Yesterday wound up with ABC's party with the stars, and I had a pretty useful time. Talked to "Lost's" Carlton Cuse for a column running tomorrow. (Highlights: the monster and polar bear are back, there will be romance — though not, as far as I know, between the monster and polar bear — new characters, a less grim tone and much to be learned about the Others). And to Thomas Kean of 9/11 commission fame, who is a consultant to ABC's "Path to 9/11" movie. And to James Pickens Jr. of "Grey's Anatomy," a local guy I always like to catch up with.

After that gathering, it was back to the hotel to transcribe some recording, refresh my brain and — because I couldn't resist — watch the fourth-season premiere of "Nip/Tuck." The season begins on Sept. 5, but there's a press conference about the show on Tuesday, so we got a sneak peek. The premiere alone includes Larry Hagman and Kathleen Turner as guest stars, as well as Brooke Shields in a capacity you've probably never seen before in her career. Such a frightening, creepy show; wait until you see what Hagman is up to.

Today it's out into the world — or into another part of the TV world, including a visit to the set of "Grey's Anatomy." In today's Beacon Journal, you can find the latest installment of the TV mailbag, a combo column on "Gilmore Girls" and "Grey's Anatomy" and my recap of the Charles Gibson press conference yesterday.

More much later.

ABC has a press conference this morning with Charles Gibson (who will talk to us in Pasadena via satellite) and has tied some news announcements to the occasion. Including this one:

"ABC's evening newscast, 'World News Tonight,' has changed its name to 'World News With Charles Gibson,' ABC News President David Westin announced. The change is effective today…

" 'The program we air at 6:30 p.m. each night remains our flagship broadcast, but it has evolved well beyond thirty minutes of television,' said Mr. Westin. 'With an afternoon webcast downloaded by millions, and updated content available throughout the day on ABCNEWs.com, "World News" is always on.' " (end announcement excerpt)

Can't wait to see how the others respond. "The CBS 24/7 News"? "NBC Nightly-and-Daily News"?

According to my notes, for the press conference Gibson wore a light-blue dress shirt with white undershirt and khaki slacks with tan socks and brown shoes. I bring this up because of the whole what-will-you-wear issue brought up at Katie Couric's press conference. (And it's a fair question for the reasons I mentioned in my Couric column here.)

The reporter who asked about Couric's wardrobe promised to ask Gibson about it, too. He kept his promise. "I have four ties and five suits, and whichever one is on the right in the closet, that's the one I put on," Gibson said.

We ask the questions we need to ask. For example, later today we had a session with the cast of "The Knights of Prosperity," a sitcom formerly known as "Let's Rob…"  The bio for actor Rob Grisetti mentions that "The Manhattan resident has taken up the hobby of planting corn in Central Park." How could you not ask about that?

So I did, after the session. "That's what happens when I get too much time on my hands," Grisetti said. "I get very bored, and I just had this image of corn growing all over Central Park. … It's so funny, 'cause I thought something would come of that and nothing ever did. None of it grew. Or at least, if it did, they found it and got rid of it. It's one of those things were nobody seems to know if it's illegal. … It's very unclear territory.

"I put it everywhere, in any mound of dirt I could find — the conservatory gardens, Tavern on the Green, Central Park zoo, Columbus Circle. It was everywhere, but none of it came up!" He is going to try again, though, during the off-season from "Knights of Prosperity."

"I've learned," he said. "I'm not going to plant from seed. I'm actually going to plant from the starter root. Next year, buddy, next year."

Here's the plan for ABC. That late start for "Lost," by the way, isn't the only bad news for fans of the show. ABC earlier announced that it will take "Lost" off the schedule for some time to run "Day Break," in order to avoid an overload of "Lost" reruns; as you can see from "Day Break's" premiere date, the first batch of "Lost" will be relatively small — and "Day Break" is set to run 13 weeks before "Lost" returns. Anyway, here are the dates:

Sept. 8 — "20/20."

Sept. 12 — "Dancing With the Stars."

Sept. 13 — "Dancing With the Stars Results Show."

Sept. 18 — "Wife Swap."

Sept. 21 — "Grey's Anatomy," "Six Degrees."

Sept. 22 — "Ugly Betty" (formerly "Betty the Ugly"), "Men in Trees."

Sept. 24 — "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," "Desperate Housewives," "Brothers & Sisters."

Sept. 26 — "Help Me Help You," "Boston Legal."

Oct. 1 — "America's Funniest Home Videos."

Oct. 2 — "The Bachelor: Rome."

Oct. 4 — "Lost," "The Nine."

Oct. 5 — "Big Day," "Notes From the Underbelly."

Oct. 9 — "What About Brian."

Oct. 17 — "The Knights of Prosperity" (formerly "Let's Rob…")

Nov. 15 — "Day Break."

I'll be really interested to hear from "Rock Star: Supernova" fans after Tuesday night's telecast. As I have already mentioned, I went to the taping of Tuesday's show last night. Dilana was, in my view, by far the best of the lot and I wasn't alone. She drew a steady cluster of reporters at a press party after the taping Sunday night.

But I know that what's seen live is not the same as how it appears on TV. (For one thing, in the studio the band's sound battled a lot of vocals that sounded good in the hall but not so much when I listened to a CD of the performances.) So let me know what you think. And if you already like Dilana — she of the growly voice, many piercings and tattoos — here are some of the things she said to reporters on Sunday night.

Is she confident about her chances of winning the competition?  I don't want to sound cocky at all but I am extremely confident and I can easily see myself fronting this band on every level. At the same time, I have to remain realistic that anything can happen. But right now, I'm feeling really, really confident. I don't have any fears about getting onstage and delivering songs, because I love my songs and my heart is onstage.

Has she heard Supernova — the band with Tommy Lee, Jason Newsted and Gilby Clarke — yet? Absolutely not, and that is one thing that I'm really curious about. I would hate to end up in a band that I totally don't feel musically. But I have faith, especially in Jason and Tommy. I'm not too sure about Gilby's style. I know he's a little more old-school, but I think the combination would be really cool. I loved Metallica as a kid and I think Jason's got that heavy thing, and I know Tommy does, too. And Tommy's doing a lot of deejaying so he's more up to date on what's going on now. I'd be really happy if they did a beat thing with the grunge and the rock. I'm not opposed to anything except I wouldn't want to be in a band that doesn't have energy and style. [As I mentioned in an earlier post, Tommy Lee says the band is giving the singers a track to learn soon, but Dilana hadn't gotten it when we talked.]

Does she want to take command of the competition early or build to success?  I want to take command from the start. It's my third week and I've maintained it for three weeks now, and there's no bloody way in hell I'm going to take a step back. It's either stay where I am right now, or move higher.  … This is a competition. You have every performance to prove yourself. ..
   Like Ryan was saying (Sunday night), 'Yeah, I'm now starting to feel myself and get into it,' and I was like, 'You idiot.' … This is a competition. You're going to get your ass kicked off if you don't do it now. … You can't waste time in something like this.

About the contestants living under one roof (and the lack of privacy) : I loved it in the beginning but .. there's some tension, and I can't put my finger on it. But I get the feeling that people are making alliances and I've noticed that, the last few days they're not talking to me, or they're making sarcastic, smirky little remarks. … I absolutely don't care (about the others) but I don't like living in an un-peaceful environment because it does affect me eventually. … It does make good  television, and I wish it didn't. This is a musical thing. This is a world tour we're talking about. It's not … "Big Brother." …

I work out every day and I can't go to the gym without someone walking me to the gym and standing there, watching me work out for an hour … to make sure we don't run away, I guess. I keep saying, "I want to be here! I promise you! I'm not going anywhere!" …
I don't like to rehearse in front of anybody. I don't like to warm up my voice in front of anybody. It's something that's very personal to me. I have tried every corner of this place to find a spot for me where I can do my thing without being heard, and I haven't found it yet. I am trying to learn how to play guitar better. I'm embarrassed to practice in front of anyone else because most of the guys are really good… I would love to find a spot where I could just play and let go without feeling someone's watching me, but I haven't found it.

On Tommy's televised come-ons to the women in the competition: I act stupid and pretend I don't get it and don't say anything back. I could be very cocky and give them a mouthful because I have loads to say. But I choose not to. … It's an issue that me and the girls have talked a lot about in this house. The whole sex thing. I choose to say to myself, it's Tommy Lee, he's a freak, it's rock and roll,  he's gonna do it … get used to it, you know. I've been in bands like that for many, many years. And once they get to know me and we're on the road touring, they'll realize there's absolutely no way and I'll be one of the boys. I'll actually get them the chicks. [Also, Dilana has a boyfriend in Houston.]

Come-ons from the guys in the competition: In the beginning, yeah. I think that's part of their problem. They realize they're not going to get any, and now they're all pissy about it. It's an ego thing. Sorry, guys. … Today I was like, man, maybe that's what ]the tension among the contestants] is. They haven't had sex in three weeks, they've tried their luck with almost every single one of us, and they're not getting any. So maybe the ego thing is starting to kick in and they're not even aware of it.

Whether the women are better than the men on the show: Damn right, Skippy.

"Gilmore Girls" and "Veronica Mars," two of my favorite shows, had press conferences today. My favorite moment may have been when Lauren Graham agreed with my assertion that Lorelai was a wuss last season. (She also said she didn't like that, although she had no power to change it, and she did like that Lorelai-and-Christopher ending.)

But I am not alone in caring about "Gilmore." And Graham is not attending a press party tonight for stars and producers from CW shows. So, in order to get in some extra questions after the press conference, we had to form a scrum around her. A very tight scrum, as it turned out.

Now, most of us know each other and we're willing to both crowd in and respect each other's space (in addition to accepting the occasional audio recorder overhead, as a reporter in the back reaches out like the branch of a tree to pick up the conversation in the center of the scrum). But a woman known for her agressiveness leaned into my back so hard and persistently that I began to think I was being prepped for a colonoscopy.

Since the bride is the only person allowed that close, I tried to inch forward as much as the rest of the crowd allowed. The other reporter just inched closer. I ended up moving laterally; the other reporter got a better vantage point while I lost mine. But at least I regained full possession of my kidneys.

Here's the new-season rollout for the CW:

Sept. 20 — "America's Next Top Model," two-hour premiere.

Sept. 22 — "Friday Night Smackdown."

Sept. 25 — "7th Heaven" and "Runaway."

Sept. 26 — "Gilmore Girls."

Sept. 27 — "One Tree Hill."

Sept. 28 — "Smallville" and "Supernatural."

Oct. 1 — "Everybody Hates Chris," "All of Us," "Girlfriends," "The Game," "Top Model" (repeat).

Oct. 3 — "Veronica Mars."

The announcement came during The CW's day on press tour, and it managed to carry over a tradition from the old days of The WB and UPN: introductory remarks from Keith Marder, then with The WB, now with CSTV. The CW brought him back for an appearance and here are a few of his lines:

"It was a crazy development season. Even the White House pitched a show: 'Stop or My Vice President Will Shoot.' "

"Later today, the CW will unveil its strategy, including its new marketing slogan: 'Two wrongs DO make a right.' "

"The landmark announcement regarding the formation of the CW was one of the best-kept secrets in Hollywood history. But they could have been even more clandestine. They could have broadcast their meetings in episodes of 'Pepper Dennis.' "

"Star Jones quit 'The View' four months after they fired her."

"The only show with more profanity than 'Deadwood' is 'Lucky Louie.' Sometimes when I close my eyes, I can't tell them apart — except for the fact that 'Deadwood' is funnier. … Notice they didn't call it 'Funny Louie.' Or 'Charming Louie.' Or even 'Remotely Interesting Louie.' "

"You know what's exactly like 'The Sopranos'? World Cup soccer. The Italians won, everybody watched, and now they go away for four years. … It was Germany's best finish in an international competition since the invasion of Poland."

Earlier tonight, I was standing in the mansion from "Rock Star: Supernova," listening to Magni play guitar while Dilana sang "Lightning Crashes" and then "Lithium." I should not have to offer any further explanation of how cool my evening was.

But I will: Throw in Magni and Storm singing a Monty Python song, the title of which I am too proper to use here. (One word in it is "face," OK?)

And that all this came after I had been to the set of "Rock Star," where I not only made a hometown connection — to Nate Morton, drummer in the House Band — and got to stand on the stage, but I also heard some very serious vocals (Dilana, Cranberries' "Zombie," 'nuff said) as well as Tommy Lee's trying to, uh, charm every female singer in the competition.

The taping of the show, which will air Tuesday, is even better than what you see on the air; it goes significantly longer, with the telecast cutting a lot of the judges' comments, even though the talk between the judges and contestants is really interesting — and much more of a dialogue than it looks like on TV.

I'll try to post more later,  including some comments from Dilana after the show, but only after some sleep. Still, here's tonight's song list: Patrice, "Helter Skelter"; Josh, "Come As You Are"; Storm, "Just What I Needed"; Lukas, "Let's Spend the Night Together"; Jill, "All Right Now"; Ryan, "Fortunate Son"; Phil, "White Rabbit"; Dana, "It's My Life"; Toby, "Runaway Train"; Magni, "Plush"; Zayra, "Everybody Hurts"; Jenny, "Drive," and Dilana's "Zombie" closing the show.

And, for those of you trying to figure out which singer will best fit with Supernova's sound, here's Tommy's description of what the band does: "It's very retro-sounding but with new sounds .. Like T-Rex, Bowie, '70s …  like handclaps, party music, like — music is so hard to explain but it's like retro-sounding and feeling."

The band plans to give the singers a Supernova track tomorrow or the next day and "they'll all get a chance to do their own interpretation of that track," Tommy said. "I'm really, really looking forward to that, because at the end of the day that's what's important. …  'Whatever' with the cover songs, 'cause that's not what we're looking for."

OK, one more thing before I go: Earlier today we had a press conference with folks from "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," including some answers about Grissom/Sara (the other characters do not know about the relationship, for one thing) and about the new time-slot competition from "Grey's Anatomy." (Marg Helgenberger says the move is "was the biggest motivator wwe could have had.We don't want to relinquish the throne.")

As the press conference was winding down, I asked something that many of you have asked me about.

Like tis: "Mr. Eads, among the 25 million or so people who watch the show, quite a few are concerned about Nick's hair. I hear it's too short, it's too long, why does he keep changing it? Could you explain for them what's the deal?"

"No, I cannot," Eads said."I think I'm not going to mess around with it as much. I've really realized how much the fans get perturbed by it."

So what's he going to stay with? "I don't know yet," he said. (At the press conference, it was very short.)

For those of you commenting on the previous item, I haven't seen a list of premiere dates for CBS yet, Fred. And Kay, Couric is trying to tone down the perky and be at least a tad more somber.As I noted in the column I just finished for the Beacon Journal, she wore a pants suit for the press conference, and you know how leggy she could be on "Today." I hope to get the Patrick piece done soon, not sure about Skeet.

Right now I am at the desk in my room, having just eaten some salad, fries (with lemon rind) and tuna burger courtesy of Rachael Ray. She was here to tout her new syndicated daytime show coming in the fall, and she is a pistol. (The tuna burger was pretty good, too.) After Couric, I came back here to write the column, then went back for Ray's press conference, grabbed a bite from the buffet afterward and took it with me to nibble while I finished writing about Couric.

Speaking of which, a reader asked me some time ago whether Ray is putting out her wedding video. Here's the answer: "I shot a bunch of stuff just with a hand camera for Oprah, and they did use some of it on 'ET,' but that's all. It was just little hand-held stuff. It may show up on a show again."  It sounded as if she might use some of it on her new show. But asked specifically if she might do a wedding special of some kind, she said, "No, no, no."

I'm in the morning's meeting room, where the air conditioning is blowing hard; breakfast was a variety of egg dishes, tied to a publicity push CBS plans that involves putting promos on eggs. Really.

I've had my eggs, chatted with colleagues and am now waiting for the arrival of Katie Couric. The room is filling up pretty quickly; Katie's a must-see — and a must-file — for just about everyone here.

The room is full now, 15 minutes after the press conference was supposed to start, and still no Katie.

And herrrrrrrrreeeeeee she is. She's gotten really blonde. (The delay is blamed on the omelet-making setting off the fire alarm. Don't think so.) CBS News President Sean McManus says he feels "really good" and that the broadcast will be "intelligent, relevant and transparent." Also new and fresh.

Later: Couric and McManus — mostly Couric — have been taking questions for about an hour, extending past the schedule end long enough to make up for the late start. There have been some microphone fights — multiple reporters with mikes, each shouting over the other to get a question in, especially as time began to run out. But I have seen much worse than these. (I've even been in a couple.)

Not a lot of news from the stage. They're being deliberately vague about what the newscast will be like on Sept. 5, partly for competitive reasons — partly to make us want to see the telecast itself. And Couric ducked a question about how she felt about Dan Rather's departure, saying she wasn't involved in the situation.

One reporter asked a question about her planned wardrobe — trying to preface it with a note about Rather's sweater period, so the question didn't seem sexist. No answer, though, but a more interesting one may be coming from another corner; McManus said Charlie Gibson wouldn't get asked that question, and the reporter promised to ask it when Gibson is here later in the tour.

Press conference is done. The scrum of reporters around Couric is sizable — couple of dozen people.

More later.

Tonight's activities — well, mine, anyway — ended at the Rose Bowl, where CBS had its party for press tour reporters and the stars of its shows. There was a greeting to us on one of the big screens, and another on a Goodyear blimp flying overhead. Members of the UCLA marching band played as we walked in — the "Jeffersons" theme for the group I was with. (Former Clevelander Robert Patrick, now co-starring on "The Unit," said he tried to get the band to pay the Ohio State fight song, and the band refused.) It was a cool-job moment — hey, I was standing on the field at the Rose Bowl!

I had chats — with "Two and a Half Men's" Conchata Ferrell, about working with Paddy Chayefsky on "Network," for example, and with Jason Ritter about when the second season of "Joan of Arcadia" will be on DVD. (All he knows is that he hasn't been asked yet to do any commentary; I'm trying to get an answer through another avenue.) I did interviews: Robert Patrick, for one, and  Skeet Ulrich of "Jericho.""

I chatted up Thom Barry of "Cold Case," at first because his CBS bio says he's from Cleveland, so he was a local connection. Only he told me he isn't from Cleveland. He's from Cincinnati.

Asked why the confusion, he said, "I can only figure it started with the IMDB" — the much used, much cited Internet Movie Database, which listed him as Cleveland, with other people picking that up. "You know what? Especially out here in the West, most people know Cleveland, Ohio. If they do know Cincinnati, they probably try to block it out because of the rivalry between the Reds and the Dodgers."

He's not the only one to see geography scrambled. Earlier in the tour, a producer of the Oxygen movie "Fight Girls" referred to finding one of the fighters in Ohio. She's from Indiana.

As Barry summed up the view for Californians: "It's back there somewhere."

All that was at the end of a day that had also included CBS executive Nina Tassler, James Woods and the rest of the people from "Shark," Ulrich and the rest of "Jericho," Ray Liotta and the other stars of "Smith." I had one-on-one conversations with Carter Bays, the former Shaker Heights resident now producting and writing for "How I Met Your Mother," and Brian Bedol, another old Buckeye who now runs CSTV.

It's Sunday morning now as I write, and I've been transcribing some of the material that has filled up my audio recorder, to make room for more. The morning's marquee event is Katie Couric, the afternoon has the cast of "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation." And late this afternoon I'll be on the set of "Rock Star: Supernova" for a taping of the show.

(I wrote the following on Friday morning, then neglected to post it. But here it is, a little late.)

Friday was a nifty day in a number of ways. I had a couple of good  chats with people from Showtime's "Brotherhood," although it was mostly about plot twists that haven't aired yet. Fantasia Barrino, whose story is the basis for a Lifetime movie, was charming, and the clips from the movie indicate she gives an impressive performance as herself. Robbie Coltrane of "Cracker" and "Harry Potter" fame turned his press conference into a performance — complete with different voices and accents, and facial shifts — that brought laugh after laugh.

Comic Jim Gaffigan, co-starring in a comedy for TBS, was funny, too, in a deadpan, I'm-not-taking-this-stuff-seriously way. ("My character is a married guy with kids," he said. "In preparation for the role, I got married, and I had a kid. You know, I'm method.") Andre Benjamin a.k.a. Andre 3000 of Outkast was engaging as he talked about a show he's working on for the Cartoon Network.

One of my favorite moments was sitting outside with Jimmy McGovern, the man who created "Cracker" and a new show, called "The Street," that will air on BBC America. Not much lighthearted there, because we were talking about 9/11 and about Northern Ireland, since both are topics in the newest "Cracker" and I wanted to know more about his thinking.

Still, while I have said we live in a bubble here, you can see through a bubble.

You can see that some of your friends and colleagues are dealing with troubles that are deeper than a laptop not working or an interview going badly. You can see the world that Jimmy McGovern thinks about and writes about. You can be brought up short by the details.

Mary Fetchet's 24-year-old son died in the attacks on the World Trade Center. She is now founding director of Voices of September 11th, an organization providing support and advocacy for 9/11 survivors and families of the victims of the attacks. She was a key figure in pressuring the White House to set up an independent 9/11 commission and is part of a Court TV documentary about the commission. But it's not just an issue for her; it's a deep personal loss, one that she and the familes of the other victims are reminded of constantly, she said, and "in a very public way."

When she goes through airport security, Fetchet said, "I think (that) this happened because my son and 3,000 other people were murdered."

But there was a detail she mentioned that stuck with me through that day and into this one, something she said she would not want another person to go through. "We've been notified five times of Brad's remains," she said.

At first I thought she meant there had been mistakes leading to incorrect notifications. That wasn't it. All five notifications were correct. "These were all body fragments," she said.

I know, it's Friday. It's about 6 a.m. here in Pasadena and I have been awake for a couple of hours. Last night I hit my first wall of the press tour; at about 9 p.m. I stretched out with the idea of taking a short nap before doing some writing. That short nap lasted until about 4 a.m. — when I got up and wrote a column for Sunday's paper.

The wall didn't come because yesterday was somehow exhausting; it's more that an even pace is impossible on one of these press tours, so sometimes you go hard without much sleep for a few days and then find a place to catch up. (If you just keep pushing, your arteries will end up carrying one part blood, three parts caffeine.)

Instead, yesterday was one of those days where you keep making mental and emotional adjustments. I've already posted about Mr. T, who was a kick, and who was followed by the "Different World" reunion, which strove to be much more serious. (I also posted a few notes about it, in "What Might Have Been" below.)

Then came one of those dreadful wait-for-the-bait sequences that make critics cranky. The bait was Trey Parker and Matt Stone from "South Park." Comedy Central held them until the end of the network's session, so people had to sit through a session about Comedy Central's broadband channel and "Freak Show," an animated comedy that premieres in October, and another show besides. There were laughs and info-nuggets along the way, but it was all of little consequence compared to "South Park," especially to the people wanting to file "South Park" columns right away.

David Cross, touting "Freak Show," accused one critic of sleeping during his session.

"I'm waiting to see the 'South Park' guys," the critic replied.

Anyway, we finally did get to "South Park," but that wasn't the end of the day.  The National Geographic Channel had a couple of discussions, one about a special on the pursuit of Osama bin Laden; the coming fifth anniversary of 9/11 has made that disaster a recurring theme for this press tour. Indeed, a little later the History Channel was promoting "The Miracle of Stairway B," about a group that survived the collapse of the World Trade Center's north tower. That session led into one called "Wedding Wars," about a TV comedy-movie planned for later this year, followed by Gene Simmons, Shannon Tweed and their kids, who are starring in a reality show for A&E.

There were more panels after that. I was elsewhere, first writing about Simmons-Tweed for today's Beacon Journal (you can find the piece here) and then sitting down for a one-on-one talk with Akron native Ray Wise. Ray's a veteran character actor (recently seen in "Good Night and Good Luck" and as the vice president on "24" and due to be a guest star in next week's episode of "The Closer") with plenty of stories to tell, from his years as a young actor on "Love of Life" to his frequent work for the late Aaron Spelling to his newer projects. I  had a great time, and expect to turn it all into a story in about a week.

The day began to wind down after that, drifting into a Sci Fi Channel dinner overlooked by a reproduction of the gate from "Stargate" (which has an anniversary coming up), and a check of e-mail and finally into that "nap."  Which helped a lot, considering that the whole process resumes in a couple of hours. At least this is the last day of cable; CBS starts tomorrow, beginning a run of single-network days. They should still be interesting — Katie Couric is here Sunday morning, "Rock Star" is taping Sunday night — but the pace will ease.

Imagine a race-reversing variation on "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" starring Marisa Tomei and Kadeem Hardison. Debbie Allen thought that would have been a good idea for "A Different World" but she never got to do it.

Allen is here for a "Different World" reunion panel, tied to Nick at Nite's telecasts of "Different World" reruns beginning July 19. A lot of the discussion has involved how uneasy television can still be about matters of race. The cast sees their ensemble anticipating "Friends" (and wonders why, after "Different World's" college life, they couldn't have grown into their own ensemble comedy if NBC was looking for "Friends"-ish ideas). Dawnn Lewis said she did a pilot that was never picked up even though it had an "Alias"-like premise two years before "Alias."

As for Tomei, she was on "Different World" the first season, playing a white student at the school's African-American college. When Allen came in as producer in the show's second season, she wanted to address the racial contrast, making Tomei's character a good friend with Dwayne Wayne (Hardison) and then having her go home for the holidays with Dwayne.

"They didn't like that idea," Allen said. Instead, she said, the show's executives dropped Tomei. But she did all right. Hardison recalled telling Tomei that she'd probably win an Oscar one day — and Tomei did, for "My Cousin Vinny."

I'm in the same meeting room where Ted Koppel's message came via satellite yesterday, only the messenger is a little different this morning.

It's Mr. T, and he is rolling as he talks about his new show, "I Pity the Fool," which premieres in October on TV Land. The gold chains are gone (he thought they were just wrong after the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina), replaced by a suit and tie (and white sneakers). The Mohawk is still there, just a lot thinner.

I was a little weary when I came in here but you can't stay drowsy for long when that raspy growl of a voice is rapid-firing aphorisms — "You pity the fool because you don't want to beat up the fool" — and explaining how his show will be different from Dr. Phil's. (He'd tell the tearful folks on "Dr. Phil" that "you're a fool, that's what's wrong with you!") Not to mention his repeated references to his mother, or his description of watching "The A-Team" late at night: "Look at me," he'll think, "I was something!" Or his fondness for the show generally: "We shot a thousand bullets and didn't kill nobody." And I've lost track of how many different things T has said the T stands for: tender, tough, time, temperature (because he brings the heat)…

Of course, T has been giving inspirational speeches for a long time. But he seems to have changed from the "A-Team" days; I remember him being surly at a press conference touting a guest turn on the show by Culture Club. (Yes, I was in a room with Mr. T and Boy George.) T insists that some of that was him being in character. And some of it may also have been that he didn't like the questions reporters asked in the old days — and surly was better than smacking. "I might have saved the guy who asked the question by walking away."

It's a little after 9 a.m. as I start writing this, and we're about to talk to Ted Koppel. He's not in the room; he's visible on a big TV screen, beaming to us by satellite from Guatanamo Bay, where he is filming his first special for the Discovery Channel. It will be about security and personal liberty, and will air on the Sept. 10, the eve of the fifth anniversary of 9/11.

The first question to Koppel involves working for Discovery after reaching the larger audience available to the big networks. He admits the numbers are smaller but goes on to say that it is almost impossible to get, say, a serious program about foreign policy into prime time.

He doesn't apologize for being old school in some ways: "The old school is a good school," he says. Later, he notes that foreign-policy issues are not just material for wonks. They're "issues that going to have impact on the lives of all Americans." And he fears that newsgathering will be weaker in the future — that, for example, there's little attention paid to India even though it is an increasingly important story for the world.

There's a little lag in the discussion, since it takes a moment for Koppel to hear the questions. (Koppel also lost his phone connection at one point, able to talk but not hear the queries from Pasadena. He asked a Discovery exec to vamp until the sound was restored.) And I'm fighting a little bit of time disorientation.

Not jet lag exactly. More of an attempt to remember what time it is while working odd hours of the day and night.

Last night, after watching "Rescue Me" and doing some writing, I went to the hotel's parking deck, which had been decorated with a beach party theme by GSN. I talked some with Danny Bonaduce; I had missed his press conference earlier but had read the transcript and had a couple of follow-up questions. Also, I like talking to Danny, who's been a good interview every time I have chatted with him over the years.

But when I was done, I looked at my watch. It was about 11 p.m. It didn't feel that late, even though I had been going pretty hard for most of the day and knew I would be up before 6 a.m. today. You get into a bubble on these things where most of your life revolves around the next press conference and the next in-person interview, and when you're going to screen things. (Earlier this morning, I was watching a new DVD of Sally Field's "Sybil" because I'm still hoping to put together my TV-on-DVD column for Friday.)

Still, there is a world beyond the walls of these meeting rooms. All right, there's California beyond these meeting room. Some of that is pretty nice. I had a good walk this morning through tree-lined residential areas, the sun bright, the only challenges coming from the need to dodge lawn sprinklers and the occasional evidence of the many dogs around here.

Walking is certainly more fun than a car trip. Yesterday, I had to drive over to Los Angeles to pick up my credentials for tonight's ESPYS taping. Driving in L.A. is close to the adventure you've heard about; there are just so many people doing it, for starters, that traffic sometimes stops for no noticeable reason other than the sheer volume. When I got off one of the snaking highways and onto regular roads, I hadn't driven far before I came to a police car blocking the road. Flashers could be seen down the block. At least one chopper rumbled overhead.

Working along smaller side streets, I got to my location. And near it saw one of those things that reminds you that all of this area is part of show biz. A historic but long-closed coffee shop still stood; on the building was a sign declaring "available for filming."