Based on today's news, I'd have to say that Mark Felt will likely be the 2006 Rookie of the Year in a lot of dead pools. Based on his being 91, he may also wind up being MVP.

The news on NBC had a very interesting bit of tape between Nixon and Haldeman where the latter tells Nixon that Felt is the leak, and that John Dean says there's nothing they can do about him (which makes Dean's last-minute attempts to cloud Felt's naming as Deep Throat a bit mysterious). While I don't consider myself an expert on Watergate, I do wonder how widely-known this tape was prior to today. Haldeman presents Felt as the leak in no uncertain terms.

Nixon's biggest concern (well, after the question of putting Felt in irons) seemed to be Felt's religion. He asked Haldeman if Felt was Catholic, and sounded very concerned when Haldeman responded that Felt was Jewish. That Nixon, what a scamp.

In an attempt at balance, NBC did run a clip of an interview with Pat Buchanan, who stated that Deep Throat was a "snake" rather than a hero. I assume he speaks from experience. I'll grant that Felt's motivation wasn't solely altruistic (having been passed over for the FBI top job), but Buchanan just seems even more out of step here, which is saying something given his general lack of rhythm, so to speak.

As you might have noticed, I've made a bit of a reorganization at left, with one notable inclusion: Tube Boob, my new TV-based blog. I kind of missed writing about TV at length, and figured why not create an outlet for it? First entries include a bit of a recap of Hell's Kitchen, the Fox unscripted show featuring celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay.

While the course of subbing at the old high school has gotten progressively less odd, I did have a bit of a deja vu moment getting to do something I'd not done before this year: lunch duty.

The concept is simple: monitor lunch to prevent food fights and other threats to democracy. I had duty for the first and third lunch periods, getting to avoid the dreaded middle school lunch (which I did catch for the last five minutes, at least four minutes more than necessary).

To be honest, I didn't do much. While I wasn't one for aimless roaming, I often wanted to use part of my lunch for other purposes but was not allowed access to the parts of the school needed for such purposes. So when students asked to go somewhere with whatever issue sprung into their heads, I tended to let them go. My apologies to any teachers whose classes were disrupted. On the plus side, a few students said they were going to their locker and actually came back to the cafeteria.

The afternoon announcements, unusually, included a run-down of all the students in detention. A common practice in my day, it doesn't happen usually now (damaging to the student's self-esteem or the like, I imagine). When I was a student, we had one teacher who, if a certain student's name was read off as being in detention, would have his entire class cheer. Given that he was in detention a good three days out of five each week (at least it seemed that way), it was notable when you were in the library and didn't hear a cheer during announcements.

The wife had the judge shows on for a while this afternoon, and while there's always an interesting slice of humanity involved in these programs, the least comprehensible part of the viewing experience was an ad for DirecTV.

For the most part, the ad was straightforward - touting various aspects of its service, hardware, and price. What made it odd was the appearance of this woman who was just... dancing. She had no relationship to the message of the ad (other than dancing in reverse and forward again when they were talking about the joy of using a DVR), she was just there, dancing.

I'm curious what ad genius came up with the pitch, though I'm sure it was fueled by the dancers Jerry Springer used (still uses?) on stage during his show. The DirecTV Dancer wasn't dressed as provocatively, though her level of attractiveness and dancing ability was on par with Springer's Steppers. As you can imagine, neither of those comparisons is a compliment for either woman.

I didn't think there'd be an ad campaign more stupid than that for the Local Phone Company, but there you have it.

So I got to be in a parade and watch a parade today.

OK, I wasn't in a parade as much as a procession. It being the feast of Corpus Christi, we had a procession from our church to the nearby church school as part of its observance. I'd never been to a church that did this, and even here I think this is the first time they've done the procession (or at least the first time in a while). The last time I got to walk down the middle of a street like I did this morning was during our biggest blizzard of the past winter.

Then this afternoon we happened upon Beverly's Memorial Day parade by accident - we were trying to cut across downtown and there was the parade going down the street we needed to cross. We stopped to watch; pretty typical Memorial Day parade, a couple of bands and various groups of veterans. There were some current soldiers, and even a howitzer.

Last night we went and saw Revenge of the Sith, which I'd say is the best of the first three episodes, but not as good as any of the middle three. I'm not a huge Star Wars fan, so I've not tried to delve as deeply into the story as over in Craig's blog. What I can say is that the action was pretty good, large chunks of the dialog were crap, and I'm still not sold on the how or why Anakin became Vader.

As for trailers:

Fantastic Four looks like it'll finally make it into a major motion picture of reasonable quality. Michael Chiklis (BU alum) makes a good Thing, and there's nothing wrong with getting to see Jessica Alba for extended periods of time.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe looks promising, though I'm sufficiently removed from reading the Narnia books (or book; I don't know that I ever got past this one) that seeing this in the theater isn't a priority.

Sharkboy and Lava Girl, which I really wish was actually a live-action Stretch Dude and Clobber Girl.

I think that was it. Kind of a paltry collection, considering the usual nine preview buffet that gets thrown at you.

Also perplexing - the local megaplex is now charging $10 a movie. Gee, I can't wonder why the box office is off this year.

So barely a week after presenting all of next year's new shows, there's already a bunch of tinkering with casts. Shannen Doherty is no longer starring in that UPN sitcom version of Miss Match, Rachel Leigh Cook is gone from the Fox show about mental patients, and Laura San Giacamo is no longer in whatever Sex and the City knock-off the WB had going. While I can't imagine anyone bought ad time based on these specific people, there's got to be some people considering whether or not they should stop payment on the check.

On the positive side, Julie Bowen (of Carole Vessey on Ed fame) will be joining the cast of Boston Legal. Not sure if that'll get me to tune in, but if her character starts working out of a bowling alley...

My job search continues at a frustrating pace, though with my somewhat mismatched combination of work and educational background and interest in even a moderate course change career-wise, it's probably not surprising.

Still, there've been a couple of recent incidents that just seem wrong.

Back in March, I had an interview with a local public health consulting firm. Pretty basic job, entry level, but a good place for me to start over. The interview seemed to go pretty well, and it ended with a timeline that I would hear from someone else within a week. That week passed, and then another. I dashed off a quick email to the person I interviewed with to see if the timeline had changed.

To date, I've gotten no response. It's only been within the last week that the job posting was removed from their website. I've half a mind to send a sarcastic follow up email congratulating them on the hire, based on their need for someone being so desperate that they couldn't send a one-line reply to my email saying thanks but no thanks.

But of course I won't. They'll have other openings. Just hopefully interviewing with someone else.

Well before this, going back to the fall, I'd applied for a law school student affairs job at a local university. I got the regulation automated response to my email. Then nothing. That wasn't all that surprising; it's fair to say that at least half of my inquiries get, at best, the simple acknolwedgement email.

What was surprising was the automated email I got a couple weeks ago saying that my candidacy was no longer being furthered. I suppose I should be happy that the system works in such a way to let you know that their search is over, but perhaps if your application is more than six months old and has languished without more than the automatic acknowledgement, it should just be purged. In this case, perhaps better the void than the negative voice from a dimly-remembered past.

The danger of web polls: with AC Milan leading the UEFA Cup final 3-0 over Liverpool as the second half started, ESPN puts up a question asking if Liverpool can come back.

Five minutes and three goals later, the poll is moot. But I'd love to see how many people voted "no" before this huge momentum shift.

So to make matters worse with the American Idol finale, the two original songs, one of which will be the first single by whoever wins? Complete ass. I mean, makes "A Moment Like This" seem the paragon of the songwriting art ass. Ass enough to give posteriors everywhere a bad name.

Thankfully, the trend seems to be that the singles sell a lot but don't get wide airplay. Keep your fingers crossed.

I'd been meaning to wrap up all of last week's TV posts, but I'll point you over to the TV Barn instead for Aaron Barnhart's wrap up. Most notable bit there is that My Name is Earl, which I'd mocked for its casting and premise, appears to be well-liked based on clips shown at the upfront presentation. That's why it's good to read stuff from people who were actually there. In addition to my own posts, of course.

The last week or so of finales has been OK, though I've been pretty let down by the results on the various unscripted shows I watch (note that I'm using 'unscripted' instead of 'reality' from here on out given the negligible amounts of reality involved in unscripted programming). America's Next Top Model was fairly predictable, as Naima, who had won every single Cover Girl-sponsored fan vote, also won the Next Top Model title. Given the heavy involvement Cover Girl has with the show (big contract plus heavy advertising presence), Naima's win seems pretty calculated, although she was someone seen as a front-runner at the start.

American Idol wraps tonight, thankfully, as it's not that much fun watching an entire season of foregone conclusion. Carrie, the countrified Oklahoman, was being touted as the eventual winner by Simon back in semifinals. Bo, the rocker, also enjoyed front-runner treatment, especially when Constantine was outed as a poser rather than a rocker. The final at least seems like more of a contest than last year, though they could have held the final in March.

The worst, though, was The Apprentice finale, which was both anti-climactic and a mess from a production standpoint. Which is why I'll go the Dinan route and offer:

MAKING IT BETTER: The Apprentice finale.

1. We do not need 15 to 20 commercial-free minutes to recap the entire season at the start of the finale, especially when the finale is only an hour long (which it should remain). Five minutes giving an overview of how each contestant got to the final, and a recap of the final tasks, should be fine.

2. Interview the firees who help the finalists in a private boardroom, not as part of the finale. I think the producers were hoping for more recriminations, but the time lag allowed Tana to mend fences with her team, resulting in little dissention (and what there was was colored by the fact that the person who uttered them, Chris, is now working with Kendra on outside business projects). The teams will give more honest feedback fresh from the occasion.

3. The bit where the boardroom walls slide back to reveal that they're actually in an auditorium for the finale? That was cool. Bring it back.

4. Either end the show with the hiring or give some time to let the new apprentice introduce family and friends. Kendra got to hug some strangers who I assume were family and/or friends, but we never got to find out.

5. No more Omarosa. Granted, she was only the focus of a crowd shot rather than having input, but her relevance to the show drops dramatically with each new season. Let her crawl back under whatever rock she calls home.

And finally, U!P!N!

THE NEW

UPN created a new Thursday night of comedies, and seems very proud of being the only network with a full two hour block of sitcoms on that night. It'll lead off with Everybody Hates Chris, a show inspired by Chris Rock's childhood (Rock will also narrate). While it sounds like most other sitcoms - main character tries to deal with fitting in at school and issues at home - I'd like to think that Rock will be able to do something with it.

Love, Inc. is at the other end of the comedy block. Shannen Doherty and Holly Robinson Peete star as dating consultants who help men and women put their best foot forward when trying to land a significant other. Of course, Doherty's candidate can't find a man for her own self.

The only new drama for the fall is Sex, Lies & Secrets (I suppose videotape is passe in the age of DVD). It sounds like The O.C. for an older crowd, as it follows the relationships between a group of Hollywood-area friends who, as TV dictates, often find that the best way to preserve friendships is to keep things from each other. Denise Richards stars, though sadly not opposite former hubby Charlie Sheen.

Midseason will offer us the J.Lo. produced South Beach, which has two guys moving to Miami, one who follows his ex-girlfriend into the glitz, the other enticed more to the underbelly. Really, I couldn't care less.

THE OLD

Kevin Hill is the most notable new cut, while Veronica Mars gets its old slot after America's Next Top Model. UPN seems pretty reliant on its fashion-focused unscripted show, as a rerun of the previous week's show will air on Tuesday. WWE Smackdown! ships out to Friday, in preparation of it moving to USA for 2006 and beyond.

Suffice it to say I only watch one show on UPN, and that'll likely continue.

Fox announced its lineup for 2005-06 this morning, and nearly gave me a stroke when I couldn't find 24 among the listings. Turns out the rundown I was reading had fall '05 and January '06 schedules, where Keifer and company reside.

THE NEW

Prison Break has already started airing promos. The show revolves around a guy who gets himself thrown into prison to bust out his brother, who's on death row. It's in 24's time slot for the fall, which may make Monday at 9 eastern the most violent time slot in television next season.

Bones is about forensic anthropoligist and author Dr. Temperance Brennan, whose skill is, you guessed it, looking at bones to figure out what happened to their former owner. It's billed as a "darkly amusing drama" and is apparently based on a real-life forensic anthropologist and author. The always-brooding David Boreanaz is cast as a special agent who finds himself working with the good doctor when the need arises, even though he's skeptical of science and scientists when it comes to solving crimes. Because, really, where did DNA testing get us?

This airs before House, which seems like a pretty good fit.

Head Cases is about a pair of lawyers who are both recovering from mental problems, played by Chris O'Donnell and Adam Goldberg. They create their own offbeat, slightly disturbed practice while O'Donnell's character tries to reconnect with his son and maintain a connection with a woman (played by Rachel Leigh Cook) he met at the "wellness center" he stayed at post-breakdown.

Lots of star power, which it'll need for its Wednesday at 9 eastern slot.

Reunion follows six people from their high school graduation to their 20th reunion. Each episode covers one year of their lives, but there is reference back to the current day, when the death of one of the friends is being investigated.

There's not that much star power here, which is a real problem with its Thursday at 9 eastern slot. I fear that, unless the death actually occurred in 1992, we may never learn what happened.

The Gate - which is still listed as a working title, concerningly - follows officers of the San Francisco Police Department's Deviant Crime Unit. The duo at the center are a cop who went AWOL for a year after the death of his partner and his new, by the book partner who may have a vested interest in making his return a failure.

The show reads kind of like it was made in the TV drama chem lab - a pinch of The X-Files, dashes of the various Law & Orders, etc. It's buried on Friday.

There are two new sitcoms. One, The War at Home, gets the Sunday slot between The Simpsons and Family Guy. Though I don't know why - it reads like a cross between Malcolm in the Middle (now airing Fridays after The Bernie Mac Show) and Grounded For Life.

The other new comedy is Kitchen Confidential, based on the great book by Tony Bourdain. My main concern here is that the show will in no way live up to the book, whose exploits, while often comical, can be a little too edgy for network TV.

Nicholas Brendon becomes the second Buffy alum to wind up on Fox, playing one of the chefs that Jack Bourdain hires when he's given a shot at turning around a top NYC restaurant - in 48 hours.

I'll probably watch, and will likely be slightly disappointed.

Midseason offers little - The Loop is about a guy who is the first of his circle of friends to land a serious job, but who also wants to keep up with their serious social lives. Free Birds is kind of a burnout variant of Ed, where a guy returns home after spending his college years partying. He may wind up with the hot girl from high schoo, or he may continue to drink his life away with a former high school BMOC.

THE OLD

A lot of surprises among sitcoms, as both Arrested Development and The Bernie Mac Show got picked up. The former is Kitchen Confidential's lead in on Mondays until House takes their spot in January to accomodate American Idol's normal Tuesday slot. The latter leads in to Malcolm on Friday.

Stacked got picked up as well, a rare mid-season success. There was no listing for The Simple Life, perhaps the only meaningful result to the Paris Holton - Nicole Richie feud. There's talk Paris will be back with Kimberly Stewart (who appears to be even more blonde and vacuous than Hilton), though if we all think happy thoughts, we might be spared.

Both Trading Spouses and Nanny 911 aren't scheduled, either, but are likely to return as holes need plugging.

CBS presented its fall lineup today. To wit:

THE NEW

Threshold joins Fathom and Invasion in that oddly popular genre of aquatic-based paranormal drama. I was only partially kidding yesterday when I said that the first two shows were actually shot at the same time. Now, considering the economy of scale, I firmly believe that all three shows are being made in some sort of joint project involving NOAA, SETI@Home, and various branches of the US military. The one difference is that I've heard of a number of the actors involved in this project: Charles S. Dutton, Brent Spiner, and Carla Gugino.

Data or no Data, I'm still not going to watch this show about the discovery of a UFO landing in the Atlantic Ocean. Even if CBS had the good sense to use a body of water that actually exists.

Ghost Whisperer has nothing to do with Nicholas Sparks novels, thankfully. It does star Jennifer Love Hewitt, though, so we don't get off that easily. She apparently can hear the pleas of the dead, asking for help or things she cant' quite figure out. Kind of a Tru of Arcadia, but without the God or the need to make up actors as cadavers.

Both of these shows air on Friday before Numb3rs, which should be cold comfort indeed for Rob Morrow.

Close to Home is a prosecutorial drama set in the 'burbs, kind of a Law & Order: Desperate Housewives. Jerry Bruckheimer ends his run of vaugely sexual-sounding titles with this one. The prosecutor is a new mom who takes on the toughest cases, "fueled by her passion to protect her community and her family." In other words, a soccer mom with the keys to the electric chair. Yikes.

Criminal Minds is yet another show about criminal profilers, but the involvement of Mandy Patankin leaves hope that at least some of the serial killers they'll hunt have a love for over-the-top Broadway numbers. Thomas Gibson co-stars, as the first part of CBS's plan to bring back Dharma and Greg without actually bringing the show back comes to pass.

Oh yeah, this gets to air opposite Lost and E-Ring. Good luck!

The first of the two new sitcoms is How I Met Your Mother, which is set in flashback as man tells how he met his spouse. Good: Allyson Hannigan is involved. OK: Bob Saget only does the voice-overs. Egad: Neil Patrick Harris plays the wacky friend of the main character, kind of a grown Eddie Haskell for the 21st century.

It gets the gift of the time slot between The King of Queens and Two and a Half Men, so we'll at least get one full season of the show.

Out of Practice is an ensemble piece about a family of doctors. PAULA MARSHALL ALERT!!! She's in a cast that includes Stockard Channing and Henry Winkler, both of whom have their most recent experience playing medical types (First Lady Dr. Abagail Bartlet and the dentist who had the bug-crusing fetish on The Practice).

(Correction: Winkler has more recently been seen as the Bluth family attorney on Arrested Development and as a hotshot pathologist on Crossing Jordan. Kudos to Craig for the catch.)

It airs in-between Two and a Half Men and CSI: Miami, so we'll see how strong Marshall's show-crushing power really is with this one.

Mid-season brings two shows, most notably Everything I Know About Men starring Jenna Elfman. She plays a secretary trying to sort out men, completely unlike that woman Heather Graham is playing over on ABC. I'd love to see these two get scheduled against each other, for chaos purposes. In addition, it's apparently based on an awful British sitcom. Did they run out of good ones to filch?

(Oh, and to feed into my David Mamet comment yesterday, he's involved in the other mid-season replacement, the special ops drama The Unit.)

THE OLD

Among the shows getting the boot are Joan of Arcadia (quite a crash and burn there), Judging Amy, and Listen Up! (too bad PTI is pre-empted today). Some movement among returning sitcoms in the wake of Everybody Loves Raymond, but nothing major.

I hope the presentation lived up to standards (Les Moonves apparently puts on quite a show), because on paper these all sound pretty unremarkable.

Today's other upfront: ABC

THE NEW

Commander-in-Chief stars Geena Davis as the first female President of the US, who assumes the office from the Vice Presidency after the elected President dies of some illness (but not before asking her to step down so someone "more appropriate" can take her place).

Cast includes Donald Sutherland and Kyle Secor (among others), and may just be interesting enough for me to watch. Until they make that first "joke" about nuclear weapons and POTUS's Aunt Flo, at which point I will stop watching and not return.

The first contender for becoming the Tony Danza of his generation is Freddie Prinze, Jr., thanks to his sitcom Freddie. He plays the title character (though wouldn't it be great if he didn't?), a chef who take in various generations of female relatives when his brother-in-law dies. Send it back!

Those sea creatures from Fathom may be involved in Invasion, a drama about a Florida park ranger whose daughter sees lights on the ocean during a hurricane. When his ex-wife turns up naked and without memories of where she was during the storm, his curiosity picks up. Turns out rather than riding the storm out on a bender, she may have been on the front lines of a battle for humanity.

Like Fathom, I've never heard of anyone starring in this show (though William Fichtner, who plays the local sherrif, looks familiar). Are we sure this and Fathom aren't the same show with slightly different edits? Would anyone notice?

David Cassidy continues his interest in freakiness with this show, while Thomas Schlamme may be suffering from some sort of post-The West Wing trauma.

The Night Stalker is a reprise of the 1970s show about a reporter named Carl Kolchak who investigates the supernatural to help solve his wife's killing. The original is supposed to be great, a kind of proto-The X Files, though I've never seen it. Given ABC's treatment of this kind of show, expect L.A. Night Stalker to anchor Saturday nights for three weeks in September 2006.

Unless its Thursday at 9 time slot proves deadly (giving CSI the chance to investigate a death it caused).

ABC blew up it's TGIF line-up - again - moving Supernanny to the first hour, keeping Hope and Faith and putting in new show Hot Properties, aka Sex and the Listings. It's a sitcom about four Manhattan-based women who work in a non-cutthroat real estate office. I am praying for David Mamet to take over the show for a sweeps period. Gail O'Grady and Nicole Sullivan star.

Two new show will debut when Monday Night Football makes its swan song: Emily's Reasons Why Not, aka Heather Graham's Diary, and What About Brian, a drama about a guy who is the last single man standing among his married friends. Rather than Jonathan Silverman, we get 7th Heaven's Barry Watson as Brian.

There are several listed mid-season replacements, most notable The Miracle Workers, aka Extreme Makeover: Terminal Edition. Every week, doctors use cutting edge medicine to save a patient with some sort of serious condition. Over/under on the number of episodes next season dealing with conjoined twins: three.

THE OLD

Hard to tell what was more surprising: the dumping of Eight Simple Rules and My Wife and Kids or the pick-up of Jake In Progress. Stamos must have some dirt.

It's easier to note what shows didn't move on the ABC schedule: current Sunday nights stay the same, and Lost stays in its Wednesday slot. Otherwise, check local listings.

The Bachelor will return in January - why? - and Less Than Perfect is slated for mid-season as well.

Outside of President Davis, none of the new stuff is really appealing. And it's a good thing I mostly watch ABC on Sunday; I won't have to go hunting for shows.

Today's first upfront: The WB.

THE NEW

Just Legal sounds a little too much like Barely Legal for my taste; I'm assuming it's Jerry Bruckheimer, as he's involved with both this show and with E-Ring. A better title would be Doogie Howser, JD, as this show is about a kid who graduates from law school at 18, and finds the only job offer comes from an ambulance chaser played by Don Johnson.

Woo hoo.

Supernatural is a cross between The X-Files and Route 66, as two brothers cross the country in their '69 Impala trying to do what their father can't: silence the supernatural forces that led to the death of their mother 20 years previously.

The show stars two "breakout" stars, one each from Gilmore Girls and Smallville, though I have no idea who they are. Hey, I'm a 35 year old male. I've not been in The WB's target demo for years, if ever.

This could work, and probably won't be hurt by airing after Gilmore Girls.

Related explores relationships through the lives of four sisters living in NYC(kind of a familial Sex and the City, no surprise as the WB show's creator also worked on this). I can't imagine this being better than the TBS re-runs of Sex and the City, but I suppose they'll do the best they can.

Most notable star is Laura San Giacomo, formerly of Just Shoot Me.

All of The WB's sitcoms are on the weekend now, and the lone new one is Twins. Beauty versus brains is the theme here, as a pair of twins (one book-smart, the other a lingerie model) take over the family undergarment business from their parents, who also embody the conflict (parents played by Melanie Griffith and Mark Linn-Baker; I'll let you decide which person embodies what quality).

Sara Gilbert plays the brainy twin; now if we can only get the kid who played DJ Conner a gig.

There are a bunch of mid-season possibilities, of which I'll only mention Misconceptions, a sitcom about a single mother (Jane Leeves) who finds out that her daughter wasn't the product of the Ivy League Sperm Bank, but some slacker who got his boys into cryo somehow. Will Ming Na get sued for malpractice?

THE OLD

Pretty much all the hour long shows are back, expect for Jack and Bobby. Living with Fran got picked up, for those of you still coasting on memories of The Nanny. Everwood gets moved to Thursday at 9 (eastern), putting it up against CSI, The Apprentice, and The OC. Ouch.

While the new stuff doesn't sound awful, I stopped watching The WB when Buffy moved to UPN, and I don't see myself going back.

As Dinan mentioned a few days ago, this week brings us the network TV upfront presentations, where the new fall lineups are trotted out in the hopes that advertisers will buy up as much air time "up front" as possible. Given their announced schedule for next season, NBC better hope the open bar works in their favor, at least where the new shows are concerned.

THE NEW

Fathom posits what it would be like if a new oceanic life-form was discovered by a bunch of people played by actors you've never heard of. Seriously, this could be the fake show on Joey. I'm also worried that the promo blurb on the NBC website mentions something called the "South Antarctic Sea," which I'm pretty sure doesn't exist.

My Name is Earl is a sitcom about a low-level hood who wins the lottery and tries to go straight. The blurb promises a show with "a voice and style all its own," which is about the best thing you can say about the combination of Jason Lee and Jamie Pressley.

The Apprentice: Martha Stewart shouldn't be a surprise, but what was surprising to me is that this will run along with the Trump version (but the day before and an hour earlier). I'd have much rather given The Donald a half-season off. That would be a good thing.

E-Ring sounds like it should be about a sex toy, but it's actually about intrigue within the Pentagon. It stars Benjamin Bratt and, in what may be the strangest casting ever, Dennis Hopper as military types trying to keep the military-industrial complex from crashing and burning. I suppose this is NBC's attempt to atone for/get the fans of JAG back on board.

Speaking of sex toys, Inconcievable is a drama set at a fertility clinic. The blurb suggests that the drama will be more personal than natal, which to my mind makes it sound like a fairly typical medical drama, but without the gore. Ming Na furthers her reach into the sub-specialty of medical acting by starring alongside unknown people deemed insufficiently awed by the majesty of the ocean to be in Fathom.

Finally, NBC jumps on the personal makeover bandwagon with Three Wishes, hosted by Amy Grant. She and her team go to small town America and change the lives for people who need help, blah blah blah.

Mid-season will bring two sitcoms: Thick and Thin about a newly thin and single woman, and Four Kings about four young people on the cusp of adulthood, aka Friends: The Next Generation. Seth Green stars in the latter, which may or may not help.

THE OLD

Most notable change here is that The West Wing gets moved to Sunday at 8 pm, making all sorts of ripe cross-marketing potential with the installment of Dateline that'll air before it. E-Ring gets its old slot.

Most notable omission from the schedule is Scrubs. From what I've read elsewhere, it and Fear Factor will return mid-season to plug holes.

While theoretically new, NBC is returning to an old practice of showing movies on Saturday, though they also mention airing reurns of current shows to give them more exposure. Good luck with that.

Canada will be facing the Czech Republic in the finals of the world hockey championships. Not that you'd know this if you lived in the US. Seems that no one here is airing the tournament, even though (according to Sports Illustrated) the broadcast rights were offered to American networks for free.

I know we're all on the outs with hockey because of the NHL lockout and all, but c'mon. Would we rather have the 2983rd airing of the 2003 World Series of Poker

(OK, based on ratings, "we" probably would.)

Still, this irritates me. Time to dash off some emails (Dear Sir: I am not a crackpot...)

I was a little surprised to learn yesterday that one of the churches we used to go to in Wellesley, St. James the Great, has had a vigil going 24/7 since last Halloween. Given how often we went only to see the place a quarter full, I don't think I'd ever have suspected that they could pull this off.

What brought this to my attention was a lawsuit brought against the archdiocese of Boston by the wife of the man who sold the land that St. James sits on to the archdiocese. The interesting wrinkle in this lawsuit is the claim that the sale was conditional on the property being used as a church. The plaintiff wants either a church open or her land back.

I can't imagine the archdiocese is too thrilled about this - they bought the property in 1948 for $12,000 and it now has an estimated value of $10 million. Given that there were a few closings where the likely value of the property seemed to play a little more heavily in the decision-making, this could be a case of the archdiocese getting caught with it's hand in the wafer jar.

In a completely unrelated bit of news, it looks like neighboring Salem is getting a statue of Samantha Stevens, the witch played by Elizabeth Montgomery on Bewitched. TV Land is apparently behind this, seeing it as a natural link between honoring the show and Salem's witch-filled history.

Personally I think it's one of those reasonably harmless but stupid things, given that the show had nothing to do with Salem. It'd be like putting a statue of Marcus Welby at the entrance to Mass General because doctors work there.

While griping about the amount of pre-Super Bowl coverage is almost as cliched as "only watching the game for the commercials," I think I've found a new champion in pointless pre-event coverage: the Kentucky Derby.

Thanks to the combined efforts of ESPN and NBC, you could have watched a minimum of eight hours of pre-race programming for an event that takes roughly two minutes. ESPN did pretty much the entire day from Churchill Downs, only stopping when NBC started.

Twenty horses ran the race this year, which means that each horse could have gotten 24 minutes of pre-race coverage. Which only makes it more entertaining that the horse that did win, second-biggest-ever upset-winner Giacomo, got about 12 seconds of pre-race coverage.

I'm also a little irritated that they've pushed post time to after 6 pm. After all the pointless pre-race filler, the extra time for pointless post-race filler is just piling on.

Which of these car names is worse: the Ford Aspire or the Suzuki Esteem?

I've generally been of the notion that the Aspire was the worst car name in recent history, as it suggests that the owner should aspire to a better ride. But the Suzuki entry goes even farther, suggesting that owning the tiny car with this name is some sort of path to personal betterment. When, in truth, the opposite is likely true.

In an unrelated note, much has been made of the crazy eyes of "Runaway Bride" Jennifer Wilbanks, but I'd also like to direct some attention to her carbon copy smile. It's not unusual for someone to put on a smile for a photo, but she has the same exact smile in every picture. That she seemed incapable of generating honest happiness when posing for snaps with her beau should have been a warning sign.

Then again, he's still ready to make with the matrimony, so he may need larger, more neon-laden signs than the average guy.