"How do you do it?" detective Ed Green (Jesse L. Martin) asks his boss, Anita Van Buren (S. Epatha Merkerson) on tonight's "Law & Order."

"One foot in front of the other, for 30 years." Van Buren replies.

While Merkerson's tenure on "L&O" has only been 15 years, that question and answer resonate tonight as Martin makes his final appearance in a nine-year run on the series. …

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In-progress notes after the jump. …

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No matter how
the performances are
considered, Andrew
Lloyd Webber may be
the best "American Idol"
mentor ever.

Notes after the jump. …

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The singer famous for "Show and Tell" has reportedly died. Here's a video from "Soul Train" of another song, "Willoughby Brook."

It's a prequel about Flower. Details after the jump,

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Official announcement this morning:

TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES (T:SCC) has been picked up for the 2008-2009 season.

The show currently ranks as the No. 1 new scripted series this season among Adults 18-49. The action packed series represents an exciting reinvention of the “Terminator” film franchise, in which the strong and intrepid Sarah discovers that protecting her son and stopping the rise of the machines is more difficult than she had ever imagined.

Strange night Monday. President Bush on "Deal or No Deal." McCain, Clinton, Obama on "WWE Monday Night RAW." All four had pretaped segments within the shows — plus Clinton and Obama were twice featured in wrestling matches, one using animated characters (and plugging the Smackdown Vs. Raw 2008 video game), the other with actors appearing as them.

It was all pandering, of course, just like going on "SNL." But there are degrees. Bush's appearance — to congratulate an Iraq war veteran who was competing on "Deal" — felt the least sleazy of the lot. True, he's still trying to sell his war, but at least he wasn't begging for votes the way the other three did. I could have done without the federal-budget/"Deal or No Deal" joke, but part of this whole situation involves trying to seem clever.

An actor playing Hillary Clinton gets rough with an actor playing Barack Obama on "WWE Monday Night RAW." Obama got some payback later, but both candidates lost to the WWE wrestle Umaga the Samoan Bulldozer.(From WWE.com)

The best line of the night was Obama's "Can you smell what Barack is cooking." Made McCain look even less impressive that his video, run after Obama's, had "Can you smell what the Mac is cooking." But McCain overall seemed more forced than the others, more willing to kowtow to WWE fans than to just use the appearance to push his candidacy.

Clinton looked comfortable enough in her taped remarks even with the strained WWE-referring comments. (A president who "will go to the mat for you"? Please.) But I have to wonder how she felt about being treated as half of a team with Bill for the faux-Clinton/faux-Obama faceoff in the WWE ring.

At the end of the day, did these folks want votes so badly that they were willing to appear in the middle of the head kicks, shouting and overstuffed Divas in a brawl on "RAW"?

The answer is an obvious yes. And they may have helped WWE move some product along the way; that Smackdown Vs. Raw logo took up a nice chunk of screen during the animated Obama-Clinton match. But did the candidates at least get a free video game for their efforts?

Sandcastles in the Sand

OK, so we've got the complete "Sandcastles in the Sand." And not a bad episode around it. Although the shocker — the real "OMG" for a Monday night — was, of course …

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In-progress notes after the jump, including a surprisingly pushy inquiry into the Shannon Elizabeth/Derek Hough romance issue. ….

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Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath
(Photo from Smith College Web site)

After a hectic week and some chores on Saturday, the bride and I hit the wall in a big way. Much sleep resulting, a little bit of Cavs and Indians on TV, and time devoted to reading on Sunday.

My reading matter: "Her Husband," the biography of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes by Diane Middlebrook. …

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I like this clip, too, although the Tiffany cameo in the other snippet may be my favorite part of the video.

It's been a big week for family stuff and road trips (Cleveland and back four out of the last five days). Saw last night's "Survivor" and a bit of "The Office" last night, and hope to post later.

New video for Monday's episode of "How I Met Your Mother"! Cameos by Tiffany, Alan Thicke and James Van Der Beek. Here's a preview clip:

I should have a second clip later today.

As you know, with the expected demise of HD DVD, studios that were on that bandwagon are switching over to Blu-ray. Here's what Universal has in mind, including "Heroes: Season Two" on Aug. 26 and the Brendan Fraser "Mummy" and two sequels on July 22. …

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Yes, it's the legendary "Let's Go to the Mall" by Robin Sparkles. (Thanks to Alan Sepinwall for pointing this out.) "How I Met Your Mother" fans will note that Robin Sparkles was, in fact, "HIMYM's" Robin in her younger days. But you don't need history to appreciate the sublime, perkalicious '80s quality of the video.

And, just because you can't listen to that song just once, here's a version with paper-bag puppets:

Stay with it. Some great cat socks near the end.

And, just to remind you of the roots of "Let's Go to the Mall" (and the great detail in the video) here is Tiffany's mall-hopping epic "I Think We're Alone Now":