Simon Back With HBO

"The Wire" may not have gotten a lot of love from the Emmys over the years, but that hasn't stopped series creator David Simon from teaming up with HBO once again for a new series, to be called "Treme."

Simon also produces the current new HBO miniseries "Generation Kill."

And, in a case of putting the band back together, Simon has signed Wendell Pierce and Clarke Peters from "The Wire" to play the leads in the new series, about New Orleans residents struggling to put their lives back together post-Katrina. Also in the cast is Khandi Alexander ("NewsRadio," "CSI: Miami").

Hopefully, it will do better than Fox's "K-Ville," which fizzled earlier this year following two cops who tried to keep the peace in New Orleans after the floods.

8-8-08: People keep saying the convergence of eights will make this a lucky day. I hope so; Happy Anniversary to my brother, whom I guess you can call the "DVR Guy," and my sister-in-law.

WEEKEND'S BEST BETS: With the Olympics running the next two weeks, I won't be offering too many highlights. You can refer to the schedule I posted the link for on Thursday to find out when your favorite events are running. Odds are, it will mostly be the so-called "Redeem Team" anyway as NBC short-shrifts the other, less glamorous sports. Tonight's opening ceremony starts at 7:30 p.m. and will run the rest of the night.

If the Olympics aren't your cup of tea, there are a few options. "Monk" (USA, 9 p.m.) and "Psych" (USA, 10 p.m.) are new, as is "Swingtown" (CBS, 10 p.m.)

On Saturday, BBC America kicks off a new series called "Primeval," (BBC America, 9 p.m.), a fantasy series in which dinosaurs mysteriously start popping up in modern-day England. I don't know much about "Primeval," but given the network's recent history with fantasy-oriented shows - "Torchwood," "Life on Mars," "Jekyll" - this series deserves at least a look.

In case you missed it the first time around, FX is re-running the entire season of "Damages," starring Glenn Close and Ted Danson" in a marathon from 7 a.m.-8 p.m. "Damages" picked up 16 Emmy nominations, tying it with "Mad Men" for most nominations.

On Sunday, "Masterpiece: Mystery" (PBS, 9 p.m.) kicks off a new series of "Inspector Lynley Mysteries" as the title hero is arrested for murder.

USA offers new episodes of "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" at 9 p.m. and the penultimate episode this season of "In Plain Sight" at 10 p.m.

Finally, the pick of the night is, of course, "Mad Men" (AMC, 10 p.m.)

'Horrible' Is Terrific

When "Buffy" creator Joss Whedon writes out his grocery list, it's news, at least for me.

So when I hear that Whedon created a one-hour musical online called "Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog," you know I'm going to be logging in.

The problem is, so is the rest of the planet. So many people logged in to the DrHorrible.com Web site Tuesday night when it debuted that the server crashed, making it difficult to see what the fuss was about.

Eventually, though, I did, and it's brilliant. Whedon (along with his brothers) creates a love story revolved around the not-very-evil Dr. Horrible (Neal Patrick Harris), who longs to join the Evil Society of Evil and win the heart of the pretty redhead (Felicia Day, one of the slayers on "Buffy") who does laundry at the same laundrymat he does. Unfortunately, he's thwarted time and again by the city's big jerk of a superhero, Capt. Hammer (Nathan Fillion).

Whedon, who created one of the most memorable hours of TV ever with the "Buffy" musical episode, "Once More, With Feeling" shines again mixing comedy and music, and has a cast worthy of his efforts. Harris is pitch perfect as lovelorn title villain, and Fillion relishes his role as the pompous superhero. Day has a breakout role as the love interest.

"Dr. Horrible" is being shown in three, 15-minute parts. Part 2 airs Thursday and Part 3 debuts Saturday. The special, which was created during the strike and financed entirely out of Whedon's and his partners' pockets, will be free to watch this week. Afterwards, it will cost money to download it from platforms like iTunes, but it's definitely worth $1.99 if you miss it this week.

AROUND THE DIAL: William L. Petersen announced he will be leaving "CSI" — sort of. According to several sources, Petersen will depart midway through the season as a regular, but return to the show for guest spots. He will also remain on as a producer for the series. ...

In other casting news, Amy Poehler of "Saturday Night Live" will be the new lead in "The Office" spinoff for NBC this fall. ... FX announced a couple of big guest star roles for its series. Michael J. Fox will guest star on "Rescue Me" in 2009 as Janet's (Andrea Roth) new boyfriend. Fox, who suffers from Parkinson's Disease, will use a wheelchair on the show, which should be a great touch for the politically incorrect Tommy (Denis Leary). Meanwhile, Oscar winner Marcia Gay Harden has signed on for "Damages" as an attorney who takes on Patti (Glenn Close). ...

The Home Run Derby on Monday set a record for such events with a 6.4 rating, meaning 6.2 million viewers tuned in to watch Josh Hamilton's sizzling performance and Justin Morneau's victory. Last year's Derby clocked in with a 5.1 rating. This Derby was the highest-rated non-NFL related programming on ESPN since the Miami-Florida State football game in 2006. ...

Stratford alum Jon Allen, a pianist who has performed with the likes of Dolly Parton, Rod Stewart and Stevie Wonder, will appear on "The Today Show" Thursday morning.

WEDNESDAY'S BEST BETS: With so-called reality shows dominating the airwaves tonight ("Big Brother," "So You Think You Can Dance," "The Baby Borrowers" and "Celebrity Circus"), my advice is to check out "Dr. Horrible."

The one reality show worth noting is the season premiere of "Project Runway" (Bravo, 9 p.m.), making its last appearance on the network before moving to Lifetime next year.

Finally, as a wrap-up for All-Star weekend, ESPN is running a special on the history of Yankee Stadium at 6 p.m. as well as the Triple-A All-Star Game at 7 p.m. on ESPN2.

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.