Do You Hulu?

It's been a week since NBC and Fox launched their online video-on-demand site, Hulu.com. (Sounds like the love child of "Star Trek's" Mr. Sulu and Lt. Uhura.)

So far, the choices are pretty eclectic. You get the first season of "Buffy," for example, but only the first season. There is the lone season of "John Doe" on the site, but three or four episodes are missing.

The good news for viewers is that the networks will be adding more and more to the site, especially newer shows like "The Office" that were previously only offered on iTunes. (The venture grew out of NBC's falling out with Apple over the price of downloads on that platform).

Now viewers are getting these shows for free. There are still some kinks to be worked out - I tried downloading an episode on my Mac at work and could only get audio, not video. (I have a really sucky Mac). I haven't tried Hulu yet on my PC at home.

If you want to understand what the writers' strike was all about, it's that video downloads off the Internet are an ever-growing part of the TV culture, and now the writers will get a small slice of that pie, something they weren't getting before the strike.

R.I.P. ANTHONY MINGHELLA: The Oscar winning writer-director of "The English Patient," "The Talented Mr. Ripley" and others died yesterday at age 54 of a hemorrage after surgery.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PATRICK MCGOOHAN: The star of my favorite series, "The Prisoner" turns 80 today. McGoohan starred in, helped conceive, wrote and directed much of the classic series, which was the "Lost" of its day.

WEDNESDAY'S BEST BETS: I'm kind of ready for the networks to return with their regular Wednesday lineups already, because Wednesday's are far and away the weakest nights of the week. From the drama perspective, only "Men In Trees" (ABC, 10 p.m.) and "Law & Order" (NBC, 10 p.m.) are new. Everything else is so-called reality.

"Survivor" (CBS, 8 p.m.) fans, take note of the special Wednesday edition, since CBS will be airing the NCAA basketball tournament on Thursday.