August 2010 Archives

Once upon a time, summer TV was all reruns, busted pilots and short-run replacement shows (I liked that Ben Vereen one, though ...), but now, it's just as stuffed with scripted and reality shows as the rest of the year -- and a bunch of them are just awesome.

So, in no particular order, here's my list of Summer Shows I Can't Live Without (feel free to play along at home; your results may vary):

"Wipeout": Anytime I need a boost to my spirits, ABC's reality-competition show, which sends contestants through wild and wacky obstacle courses, is just the ticket. In some ways, it's a living "Road Runner & Coyote" cartoon, only with no Road Runner (unless you count that $50,000 ultimate payoff that everyone's chasing). All the colorful contestants are Wile E. Coyote, forced to suffer repeated splats, falls, flips and indignities in search of an elusive prize. Yes, it's silly and mindless fun, but I love it because ... it's silly and mindless fun.

"America's Got Talent": You can keep your "American Idol," I prefer NBC's often emotional, sometimes downright loopy talent-competition series, which pits dog acts against magicians against singers against a harmonica player against a guy who flossed his neck. What all of the acts have in common is that they have nothing in common except a willingness to endure possible public humiliation to realize a long-held dream. Sometimes it makes me cry, and sometimes it makes me want to take a shower.

"Ice Road Truckers": In the midst of a sultry summertime, there's nothing like tuning in to History Channel and watching truckers on the frozen Dalton Highway in Alaska battle snow, ice and below-zero temperatures to get their rigs and their loads from one tiny tundra hamlet to another. If I still lived in the Northeast and was facing similar conditions in a few months, I might not be so sanguine, but as I don't, it's a visually stunning reminder of what I'm missing.

"Burn Notice": USA Network now has a second spy drama, called "Covert Affairs," but the original remains the gold standard for espionage thrills, chills and fun. The summer finale airs tonight (Aug. 26), so you better get hopping if you haven't yet fallen in love with burned spy Michael Westen (Jeffrey Donovan) and his motley crew in Miami. Oh, and any chance to watch Sharon Gless puff a cigarette and have her say as Westen's savvy mom is worth the price of admission.

"The Choir": I fell in love with the first season of this BBC America reality show, in which elfin choirmaster Gareth Malone built a choir out of the rough-hewn raw materials at a British high school that didn't even have a music program, eventually taking it all the way to a worldwide competition in China. In the most recent season, he took on adolescent masculinity to create a choir at a sports-focused all-boys school. In the next season, he heads to a blue-collar area to not only revitalize the school but the whole town. Gareth is tough but loving and has an unshakable faith in the transformative power of singing -- and he's made a believer out of me.

"Warehouse 13" and "Eureka": Syfy has just found the right mix of science-fiction, fantasy, character humor, drama and good old entertainment in this pair of hit shows, which had crossover episodes early in the month. Both shows manage to be true to their genres without resorting to silliness or self-parody (excellent casts and writers go a long way to making that happen). They're light in tone, but not lightweight -- and that's harder than it sounds.

"Psych": A perfect froth of slapstick, one-liners, homages galore and even a dead body or two, this USA Network comedy-drama about a pretend police psychic (James Roday) and his long-suffering best buddy and partner (Dule Hill) is an absolute delight. The whole cast is strong, the writing is clever but never twee, the theme song rocks, and there's just enough heart to anchor it to Earth and keep the whole thing from floating away.

These are only the tip of the iceberg, and I could easily give Honorable Mentions to: Discovery's "The Colony"; Lifetime's "Drop Dead Diva": USA's "Royal Pains" and "White Collar"; BBC America's "James May's Toy Stories": and Syfy's new "Haven" (like the chemistry between the leads a lot). And of course, there's Discovery's "Pitchmen," which just returned for a new season. And while it's as old-fashioned as it could be, I'm liking ABC Family's sitcom "Melissa & Joey" (as I only watch one other sitcom, NBC's "Community," that's something).

I'm sure there are more I just can't think of right now. Ain't summer grand?

Today's cuppa: coffee on the set of ABC's "No Ordinary Family," which is about regular people with superpowers who are not aliens, like Superman, but ordinary folk who get zapped, like Spider-Man. Got it? Good. Moving on ...

Scientists have discovered that there are several planets in our solar system and even more planets out there in the universe.

Many of the non-Earth worlds we've glimpsed to this point, whether through observation from the ground or through our robotic spacecraft and space-based telescopes, have plenty in common with Earth.

They can have atmospheres, rocks, night and day, mountains and valleys, vast plains and sheets of ice. They can even have weather. But what they don't have, at least not so far, is life, whether you're talking about baobab trees, blue whales, turkey vultures, bighorn sheep, tuna or microbes.

For the month of August, Science Channel has been running "Wonders of the Solar System," a series that combines experiential adventuring with computer graphics to help explain our nearest neighbors in space. Leading the charge is the show's host, Professor Brian Cox, a rock musician/physicist who evidently likes getting out of the lab once in a while.

(Speaking of labs, Cox splits his time between the University of Manchester in England, and CERN, a Switzerland-based particle-physics laboratory. It's not only the birthplace of the World Wide Web -- through the efforts of Tim Berners-Lee -- but is also home to the Large Hadron Collider, the world's biggest particle accelerator, which some people fear could create deadly antimatter or suck the planet into a black hole, or something equally scary. But fear not, because Cox says the exaggerated concerns are "a load of bollocks.")

The episode airing Wednesday, Aug. 25, is called "Dead or Alive," and looks at the universal forces of nature that create worlds but can also tear them apart.

That may sound extremely cool and dramatic, and it is, but Cox's favorite episode of the series is the finale, airing Sept. 1.

It's called "Aliens," and it looks at the possibility of life on other planets, which seems a tad more plausible when one considers the rather implausible conditions under which life exists here on Earth.

Take, for example, the snotites (pronounced "snot-ites").

"We filmed in a cave in Mexico," says Cox. "It's an incredible place, which is full of hydrogen sulfide. You get these organisms, which are called snotites. They look like snot, and they drip down from the tops of caves.

"Their respiration process is hydrogen sulfide plus oxygen goes to sulfuric acid. They drip a combination of sulfuric acid. It tested it, and it's PH zero. It's quite strong. They're the most alien organism you can imagine, in a way."

He also went deep into the sea to observe bacteria that live on geothermal vents so far down that no light penetrates.

"There are carpets of bacteria," Cox says, "that are living off the geothermal vents instead of using sunlight."

Cox says that one of the requirements for life is water (along with an electron donor, a sort of battery or energy source), and there is plenty of that in the ocean. But the water doesn't have to be liquid, at least not all of it.

"We also filmed in the last one, in a glacier in Iceland," Cox says. "We took an ice-core sample, and you find organisms living in this glacier. These little things secrete antifreeze, which melts a little bit of water around them.

"So the glacier is an ocean to these things, because they can melt their own water."

And it gets even weirder.

"There's a gold mine in South Africa," says Cox, "where there's uranium in the rocks. The radioactive decay of the uranium splits water into hydrogen and oxygen, and the hydrogen is the electron donor. So, instead of the sun, they're living off the uranium in the rock."

While Cox says he came away convinced that life could exist anywhere given the right conditions, that doesn't necessarily mean he knows for sure if those conditions exist anywhere else -- such as Mars, for instance.

"The thing is," he says, "we're not remotely sure if there's life on Mars until we go there. I would think it's one of the most urgent questions in our society -- is there life on another planet? Are we alone in the universe?"

Asked if it's likely, given the robustness and persistence of life on Earth, that it never happened on another planet, Cox says, "Science is about investigating, so you can't answer that question until you see an example of it evolving twice, emerging twice.

"But we can answer that questions. It's one of the few great questions of the universe that we can actually answer."

And he'd like us to get to it.

"All the best science theories have got an agenda," Cox says, "and for me, it's that exploration is not a luxury. It's an absolute necessity."

Today's cuppa: Irish breakfast tea

Here's the full text of my syndicated feature on this week's "Warehouse 13" (with Lycra, not Spandex) ...

On Oct. 1, "Friday Night Smackdown" sets up its pro-wrestling ring on Syfy, but before that, one of the WWE Superstar wrestlers takes an acting turn on Syfy's Tuesday hit "Warehouse 13."

 

In an episode airing Aug. 24, Cody Rhodes guest stars as Kurt Smoller, the former captain of the football team at Secret Service agent Myka Bering's (Joanne Kelly) high school. Little does he know that Myka has grown up to be half of a team - with fellow Secret Service agent Pete Lattimer (Eddie McClintock) - that chases down mysterious artifacts that have a strange and often dramatic effect on those around them.

 

"Kurt is the quintessential cool guy from high school, the jock," Rhodes says. "He is the quarterback of the high-school football team. He was in the eye of every girl.

 

"But it's cool, because it's not black and white. With Kurt Smoller, it's really more of an area of gray. It wasn't just, 'I'm the cool kid. I can't talk to the Myka Berings of the world,' because Myka Bering was his tutor in algebra.

 

"So he's not the sharpest tool in the shed, but I like that."

 

Myka runs into Kurt at her high-school reunion, and although she winds up under the influence of an artifact, sparks fly.

 

Kurt's a little surprised to see his old tutor, now all grown up.

 

"All grown up," Rhodes says, "meaning a complete bombshell in an unbelievable blue dress? Kurt Smoller's high-school experience isn't all that different from Cody Rhodes', even in the experience of seeing someone you thought was cool and a great conversationalist turn into such a total lovely package - I know the feeling.

 

"It came as a complete shock for him."

 

As for his own experience, Rhodes reveals that he used to enjoy talking to the girl who sat next to him in creative writing.

 

"Without realizing it," he says, "I always had a smile when I walked into the class. She was a year younger than me. I was a senior; she was a junior."

 

Then, says Rhodes, about six months ago he was at a gas station in his hometown of Marietta, Ga., and there she was, on her way to see a theatrical performance.

 

"She was all done up in her absolute best attire," Rhodes says, "in a very beautiful black dress. Honestly, I was taken aback and a little bit speechless. It was quite impressive."

 

Although Rhodes admits that he acted the perfect gentleman in Georgia, the same might not be able to be said on "Warehouse 13."

 

"At this high-school reunion," Rhodes says, "I don't know how to word this, but the prospects are pretty thin. Kurt was hanging out with his guy friends. Upon seeing Myka, he doesn't even realize it's Myka Bering and coordinates a very bad attempt at trying to get her attention. He finds out it's Myka Bering as the conversation ensues."

 

Fans of the show might wonder what Pete's reaction is to all this, since he's usually very protective of his partner. Well, that has a lot to do with the effect of the artifact, which is better revealed in the episode.

 

But, Rhodes did have something in common with McClintock other than a regard for Joanne Kelly.

 

"The actual Pete/Kurt interaction was fun to shoot," Rhodes says, "because both of us were amateur wrestlers. He was in the Midwest, where the competition was just phenomenal. He gave me a shirt from his old high-school team. I still wear that around."

 

As to whether he and McClintock reminisced about wearing their wrestling singlets, Rhodes says, "Somebody said something about, 'Isn't it weird that guys enjoy Spandex?' We were both quick to jump in and say, 'It's not Spandex; it's Lycra,' which is no different, and it makes it no better, but at least we said something."

 

But was there wrestling?

 

"It almost got to some wrestling," Rhodes says. "A door was slammed in Kurt Smoller's face, and had it not been slammed, we might actually have got a good old six-minute amateur wrestling match."

 

All that is left, then, is the question of a kiss (with Kelly, not McClintock).

 

"I wanted to have the utmost respect going into their world," Rhodes says, "and the potential that there might have been a kiss between myself and Joanne Kelly. I have all the respect in the world for her, because she handled me with kid gloves.

 

"I was very nervous, more nervous than I've been for something in a long time.

 

"The best way I can put it - she took charge. She took the reins. You know those episodes of television that are a little uncomfortable and a little awkward, but you can't turn away?

 

"There's a lot of that feeling."

Today's cuppa: cappuccino during breakfast with "Dirty Jobs" producer Dave Barsky (who came all the way down from the Valley for the Creative Arts Emmy Awards presentation tonight) at a hotel in Hollywood, where I also ran into Josh Harris of "Deadliest Catch," who's presenting awards. Good luck, Josh!

Below find the full text of a syndicated story available this week featuring "America's Got Talent" judge Piers Morgan.

But first, there's the question of whether Morgan will replace Larry King in the 9 p.m. ET weekday talk-show slot on CNN.

Previously, I wrote about Morgan's philosophy of talk shows, and in recent days, reports have surfaced that visa issues may delay both King's retirement and Morgan's launch.

But, whatever happens, Morgan continues his gig on NBC. Enjoy ...

He may be Irish by ethnicity and British by nationality, but Piers Morgan loves America, and over the course of several years as a judge on NBC's "America's Got Talent," currently airing Tuesdays and Wednesdays, he's gotten to see a lot of the nation and its people.

He's even written a book about his experiences, called "God Bless America: Misadventures of a Big Mouth Brit," released in 2009.

"When I used to come here as a young show-business reporter for one of the London papers, I had a warped view," Morgan says. "The only Americans I met were lawyers, entertainment agents, managers and celebrities, which is not a very good reflection of the real America. So, you end up thinking all Americans are like that, because they're the only ones you meet.

"The same way, if you're on holiday in Europe, and you see a bunch of football hooligans fighting, you could go, 'God, they're a bunch of savages.' "

As to what he's learned during his travels, Morgan says, "What a huge country this is, and so varied. As I've traveled around with 'America's Got Talent,' I've gone to the North, South, East, West - everywhere very different.

"The common ground, I think, is that American people are very courteous in a way, I think, Brits have unfortunately become less courteous. There's a great spirit and energy about America. There's a real can-do mentality, where you don't have a social class structure. Your structure is based on achievement and people who have done well for themselves. You embrace that and encourage that.

"It's intoxicating for Brits, where, a lot of the time in Britain, it's what kind of silver spoon you were born with in your family, is how you get on.

"So it's nice, the can-do mentality. America's not perfect, but it has a great spirit to it. Certainly if I was in trouble, I'd want to have a couple of Americans in my corner."

New this season to "America's Got Talent" is judge Howie Mandel, who replaced David Hasselhoff in the trio that also features Morgan and his fellow "Celebrity Apprentice" alumna Sharon Osbourne.

(Photo: from left, Morgan, host Nick Cannon, Osbourne, guest performer Bret Michaels, Mandel)

"It's been fun, hasn't it?" Morgan says. "Howie's fantastic. He's spent his entire time trying to wind me up, as we say in the U.K., and he's successful.

"So he's very, very irritating, but in a very funny way. It's all humor. He makes me laugh more offstage than he even does onstage."

Despite the focus, for example, on young talent on such shows as "American Idol," Morgan notes that favorites on "Talent" are much more diverse in every way, including age.

"A lot of the older acts have really captured the young mind," Morgan says. "I don't think age is ever a barrier on 'America's Got Talent.' It's all about the character and heart and talent.

"And likability is a big thing. They've got to like you. If people like you, you can go a long way with a reasonable talent. Where some people have got a great talent but no personality, they often just get bombed out. The public finds them rather boring."

Last season on "America's Got Talent," a chicken catcher from rural Kentucky named Kevin Skinner won the big prize. Earlier winners include ventriloquist Terry Fator, who is now a top-tier act in Las Vegas. Morgan expects more of the same this season.

"I think we're going to have an amazing semifinal and final based on what I've already seen," he says. "We've got some fantastic talent, and we're going to produce two or three big stars. Everyone's very excited on the show."

And you may ask, have I picked a favorite yet? Not quite, but I do like me some Connor Doran. Have you ever danced with a kite in the pale moonlight? No? Watch this.

Today's cuppa: Irish breakfast tea, with scones bought at the Malibu Farmers Market (where my companion claimed to have seen Daryl Hannah, but I didn't), made by The Wilde Thistle, run by a woman whose family hails from the same county in Ireland as mine. Oh, and the scones are awesome!

Ever since I was knee high to a channel knob, I watched PBS' home-renovation show "This Old House" (I go back to the Bob Vila years, so that'll give you an idea). Click here for a history of the show.

(Above: The "This Old House" crew -- Roger Cook, Rich Trethewey, Tommy Silva, Kevin O'Connor, Norm Abram)

Several years ago, I got the chance to head to the show's home city of Boston and see a project in progress. The visit also included the actual garden from "The Victory Garden" and the actual "New Yankee Workshop," both of which were located at that time in the backyard of Russell Morash, executive producer of all three shows.

Of all my set visits over the years, that's definitely in the top five.

Now, I don't hammer or nail or saw or build anything. I come from a handy family, but my dad -- probably wisely -- kept me away from the power tools. But, thanks to "This Old House," I can now identify a 3/4-inch rounding over bit for a router on sight. I'd rather be able to play the guitar, but there you go.

Now that I'm grown up, I still am a mad fan of "TOH" and especially its master carpenter Norm Abram, but I've branched out to other home-improvement shows (TV itself has also branched out in this area), and among my favorites is "Holmes on Homes," airing in the U.S. now on HGTV.

It stars Canadian contractor Mike Holmes (below, left), whose mission in each episode is to undo damage and redo work done by unscrupulous or incompetent handymen and contractors.

These are not the only shows I watch -- I get a huge kick out of "Blog Cabin" on DIY; and, on HGTV, I enjoy watching former "Trading Spaces" carpenter Carter Oosterhouse rescue hapless homeowners in "Carter Can,"  and Steve Watson (right)  shake up a remodel project on "Don't Sweat It" -- but you might ask, since I don't nail, why?

Here are the top 10 reasons I watch home-improvement (and used to watch house-flipping) shows, and why you should, too.

1. It's about transformation. The moment you think something terrible can't be made better, watch these handy individuals take a pile of crap and turn it into something beautiful.

2: Transformation is not easy. The moment you think that you can just turn something around on a dime, watch these handy individuals shed blood, sweat and tears to make it happen. Nothing good is achieved without hard work.

3: Demolition is the fun part. The final reveal is the other fun part. Very little in between is lots of fun -- but you do get the fun parts at either end, giving you something to remember and something to anticipate.

4: Measure twice, cut once, the motto of "This Old House." Seriously. I used to have pencils and a mug that said this. There's no end to the amount of misery that a little forethought can avoid. MEASURE TWICE, CUT ONCE.

5: Problems can be solved, but not by sitting in the middle of the floor and crying about them. They have to be analyzed and broken down into their component parts before a solution can be crafted. Sudden bursts of imagination may work in the arts, but building requires logic and planning, skills that can be applied to many aspects of life.

6: Everything costs money. In a project, you have to budget for all the materials, from little nails to giant panels of sheetrock to tons of wood and steel girders. It all has to be chosen, purchased and fit into a finite amount of money (because all amounts of money, however large, are finite). There's nothing like watching a budget balloon out of control to learn that four of the most dangerous words in the English language are, "While we're at it ..."

7:  Adding or redoing a bathroom has probably wrecked more marriages than infidelity. To survive a building project or remodel, you need extraordinary communications skills, a deep well of good will and practically inexhaustible patience. If you don't hate each other by the time you take that first bubble bath, much else in life will seem like a cakewalk.

8: Few things are as sexy as competence. Bumbling may look cute on TV, but it's murder on the job site. Watching a contractor show up, analyze, prioritize, delegate and supervise to a successful conclusion is better than being serenaded below your bedroom window (especially if that window could use a new sash and a couple of panes of glass).

9: Waste not, want not. Russ Morash once told me he hired Norm Abram to do a carpentry job at his house because a former customer remarked what a tiny scrap pile he left behind -- and the rest is history. Old timbers can be reused; careful cutting and building techniques can stretch expensive materials further; and a minimum of waste is the hallmark of someone who plans well and executes better.

10: Hope vs. reality. Watching house-flipping shows quashed any thought I had of buying a house at the height of the real-estate craze. While following the transformation and hearing about the potential profits was exciting, I noticed after a while that there wasn't much follow-up -- like, how much did the house sell for, or did it sell at all? When some of of the shows began including this information, for the most part, it wasn't pretty.

Once again, TV has much to teach us, if we're willing to learn. On a personal note, I'm pretty excited because "This Old House" is coming back to Los Angeles to shoot a project to air in early 2011. Can't wait to smell the sawdust again!

Today's cuppa: Irish breakfast tea (tea coffers refilled, thank goodness)

When FX's "The Shield" ended in late 2008, the cast members knew that Shawn Ryan, creator and executive producer of the hard-hitting LAPD drama, would try to hire them again.

 

"He always said, 'I'll be looking out for you guys,' " says David Marciano, who played irritating LAPD Detective Steve Billings on "The Shield." "So you knew something was coming, but you didn't know what. I was pleasantly unsurprised, I guess you would say. That's the kind of guy he is. He's a man of his word."

 

The unsurprising event was a call for a role on "Lie to Me," the Fox drama that Ryan took over as executive producer in its second season - and Marciano wasn't the only one.

(Picture above: center row, from left, Benito Martinez, Catherine Dent, Tim Roth, reflection is David Marciano, in the center behind is Jennifer Beals)

"Pied Piper," the episode airing Monday, Aug. 16, also features "Shield" regulars Catherine Dent, Kenny Johnson, Benito Martinez, Cathy Cahlin Ryan (below) and David Rees Snell.

 

"It's more like a cameo situation than huge guest roles," says Shawn Ryan, standing outside the Twentieth Century Fox stages in Los Angeles where "Lie to Me" is filming in December 2009. "That's why I felt this was a good episode to do it, because all the roles are two-scene, three-scene. It's hard to fit six of these people in one episode."

 

"Lie to Me" stars Tim Roth as Dr. Cal Lightman, an expert in deception. In this episode, he's attending the execution of Jason Wilkie (Marciano), a prisoner he helped convict in the kidnapping and murder of a child 17 years before, whose parents subsequently died in a car crash.

 

When the child of the victim's aunt and uncle (Martinez, Dent) is snatched, Lightman begins to wonder if he got the wrong man - or if he got the only culprit - the first time around.

 

Roth, who became a "Shield" fan after only a few first-season episodes on DVD, doesn't mind the idea that the normally unflappable Lightman could be wrong.

 

"I like that," he says. "The more he can be wrong or potentially wrong, the more fallible he is, the better."

 

Along the way, Lightman turns to Wilkie's younger brother (Snell), the brother's ex-girlfriend (Cathy Cahlin Ryan) and a shady photographer (Johnson).

 

As Johnson wasn't on hand on this particular day to describe his character, Marciano helpfully takes a stab, saying, "Kenny's playing this questionably sexually perverted person.

 

"I was asking him yesterday, 'Are you a voyeur? What's the thing that you're doing?' He says, 'I don't know.' I said, 'You know what, don't tell me. I want to see what you're doing with it.' He says, 'What does that mean?'"

 

In the course of the scene being shot, Marciano is strapped to a gurney, ready to receive the lethal injection, with Lightman and the victim's uncle and aunt in attendance.

 

"First time as dead man walking," Marciano quips. "You just don't like to do things like that, because you don't like to manifest that energy."

 

But Dent had no problem enjoying the sight of a man who played a character that so bedeviled hers on "The Shield" getting his just deserts.

 

"Yes!" she says. "Couldn't happen to a nicer guy. I'm thrilled. Good riddance! I was like 'Burn, baby, burn.'"

 

"Exactly," Ryan says, "that's for all the trouble he caused. That's pretty funny."

 

"I don't think she was talking about David Marciano," Marciano says, "but my character, for sure. On 'The Shield,' he was pretty evil."

 

Meanwhile, Roth is enjoying the company of friendly strangers.

 

"We've had a good run with these guys," he says, "with all these actors coming through, watching them reconnect. It's been a good one, this one."

Today's cuppa: breakfast-blend coffee (I'm out of tea! Help!)

Here's part two of my conversation with Dan Harmon, the creator of NBC's Thursday-night comedy "Community," returning Sept. 23, which focuses on the motley members of a study group at fictional Greendale Community College.

Click here for part one.

For its first season, "Community's" time-slot companion in the 8-9 p.m. ET/PT hour was the comedy "Parks and Recreation." This coming season, "Parks and Rec" moves to midseason, with the established comedy "30 Rock" moving in. That's too bad, in a way, since Harmon was a fan of the show that originally came after his.

On "Parks and Rec" and Rob Lowe (a guest star at the end of last year who will be a regular on the show this year):

Harmon: "I like 'Parks and Rec.' Rob Lowe was great. That was a great move (adding him). That makes me really excited. No matter how busy we got, I would try to go home on Thursday night and watch the show live and watch everything that night. I just felt it was a healthy thing to do, to keep reminding myself.

"I became a huge fan of 'Parks and Rec,' because it was right on after us, and I felt a kinship with them."

On whether there would be an action figure based on Kickpuncher, the action-movie character created by student and amateur filmmaker Abed Nadir (Danny Pudi) and his best pal Troy Barnes (Donald Glover). Click here for a clip:

Harmon: "Yeah, that's a good idea. I don't know. I'll put that on the list. I want to do a lot of that stuff as soon as possible."

On the future of the character Starburns (Dino Stamatopoulos), a student whose sideburns are shaped like stars:

Harmon: Yeah, he's worth a look into. We reboot him slightly in season two."

On whether Anthony Michael Hall, who guest-starred in last year's Christmas episode, "Comparative Religion," as Mike the bully, might make a return appearance:

Harmon: "I'd like to. I want to bring him back, because we broke a 'Community' rule with that character. He's a villain. He doesn't make any sense except in the capacity of a villain. Why is he being so mean? i want to know the answer. I don't believe in actual villains, someone who lives to twist their mustache in the morning."

On what's up in this season's holiday episodes:

Harmon: "Halloween last year was not in the category that you would put 'Modern Warfare' in. This year, it will be, and so will Christmas. At least every six episodes, I want the reaction that I got from 'Modern Warfare.' I don't care if I fail, but that's my goal. We can sustain that. That's not overdoing it. That's just going, 'Oh, you like those croutons? OK, here's a bowl of them.' I'll pull back if people squawk, but I don't think they will.

"Five episodes of grounded stuff about people's relationships is good, and I don't mean romantic relationships, just people dynamics. If  your relationships among your characters follow a human-emotional physics that we are all familiar with, as long as you don't violate those ... if you betray me, and I don't get mad about it, that's weirder than if a pie fight breaks out."

On whether he's still having issues with the character of Britta (Gillian Jacobs):

Harmon: "Because she was more real than I was giving her credit for, those Britta issues are over. She's becoming one of my favorite characters, if not the, because she's as complicated as a real person, and yet she's in a sitcom. That's a real accomplishment to me.

"We get tangled a lot. The youngest and hippest and sexiest among us in this culture get the most clumsy, and that's pretty interesting to watch."

On why everybody in "Community," and just everybody, are the heroes of their own lives:

Harmon: "Everybody wants to be a damn hero, but sometimes the most heroic thing is staring yourself in the face. You have to admit that you're a selfish pig, and that would be pretty heroic at this point.

"(Humanity) is a very heroic species, plucked from extinction by its own hand in the face of all adversity. Greendale is a hero, and all these characters are heroes. You don't have to necessarily save the Gulf in order to feel good about yourself."

On whether moving the hit geek comedy "The Big Bang Theory" to Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT means CBS considers the show a "Community" killer:

Harmon: "What a flattering concept that would be. I would love to think that they're sending a Terminator out because they knew that, in the future, I was going to be awesome, but I think we were an afterthought. They're probably more focused on 'Bones,' I would say. They have a big poster of 'Bones' on their wall, and they're studying it.

"They're definitely, by their own admission, CBS, making Thursday night about comedy again. Thursday at 8 was me vs. detective shows and vampires. Thursday nights will lighten up with the chuckles again. Is it going to be weird? Are we doing to find new viewers, or are we going to divide the six million people watching at that time?"

On whether star Joel McHale's shirt will come off again, as it did most memorably in "Physical Education":

Harmon: "I'm just going to keep torturing Joel, because I like watching his dinners get smaller and smaller. He eats hard-boiled eggs without the yolk. We'll see how little he can eat. It's a little revenge from high school. He played football, so I keep writing into the show, 'Oh, his shirt comes off.' Guess no pudding for you!"

Today's cuppa: coffee at home ...

Sorry to be away so long, but I was wall-to-wall at the recently concluded biannual Television Critics Association (TCA) Press Tour (which you'd know if you followed me on Twitter!), but it did give me an opportunity to talk to lots of folks, including "Community" executive producer Dan Harmon (you can also follow him on Twitter).

Season one of the NBC Thursday-night comedy included  "Modern Warfare," in which the fictional Greendale Community College became the setting for a rollicking paintball war that turned into a trip through most of the hit action movies of the past couple of decades.

The action sequences culminated in an encounter that resolved the long-simmering sexual tension between study-group mates Jeff (Joel McHale) and Britta (Gillian Jacobs).

But a later episode put Jeff in a liplock with fellow study-group member Annie (Alison Brie), setting a fresh romantic pot on the boil. More on that here.

With the show returning for its second season on Sept. 23, there's lots more "Community" to talk about, so here's the first installment of my chat with Harmon, a fellow community-college student and one of my favorite showrunners.

Click here for part two.

On topping "Modern Warfare":

Harmon: "It's a specific thing, the action-movie genre, but I think that the way you top it is by stretching the taffy in two directions at once. You make the characters more real, and you subject them to weirder and weirder stuff. I haven't even begun to squeeze that sponge yet. That's just dripping out before you even put pressure on it.

"The great news is that 'Modern Warfare,' if it had failed in some capacity, if the critics had hated it, if the viewers had hated it, then 'Community' would ... be coasting to whatever shoulder of whatever highway sitcoms slip off to.

"'Modern Warfare' was me asking permission to really become a fan of the show alongside the other fans, and permission feels granted."

On having red-hot silver vixen Betty White in the Sept. 23 season-two premiere, playing respected but somewhat nutty anthropology professor June Bauer:

Harmon: "She was awesome. She was amazing. She's a sweetheart. She was down for anything, even a little humble about her ability to pull it off. I don't want to spoil one of the things we had her do, but it's a ridiculous thing to ask.

"All she kept saying was, 'Are you sure you don't want to get somebody else to do this for me?' And I kept saying, 'Are you saying that because you don't want to do this? Because if you don't want to do anything, I will call in a jet pack and have you lifted out of here. I will not be the man who ever made you do something you don't want to do. But if you're saying that because you think you're bad at it, then you're ridiculous, so sit down and do this.'

"It's amazing. You'll see the thing I'm talking about. You'll know that that's what I'm talking about, what she did with us."

On whether White will return:

Harmon: "Uh, I decided on the set that, regardless of what she wants ... I have been saying that it's up to her. Now it's not up to her. I'm trying to figure out ways to -- I'm going to sneak her in here and there, so people understand that if I have my way, she'll be back. Because I don't want to get emails from people going, 'Where is she? What's going on?'

"I want the answer, that she is over there. So I kind of made that decision on the set, watching her interact with Joel McHale and stuff.

"She riffed, not only a joke that we'll keep in the show, and not only a joke that we'll blow a scene on, she riffed a joke that we'll end the first act with. That's something that the writers didn't have to labor over for six hours. She was on the set, just watching the scene."

On his rivalry with Fox's school show "Glee," including a "Modern Warfare" scene in which Jeff paintballs a Greendale glee-club member, quipping that the group should perform some original songs:

Harmon: "I heard from their TCA panel, I saw on Twitter, that, partway into the season, they're doing an episode of original songs."

(As a matter of fact, in front of the assembled Press Tour reporters, "Glee" executive producer Ryan Murphy said, "We are going to have an original-music episode which is going to be, I think, in the second part of the season, which the assignment will be for the kids to write their own music. And we're talking to some great songwriters, and of course, we'll be working with Adam (Anders, music producer) on who those people will be. But I think -- I hope that we'll have, like, five original songs.")

Harmon (cont'd): "It made me think of our challenge to them in 'Modern Warfare.' I believe we hit home. I think I will next challenge them to go multi-camera, strategically sabotage them -- add a dog!"

On why he has a very personal reason to chide the folks at "Glee":

Harmon: "I watch 'Glee,' and it wipes (my cynicism) right out. It fills my heart with love. I can't watch 'Glee,' because they're in the stage next to us (at Paramount Studios), and I have to hear them. They're like the neighbors who won't keep it down.

"I have to go over in my bathrobe. I know they hate me for it, but I rap in their door with my cane, and I go, 'Stop it! Stop having fun!'"

Next: Harmon on "Parks & Recreation," action figures, Starburns, Anthony Michael Hall, holidays, Britta and being heroes.