Alright, so I’m now pretty excited over the new 90210 spin-off/sequel becauseJessica Walter will be in it but I now I’m also building excitement over Good Behavior, Thomas’ adaptation of a New Zealand series about a criminal family who tries to amend their ways. The cast already has Mae Whitman in it (a second bit of Arrested Development casting — I wonder if we can hope for another AD vet to show up on Cupid) but the family’s matriarch might be played by Catherine O’Hara. Catherine. O’Hara.

In other 90210 bits, the series added Shenae Grimes to its cast who, if memory serves correctly, was the conservative Christian activist student at Degrassi. While I think Grimes got to show some amazing acting chops (no thanks to her wooden leading guy) I have to admit to some surprise it’s not a better known Degrassi cast member to get a breakout role first like Deanna Casaluce (Alex), Lauren Colins (who, admittedly, is busy playing Nicole Sullivan’s sister on some Lifetime show) or Adamo Ruggiero.

Dirt’s Ryan Eggold also joined the cast as the school’s hot young teacher — I liked Eggold on Dirt so he’s a promising addition to the cast but what does this say about his Dirt role? I missed the season finale (stupid Comcast DVR) so was he written out? Does this suggest that he doesn’t expect Dirt to get a third season and feel free to commit to another series?

So that list of 6 Sci-Fi TV Show Concepts You Didn’t See wraps up with a mention of ,em>The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang a Saturday morning adaptation of the then-popular Happy Days. The series focused on the gang meeting a time traveler named Cookie, who takes the guys for a quick travel through time, only to bust the control mechanism (or something like that) and so they have to randomly jump through time, have an adventure while the machine recharges (or something) and hope the next random jump takes them back to the 1950s.

Of course, I was too young to realize that the sitcom and this animated show followed different continuities. I spent my remaining Happy Days watching days looking for them to get around to introducing Cookie on the main show. She seemed more interesting than any of the guys. When Linda Purl first appeared in the show credits, I wondered if she would be playing Cookie.

I’ve lost a lot of my love for Boston Legal of late, in some ways it’s still a great show in other ways it’s David E. Kelley indulging in his excesses to a new level of annoying.

However, the show does bring some great performers who haven’t been on TV for too long. Recently the show gave us a very welcome return of Alison LaPlaca and tonight Christine Ebersole makes an appearance as… well, does it matter? One of the few things Boston Legal is really good at is giving guest stars the caliber of LaPlaca, Ebersole and (another great recent guest) Stephen Root material that lives up to their talents and aside from a brief appearance on The Big Gay Sketch Show (in a Grey Gardens/Extreme Makeover: Home Edition mash-up parody) it’s been too long since Ebersole has been on my TV.

Sigh, it’s too bad that character is better associated with Ebersole than Kit Cavanaugh, eh?

Animal Planet says they’ll be focusing less on animals and more about how people feel about animals. I think they should do the reality series I’ve been suggesting for years. Basically, it’d be The Real World (the classic people-with-goals edition) except that the cast spends the days going to a zoo where they learn how to care for some beloved animal. You have drama, you have cute animals… it sounds like a winning formula. Plus you have the veneer of educational programming to make reality TV haters feel like its okay to watch. Season one could be penguins, season two could be about koakas… and maybe by then the show will be a big enough hit that a zoo with a panda will let people in training.

Because I’ve got an excuse to post it, here’s a show about a human interacting with cute animals:

The CW won’t be ordering any new Beauty and the Geek seasons unless the producers come up with a unique twist to make the show feel fresh again.

People, how many times does the words “female geeks” and “male beauties” need to be thrown at you? Sheesh.

Why? Jessica Walter was just cast as a hard drinking former movie star on the show. I imagine the role calls for scene stealing and snappy lines.

I’m feeling a bit mixed about the second season of The Riches, which wraps that season tonight.The second season was solid, but I’m no longer sure what the show is about anymore. The first season was a clear skewering of the American Dream, but this season I haven’t been able to figure out what the show is supposed to be — things are falling apart for the Malloys and everyone just keeps sinking deeper. It’s all very compelling, but this season has been feeling like I’m in a car and the driver won’t say where we’re going, all I’m seeing is the various character sink deeper and deeper into a pit of their own making.

Still, I’m looking forward to seeing if the season wraps itself up at all in tonight’s strike-forced season finale and I’m hoping we get a second season because it’s not often someone gives Minnie Driver a role that lives up to her talents.

On the “glass of water” scale of pessimist or optimist, I usually say that “The glass is half empty, but I probably didn’t need a full glass.” I guess that explains my reaction to the recent 20/20 segment where they tested people’s reaction to same-sex PDA.

I mean, yeah, I wasn’t surprised that one woman reacted by calling the police (who were initially quick to try to stop it) and maybe that bit of jadedness made me fall for the twist that came towards the end about the majority of people being supportive, including one Ms. Dana Smith:

It should be noted, though, that while the straight couple was accepted for full on making out, the gay couple got awws for cuddling and nuzzling in public.

(Uhm, by the way, Quinones, that Snickers ad was controversial because of its homophobia, which an alternate version where the guys beat on each other to “amend” for the accidental kiss.)

Here’s the second part featuring a lesbian couple. Happily, I thought one “supportive” person was going to head down the fetishization route, but, happily, didn’t go there:

I guess sometimes things that are rather obvious to me, aren’t so obvious to others:

American Idol and the executives from its network don’t live in a Fox hole — they’ve seen the ratings. The numbers are down, but Fox execs aren’t just standing around staring aimlessly off into space…

I got my grubby little fingers on an online market research survey Fox put into play last week, and its execs are looking at every aspect of how to plug this ratings leak…

The online survey asks basic questions like whether viewers like the show more or less than last year. But it is the specific questions that indicate where the network is targeting change.

Beckman told me months ago that Fox is looking at tweaking Idol’s early stages next year, so that is nothing new. Therefore, the questions about the length and the tone of the auditions and subsequent Hollywood round are unsurprising.

But one question in the survey gives clues about one route they may be considering. The question asks, “Suppose the first few weeks of American Idol started in Hollywood with flashbacks of the auditions; would that increase or decrease your enjoyment of American Idol?”

Now I don’t really understand what that means, and I watch the show every week. It sounds like some trippy thing from ABC’s underrated prophet-drama, Eli Stone.

I don’t really have a hard time imagining how this would go… “Hollywood week” (the phase where the good auditions are narrowed down to the semi-finalists who viewers will vote on — which some viewers see as the best part of the show) would get expanded to take over the first few weeks and as we follow the performers’ journey, a “let’s look back on their journey” segment will show their audition footage.

Don’t they already do that with “Hollywood week”, except that the flashbacks are made up of footage viewers have already seen? (Unless, like me, they wait until Hollywood week to check out the new season.)

Now, such a change does raise the question of how Idol will find time for all those bad singers that some viewers tune in to see, but imagining an Idol that “started in Hollywood with flashbacks of the auditions” doesn’t seem that difficult.

It might be a good solution, starting the show with a narrative and making it more of a docu-drama at the onset. If Idol’s problem is the contestants’ recent lack of personalities (personally, I suspect it’s a mix of the performances not being enough to make up for the personality deficiencies) expanding the Hollywood portion — where hopefuls are put through rehearsal and performing paces — could make up for it.

So, uhm, there are rumors that tonight’s The Colbert Report will be one of those episodes that’ll be all over the newspapers tomorrow….

Monday night also sees a few more promising bits of TV. Most intriguing is the debut of the well-reviewed new reality mini-series Carrier on PBS. Much like with The War, I’m a bit annoyed by the scheduling — is it really so good I’ll want to set aside ten hours to watch it all in a short period? Couldn’t this have aired over ten weeks?

It’ll be interesting to see how tonight’s How I Met Your Mother goes, considering how last week’s episode ended. Having been reading The Hathor Legacy’s take on the series, I think tonight’s episode is one that could be very interesting especially since — and I think this is something others haven’t considered in the discussion — that Robin is a woman not entirely sympathetic to the challenges of other women. I missed that particular HIMYM episode but hearing that she was unsympathetic to the women who’ve had their hearts broken by Barney isn’t a surprise to me.