You would expect Saturday night's battle between Ohio State and Texas to be huge with sports fans anywhere. And it certainly was in Buckeye-heavy Northeast Ohio, where more than 27 percent of local homes with television on average were tuned to the game.

But more remarkable was the performance by the Browns in their season opener on Sunday afternoon — outside of prime time, and on a day when the weather encouraged people to get outside, and in a game where the Browns often stank. (The bride and I snarled repeatedly at the plays called in short-yardage situations.)

That game also exceeded 27 percent of the audience and was within a few decimal points of the Buckeyes' rating, according to Nielsen overnight estimates. Indeed, when you look at the peak audience for each telecast, the Browns did slightly better than Ohio State, maxing out at 32.4 percent of local TV homes, while Ohio State-Texas topped out at 32.2.

Those numbers are so close in a system based on estimates of viewership, they amount to statistical tie.

And nothing else on Saturday or Sunday got close to those ratings. The next most watched prime-time local broadcast was NBC's prime-time Colts-Giants football telecast, the much hyped "battle of the brothers." While the game won prime time on Sunday, its 13.8 rating was still about half of what the two football games managed.

Almost exactly one year after the last "Seinfeld" DVD, Jerry and the gang will present a seventh-season set on Nov. 21. Here are some particulars from Sony:

The four-disc boxed set from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment includes all 24 episodes from the seventh season, when the sitcom was at its crest of creativity and popularity, generating such classic episodes as “The Soup Nazi,” “The Sponge” and “The Rye.” 

The Seinfeld: Season 7 DVD boxed set also contains extensive bonus material, including two all-new animated “Sein-Imation” features, with Seinfeld scenes re-imagined with original cast voices.  The Seinfeld: Season 7 DVD boxed set also includes all new interviews with the cast and creators, commentaries on select episodes with creators and cast members, factoid track on each episode, bloopers, deleted scenes and never-before-seen stand up routines.  The set will be available for $49.95 SRP.

Guest stars this season include Jerry Stiller (TV’s “The King of Queens”), Academy Award® winner Marisa Tomei (Best Supporting Actress, My Cousin Vinny), Debra Messing (TV’s “Will & Grace”), Rob Schneider (Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, 50 First Dates), Janeane Garofalo (The Truth About Cats and Dogs, TV’s “The Larry Sanders Show”), and Larry David (TV’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm”).

…  The season opens with George’s engagement to Susan (Heidi Swedberg), a decision he almost immediately regrets; Elaine is banned from the infamous Soup Nazi’s restaurant, must deem whether her dates are “sponge-worthy” and has a run-in with her “bra-less” rival Sue Ellen (Brenda Strong from “Desperate Housewives”);  Kramer takes on the cable company; while complications ensue when Jerry buys his parents a new Cadillac and meets his female equivalent (Janeane Garofalo).

DVD Special Features Include:

• Blooper Reel
• 11 Deleted Scenes
• Commentary on “The Postponement” with Jason Alexander and Julia Louis Dreyfus
• Commentary on “The Soup Nazi” with Jerry Seinfeld, Director Andy Ackerman and Writer Spike Feresten
• Commentary on “The Secret Code” with writers Alec Berg and Jeff Schaffer
• Commentary on “The Pool Guy” with Jerry Seinfeld, writer David Mandel and director Andy Ackerman
• Commentary on “The Sponge” with writer Peter Mehlman
• Commentary on “The Gum” with writers Tom Gammill and Max Pross
• Commentary on “The Shower Head” with Jason Alexander and Julia Louis-Dreyfus
• Commentary on “The Doll” with writers Tom Gammill and Max Pross
• Commentary on “The Friars Club” with writer David Mandel
• Commentary on “The Calzone” with with Jerry Seinfeld, director Andy Ackerman and writers Jeff Schaffer and Alec Berg
• Featurettes: Inside Look on “The Engagement,” “The Maestro,” “The Soup Nazi,” “The Soup Nazi,” “The Secret Code,” “The Pool Guy,” “The Gum,” “The Rye,” “The Caddy,” “The Cadillac,” “The Friars Club,” “The Wig Master,” “The Calzone,” “The Bottle Deposit,” and “The Invitations”
• Featurette: Larry David’s Farewell
• Featurette: Queen of the Castle: The Elaine Benes Story
• Featurette: Sein-Imation “Dr. Cosmo on Marriage & Family”
• Featurette: Sein-Imation “George & the Whale”
• Featurette: Where’s Larry?: Seinfeld’s Secret Guest Star
• Factoid tracks on all 24 episodes
• Digitally Mastered Audio and Video
• Full Screen Presentations
• Audio: English (Stereo), French
• Subtitles: English, French, Portuguese, Spanish
• Bonus Previews
• Closed Captioned

The following comes from a transcript of Ellen DeGeneres's chat with Jessica Simpson, which airs Monday:

Jessica: I'm a good person … I promise.

Ellen: You don't have to promise. You seem like a really good person.

I bring this up because it goes to why Ellen will be a good Oscars host, at least as far as the movie industry is concerned. She may joke about people, but it probably won't feel sharp-edged or mean. She's as likely to make a joke about herself as about the celebrities attending, or to make the hoopla the target instead of those who want to be, uh, hoopla'ed.

This all goes to why she is a success in daytime, where she is the true Queen of Nice. She wants people to be comfortable — viewers and guests. And even with all her considerable success, she has a just-folks quality about her, a willingness to seem awed or amused much the way a viewers would be if a star dropped by their living room in — oh, for the sake of hypothesis, let's say Mogadore, Ohio.

That determined ordinariness separates her from Jon Stewart or Steve Martin, guys who always seem to be testing how smart-alecky they can be without getting beaten up. Ellen is closer to Bob Hope and Johnny Carson. (I started thinking about some of this earlier today, when writing about the difference between "South Park" and "The Simpsons.")

As successful as Hope and Carson were, they could still come across like someone outside the show-biz pantheon. Hope could joke about his lack of a real Oscar. Carson was still TV's ambassador to the movie business — in an era when, to the movies, even a big TV star was a hot dog in the middle of cinematic caviar.

But they also knew how to needle without stabbing. Ellen does, too. She may poke, but she won't break the skin. After all, all those movie stars seem like really good persons. 

Didn't get to see much more of Rosie on "The View" last week after the premiere, as other things ate up my time. But remember my comment from the first show that "Barbara Walters looked shrunken and ancient next to her"? There's an interesting note about the size difference, and "The View," in Rosie's blog at www.rosie.com. Here goes:

week one down
nobody got hurt
the ratings r up
on we go

my torso is so long
i look like gigantor the spaceage robot
next to ms walters
they cut 3 inches off the chair
by day 2

"Gilmore Girls" doesn't start its new season until Sept. 26 (on the new CW network) but I had to go ahead and check out the review copy that arrived recently. After all, there is a lot of curiosity among fans about how the show will fare since the departure of creator Amy Sherman-Palladino. And she left the show in a bit of a box with her last episode, which found Lorelai and Luke breaking up, and then Lorelai rushing into the arms (and bed) of her ex, Christopher. Then there was the whole issue of Rory and Logan, and as subtext the whole issue of Alexis Bledel's limited range as an actress.

So where am I after watching the premiere? Kind of on the fence (and avoiding any big plot revelations). Parts were reassuringly glib (although the dialogue as a whole felt slower than in its most frenetic Sherman-Palladino moments). There were moments when I thought the Lauren Graham should use this episode to finally get that Emmy nomination. The pop-culture references were there, perhaps not as obscure as the show used to get, but still laced through it — and there's a biggie involving Rory and Logan. It continued the troubles from last season in a more or less plausible way. And there were good scenes for Babette and Sookie and Michel.

Still, the premiere is such a bummer. The gloom that hung over last season has not abated as the new one begins. Even though that's a function of the plotlines left over from last season, it's still hard to take. Nor has Bledel's acting improved during the hiatus. Although It wasn't so bad that I have vowed never to watch again, neither was it so good that I rejoiced when it was over. This jury of one is still out.

Around an extended period of football-watching (Buckeyes last night, Browns today), I squeezed in tonight's season premiere of "The Simpsons" and was glad to do so. Glad, first of all, to have a new "Simpsons" well before Halloween. (I remember times Fox delayed its start so long that the annual "Treehouse of Horror" Halloween special ended up airing after Halloween.) Glad, second of all, because it is still a reliably funny show. And because of its pedigree, it is able to get top people to lend their voices.

Tonight's telecast, for example, involves a gangster parody that doesn't merely make jokes about mob movies. It has Joe Mantegna ("The Godfather Part III," "Things Change") and Joe Pantoliano and Michael Imperioli of "The Sopranos" as guest voices. So when it does a riff on "The Sopranos," the riff has greater authenticity.

I know, it also means that the show has become so established and easy to watch that it rarely offends.  It prefers the nudge in the ribs to "South Park's" poke in the eye. But as much as I admire "South Park's" boldness in principle, I am still more likely to laugh at "The Simpsons." Then again, tonight's biggest laugh (which was burned off in the promos) isn't even in the gangster bits.

Also, in case you missed it, here's a Beacon Journal column I wrote for today's paper about the new seasons of "Survivor" and "The Amazing Race" — and the question of diversity in the shows. And in Saturday's editions, George Thomas and I pondered 9/11's effect on movies and TV, in this story.

Good news in today's e-mail for fans of the TLC show:

The Learning Channel will premiere the second season of its acclaimed hit documentary series LITTLE PEOPLE, BIG WORLD on Saturday, October 7 at 8:00PM ET/PT.  In twenty-two all-new 30-minute episodes, including a double-episode Thanksgiving special, TLC follows the ongoing story of the extraordinary Roloff family – a family comprised of both little and average height people.  In the series, little people parents Matt and Amy and their three average height children – Jeremy, Molly and Jacob – and little person son Zach open their home to help make the most in-depth television documentation of the lives of little people.

Not the greatest game to start the year. And NBC's coverage at times made me feel as if I was watching a very long trailer for its game on Sunday, the Giants-Colts confrontation being touted as "the battle of the brothers."

But I still hung in with the game later than I expected because it remained close and suspenseful (if far from error-free) most of the time. Saban can beef all he want about his challenge not being recognized; that was still about the most casual flag-toss I've seen a coach make. And while the Steelers pulled out the win — thanks to Culpepper's gambling too often with his passes — more than once they looked as if the coming season could be a long, arduous one.

Not much to say about the commentary. Madden and Michaels are comfy old shoes when it comes to football, but I didn't listen to them much in the latter half of the game. By then, I had crawled into bed, with the sound off so the bride could sleep, until the score was lopsided enough and the time sufficiently brief to turn it off.

Earlier in the evening, we finally caught up with the season finale of "The Closer." Funny, especially the cat business. Less complicated a case than it seemed; more than one viewer suspected the proper killer early on. But I admired it most for something it didn't do. With the big shootout at the end, I was bracing for a scene where one of the regular characters was shot, or where we weren't sure if everyone was safe. That's a cheap trick for a season finale and, to "The Closer's" credit, it played fair — showing everyone standing and unbloodied at the end.

I hope to file more this weekend about the season premiere of "The Simpsons," that second episode of "Jericho," the long awaited "Brothers & Sisters" and — most tantalizingly — the season premiere of "Gilmore Girls," which arrived in the mail yesterday and has been siren-calling to me ever since. I'm amazed I have managed to wait this long to watch. I so love football.

As I noted in a blog last weekend, we've already begun to have real college football (and the bride has already decreed that our schedules must be cleared for Ohio State-Texas on Saturday night). And tonight, we finally start real NFL football, as well as the official return of prime-time pro football to NBC. (Exhibition — I mean, preseason — games just do not count, unless you're a poor sap who gets injured in one.)

Not sure how much I will get to watch, but I know it will be some. And we've already been studying our Sunday schedule to allow plenty of viewing of the Browns game.

It's not that we have nothing else in our lives. You should see the calendar on the refrigerator. And we hardly lack for things to watch. We got to last night's "Bones" (on DVR after watching "Rock Star" in real time) but "Justice" is still there, along with "The Closer," "Prison Break" and a couple of episodes of "Vanished." Last night's viewing also included a long dip into the DVD of "Grey's Anatomy's" second season for my DVD column (appearing tomorrow). And there's a second episode of "Jericho" begging for my attention.

(I'm trying, Kay and friends. I'm really trying.)

But live sports remain a draw. And I'm psyched for the beginning of a new football season because anything is possible — well, anything, apparently, other than Ben Roethlisberger staying out of the hospital.

Oh, I love baseball and basketball, too. My desk neighbor George Thomas, a football fan without peer, even wondered just now if I loved baseball more than football. It's a different thing. Baseball, with 162 games per team, is an endurance contest in viewing terms, and you can actually take a break here and there, especially when a team gets streaky.

Football feels meaningful every week. And I only need to see, oh, 50 or 60 games a season to feel satisfied.

Soon enough, Storm Large will put out a CD, and it will have "What the .. " on it, and I will very happily buy it. And, at some point in the future, Supernova will put out a CD, with its new lead singer, and I won't care much.

The night after we saw Storm tear the roof off of her original song and "Suffragette City," voting viewers put her in the bottom three and the three guys from Supernova sent her packing.

That leaves a final four of Magni, Toby, Lukas and Dilana. Magni and Toby avoided bottom-three-dwelling, while Lukas and Dilana had to sing for their salvation.

Oh, yeah, the singing. Magni got to perform with Supernova, on a new track called "It's All Love" that I can barely remember less than an hour after hearing it. Toby got the encore and performed his original, "Throw It Away," from last night's show.

In the bottom three performances, Storm went with "Wish You Were Here," complete with tears and a dedication to her mother. Odd change of pace given how much she had rocked on last night's telecast. But it felt as if she knew this was her last night regardless of how well she did, so she went for something personal.

Dilana followed with "I Want You To Want Me," in a weirdly comic rendition that also suggested she saw the road home — and wanted to have some final fun before hitting it. Not even Lukas entirely attempted to beat fate; he dredged out "Headspin," his original from last night's show, to lay more groundwork for a post-"Rock Star" career.

But after all that, the guys dropped the most formidable singer of the night before, and stayed with a group where no one seems terribly likely to overshadow them. Toby and Magni have both dared to be uninteresting in service of their larger goal, Lukas has rarely managed to be interesting once you get past the surface.

Dilana's once formidable presence has been diminished by a deliberate humbling from the show's producers and editor. The old Dilana with Supernova would be challenging, daring — and possibly more dramatic onstage than the band itself, certainly outspoken offstage. But, once again, we're seeing that the band wants no challenges from an outsider. None too subtly, Dilana has been told that survival depends on knowing her place.

Storm was it tonight.

Toby wasn't bad either, because he made an excellent tactical decision. But let's start by clearing up something about Storm's original, which the show's graphic called "Ladylike" and which Storm had to sing as "What the What Is Ladylike." That second "what" is, as you might imagine, an earthier word — the one that starts with an f and is not as a rule heard on CBS. The song would sound better with the original word, but it was pretty massive even when bowdlerized.

That said, back to the beginning of the show. The recap had more drama with Dilana, followed by the news that she had ripped a calf muscle. She performed anyway, at times hopping on one leg as if she was about to launch a Ralph Macchio move.

Each singer did one cover and one original. Dilana's cover, "Behind Blue Eyes," started well, went bad in the middle (when she lapsed again into that Stevie Nicks-singing-through-a-kazoo vocal), then went back on course. B overall. Her original, "Supersoul," was one of those everyone-hates-me-but-I'm-strong songs favored by rock stars gone paranoid and thin-skinned. It was unworthy of the more confident Dilana of earlier in "Rock Star," although I liked a lot of her performance. B minus.

Magni next. Strange pairing of "Back in the USSR" and an original rocker, "When the Time Comes," that was sufficiently similar to the Beatles' track for Tommy to ask about it. I gave Magni a C on "Back" and a C plus on "When the Time Comes," but I kept feeling that his performances were more tactical than awe-inspiring; he was trying to demonstrate that he could do the party-rock-boy thing as ably as Toby. But while I think Magni's better overall, Toby is more at ease channeling Billy Idol.

Storm. The dirty girl was back. You could tell the way the camera jumped during her incendiary "Suffragette City" that the show was having to dodge more provocative moves than they let on the air. She probably would have lit it up without Dave Navarro accompanying, but having him onstage was her license to kill. And she sang great. A. Then "Ladylike," which sounded like a new anthem for every girl viewer with too much eye makeup and a collection of black T-shirts. A plus.

Lukas. "Living on a Prayer," stripped, acoustic, mannered, boring. C minus. The original was "Headspin." Better than the cover, with some catchy parts. C plus.

Toby still isn't all that interesting a singer. But what he did well was come up with songs that the band could just crush — the Killers' "Mr. Brightside" and his own "Throw It Away." All he had to was keep up with the melody, prowl the hall and not get in the way of the band. Then the people who remembered him might think he was good, too — but mostly they would remember the cumulative sound. And that's what Supernova means when the guys talk about wanting a singer who fits: a singer who doesn't stink but who also isn't going to overshadow them. I'd give Toby a B on "Throw It Away" and a C plus on "Brightside" (mainly because I kept hearing the Killers in my head as he sang). But he could have been a lot worse and still nearly closed the deal.

But what the what do I know?

Katie Couric's debut tonight on "The CBS Evening News" was only half-interesting, and that half was in the second part of the show. (I'll have a full review of her and of Rosie O'Donnell in tomorrow's Beacon Journal.)

I wonder how long before she feels she has demonstrated enough serious credentials to the audience that she can be herself more; in that interview with Thomas Friedman, she looked especially formal. And as long as she has to introduce and explain "new" features, the telecast is not going to find its own rhythm.

But there was one odd thing, at least for me, in the newscast. I am well aware that some viewers were scrutinizing every inch of Couric footage, including her wardrobe, for signs that she has thrown the news in that old handbasket to hell. And that the hyping of a look at the Suri Cruise cover of Vanity Fair would probably be seen as handbasket-worthy.

But I was preparing to defend that choice, because I have seen old newscasts going back to the late 1940s, when they ran just 15 minutes and still tried to balance the heavy news with lighter material. In my book, "Television's Greatest Year: 1954," I wrote:

"Those who believe that television news fell into feature fuzziness only in recent years should be aware that this 1949 (CBS News) telecast included a New York bank that had installed a baby-carriage ramp and still photos of nineteen-week-old Prince Charles of England. ('This is my favorite,' (anchor Douglas) Edwards said of one.)"

So I went slack-jawed when Couric led into the Suri shot with that same piece of Edwards and Prince Charles.

I am not, not, not saying that Couric read my book. After all, almost no one did. (You can find used copies for sale on amazon.com starting at — sigh — eight cents apiece.) It's just an easily found program. When I was researching my book at New York's Museum of Television & Radio, that was one of the standard examples of early TV newscasts at the museum.

But a smart move by Couric's newscast, even if it deprived me of a chance to show off in tomorrow's column.

… funny, a bit sad and better in the end than I thought it might be in the beginning.

Premiering on Sundance Channel tonight, the comedy follows, documentary-style, five people nominated as "Australian of the Year" for different accomplishments. Chris Lilley plays all five of them, including a teenage girl and a Chinese student, as well as a sixth character, the twin of one of the nominees.

It's very "Office"-like in the early going, especially in comparison to the British "Office," with all the characters having a David Brent lack of perspective about themselves and their lives. (One almost out-Brents Brent.) By the second of the six half-hours, I was getting a little weary of it; as good as Lilley is as an actor, it felt as if some of the characters were never going to be more than sketches.

Things turn around, though, in the last couple of episodes. Some of the unlikable characters remain just that, with their flaws insurmountable. But Lilley still feels considerable affection for some of them, and at show's end you can see that even people with silly dreams can be heroic in the pursuit of them. Indeed, in Australia, the show was called "We Can Be Heroes," a much better title than "The Nominees," and one that gets better to the heart of the show.

ABC Family picked up the rerun rights to "Everwood" some time ago, but it's now formally scheduled it. And this is especially important to fans given the unlikelihood that the later seasons will make it to DVD. (The sales of the first-season set were reportedly too disappointing to justify later releases.) Anyway, here's the "Everwood" announcement:

Dr. Andrew Brown has moved his family again, but this time to ABC Family.  Beginning Monday, October 2^nd (6:00 – 7:00 PM ET/PT) fans of the critically acclaimed series EVERWOOD can relive the drama, laughter and love … five days a week, beginning with the first season. 

The wait is over for fans. Now let's find out what kind of a fan you are.

Did you come into the show during the second or third season and stuck around because you were fascinated by the Carver storyline? Then, based on my viewing of three new episodes, this show is not for you.

There's a little bit of mystery, but nothing on the grand scale of the Carver. And it was clear at a "Nip/Tuck" press conference in July that the stars of the show, and to an extent its maker, were unhappy with the direction in the third season. What was supposed to be about the main characters, love and sex became instead a serialized thriller. (And one with a silly ending at that.)

But did you arrive at "Nip/Tuck" in the first season, or get drawn into it along the way because you wanted to see what happened to Sean, Julia and Christian — or perhaps Matt or Kimber? Then you may be very pleased with where the show is going. Those first three episodes are very much character pieces (albeit character pieces with grisly surgeries, lurid sex and a lot of emotional brutality).

Christian is on a major voyage to self-discovery. So are Sean and Julia. Certainties are shattered for all of them. Matt and Kimber, who arrive in the second episode, will go down a spiritual path that shocks the other characters. (To say more would spoil it.)

The show still repels me in a lot of ways, but I actually began to feel some sympathy for the main characters as their confusion deepens this season.

Also, I have a little more information about Monica Wilder, the character from Akron, who begins appearing in the Sept. 19 episode and will be around for more. The writers chose that location, a publicist told me, because they wanted her to be from a "wholesome, Midwestern town." But she was originally going to be from Buffalo, until series creator Ryan Murphy reminded the episode's writer that the show had already had a character from Buffalo.

But comment away on tonight's show after you see it.

I have been talking around some of the plot developments in tonight's season premiere of "House" (including in a new podcast you can find at www.ohio.com) because it does make a difference to see the early scenes without preconceptions.

But several of my colleagues have already blabbed, so I might as well do likewise. And if you don't want to know, then stop reading here.

OK, moving on: The surgery House had at the end of season two proved successful, giving him the mobility he had longed for. That's interesting enough (although it's possible the transformation won't be permanent). But even more interesting is the way House changes emotionally — and how that affects all the people around him.

Since he has lost a continuing reason for his anger, House suddenly seems milder. And since his happiness is rooted in what amounted to a gamble, he is more willing to take risks with a patient based not on his medical knowledge but on pure instinct.

As a result, his colleagues are not only dealing with a happier House — a puzzling spectacle by itself — but one whose medical skills may have been twisted in a dangerous direction. Indeed, the opener seems to be sending House down the road to a colossal mistake.

The change of heart will disorient some viewers. But unlike "Bones," which has also softened its central character but hasn't given a strong dramatic justification, "House" has made its change rational. And it has thought out the implications of that change. Concerned at first with the direction the show had taken, I've come to see all the interesting places the show could go — that it's still looking closely at its characters instead of drifting into routine.

By the way, my detailed fall-preview package is also available now on www.ohio.com, as is a second podcast about MyNetworkTV, which begins its soapy wanderings tonight. Both podcasts include me and Amy Carlson Gustafson of the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

Rosie's 10 minutes or so into her debut on "The View" and a show I have recently considered unwatchable has instantly become something that I might start DVR'ing.

She's energized the show. She also, in the opening of it, pretty much dominated it — steering the dialogue, playing to the viewing audience and seemingly having a splendid time. Barbara Walters looked shrunken and ancient next to her (and the reference to never reading a blog didn't help). Joy Behar seemed nervous. Only Elisabeth Hasselbeck looked as if she was at ease.

I had forgotten how much I missed Rosie in her talk-show day. Of course, the talk show near the end wasn't what it was in the beginning. This is more like Rosie when she was new to talk — bracing, refreshing, nice when the occasion warranted but tough when she thought that was right.

All right, they're into the chatting thing — Andre Agassi, Steve Irwin, "Hollywoodland" — and it's back to that disjointed, stream-of-consciousness banter that can make me crazy. (A clip of Irwin ran while they were in a long digression about "Hollywoodland"). But even this is entertaining enough, so much that I'm dawdling when I should be heading to the office.

And did Tom Cruise really send the flowers?

Later, after watching the second half of the show: Well, I saw pretty much everything I needed to in the first half, since the second was eaten up by Jessica Simpson ''singing" (with all this talk about her throat problems, I suspected the vocal was prerecorded) and a long taped segment with Rosie. It was handy for her, since it covered a lot of topics without her having to discuss them in the show's regular segments (although she had already brought up the hair issue). Still, it might have been more exciting to see her covering that ground in conversation with Joy, Elisabeth and Granny Clampett — I mean Barbara.

I did like that she went right to the John Mayer question with Jessica; Rosie has long had that knack for asking what regular people want to know. On the other hand, shouldn't someone have said, "Gee, who fed all this 'source' stuff to People? Anyone you know? Anyone interested in getting more publicity for your new CD? Hmmmmm?"

And I might have asked her about her seeming discomfort at the VMAs. But I am, let's see, 2,550,677th on the list of people who might someday get to guest-host "The View." No, wait. I am the 2,550,677th MAN on that list. There's a separate list consisting of every English-speaking female on the planet.

Still, I liked Rosie. I liked the vigor she brought to the show. And I may indeed be back.

Steve "Crocodile Hunter" Irwin is dead. You can find the details here.

TV loses a colorful, zestful, likable character, to be sure. But also one who went beyond flirting with danger into a mad love of danger — and not only to himself. Remember the business with him holding his infant son near a croc? (You can see the picture here along with USA Today's story about the incident.)

It's one thing to be fearless. It's another to be reckless. Even his death shows that Irwin had trouble with the distinction.

Not exactly a day for yard work, which is fine by me. The bride has already declared that all activity will stop at 3:30 so we can watch Ohio State start its football season against Northern Illinois. The University of Akron, in which we have a rooting interest, will be playing Penn State at the same time, so there may be some channel-flipping.

I expect the Buckeyes to proceed matter-of-factly to a win. I hope UA's Zips at least put up a decent fight, especially given the way Kent State got slapped around a couple of days ago. But how could you not be disheartened when you look at something like this, from the game info box in today's Beacon Journal:

"Coaches: Joe Paterno, 41st year (354-117-3) for Penn State; J.D. Brookhart, third year (13-11) for Akron."

May watch some golf later, too, although Tiger's already playing (and struggling), and not even XM is carrying live coverage until noon.

But mostly it feels like a rain-mandated day for relaxation. The bride and Target Demo are out and about, younger son has gone to work and I have puttered about the house while listening to "Dinah Washington: The Queen of the Blues." Four sublime discs. 

This announcement came from Paramount yesterday:

STAR TREK is getting a 21st century makeover. CBS Paramount Domestic Television is releasing digitally remastered episodes of the iconic 1960s sci-fi series, with all new special effects and music, to celebrate the groundbreaking series' 40th anniversary, it was announced today by John Nogawski, president of CBS Paramount Domestic Television.

The new episodes also mark the first time in 16 years that the original STAR TREK series can be seen in broadcast syndication. The episodes will begin airing on the more than 200 stations that own the rights to the weekend broadcast syndication window starting Sept. 16 (check local listings for station and dates). All 79 episodes of the original STAR TREK series will eventually be remastered, with the first batch of episodes chosen from a list of STAR TREK fans' favorite shows.

"STAR TREK redefined science-fiction and constantly pushed the envelope with concepts that were ahead of their time," Nogawski said. "By giving the series a digital upgrade using the best technology available today, it will continue to be a leader in cutting-edge television programming as we introduce the series to a new generation of viewers."

The most noticeable change will be redoing many of the special effects, created with 1960s technology, with 21st century computer-generated imagery (CGI). That includes:

• Space ship exteriors — The space ship Enterprise, as well as other Starships, will be replaced with state of the art CGI-created ships.  The new computer-generated Enterprise is based on the exact measurements of the original model, which now rests in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

• Show opening –  The Enterprise and planets seen in the main title sequence will be redone, giving them depth and dimension for the first time. 

• Galaxy shots — All the graphics of the galaxy, so frequently seen through the window on the Enterprise's bridge, will be redone. 

• Exteriors — The battle scenes, planets and ships from other cultures (notably the Romulan Bird of Prey and Klingon Battle Cruisers) will be updated.

• Background scenes — Some of the iconic, yet flat, matte paintings used as backdrops for the strange, new worlds explored by the Enterprise crew will get a CGI face-lift, adding atmosphere and lighting.

The refurbished episodes also feature higher quality sound for the famous opening theme. The original score by Emmy Award-winning composer Alexander Courage has been re-recorded in state-of-the-art digital stereo audio with an orchestra and a female singer belting out the famous vocals.  A digitally remastered version of William Shatner's classic original recording of the 38-word "Space, the final frontier…" monologue continues to open each episode.

The remastered episodes have been converted from the original film into a High-Definition format, which gives viewers a clearer, crisper, more vibrant picture than before, even when viewed in standard definition. Once stations upgrade and start broadcasting HD signals, the episodes will be all ready for viewers to enjoy in HD.  (end announcement)

The more I think about this, the queasier I get. It's on a par with colorizing black-and-white movies, or George Lucas's seemingly endless tinkering with the "Star Wars" movies.  Lucas's ability to get away with that is obviously one of the reasons Paramount is retooling "Star Trek." That and greed.  Because "Star Trek" fans rank up with Elvis fans in their willingness to buy the same old stuff as long as the packaging is new, Paramount figures to make a bunch of money by putting selling these reconfigured "Treks" on home video down the road.

But if you change some things, then where do you stop? Improved technology in one area is going to make other areas look that much cheesier. If you spruce up the background, shouldn't you do something about the uniforms? What about Shatner's '60s haircut? For that matter, what about Shatner's girdle-sheathed midsection in the later episodes? Should that be changed? And if you're messing with the music, shouldn't you replace those cheeseball attempts at futuristic sounds?

A piece of art should be kept in its original form, as an example of the art from its time. Sure, you can clean it up — getting the color, for example, back to its original brightness. But when you start making improvements, you're destroying the old art and creating new. Lucas can at least argue that he's changing his own work. With "Star Trek," unless they're bringing Gene Roddenberry back from the dead to supervise the changes,  better to leave it alone.