When writer-producer Shaun Cassidy was at a press conference to talk about his new series, "Invasion," he noted that the success of "Lost" had made it easier to get networks to look at serialized shows where the readers are kept guessing. So, later on, I asked him if his 1995-96 series "American Gothic" would have had a better chance today.

"Absolutely," he said. "On the right network. I mean, the network is everything, and the understanding of the network is huge. When you're doing a show that is so dependent on the vision of the people behind the show … you kind of have to trust the guy or the woman who is creating the show. …

"With 'American Gothic' … there was nothing on TV like it," he said. " 'Twin Peaks' was gone. 'Twin Peaks' explored similar territory but was even, I think, art-school than 'American Gothic.' 'X-Files' was on (but) … 'X-Files' itself is a procedural. Those are FBI agents solving the crime of the week, and there's a bigger mythology — but (shows like "American Gothic" and "Lost") are open-ended, serialized mysteries. They're like Dickens stories, almost, very character-driven."

And will we ever see more of the show? '"There's been a lot of talk about making a movie," Cassidy said. And the series "is coming out on DVD, like in October, I think." That may suggest that the audience is now more interested in shows like "Gothic" but Cassidy thinks there's another explanation for the DVD: "Gothic" also involved Sam Raimi, now a very big name thanks to the "Spider-Man" movies.

A couple of days later, "Nip/Tuck" creator Ryan Murphy was on hand to talk about that series, which begins its third season on Sept. 20. After the press conference, I asked him about "Popular," a serialized comedy-drama he oversaw, which ran for two seasons on The WB. (Both seasons are available on DVD, although fans have noted that the DVD versions have some different music from the original series.) Could the post-"Lost" appetite for shows with open-ended storylines mean that "Popular" would do better today?

"I think 'Popular' was way ahead of its time," Murphy said. "When I read a lot of reviews of that movie 'Mean Girls,' they mentioned 'Popular,' which I thought, oh, that's interesting, that we sort of helped give birth to that. …

"That show ("Popular") was on the wrong network," he said. "They never got it. They never knew what it was. They never knew how to market it. … At that point, everything on that network looked the same. And the notes that I'd get would be, 'Can you make it more '"Dawson's Creek"?' And I would say, 'No.' I would have been thrilled if we had three years and off. The fact that it was two years, I felt a little robbed."

And if he could do it today, how would it be different? "Darker," he said. "I think I would have done a 'Desperate Housewives' thing and there would have been a murder. … I would have had those cheerleaders be killing people. I would have made it really dark."

I have a couple of last-day stories from the TV critics' press tour. But first, it's great to be back in Ohio, back with my family, back in my home. And I'm here after being there at the end of the press tour, as they were turning out the lights. Literally. I'll come back to that.

Friday, that last day, included a session for "Reunion," a new Fox drama that ambitiously follows the lives of six friends over 20 years, roughly one year per episode. One cast member is Michael St. Patrick of "Six Feet Under" fame, and he mentioned in answer to someone's question that he had never gone to his high school prom.

Well, you can't let a comment hang in the air like that, so I asked why he had not gone to the prom.

"I got kicked out of high school," he said. "I graduated the same year, but I had gotten kicked out of high school halfway through, and I had a very bitter taste in my mouth. … I did go to (another) school, but it just kind of wasn't the same. … High school wasn't the greatest experience to me."

You can probably see what was going through my mind: Why did he get kicked out of high school? So I had to ask that.

"A combination of things," he said. "Pretty much because I didn't believe in being disrespected, and sometimes you've got to stand up for yourself, and if that means throwing some other things away to kind of keep the integrity of certain things alive, then that's what you've got to do. … They threw me out. I walked into another door. I still got the same diploma."

I suppose I should have pressed for specifics. After all, several days earlier, I had been at a press conference with the actress Jessica Capshaw. She had mentioned drawing on her own insecurity to play her character, and I asked her what insecurity she drew on.

"I think as, with any human being, it's probably time-specific. It's probably at what period you are in . … " she said, avoiding a direct answer.

Because of her vagueness, I said, "I'm still not hearing any specifics." And I didn't get any.

So why did I push Jessica Capshaw but not Michael St. Patrick? Maybe because with St. Patrick, we were already in specific, uncomfortable territory — he had, after all, brought up being kicked out of high school — and Capshaw wasn't even close to there. Maybe because it was the last day of the tour, and I had just run out of push.

It's a judgment call, you see. There was another one on Friday, when Stacy Keach was part of a press conference for a new Fox show called "Prison Break."

The show is using a real, old prison for its setting, and someone asked the actors what it felt like to be working in a prison. Keach actually did jail time in England in 1984 on a drug-smuggling charge, so his answer could have been especially revealing.

I sat there, thinking, how do I ask that question? Then I thought, maybe that's a question better asked to him directly, in a small group after the press conference, where it's handled a little more discreetly — and his answer might be better. So I was biding my time, when one of my colleagues made a direct charge: "Stacy, you bring some expertise to this because you're the one person who has been a prisoner in the past …"

"I knew you'd bring that up," Keach said.

The reporter then asked Keach what his jail was like compared to the one used in "Prison Break." And he gave a long answer, noting that the cells in his English prison were much more closed off  — ''steel doors rather than open bars, a slit in the window as opposed to the ability to see what's going on outside," Keach said. "There were no toilets in the cell. There were just buckets."

The reporter asked a follow-up, and Keach answered that, too, including the observation that the warden of his jail was similar to the warden Keach plays in "Prison Break." After the press conference, I admiringly told the reporter that he had gone into an area that had made me hesitant. Too hesitant, in fact.

Anyway, to jump to the end of the day: Aside from a party in Santa Monica with Fox stars Friday night (which I skipped, since I had a red-eye later that night and did not want to get jammed up), the last session was with an organization called TV Watch.

According to its press materials, TV Watch "opposes government control of TV programming and promotes the use of tools like content ratings and parental controls." Although the organization doesn't know how to hold a press conference — once again, I found myself interrupting an overlong presentation to ask when we reporters would get to ask questions — there was some information of interest.

After the session, I found myself in follow-up chats with "The West Wing's" Richard Schiff and then "American Dreams" writer-producer Jonathan Prince. Plenty of material for a future column or columns. As the conversations went on, the lights were being turned out in the meeting room and pieces of the set were being taken down around us. It was real don't-let-the-door-hit-you kind of moment.

Since Prince always seems reluctant to end any chat with reporters, he continued to talk as we wandered from the stage to the back of the hall, then talked some more. I eventually left, and saw some time later that Prince was on the same spot, still talking to a few other scribes. You can see why reporters like him.

That night, you could find a fleet of trucks outside the Beverly Hilton as the detritus of the tour sets and equipment were being loaded up. By early evening, the computers had been stripped from the press room. The hotel was still functioning just fine, but there was still a touch of a ghost town to it, because all of us settlers were saddling up and heading out.

Me among them, although the long day and night still included things like spending an hour in a line at Los Angeles airport, waiting to go through the security gates. (There were seven flights leaving the terminal between 12:30 and 1:30 a.m., an airport worker told me, and things were not set up to accommodate such a crowd.) But eventually I got to my plane — and back to the real world.

In about 24 hours I will be catching a shuttle to the airport and a red-eye back to Ohio. And not a moment too soon.

I am sitting in the press room of the Beverly Hilton in part to write this blog, in part because I have had enough of my hotel room, nice though it may be. After a couple of weeks here, the walls are closing in. The pattern in the hallway tiles is pressed into my brain. Naps and recreational viewing of IFC are not keeping me calm.

Don't get me wrong. I get a lot of value out of this trip. I accumulate plenty of material, as the stories in the Beacon Journal and the postings on this blog should indicate. I also get to see friends from around the country. The hotel has been great, and Beverly Hills still has an air of style and wealth. (The other day, I was approached by a panhandler. He asked for 20 bucks — and had the look of an undertipped maitre d' when I just gave him a couple of dollars.)

But I've been here long enough. I miss my home, my family, my church. This happens on a press tour, especially as the end nears. In fact, it feels as if a lot of people checked out mentally last night, after the ABC party.

Today's sessions for Fox dragged; the gaps between questions could stretch long as reporters tried to think of another question. That was true even for shows that some people liked, such as "Kitchen Confidential." It was even more the case for shows that have generated little or no enthusiasm. A session for "Head Cases" was supposed to last 45 minutes but ended 15 minutes earlier than that.

(Of course, even when critics are rested, they sometimes vote with their silence. Earlier in the tour, a session for NBC's "Inconceivable" threatened to end after just a handful of questions. A producer of the show then began talking — unasked — about the origins of the show, until finally people stirred themselves enough to ask questions.)

Today reporters rationed their energy out to the first session of the day, with Fox Entertainment President Peter Liguori, and the last, with the cast and producers of "House." (On the latter, one big story this season will be Dr. House's relationship with an old flame, played by SelaWard; after appearing in two episodes last season, Ward is signed for seven of the first 13 in the coming year.)

In between, the only thing of even passing interest was writer-producer Darren Star's trying to slice the definition of a sitcom very thin. The term comes from situation comedy, but Star argued that the term should only refer to the three-camera comedies in the tradition of "I Love Lucy," not comedies like his new one, "Kitchen Confidential."

"It's a single-camera, filmed comedy," he said, alluding to a production style also used by the likes of "Arrested Development" and "Malcolm in the Middle." "There's a level of reality to this in terms of the way the show's filmed, the way it's written. … It sort of has, you know, different laws."

But still a sitcom.

Liguori, meanwhile, took the heat over what, if anything, Fox is doing about the allegations about "American Idol's" Paula Abdul. The network and the production companies behind the show have hired an unidentified independent counsel to look into the situation, Liguori said, and he tried to withhold comment until the investigation is done.

But reporters kept asking about it, trying to figure out where Fox would draw the line. Liguori conceded that the investigation is focused only on the allegations about Abdul. He noted that many viewers love her and ''she continues to get support." And he indicated that the key issue will be whether Abdul did something that affected "the credibility of the competition."

Abdul questions were woven throughout the press conference, never better than when one reporter asked about the new season of "24."

"It's going to take, I think, some bamboo shoots for me to talk about '24,' " Liguori said. "Complete lockdown (about stories) … has been our policy."

"Then I'm going to ask another Paula Abdul question," the reporter replied.

For those of who have so often asked me when "Nip/Tuck" will be back, here's the official answer from FX: Sept. 20. It's a 90-minute telecast, the first of 15 shows in the season.

More than 20 years ago, Cotter Smith played Robert Kennedy opposite Robert Blake's Jimmy Hoffa in the movie "Blood Feud." Now Smith is co-starring in "Night Stalker," ABC's updating of the old horror movies and series.

So, how could I not ask Smith what was scarier — "Night Stalker" or Blake?

Working with Blake "was scary," Smith said after a "Night Stalker" press conference. "He was wonderful with me, but I was afraid of him. And he admitted it,  he was a troubled man. He hadn't worked in a long time when we did 'Blood Feud' — hadn't worked in years because he was such a loose cannon."

It was also scary because the movie was Smith's first, and among his earliest TV appearances after working in theater.

"I was in with some big guys," he said. "I got the job three days before we started shooting, and I didn't even know how to hit a mark. … It was a huge change. … And working with not only Robert Blake but Danny Aiello and Brian Dennehy and Jose Ferrer and Ernest Borgnine — that was an extraordinary cast, and I had scenes with all of them. I was a greenhorn; Blake used to call me 'kid.' It was very daunting but extremely exciting. … (Director) Mike Newell said to me when it was over, 'You realize you just got spoiled? And it'll be 10 years before you ever have this kind of experience again?' And he was right."

In "Commander In Chief," a new series starring Geena Davis as a vice president who suddenly ascends to the nation's top office, Davis plays a character whose last name is Allen. The last name of the dead president in the series is Bridges. Five years ago, "Commander In Chief" creator Rod Lurie made a movie called "The Contender," in which Joan Allen played a nominee for vice president and Jeff Bridges played the president.

No coincidence, either."I've been talking for years to Joan about doing something like this (series)," Lurie told me after the "Commander" press conference. "When the idea came up, she said she couldn't do it. Lives in New York, all sorts of reasons. So I told her, "I'm going to make you remember this forever. I'm going to call her Allen.' And then I said, may as well call (the president) Bridges. Connect the two. I think they both happen to have great names."

The time zone issue mentioned in the comment on my earlier "Dancing With the Stars" posting did indeed come up at the press conference, and it will be in a story I have in the Beacon Journal on Thursday. (And thanks for the comment.)

But here's the news of the day: ABC has decided to do two weekly telecasts when it brings back "Dancing," one for performance and the judges' comments, the second announcing the results after the viewers have voted. That will eliminate the split voting — the viewers for an earlier performance, the judges for the most recent — that was a problem for some viewers of the series this season.

This is how you put people in seats for bad press conferences: Bait.

The end of today's sessions was one for "Dancing With the Stars," whose bizarre scoring system, semi-controversial finish and ratings success all made it the subject of considerable curiosity and passion for some TV critics. It was the biggest topic of the day, almost as big as the talk about TV Guide's planned reformatting.

It also finally cleared up something I had never really understood from the telecasts: How the scoring worked, and at least one reason why it was so weird. The details of scoring are still posted online, and you can find a link here: Dance scores.

As for why it was weird — with the judges evaluating one performance on one night, while the viewer vote was based on the previous week's performance — it boiled down to ABC's unwillingness to devote two shows a week (one for performance, the second for results) to a show that was untried in the U.S. Given the success of the first series, it may go for two nights a week in the second run — although no one is promising that.

There was more from the press conference, most of it defending the first season's results. But instead of obsessing, let's flash back to how '"Dancing" was used as bait.

ABC has a couple of sitcoms that are quite bad, that are in fact both in contention for a lot of critics' worst-new-show list. So where did the network schedule press conferences for "Hot Properties" and "Freddie"? In a nice hammock between a session for "Boston Legal" and one for "Dancing."

"Boston Legal" might get you into the room, since it's a successful show and has a marquee cast. Still, if you wanted to be sure of a good seat for "Dancing," you also had to camp out through "Hot Properties" and "Freddie."

That's not as bad as, say, sleeping on concrete outside an arena all night to get Grateful Dead tickets. But at least when you're waiting for tickets, you don't have to watch people explaining that their bottled swill is Perrier.

Did I do it anyway? Sure. Even asked a question here and there. You have to pass the time somehow, and it would have been bad form to break out a harmonica and start a sing-along to "Uncle John's Band."

And here's a local nugget from the network: Eddie McClintock, the former Canton resident co-starring on mid-season comedy '"The Crumbs," will indeed get to wear a Canton Hoover sweatshirt in the series premiere.

I noticed the shirt in the pilot and asked series creator Marco Pennette if the shirt will stay in the show when it airs or if scenes will be reshot, since '"The Crumbs" is set in New England. He said the shirt's a go. Eddie, meanwhile, missed the "Crumbs" press conference because he's shooting a movie. That means he missed seeing co-star William Devane kick off his sandals and go through the press conference barefoot…

ABC also announced the premiere dates for its fall shows, as follows:

Sept. 12 — "Wife Swap."

Sept. 20 — "According to Jim."

Sept. 21 — "Lost," "Invasion."

Sept. 23 — "Supernanny," "Hope & Faith."

Sept. 25 — "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," "Desperate Housewives," "Grey's Anatomy."

Sept. 27 — "Commander in Chief," "Boston Legal."

Sept. 28 — "George Lopez."

Sept. 29 — "Alias," "Night Stalker."

Oct. 2 — "America's Funniest Home Videos."

Oct. 4 — "Rodney."

Oct. 5 — "Freddie."

Oct. 7 — "Hot Properties."

Notes from the NBC stars' party Monday:

– It was good to talk to Martin Mull, who is co-starring in the NBC comedy '"Thick and Thin," because his upbringing in Northeast Ohio has made him a fierce Indians and Browns fans. He considers Bernie Kosar a friend, and has suited up for practice with the Browns. (He's a placekicker, proudly noting that when he was 50 he still managed a 50-yard field goal.)

He catches just about every Indians game on his satellite dish, and when we talked Monday, he had his TiVo recording the Indians-Oakland game then in progress. With the Browns, he said, "I am not one of these guys who sits there and has three drinks and whoops and hollers with other people. When I'm watching a football game, I am as deadly serious as when I'm watching the verdict in a murder trial. … I get quite crazy."

And what about the Cavaliers? "'I don't follow basketball," he said. "I have to give my wife some time."

Mull and I talked about other things, including his increasing devotion to painting, and I suspect I'll have a story about him in the Beacon Journal in the coming days.

– There's a lot of curiosity about "The West Wing" this year, and co-star Kristin Chenoweth says that curiosity includes the cast.

"We're doing the election all fall," said Chenoweth, who is signed for at least nine episodes. "I think everybody … is anxious to find out who we're going to be working for." Executive producer John Wells may know the winner, but no one in the cast does, she said. "We're very excited to read the (scripts) … every week."

She loves "West Wing," so much that she is commuting between the show in Hollywood and a film location in Canada, where she is shooting a comedy with Robin Williams. She also has several other movies in the can, including "Running With Scissors" where she plays Annette Bening's lesbian lover.

That may surprise some of her fans. But, she said, "I'm a Christian and I believe that if you're gay, it doesn't matter. I don't think you're going to hell. … I want to be a Christian that makes people go, 'Oh, they're not all crazy!' "

Then there's a film biography of Dusty Springfield in the works, with Chenoweth as Dusty. Chenoweth is a big singer, like the early Dusty, but said she grew up singing in the lower, huskier style of Springfield's later work. (And if you don't have "Dusty in Memphis," then you need to get it right now. Immediately. I'll wait until you're back.)

(All right, so I couldn't wait.) "I will be really excited to play this woman who was so tortured about her religion — good Catholic girl — and struggled with her sexuality," Chenoweth said. "She had a lot of issues. … She's the Judy Garland of London, really."

And it's going to take a lot of preparation. "I'm a little tired of her right now. I've been listening to her constantly!" Chenoweth said.

But she's still fond of "West Wing," especially the range it gives her.

"It's great for someone like me, with my height (4'11"), with my looks, with my voice, to play somebody smart," she said. "People don't take me seriously. Then, when they find out I have a brain, it's a shock. And it's the same thing on 'West Wing,' as far as the character goes. She's one of the smartest people in the room, and it's been really fun to play that."

– "Thick and Thin's" cast includes Martin Mull, Sharon Gless and Jessica Capshaw, but the one to watch for is Amy Halloran, who plays Capshaw's sister (and the daughter of Gless and Mull). She's the one who has Future Sitcom Star written all over her.

The show focuses on Capshaw, as a woman who has gotten thin while her family members remain comfortable in their old, heavier bodies. Halloran has fought the weight-perception issue in Hollywood, and is glad to be in a show that respects different body sizes.

"Most of my first guest stars (roles) were playing the chubby girl who's set up on a date, and then he finds out she's chubby. The real stereotypical, boring scenarios," she said.

Asked if she now turns down those roles, she said, "Yeah. I reached that part when I got cast in an episode of 'Still Standing.' It was just too much, it was too mean, it was too cruel. I felt like I was sending the exact opposite message that I want to send. Fortunately, the stars of the show have the position to stand up for me — and folded the episode. …

"I talked to them about it 'cause I knew it wasn't my place as a guest star to jump up in the producers' face. But, you know, they realized that I was uncomfortable. They were uncomfortable with the material. We talked about it, and they were just brave enough to take a stand," she said.

The episode was rewritten, and Halloran lost her part in the process. "But you know, I still got paid," she said with a laugh.

– "Boomtown's" Lana Parrilla, who plays the wife of  Mansfield native Luke Perry on the NBC mid-season series "Windfall," admits to a considerable crush on Perry during his "Beverly Hills, 90210" period. How serious? She once almost called him Dylan, after his "90210" character, Dylan McKay. She stopped herself but if she had, she figures he would have laughed. "He has a wonderful sense of humor," she said.

I may file more from NBC later. But, since a group of reporters just wandered through the press room singing the Carpenters' "Close to You," it's a little late. And time, then, to say good night.