Still A Letterman Fan

David Letterman sometimes comes off as acerbic on his "Late Show," but I've always been struck by his graciousness.

Some examples:

-The way he celebrated his medical team after his heart surgery.

-His standing up for Ted Koppel and "Nightline," even though the show appeared on a rival network during the same timeslot.

-His loyalty to sportscaster Marv Albert, a longtime Letterman friend who was involved in a humiliating sexual harrassment case several years ago. While other comics took plenty of shots at Albert, Letterman never did once and later had Albert on as a guest.

-His post 9/11 show celebrating New York's cops and firefighters is still one of the great moments in TV.

-Inviting Conan O'Brien on shortly before he took over "Late Night," and appearing as one of Conan's early guests.

I bring this up because in the newest issue of "Rolling Stone," Letterman has taken the NBC brass to task for their treatment of "Tonight Show" host and longtime rival Jay Leno.

In the interview, Letterman said: "Unless I’m misunderstanding something, I don’t know why, after the job Jay has done for them, why they would relinquish that. ... I guess empathy is the right word. It’s hard to know what he felt about it. I have to believe he was not happy about it."

Letterman said he would love to have Leno as a guest after his stint on "The Tonight Show" is over.

Letterman also had kind words for Conan, who will be taking over "The Tonight Show" for Leno and be Letterman's new competition.

"It will be weird to see Conan at 11:30, don’t you think?" he said in the interview. "Which is not to say he can’t succeed, but, no, I don’t know what the competition will be like. I hope we’re able to do OK."

Letterman was less clear about his own future about whether he will continue to do "The Late Show" after his contract is up in 2010.

"The way I feel now, I would like to go beyond 2010, not much beyond, but you know, enough to go beyond. You always like to be able to excuse yourself on your own terms," Letterman said. "If the network is happy with that, great. If they wanna make a change in 2010, you know, I’m fine with that, too."

Here's one fan hoping he sticks around a while longer.

THURSDAY'S BEST BETS: Wow, you TV viewers really, really liked the next generation of "90210," didn't you? It became the highest-rated series debut ever for The CW, and set records for several key demographic groups. Of course, if the same numbers were on, say, ABC, we wouldn't be writing about this, but CW is so happy that it will repeat the two-hour pilot tonight at 8 p.m.

Giving equal time to both conventions, tonight marks Republican presidential hopeful John McCain's keynote speech at the convention tonight. Coverage of the convention begins at 8 p.m. on PBS and on cable, but you can catch his speech on any of the networks when their coverage picks up at 10 p.m.

The NFL kicks off tonight with a matchup of the Super Bowl champion New York Giants hosting the Washington Redskins (7 p.m., NBC) On the college side, you have the classic SEC matchup of Vanderbilt and South Carolina (ESPN, 8:30 p.m.)

The Return Of 'The Shield'

Just before "The Shield" (FX, 10 p.m.) debuted in 2002, I saw the promos for it on FX. While they looked interesting, I was worried this would just be another "cop on the edge"-type series.

Then I watched the pilot. In that first episode, creator Shawn Ryan created an unforgetable character in Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis), the very definition of an anti-hero.

Mackey has done virtually anything and everything you can think of on both sides of the law, taking gangs down when he needs to but more often than not using them to try to keep the peace on the streets. While taking money, he still works to enforce the law. While he loves his family, he has no qualms about cheating on his wife.

When we last left Mackey, he had just come into possession of a load of blackmail material being used by Mexican gang members to pressure public officials. Facing losing his badge, Mackey now had an arsenal of weapons that should help him keep it.

If he can use it. His partner, councilman David Aceveda, his former captain who tried to get him fired, has forged an uneasy alliance between the two, and doesn't want to use the blackmail material.

Meanwhile, Mackey must deal with a renewed threat from the Armenian mob, from whom he and his strike team stole $2 million.

Having watched the first eight episodes of "The Shield's" final season, the producers are throwing in everything but the kitchen sink. Mackey and his partner, Ronnie (David Rees Snell), must deal with team member Shane (Walton Goggins), who killed the fourth member of their team.

Meanwhile, Mackey is continuing to have problems with his daughter, growing more rebellious by the day.

Other storylines include precinct Capt. Wyms (CCH Pounder) dealing with lupus; officer Danny Sofer (Catherine Dent) dealing with being a single mom after a fling with Vic; a detective (David Marciano) suing the precinct; and a federal agent (Laurie Holden), who might be playing both sides of the fence.

While consistently one of TV's best shows, "The Shield" has often been overlooked by the Emmys despite Chiklis winning Best Actor during the first season. Former guest star/cast members Glenn Close, Anthony Anderson and Forest Whitaker turned in fantastic performances that were ignored by the Academy. The turns by regulars such as Goggins and Pounder have been equally overlooked.

The fact is, "The Shield" is still one of TV's top 10 programs, essentially "The Sopranos" told from the law & order point of view.

Fans of the series will be happy to learn that the quality that was present during the first six seasons is there in abundance during the final year.

TUESDAY'S BEST BETS: I don't think a single new show has been as hyped as much as the next generation of "Beverly Hills, 90210" (CW, 8 p.m.) I was never a fan of the original, and to me it's only noteworthy because it's being produced by Rob Thomas ("Veronica Mars"). I'd love to be able to tell you it's worth the hype, but the CW refused to send out screeners to the critics, which tends to be a bad sign. On the bright side, in keeping with the CW tradition, everybody on the show seems to be really, really pretty.

"House" (Fox, 8 p.m.) repeats last season's stellar two-hour season finale, as House (Hugh Laurie) himself is the mystery - after hitting his head during a bus crash, he can't remember why he was meeting Wilson's girlfriend Cutthroat Bitch at a bar. Though some criticized the show as being uneven last season, the finale was definitely one of the high points.

Ch-ch-ch-anges!

In the next day or so, you'll be noticing a new look to this and the other Telegraph blogs as we move off Blogger and onto the main site at macon.com. In TV parlance, think of it as us getting a new timeslot.

I'm not quite sure how this is going to work - I leave all the technical stuff to our Webmaster - but it should only affect you in the sense that you may have to put in a new address for your bookmark and homepage. (What?!? This site isn't your homepage? What is wrong with you?)

The switch will allow us to better manage the blogs and log the incoming traffic (who knows, I might be getting loyal baker's dozens of Web surfers) and give all of our blogs a more uniform look.

This specific Web page on Blogger will still be good for a while as the Web people try to figure out how to transfer the other 500-plus previous posts to the new site, so you will still be able to go through and peruse my previous postings at your leisure (which I know all of you do regularly).

Anyway, back to our regularly scheduled programming. Just a few bits of TV news today.

Laurence Fishburne made it official this week and will be stepping into the lead role of "CSI," sort of replacing William Petersen, who will still appear in a recurring basis.

Speaking of changes, Annabelle Wallis has replaced Anita Briem in the Jane Seymour role on "The Tudors" for Season 3. The two actresses look a lot alike (and both are drop-dead gorgeous) so it shouldn't be too much of a distraction.

Speaking of gorgeous, Charlotte Sullivan ("MVP") has been cast as Maxima on "Smallville." If the writes do the character any justice and write her the way she was in the comics and on the Superman animated series, she should be a fun addition to the series.

Also, Courtney B. Vance ("L&O: CI") will join his real-life wife, Angela Bassett, for a multi-episode arc on the final season of "ER."

Finally, a get well shout out to Christina Applegate ("Samantha Who?"), who had a double mastectomy to treat her breast cancer. Applegate said doctors were able to get all of the cancer, which hopefully means a good prognosis. This should serve as a reminder to all women about the importance of breast exams each year.

90210 SURPRISE: We're supposed to not take this as a bad sign, but the CW is not sending out an advance copy of the new "Beverly Hills, 90210" pilot to critics.

In a statement released to critics this week, the CW said: "The CW and our studio partner CBS Paramount Network Television have made the strategic marketing decision not to screen "90210" for any media in advance of its premiere. We're not hiding anything . . . simply keeping a lid on 90210 until 9.02, riding the curiosity and anticipation into premiere night, and letting all our constituents see it at the same time."

Um, yeah. I suppose it's a smart move strategically - critics are more likely to be unkind in talking about the BH revival, which should draw pretty ratings for the network built around marketing very pretty people.

WEDNESDAY'S BEST BETS: We used to have a reporter at The Telegraph who was obsessed with Ninjas. I don't know if he's reading this, but tonight's "Mythbusters" (Discovery, 9 p.m.) explores the legends of the Japanese assassins, such as the ability to catch an arrow in mid-flight. I can do that, but I choose not to.

"Greatest American Dog" (CBS, 8 p.m.) continues on CBS, while the Olympics continue on NBC.

Veronica Mars, 90210

I used to rail against the idea of remakes until the frakkin' greatness that is "Battlestar Galactica" proved you could re-imagine a concept and make it superior to the original. So I'm slightly less ornery to the idea of a remake than I might have been in my old age.

But...

Then I read zap2it.com's report that writer/producer Rob Thomas ("Veronica Mars") has been approached to do a remake of "Beverly Hills, 90210." Geez, of all the shows to consider reviving? How many "90210" clones, such as "One Tree Hill" and "Gossip Girl" are on the air even now? Why is this necessary?

There is a certain cheese factor to the original, and perhaps it deserves its place among the DVD shelves, where one can enjoy the extra bells and whistles that probably include a Tori Spelling running commentary. But in a time when TV as a whole is fighting keep an audience with something other than reality TV, why rehash a worn-out old series that didn't even leave the airwaves all that long ago?

This isn't "BSG," where the storytelling lends itself to post-9/11 style conflicts and paranoia through dark character development. This is freakin' "90210," for Philo T. Farnsworth's sake. Even in Thomas' hands, what new insight can a remake give us?

Perhaps ironically, Thomas is in the midst of working on a remake right now - a retelling of his old series "Cupid," which ran on ABC several years ago for less than one season. As much as I loved the original "Cupid" - one of the most brilliant concepts ever to air, featuring a terrific performance by Jeremy Piven (track down the DVDs if they exist) - it's time for TV to look at new things.

Speaking of remakes, Jason Smilovic, who helped bring the "Bionic Woman" remake to the small screen this season, is close to selling a new series to NBC that would combine "The Bourne Identity" and "Jekyll and Hyde" that would star Christian Slater.

And speaking of "BSG," you need to watch "The Late Show With David Letterman" Wednesday night, where the cast will be presenting the Top 10 List.

WEEKEND'S BEST BETS: When HBO does a miniseries, it usually does it very well, giving us things like "Band of Brothers" and the like over the years. Sunday night, the newest offering is a bio-miniseries on the life of John Adams, based upon the popular biography available in bookstores. Starring the likes of Paul Giamatti, Laura Linney, Tom Wilkinson and others, "John Adams" (HBO, Sun., 8 p.m.) looks to be another winner.

"The Return of Jezebel James" (Fox, 8 p.m.) makes its debut tonight. Critics have been a bit iffy with it, but I'll take a chance on anything with Lauren Ambrose. It's created by "Gilmore Girls" showrunner Amy Sherman-Palladino.

"Torchwood" (BBC America, Sat., 9 p.m.) is all new and continues to feature Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman).

On Sunday, "Everybody Hates Chris" and "Aliens In America" are both new on the CW, beginning at 8 p.m.

Finally, if you missed it the first time around, AMC is rerunning the brilliant "Breaking Bad" (AMC, Sun., 10 p.m.), featuring an Emmy-worthy Bryan Cranston as a high school chemistry teacher diagnosed with cancer who takes to making crystal meth as a means to support his family.