D.O.A. Laughlin

While CBS' "Viva Laughlin" wasn't the first casualty of the new TV season - the CW had something called "Online Nation" yanked last week - it it certainly one of the most visible bombs in recent memory.

Sunday's second and final episode saw the casino have a disastrous opening and Ripley (Lloyd Owen) desperate to try to create some buzz for it. Talk about an ironic example of art imitating life. I watched about 10 minutes of it waiting for dinner, and during through a butchering of "Money (That's What I Want)" I pretty much knew this show was a goner.

Certainly, I'm all for originality in TV, and "Viva Blackpool" - the BBC series upon which "Laughlin" was based - had that in spades. I was at a party over the weekend and met someone who had been to the "Laughlin" set. He said he thought the show was too campy to last very long.

Actually, as I told him, I thought it wasn't campy enough. The show wasn't a serious musical, so producers could have had a lot of fun and gone really over the top with it, much like "Blackpool." But there was none of that in "Laughlin," and most of the key roles (Owen, Melanie Griffith) were horribly miscast. The only interesting character, the show's villain (Hugh Jackman), was a recurring role. Jackman was the one actor on the show who was a legitimate singer/dancer, not a good sign for a show based around singing and dancing.

The one bit of good news (besides the awful "Laughlin" getting yanked) is that "The Amazing Race," one of the few worthwhile so-called reality shows, will be returning to the air Nov. 4. (This Sunday's gap in the schedule will be a "CSI" rerun).

TUESDAY'S BEST BETS: Tonight marks the finale of "Damages" (FX, 10 p.m.) a decent show that is about 50-50 in terms of renewal. Usually, any time you get the likes of Glenn Close doing her thing on TV, I'm all for renewal (and her co-star, Ted Danson, has been terrific as a Ken Lay-type of businessman), but the pacing of "Damages" has been too slow for a lot of people. The producers have done a good job over the last two weeks of drawing all the plot threads together, but it might be too little, too late in terms of recapturing the audience. "Damages" wasn't the best series to debut this summer (not when you have series like "Mad Men" and "Burn Notice") but it was ambitious, something we don't get enough of on TV.

After a week of baseball, Fox's duo of "Bones" and "House" are back. "Bones" has been a bit all over the place this season, while "House" has never been better with the influx of job applicants to join House's (Hugh Laurie) team. I hope they keep the interview process going as long as possible.

What's the over/under of "Bee Movie" commercials with Jerry Seinfeld during tonight's "Singing Bee" (NBC, 8 p.m.)? Just curious.

While CBS had a bomb with "Viva Laughlin," "Cane" (CBS, 10 p.m.) has showed surprising legs so far. It certainly doesn't dominate the ratings, but the audience is holding pretty steady. It follows new episodes of "NCIS" and "The Unit."

I think tonight's lineup from ABC - "Cavemen," "Carpoolers," "Dancing With the Stars" and "Boston Legal" - is the TV equivalent of fingernails on a chalkboard, but evidently somebody is watching these shows, so what do I know? (Is Wayne Newton still alive on "Dancing?")

The CW is all new with "Beauty and the Geek" and "Reaper."

Finally, a slightly less-enthusiastic pitch for the HBO/BBC miniseries, "Five Days" (HBO, 8 p.m.) After a strong start, the series has dragged on a bit with the main mystery, that of a mother who has disappeared. It's a five-part series that probably could have been done more effectively in three parts, but maybe the final two episodes will surprise.