

1. Diane Sawyer, evening news anchor. She deferred her dream to help shore up "GMA," but with Robin Roberts now helming that ship, Sawyer gets to try making "World News Tonight" No. 1 again.

2. "Sons of Anarchy" is back. This biker gang show left "The Sopranos" comparisons in its rear-view mirror last season. It returned Tuesday with a timely subplot involving economic hardship, Adam Arkin as the nicest white supremacist ever -- and one real well-done corpse.

3. 19 local Emmy nominations for Metro Sports. Eight of those were for the documentary "CityBall," more nominations than any TV station in the market.

... and what's not

1. Shows that foil your DVR. Judging from my email, people have had it with shows ending two minutes after the recorder has shut off. That's because the cut-rate listings service your cable company uses assumes everything ends when the big hand is on zero.

2. AMC is going HD -- October 1. That's almost the end of the season for "Mad Men," a series that was readily available in hi-def last season on Time Warner's HD on Demand channel.

3. Dominick Dunne, RIP. I loved his old Court TV show. Few writers made celebrities seem more real than he did.

What's working for me...

1. "Project Runway" is back. Yeah, I'm grumpy because I'm sitting at the tracks watching the show's endless PR train go by. But it's nice to see it back, especially with KC's Ari Fish on board as one of the 16 finalists.

2. Tiger Woods is fallible. For the first time in 15 majors, our generation's greatest golfer couldn't hold a third-round lead. In a sport even more renowned for individual failure than baseball, this will only push Tiger's stock higher.

3. "Watch the Pilots with Aaron" is Sept. 10. So why are you wasting time reading this? Get to StarAdvantageKC.com and click on Contests!

... AND WHAT'S NOT

1. John Edwards. A test proved he really did father that baby with a campaign worker, not the Edwards aide who took part in a sham "affair" with the mother last year. If Elizabeth's inoperable cancer and neutralization as a health-care advocate weren't so tragic, this would just be pathetic.

2. Joe Posnanski to SI. Joe's columns on baseball kept me interested in the sport far more than the Royals ever did.

3. "Death panel" added to national lexicon. Where it will join its fellow paranoid fiction, the unidentified flying object.

What's working for me...

1. Paula Abdul may be leaving "Idol." Just when America's No. 1 unscripted backstage drama seemed headed for the point of no return, its daffiest diva threatens to return the show to relative normalcy. 

2. Jay Leno breaks silence. No longer chafing at a retirement he regretted agreeing to, the new host of "The Jay Leno Show" felt free to gab with TV critics last week. Now he just needs to say something worth writing about. (Declaring himself the new king of late night would do the trick.)

3. Royals attendance way up. After all, there's nothing like experiencing Major League Baseball in person ... even if only one team is actually playing it.

... AND WHAT'S NOT

1. The O'Reilly-Olbermann "truce" that never was. The "Countdown" host denies he ever agreed to hold his fire from his Fox News nemesis, contrary to a New York Times report. At any rate, hostilities were quickly resumed in one of TV's funnest feuds.

2. NSA director calls Euna Lee and Laura Ling "girls." More than once during a "Meet the Press" interview, retired general and KC native James Jones had the chance to refer to the now-released hostages as the brave women they are ... and failed.

3. Hollywood unions protest Emmy broadcast changes. Because, you know, the Emmys are such compelling TV, why would anyone want to meddle with the format? 

What's working for me...

1. "Rush Limbaugh Karaoke." Finally, a gem out of Jimmy Fallon's "Late Night" comedy shop: Audience members warble El Rushbo's words while the Roots play along. It's less of a political diss than goofy generation-gap humor -- like when Steve Allen used to read Rolling Stones lyrics in a dull monotone -- and it's a hoot.

What's working for me...

1. Huge number of Emmy nominations for "30 Rock." It's like "Cheers" with half the audience.

What's working for me...

1. “Nurse Jackie.” Seven weeks in, I’m convinced this is the best new comedy since “30 Rock.”

What's working for me...

1. ABC's Bob Woodruff going back to Iraq. He gave several reasons for returning to the place where he was gravely injured in 2005, but he only needed one: to "get back on my horse."

What's working for me

1. Michael Jackson tributes. The funeral was over-the-top and worldwide -- but so was he. The streetmobs in New York, London and New Orleans paying tribute to the King of Pop were great. And no, I don't think it was an overreaction to blow out four days of cable TV on a slow-news summer weekend to cover his death, or his funeral on daytime TV -- Oprah's on vacation, for heaven's sake! He was an entertainer who filled countless hours of prime-time television from "The Ed Sullivan Show" to that weird Martin Bashir expose. Seen that way, this was a proportionate coda to a singular career.

What's working for me this week......

1. “Daily Show” in Iran. I agree with critics who noted that Jason Jones's satirical remotes from Tehran and Qom before the election and crackdown could not have been more poorly timed. But as a launching pad for a serious discussion of Iran, it was another step into the world of real news — which is where the country's leading fake newscast deserves to be.

What's working for me this week....

1. The return of “Better Off Ted.” Seems ABC is treating this very funny workplace comedy, set at a diabolical corporation, like it was a toxic asset. Tune in or DVR these new episodes, which return 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, so the network changes its mind.

What's working for me this week....

1. Conan! The future — and not just in the year 3000 — looks bright for NBC in late night with the hilarious redhead now in charge. "The Tonight Show" is funnier, fresher and more interesting than it's been in years. Good luck with that bumping-Law-and-Order gig, Jay.