Stay Tuned by Jeff Alexander:

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The trouble with writing a book about TV is that it starts to become slightly more out of date by the time the next season begins. I became aware of this phenomenon during the writing process, when I began writing during the 2006-2007 season, finishing the first draft during the 2007 summer hiatus, and doing revisions and proofing during the 2007-2008 season for a book that we would be publishing and marketing in summer of 2008. And I can only blame myself for forgetting to ask the networks for screener DVDs of its pilots for the next few years.

Fortunately, after watching a few of this year's new shows (okay, lots of commercials for new shows) and scanning the Entertainment Weekly fall TV preview issue, I think I can glean a few lessons. Feel free to print this out and tape it into your copy of A TV Guide to Life. If you do not yet own a copy of A TV Guide to Life, please shut your computer off and go get one now to avoid a blue screen of death.

From the new Christian Slater series, My Own Worst Enemy, along with last season's Chuck, we can learn that it's possible to partition a human brain like a computer hard drive. And the results will be equally glitchy. For guys, it means allowing a seeming everyman to move in rarefied spy circles. For women, it just means a more complicated relationship with their past, a la Samantha Who? and this season's The Ex-List.

Valentine, a new CW series about the Greek gods in Los Angeles, and Crusoe (think about an updated version of Cast Away set in the 1800s, where Wilson's a dude) tell us that there are some characters that humankind will never stop telling stories about. See also 90210 and Knight Rider.

Used to be that any stand-up comedian could get a sitcom, but Worst Week teaches us that a performance as a winning dork in a phone commercial doesn't hurt either.

CBS likes to retool series ideas from smaller networks and take out the goofiness. Last year it was Moonlight (reminiscent of the WB's Angel but more earnest) and now we're getting The Mentalist (which reminds me of USA's Psych without the banter). Of course, getting all "grown-up" with these ideas just makes them goofier, if you ask me. But that doesn't mean I'm not looking forward to the inevitable dead-serious CBS version of Homeboys in Outer Space.

So there you go. With any luck, now I can put off publishing a second edition for another year.

Jeff Alexander, A TV Guide to Life, television, life lessons, couch potato, books, Penguin Books