I spent part of the weekend diving back into the world of TV as seen at home (as opposed to the total-immersion world of the past couple of weeks). Organized the stack of DVDs at home, and expect to have a new DVD column this week — and possibly some posts here.

Caught last week's "Rescue Me," which did nothing to change my previous objections to the show. (Today's mail included a disc with tomorrow's episode, so I may post at greater length after watching it.)

Caught last night's "Entourage," which I am enjoying immensely; Vince's march toward career self-destruction is not only entertaining, it's a departure from the sort of personal self-abuse that fueled "The E! True Hollywood Story."

Saw a little baseball, including a post-game interview with Eric Wedge where he looked worn out, not only from the team's decline (and that was before the team made its most recent trades) but — I'd guess — from a deepening realization that this is most likely his last year as Indians manager.

Looking ahead, I finally watched "Three Moons Over Milford," which clearly thought itself far cuter than I did, and began going through some new episodes of "Weeds," a show that I still have an ongoing love/hate relationship with — one that continued through three new episodes. I'll post something after I watch the other two on the disc.

All of which means that the best TV viewing I had over the weekend came from the embarrassingly old Netflix pile. I was at last in the mood for "A History of Violence." And will probably be in the mood to see it again.

When Sci Fi had a little celebration for "Stargate SG-1" during the TV critics' summer press tour, I heard the network make a claim that just didn't sound right. It's also in press materials for the show, and it goes like this: "With 200 episodes, the longest-running drama in cable history has also became the longest-running sci-fi series in television history."

To which I say: Doctor Who.

Forget the recent revival. The original version ran for 26 years. It had more than 700 episodes — 3 1/2 times what Stargate has done. (The 200th episode airs on Aug. 18.)

Methinks that Sci Fi overreached. Comments?

Something felt funny Wednesday morning as I waited for my shuttle to Los Angeles airport. Then it hit me: no nametag. After wearing it on a lanyard around my neck for two weeks (in order to get into tour events), I did not need to do so anymore. And then I really knew I was done.

No major difficulty getting home (aside from the aches in my knees from yet another sardine-packed airplane). First great night's sleep since I left. Ready to catch up on some shows in the DVR, and to process some notes for posts here, and to get back into the old routine.

Tonight's Fox press party was my last official act of the tour (well, aside from some writing I'm going to do tonight.) Niftiest sight: Eamonn Walker and Laurence Fishburne talking to each other. Walker is in the new Fox series "Justice," and Fishburne was with his wife, Gina Torres, who is in Fox's "Standoff." But was I going to butt into that conversation? I don't think so.

At some point I'll have more about "Nip/Tuck" from talking to Larry Hagman and Kelly Carlson; Carlson was very skittish about revealing plot points — and surprised by some of the things Ryan Murphy had said earlier in the day. (At the press conference, for that matter, Julian McMahon said Murphy often tells the press things he hasn't told the actors.)

Good chat (though off the record) with Walton Goggins of "The Shield" and a few words (again, recorder not out) with Jack McGee of "Rescue Me." Lots of stuff about "Bones" from two of the producers, which I also need to write up in detail. Some short takes: more romantic issues, a new character (played by Tamara Taylor) to add to the tension and Akron's Ray Wise — who did a guest shot recently — may get invited back for more.

Also interviewed Katie Jacobs, executive producer of "House," who was revealing about some of the coming season while obscuring other things; even while we were talking, I felt like a mouse being dangled by cat. Nuggets, subject to expansion later: House's pain issues are going to be a stronger plot point, he will have a real nemesis beginning around the fifth episode and his Vicodin use is going to be an issue.

All that, and the heat finally broke.

Tidbits from today's press conference with "Nip/Tuck" main man Ryan Murphy and the three stars:

– The Carver is gone for good."Never appear again," Murphy said.  He wants the show this year to have more humor and more sex, away from the "very dark and very nihilistic" tone of last season. Both Julian McMahon and Joely Richardson said last year was not their favorite. And while he liked it (and the Carver drew high ratings), Murphy said the Carver storyline in particular got away from the show's core relationships — Christian, Julia and Sean. Those will be more in focus this year. But — since I've seen the first episode — still expect some serious drama, especially between Julia and Sean, because of an unexpected development with their baby; the baby will be born in the third episode. (Peter Dinklage will play their night nurse.) Christian, meanwhile, is going to have a lot of thoughts about his emotional makeup.

– Kimber, played by Kelly Carlson, will be back early in the second episode, but as a "yoga-ish, spiritual" character who enlists Matt in her opposition to plastic surgery. And Christian will treat her very badly, turning her "very vengeful. … Sort of back to the Kimber who tied him to the bed and was going to cut him up. She's back in that place, which is fun. It's funny!" Murphy insisted.

– Matt, meanwhile, will look very different; John Hensley, who plays him, has been weight-lifting. Last season's storyline will be wrapped up early (and Brittany Snow will not be back) and Matt "falls in love with Kimber."

– Rosie O'Donnell will guest-star as a white-trash woman who hits the lottery, wants plastic surgery for all her family and falls in love with Christian, creating what Murphy called "an 'Indecent Proposal' situation. She'll be in two episodes. Noting that the anti-plastic surgery O'Donnell is getting grief for appearing on a show about plastic surgeons, Murphy added that O'Donnell thinks the show is also anti-plastic surgery. The character is named Dawn Budge, but Murphy says he wasn't thinking of tennis player Don Budge when he came up with it.

– Brooke Shields will play a therapist who proves to be a sexual compulsive with a mad obsessive crush on Christian.

– Catherine Deneuve is lined up for a guest role. "When you think 'Catherine Deneuve,' you think 'French murderess,' Murphy said. "At least I do." But her storyline may also involve breast implants containing the ashes of a woman's husband.

(I know, EWWWWWW. It's "Nip/Tuck." Wait until you see what they do to Larry Hagman in the season premiere.)

– Famke Janssen will be back "eventually. Maybe not this year. But she will come back."

The fourth season will start Sept. 5.

As a nod to its new comedy "Happy Hour," Fox preceded the press conference with servers bearing cocktails — mimosas, bloody Marys, something with Kahlua. It did not seem to bother Fox that the drinks were being distributed before 10 a.m. (although, it could have been a stunt planned when the network scheduled "Happy Hour" as an afternoon session — and stuck to when the press conference was moved to the morning).

If the stunt was also meant to dull the wits of the assembled reporters, Fox needn't have bothered. As I've said before, this is late in the press tour. I don't even drink, and my wits have dulled quite thoroughly.

Besides, the "Happy Hour" session was quite enjoyable without cocktails, one of those cases where the cast and producers were funnier in the room than they had been in the show's pilot.

Before "Happy Hour," we met the cast and producers of "Justice," a new legal drama from Fox. The cast includes Victor Garber, fresh off of "Alias" and — while saying he wanted to do this show — he admitted that dramas are not fun: "The schedule is brutal. You can't believe the hours that it takes to do these shows. And at the end of the day, if you go home at night thinking 'I
did a good job today, this was exciting,' it's all worthwhile."

Because yesterday I tried to torture Josh Berman about "Killer Instinct," a short-lived show from last season, (see my previous post for what happened) I decided to do the same to Jonathan Shapiro, an executive producer of "Justice." Last year he created the gone-in-a-blink "Just Legal," the Don Johnson lawyer show on The WB.

Lessons learned? " 'Be on Fox' is a good idea," he said. " 'Just Legal' was a great experience. I wish that it had lasted longer." Then he got back on message about his new show. "A lot of the issues that we addressed in 'Just Legal' and I wanted to address in 'Just Legal,' we're going to address here. That was a defense firm, this is a defense firm."

But I dug in a little more, asking how he felt about the quick hook the WB show got. "I spent many years working with Democratic candidates in various statewide elections. So early and abrupt endings of hopeful campaigns don't surprise me."

By the way, I think Fox had the most crowded stage of the press tour yesterday, when "Vanished" offered up 15 people — three producers and 12 actors. We've seen a fair number of double-digit panels so far — a sign of producer proliferation, ensemble casts and the need to make all the regular actors feel loved. Still, when the Q&A starts, because most of the questions are going to go to the producers (since they know most about what a show is going to be). Actors, meanwhile, are more likely to get individual attention in scrums afterward or at the network press parties. But press-conference neglect is even more likely when the stage is so packed.

Today is not only Fox's last day of the press tour, it's mine. I will be flying home tomorrow and gladly so.  All my writing plans for yesterday evening gave way to an unexpected but necessary blast of sleep — the kind where you lie down for a moment and wake up five or six hours later, then go back to sleep again.

Some of this came from having a day that felt dull. I managed to carve a column out of a press conference with Brad Garrett, but there were other stretches when it felt as if little was happening worth paying attention to. The only time I felt even a little aggressive was when I noticed that "Vanished" creator Josh Berman listed his tenure at "CSI" in his bio but had left out last season's short-lived "Killer Instinct." Since  I remembered him from that press tour, I gave him a chance to make amends during the press conference by asking what lessons he had learned from his previous series experience. But he talked only about "CSI."

Once the press conference was over, I asked him what he learned from the other show. "I only wrote the pilot," he said. "That was my involvement. I was contractually obligated to go back to 'CSI.' " With a laugh, he added, "So I learned that a show can get canceled if I'm not working on it."

Asked if the show lost the direction he had wanted for it, Berman said, "Yes. You know, you need a guiding creative force on a show and I don't think there are too many people out there who have the exact same vision. I like the people that they brought in to replace me very much. I thought they had a great vision for the show but it wasn't the same direction I wanted to take."

Part of my weariness may also have been sugar shock; one of Fox's press tour traditions is putting multiple containers of candy at the tables where we sit, and I found myself compulsively chomping on Skittles. (My pre-tour vows to eat right and exercise regularly were kept inconsistently.) But mostly I think I was just plain tired after being in Pasadena for two weeks and change. Sure, it's nice to be in a fancy hotel and to see stars, and to get all sorts of material for future stories. No complaints about that. And I've now had enough rest to get back on the horse today (so expect more posts here). But I am also thinking ahead — to the plane flight and to home and family.

The other night I sat up far too late watching episodes of "Life on Mars," the intriguing British drama premiering at 10 tonight on BBC America. Since I am hip-deep in television every day because of the TV critics' tour, and since I only intermittently get enough sleep, it's even more impressive that the show kept me watching.

It stars actor John Simm as Sam Tyler, a modern police detective who has an accident and wakes up in 1973. He's also a cop all those years ago, only he has to deal with a different approach to law enforcement — less forensic, more beat-out-a-confession — and to life in general. And he may not be in the past at all; it's entirely possible he is in a coma and imagining the whole thing, especially when he starts walking into parts of his own life from all those decades ago.

"Seven years ago when we first decided to try and do this show, it was "he has
a car crash, and he wakes up and it's '73," " series co-creator Matthew Graham said at a BBC America press conference awhile back. "Iniitially that was our incentive. We just wanted to
get into a 1973 cop show, and we wanted to find a way in. But over the years, as I sort of endlessly
reworked it and rethought through the format, I realized that we needed something else. We needed
another element because it was so strange, what we were doing, that … we needed
reality. And if he's in a coma — and we don't say definitively that he is — then it gives it — somehow
it gives it a justification. It could be all in his head. And somehow we get away with it because of that esoteric angle, I think. Without it, it becomes a science fiction show about time travel."

The show does well in presenting culture shock without getting ham-fisted about it, and the coma business does add a good subplot. But by the fourth episode, the differences between past and present are noted only sporadically — and Sam is more focused on police work. There's also a good performance from Philip Glenister as Gene Hunt, Sam's boss in the past; over time we begin to see that his methods are questionable but, like Sam, he brings a sense of vocation to his job.

All that being said, I have to qualify my review because there may be another, better version of "Life on Mars" out there, one that we'll have to wait for on DVD. BBC America has edited the show to fit in commercials, with about 10 minutes taken out of each hour-long episode.

The breaks were noticeable in the BBC America version and more than once I felt as if something had been lost in an edited-out transition. Of course, it is also possible that the editing-down has improved the show, or at least made it more palatable to restless U.S. viewers. And I did enjoy it in the U.S. cut. But I thought you should know that this is not the show as originally made.

Today was a Television Critics Association day, including our summer business meeting and, tonight, the presentation of our annual awards. (I say "our" because I'm a member.) It was a nice ceremony, with lots of people turning out, and with some lovely acceptance speeches. And it was a good situation just to talk with people I like from shows I admire.

Here are some highlights from the acceptance speeches, in the order they were given.

Individual achievement in drama, to Hugh Laurie of "House."  Laurie: "I never believed for one moment that my respect and admiration for television critics could grow ever greater. It has. This is partly because I'm not from these parts. I am from England, as you can probably tell, from the fact that I've just told you. … The relationship between artist and critic (in England) is very different. Over there, the artist is, if you like, the mouse. And the critic is the vicious sociopath who shatters dreams. It strikes me as a very different setup here and for that, I and everyone else on the show "House" is extremely grateful….

"As for this award, a couple of weeks ago I had the good fortune to attend the U.S. Grand Prix in Indianapolis, won, as usual, by Michael Schumacher … He has been world racing champion, Formula One, for the last seven years. But even his most ardent admirers would have to admit that it's got something to do with the fact that he has the fastest car. Elizabeth Taylor could probably get a podium place. … People compete with unequal equipment. If, for example, it's a running race and Michael Schumacher began the race with running spikes and the man next to him had lace-up Oxfords, and the man next to him was running in stilettos and the man on the outside lane was wearing a pair of West Highland Terriers. … But so it is with the business of acting. … I feel very much in the position of the man who has got a very, very fast car. … I am, every day that I go to work, deeply sensible of the honor I have to sit at the wheel and drive this wonderful character called House."

Outstanding achievement in drama, to "Lost." Damon Lindelof, executive producer: "We all sort of thought the same thing two years ago when the show was first a pilot, that it wasn't supposed to work. … We try to reinvent it constantly. But next year it could totally suck, and the year after that it could be gone. And we feel enormously grateful, by the grace of you guys. In the very beginning, the critics sort of backed the show and that has meant a lot to us. … I would really like to thank (executives at ABC and Touchstone Television) … for letting us walk into a room and say, 'All right, here's what's in the hatch: There's a guy, he's pushing a button every 108 minutes or he's told the world will end.' And they say, 'All right, right on, go ahead.' Normally that shouldn't be allowed to happen."

Outstanding achievement in children's programming, to "High School Musical."  Bill Borden, executive producer, entered to a song from "HSM.," then said: "I ran into an old friend of mine, Peter Horton (the actor-director, who was part of a group from award-winning 'Grey's Anatomy') who said 'I loved that song and movie for the first 50 times. If my daughter plays it again, I'm going to kill you.' "

Outstanding new program, to "My Name Is Earl." Greg Garcia, executive producer: "It's always nice to get an award … especially this award, because it's the critics. I mean, how big is that? And if there's one thing I've learned by doing 'Yes, Dear,' is you want the critics. Because if the critics hate your show, you're lucky to go, I don't know, six years. But just like 'Earl,' who is making up for all the bad things he's done in his life, I accept this award as a sign that you feel bad about what you've done to me. And tonight, the healing begins. I'm gonna need about 10 or 15 more of these, and you can cross me off your list."

Outstanding movie, miniseries or special, to "American Masters: Bob Dylan - No Direction Home." Prudence Glass, representing the series: "When Dylan's people called a couple of years ago and said, 'We're ready,' Susan (Lacy, "Masters" producer) called me into her office and said, 'You see what can happen if you call somebody once a month for 12 years?' "

Individual achievement in comedy, to Steve Carell of "The Office," Carell: "This is obviously such a great honor, particularly in light of the following. This is an excerpt from a review of a little seen but little loved television show called 'Over the Top,' which ran from October 1997 to — October 1997. (From the review:) 'Steve Carell's performance as what appeared to be a deaf-mute European chef should cause anyone watching with a modicum of taste to start tearing their hair while screeching, 'Get it off my TV. … Take it away. Oh, God.' " (You can find a link to the complete review in my "Steve Carell Doesn't Forget" post below.)

Outstanding achievement in news and information, to "Frontline." Martin Smith, producer. "I feel I should apologize coming between the two comedy awards. 'Frontline' can be such a downer. It's unfortunate that news and information has to be that way. Friends compliment me by calling me up and saying, 'That was really depressing. That was more depressing than your last depressing show.' "

Outstanding achievement in comedy, to "The Office." Greg Daniels, executive producer, thanked many people, including his partner Ben Silverman, "for having the taste, connection and frankly the (brass) to get back on that horse after 'Coupling.' " After reading a long list of names of actors, writers and others associated with the show, Daniels added: "I can already picture you guys reviewing this speech — its tired premise, there were no act breaks and it was terrible casting."

Heritage award (for important, long-running programs), to "The West Wing." Aaron Sorkin, creator: "About 10 years ago I was living in New York and early one morning my father came over to my apartment because the Academy Award nominations were being announced and there was some hope that I would be nominated for a movie that I had written that year. And when I wasn't, my father turned to me and said, 'Look, how many people in the world do you think got up this morning with even a reasonable expectation that something like this might happen?' Which is when I discovered that for most people, it's an honor just to be nominated (and) in my family it's an honor just to be overlooked."

Career achievement, to Carol Burnett (who received the most thunderous, sustained ovations of the night). Burnett: "Does this mean I'll never get another bad review?"

Burnett recalled how, in the early '60s, she signed a 10-year deal with CBS that included a five-year option for her to host a variety series on the network. "So we were five years into that contract, and I really needed the money. And so it was a week before the five years would be up, and I was in California with my husband, Joe Hamilton, … and we called Mike Dann at CBS. … And I said, 'Mike, you know, I think I want to push that button and do that variety show we talked about five years ago. And he said, 'What?' … He called the next day and said, 'Oh, right,' so they had to do this. And he said, 'But, you know, we have this great sitcom pilot thing called "Here's Agnes," and it would just be great for you.' … I said, 'This is what I really want to do,' and he had to do it. … And I'm so glad I didn't do 'Here's Agnes.' "

Program of the year, to "Grey's Anatomy." "You guys stuck with us through it all and you didn't even mind the fact that we wouldn't tell you what was going to happen in any episode of the show ever, for any reason."

I'm going to post a little later about tonight's Television Critics Association awards, but for now I want to mention Steve Carell's acceptance speech for individual achievement in comedy. Carell read a blistering review of his work on another show, a review so scorched-earth that some of us were convinced he had made it up. He insisted he had not, referred us to the Web site where he found it and … you can find the whole thing here.